Can we please get a small update from Stashu on Vladimir's update? He's pretty quiet.

I just want to know how he's planning on telegraphing Vlad's current strength to make it more apparent to both himself and enemies at any given time to make him appear like less of a stat-check champion.

Cause IMO, Vlad is the closest thing to an ADC in that regard, yet ADCs aren't punished for it. In order for Vlad to succeed, he has to be able to spam spells in range of his target, much like an ADC has to spam auto attacks in range. However, Vlad has to get into the middle of a fight to be truly successful, and that's often a difficult feat, especially since he has no built-in mobility or CC.

What I'm trying to say is that Vlad is all about positioning and follow-up in the same way that ADCs are, yet his damage being 'unavoidable' is a problem when its not for ADCs. I'd even be willing to have Q proc minion aggro to make it even more similar.

Would there be a way to make his single-target DPS (E+Q) retain the consistency of ADCs (If not its proving favoritism among ADCs even more) while making the AoE aspect of him more difficult to use optimally, rather than 'hey these guys all take a ton of residual damage'?

I'm worried about Riot going over-board and killing his current mid-late game gameplay patterns, which were never an issue. In fact, Vlad often needed help there since his power is often so inaccessible due to difficulty positioning.

Overall, the direction Stashu talked about sounds great, but I'm still rather nervous about how E's going to be changed. He's extremely reliant on its current potency already for some match-ups, last hitting under tower successfully (1 turret hit and 1 no-stack e lets you last hit perfectly on casters; 2 turret hits on melees), and being a threat in teamfights. I do agree that removing the current upkeep pattern is a good thing, but at the same time, this could go very, very wrong like so many other updates have.

Give us an update on your current direction for his gameplay to take away some apprehension, please! Will it at least still allow him to last hit perfectly under tower? He's almost always pushed under tower until level 9+, so this is actually pretty important.

P.S. Everyone needs to keep in mind that whatever Rioters say, if anything at all, are extremely tentative changes.