Boards›Gameplay

@Meddler, Could we clear up Riot's feelings about Vladimir? A while ago Morello said he hated Vlad.

Godman873·1/23/2016, 6:46:29 AM·25 votes·17,351 views

Vladimir was the third character I ever picked up in league, while I thought his default's hair looked silly all of his skins were impressive. Now that I heard he has been reworked I have mixed feelings. On one hand I would absolutely LOVE to see his gameplay get updated and be a bit more indepth and fun but I would hate for him to lose his identity.

To me Vlad is a blood mage, he uses the blood he gets to sustain himself through magical means while weaponizing the excess blood against his enemies.

Ive looked through most (maybe all?) of the red posts so far and I have seen NOTHING about Vlad, Brand has been acknowledged in one thread, Zyra has been mentioned once or twice, Malzahar is mentioned on practically every post, there is even multiple threads about 'please don't rework vel'koz' and there was even a HUGE discussion thread about Cassiopeia.

Reason why I am worried about Vladimir the most is that Morello stated he hated Vladimir, his sustain and regretted him as a champion. I understand Riot isn't the same company as they were back then but I would really hate for Vladimir to be gutted because his identity isn't the best for gameplay.

I also suggested this in the main thread. I don't expect a response on that one but its more indepth than this post.

So please could we get some form of response about Riot's previous feelings on Vladimir versus their feelings now?

(Also I tried to find a link to Morello's post but I couldn't find it anyway)

75 Comments

RiotMeddler1/23/2016, 7:01:58 AM51 votes

Our main problem with Vlad is his Q. It's a low CD, targeted, resourceless spell that restores health. It doesn't have much interesting decision making for Vlad, if it's ever strong early he just shuts a lot of people out of lane and the main ways to deal with it are to either sustain even more or to punish Vlad really hard when he trades.

Vlad's also got a bit of a 'stat check' issue, where he'll just reliably outclick a lot of opponents 1v1 without sufficient avenues for being outplayed. That's not ideal, it's a lesser issue though since it doesn't kick in until later in the game when 1 v 1 counterplay is less important than team v team counterplay.

Nathaniell11/23/2016, 3:19:38 PM6 votes

People are complaining about Vlads' healing potencial, and how annoying it is to play agains him - but what they are really saing is - he survived my all in, with mine much higher damage than he does, and istead of having to base, he can stay and heal back up.... They are saying Vlad is cancer of top lane.. but all you need to do is build one magic resist item with hp.. and vlad wont be and issue for 90% of top laners. What really happens here is, that people hate, that their wukong, irelia, renekton, riven and so on (all infinetly much stronger in 1v1 than vlad) sometimes fail to all in him and he can heal back...

But in reality, its all about punishing vlad for it, its same with every champion.. you have to know him and capitalize on his weknesses... He can drain me from 600 range, thay say, its not fair they say.. well, give me wukong(600 dash), irelia(650 range dash), xin(600 dash) and so on, who can 100-0 everyone who dont build specificaly tanky agains them.. .and I ask you, where is balance in that? Why is healing (which doesnt seems to be a problem later in the game for all the ADCs) considered cancerous for majority of top laners, while early assasin potencial of top laners, who then became tanks or bruisers later in the game doesnt seem to be a problem for you?

Also, big problem for vlad is fact, that he needs so much stats.. because he is low rangemage, he has to have armor, MR, CDR, AP and with all thta also spell vamp do to his E,W life cost (and way to stay alive in close range fight) - this is same what ryze needs, but ryze can build mana items with CDR and armor(frozen H, gauntlet) or hp(roa) which also gives him damage and gains spellvamp from his ult, while vlad needs all these stats to not be blown away in second in TF, and only stat he gets from his kit is bonus hp.. So think about it, before you tell me again, how cancerous Vlad is to the game.

OurLestrade1/23/2016, 2:34:23 PM4 votes

Let's hope they don't give him some stupid gimmicky thing like so many champions get nowadays :O

Over Innsmouth1/23/2016, 9:58:01 AM3 votes

3 puns. A -

Yeah, that's right. That's why he's getting this update. I'll be the first to admit that playing against a Vlad who knows what he's doing can be bloody annoying. What he needs is some room to be pun-ished more heavily for messing up, because currently the only way to really take advantage of him messing up is attacking while his W's Pooldown is up. Or mid-lategame when Tranfusion has virtually no Q-ooldown.

People also don't realize how much of a Crimson im_Pact_ his passive really has on him. <1000 bonus hp for building full AP? Yes please. Not to mention how the %heal bonuses from his E can really turn the Tide_s of Blood_ in a fight.

He's a bit binary, but at least he's not as bad as Ryze is/ever was.

http://www.quickmeme.com/img/a9/a947c3a124c86ee9aff25d4572eaab68e877098ea1638b9951fb35bc57a467a7.jpg

Intense Salt1/24/2016, 12:57:53 AM2 votes

Personally i allways felt his ultimate had the least impact on his playstyle. Its like a weaker AOE deathfire grasp/Zed ult hybrid that... Makes a lot of noise and not much else.

And really, Rito? You talk about Vladimir being an "outstat you"-issue while Irelia and Tryndamere are still around?

ExecutorDill1/23/2016, 4:55:09 PM2 votes

"To me Vlad is a bloodmage" no telling :D we can all see that. Also riot will never gut a champion that made it to live... that'd be to weird they'd totally rework their personality and kit before they outright gut them but need not worry as vlad has an awesome character :P

To me Vlad is as creepy and Maniacal as Jhin (like an evil villain who laughs at their own jokes). I'd like for them to take his lore in extreme account when reworking him because his lore is awesome. Just thinking of a young boy getting taught blood magic with a sinister look on his face makes for good movie :3 I'd also like to learn a bit more about how he growed up, how he became alone and who taught him what he knows about blood bending magic sorry xD

TaoShamash1/29/2016, 9:49:44 AM1 votes

Vlad needs a deep rework imo with a more clear theme and consecuence kit (is he a Hemomancer? make a system where he needs to stack/use blood noteworthy then; A Vampire? keep the sustain through the enemy HP but make the kit more theme oriented for a Vampire lore). With this you make room for another possible new champ to fill the role he now softly take. I'm sure there are a lot of people who want to play a pure Vampire champ

But if your only giving him QoL changes then here are my thoughts:

-If you gonna keep him as a poke mage with low range (aka a hit and run champ) give him more mov.speed (f.e. a temp buff like ahri Q -srly i dunno why you gave that to Ahri instead of Vlad-) or/and make him ABLE TO MOVE while casting like Syndra. I personaly like the second option more. -He needs animations upgrades regardless of what you going to do to him. Along with a new, less horrible autoatack. Since all those Q nerfs years ago he is now very AA reliant until he reach lvl 9 (max Q). -The model could use a little fix and improvement. In special his hands. -The Bloodlord skin (the expensive one) is ugly now with the new graphics of the game, the color scheme is too... bright?. I use Soulstealer more and i thing every Vlad player too -Dont make him a Juggernaut, he is not a tank as neither it was Morderkaiser. People STILL dont understand this holy moly. TANKS=resistance stack, more HP dont make you a tank -I would like to see him levitate like Syndra o Karthus instead of always running. Maybe like Thresh when he reach certain mov.speed?. Rito pls

BastionKross1/23/2016, 3:58:43 PM1 votes

Vlad, in his current form, is very unhealthy for the game. He's pretty much single-handedly the reason why spellvamp isn't allowed to be strong. If Vlad ever got stronger through buffs to his items or masteries in the past, he became this highly corrosive mix of a Yorick early game (I poke, sustain, and never leave lane) and a DrMundo late game (I'm tanky and hard to kill, but deal out tons of damage).

Meddler is on the right track. There's nothing healthy about his Q. You point, you click, you deal damage at range, and sustain with no cost at all. That's gotta go.