Vladimir: My Predictions

Whenever a champion gets picked in a role outside of their intended, Riot has this nasty habit of hitting both their intended and unwanted play style. You saw what happened with tank Viktor top, in response to his incredible oppressiveness, they both nerfed Viktor top AND mid to the point where mid lane Viktor got so bad that top lane was his only playable role. (And yes, I know they gave him late game buffs, but in a meta like this, where most games are decided in sub 15 minutes, losing out on this much base damage was far more damaging than any late game buffs he could've received.)

Even earlier, you saw what happened with Vladimir bot lane. They nerfed both Vladimir mid and bot, and Vladimir mid was in the shit hole for quite a while, until stuff like Phase Rush and runes giving him 25% free CDR put him back on the spotlight. (Which is where we are now.)

I've been playing full AP Vladimir mid with Electrocute for 3 seasons straight now. I know the what the meta is, but frankly, I don't care. I do it because that's how I enjoy playing him. Even though Vladimir with electrocute is at a 45% winrate right now (according to op.gg), I still play him.

However, recently I had played against a Jax top lane using Phase Rush and was astonished how badly I beat him. It was disgusting. Jax could not do a single thing against me. Any time he jumped on me, Phase Rushed away. Any time he traded with me, I used Q to heal it back while simultaneously poking him. It was nothing like any mid lane match up I've ever encountered.

Important Part

My opinions on what should be done about Vladimir are as follows. I believe Vladimir should be nerfed. Whether or not you believe he is broken either top lane or mid lane, there's no arguing that Vladimir should not exist as a top laner in his current state. I think if Riot is ever gonna get around to nerfing Vladimir, they should go a step further and outright kill top Vladimir in favor of having mid be his only playable role.

How do we force Vladimir out of top lane and into mid lane? Personally I don't know, but I have some ideas.

-Nerf Phase Rush for Ranged Give melee top laners the ability to trade against ranged top laners. This not only nerfs Vladimir but a lot of other annoying top lane champions such as Kennen, Viktor, Ryze.

-Nerf CDR from runes and items. At level 10 Vladimir has access to a full 40% CDR from Transcendance, Protobelt, Zhonyas Hourglass, the CDR stat rune, and Cosmic Insight. This is an insane amount of free CDR that is given to a champion who heavily relies on it.

-Nerf his armor. Pretty self explanatory, Vladimir should be an easier champion to all in.

So, here's my message to Riot. Make Vladimir mid lane his preferred role again. I've been waiting years for it to happen. He's always over shadowed by Vladimir top and bot, and when he isn't, he's terrible. I don't want any more of this toxic "Vladimir auto wins top lane because he's impossible to trade against" or "Vladimir auto wins bot lane because he can one shot ADC's". Vladimir mid has always been his healthiest role, because mid laners can actually punish his early game. Please figure out a way.