So Soulstealer Vlad went on sale...

Bouncemaster Zac·Sep 17, 2015·1 votes·573 views

And now Vlad's cancerous ass is in every match, and every player is using the skin. Not like trying to play top sucked hard enough after Juggernauts, now I have to deal with people who think they're hot shit because they can faceroll with mister "no costs, infinite sustain, free high damage harass, cheese untargetability." And legit every one of them has been toxic and thought they were the greatest. I really don't understand why Vlad doesn't get nerfed or reworked when everyone hates laning against him because his kit is that broken and anti-fun.

9 Comments

Shac NorrisSep 17, 20152 votes

Deal with it and move on

Kledy McKledFaceSep 17, 20152 votes

pick fiora and 1v5 their entire team

SoundChaosDebugSep 17, 20151 votes

don't play top lane?

Bouncemaster ZacSep 17, 20154 votes

{quoted}

don't play top lane?

That... isn't a solution.

SoundChaosDebugSep 17, 20151 votes

No it is not, a mere suggestion.

Amélie CauchemarSep 17, 20151 votes

pick swain, run ignite, shit on him and call him a %%% every 5 minutes. He'll rage quit in no time.

Ranger AzerethSep 17, 20151 votes

Vlad is weak early game. His poke is generally down for about 10 seconds pre level 6-9 so take advantage of that. His pool is on a 23 second CD at level one and his E, without sustain will diminish his health pool. Don't get me wrong I play vlad and I love the way he handles, feels, and what he brings to a fight, however he definitely has weaknesses and it's up to you to capitalize on those. I take him mid and I've learned that instead of playing him defensively against yasuo, ziggs, or heimer it's better to poke them down and make them back or die. This is from someone who takes teleport and heal on him and generally breaks even or wins lane.

Good luck on face offs against him in your future matches, and I hope the other vlad players out there quit acting like jerks. (the one's that are of course.)

Bouncemaster ZacSep 17, 20151 votes

[{quoted}](name=Ranger Azereth,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=k01AJdza,comment-id=0004,timestamp=2015-09-17T00:30:23.335+0000)

Vlad is weak early game. His poke is generally down for about 10 seconds pre level 6-9 so take advantage of that. His pool is on a 23 second CD at level one and his E, without sustain will diminish his health pool. Don't get me wrong I play vlad and I love the way he handles, feels, and what he brings to a fight, however he definitely has weaknesses and it's up to you to capitalize on those. I take him mid and I've learned that instead of playing him defensively against yasuo, ziggs, or heimer it's better to poke them down and make them back or die. This is from someone who takes teleport and heal on him and generally breaks even or wins lane.

Good luck on face offs against him in your future matches, and I hope the other vlad players out there quit acting like jerks. (the one's that are of course.)

"Vlad is weak early game" is the go-to retort when attempting to "prove" he isn't cancer. People always said the same thing about Vayne until everyone caught on that it wasn't true. Vlad has an oppressive lane and scales upwards from there. His poke is never down as he can alternate between Q and E and if he manages to get both on cd, hey, he's ranged, he can just auto. His pool may have an actual cd but it still makes him insanely safe against pretty much everything when combined with his built-in sustain. The health cost on his E may as well be nonexistent as he not only has a built-in sustain tool, but Spell-Vamp Runes and Masteries exist. A Vlad with the correct Rune and Mastery set-up can 100-0 most other champs in 2 spell rotations at level 3 and gain hp despite throwing out fully stacked Es.

If built and played correctly he does not have weaknesses. Furthermore, whenever someone lists Vlad's (fake) weaknesses, they always point to laning phase, because they know for fact that what completely negligible downsides he does have completely vanish once he finishes his second item. You've even stated yourself that you play him aggressively early when he's supposedly "weak." There simply is no correct way to play against Vlad. I appreciate the warm sentiments though, thank you :/

Ranger AzerethSep 22, 20151 votes

Actually no....it's not a go to retort....at least I don't believe it is. There are a few points I'd like to throw out there. I play him mid rather than top and I would argue that in mid it's a more dangerous position than top. Also a lot of mid champions have higher burst than when I play him.

Is he oppressive? Yes, once he gains a few levels sure he is. He can nuke someone really hard but killing someone in two rotations? No. His Q is on a 9 second or CD at 1 and a second or so less at level 2 which it would be at level three in your scenario. The damage isn't there and I build pure ap rune and masteries without spellvamp. From there he'll take either another Q or W to keep safe a bit but it's really not much stronger than an escape like leblanc, zed, root like lux or some other similar abilities. It's an escape. Sure it takes him out of the fight most of the time but it does cost health as well. Once he hits 6-9 he'll power spike and be a lot more aggressive and I agree it's at that point he's super frustrating to face. Before that though his Q is on a decent CD....and that's what I hope is pretty honest input.

As for the aggressive plays....I said I played aggressive against certain champions. If I don't they slaughter me and poke me down a lot more than I can them. I sincerely spent dozens and dozens of games playing him getting strategies down for different champions I face....since I go mid I take more magic resist to that lane in my masteries otherwise I honestly lose lane too hard too often....

For the laning phase response, yes I point to it because that's the easiest time to shut him down. If you shut his pre 6-9 down sufficiently he falls off pretty hard....but his escape in a team fight is limited to his pool and he's too slow of a champion to really escape from a bad fight with his pool. He's easy to catch out and with one or two players kill him....that's usually my biggest issue. If a fight goes south, I die.

I know as a vlad player you'll believe I'm heavily biased, and I know I am biased at least a little bit....I mean heck I've played hundreds of games with him....or at least a hundred lol. However, I honestly believe what I'm saying is fairly solid advice, and that he does have substantial weaknesses along with terrifying strengths. I've spent hours theorizing builds and stat gains and what they would mean in a game so I hope this isn't just written off.