PLEASE BRING BACK THE OLD VLADIMIR

Lets be honest here. The proposed changes to Vlad right now have NERFED him. Everything that was strong about him... his spell-based DPS, the consistency and reliability of his kit and abilities, his in-lane sustain, his overall damage output... all of these things have gone DOWN. In light of this, the rework as it stands now can only be fairly characterised as a FAIL.

I KNOW Riot is obsessed with counterplay windows but it makes no sense in imposing this concept on Vlad when the net result is to nerf a champ that is ALREADY in a pathetic state in the Meta. Vlad currently has a less than 50% win rate and so any sort of change that hurts him more than it helps him has to be viewed as a failure (even if it reinforces values such as counterplay windows).

The proposed rework should either make him STRONGER (more viable, more attractive to play) or keep him the same. It should not be a nerf. Yet the current changes are a nerf. People play and pick Vlad over other champs because of his spell-based DPS, the consistency and reliability of his kit and abilities, and his in-lane sustain. ALL OF THESE THINGS HAVE GOTTEN FATALLY WORSE AS A RESULT OF THE REWORK AS IT STANDS.

Why did people pick Vlad over more meta picks like Lux or Ahri or Xerath? For many people it was the vampiric and the blood themes. But in terms of gameplay, its because of the consistency and the reliability and the consistent power of his abilities. If you're having a bad day , you'll miss all of your Lux binds, you'll miss all of your Ahri charms, you'll misplay all of your Zed combos. But Vlad's consistency consistently rewarded those who immersed themselves in consistent practice with him. Now that you've made him unreliable... there is literally no gameplay reason to pick him anymore.

You've essentially gutted his Q and his E to a level that is in my view, fatal to the character.

Q: Lowering the base sustain and damage (ESPECIALLY now that you've removed Spellvamp) and then transferring so much of that power to the third Q is a bad idea. It completely destroys his consistency and reliability. Its nothing short of a nerf. How the heck are you going to land those third Qs when its so heavily telegraphed to the enemy that Crimson Rush is on? Anyone who remotely understands Vlad now is going to kick his teeth in. I also don't understand the logic in REDUCING his sustain per Q at a time when you are removing Spellvamp from the game.

E: It used to be a real AOE instant fire spell. Now its a ''it takes time to charge and it will only hit the outer layer of targets so it will be frustrating to aim at champions AND IT WILL DO LESS DAMAGE'' skill. This is a nerf to Tides of Blood in every way imaginable. It will completely destroy his spell-based DPS and his wave clear. Why did you do this? And as others have pointed out, you can't spam E anymore since you've removed spell vamp, half the time it might not be worth casting anymore.

Also... you have not sufficiently compensated Vlad for the loss of spell vamp. Now E doesn't even boost the amount of health you grab from Q (before, Vlad could count on that). In addition to this, you've inexplicably removed the amount of health that Q takes from the enemy.

To sum it up, this is a bad way to go. You're destroying the tactical appeal of the character by fatally chipping away at his in-lane sustain, the consistency and reliability of his kit, and his spell-based DPS.

You've turned his Q and E into very bad abilities that are unreliable and can't be used as frequently (while outputting far less damage and getting far less sustain for it).

What you're going to get... is 2 to 3 weeks of large amounts of Vlad plays (people are attracted to the novelty)... then you're going to see a steep decline in the play rate because people will realise the fatal problems this rework has introduced to an already out of the meta champion.

Why can't you just leave Vladimir as he is currently? I'd rather play the Old Vlad WITHOUT the spell vamp items than this new over-nerfed Vladimir you've created. I am going to lose faith in Riot if you REALLY choose to go down this road. I am very disappointed.

Vladimir has enough problems surviving with his CURRENT KIT, you're making a champion even weaker just because he's unpopular. Your obsession with ''counterplay windows'' is going to destroy a niche champion that had a dedicated fan base of serious players. The old Vladimir was FINE... the win rates say so.

I beg you... either bring back the old Vladimir, or only focus on upgrading him SLIGHTLY. Do NOT go down the current road of the NERF BAT.

What do you think?