@Riot: What are the future goals and directions for Vlad?

Vlad doesn't feel like he accomplishes anything special right now.

His best-case scenarios (Low HP, close fights) are actually some of his worst situations, since he'll more likely die than actually get his Q healing, due to the massive animation delays on everything, including heal particle. (1-2 seconds before you get your heal after the point you're vulnerable after pool)

His scaling isn't actually that great because he's effectively paying 10% of his health in true damage for 10% of his health in magic damage, without any bonus magic penetration or true damage benefits for a fully charged E. This means against targets with any MR, using E becomes more of a detriment than a help when you actually land it.

He still feels insanely clunky. Clunkier than pre-rework, which is saying something.

His payout with empowered Q isn't really worth it compared to how insanely weak non-empowered ones are.

Crimson Rush's MS buff isn't useful outside of early laning; it needs to scale so its usable for teamfighting. 1 second decaying MS is largely useless after laning is over, especially since almost everyone has more CC and mobility than Vlad.

There's no real point of the tides of blood AoE indicator besides making Vlad objectively worse. The animation is already extremely apparent. The indicator does not provide counterplay, it just stops Vlad from functioning above a certain skill level.

There's no real point to the crimson rush indicator for enemies, as there's already an extremely obvious audio and visual queue before the ability is even off CD. All it does is make Vlad objectively worse, and stops him from functioning above a certain skill level.

I'm starting to feel like building is decent choice on him, despite how inefficient it. He just feels that much more realistically usable with it. Reds stated that if this were the case, there are obviously issues with Vlad that need to be addressed.

**And my final note: Selfish sustain is not a good focus for a champion. It is a good secondary benefit of a champion, but never a focus. The reason? Your health levels do not impact the enemy team at all. If you do not have significant impact by being alive (mundo Q, W, E), then you have nothing to offer your team. **

**Damage should be Vlad's primary focus, since that's all he offers for his team, not sustain. Removing his health costs (reworking E so its balanced) and sustain at this point would be a better direction than the current rework. **

Are there any Red thoughts on this, or if any of these issues should be addressed?