Riot can I get some feedback on Vladimir?

http://i.imgur.com/Pu4jLV8.jpg

I'm looking for feedback on potential Vladimir changes, reworks, or stuff in the pipeline for future patches. He is by far my favorite champion, and the second I ever unlocked. I've clocked in more than 1000 games with him, and as much of a passion as I have for playing him, He just has so many little problems that make it hard to keep up with some of the more modern champions or those who have received updates. Often times It's more about how many items I have than defeating an opponent through better gameplay. I just don't have a lot to work with. So here's a few issues I wanted to touch on.

Gameplay: Vlad's current gameplay revolves around predictably whittling down your lane opponent while trying to keep yourself healthy via Transfusion and spellvamp. Beyond that you can turret dive or flash engage with Hemoplague and Q+E, either using pool as an escape or a bit of extra damage. Because he lacks a true gapcloser or movement speed steroid to go with his the short ranges on his abilities, he's heavily reliant on flash and ghost, which makes it very hard to keep up with all of the high mobility champions and long range mages of today.

Clunky Skills: Because of the short cast times on both Transfusion and Tides Vlad has to stop his movement, just like Gangplank's raise morale, on every, single, cast. It's really frustrating when you rely on spamming the same two cooldowns all game only to make it even easier for your opponents to kite you, outrange you, or just plain walk away from you. This is why Rylai's crystal scepter is such a popular item on him, even though it doesn't really fix the core problem.

The dismal early game: Not only is there not much interaction between you and your opponent early on, But Vlad's autoattacks, SUCK (Vampire joke) It's painfully akward to line them up, even after years of experience. Couple that with his poor base AD and last hitting without using skills is a nightmare. It also often means that trading with your auto attacks is more trouble than its worth, as the animation startup is so long you're essentially giving your opponent a big opportunity to trade back.

**Masochistic Health Costs: **Two of your skills take burly chunks out of your health when you use them to trade, I don't abuse hextech revolver because of Transfusion, I use it because my other skills hurt me enough that I'm forced to build some kind of excessive regeneration in order to offset the health costs. Where Mordekaiser has a shield until he can build regeneration, Vlad's self healing relies on skill levels and AP, this means if the early game goes badly, you're in for a bad game no matter how many skillshots you avoid or how perfect your hemoplagues are. You need those items just to be able to use the rest of your kit.

Damage Ramp up: So one of Vlad's big things is that he has ramping base damage on Tides of Blood (This doesn't affect damage from AP btw) and as such, to use his full potential a good Vlad will keep his stacks at 4 when trading post hextech, on ganks, or during teamfights. But it turns out it's not as much a reward as it is an extra step to effeciency. Currently with its 45% AP ratio, at 500AP TOB will deal 545 damage, Here's a comparison of other mages with similar short cooldown abilities.

Orianna Q: 430 (50%) ** Lissandra Q: 515 (65%) Orianna W: 600 (70%)** Vel Koz Q:** 540 (60%)** Annie Q:** 620 (80%)** Zyra Q: 535 (65%) Syndra Q:** 530 (60%) ** Viktor Q: 490-680 (70%)

So as you can see, with all the effort that goes into keeping up stacks, a lot of mages are dealing almost the same or more damage, without paying a health cost or an upkeep. That's hardly fair is it?

I have tons of ideas for a rework and skill balance, I know you guys are probably afraid to touch him due to the nature of kits with a focus on healing, and there are plenty of ways to solve that problem. So can we just, Talk about it?