Let's talk about Blad

I've been going back and forth about whether I really want to open this can of worms or not. So here goes.

First, I understand vlad has problems. I understand that most of these problems mean that he will get an eventual rework. But that does not mean vlad is the worst champ in league, nor does he deserve some love in the interim.

I've been playing a bit of Vlad recently. He's really fun, and I greatly enjoy his playstyle. But I've been running into a really annoying problem with him recently, and this problem only increases in annoyance the longer I play him.

What problem? His endless sustan? His undodgeable harass? His overpowered troll pool? No, not the problems ppl have when playing against a Vlad. The problem I have is with his ult.

First, the dmg on his ult is very lack luster. "But! He increases all dmg dealt to the affected champion by 12%!" Yeah, that's nice, but honestly, it's not as strong as you'd like to think it is. It means that if you would normally deal 1000 to a single target that you'll get an additional 120 dmg out of it. 2000 for 240 dmg. With the base dmg being 350 and the ap ratio only being .7 ap, that's not a lot of dmg. Not to mention that by dealing 2000 dmg to a target to begin with will kill most all but the tankiest of targets. In fact, most of the time, a champ is killed before the magic dmg portion of his ult is even applied. Thus meaning that vlad's ult did far less dmg than most other ults to begin with. (if a champ had 2500/3300 hp upon ult being cast, and the champ dies before the pop, vlad's ult would have done roughly between 240-300 dmg.)

Is his ult weak? No, not really. Is it the most powerful ult in game? Not even close. But no, that's not the issue I have with his ult. The dmg could be even worse, or it could be twice as strong and I wouldn't care. (okay, maybe I would, but that's a different issue altogether)

No, my issue with his ult as actually been addressed by riot before. My issue is the fact that after casting his ult, vlad is locked out of using his abilities for almost an entire second. This is a crucial defect I don't think I've encountered on any champ before. Many champs have important combos and spell rotations that rely on using their ult mid rotation or even at the beginning.

Veigar for instance can go DFG > R > Q late game for either a free kill or to force a champ out of a fight while saving his E > W > Q combo for someone else.

But when vlad tries to do his R > E > Q > W combo he usually only ends up doing R > Q > W or even worse R > W due to the player pressing reqw in the middle of a chaotic teamfight, but due to being locked out of his spells, the player is shortchanged a important combo that could effectively decide the outcome of a team fight.

Riot has addressed this issue before, but it was some time ago, and I don't remember why they continue to leave his ult in the state it is, but I find it unacceptable. Why should any champ be denied the ability to make fast fluid combos? At the very least, riot should allow vlad's skills to be queued up while they are unavailable so that once they become available the player doesn't just instantly pool and thereby waste the ult and potentially leave an important enemy alive waiting for them when they get out of said pool.

I understand that a large portion of the playerbase has at one time considered vlad a hate worthy champ. But for the sake of champ equality, do not let the injustice of the ability lockout his ult brings be tolerated!