Vladimir's Rework and the Opinions of His Biggest Fan

(DISCLAIMER: I support a rework for Vladimir because I know he is problematic due to his monopoly over spell-vamp. This is a lengthy post with a lot of passion devoted to it, so I want this to be known upfront. I merely wish to speak all of my opinions instead of exclusively the most prevalent one. If you just want to see my proposed changes to his kit, feel free to skip down to the bottom where all the bullet points are; just make sure to read the notification in parentheses directly above them. Lastly, it should be noted that I'm not exactly pro material, and super highly skilled players might even consider me outright incompetent. With all of that said, I appreciate you taking the time to view my hard work on this.)

SEGMENT 1: MY PHILOSOPHY

I am a Vladimir main who has played well over 2000 games with him over the course of many years dating all the way back to season one. He is my absolute favorite champion in this game without exception. I've noticed a lot of people making suggestions about what they believe should be changed about Vladimir based on things they don't like about him or things they think would make him more interesting. Seemingly every time people make these suggestions though, they also reveal that they themselves do not actually play or like Vladimir all that much, and the suggestions they make turn him into something completely apart from what he currently is in order to more closely fit their own interests. I understand and appreciate their efforts to try to help, but I would argue that Vladimir's play style was simply never meant to appeal to these people's personal preference in the first place. Allow me to elaborate. I'd like to touch on a philosophy of mine that I think comes into play here:

You people should be able to enjoy having your aim-based Ezreals and your lightspeed, 1000 actions per minute Yasuos (whom I also enjoy myself). I value your right to have a complex Lee Sin and a diverse Elise. I won't even complain about the anti-fun people like Nidalee. I am glad you have them and I will always stick up for your right to enjoy what you want to enjoy. I know League has been making moves towards more fast paced action and skillshots, changing people like Zilean and Veigar (to name two) to not quite be what they once stood for in order to fulfill this new agenda. But there is still a place for the simpler kits and the point-and-click abilities: In the hands of myself and the others who feel as I do. I know it's more exciting to see incredible feats of aim or blindingly fast combinations that require you to purchase new hardware after performing, but that shouldn't be the extent of our play style options. I believe that everyone should be able to have what they want, and sometimes that does require a bit of exclusivity. To put it in simple terms: If everyone was Ezreal, only people who liked Ezreal would be happy. Turning Vladimir into Ezreal is an injustice to those who loved Vladimir because it leaves them with nothing, whereas it doesn't help those who liked Ezreal because they already have Ezreal. A tragic loss for Vladimir fans and a nominal gain for everyone else.

So what is Vladimir's style? It is not one of 'epic plays' or 'lightning fast combinations' or 'amazing aim' or anything flashy like that. Vladimir is a man of consistency. He sacrifices moments of grandeur for sustain and reliability. His performance is predictable and reliable. He knows if he can get in range and survive without being overly Crowd Controlled, he will successfully connect with his EQ combo. No possibility of them hitting more or less often than predicted. Consistent. Reliable. He is always just as strong as he ever is, no more and no less. The challenge with Vladimir is in proper judgment, timing and positioning... with the occasional need for a really clutch pool to juke a predicted Ashe arrow at point blank.

SEGMENT 2: WHAT MAKES VLADIMIR SO GREAT

Lorewise, I love that he is simple and true to his human desire, twisted though it may be. He isn't out to prove some great purpose (even if he originally tried to use that as an excuse in his entrance exam) or to create great works of art or any other pretentious, obnoxious goal like that (sorry Jhin, you're a bit condescending for my personal taste). He's here simply because it's something he wants to do. He wants to kill and that's all there is to it. It's so refreshing to have someone who is just being himself without trying to glorify his actions with some greater cause. He is hedonistic and vile, but in such a nonchalant and unapologetic, fun-loving and happy way (he literally makes corny puns to himself as he runs around taking people's lives) that many can't help but love him and his comedic levels of sociopathy. He acts purely on whim, forsaking any sense of purpose, goals or even morals with no justifiable reason at all for doing so. In this, Vladimir embodies liberation.

Thematically, even before Vladimir came around I have always adored the concepts of hemomancy and sustaining one's combat capability off the life force of one's enemy. Bonus points for combining the two. I'm sure many people agree with me that Vladimir gives a face to these two horrendously underrepresented concepts that before, only vampires really touched on. Additionally, the premise of a tanky mage has always been a strong desire of mine to accomplish, yet most games actively try to make this feat impossible. In this aspect as well, Vladimir is once again giving a face to the underrepresented notion of a tanky mage. Not stopping there, he also gives a face to the underused notion of whim in its purest form without being completely bonkers like Jinx or Lulu. One could argue whether or not the man is actually even insane, given that he sees the world and everything else very clearly and is perfectly functional in all regards, yet still he elects to act with such malice. It all comes together to form a character who satisfies a great many concepts simultaneously, all of which are near impossible to find even individually, much less all in one person. Vladimir's uniqueness is a godsend to those he appeals to.

Aesthetically, his outfit could use one small change: Simply remove the clown stripes, keeping the color solid like in his Count skin. After that, give the poor man some better hair. (His current hairstyle doesn't make anyone think of a droplet, and even if it did, it's not like we needed any more help associating him with blood. It's dramatic overkill.) Other than these two glaringly obvious design flaws, he honestly looks really great! His outfit is very reminiscent of the mythical vampire, the perfect persona for him to adopt, given the theme of his powers and how he chooses to wield them. But what truly makes it so perfect for him is how he only dresses in such a flashy manner because it enhances the fun of his actions. That's... about as much of a paragraph I can make about his outfit. It's good, alright? (But seriously, that hair though.)

SEGMENT 3: MECHANICS

His emphasis on sustain is quite nice to me personally, and I would hate to see that diminished more than it already is since in the early game it's tragically ineffective and in the late game you tend not to have much free time to Q yourself back up to full health. I'm certainly not saying he doesn't have great sustain, I'm just saying he's not exactly pick-or-ban material here so reducing the one thing he's got over others is most likely not the way to make him what he needs to be. Currently, his early game is among the weakest in the League, his mid game is strong if he had a good laning phase, then his late game falls off the edge of the earth.

One reason he's so odd in terms of power is something many people might not have actually noticed: Vladimir is unique in League of Legends for being the only character to have no significant means of crowd control or mobility. That's right, everyone else has some way of either getting closer to/farther from their opponent, or making said opponent less capable of getting closer to/farther from them. While it is true that Sanguine Pool is technically a slow, its slow percentage, duration and range are all vastly less than average, and you just... generally shouldn't use it for that in overwhelmingly most scenarios. So even though he technically has CC, he effectively does not. To make matters worse, his range is short and his full combo burst damage, even when fed, is not enough to 100%-0% someone. Combine all this with his poor base movement speed, his lengthy EQ animation, and the various mobilities/CCs of literally everyone else, the only time anyone should ever die to Vladimir in a 1 on 1 scenario is if they allowed it to happen. Aside from Vladimir using Flash, he will not catch someone to poke them if they simply elect to avoid him. What this means is that no matter how fed Vladimir gets, his impact on the game is inherently limited. The only thing he can do is damage, and MR can mitigate that quite heavily since he's not quite a burst mage and also not quite a spam mage. His damage is too low to nuke people to death, but his cooldowns and animations are just long enough to keep him from being able to strike a fleeing opponent with his combo more than once. Lastly, his strengths are easily sabotaged by his own teammates if they aren't aware (and they never are) of them. In laning phase, if he's level 9+ and doing well, he wants to keep the lane phase going as long as possible and dominate his opponent with constant pokes and nigh-invincibility, making him get far more cs than his opponent and likely denying said opponent. However, many teammates will come along once a single lane has been defeated and try to push Vladimir's lane and win the turret, ending his era of dominance over his opponent and costing him much opportunity. Likewise, in the "Lets-all-group-mid-and-stare-at-each-other-for-a-long-time" phase of the game, he wants to be able to move in, poke, then retreat and heal back up on minions to be an effective 'siege' champion of sorts. In reality, his other four teammates will almost always viciously attack the minions that come by, limiting his healing to a single use every minion wave. Asking your allies not to do this, however politely, will usually just result in you being called toxic, whiney or just getting ignored despite it being for the benefit of the team to not have a 25% health Vladimir at the start of a team fight, where then those very same teammates who made your healing impossible will yell at you for dying. Did I just make it too obvious that I was venting years of frustration? Apologies. MOVING ON!

So what should we do about him?

Well... I don't know. I never claimed to be able to single-handedly fix him, but I do believe my abundantly detailed knowledge and vast experience with him give me valuable insight on how to diagnose his problem in great detail and potentially point out his areas of highest interest. Anything I'm about to say is merely suggestions, but I believe my suggestions are based on much more knowledge and understanding than most when it comes to Vladimir. Without much more delay, here are a few of my ideas that could either be used as-is or as a basis for further creative adjustment, or just ignored entirely because I'm just one guy with delusions of significance:

(Try to keep in mind as you read these that Vladimir isn't exactly pick-or-ban material here, so we're looking to buff more than nerf. That said, by no means should all of these suggestions be taken together; select based on an individual basis and how it will work with other chosen selections.)

• Passive - Sanguine Bond:

• 1. This is the single most important suggestion I can make: Add the following clause: Spell Vamp has no effect on Vladimir. Instead he heals at a fixed rate indicated by his abilities. (Compare to Jhin's passive on attack speed.) The fixed rate should most likely be identical to if Vladimir had 15% Spell Vamp, including the 1/3 effectiveness for AoE. While this is a strong upfront buff to his Spell Vamp, his early game is laughably weak already so it does not seem like too grave a sin. If I'm wrong about this, either lessen the fixed healing at lower levels and let it increase as he levels up, or refer to my proposed change to his ultimate.
• 2. Either remove the HP to AP part to make way for buffs, or buff it to make it significant. I'm leaning towards the former.

• Q - Transfusion:

• 1. In accordance with Sanguine Bond bullet #1, consider keeping the instant heal on damage dealt in addition to the heal when the blood reaches Vladimir. Otherwise it would be a slight quality of life nerf, which is completely acceptable given the buff to his upfront Spell Vamp.
• 2. Consider making it a 4 second cooldown at all levels, but adjusting his damage appropriately and making the healing scale from 7/9/11/13/15% of raw damage dealt and proportionately adjusting the healing upon reaching Vladimir. Alternatively, consider only adjusting his cooldown to 8/7/6/5/4 seconds because honestly his early game is simply too weak for how subpar he is after everyone is full build.
• 3. Consider adding a super-brief slow on hit similar to Trundle's Q to offset the animation time.
• 3. Otherwise do not change this ability, as it defines who Vladimir is.

• W - Sanguine Pool:

• 1. Consider adding a 1-2 second stun/snare if anyone stands inside it: A) when it was first cast, B) when Vladimir reforms, or C) for the entire duration. Choose only one, of course.
• 2. Consider renaming it Sanguine Fog and have him disperse into a red mist that can travel through impassable terrain, shunting him to the nearest available space if ended inside terrain.
• 3. Consider shifting the damage mechanic to apply all at once on the stun/snare, increasing it, or removing it entirely.
• 4. Consider adding a movement speed buff to it like way back when, only actually significant. Maybe even remove the slow to compensate. Alternatively, consider simply increasing the slow.
• 5. Lower the cooldown! If Fizz can have a version that grants mobility, jumps walls, does high damage, costs less and still has half the cooldown while also just being an overall stronger champion than Vlad in general, then we can afford a little favor in this area.
• 6. If you keep the damage, add 5% of raw damage dealt
• 7. If you don't buff it in any other way, remove the health cost. It's supposed to save him, not put him just low enough to die to the DoT on him.

• E - Tides of Blood:

• 1. Add a 1-2 second slow at 4 stacks. The exact percentage of which I'm uncertain of. 20% maybe?
• 2. If you add the slow, consider Increasing the health cost to 5-6 stacks worth and/or any other proposed nerf in these suggestions you deem appropriate.
• 3. Consider making it do damage instantly rather than have a travel time and changing the animation to something more similar to Orianna's W and less dependent on how many targets it hits.
• 4. Consider removing the increase to healing effectiveness altogether.

• R - Hemoplague:

• 1. Rename this spell Syncope and add a 2 second stun to it.

• 2A) If this spell is reworked into Syncope, either: A) Remove one or both of its damaging mechanics, B) Reduce the duration of everything to match the 2 second stun, C) Return the old health cost to the ability, D) Any combination thereof, or anything else you might think of. This one's a bit more open.

• 2B) Alternatively, if this spell is reworked into Syncope, turn it into a single target ability, significantly reduce its cooldown and apply any or none of the possible options in bullet 2A.

• 3. Consider making its damage upfront instead of at the end. Alternatively, consider doing half upfront and half at the end.