Anyone have any advice for Vladimir?
Soooooooo....
My kind and generous friend is buying me Vladimir and Academy Vlad 
Does anyone have any advice and builds for a first time Vlad?
13 Comments
Wait for buffs
Use Bloodlord, then don't play him.
If you haven't touched him at all before... a couple tips that I picked up over a couple games. Nothing super game changing here, but it might help you save a bit of frustration :)
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Your Blood Rush on Q gives you a speed boost. This is TINY. Unless you're already faster than your enemy and almost in range to cast it, it's not going to help you land your Q on a champion. Think of it as icing on the cake.
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Watch how much damage you're doing to yourself by casting E, particularly early game. You can lose trades simply by casting E if you're not paying attention. For example, if Riven dashes up close to you and you start casting E, and then she dashes back without attacking you, she won. You spent HP charging E, and she didn't even go into danger past her minion wave.
Good luck!
Full AP with 
You can swap with CDR boots and protobelt for Rylais if you need the slow while still achieving 40% CDR if u run CDR blues
Get to 40% CDR as quickly as possible. I recommend 10% scaling CDR runes with:
Take Thunderlords and Ghost to catch up and follow people (otherwise you are very immobile).
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Farm safely in the early game and use Q to trade and last hit. Avoid all-ins and avoid using E. E is not worth much until later in the game due to high costs. Use W only to save your own life.
You are a safe laner but very poor skirmisher/teamfighter early on. In the late game, you are God on Earth with this build (if not behind and if people get in your range, you can 1 vs 2, 1 vs 3).
The most difficult part of the kit is learning how to use your E which will eventually become most of your damage. As you are charging it, try moving and following the enemy at the same time before letting it pop. 100% AP Scaling damage from E, enjoy. However, your E doesn't become powerful until you have 4 or 5 points in it (then its a 2 second 100% AP Scaling spammable AOE attack).
Your main engage combos are:
Charge E, Flash into enemy, pop E, R, Q... followed by W if necessary... repeat the basic spell rotations
Ghost into enemy team, R as many people as possible, charge and fire E, Q, W if necessary... repeat the basic spell rotations
Why academy Vlad though? That skin is ridiculous.
Don't take Thunderlords it can be decent in the early laning+trades but deathfire touch is stronger in lategame and in every other situation. Your lategame power and teamfighting will benefit a lot more from DFT it fits Vlad's playstyle much much better.
If you don't want to/can't run ghost take Stormraider's. If you max out Cunning be sure to take intelligence. the +5% CDR is really helpful early.
Try to max out your cdr as early as possible.
Your goal early is not losing lane. Just play safely and get as much farm as you can.
Your strongest combo is E charge > R > Let go of E > Q > W / aa. You can flash while you charge your E just be sure to ult BEFORE you pop E.
In teamfights try to reach as many enemies with your E as possible but don't go to deep be sure that you can leave the fight if needed.
You get your ult's healing in both w and zhonya's. Remember that.
If you tap E early it deals about as much damage as an aa. This can help you prepare creeps under turret. Your empowered q heals you for much more but is less effective on minions. Jungle mosnters give you the full healing so if you need the HP and can reach a camp before Crimson Rush goes off go for it!
Don't use W unless you have a good reason to. Always try to save it because it has a long ass cooldown.
I advise getting at least 10 % scaling cooldown reduction from runes. I run 20% so i can get 2 CDR items which will also provide me with defensive stats and from that point i can go for whatever ap item i'd like without having to worry about cooldowns.
Your build should look something like this:
// Pretty much the 2 best boots you can choose from. Sometimes i see 
or 
. These are extremely situtional.
If there's both ap and ad damage threat in the enemy you should get and choose between and
If the enemy doesn't have a real ap threat don't build the mr items only for the sake of getting CDR. ( If you have 20% scaling cdr runes this shouldn't be a problem)
More items you coud find useful: 
If you find yourself going too slow lategame Think about Stormraider's or movespeed quints. Luden's also gives you movement speed but is a situationaly item so it isn't a reliable source of speed every game.
Lastly the most important part: Vlad isn't a vampire. He is a bloodmage/hemomancer!!!4!!!44!
Don't play him. He's terrible!
Source: Played Vlad in ARAM one time during free week and I got rekt! :P
spirit visage, hourglass, void staff, death cap, sorc boots, and maybe abyssal scepter?
Get good at farming. Vlad's early game is shit unless you get ahead, but as soon as you hit 4-6 items you can 1v2 or 1v3