Vlad's new E

DeathBurst·Apr 27, 2016·7 votes·2,902 views

So, the goal of the rework as stated by Riot was to add a more impactful health cost and to let Vlad choose if he wanted to spend a lot of health or not, according to the situation. More tactical depth, higher risk for higher reward, etc.

But is there really a situation where you don't want to charge the new E? I may be wrong, I haven't tried it myself, but from what I've seen on Youtube, it looks like you would always want to charge the E as much as possible, no?

What do you think?

19 Comments

RiotReav3Apr 27, 20164 votes

I find myself occasionally using the snap cast to farm low health minions from a safe distance if I'm behind or in a unfavorable match-up as it uses much less health. It is also useful to secure a kill when you don't have the leisure to fully charge it.

MelledoneusApr 28, 20161 votes

Have you considered lowering the health cost a little later on? Just using his E can make Vlad lose fights handily, since it bursts himself down. Good Vlad players would rather use his Q to super-sustain now that spell vamp is no longer a thing on him.

ZorasamaApr 28, 20161 votes

That would make the snap cast even useless, if his charged E cost is too low then no one would ever want to snap cast it except last hitting.

MelledoneusApr 28, 20161 votes

It takes time to charge up, it slows him down, and it costs MORE HEALTH.

All trade-offs for charging it up. Removing the cost by a tiny % isn't going to break Vladimir.

ZorasamaApr 28, 20161 votes

It costs more health to deal WAY more damage. Sounds reasonable to me.

MelledoneusApr 28, 20161 votes

Generally, yes. But not to a point of killing himself.

ZorasamaApr 28, 20161 votes

That's their main point of his new E design.

Riot want to add a more impactful health cost and to let Vlad choose if he wanted to spend a lot of health or not, according to the situation. More tactical depth, higher risk for higher reward, etc.

LostFr0stApr 27, 20163 votes

Once you get Rylais sometimes you'll tap it to kite, but other than that you're definitely right that it's usually best to fully charge it.

DeathBurstApr 27, 20164 votes

Well, if you want to kite, the fully charged version also has a slow, even before Rylai. This seems to be an even more limited use-case than it looks at first glance.

Thanks for the answer ;)

LostFr0stApr 27, 20161 votes

Yeah you right, it's a super tiny niche case where you want to avoid the self slow as well. It'll basically never happen rofl.

DeathBurstApr 27, 20162 votes

So then, the following question is: is the possibility to charge up useful, is it a meaningful choice, or should it just be changed into a chaneled spell that always go to the full duration unless interrupted by an opponent?

cuddlykitten4Apr 27, 20162 votes

If the enemy is at 20HP and the only thing not on CD is your E and the opponent is quickly on their way to an escape, at that moment you'd be happy you aren't forced to charge up.

LostFr0stApr 27, 20161 votes

I say leave it as-is for at least a couple patches if not permanently. As a person who plays live Vlad, it would feel very very bad to all of a sudden have a channeled E, especially one that self-ccs. Plus it'll help us separate good and bad Vlads and that's not a bad thing.

Meep ManApr 27, 20163 votes

It costs more health the longer you charge so, if you want to lose less health, you don't charge it much.

DeathBurstApr 27, 20163 votes

Well, sure. But given the increase in damage is always efficient compared to the increase in cost, is there some situation where you actually care about paying less health ? LostFrost essentially said "when you just want to apply spell effects and don't really care about the damage", but it's still a rare situation.

cuddlykitten4Apr 27, 20162 votes

When you're losing lane.

sodlockApr 28, 20161 votes

dont play vlad. it's dead now. I main vlad and played over 500 games. just how are you going to lane with unpenetratable e? while your empowered q only last 1.5 sec so any oppoenent higher than plat will just step back for 2 sec. then your vlad q dmg would be below half. And what if opponent freeze lane? you just can't hit him with your e. he's gonna just dash you and hit you. Means there is no more poke. vlad doesn't have first attack he has to wait until they go in. cuz you can't use your e or empowered q.

Sire HippingtonApr 27, 20161 votes

i played him on pbe and i kinda have to agree, snapcasting it rarly feels needed. i think something that might help would be reduceing the cd and let it start ticking at the end of cast rather than the beginning. This way snapcasting for a short trade or some cs would feel a bit better as your main damage tool wouldn't go on such a long(relatively speaking) cd.

kDrakariApr 28, 20161 votes

When I was trying it out, the snap cast health cost was basically non-existent, while the damage was still significant. It's a lot less damage, but 10% max health is a big cost if you don't need the rest.