Vladimir, the Crimson Reaper. What direction should Riot take with him? (Monster post)

Vladimir is an interesting champion, who's kept at a relatively (for the top lane anyhoo) weaker state because his play style provides little room for... straight from Riot's favorite word bank choices... counterplay and interaction.

So what can we do to rework Vladimir in a way we can all live with? First, we have to analyse his strengths and see which can be swapped out for something else.

Vladimir's strengths: -The god of sustain (overstatement?) -Amazing waveclear -The ultimate late game monster -His passive means he doesn't need to build tank items -Damage amplification for the whole team -Pressing W to say "Nope" -Not having to aim

So, that last one is fun for Vlad players, but proves to be an issue. How do you outplay somebody or beat somebody who is basically playing a champion destined to ruin you? Let's find out Here are Vlad's weaknesses for reference:

Vladimir's weaknesses: -Heavy health costs on W and E -Sustain is so-so early on -Really squishy in the early laning phase -No mobility -Extremely short range -His boss -Has to deal damage in rounds, after that has to recharge -Grievous wounds and %HP damage -Any soft CC will screw up his groove -Not having Blood Lord Vlad

Obviously, that one was a joke. Or was it? Ahem. Regardless, we can see that Vlad's weaknesses include melee fighters like Irelia and Renekton due to their ability to out-trade him and survive his damage. Not to mention sustain as well as him. Other weaknesses are ranged top laners like Jayce or Kennen, who can harass Vlad and punish him hard. And people who just simply shred him, like Swain and Fiora, don't give him a chance to replenish ye olde blood well, so Vlad loses there, too.

**So have I been wasting your time talking about something you can read on a MoBafire guide? It's all perspective. But let's use this knowledge to our advantage to brainstorm something. **

#Concept 1: Utilizing wounds When I was writing my Talon fan fiction... thing (a story for another time), I delved deep into Vladimir. I realized that he has these weird claws that make him look like a wannabe mole, and I thought, "why?" Then it hit me. Vladimir uses his claws to open wounds. Vladimir's power consists of moving and controlling blood, but if that was the case why can't he just blow everyone up like this is Fist of the North Star? Because the blood needs to be given a place to flow outside in order to retrieve it, which is why Vlad's Q animation comprises of spikes piercing his opponent. So here's a thought: make it a mechanic.

Vladimir's entire kit could revolve around opening more and more wounds in order to draw blood from his opponents more efficiently. They could make this work by making his sustain tied to his Q, but make it so that his passive grants a greater percentage based on how much HP his opponent is missing. His E could still be AoE, but instead of a lock-on blood storm, it could be him doing something cooler, like letting out a literal tide of blood from within his hitbox. This not only gives time to react to Vlad (letting him have more range), but also can create some cool interactions with his W that lets him absorb the blood from the tide back into his pool and heal upon re-emerging. It's a bit of a stretch, but the point is this:

Vladimir's playstyle would resemble one of slowly but surely whittling down his opponent with good positioning in order to create advantages. Almost as if he's toying with them, which would be perfect since he's known to be an avid sadist. Finally, when his opponent is low enough, he can zone them because they know that he can execute them with his passive amplification, meaning that Vladimir has the innate advantage if he can harass you. Opponents could avoid this by harassing Vladimir, forcing him to play passive because his sustain options are limited and his abilities would kill him faster. This would encourage players to play around Vladimir's abilities, and reward good plays from both Vladimir and his opponent during the laning phase.

#Concept 2: The Leech As we all know, leeches are those black worm things that suck your blood (and clean it from fatty materials, but let's not talk about that for the sake of the comparison). Vladimir could be less "all-in, get bursted" and more "Little by little, I will drain your life." Vladimir has a quote that inspired this concept, where he says "trickling progress." Now, you may see where I'm going with this. For those who don't, here's the short version: Vladimir's entire playstyle will revolve around staying relatively near his target, draining them slowly at first but accelerating rapidly if they don't stop him.

There are several ways to execute this, but here's one I personally like: Vladimir's passive lets him choose a target to leech off of, and as long as he stays within the set range his abilities will grant him more HP. The more he stays withing the range, the more %damage amplification and HP drain there will be. The closer Vladimir gets, the faster the passive gets stronger. Creepy, right? Here's how his moveset would work. Think of his Q right now. Let's give it the Darius treatment and give it a delay. Over a second, if Vlad charges his Q (don't worry, still targeted) fully, he gets the whole deal. If it is cut off voluntarily (for example, you get ganked by the rest of their team and Baron Nashor and need to RUN) or the target leaves the tether range, the damage and healing is cut off based on how much the Q charged up. You can make this fair by slowing Vlad's movement speed or making the tether range short in order to make the Q heavy damage, but the "avoid and reward" system must be there. His E could be the same, except if it hits more targets it deals more damage. So DON'T FIGHT VLAD IN YOUR MINION WAVE. We could also let it go slow a bit, to give Vlad the tools he needs to keep his target on the radar. There are many directions, but here's the gist:

Vlad will be easier to deal with should you have some way to pressure him because of his methods of killing you, which are relatively slow but hit HARD. Tanks, unfortunately, usually don't have the tools to combat Vlad (Sion, Shen, and Maokai are large exceptions to this rule) because they lack sufficient damage to scare Vlad out of his Q. Vladimir will be strong against the likes of Singed, Shen, and Dr. Mundo because his abilities will drain a percentage of their health, and his presence in team fights will consist of either whittling down the front line or screwing over the back line, instead of just nuking the entire team.

Ok, I'll stop there. Sorry for the long read, hopefully this wasn't too boring to read, unless if you're reading this somewhere boring like a bus or the toilet or something. Tell me your thoughts and what other rework ideas you may have, tell me how terrible I am at balance, or how stupid my username is. Constructive criticism will be accepted with open arms.

Oh, and if you want to be mean and downvote me, here's a message for you.