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Since we're picking on Vlad now

The Bearded Bard·5/17/2015, 3:02:46 PM·2 votes·1,035 views

I'll let you guys in on a few ways to deal with Vlad.

  1. Pick any of these champions Brand Cassiopeia Chogath Darius Diana DrMundo Ezreal Fiddlesticks Fiora Fizz Galio Garen Gnar Hecarim Irelia JarvanIV Jax Jayce Kassadin Katarina Kayle LeeSin Lissandra Malphite Malzahar Maokai Mordekaiser Nasus Olaf Pantheon Quinn Renekton Riven Rumble Shen Sion Skarner Swain Teemo XinZhao MonkeyKing Viktor or Zac. The choice is really up to you, any of them will absolutely destroy Vlad or simply match his early game and outscale him late.

  2. Take either summoner 12 summoner 4 or summoner 14. If Vlad is any kind of decent he'll take Flash + Ghost (I used to say this was dumb until I tried it and lemme tell you, I'll never be going back with the exception of extreme cases like they're building a bd or early drag team and I need TP) That frees you to have the teleport advantage, bring ignite to wreck his already bad early game, or bring Flash and just flash away every time he tries to actually fight since he has no way to keep up with you.

  3. Build any of these items first. item 3153 item 3155 item 3211 item 3151 or of course item 3165. I would bet money that at least half if not most of the people complaining about Vlad are the ones that build absolutely nothing to counter him. Are you a tank? Build item 3211 first item and all your troubles are gone! Are you an AD champion? Good news! You've got multiple options with item 3155 and item 3153! A mage top? Awesome! You can either build item 3165 or item 3151 or both for maximum Vlad fucking!

  4. Play aggressive. The healing might be intimidating, but I assure you, it starts out on an extremely long cooldown. 10 seconds. That's 10 seconds you could be dealing damage while he can't. I'm sure you can do more than the 15-70 health his Q heals for early game. So be aggressive early on and see my next tip for why this doesn't always work for you.

BUT MAOKAI, I LISTENED TO YOUR ADVICE AND WAS AGGRESSIVE AND IT WORKED FOR A LITTLE WHILE BUT THEN HE CAME BACK AND WRECKED ME BECAUSE I COULDN'T DIVE HIM THIS TIME! Well children, that's because of tip number 5: Learn when you have to stop being aggressive. If you're like me, when you're ahead, you feel like nothing will stop you no matter how stupid you play. That shit doesn't fly against Vlad. He's got two peaks, level 9 and level 18 when he's full build. The one we're gonna talk about is level 9. This is when his Q is on its lowest CD, he should have his vamp item and maybe even his spirit visage by now, and this is his time to shine. But you're all hyped up because you went aggressive early on, you're 3/0 he's 0/3 and you guys even got a dragon all thanks to your ability to use teleport while he was unable. Things are going great! Let's keep it goi- oh no. Vlad just killed me. Wtf so broken I only tried to all in him while he was full health under his tower while building nothing to counter him! Wtf is this champion so dumb, I hate Vlad nerf pls.

This is basically half the people that play against Vlad. The other half don't go aggressive early on and just get tower dove because they let Vlad poke them down with no retaliation. You, the readers of this post, need to break the mold. Go aggressive early on, then when it gets to mid game and that Vlad has a couple items under his belt, do not try to fight him. Use your brains, draw him into fights he can't win, bait him, Hell, if you're playing any of those champions I mentioned and build any of the items I mentioned, you probably can beat him at his power spike, if that's the case, feel free to keep going as aggressive as you want. Just know your limit. Know when he can win the fight and know when you can't (and run using the mobility God gave you and took away from Vlad).

And finally 6. I believe this will be the final piece of advice I give you guys. Teamfighting against Vlad. Vlad may not bring CC, but he does bring quite a bit of damage, and the ability to stall off dying like no other. So, that being said there are a few ways to beat him in teamfights, the place where he excels. 1. Don't bunch up. If he can only get 1 or 2 of you with his ult, that significantly increases the chances of you winning the fight. If he gets all of you then you should see the next sentence of this paragraph. 2. If his ult hits a bunch of you, DISENGAGE, I REPEAT DISENGAGE. (I can't help but think of that one scene from The Incredibles when I say that, good times) Anyways, if a lot of you get hit with the ult, let's say 3 or more, just leave the fight. I don't know about the rest of Vlad's team, but Vlad sure as hell isn't going to catch up to you guys. Add Janna and Nami to the list of champions that beat Vlad just because of their ability to choose when fights happen. 3. Slap an ignite on Vlad (or if you built Morellos you don't even have to do that) and focus the hell out of him. Without his healing he dies pretty damn fast. 4. Backdoor, no one on their team has teleport. 5. Ward up and catch the enemy team while they're missing a champ, or catch that missing champ. This should always be done when the enemy team has a better teamfight than you.

That's it folks, that's how you deal with Vlad. Very complicated I know, but it all starts with you picking just one of the like 30 champs that beat him in lane, and building the right items. Sometimes the answer to you losing to a champion isn't "Nerf this guy he's OP!" Sometimes a little knowledge goes a long way.

7 Comments

Zéychin5/17/2015, 4:32:38 PM2 votes

You really have to know the Shen or Nasus versus Vladimir matchup (and hope that the Vladimir doesn't...) and have a jungler that notices that top-lane exists or you are going to be crying.

DrNova5/21/2015, 9:13:31 PM2 votes

I play a hefty amount of Vlad, though I play him mid, not top. Have a 60+% winrate with him.

I disagree on a few Brand , I beat him pretty routinley. All you need to do is avoid his stun. Teemo , easy to outsustain his damage. Darius I feel liek this is pretty easy if you play well. Stay of out of range of his pull and its a simple lane. I think your Q has more range then his pull. Just bait it out and he lacks dueling power. Katarina is pretty easy to beat. If she tries Qing you, Q her back, you end up with no damage and hurt her good. Pool her ult. Doesnt seem hard to me. Sion cant do much against you. Repeatedly Q him down, avoid his E as much as you can. Swain You can generally outsustain him and outfarm him early, and be ahead late game when he gets his ult. Also seems easy

Like I said I play mid almost exclusivley with him. Alot of top laners do give him a hard time, I feel he's better against mid laners these days. Against alot of top lanes just farm and sustain, you should be alright, just dont try to engage unless you'e poked them down and they start trying to hard to get you.

Dr Poro5/21/2015, 9:18:17 PM2 votes

or bring Flash and just flash away every time he tries to actually fight

Wish I could flash every 5 seconds.

No opinion on the topic, just wanted to comment on this sentence. Vlad is not an all in champ, so flash doesn't work against him that way. It will help you to catch him after he pooled away, though, and generally a free ticket from ganks.

Sohleks5/17/2015, 6:14:49 PM1 votes

I like to beat Vlad up with Corki solo lane. If Vlad is top lane I may break the meta and run Corki top. Vlad can't match Corki's strong autos early game, and he can't just itemize armor or magic resist as Corki deals both. Corki has strong burst and dps and can get a lead over Vlad early.

I don't agree with every champion listed above as a good response to Vlad. Especially Shen. What is Shen supposed to do to Vlad? I also dislike Gnar into Vlad if Vlad is good. It's not a good lane for Gnar, however in teamfights things are evened out as they work entirely differently.