League of Legends [New forum, check OP!] - Page 609

--The Setup
Skill order-
QEQWQR then R>Q>E>W
Reasoning: Q is your main nuke, every level reduces the cooldown by a ton.

Runes-
The Standard: Mpen marks, Dodge seals, CDR or AP glyphs, AP or HP Quints
The Douchebag Special (The key to making the other mid you bitch): Arp Marks, Dodge Seals, CDR glyphs, HP Quints.

Masteries-
9/21/0 - http://leaguecraft.com/masteries/1003400100000003030401240301000000000000000
or
0/21/9 - http://leaguecraft.com/masteries/0000000000000003030401240301003140001000000

Summoner skills:
Prefer Ignite and Ghost but Cleanse instead of ignite is probably better against large CC teams (more than 1 stun)

Starting items:
Doran's Shield
Health Potion

--The Strategy
Solo mid --
**Levels 1-5 - Attempt to harass with Q and auto attack while taking minimal damage. Be especially careful of Ezreal's Mystic shots. He is really the only one that puts up any kind of fight in middle if you're not careful. Try to keep Q on cooldown as much as possible and harassment should take priority over last hitting but don't over extend.

**Level 6 - You can usually try to gib the middle with Ult + Q + E + W to dive the tower and follow up with Q + Ignite. Don't get over eager because dying early is extremely detrimental. You cannot fight at full strength until you get rank 5 Q and the cooldown is short enough.

**Levels 7-10 - Keep farming and harass the middle as much as possible. It's very easy to get a 20-40 more creep kills at this point even against very strong players. Once you're too low to continue fighting or you have ~ 2600 gold you should tp to base and buy basic boots, blasting wand, amplifying tome, and a null-magic mantle. If your team is doing exceptionally well you can opt to buy a mejai's soulstealer instead.

**Levels 11+ - Now you've entered the mid-game you can go around stealing buffs and taking names or just gank the other lanes. Generally you want to start out with QE then W to slow them down, then RQE ignite for the kill.

Items to build--
Doran's Shield
Mercury treads (or sorcerer's shoes if you're really winning)
Rylai's Crystal scepter
Spirit Visage
Voidstaff
Zhonya's Ring
Mejai's Soulstealer

Usually I will build rylai's after boots then spirit visage and eventually a Zhonya's

Items not to build --
Warmog's
Sunfire Cape (in most situations)
Force of Nature

Tips:
W makes you immune to almost everything but it also allows you to catch up to people because the radius is larger than his model usually is. Ghosting then using W will allow you to catch most people, get infront of them, and then use Q and E to continue to slow with Rylai's.

Q applies the 15% speed debuff from Rylai's so you need to keep moving while doing it to keep up with most champions.

Using your ult as soon as a team fight starts is the best time. It greatly increases the damage champions take and can often kill them with the explosive dot at the end.

W can dodge tower shots but don't use it unless you're under 30% hp because most of the time casting W will cost more health than the tower shot would deal.

Having a healer on your team greatly increases Vladimir's potentional damage output. Counter picking or banning Soraka, Kayle, and Taric is advised.

Vladimir is not a tank. Don't play him like one.

Q heals but it does not heal entirely based on damage done. It heals based on damage it CAN do plus a static amount so you can use it on immune targets to gain health.

Putting on dance shoes while fighting most champions 1 on 1 is a great idea and can often win you a free kill because 99% of the time people will miss skillshots.

Vladimir can pretty safely W into brush to check for an ambush but be prepared to run when they chase you out of it.