EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/z4Kiw.jpg)
Vladimir The Crimson Reaper
Vladimir is a beefy spellcaster plain and simple. Due to his passive giving him HP he can take a few more hits than other casters but to offset this he usually gets a lot closer to the fight. His learning curve is slightly larger than other casters not because of his spell abilities, but because of the penalty for using sanguine pool at the wrong times.
Due to the fact that Vladimir does not use mana and has a large health regeneration spell he can basically stay in lane forever when unharassed. While this can modify some champion's builds, (needing to go back for specific items), Vladimir's item choices are so simple and direct that it just doesn't bother him in the slightest. Prepare to AFK farm and learn when strategically is the best time to go back with Vlad, because its so easy to perfect!
Vladimir is an excellent 1v1 champion as well as a stellar team fighter. As vlad, make sure you look at the abilities of your teammates and decide how to play the game from there. Should you be 5 man pushing towers down or trying to gank? etc. Vlad tanks Dragon reasonably well due to life steal, but will take at least some damage due to the recent buff.
Vladimir guides:
NONE ATM: please post your guide in this thread and I'll link it here!
Vladimir The Crimson Reaper's abilities
Patch V1.0.0.106
(from http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com)
![[image loading]](http://images.wikia.com/leagueoflegends/images/4/42/CrimsonPact.jpg" data-image-name=CrimsonPact.jpg)
Crimson Pact
(Innate): Every 25 points of bonus health gives Vladimir 1 ability power and every 1 point of ability power gives Vladimir 1.8 bonus health (does not stack with itself).
Notes:
Easily one of the best passives in the game, this passive defines Vladimir and gives him the luxury of building pure damage items and still gaining damage mitigation out of it. While HP by itself isn't ideal for tanking, it sure is welcome on a spellcaster!
![[image loading]](http://images.wikia.com/leagueoflegends/images/f/f3/Transfusion.jpg" data-image-name=Transfusion.jpg)
Transfusion
(Active): Vladimir drains the lifeforce of his target, dealing magic damage and healing himself for 25% (+0.25 per ability power) of that amount.
- No cost
- Range: 600
Magic Damage: 70 / 115 / 160 / 205 / 250 (+0.6 per ability power)
Notes:
This is Vladimir's bread and butter skill. Hurt the enemy, heal yourself, low cooldown. Make sure your pinky finger is well trained because you will be hitting Q a lot. Because of the cooldown reduction in higher levels of this spell it is REQUIRED to level first. There really is no other option. It must be done.
In advanced laning situations try using your Q to only harass instead of last hitting, or at least wait until the minion's health is very low so you don't push the lane as much. It's extremely tempting to one or two shot minions because of the fact that this spell has no cost and only benefits, but self control is a virtue.
![[image loading]](http://images.wikia.com/leagueoflegends/images/8/81/SanguinePool.jpg" data-image-name=SanguinePool.jpg)
Sanguine Pool
(Active): Vladimir sinks into a pool of blood for 2 seconds, becoming untargetable and slowing enemies above him by 50% for 1.5 seconds, and deals magic damage over the duration plus heals himself for 12.5% of that amount. Sanguine Pool also gives Vladimir a slight speed boost for 0.5 seconds.
- Cost: 20% current health
- Area of Effect:
Magic Damage: 80 / 135 / 190 / 245 / 300 (+15% of bonus Health)
Speed Boost: About 35%
Notes:
If there's any one point that separates a bad player from a good player on a purely champion skills level it's how the player uses Sanguine Pool. This spell takes away 20% of your current health. Think about that. If you have 4k health at the end of the game you just nuked yourself for 800 if you use it to initiate!
No, true uses for sanguine pool are very few and far between.
1) 1v1, use the pool at the end of your combo to let other skills refresh as well as slow/damage the enemy
2) Dodge a huge nuke. Did Veigar miss his stun, but still shooting the rest of the combo? are you tanking the tower after diving?
3) ESCAPING!!! when you are dying 20% of current health isn't so much, and the .5 second speed boost means when you're just in range of Olaf'/Ashe slow, you are now just out of range.
So unless the opposing Ryze has flat mana runes and started with a sapphire crystal, it's actually BETTER to take his Q than to dodge it with pool in the early game.
![[image loading]](http://images.wikia.com/leagueoflegends/images/8/8c/TidesofBlood.jpg" data-image-name=TidesofBlood.jpg)
Tides of Blood
(Active): Vladimir unleashes a torrent of blood dealing magic damage to nearby enemies.
Each cast gives him an Empowered stack (max 4), increasing his healing and regeneration by 8% per stack for 10 seconds. Additionally, his next tides of Blood deals 25% more damage and costs 50% more health per stack.
- Cooldown: 4.5 seconds
- Area of Effect: 620
Magic Damage: 60 / 90 / 120 / 150 / 180 (+0.45 per ability power)
Notes:
Many people when playing Vlad for the first time completely miss the fact that this spell stacks 4 times. Charging stacks before initiating is an extremely useful skill and in Vlad vs. Vlad matchups will easily determine the winner. Also, keeping your stacks between creep/jungle waves is a really efficient way of dispatching entire groups of minion/monsters at once. Sure it costs health, but its the difference between being exposed for 5 seconds versus 25 seconds clearing a wave.
![[image loading]](http://images.wikia.com/leagueoflegends/images/c/c6/Hemoplague.jpg" data-image-name=Hemoplague.jpg)
Hemoplague
(Active): Vladimir infects the target area with a virulent plague which increases the damage nearby enemies take from all sources by 14% for 5 seconds. After these 5 seconds, infected enemies take magic damage.
- Cost: 15% current health
- Range: 700
- Area of Effect:
Cooldown: 150 / 135 / 120 seconds
Notes:
Again, like Sanguine Pool, this spell should never be used to initiate a fight. Due to the fact it takes 15% of your current health, it really becomes an end-of-fight quadrakiller (good word right?) Match this up with ignite and watch the enemy try in vain to regain health before getting exploded.
Cool trick: Hemoplague does not agro turrets until the damage goes off! So you can tower dive, pool after a few heated exchanges to slow them and drop agro, plague, and get out.
RUNES
Reds:
Magic Penetration reds are basically your only choice here. Nothing else compares for casters, so grab 'em.
Yellows:
I love using HP/lvl yellows for the end game potency, but flat armor is probably the best choice because of how crappy your lvl<9 game is. Taking those few extra hits in lane will help you keep on the harass or allow you to save your Q from pushing the lane.
Blues:
Many good choices for Vlad in blue slot. mres/lvl will allow you to take advantage of your giant HP pool and are probably the best choice. You can also try flat AP in conjunction with AP quints for an agressive early game, or AP/lvl for a more refined all-out build.
Quints:
No question here you want to boost your early game in the quint spot. Flat HP or Flat AP. I highly recommend the former unless you know what you're doing.
MASTERIES
Vladimir is a fun champ to play with alternative masteries. Since he doesn't have mana, and a lot of the pre-requirements for utility are mana based, it behooves the player to try alternative builds rather than the standards for other casters.
Some core vlad builds include 9/21/0, 9/0/21, 0/21/9
Examples:
9/0/21 build : Magic penetration and reduced cooldowns! There's only one sub-optimal mastery choice, the tier 1 utility ability Perseverance really sucks.
9/21/0 build : Magic penetration and early game defense! A few sub-optimal choices here, you won't be using the attack speed bonus from Ardor very much since your Q cooldown is so awesome and dodge is sooooo wonky on vlad. But if your early game is horrible and you magnify that by vlad's early game you might want to think about getting 21 defense.
0/21/9 build I think this is the best mastery setup for complete newbies or people who play aggressive enough to detriment their own leveling. You get the great defensive bonus for your early game as well as increased leveling and a bit of gold for that extra 5% of an item you never seem to have when you go back.
ITEM OVERVIEW
This section is going to be a bit different than most guides. I'm going to give lists of items that Vladimir COULD use one way or another and list the pros/cons for that one item. There will be no builds per say, Read the in depth guides by other TL'ers to see what works!
Starting items:
In order from best to worst, Doran's shield, ruby crystal, regrowth pendant.
The reason you want to start the game with a defensive item is quite simply the cooldown on your Q. It's just too long to sustain you in the early game, and if you go pure AP you are putting way too much risk in the part of the game that demands zero risk.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/KYfYu.png)
![[image loading]](http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20091016143902/leagueoflegends/images/thumb/0/0f/Doran%27s_Shield.gif/20px-Doran%27s_Shield.gif)
Doran's Shield + HP pot. By far this is the best way to start Vlad in the lane. The shield gives you everything you need to live in the early game, HP, a bit of armor to stop auto attacks from hurting, and a bit of regen. Its also extremely efficient in the stats it gives.![[image loading]](http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20091016143746/leagueoflegends/images/thumb/6/60/Ruby_Crystal.gif/20px-Ruby_Crystal.gif)
Ruby Crystal. This item gives a bunch of HP sure, but certainly not as good as the shield due to the fact that your health is going to be less than 100% probably most of the laning phase as you trade pokes. The main reason to get it would be to build it early into Haunting Guise.![[image loading]](http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20091016143914/leagueoflegends/images/thumb/0/0b/Regrowth_Pendant.gif/20px-Regrowth_Pendant.gif)
Regrowth Pendant + HP pot. This item gives you plenty enough regen in tandem with your Q that you will stay at full HP. It also builds into Warmogs or Force of Nature. Going defensive on Vlad really defeats the purpose though, and never really works out in the end game, so this item is viable but really out shadowed by the other two.Boots.
Vlad actually has a bunch of weird choices for boots. Here's the selection and thoughts. I'll leave it up to individual builds to lay out what works best
![[image loading]](http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20091014182059/leagueoflegends/images/thumb/a/ad/Boots_of_Swiftness.gif/20px-Boots_of_Swiftness.gif)
Boots of Swiftness: A very fun choice for when you are playing the gank game. Swiftness will let you get to side lanes faster and set up kills easier. They will also work very well in tandem with your Sanguine Pool's speed boost to escape bad situations.![[image loading]](http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110105233938/leagueoflegends/images/thumb/1/10/Ionian_Boots_of_Lucidity.gif/20px-Ionian_Boots_of_Lucidity.gif)
Ionian Boots of Lucidity: The newest addition in boot choices. Straight cooldown is extremely valuable to Vladimir both for laning stability as well as late game team fighting. Pressing Q more often keeps you alive, plain and simple. ![[image loading]](http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20091014183237/leagueoflegends/images/thumb/2/2a/Mercury%27s_Treads.gif/20px-Mercury%27s_Treads.gif)
Mercury's Treads: By far the best choice for all around good Vladimir builds. You WILL get cc'ed because you WILL make them hate you. the small amount of magic resistance also synergizes with your giant HP pool very well since you won't be getting many other opportunities to buy mres.![[image loading]](http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20091014183729/leagueoflegends/images/thumb/9/9a/Sorcerer%27s_Shoes.gif/20px-Sorcerer%27s_Shoes.gif)
Sorcerer's Shoes: The old favorite for pure offense in spell casters. These are probably overshadowed by the cooldown boots in every respect now for Vlad, but still niche for teams with low amounts of CC and more than 20 mres.Nuke Nuke Nuke!
![[image loading]](http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20091203173117/leagueoflegends/images/thumb/0/0e/Haunting_Guise.gif/20px-Haunting_Guise.gif)
Haunting Guise: This item is nice and cheap, plus gives a great bonus to get rid of base mres on every character. If you are playing around with boot choices you are almost obligated to get this item even though extreme late game it becomes a waste of an item slot.![[image loading]](http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20091014183650/leagueoflegends/images/thumb/a/ae/Rylai%27s_Crystal_Scepter.gif/20px-Rylai%27s_Crystal_Scepter.gif)
Rylai's Crystal Scepter: This used to be a core item on Vlad, and is still extremely strong, but you just don't get enough money in the game to buy everything awesome. If you're having problems staying alive though, try this. It still works great with both sides of his passive as well as adding a much appreciated heavy slow to Vlad's Q.![[image loading]](http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110105233940/leagueoflegends/images/thumb/3/3f/Rabadon%27s_Deathcap.gif/20px-Rabadon%27s_Deathcap.gif)
Rabadon's Deathcap: The only other core item for Vlad. No surprise, its a giant chunk of AP. ![[image loading]](http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20091203061224/leagueoflegends/images/thumb/f/f3/Void_Staff.gif/20px-Void_Staff.gif)
Void Staff: This is a situational item to grab when your opponents are stacking mres. A great choice to grab if your good players in that game are all magic damage.Quasi-Defensive Choices
![[image loading]](http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100610183512/leagueoflegends/images/thumb/8/83/Will_of_the_Ancients.gif/20px-Will_of_the_Ancients.gif)
Will of the Ancients: is a really fun item to play with. Enough spell vamp to make you laugh at the health costs of your spells, as well as a great aura to support your team. I would probably get this item if everyone is building tanky and starving for enough AP to win team fights. Not only will it let you stick with your tanky comrades for longer in the fight, but it will allow them to do more damage without getting resisted.![[image loading]](http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/leagueoflegends/images/thumb/d/d1/Zhonya%27s_Hourglass.gif/20px-Zhonya%27s_Hourglass.gif)
Zhonya's Hourglass: This is now a fantastic defensive caster item that fills a much needed hole in itemization. You get a good chunk of armor, a ton of AP, a bit of HP from your passive, and a cutsey active ability that might just save your life... or at least delay your death so teammates can finish them off. The active ability is very nice in the fact that you can use it to let your cooldowns reset, but it does make you a giant shining target for the enemy so be aware.![[image loading]](http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20091014170161/leagueoflegends/images/thumb/7/7f/Abyssal_Scepter.gif/20px-Abyssal_Scepter.gif)
Abyssal Scepter: Abyssal Scepter reduction instead of penetration is important because the reduction helps your teammates, not because it can reduce magic resist below zero. Since reduction is applied before penetration, it can reduce below 0 ONLY if combined with spells that reduce magic resistance, and these are hard to come by. Pair it up with zhonyas for armor and you have a good one two punch of resistances while still keeping your AP and HP reasonable.
