LoL Playing Against Vlad Guide

LoL Playing Against Vlad Guide by Jokinzazpi

For reference, I am a plat IV vlad main with a 60% win ratio on him in ~50 games this season, so I consider myself capable enough of advising about him.

I suppose that you will want to see my op.gg, but I’m on my mobile, so look for “Im just Jokin” on EUW. Also, feel free to ask any questions about vlad or discuss anything you would like about what I have written.

The first thing and as obvious at it may sound, you need to understand how good the vlad you are facing is. This may seem hard, but is rather simple. Here is the thing: for someone with little experience with vlad, farming with autos will be hard, but a good vlad will be able to get most of the farm with autos so he can Q you every time you try to cs. On top of that he might (and should) harrass you with autos. A good vlad will save his W to dodge important CC/high damage skills, while a bad one will use it for some extra damage after using his QE combo.

Generally speaking, and being obvious, a bad vlad will have poor management of his skillset and will not be able to see openings, free harras oportunities and maybe even certain item build paths that will result in a more forgiving laning phase and game, allowing you to make more mistakes.

An example of a build path: while in every guide you will see that you have to buy will of the ancients as the first item, if you are facing a hecarim getting the hextech revolver, rylais and furor CDR boots will allow you to permaslow him, making him unable to kill you thanks to your kiting potential.

Another thing that you need to understand is that most of the times vlad does not win the lane via bursting, he will win it by sustain. If you are an AD champion, consider a executioner’s calling, if you are a mage, consider morellonomicon.

The champion you are currently playing is also very important, but dont pick a champion you have little experience with because “hurr durr counterpick”. Champions that give me problems are Ryze and Swain.

Ryze is able to burst most of vlad’s HP even in early levels, on top of that, his late game power could be compared to vlad’s.

Swain will rivals vlad’s sustain thanks to his ult. On top of that, his E and his Q still apply damage even if he uses his pool.

A easy champion to use against vlad is fiddlesticks. His W will keep draining him even if he uses his pool. You have tons of CC on your Q and E that will annoy him and your sustain is much better than his. On top of that you can also rush morellos. The only drawback is that top fiddle has no waveclear and vlad can spam E so you lose CS at your tower and that he is very susceptible to ganks.

The worst thing you can do when playing against vlad are small trades, because he will sustain back. In early levels try to force trades with him nonstop. Vlad’s W has an HP cost of 20% of his current life. If you force him to use it you will most likely end up winning the trade automatically.

If he uses his cooldowns to farm (Q/E) trade with him.

Once he buys spellvamp DO NOT FIGHT HIM NEAR YOUR MINIONS. JUST DONT DO IT. A good vlad will try to drag the fight next to your minion wave. Abilities do not proc minion aggro. If your minions are targeting his and he walks next to them, they will ignore him. Knowing this, a good vlad will get next to your minions. Thanks to his E’s AOE, he will most likely kill them in two casts or three. This is very important because of two things:

1.- He will heal off your minions while recieving almost no damage from them.

2.- Once you attack him with an auto attack, you will draw minion aggro.

3.- After two or three E uses, your minions will die and his minions will go for the nearest target (Hint: its you).

Remember that his R increases damage dealt by all sources for a 12%. If you cant quickly kill him or he cant force a fight with you, just run.

Speaking of his ultimate: Its base damage at level 6 is a fucking joke. His ult starts dealing damage when he gets some AP, but that does not mean that you should ignore it, remember the 12% dmg increase.

For fucks sake dont dive him if his W is up. Bait his pool first, then dive.

Remember: constant trading. If you are jax, jump on him every time that you are able too. If you are fizz, jump on him every time you are able to.

For vlad, using W in early game means instantly losing the trade at least 70% of the time. Also remember the long CD of his W.

If you are not behind and he uses his W engage the shit out of him.

There is no such thing as having an even lane phase against vladimir. You either win lane or lose lane. If vlad comes out of the laning phase with the same gold as you do, he has won the lane phase. He just scales too damn well and if he knows what to buy, expect your carries getting destroyed with 2 spell rotations.

I believe that I’m probably forgetting something, so feel free to comment below.

As I have said before, feel free to ask any questions or discussing something I have said.