League of Legends Vladimir Challenger Guide
by Elite500
About me
I’m Elite500, a streamer trying his hardest to grow and come a step closer to his dream. I’ve played league since season 3 and have played vlad since season 5, my current peak was in season 8 at Challenger 552 LP. This is the first guide I’m writing so criticism is welcomed.
Why you should play the Blood Lord
I started to main him around season 6 when I noticed I can carry and 1v9 much harder with vlad than any other champ I played at the time (zed yas), this was even before his rework.
So why should YOU play vlad? He’s insanely effective at going 1v9, I’ve won SO many games from just taking the games in my own hands, not only that but it’s really fun absolutely CRUSHING and DEMOLISHING your opponents in mere secondsl
Here is a prime example of going 1v9 the score was 6-15 at one point while having a disconnected toplaner, yet I furiously took the game into my own hands and made it mine.
So what does vlad have? 1v9 potential, low and high elo effectiveness, insane burst AND dps, AoE and single target, team fighting and 1v1 dominance, early, mid and uber strong lategame presence, unique and adaptable build path, resource less, a very cool and disrespectful look (very important), and last high skill gap and outplay potential, you may argue it but STATISTICS DO NOT LIE haHAA, there is a reason he’s in the top 8. Steepest champion mastery curves, starting at a 39,9% winrate up to a 54.7% winrate after 100 games, with this guide you should be able to avoid the low early winrate and strive to achieve that juicy 55% winrate, if not more. Tl:dr play vlad he make enemy hp go ss :Pepega: :mega: If he has so many things, why doesn’t everyone play him Elite?????? his range is REALLY small, he has ZERO mobility as good as ZERO waveclear and ZERO CC, falling behind on him also means super low impact, and argue it all you like, he is difficult to master and use to full effectiveness
RUNES:
Vlad’s runes and playstyle have changed immensely over the past few patches, this is his current setup:
Phase Rush
Vroom vroom motherfucker here comes the train, phase rush while weak super early game it allows you to escape cheesy ganks early by speeding away, 3 hits are easily applied, graves comes and ganks you level 3? Tap E, Q him and pool, that’s already 3 hits making you fly the fuck away from this dumbass shotgun wielding fool. Whats really important to note is that the initial ult cast (not the damage part) counts as an attack aswell towards phaserush soooo in teamfights you can proc it in so many ways, ult, ignite proto/ ult ignite Q/ proto ult Q/ ignite E Q/ etc.. it allows you to speed into the backline and absolutely ASS BLAST the enemy team while being untargetable with pool, no counterplay. just like in this clip, these boys can’t even run away, the speedy period pool devours them whole.
Transcendence
10% @ level 10 Cdr for more dps, sustain and the possibility of overcapping cdr, this rune is essential.
Nimbus Cloak
OH LAWD even MORE speed, nimbus cloak lets you get phaserush even easier with the small speed boost you get from casting ult, go even DEEPER into the enemy gachiGASM.
Gathering Storm
Mmm yummy delicious AP, give us that wonderful delicacy, this rune gives you even harder spikes at 10 mins combined with transcendence and if the game goes for longer than 25 mins, the tools to crush any fool who hasn’t surrendered yet to your might.
Magical Footwear
Another rune giving you an even GREATER SPIKE at 10 minutes, free adidas ultra boosts? Would cop.
Cosmic Insight
Main reason as to why you go inspiration secondary, the 5% cdr on everything can be abused, proto and zhonyas item cdr, summoner cdr is godlike for vlad as you’re really powerful with flash up and lastly and mostly, the early 5% cdr let’s you once again spike super hard at your 40%+ cdr spike after protobelt and codex.
With all these things combined you spike soo hard multiple times – effortlessly crushing an Irelia (-5ms nerf too much Kappa) Mini rune boys The scaling 10% cdr is essential for yet again the spikey power you will receive when crushing your foes. 10 Ap is the second choice, more heals in the early game and at least SOME slight power level 1-6 Lastly i like to make use of vlads HP to AP conversion; the HP rune gives you a whole WHOPPING 1 AP, that’s 1 ap more than any insecure defensive rune.
Summoner spells
Flash
Flash let’s you blow someone the fuck up every 5 minutes with ZERO counterplay, let’s inspect what could Taliyah do in this example? Stand further back? she won’t have any impact.
Buy magic res/hp? I have too much AP and a void staff, inevitable doom. Let her team cc or damage me? I’m untargetable, not even rakans instant cc can touch me.
Ignite
Super super good, let’s you proc phaserush with ease, gives you a shitload of kill pressure and the most important part, makes you look like an absolute chad, zero insecurities.
Abilities and early usage
Q, Transfusion, AKA, the succ.
In the early game you try and succ your opposing laner at any chance you get, though like a mosquito at night, it’s really predictable and there are obvious indicators for your enemy to just step away, you gotta be a little sneaky with it, Q while they try and last hit. Once you have your empowered SUCC you should run at them without taking minion aggro so you zone them off of your cs denying last hits, this adds up, and if they dare try and tank a giga mosquito zucc then make them regret letting you into their range, empowered Q heals a stupid amount if it hits a champion. You can even take bad trades like taking 100 dmg for dealing 50 dmg, you’ll heal it up by spamming q on minion waves, the 5% cdr from cosmic insight is a FeelsGoodMan.
W, Sanguine Pool, AKA, the period.
Sometimes you should take this level 2 .If you fear you’re getting level 2 cheese ganked (fuck those type of players) then you may consider picking it up early. Careful though it has a MASSIVE 28 second cd so be you need to act cautious when it’s down, you’re insanely vulnerable without it. It also costs 20% of your current hp so you need to decide if the thing you’re trying to dodge would do more damage than the cost of the pool itself. I advise to sometimes earlygame use pool into a big enemy minion wave combined with E (you can continue casting E during pool for beginners) into cocky players who think that you fighting them in the minionwave means you lose, you get phaserush and speed outta there again while having healed off the minions with W and hopefully hit your lane opponent with a full combo.
E, Tides of blood, AKA blood sprinkles
E is an IMMENSLY powerful ability though earlygame you should only use it when you KNOW you’ll hit your lane opponent with it, the 2.5% – 8% HP cost is massive and will most of the time hurt you more than anything. Like I wrote earlier this abilitiy can continuously be casted while your 2 seconds of untargetability in pool leaving no counterplay. If I’m trying to get a good back timing (pushing my minions into enemy turret so they miss lasthits) and I know the enemy laner is back and the jungler isn’t close, you may use E W on the wave which will clear it super fast, that’s the only waveclear you really have.
R, Hemoplague AKA spread aids
Iconic vlad abilitiy, your goal is to hit as many enemy as possible, prioritising the squishy ones first. The ult hitbox is hard to get use to especially if you have range indicators off though with mastery you will hit a surprisingly large amount Landing a good ult is teamfight winning. The 10% damage amplification from all damage sources is an insane bonus and will make enemies really squishy to your team, that combined with the damage of a zed ult on every target COMBINED with MASSIVe heals received from it popping allows you to make huge dick plays with this abilitiy. Main usage as written before, proc nimbus, proc phaserush, speed in at the speed of light, explode everyone with E W Q, never die because of healing and untargetability.
Items
This part is REALLY hard if you don’t have a guide, vlads build changes all the time and the current one I use will always be available on stream, though here are the current main items in order:
Protobelt
The spike you get with all your runes and a protobelt is massive, you go from weak small virgin crook to a massive anal fisting gachi monster with this purchase, it gives you everything vlad needs, AP, HP, CDR, Cheap, an active that gives MOBILITY which vlad lacks and even better, an attack to proc phaserush, oh AND USABLE DURING POOL!!
Fiendish Codex
I like fiendish codex as it gives you that 45% cdr spike at around 10 mins/level 10 with all your other sources, your power at this moment is HUGE, and it’s only the beginning of the momentum, in my matchup sheet you’ll be able to see what this can build into but i usually sit on it till late. Sorc boots The massive amount of pen on these booties allows you to pen any booty, your damage to squishies upon completion will be oneshotting levels of strong, plus you get them super cheap cause of your adidas ultra boost runes.
Situational Mejais
Is the enemy team still trying after you locked in vlad in champ select? Show them the errors of their ways. If you think only god can help give you power to carry the current game, so be it, purchase the bible. Having mejais will teach you to play really safe and smart, I highly recommend, I go mejais probably 95% of my games on vlad and it allows me to carry literally 1v9, AP is so so good on vlad.
Rabadons Dcap
You want this hat to FLEX on your haters (teammates) I can’t stress enough how powerful this item will make you, especially with your passive AP/HP conversion, you can reach 1k AP and have 4kHP lategame making you an absolute monster. If you have a stacked mejais and a dcap, the game is pretty much a done deal, you require only the skill to carry it.
VOID STAFF
You CAN purchase this item at any time, any sign of enemy MR, even small, should make you think about purchasing a void, I feel like I do 0 damage as soon as someone buys even a little mr, Void Staff will help you deal stupid damage, near true damage to squishies combined with sorc boots, this item is DISGUSTANG.
Final item(s)
Pretty much any AP item you fancy or think would help, I round off my build usually with a Zhonyas/Morrelo and a Liandrys, liandrys makes your ult do stupid damage with the 10% damage amp you get from haunting guise. Like I said, my matchup sheet contains optimal items for every matchup.
Gameplay
Early game
You’re quite weak early but still a chad, don’t let anyone bully you, fight back and spam Q, like in the Q ability section, act like a mosquito, perma Q enemy if it’s safe and take shitty trades, you’ll outsustain and outtrade eventually.
My favourite sitation is when playing against a mana midlaner and you exhaust all their mana until they only have HP, at this point you can use E and spam it on the minions to push as fast as possible, they probably can’t last hit under tower without mana so you’ll completely facefuck them at this stage, slowly poking them and letting a large minion wave build up by only killing caster minions when you’re confident you can dive them will absolutely skull-fuck them, denying a huge wave, making them miss lasthits, getting a kill, and that juicy turret 4Skin towerplating.
You really don’t want to roam unless you have to, almost all other champs outmatch your roam and can kill you 1v1 in the river, don’t mess around with them outside of the lane, keep vision on the side of the map where you think the jungler is and hug the opposite wall so you’re immune to ganks. Staying in lane and getting 10cs/min is actually an insanely good strategy but I won’t hesitate to call you an insecure virgin if you do this.
Your power grows exponentially as soon as you get proto which will then lead to the next phase.
Midgame /out of laning phase
In my games usually midgame commences by one of the botlaners losing their towers, by this time they’ll probably come mid to crack your skull (l9l9xdhaHAA), you want to rotate botlane or to any lane that has no allies in it, solo XP is HUGE, it gives you your powerful scaling runes, you’re like a kassadin in a sidelane except no one can 1v1 you and if the enemy adc and support comes you can go and fuck em up and take off your protobelt and beat them like the unloved children that they are.
Example of your power during this time
Notice how little counterplay they had, even with flash they couldn’t survive.
Teamfighting / Lategame
If you manage to get fed, this part of the game is yours alone, you can completely 1v5 team fights, and the main objective is with priority:
Land Ult and fully charged E on as many enemies as possible
Eliminate/Oneshot high priority enemies (adcs, squishy targets)
Diving DEEP gachiGASM into the enemy and distracting them and eventually killing them with pool, zhonyas, Q heals, ult heals, phaserush speed.
You do this by either
A: Flashing into them while casting a fatty ult and then speeding through with phaserush to get a 5 man E
B: Proccing Phaserush with your tools this priority in order: Protobelt, > Ult> , Ignite> , Q>, E>, Pool>, Auto>
Here are some example clips of optimal teamfighting:
mikyx trying to stop the inevitable
Pobelter and Doublelift on EUW OMEGALUL
Combos
This part really shouldn’t be too in depth or hard.
Just always think about what 3 hits you’ll use to apply phaserush and then what will you do after that.
Main combo is (FLASH) PROTOBELT IGNITE ULT E W Q Enemy FF Kappa.
The person who inspired me to make this guide “ThatMilkShake” has a tutorial on how to combo with ult damage amplified
General tips
You can E while in Pool
Initial ult and damage part of cast counts as phaserush proc.
Subscribing to me on twitch amplifies your damage by roughly 2.
You can extend vlads empowered Q duration by pooling, charging E, or being in zhonyas.
Pool cooldown is REALLY large and you’re as squishy as any mage without it up.
Your range is very low, so you can get kited hard if you don’t have mobility up. (phaserush)
I have a massive matchup sheet available to everyone.
Combos aren’t hard, just think logically, apply ult first, then E, then Q.
Ban Kassadin, no counterplay matchup, unwinnable at every part of the game.
Matchup sheet:
SKIN TIER LIST, VERY IMPORTANT
Marquis if you wanna STYLE, Bloodlord if you wanna FLEX with some armor, Dark waters if you wanna have an INVISIBLE PAY2WIN ULT
Closing words
Thank you reader for your time, I made this guide to enlighten others of my found soloq knowledge, a celebration as to recently becoming partnered with twitch, and of course to gain more viewers..
I hope it was also entertaining, i tried doing it in my style :)
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