League of Legends: A Guide For Season 6 Vladimir
1/13/2016
Tweet to: @Slickster_Mag
Last night, as I lay in bed unable to sleep, my mind was occupied with thoughts on the best way to use a particular male vampire. I know what you are thinking and no, this is not the next installment of my steamy Twilight fanfic. I was however formulating a guide on how Vladimir can easily carry you out of your elo hell and why you should consider mastering him for LoL’s upcoming season 6.
First thing first, why Vlad and not one of the super broken flavor of the month champions? Many people do indeed play like this, going month to month on whatever the most OP champions are. Yet these people are slaves to the meta and never quite fully master the champions they play.
Importantly for Vlad, the meta from beginning to end of the season will evolve drastically. I personally believe that Vlad is essentially “recession proof,” meaning even if the LoL landscape is unfavorable he will always be viable. For starters, his kit is incredibly useful and easy to use. His “Q” skill, transfusion, gives him much needed laning sustain, while his “E” adds both potency and wave clear. Most useful in my opinion is his “W” ability, Sanguine Pool, which makes him quite a safe champion. Next time a blitz or thresh hook comes your way, press “W” and it will feel easier to dodge than a 2016 Mohammed Ali right hook. Finally, his ultimate is just so powerful in terms of team fighting. It causes whoever is infected to take 12% extra damage, and this includes damage from your teammates. This makes Vlad perfect for any teamfighting comp.
For summoner spells, always take Flash, but the second spell is up to you. Top lane of course should run TP, but for mid-lane both Ignite and Ghost serve different purposes. Ghost gives a bit more survivability, but also the ability to hunt down fleeing enemies. I personally like Ignite because it synergizes perfectly with the bonus damage from Vlad’s ultimate. If I hit level 6 first with a health lead I will Ignite and all-in my opponent to at worst push them out of lane, at best get a kill. For masteries I tend to go 12/18/0 with the keystone mastery point in Thunderlord’s Decree. Runes will almost always be the same: AP quints, scaling CDR glyphs, scaling health seals, and magic pen marks.
This seems to be the most effective way for Vlad to become a late game monster.
Let’s talk items next. Most pros seem to like to start Doran’s Shield, but let’s not compare ourselves to them quite yet. I personally like to start boots and pots. The added move speed coupled with the extra health pots really makes it easy to survive your weak early game. Vlad straight up sucks (not a vampire joke) early so I prefer the safer route. Once you hit level 6 and gain your ultimate, you finally gain some kill pressure. Yet your real power spike is level 9 when your “Q” is finally maxed. By now you should be forming your core items. For Vlad it is important to rush Will of the Ancients and CDR boots. These two items are Vlad’s bread and butter. The cooldown reduction and healing from Vlad’s “Q” make him incredibly difficult to remove from lane.
What I love about Vlad is that unlike many champions, there is no real cookie cutter build. You have to adapt more to the enemy team and your builds will be much more fluid than a champion like Corki of MF. After the core two items I like to build a defensive item. In the current meta which favors AD carries, Zhonya’s should almost always be your next item. The active is often the difference between life and death for Vlad as the extra few seconds is invaluable for reducing his cooldowns.
The salt the enemy team will exude from seeing you go from golden and a tick away from death to half-health never gets old. If you find yourself in the now-rare situation where the other team is AP heavy, then you can choose between Spirit Visage and Abyssal Scepter. Personally, I find Abyssal to be superior for the added damage, but Spirit Visage does make Vlad near impossible to kill against AP comps. The next item, again, is entirely game dependent. If the enemy team is tanky and stacking MR, build Void Staff. If you need a little bit of tankiness and damage, build Rylais. For pure damage output go Deathcap.
The build versatility is one of the main reasons I love playing as Vlad. It adds an element that makes each game feel unique rather than playing the champions who essentially build the same 4-5 core items regardless of the situation.
So, I’ve sold you on Vlad for Season 6, but how does he fit into the current meta? In this AD-centric meta it makes Zhonya’s an absolute must for many AP champions. This synergizes perfectly with Vlad’s kit, as Zhonya’s is an item that is extremely useful on Vlad. The current meta also seems to favor tanks which usually leads to extended and more drawn out fights. This is also advantageous for Vlad as the longer the fight the more likely you are to survive. You can employ the Rocky technique of letting your opponent tire themselves out before you finish the final blow.
There are, however, some definite drawbacks to Vlad, currently. AP items, specifically Zhonya’s, are too overpriced at the moment. This makes his power spike even more delayed than it used to be. With the snowball nature of the current meta, this does make it more difficult to become the unkillable healing god that is late-game Vlad. With many teams running double ADC comps, this adds even more pressure to your early game. If Vlad falls behind to a siege comp you may as well just afk because you are going to be quite worthless for your team.
While Vlad does have a number of favorable match-ups, if the other team locks in Swain you should do yourself a favor and dodge the queue. It will save you 20 minutes of banging your face against the keyboard as you frustratingly get pummeled by Swain’s DoT damage. Unless you are a masochist, which may well be true if you enjoy this game, click exit immediately. Even a slightly competent Swain absolutely ruins Vlad’s life to the point where you are tilted beyond repair. Other rage quit-inducing champions include Malzahar and Riven.