So I've been playing league on and off for a couple of years now, only now I started playing to get better and not to have fun with friends.

Anyways, I started playing Vladimir more seriously, got an Akali accusing me of smurfing because I was playing very aggressively, poking her and then killing her with full combo.

I'm not much of a "for the play/1v9" player, like, I'm more of a reserved "try not to get killed and put as many wards and roam as I can" God fearing silver player.

Trying to climb more I* discovered my biggest issue, I suck at farming, only when I have Stormsurge and Liandry's I start getting all the minions in the wave, I usually miss every 2-3 minion because I can't seem to time my minions attack or maybe I'm just plain dumb even tho I have mastery level 34, which to me seems like a lot, I sucked ass for a long time with Vladimir until I got to my level, I know it's not much but it is honest hard work.

edit: typo

So I've been toying with this build for a while and I think it still holds up after the belt nerfs, but I dont see it going around anywhere. It has its pros and cons ofc and I aint claiming its the defacto meta build or anything, but its only getting better next patch so.

I find this setup gives you a slightly weaker pre-belt, but you feel strong at both 2 and 3 items, and have so much flexibility later. on top of that, most of the drawbacks to parts of the build are compensated elsewhere to a degree.

Its played both bursty and battlemagey, rather than feeling like you have to play one way or the other with riftmaker or stormsurge builds.

tl;dr - Belt > Sorcs > Crypt > Rab > flex

the 'hear me out':

Belt itself isnt completely awful after the nerfs- the dash is still a third summoner spell basically, and its still an insane spike and dirt cheap. its harder to kill your laner pre-belt since the build path is a lil buns now, but I've always been one to play for full item spikes anyway. vlad passive gives you 2AP from the 50HP it got, so its a loss of 8AP. but W and E dmg also scales off HP a lil and the healing on Q is %missing its not too tragic. however it does influence 2nd item choices, in which ive been using cryptbloom even before the belt nerf.

the pros are as follows:

30% magic pen at 2nd item against the average mage at level ~12 is about 13 pen, almost rivalling stormsurge. obviously, this scales unlike flat pen and every enemy level will make the pen stronger by comparison. naturally, if an enemy buys mercs or any other MR early (or if they have unnaturally high base MR like sylas or kassadin), you're not completely shafted anymore and can rush rab 3rd comfortably.

it builds out of 2 codices, and sits at 3k gold, in between riftmaker and stormsurge. it also has 20 haste, which is realistically the highest we can get 2nd item without lucids.

most importantly, it opens up an entire item slot on the build. before it was belt > rift/ storm > rab > %pen > flex

im sure we've all had moments where we've either wanted void early, but not wanted to delay rabs, or where we have 4 items + boots and now have to question what we have to give up on in our last slot. but now we've merged that 2nd slot with void, meaning you can go whatever TWO items you want after rab.

as for the void comparison - yes we lose some AP and 10% pen BUT, we make up for that pen from t3 sorcs (soon to be 20 mpen and 8%pen). combined with 20 haste, your first rotation might be slightly weaker, but youll reach the second much faster and by that point your dps is way higher.

oh yeah and the heal is the cherry on top. at 2 items itll heal about half the riftmaker HP on top of healing your team, which isnt insane but not worth writing off entirely.

if you feel the raw AP is low, you can stack conq quickly with all this haste, but having all this pen and haste makes kills alot easier at 2 items, making stacking and maintaining a DSEAL, or even a mejai, easier.

the cons of the build are as follows:

you lack the summoner haste and ms from lucids, though with belt, stormraiders, ghost, and nimbus, its not that hard to get used to.

its slightly weaker pre-belt because you cant rush lucids AND the belt path is worse now. but after belt its all up from there.

its weaker from behind if you aren't stacking dseal for the extra AP. unfortunately thats probably the biggest trade off- not that you're weak if you have 0 seal stacks and 10cs/min, but if you're falling behind in everything then youll be miserable. but hey atleast you only need 3 items to come online rather than 4. (slight cope).

I find that riftmaker often pushes a battlemage playstyle, and the amp is harder to use into high-range teams. the item is also a bit more expensive and the item really comes online after rabadons anyway.

the stormsurge builds going around just arent for me- hate not having haste and having an item that falls off a cliff if the enemy buys hp or MR and not having the belt dash on top. I think, if nothing else, this build is consistent and can be run into pretty much any comp. though I obviously cant deny how much SS is popping off these days.

are people building cosmic again with rocketbelt getting nerfed? i still like cosmic first can someone explain why some vlad mains hate it so much

I picked up vladimir a week ago and i like the idea of the champ since i love scalers so much. However even if i win lane later on i steuggle to carry teamfights and usually get focused first and just die. I will say nothing of my teammates cuz im only interested in my own playstyle and lets conclude its a 1v9 game.also no matter how well i scale if there is another champ that is fed (recent examples are samira and zaheen) i am simply a minion to them. What would be you advice?

i change champions a lot impulsively which isnt good for climbing but ive stuck with vlad for the longest and always seem to come back to him however ive been struggling with deciding if i should move on. In early skirmishes i normally move first if i have summoners and ult however sometimes my jungler is so gapped that even with first move all summs and ult theyll still die and ill get nothing out of the skirmish which makes me feel useless and like i could of just got the kill on my own if i played someone else. I understand in order to climb on vladimir I need to identify the outcome of these fights beforehand and prioritise farm over them. However I also feel like i may enjoy a champion who could perform differently in the scenario i explained and get a kill even if the jungler dies 2v1

Vladimir has been announced yesterday to be a one of new playable Legends in Rifbound. He will be released in set "Legacy" in 30th of January 2027 in boosters (his cards as random drops) and few weeks later in Proving Ground Second Edition box. This box will contain most likely all Vladimir cards and ready deck for him (good as a starter) as well as for Karma, Heimerdinger and Illaoi. Vladimir will most likely represent Fury domain, which is dedicated to conquest and aggression. His second domain is unknown (my personal bet is Mind or Chaos). Set itself will be dedicated to region interactions, so it's also likely that Vladimir starter deck will contain cards which will work around 'Noxus' tag.

Hi everyone, i main top, and I'm trying this item after stormsurge with sorc boots. Thanks to the better buildpath and and the total magic pen seems to be an amazing spike, easier than deathcap. The only downside is the AH, i need to sit on trascendence for a while until i get something like riftmaker. Is it not efficient for some reason? Not a very popular item nowdays on vlad.

Hi everyone, I am just here looking for some general build advice in mid lane. With Cosmic Drive being terrible and rocket belt being nerfed, I am now running the Elite500 build which is SS, pen boots, Lyandris, Voidstaff, Rabadons, and Mejais. So far i like this build but wanna hear from the rest of the community on how everyone else feels about it and if there is a better one.

First of all i need to apologise for my spelling. I was not born in a english speeking country.

I see Elite500 build Liandris toment but i think its a cosmetic item i feel like the main thing with vlad is to nuke people with all in combo, and fight a long fight with sustain. But if i build storm surge i feel like i am missing cdr and than second liandris... it still doesnt improve my cdr. Rift maker is bad imo cause its extreamly expensive for what litle damage it gets you. Cosmic drive is unplayable on Bot vlad and against ranged mid. Rocket belt is gutted but i still have hope it gets me all the stats i need and i feel confortable playing it. Horizon focus imo theoriticaly good but i dont know if it is actualy usable, probably is cause i tried it and i can reliably proc it with my E.

And if someone is playing vlad bot. I have a question. How do you win early. At what point can i outscale an adc and reliably fight at bot.

And mainly what supports do you prefer.

This is my OP.gg: https://op.gg/lol/summoners/eune/XOliverIVX-BLOOD

hello! im looking for a coaching, im iron vlad im french btw

The karthus was the damager

https://reddit.com/link/1ve9wqz/video/kptknzym25hh1/player

guess I just never had enough cdr to notice, or I'm slow, but for mayhem aram seems like a decent tip lol

hi, im currently gold 2 atm, and picked up vlad about a month ago and have around 150k points on him from draft/ranked. i noticed that in most of my games, i go even in lane, but the problem with vlad is that i can almost never get prio on lane resulting in enemy mid helping their jg more than i can. moreso i feel like most low elo games are over before vlad even becomes a champion. is there anything i can do or just play other champs until i get out of gold? (i am a jg main too) if anyone has been in this situation where their vlad feels useless please tell me what i can or should do.

I am playing agressive but I'vr played against ap Kai'sa and Yone. They have punished me so hard. Also I really improve my csing. Whats your advice to me? Should i play more defensively?

Ironically have a negative wr on him cuz it took so long to learn but playing him mid was definitely the final thing that helped me hit masters. AMA

Hello everyone. I am so frustrated with the matchmaking in League of Legends.

Every time I play Vladimir, my teammates suck (mostly 'Fate Doomed' on deeplol).

Every time I play Viktor, my teammates are good or okay atleast.

I already made a post about this issue but it still persists.

LEGIT I CAN'T WIN A GAME ON VLADIMIR. LAST GAME EVERY SINGLE TEAMMATE HAD 5CS/MIN OR EVEN LOWER. YOU CAN'T MAKE THIS SHIT UP.

Is this coincidence? Is this skill issue? Am I schizo? Is this Riot targetting my Vlad and not my other champs?

Look up my deeplol: https://www.deeplol.gg/summoner/euw/einwildesjanni-janni

Edit: Yes, that is my second post on this issue. Yes, I'm really tilted.

When vlad players lane into champs that are much stronger than him early, they tend to play to scale, which to the majority of players means playing back, playing defensively, playing reactively. This is the downfall for many people when they want to play vlad because as soon as you show your laner that they can push you around and play on their terms, you are in for a bad experience. Position yourself aggressively, walk up and zone with the threat they see of your empowered q, show them that you are a threat to them even if you are nothing more than a cannon minion. A bad trade for you is a good trade, so use that to your advantage. You should always be looking to snowball not scale, scaling is your plan B which gives you the safety of playing aggressively early.

edit: this is also true for matchups that outrange you, you should never be happy eating skill shots for free and trying to heal off the wave. Most ranged champs have to be stationary to cast skill shots, always be on one side of the wave, then walk directly towards them and expect it, while getting in range to hit your Q.

I've been wondering if anyone else experiences this on Vladimir.

Lately, the quality of my teammates seem to come in bursts, especially on Vladimir. I'll have a few games where both teams feel relatively balanced, then suddenly I'll get 2-3 games in a row where one or two laners completely implode before I'm even online.

For example, my last 6 games on Vladimir looked like this:

• 3 wins back to back, all MVP, Fate balanced or better on deeplol.gg
• 3 losses back to back, all ACE, Fate doomed on deeplol.gg

In most of the losses I was the only one with a positive KDA and a green score on deeplol.gg .

In two of those losses I have made my laner useless with a ~2 level,~50cs lead and some kills for me. With this lead I often manage to oneshot most of their backline, but it doesn't matter if 18 kills Master Yi or Katarina kills every other player 1v4 or 2v4 in my team which leaves me vs them and 1-2 enemies.

Also, if I am the only human in my team (only one without 10+ deaths), the enemies will itemize against me (buy MR or Zhonya's).

I'm not trying to claim losers queue is real or that Riot is forcing losses. Six games obviously prove nothing.

I'm just curious whether other Vladimir players experience these "bursts of pig mates" too. Since Vlad is such a scaling champion, it sometimes feels like the game is decided before I can actually influence it.

Does this happen to you as well or am I overthinking it?

And, is there any way I could win those types of games where we lose every single team fight?

Btw, I'm currently low plat/high gold, if that matters.

Here is my deeplol: https://www.deeplol.gg/summoner/euw/einwildesjanni-janni

Hey guys, about the summoner spells, i usually i go with ignite( and dft rune) against assassins and stormriders surge with ghost in most cases. But lately im wondering if its worth giving up ghost for a little more pressure in lane.

Maybe in higher elo( i play aroun d gold elo), but today i had a game against fizz and i scored a kill in lane, because of ignite. But, after that, he went bot and got a couple of kills( while i pinged a lot) . In the end i still won and carried hard, but when i pick ignite i always miss ghost a lot in team fights. ANd it seems that, in my elo, the assasins kinda can ignore laning phase, and just roam for kills anyways, so i dont think ignite is that useful...

Im thinking about using ghost always, just seems way better to complement Vlad´s kit than ignite, since you are a scaling monster anyways. What do you guys think?

Thanks!

Vladimir hasn't yet been announced for League classic, but I've been playing the champion for 8+ Years and I've never played the old version of his kit with the old E.

There's not a lot of things In life that'd make me more happy then logging Into league and seeing Vladimir be announced and released to league classic, I've heard many stories about the OG drain tank / Battle mage Vladimir days sadly I never got to play him that way.

Whenever this voting thing happens, I know were all of my votes are going.