Vladimir is an interesting champion and one not seen often. He's THE weakest champion early game, but his scaling potential is among the highest. He's among the few champions that use health as a resource, and thus is required to pickup sustain oriented items to counter balance this boon/curse. An off-tank ap hyper carry, he excels at forcing fights, and demolishing enemy teams.

I'll be blunt, Vladimir has a small place within the current metas that form the League experience we know to this day. He's a very slow champion, by which I mean you're not going to experience his true potential until well within a generic summoners rift game time(13-16 minutes on average). As result of this "drawback" he's weak in any match-up oriented on early domination. That being said, in environments in which there is no rush to win, Vladimir is a top tier pick and should be heavily considered by anyone looking to increase their champion pool for top/mid lane.

We'll begin with his weaknesses as these are the primary focus of any Vladimir player experienced or otherwise. As you've probably gathered by now, Vladimir' early game is bad. Not only is it bad, it's THE worst out of any champion in terms of sustained damage and cc. What makes these aspects so very weak? You may be pondering, well it's really a matter of high cds, health costs, and low base damage, while also being void of any aggressive cc. These aspects will determine your laning phase drastically, as anyone with the opposite standing early game will simply pounce on you and win.

Let's gather an in depth look at how drastic these draw backs are stat wise. When looking at Vlads must use/get ability "Transfusion". You'll note that without any enhancers rune or otherwise, rank 1 cd is 10 seconds with a base damage of 90 and hp return of 15. The cool-down is the primary focus when looking at this ability in depth, and is the primary reason why Vladimir is so very weak at this stage of the game. You may be thinking to yourself "Start with another ability with a lower cd/higher damage then", normally this would be a reasonable alternative, however Vladimirs other abilities outside his Q and R cost health, and boy they cost allot of it.

So to recap his only notable weaknesses, he's forced to get/max his Q first as it is the only ability with no outstanding draw back early-mid aside from it's naturally long cd. He lacks any form of aggressive CC, and thus loses trades without sustain items/high q rank(aka susceptible to poke). His Tides of blood and Sanguine pool cost large amounts of HP relatively speaking(Note costs under ability information).

Now let's look at his overwhelming strengths. When it comes to team busters, I can think no better than Vlad. After reaching a certain point in the game, Vlads cds are almost non existent, allowing for hideous spammage. His ultimate, Tides of blood, and Sanguine pool are the crux of any enemy teams defeat. These abilities allow of unparalleled influence in most team fights, and are your focus as any Vladimir player. Armed with this incredible team slaying arsenal Vladimir is also well versed in surviving the most grievous of battles, as well as nullifying damage all together. Between your extremely high sustain via Transfusion and spell vamp empowered abilities, Sanguine pool is the final nail in the coffin. This ability is key when playing Vladimir properly, use it too early and you may very well lose a fight!

Let's recap his strengths. Simply put, he's extremely hard to kill as a result of his sustain/pool/zhonyas setup. The amount of damage an unchecked Vladimir can produce in a large fight is extremely high. Vlads cool-downs end game are among the shortest in the game with the most pay off.

You'll find in most match-ups getting more CDR rather than spell vamp will result in a faster regen/sustain period, and will augment your damage out-put in longer duels significantly.

Be extremely aggressive once you've acquired your sustain items, most people won't know how to respond to you and as a result will back off/over commit to unsavory duels.

You are the messiah of starting fights and winning them, when you get strong tell your team to group, you're certain to win with proper coordination.

When it comes to poking/diving people under turrets you reign supreme. Constantly ward up any gank access points and poke the opponent under their turret if they're too apprehensive to fight back. Taking a turret shot won't matter if you've got a codex, kindle gem, or hextech as you'll regen the health in two Transfusions.

Never use your pool aggressively, the damage it offers is almost non existent compared to the utility it provides.

Fight in large creep waves often, they'll offer you more sustain via tides/pool(Be certain you have your sustain before doing so!).

Keep tides of blood on 4 stacks at all times after completing a Spirit visage, a simple trick to reduce hp draw back is to wait until the stacks are about to timeout before reapplying.

Be certain to let me know what you think and if I missed any information you may wish to further review. Much appreciated for taking the time to have a glance at my first guide, hope you enjoy and find some use in it.