League of Legends Guide to Vladimir, the Crimson Reaper

This is the best guide you will find to Vladimir, the Crimson Reaper in League of Legends. Destroy your enemies and then turn into a pool of blood to get away!

Vladimir is one of the strongest casters in League of Legends. His spells are incredibly powerful and his health gets massive due to his passive, making him hard to kill. He's one of the strongest mid-game champions there is.

Vladimir, The Crimson Reaper

There is a temple hidden in the mountains between Noxus and the Tempest Flats, where the secrets of an ancient and terrifying sorcery are kept. The area surrounding the temple is littered with the exsanguinated corpses of those who have mistakenly wandered too close. These served only to pique the curiosity of Vladimir, when - in his youth - he trekked through these mountains during his flight from Noxus. A day earlier, the teenaged Vladimir had brutally murdered two boys his age, for no better reason than to enjoy the intoxicating scarlet bloom that surged forth. He realized immediately that he would never be able to suppress his murderous desires, and if he remained in Noxus, his foul deeds were sure to catch up with him. Without hesitation, he abandoned the city-state, and journeyed south.

The trail of bodies led him to a crumbling stone temple. Inside he found an aging monk who appraised him with eyes of pure crimson. Vladimir surprised the monk by returning the wicked gaze with zeal. Recognizing the boy's sinister craving, the monk taught Vladimir how to manipulate and control the fluid of life, often practicing on passing travelers. When it came time for Vladimir to learn the final lesson, the monk warned that failure would result in death. Vladimir did not fail, but success bore a grisly surprise. During the ritual, every drop of the monk's blood was drawn from his body and fused with Vladimir's, imbuing him with his master's magical essence, and that of every hemomancer before him. Left alone and suddenly without purpose, Vladimir resolved to return to Noxus, demanding enrollment in the League to prove the supremacy of his craft. When the Noxian High Command observed the gruesome fates which befell the palace guards, they elected to avail themselves of Vladimir's unsavory talents.

'That which runs through you will run you through.' -Vladimir

1. Abilities

Crimson Pact

For each 1 AP you get, you get an extra 2 HP and for every 25 HP you get, you get an extra 1 AP. This is an awesome passive ability and it is what makes Vladimir an amazing damage caster with extra health for survivability. Just watch out for madred's bloodrazor and other abilities that scale with health (like Garen's demacian justice and Poppy's devastating blow).

Transfusion

The cooldown is 10 seconds at level one, but gets down to 2 seconds with CDR runes at lvl 5. This ability singlehandedly makes vlad one of the best laners in the game. It makes you EXTREMELY annoying to lane against, It makes you able to stay in the lane forever because you don't need mana and you can heal constantly and clever play will make your opponent extremely frustrated. Always max transfusion first. At level 5, it hits for around 200 with 0 extra ability power. This means if you use it 3-4 times, your opponent will be so low they will have to run back to base to heal. If you use it just twice, they will be low enough for you to do a combo with your ult and kill them. The range on transfusion is fairly large making it a great tool for harassing and owning lanes.

Sanguine Pool

This is the "overpowered" ability everyone complains about. You melt into a pool of blood, damaging and slowing your opponents and making you UNTARGETABLE! This can be used to dodge all kinds of ultimates, turret attacks, and any other damaging abilities from your opponents. It's a great tool for tower diving, escaping, and avoiding damage.

Tides of Blood

This is great for massive AOE damage and it stacks up to 4 times doing 100% extra damage! This can obliterate opponents in team fights when properly combined with hemoplague and sanguine pool.

Hemoplague

This massive AOE increases the damage your opponents take and then after 5 seconds hits them for massive damage (with a full 1-1 AP ratio. You want to get at least 300 AP in 20 minutes to own with Vladimir).

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2. Introduction

Vladimir is one of those unique champions in the game where his spells are all blood based!!...they may look like ketchup but they're intended to be blood just so u know >.>

He doesnt have the most OP/Hax damage in the game, heck even ryze and annie are stronger in terms of damage, but his skills are more like useful utilities that benefit you and your team!!

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3. Masteries + Runes

Masteries can go any which way with Vladimir. But honestly, the best masteries in my opinion are 21/0/9 for the extra 5% magic damage as well as the increased damage to minions and improved ignite. Increased damage to minions allows you to easily last hit with autoattacks and save your Transfusion for harassing in the lane - which will help you completely dominate your lane.

The best runes are Magic Penetration Reds, Scaling Health or Dodge Yellows, Cooldown Reduction (CDR) blues, and HP Quintessences.

4. Items

Vlad Starting Items: Boots and 3 Health Pots or Doran's Shield

Next, Get Sorcerer's Shoes but if your opponents have lots of crowd control and stuns, you should be getting merc treads. The key to playing vlad well is in team fights and in team fights you need to be able to spam your spells and not get jibbed - merc treads allows you to cast as much as possible and pool or Zhonya's in time if you get focused.

Next, get Rylai's fast. The HP/AP boost scales so nicely and the slow makes chasing a cinch. Without rylai's, you won't get many kills early game except in team fights.

Next, Go for spirit visage if you need survivability or else go straight for Rabadon's Deathcap.

Next, Get Rabadon's Deathcap...The massive AP boost also massively boosts your health and damage.

Next, Zhonya's Hourglass - the two invulnerability spells (Zhonya's plus pool) make you very hard to kill.

Next, Get Warmog's Armor or void staff, depending on your opponents item builds and abilities. Obviously, warmog's is worthless against madreds bloodrazor so act accordingly.

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5. Skilling Order

Q,W,Q,E,Q,R,Q,E,Q,E,R,W,E,W,E,R,E,W....

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6. Summoner Abilities

Ghost Ignite or Ghost Flash. Ghost is a must. Positioning for vlad is important in team fights do to his ult and aoe spells.

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7. Summary

Your job with vlad is to win team fights. Period. You should farm massively. If anyone outperforms you on CS you've messed up. In team fights, make sure you hit your ult on at least half of their team (if it's 4v4, hit 2 or more, if it's 5v5, try to hit at least 3 of them, if it's 2v2, just hit one of them and make them die fast). Make sure all your other spells are on cooldown before you pool - this will maximize your damage output because when you're out of pool you can cast them again.

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8. Pros / Cons

+Good laner

+Good at staying in lane

+possible jungler

+No Mana

+Good support

+Decent tank

+Best escaper

+Good utilization if the player does it right

-only deals decent damage, cant get damage as high as fully built annie/ryze..etc

-Main target in team battles (only a few times, not most of the time, not always)

-relies a little on your team Team to do great

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9. Creep Jungling

I have not tried this yet unfortunately, but once solo practice becomes available, i'll try it out.

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10. Working in the team

Ok if you see one opponent and he's trying to initiate, dont ulti him yet, chances are, the herd is gonna come and follow the initiator and when they come in one bunch, use your ulti and be a little more aggressive.

Spam your Q and E on squishies, the only time you use it on tanks is when ur not comfortable with your current hp.

use W to help chase runners, but if your losing, give your team .6 seconds to escape by using W on your opponent, and run away after that, followed by your sumoner spell: ghost

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11. Unique Skills

The ''w'' skills really is one daym unique spell. it's one of the factors that make ignorants think he's OP

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12. Farming

In the begining, use q to harras/last hit minions, later on, get your E to do damage to multiple minions. Conserve W incase your low hp enemy is running away, or if your getting ganked. This means that never use W to do any unnecessary crap, and that includes trying to scare..

Leave your pro Vladimir tips here!