Vladimir Top Build & Guide — Patch 26.18

Overview

Vladimir is a magic-damage drain tank: his Crimson Pact (P) turns Health into Ability Power and AP back into Health, so every item he buys scales both his damage and his survivability at once. In top lane he is a scaling pick — weak in the first 10 minutes, strong from level 11 onwards once Hemoplague (R) is rank 2 and he has two AP items. His mana-less kit means he never runs out of resources, but every spell costs HP, so the laning phase is a careful dance of trades.

His game plan top: farm safely with Tides of Blood (E) until level 6, look for short Q-E-AA trades against melee opponents, then transition into teamfights once you have Riftmaker and Cosmic Drive. Skill expression sits in W timing (Sanguine Pool dodges Darius R mark execute and Garen R damage proc) and in R positioning across the team — top laner Vlad usually flanks (enters the fight from a side that the enemy back line is not watching) from a side bush, applies R on 3-4 enemies at once, then sinks W to dodge the engage retaliation.

Recommended Build

Starting items: Doran's Shield + 1 Health Potion against melee bruisers; Doran's Ring + 2 Potions against AP or ranged top laners. Doran's Shield's flat regen, plus the extra regen Enduring Focus turns on for 8 seconds every time a champion damages you, carries the early Q poke from juggernauts.

Core items (in order):

1. Riftmaker: first item spike. 70 ability power, 350 health, 15 ability haste. Void Corruption ramps your damage by 2% per second in champion combat up to 8%, and at full ramp it turns on omnivamp; Void Infusion converts 2% of your bonus health into ability power on top of Crimson Pact, so this item double-spikes you.
2. Sorcerer's Shoes — flat magic penetration for delete on squishy back lines.
3. Cosmic Drive — Ability Haste plus the movement speed proc on dealing magic or true damage to champions lets Vlad kite (moving backward while attacking, keeping distance) between Q cooldowns. Essential for top-side flank plays.
4. Rabadon's Deathcap — late-game AP multiplier. With Crimson Pact, the extra AP becomes extra Health too: a 4th item that doubles as a tank stat spike.
5. Zhonya's Hourglass — covers the window after W ends, when the enemy front line has committed and you need 2.5s of invulnerability to wait for W to come back up.

Situational items:

• Liandry's Torment — into tank top laners (Cho'Gath, Ornn, Sion). Burn damage spread over 3 seconds (damage that ticks slowly instead of all at once) scales with their HP pool — bigger target, more burn damage.
• Morellonomicon — into healing-stacking compositions (Aatrox top, Dr. Mundo top, Soraka mid, Yuumi support). Grievous Wounds cuts their healing and health regeneration by 40% for 3 seconds so they cannot outlast Vlad's drain pattern.
• Banshee's Veil — into single-target magic CC (Sylas Hijack of your R, Lissandra R, Pantheon Shield Vault stun). Spell shield eats the first lock-down so W stays available for the follow-up.
• Void Staff — the moment the enemy front line stacks Magic Resist (any tank with 70+ MR after items).

Boots: Sorcerer's Shoes is default. Plated Steelcaps if the enemy team is AD-heavy (Tryndamere top + Talon mid + Vayne bot). Mercury's Treads against double AP comps with hard CC (Lissandra + Twisted Fate).

Skill order: Max Q first (main damage and healing), E second (waveclear and AOE), W last. Take a point in R at levels 6, 11, 16.

Runes: Primary Precision with Conqueror, Triumph, Legend: Alacrity, Coup de Grace. Secondary Resolve with Second Wind and Revitalize for sustain plus amplified healing.

Key matchups

• Darius: Skill matchup. Stay at 600 range, poke with Q every cooldown, and W the moment he casts Noxian Guillotine (R) — the untargetable window negates the execute. Never let him stack 5 bleeds (his passive); play around his Apprehend (E) cooldown window.
• Teemo: Hard counter. His Q blind cancels your basic attacks, which is the chip damage you add between Transfusion casts, and Toxic Shot out-sustains your drain. Crimson Rush keeps filling on its own along Transfusion's cooldown, so the blind costs you autos, not the empowered Q. Buy Doran's Shield, freeze the wave near your tower, and ping for jungle help around level 6.
• Sett: Favourable. Q from 600 range outpokes his Knuckle Down (Q) base damage; W the moment he starts Haymaker (W) - the 0.75s charge is your only tell, so the pool has to go out on the animation, not after it. Past level 6 he cannot all-in you, because W also dodges the stun half of Facebreaker (E).
• Aatrox: Difficult laning, even teamfights. His Q3 (third charge of The Darkin Blade) knocks you up; you can W through it but his healing on hit (Deathbringer Stance — passive that heals him for a chunk of damage on every auto-attack) outsustains your Q drain. Rush Morellonomicon: its 40% Grievous Wounds is what stops Deathbringer Stance from out-healing your drain.
• Kennen: Hard counter pre-6. He pokes from 950 with Q, escapes with E, and stuns through your W exit with R. Buy Doran's Shield, hug the tower, and pray your jungler camps before he hits two items.

Power spikes & win conditions

• Level 3: Q-E-W combo online. You can match short trades against melee but never commit — your Crimson Pact scaling has not kicked in yet.
• Level 6: First Hemoplague (R) unlocks the all-in. With Doran's stacks plus full Crimson Rush, the R + E + Q combo deletes ~40% HP from a 1100 HP target. Use it the first time the enemy goes for a CS at low HP.
• Riftmaker completion (~ minute 16-18): The damage ramp up to 8%, plus the omnivamp it unlocks at full stacks, turn extended fights in Vlad's favor. Look for top-side flanks; rotate to dragon when R is up.
• Level 11 + 2 items: Hemoplague hits rank 2 for more damage and a bigger heal, but the cooldown stays 120 seconds at every rank, so the ultimate is still the clock you plan the fight around. With Cosmic Drive on board you out-pace enemy peelers and R lands on 3-4 enemies at once. Force objective fights here.
• Rabadon's Deathcap online (~ minute 26-30): 130 ability power plus Magical Opus, which increases your total ability power by another 30%, turns Vlad into a back-line deleter. Look for R on 2 carries at once and the team fight is over before they answer.

Common mistakes

• Trading at full HP against melee bruisers. Vlad's E and R cost HP — start every fight at 80-85% so you have room to cast spells without dipping into kill threshold. Trading at full HP wastes the buffer Doran's Shield gives you.
• Using W as a creative engage. Sanguine Pool is a defensive tool first. Use it to dodge a specific telegraphed ability (Darius R, Garen R, Pantheon stun (Shield Vault E)), not as a flashy way to enter the enemy back line. Once W is on cooldown you have zero escape.
• Hemoplague on a single target. Save R for teamfights or 3v3 skirmishes around objective spawns; the 10% damage amp multiplies across every ally hitting the same enemy. In 1v1 lane skirmishes, the cooldown is too long for the value.
• Splitpushing into ranged top counters. If you draft into Teemo, Kennen, or Quinn, your job is to scale, not to splitpush (pushing a side lane alone to force the enemy to respond). They poke you out of the side lane for free; rotate to mid instead.
• Rushing pure AP without HP. Crimson Pact rewards mixed itemization. Skipping Riftmaker's HP stat and rushing Deathcap second leaves you around 1900 HP at minute 25, inside a single assassin rotation, so you die before W comes back.

Advanced tip

Pre-cast Hemoplague (R) on a wall or terrain edge a heartbeat before walking into the enemy team — the 0.25s cast time finishes while you are still safe behind cover, so the 10% damage amp is already ticking when you blink Flash into the fight and chain E + Q. This buys roughly half a second of free combo time compared to casting R after the engage starts, which is often the difference between a clean ace and a 4-for-2 trade.