Best Vladimir Build Guide | Runes | Spells | Items in League of Legends

Vladimir mid is slowly getting back this patch 12.17 because of the rise in popularity of mid-lane assassin champions. Vladimir W can easily counter assassins with one shot all in combos. He is a monster during the late game greatly countering assassins as they fall off value as the game progresses.

Best Vladimir Build

Vladimir the Crimson Reaper has a battlemage playstyle, just like in RPG games, he thrives at close combat while casting his spells. He has lots of sustainability and can deal tons of magic damage.

Vladimir W sanguine pool makes him untargetable and when combined with the transcendence rune, he can stay in extended fights for a very long time. Let us first discuss the best runes on Vladimir mid.

Best Vladimir Runes

Vladimir the Crimson Reaper is very strong but he has a very short range, so movement speed is what you need. Nimbus cloak and Phase rush are both runes that will give you a boost in movement speed when fighting enemies.

Best Rune Path	Sorcery	Inspiration
Best Keystone	Phase Rush
Best Slot 1 (Rune)	Nimbus Cloak	Magical Footwear
Best Slot 2 (Rune)	Transcendence	Cosmic Insight
Best Slot 3 (Rune)	Gathering Storm

For this Vladimir build Transcendence and Gathering storm will be your best runes when you get past level 11. Gathering Storm will give you more and more ability power raising your overall ability power and HP making you deal more damage and heal stronger.

Transcendence reduces the cooldown of Vladimir's basic abilities which is great because his basic spells are the core spell he needs when fighting multiple enemies. For Inspiration, Cosmic insight along with Magical Footwear will be great for early game sustainability and gold efficiency. These are currently the best Vladimir runes for a Vladimir mid-role.

Best Vladimir Rune Shards

Vladimir players tend to take both adaptive force and the health from the defense as both of these stats increase Vladimir's HP and ability power. You can also use this rune build in the top lane.

Best Rune Shards	Effect
Offense	+10 CDR
Flex	+9 Adaptive Force
Defense	+90 Health

The cooldown reduction will make you use Vladimir Q transfusion more often giving you incredible sustainability in mid lane.

Best Vladimir Spells

For Vladimir summoner spells, flash, and ghost walk will give him the ability to surprise enemies and keep up with them. These summoner spells are important especially during a team fight for this Vladimir build.

Best Spells	Icon
Flash
Ghost walk

Vladimir players use flash to surprise enemy champions with the burst damage of Vladimir E tides of blood. Vladimir Q transfusion is also great if you activate ghost walk as you can easily kite enemies and just poke them with it. You should also reserve your summoner spells for team fights.

Best Vladimir Abilities Order

Vladimir's main damaging ability is his Q as it has a low cooldown and great sustainability so it will be maxed first in his skill order. It will then be followed by Vladimir E tides of blood in this skill order as this is his nuking ability. It has a really strong burst and great AoE damage.

It is important to know your skill order of Vladimir because if you max E first, you might find it hard to lane against opponents that have faster tempo than you.

Best Vladimir Item

Being a battlemage in league of legends means you need to heal yourself while dealing damage to enemies. Riot games made Vladimir a really hard champion to play but is really strong if you master him. He can build any mythic item and still benefit from it making him deal damage even better.

Best Vladimir Starter items

For his item build you need to start with an item that can give you ability power and help you regenerate faster. The dark seal is an item that can lead to another late-game item making it very gold efficient. It lets Vladimir stack ability power and increases his potion effectiveness for his refillable potion

First Item	Second Item
Dark Seal	Refillable Potion

For better and safer laning however, it depends on the enemy you are facing if you should take a Doran's ring or a Doran's shield. Doran's ring is usually bought first if you are facing an enemy who also has sustain.

Best Vladimir mid game Items

When mid-game comes in league of legends, Vladimir should be strong enough to gank other lanes. Night Harvester makes him really mobile when chasing enemies and Sorcerer's shoes will provide mid-game Magic Penetration.

First Item	Second Item	Third Item
Night Harvester	Sorcerer’s Shoes	Rabadon’s Deathcap

Rabadon's Deathcap is a great third item for this Vladimir build but this is a situational item that can be replaced with demonic embrace if enemies are too tanky or any other Magic penetration item.

Another alternative item is the hextech rocketbelt as it gives Vladimir more mobility letting him dash forward if the enemy champion has good disengage ability.

Best Final late game Vladimir items 

For this Vladimir build you can use your dark seal to turn it into Mejai's soul stealer come late game. Void staff and Shadowflame will complete your item build and these are great late-game items as enemies tend to counter Vladimir by building magic resist items. 

First Item	Second Item	Third Item	Fourth Item	Fifth Item	Sixth Item
Night Harvester	Sorcerer’s Shoes	Rabadon’s Deathcap	Void Staff	Mejai’s Soulstealer	Shadowflame

Vladimir's passive in league of legends lets him increase his ability power based on his bonus HP and vice versa meaning having high ability power will also make you tanky. 

Best Champions to pair Vladimir with

Being a mid lane champion in league of legends means pairing with a jungle ally is great as they can easily gank you wherever they may be. Bel'Veth is a new jungler made by Riot games and is excellent at ganking lanes with no crowd control.

Champion	Win Rate %	Icon
Bel’Veth	55.6%
Rammus	54.7%
Kindred	54%

The same can be said for Rammus and Kindred as all these junglers have excellent gap closers and movement impairing abilities. League of legends also made Vladimir great for team fights as he can use his ultimate ability to increase the damage received by enemies. 

Strongest Champions against Vladimir

Swain and Lux easily beats Vladimir in lane because they have much longer range and stronger poke abilities bullying Vladimir out of lane.

Champion	Win Rate %	Icon
Swain	58.1%
Lux	57%
Cassiopeia	54.6%

Weakest Champions against Vladimir

These champions are really hard to play and has a slower tempo than Vladimir. He can simply bully these champions out of lane and beat them more during the late game. 

Champion	Win Rate %	Icon
Twisted Fate	40.4%
Azir	44.5%
Ekko	44.6%

This is the best build for Vladimir this current patch along with the best runes and item build, it might change for the next patch depending on the nerfs on items and buffs that will be imposed by Riot games.