Vladimir Runes & Build Guide for Mid Lane

In this guide, I'll be talking about one of LoL's most infamous champions. Vladimir is generally considered easy and overpowered, and despite being incredibly powerful, he isn't easy.

Most champions in mid lane have some kind of utility. Lux has a trap, Yasuo has knock-up, Neeko has her root, etc. Vladimir has none of that, which puts him in a genuinely strange spot. Normally a champion can contribute to their team even when behind. They can lock down enemies with CC or protect allies with shields and the like. That's not the case for Vladimir — when he falls behind, he's genuinely useless. The only thing his champion brings is damage and safety. That makes the champion far riskier than others and effectively leaves no room for mistakes on Vladimir.

That said, Vladimir is said to definitely have his advantages. One of the strongest scaling champions in the game, Vladimir threatens the final 30 minutes. Combined with the fact that he's one of the safest champions in the game, that makes you wonder why, if he scales and is this safe, he doesn't dominate the meta more. Unfortunately, the Crimson Reaper has a few hurdles to clear before he can pop off. If you're ready, let's move on to our Vladimir Guide. Here's the 2022 Vladimir rune and build guide!

Why Is Vladimir a Mid Lane Champion?

Vladimir is one of the only champions in the game who uses his own health as a resource. That makes him a genuinely interesting champion to play. This means he has a truly unique learning curve, because small mistakes can cause the player to accidentally kill themselves by mismanaging their health.

Once players learn how to counter this and start reducing the positioning mistakes that would otherwise get them killed, Vladimir becomes an unstoppable force and feels like a counter-pick for the enemy team. This black-and-white dynamic is what makes a lot of players believe he's easy or overpowered, when in reality he's actually very hard.

Unlike other hyper-scaling champions (Jinx, Kayle, Kassadin), Vladimir has no utility and no way to help if he falls behind. That means the biggest part of playing Vladimir is knowing your limits — when you can engage and when you can't. This is made worse by the fact that his health is the resource he spends to cast spells. Thanks to the safety of his kit, when Vladimir is in the right hands he'll be one of the most oppressive and dominant champions in the game. He's incredibly safe in lane and a hyper carry in the late game, which makes him hard to stop from scaling. Instead of trying to kill him, the best thing you can do to stop him is play high-tempo champions like Twisted Fate or Galio who can impact the game before Vladimir comes online, so the game is already decided before he powers up. However, thanks to strong laning tools, a good Vladimir almost never loses lane, which makes him one of the scariest champions in the game.

How Do I Play Vladimir in Mid Lane?

Vladimir currently fits two main playstyles: Late-Game Scaling Vladimir and Lane Kingdom Vladimir. Both playstyles are viable and each requires different skills. That said, one is better for competitive play, while the other is better for climbing solo queue, so each has its own place.

Scaling Vladimir into the late game is what Elite500 (the best Vladimir in the world) plays. You buy a lot of Ability Haste and focus on farming with a perfect 10cs/min. This build is played horizontally in pro play and is seen as the more standard playstyle. It makes good use of Vladimir's insane safety and puts the enemy on a timer to end the game before Vladimir comes online and finishes it himself.

If you're going the scaling build, ideally you want to finish laning with 0 deaths. A common mistake with Vladimir in mid lane is over-roaming. Vladimir is extremely dependent on gold and CS, so roaming during the laning phase is genuinely a huge risk. 9 times out of 10 you don't want to, purely because of the risk of falling behind, and once you fall behind, your game is basically over. Every bit of XP and gold really matters for your scaling. You need to be genuinely ahead of your lane opponent in XP, or your game gets really hard. This is one of the biggest reasons Vladimir isn't played as often as you'd expect in pro play, because he really can't afford to roam and help his team early. You take a risk every time you leave lane, and even if the odds are good, it's usually better to just stay in lane and sit at that steady 10 cs/min. This playstyle also relies on Mejai's for a lot of its AP/damage. That means you risk dying while roaming and losing your stacks.

Vladimir loves generating large amounts of AP thanks to his passive, which converts AP into HP. That means items like Rabadon's and Mejai's give him more value than they give other champions. If you want to play Vladimir by scaling, make sure you buy plenty of pink wards and track the enemy jungler, because you're the biggest threat to winning skirmishes.

The other playstyle is Lane Kingdom Vladimir. This build focuses on maximizing damage and constantly forcing your enemies to trade into you, slowly whittling them out of the game. While the scaling build requires solid map awareness and excellent farming skills, this build requires matchup knowledge and testing your limits. It's all about your ability to outplay your opponent and create leads for yourself.

When you play most matchups in mid lane, Vladimir becomes much simpler. Identify your lane opponent and respond accordingly. When fighting control or burst mages like Lux and Orianna, you want to take Predator and rush Rocketbelt. That way you can deny your opponent a lot of CS/XP, and if they come at you, you can pop Predator and crush them for a free kill. If you're against more aggressive laners like Qiyana or Zed, you can take Summon Aery and focus on poking them early with auto-attacks and Q's. Vladimir trades really well in lane thanks to his Q, which not only deals a lot of damage to the enemy but also heals him. That tool alone can keep Vladimir alive and lets him trade with almost every champion in the game. Combined with Bone Plating and Summon Aery, every melee champion will struggle to beat Vladimir in lane.

Knowing your limits will make or break this playstyle. Vladimir is extremely good at tower diving, especially when ahead. So if Vladimir gets a lead and knows how to use it, he can kill his opponent 2-3 times in lane and knock them down several XP levels, even if they're a safe champion like Lux or Corki. The biggest issue with this is that if you go to dive your opponent under tower and their jungler is there, the game can backfire really badly. So make sure you're watching your map and paying attention to where their jungler might be beforehand.

What Should Vladimir's Mid Build Be?

It can be better to buy Rocketbelt as your regular first item before going into Ionian Boots and Cosmic Drive. That will maximize your Ability Haste and make farming much easier. After that, you want to go into Rabadon's and Void Staff. Once you have Rabadon's you become "online" and are ready to take over the game. If you're farming well, this usually happens around the 28-30 minute mark. At this point in the game, it's all about using your huge damage to influence teamfights and help your team win the game. If you're ahead and want to press your advantage, Void Staff/Mejai's -> Rabadon's is perfect for you. With Vladimir dealing absolutely insane burst damage, you can play around your Predator, Ghost, and Rocketbelt cooldowns to engage and catch out enemies.

Zhonya's and Banshee's are good for most games, but you should make sure it's the right situation for it. Shadowflame can also be used as an alternative to Void Staff if the enemy team isn't building MR and has a lot of shields. After finishing Rabadon's, you can usually close out the game.

Itemizing Vladimir can be pretty tricky, but it's fairly standard to try to take as much Haste as possible when ahead or want to play aggressively, and as much Ability Haste as possible when behind or trying to scale.

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