Guide · Mid

Vladimir Guide

the Crimson Reaper

Mage

Fighter

Tier B Mid

Vladimir, the Crimson Reaper, is a mage and fighter champion that is demanding to master. Across our 914 analysed ranked games, Vladimir is mostly played in Mid (58% of its games), and more rarely in Top (27%) and as ADC (14%), with a 52.1% win rate in that role: tier B among Mid champions (#22 of 42, ranked by win rate). Vladimir's damage is mostly magic (94%): magic resistance items are therefore effective against this champion. Win rate varies with game length: 54.9% in medium-length games (25 to 35 min, 286 games) versus 47.4% in long games (over 35 min).

Updated Oct 10 2026 · Patch 26.21

Averages measured over 534 Mid games played with Vladimir, from our ranked Solo/Duo data collection.

How to play and combo preview

Vladimir is a mage who draws his strength from health: he gains 1 point of power per 30 bonus health, and Transfusion steals the targeted enemy's health. Sanguine Pool makes him untargetable for 2 seconds, Tides of Blood spends his own health for area damage, and Hemoplague increases the damage infected enemies take before damaging them and healing him.

Harassment

Q › E › AA AA

When: An enemy is within Transfusion range.

Transfusion steals health, Tides of Blood deals area damage (it can be blocked by enemy units), your attacks finish.

The team-fight combo

R › E › Q › W

When: Several enemies are grouped.

Hemoplague infects the area: enemies take more damage, then take magic damage and heal you for each champion hit. Sanguine Pool makes you untouchable for 2 seconds.

See all 3 Vladimir combos: key order, when to cast them, cooldowns →

Laning phase

Transfusion is your main source of damage and healing. When your gauge is full, its damage and healing increase a lot. Tides of Blood costs health: only use it if you can heal afterward.

Common mistakes

• Casting Tides of Blood at low health: it costs you life.
• Using Sanguine Pool too early: its cooldown is long.
• Casting Hemoplague on enemies who can easily leave the area.

Riot's official tips for playing Vladimir

• Transfusion instantly deals damage to the enemy before healing Vladimir, making it one of the best last hitting tools in the game.
• Cast Hemoplague where it will afflict the most units.
• Sanguine Pool pops incoming missiles, so it can be used to dodge disables.

Build, runes and summoner spells

The most-played core build is Rabadon's Deathcap, Void Staff, and Stormsurge (54 games, 63.0% win rate), usually with Crimson Lucidity (49.4% over 245 games).

Rabadon's Deathcap+Void Staff+Stormsurge

54 games · 63.0%

Rabadon's Deathcap+Hextech Rocketbelt+Riftmaker

43 games · 58.1%

Rabadon's Deathcap+Riftmaker+Stormsurge

34 games · 55.9%

Skill order

Max order : Q > E > W53.9% · 89 games

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15
Q	●			●	●		●		●
W			●											●	●
E		●						●		●		●	●
R						●					●

The order shows which abilities reach rank 5 first; the grid shows the most-played level-up sequence with that order (measured over 93 games).

Starting items

Doran's RingHealth PotionHealth Potion51.2% · 86 games

First completed items, in order

Hextech Rocketbelt›Rabadon's Deathcap

16 games · 56.2%

Stormsurge›Rabadon's Deathcap

15 games · 33.3%

Laning phase (averages)

At 10 min: 3593 gold, 78 CS, 4878 XP. At 15 min: 5700 gold, 119 CS, 7583 XP.

Boots

Crimson Lucidity49.4% · 245 games

Spellslinger's Shoes57.2% · 222 games

Swiftmarch45.0% · 40 games

Summoner spells

Flash + Ghost51.3% · 396 games

Flash + Ignite54.9% · 133 games

Most-played runes

Stormraider's Surge + Precision

52.6% · 291 games

Primary tree · Sorcery

Nimbus Cloak98%

Transcendence95%

Gathering Storm87%

Secondary tree · Precision

Legend: Haste100%

Last Stand65%

Shards

Ability haste95%

Adaptive force82%

Health scaling79%

Deathfire Touch + Precision

55.5% · 119 games

Primary tree · Sorcery

Nimbus Cloak98%

Transcendence84%

Gathering Storm66%

Secondary tree · Precision

Legend: Haste100%

Last Stand88%

Shards

Ability haste97%

Adaptive force91%

Health scaling77%

Summon Aery + Precision

45.8% · 59 games

Primary tree · Sorcery

Nimbus Cloak95%

Transcendence97%

Scorch88%

Secondary tree · Precision

Legend: Haste98%

Last Stand85%

Shards

Ability haste97%

Adaptive force97%

Health scaling75%

For each row, the most picked rune among the games played with this page (share of games in brackets).

Which items to build against the enemy team?

We sort every game by the enemy team's damage. These are Vladimir's completed items and their win rate in each situation; "▲" marks an item that does at least 3 points better than its usual win rate.

Mostly magic-damage enemy team55.7% · 167 games

At least 50% of their damage is magic

Stormsurge 56.1%

Rabadon's Deathcap 62.4% ▲

Hextech Rocketbelt 65.1% ▲

Riftmaker 55.0% ▲

Void Staff 63.9%

Cosmic Drive 57.1%

The item that stands out most is Hextech Rocketbelt: 65.1% win rate, +9 points versus its usual win rate.

Mostly physical-damage enemy team48.3% · 145 games

Less than 35% of their damage is magic

Rabadon's Deathcap 52.1% ▼

Stormsurge 53.9%

Hextech Rocketbelt 50.0% ▼

Riftmaker 36.0% ▼

Cosmic Drive 43.2% ▼

Void Staff 68.0% ▲

The item that stands out most is Void Staff: 68.0% win rate, +6 points versus its usual win rate.

Balanced enemy team51.8% · 222 games

Mixed physical and magic damage

Stormsurge 56.9%

Rabadon's Deathcap 61.3%

Hextech Rocketbelt 52.1% ▼

Riftmaker 50.8% ▲

Void Staff 56.5% ▼

Cosmic Drive 62.8% ▲

The item that stands out most is Cosmic Drive: 62.8% win rate, +8 points versus its usual win rate.

Counters and matchups

Who counters Vladimir in Mid

Ahri Vladimir: 50.0%20 games

Ahri has the edge in 50% of the 20 Mid duels against Vladimir. See the Ahri guide.

Malzahar Vladimir: 50.0%16 games

Malzahar has the edge in 50% of the 16 Mid duels against Vladimir. See the Malzahar guide.

Who Vladimir is strong against

Ahri50.0% · 20 games

Malzahar50.0% · 16 games

How to play against Vladimir

• Try to take Vladimir down before Hemoplague detonates, as it will heal him for each afflicted enemy Champion.
• Making Vladimir use Sanguine Pool at the start of a fight will maximize the Health cost of the ability to him.
• Items that counter Health stacking, such as Liandry's Torment and Blade of the Ruined King, are very effective against Vladimir.

Win rates measured over direct same-role duels; only matchups with more than 15 games are listed. See all of Vladimir's matchups.

Vladimir Mid: what our games say

Laning phase against the Mid average

Measured over 93 Vladimir games with a timeline; the average covers 72 champions played Mid in our ranked games.

Win rate by game length

Best result: medium-length (25 to 35 min). Only groups of at least 30 games are shown. A gap of several points shows the phase where the champion is the most reliable.

Vladimir in another role

Role	Games	Win rate	CS/min	Gold/min	Most-built items
Top	248	48.4 %	7.6	412
ADC	132	44.7 %	7.9	452

Roles where we have at least 40 Vladimir games.

Abilities

PassiveCrimson Pact

Every 30 points of bonus Health gives Vladimir 1 Ability Power and every 1 point of Ability Power gives Vladimir 1.6 bonus Health (does not stack with itself).

QTransfusion

Vladimir steals life from the target enemy. When Vladimir's resource is full, Transfusion will benefit from massively increased damage and healing for a brief time.

WSanguine Pool

Vladimir sinks into a pool of blood, becoming untargetable for 2 seconds. Additionally, enemies on the pool are slowed and Vladimir siphons life from them.

ETides of Blood

Vladimir pays his own health to charge up a reservoir of blood which, when released, deals damage in the area around him but can be blocked by enemy units.

RHemoplague

Vladimir infects an area with a virulent plague. Affected enemies take increased damage for the duration. After a few seconds, Hemoplague deals magic damage to infected enemies and heals Vladimir for each enemy Champion hit.

Other Mid champions to know

Most played

Syndra53.0 %Viktor48.9 %Ahri50.4 %Yone49.8 %Locke50.8 %Yasuo48.9 %Zed51.8 %Sylas48.5 %

Strongest (at least 100 games)

Vel'Koz54.3 %Kassadin54.0 %Twisted Fate54.0 %Lux53.0 %Diana52.9 %Katarina52.6 %Anivia52.3 %Aurelion Sol52.1 %

Frequently asked questions

Full Vladimir page · League of Legends tier list · All champion guides