Tell me more ×
Arqade is a question and answer site for passionate videogamers on all platforms. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote 2 down vote favorite

All runes/masteries/other factors aside, what combination of items will maximize the benefit from Vlad's passive Crimson Pact?

The only rule I have for this is that I don't want duplicate items.

share|improve this question
The bonus AP from your passive is a very small percentage of your total AP. A typical Vlad build ends up with around 3k HP and 600 AP. If you buy Deathcap (roughly 1/4 of your total AP) you get ~168-200 HP, or 1/15th of your end-game HP. If you buy Rylai's (roughly 1/6th of your total HP) you get 12.5 bonus AP, only 1/80th of your end-game AP. So, assuming you are trying to maximize the percentage of your total build that Crimson Pact contributes to, favor items with a large AP value that don't sacrifice too much AP for bonus HP. TL;DR Rabaddon's > Rylai's > Liandry's, but all are good. – Sadly Not Jan 30 at 1:16
Note that what I said is also very shallow ... you of course want resistances to complement Vlad's high HP as well as other utility. Conveniently this doesn't change the fact that Rylai's and Liandry's are good in most Vlad builds because the slow on Vlad's spells help him poke safely while the boosted damage from combining Rylai's and Liandry's is excellent (albeit extremely expensive). Rabaddon's and Hextech Revolver are pretty core and I would carefully examine any builds that don't include the two. – Sadly Not Jan 30 at 1:25
I guess that's a good point. The bonus AP from health is too low to matter much anyways. – Domenik VanBuskirk Jan 30 at 16:00
In fact, because the AP->HP conversion is the strongest part of Crimson Pact most of Vlad's core as an AP caster conveniently works well both with and without considering the effect of Crimson Pact. If Crimson Pact didn't exist Vlad would end up with 1k less HP, so his build would likely get 1 more tank oriented item than usual (that's only 1 out of 6 items). – Sadly Not Jan 31 at 1:57

1 Answer

up vote 3 down vote accepted

I like what's being said in the comments in general. I'm gonna sum it up and add some different alternatives.

  • Liandry's Torment is by far the best offensive Item for Vlad from the ones with health. I've always liked an early Haunting Guise for manaless casters and now it's got a great upgrade. The unique damage overtime passive is also great combo with your Q for harassing in lane (if you can get it fast enough) and also great with your E where you can apply it to the whole team easily. Remember that in twisted treeline this item exists in a different version: BlackFire Torch which unfortunately also gives you mana regen. So I'm not sure ifs a definite purchase there. But it's still really nice.

  • Rylai's Crystal Scepter is also a great item which gives you lots of HP and AP and a nice utility slow on all your spells. So you got a ranged slow with your Q now on top of your Pool and an AOE slow with your E and your Ult. This helps you catch up and escape as well.

  • Hextech Sweeper is another viable item for vlad in Twisted Treeline. It's got Ap, Health, CDR, Movement Speed and a stealth detecting passive. So even more useful if you got a stealth opponent. But the passive can also be used to check bushes or to reveal a bush while teamfighting to gain advantage (we all know how annoying it is when your attack/spell gets canceled because the opponenet entered a bush).

  • Spirit Visage is a nice defensive item in case you need some magic resist as well. You're not getting any straight ap here, but you get health, magic resist, cdr and a great passive that boosts all your healing effects (including any spell vamp you got).

  • Lastly I'm gonna mention that people tend to go crazy with Vlad and go extra tanky by getting a Warmog's, Overlords or even Sunfire or Randuins but I would't recomment any of those as Vlad's passive is not really THAT strong to justify a health tank build. I remember it used to be better and people were stacking Warmorgs and a Rabaddon's in the old days but its not the case anymore.

Just to clarify though. A good build for Vlad does not include many HP items. In fact the only item from the above I would actually buy every game is the first one (Liandry's) and maybe Rylai's in some cases. The way things are with Vlad right now you just can't sacrifice Ap for extra Health.

share|improve this answer
Blackfire Torch is incredibly broken in terms of stats, balanced only by a high cost. It's an absolute must buy on Vlad, Evelynn, Mordekaiser, and Malzahar because of the incredible 20% CDR and 3.5% maximum health damage over time which all of the above champions can refresh frequently. 20% CDR = 25% more DPS and now your damage works against health stacking, which is the number one way to counter mages. Blackfire Torch on manaless champions is like Lich Bane on Akali - the gold you spend on "wasted" mana still builds one of the strongest items that the champion can use. – Sadly Not Jan 31 at 21:45
@SadlyNot Yea I pretty much agree. After all its coming from a guy who builds trinity force on darius (AP is just great with him lol). I was just pointing out above that Liandry's is a perfect fit while Blackfire Torch is an almost perfect fit but still better than most items. ;) – Panagiotis Palladinos Feb 1 at 7:38
@SadlyNot As a primarily Evelynn player on the TT, I agree with buying BFT. It's always my first purchase on that map. I could see it working for Vlad as well. I coulld give it a try. – Domenik VanBuskirk Feb 22 at 14:56

Your Answer

 
discard

By posting your answer, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.