Dealing with tanks late game as vlad?

Question

I've been playing a lot of Vlad again, lately I've been getting matched up against tanks, particularly Nasus. Quite often I have a senario in which I absolutely dominate Nasus in lane. I continue this domination for as long as I can by building against him. If he builds HP I buy Liandry's and if he buys MR I get a void.

My typical build: Wota, Deathcap, Hourglass, Spirit Visage, Sorc-boots, and either Void or Liandry's (occasionally swapping Spirit Visage for both of the previously mentioned).

Even with this build and quite a bit of experience as Vlad, I still can't manage to deal with Nasus (and a few other tanks) late-game. Is there anything else I can do?

Answer 1

Vladimir is a pretty tanky caster champion with a great scaling into lategame. Now his strongest phases are laning past level 5 and late game with level 16+. Your greatest power is your teamfighting potential and the ability to get carries very low (yep you usually won't be able to kill them).

Dealing with tanks is kind of tricky but there is one item that really helps a lot with it: Rylai's Crystal Scepter. This item offers you a nice amount of ability power and a good chunk of health. Both scale extremely well with your passive but the most interesting thing about this item is the Passive and the Utility it provides with your Q. You can basically slow an enemy champion by 35% for 1.5 seconds every 3 Seconds. Most tanks won't be able to stick to you that long while also being kited and this allows you to peel for your carries more easily. Your main job in teamfights is to burst through their frontline and get the carries low with the help of your Q, E and Ultimate. As soon as they start focusing you use your Zhonyas. If they wait for you to come out you simply use another Q and E and go into pool after that. If the carries aren't dead by now finish them off with another Q and E and your job is basically done. Your team can now kill the enemy tank.

Handling something like a Nasus all by yourself is incredibly difficult. He scales really heavily into lategame and his slow is problematic for every champion. Usually you won't be able to fight him alone but try to keep him occupied until your teammates arrive. If he uses his Slow on you during a teamfight that's actually a good thing. You don't rely on attack speed and your Spells have enough range to hit 1 or two targets behind him. Also don't be afraid to slow him down with your Q. Another thing that counters Nasus is Armor. Maybe get a thornmail as a last item. Nasus usually doesn't get armor penetration and this item will greatly reduce the damage you take from him and other AD champions.

Answer 2

Vladimir is a Mage, and as such you're not the one that should be dealing with tanks in late game because tanks simply have too much Health and Magic Resist to counter your damage. Despite that, they don't really have much damage on their side.

As such, it might not be worthwhile to try to kill a tank when you're playing as a Mage because your damage output isn't enough to kill them, and it's not particularly sustained like that of an Attack Damage Carry (whether melee like Master Yi & Tryndamere or ranged like Tristana & Jinx).

This doesn't mean you're useless. On the contrary:

Attack Damage Carries have a lot of sustained damage, and given enough time they can decimate an entire team fairly easily, including the tanks. Your job is to kill the Carries, and as Vladimir you have easy access to them (by using your Sanguine Pool). Think of League of Legends like this:

Tank beats Bruiser/Mage. Bruiser/Mage beats ADC. ADC beats Tank. It is a like a game of rock, paper, scissors.

To answer your question: It's not your job to deal with the tanks. your job is to make sure the enemy carries have no damage output while peeling for your own carries if possible, even though you should already have a tank or two doing that. Let the Carry deal with the tanks.