Vladimir

Vladimir stands apart from other mages because he never touches mana. Every spell is paid for with his own health, and he recovers it by draining it out of enemies. He usually plays mid and sometimes top, operating as a battle mage who prefers to stand right on top of the opposing team, chaining drains and area damage while his sustain carries him through punishment that would finish off most casters.

Crimson Pact and scaling

His passive, Crimson Pact, turns each 30 points of bonus health into 1 ability power, and each point of ability power into 1.6 bonus health. Because the conversion runs both ways, almost any item he picks up leaves him tougher and hitting harder at once, which is a big reason he ranks among the strongest scaling mid laners in the game. The early game is a different story: an attack rating of 2 next to a magic rating of 8 shows a champion who gives up laning pressure in exchange for dominance later.

In teamfights he acts as a drain tank. He strides into the thick of the fight, draws attention onto himself and turns the enemy team’s health into his own. At 450 attack range he is short-ranged for a mage, which fits the close, self-sustaining style he is built around.

Rated 7 for difficulty, he asks for sharp judgment about when to spend health on aggression and when to keep it in reserve. Players who love hyperscaling, weighing resource decisions and the idea of becoming an almost unkillable late-game threat will find a lot to enjoy in Vladimir.