There are over 150 champions in League of Legends, but with how often the meta changes throughout the season, certain choices will quickly rise in play rate as the community figures out the strongest picks in the current state of the game. In Patch 14.18, however, one champion is currently struggling to find any kind of success in the top lane, even though they are one of the most played picks in the role.
Vladimir is currently holding the third-highest play rate, but is one of the worst-performing champions in the top lane, according to League stats aggregate U.GG. He has an 8.6 percent play rate with over 200 thousand games played globally with an abysmal 47 percent win rate, placing him in the bottom five for his role as well.
Among the top six most-played top laners, Vladimir is actually the only champion with a win rate under 50 percent, while also boasting the highest ban rate of the bunch as well. No one seems to want to play vs. the Crimson Reaper, and for good reason—in the right hands, he can absolutely dominate in the late game with disgusting healing and damage, and he has a free escape tool with his Sanguine Pool.
There are, however, easy counters for Vladimir that can neutralize him from the early game onward, such as Irelia, Yorick, or Tryndamere, since they can push the lane so that the battlemage must stay under tower and struggle to farm. They can also slow push so that Vladimir is forced to overextend to unfreeze the lane, leading to an easy gank.
Like most champions, Vladimir is only as good as the player, and if a player doesn’t know how to play into unfavorable matchups, they will be rendered useless from the early game. If he is forced to catch up with the farm, then the enemy team can use these advantages to secure more turrets and objectives while Vladimir scales.
In comparison, Garen, Darius, and Aatrox have similar play rate numbers to Vladimir but are much simpler to pilot and understand. Garen and Darius both have very strong early games as well, making them a better pick for those who aren’t able to handle pressure in the opening moments of a match. Aatrox, on the other hand, needs to be a bit more careful in the early game but can spike in power with the right opening items.
Ultimately, there are many other champions that can impact your win rate a lot more than Vladimir, so top laners might want to look elsewhere during their climb to the top.
