Well I got Irelia, had a quick go against bots in my lunch and she is kind of cool
I know you guys are much better than me and the below isn't directed at you but I thought it was a good post about Vlad
to put it kindly, that guy doesn't know what he's talking about. beating 'a random vlad' doesn't prove anything, the bottom line is that a well played vlad who is using him at his full potenial will outright dominate the majority of the champions available. there are a pretty small amount of champs that can comfortably lane against vlad and i'm unaware of any hard counters.
that guy assumes he can last hit with his abilites freely... you cannot do this once vlad gets to around level 5-6 onwards. why? its because vlad has infinite sustainability, he gets free heals on low cd with zero cost. this means he will always have a life lead against you. a very basic vlad scenario is that he'll tank your damage to attack you and he will be able to heal up quickly (no doubt to full) on the next minion wave. most champs cannot handle this kind of harass because you are constantly dying and he is not... whats worse is that this allows him to zone you out exp and gold range (watch the video in the guide ill post at the end)
so how do you counter this? well theres a few ways:
a) burst him down 100% - unlikely but possible with the likes of annie/malz. will be very hard to setup though because of his pool. even the likes of these strong nukers prefer to whittle you down first to seal the kill, something which is pretty much impossible against vlad
b) out range him - this is possible with people like cait/kog. a good choice imo but very few champs will out range him like this.
c) call for ganks - that guy you quoted is clueless if he doesn't acknowledge vlad's pool as one of the best escape spells in the game. it has a unique property in that it 'pops' projectiles (a property which the old flash used to have, which got removed from the game) allowing you to avoid any incoming spell completely. a good sign of a mediocre vlad is that he pools at the first sign of danger. a good vlad well negate your incoming spell. this effectively means you need 2 cc spells to catch him out, and if you're mid lane you also have a very smell gap to do this in before he reaches the safety of his tower. the 20% hp loss argument is also negligible because as long as he survives, he can heal back up in one wave which brings you back to point a.
d) pick a strong early game champ - probably the most suggested tactic. the truth is, this only slows him down a little bit because once he 'kicks in' the tables will turn. also if you go boots + 3 pots like you probably should, you will most likely survive the attempts at early game harass.
e) pick another champ with good sustainability - a very good option, people like swain and nida should be good.
basically vlad is strong as hell. have a look at this guide (written by one of the top players in a top clan) and make sure you watch the video to see how vlad is played: http://www.solomid.net/guides.php?g=1479
i guarantee if you apply this sort of strategy at summoner level ~20, you will see a lot of opponents just rage quit. enjoy it while it lasts, because he needs a nerf. i would be very surprised to see if its a nerf to anything else other than the issue of his infinite sustainability. his damage and pool are fine imo.
Didn't realize he could make your Armour negative though!
