Vladimir is known to get very strong at lv9 due to his ability to have Transfusion (Q) maxed. Other than staying in lane and not losing out on experience that way, what is a good way to gain a level advantage on your opponent assuming you both never leave lane or die (i.e. evenly matched)?
Would XP-Quints work moderately? I've read around and seen that at most it'd get you a minion or two ahead, is this accurate?
My thoughts that could be elaborated on:
- Jungler ganks: Not very reliable. I am looking for something I can consistently do to achieve a level-advantage.
- Steal Exp from Jungle Leash: Kind of a jerk move considering most junglers don't appreciate it, additionally you might miss out on CS before you get to lane.
- Get a kill: What about the times this isn't possible? i.e. Evenly matched skill and sustain.
Question: What are some ways to gain a level-advantage on an opponent other than the above?
Best Answer
The thing is that League of Legends was designed so that even matches do not gain or lose XP advantage if they don't recall or stay alive, and you described a situation in which it shouldn't happen.
The only remaining option without running to jungle camps (Which is doable as midlane Vlad, but not viable as toplane Vlad) is zoning, but it will be hard to remain healthier than your opponent if you decide to go for it. Let's consider a simple 1v1 pre6 scenario where your opponent is melee and afraid of you. by standing behind your minions and getting last hits and hitting him if he tries to get CS, you are denying him gold but not XP. Now a new scenario, both waves just arrived and are fighting in the middle of the lane. You force your opponent to retreat a bit by advancing behind his caster minions (You didn't hit him, he's out of range). Now you can get XP and gold, when if you zone him far enough, he gets nothing but passive gold. If he approches you, you can decide to hit him or not. If you do, his minions will aggro you and you'll need to use the brush or go back behind your creeps for a second. If you opponent is scared enough and doesn't know that his minions will help him, you'll deny him lots of gold. This is why it won't work at an average level, anyone that has played a decent number of games knows how to react to that. You can miss CS, but you should not miss XP.
Another answer would be to try only denying him gold, and he can either lose gold and stay healthy or get the gold but take the harass. But without good sustain he'll eventually have to go back and lose XP, then push the wave to the turret and back quickly, you'll have more XP afterwards. But you described a rare situation in which you can't get advantage.
Other solutions : Zilean in your team (8% xp is nice if you're looking for just getting the lvl 9 first for instance), XP Quints, stealing the enemy's first buff with luck (Got the enemy blue buff by making a jungler panic-smite with a Gragas timed barrel roll), going to another lane and quickly taking 2 waves if your ally just died then coming back with TP, zoning your enemy into having to take the other way around the map if he just warded and has to come back to lane, preventing him to ward so that he is so afraid of your jungler that he stays at times really far from the wave, etc. But these are just small things, not like when you have 2 levels advantage because you manage to repeatedly kill your opponent and clear the wave.