Akshan vs Vladimir Counter Pick

Vladimir does not carry a mana bar, his resource, Crimson Rush, functions differently through his passive Crimson Pact, converting bonus health into ability power and vice versa, which lets him build tanky and still hit hard. That flexibility shows up in the win rate: Akshan takes this matchup only 44.9% of the time across 973 games on patch 16.13.1, a large enough sample to trust the Hard rating it produces.

Transfusion steals life on every cast, and once its cooldown resets fully it hits harder and heals more, turning simple poke exchanges into a sustain race Akshan’s burst-then-reset kit is not built to win. Sanguine Pool also grants brief untargetability, letting Vladimir dodge Comeuppance‘s locked-on bullets entirely if timed well. Base health favors Vladimir too, reaching 2,470 at level 18 against Akshan’s 2,429, with the gap widening further whenever his passive is stacked toward health. Vladimir’s difficulty sits at 7/10, largely about managing that health-to-power conversion, but the payoff is a champion who simply outlasts poke-reliant opponents. Against Vladimir, short trades rarely end the fight, they just refill his resource for the next one. His 330 move speed also matches Akshan’s own, removing any kiting advantage Akshan might otherwise lean on to control the pace of the lane.