How to Kill a Vampire with a Wooden Stake

Still a classic, the wooden stake remains one of the best tools to use for vampire killing. Really, all a wooden stake is is a piece of wood with one edge sharp enough to pierce human flesh. Or inhuman flesh in this case.
If you think of monsters in terms of sports, vampires are those great offensive players who can always score, but are pretty crappy defenders. Sure, their speed and strength give them a big advantage, but the truth about vampires is they are too used to overpowering their opponent with their offensive capabilities that very few have spent much time learning to defend themselves.
Knowing this, the key to killing a vampire using a wooden stake is to strike first. Yes, that means playing offense against the offensive powerhouse, but in this game of life and death, you only need to score once.
Okay, enough with the sports analogy, but the lesson remains the same: a vampire will let its guard down fairly easily. You should attack quickly and without hesitation. A vampire can heal from most injuries, but a wooden stake through the heart is not one of them. Though they heal quickly, their skin and bones are just as fragile as any humans, so the key to killing them is to make it so they can't heal. Which brings us to...