Olaf/Strategy

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Skill usage

• Because of Berserker Rage's effect and Undertow, Olaf is one of the fastest junglers in the league. Undertow allows him to gank effectively, and the combination of Vicious Strikes and Berserker Rage let him both sustain his health throughout the early game and effectively take on and defeat most other junglers.
• Undertow is a versatile ability and offers many different utilities to Olaf:
  • It is a very useful ability for chasing because of its own cooldown reduction (if you can pick it up while chasing). Throwing your axe where you are likely to chase your opponent lets you refresh its cooldown much quicker and increases its slow uptime.
  • It is an effective harassment ability. While many skillshots are consumed upon hitting the first target, or will lose effectiveness as they do, Undertow will travel straight through all enemies it hits for full damage. At early levels, however, recklessly spamming it will swiftly leave Olaf without mana.
  • It will remove the fog of war in a large area around where it is thrown for a very brief duration, making it useful for checking bushes.
• Although Olaf's sustained damage output isn't very powerful during early game, his burst is surprisingly strong as his Reckless Swing deals a significant amount of true damage which cannot be mitigated by any means. With a few ranks invested in the ability it can devastate the health of most squishier champions during mid-game.
  • If you have not invested in significant HP or health sustain as you level it, it can also fairly quickly devastate the health of Olaf himself if you are not careful with its usage. With this in mind, it can often be unwise to abuse this during a duel, as Olaf may potentially wind up helping to kill himself.
• Olaf can combine Berserker Rage, Vicious Strikes, and Ragnarok at low life to become deceptively tanky. This makes him a great duelist, as he can take on most champions even at low health. When combined with items and spells such as Randuin's Omen and Exhaust, he can become formidably hard to kill.
• In lane  Reckless Swing has a higher range than  Olaf's basic attack range, this allows you to poke with it.
• Ragnarok provides complete immunity to all forms of CC, and largely defines Olaf's playstyle during the later stages of the game. It can be used either to initiate a battle, to improve his fighting ability midway through one, or to make an emergency retreat if the situation starts to become disadvantageous.
  • Olaf's most common and effective role during late-game teamfights is to function as a bulky assassin. Upon the commencing of a pitched teamfight, Olaf can activate Ragnarok and dive straight through the frontline of the enemy team, singling out the opposing AD carry. Because of the complete CC immunity that Ragnarok affords him, he becomes extremely difficult for the opposing team to peel away. Even if Olaf is unsuccessful in slaying his target, the threat he poses is often enough to drive them completely out of the teamfight in their attempts to avoid him, drastically reducing the enemy's team's damage output.
  • Olaf is also a very useful peeler himself, operating to safeguard his own carry from the opposing team. His ability to chain-slow enemies with Undertow and the excellent damage output from Reckless Swing can make it extremely difficult for enemy champions to safely attack the carry without risking being kited and killed.

Build usage

• Olaf naturally receives armor and magic resistance from the passive effect of Ragnarok. Because of this, it takes more skills and time to kill him with the bonus armor and magic resistance, therefore stacking health on him is a very common build path.
  • Consider Warmog's Armor or Frozen Mallet if a build with one sole health item is desired. A Frozen Mallet is one of the most useful items for Olaf, as in addition to the large amount of health it has, it slows any opponents he autoattacks, giving him a much more reliable form of crowd control than his Undertow. However, if the player is confident with their ability to consistently land axes on a fleeing opponent, then Frozen Mallet can be substituted for a Warmog's Armor for its much greater health and survivability boosts.
• Titanic Hydra is an excellent option for Olaf and now it outclasses Ravenous Hydra because Olaf will usually stack a lot of health late game, making Titanic Hydra's passive very attractive. Also, Olaf does not need the lifesteal from Ravenous Hydra because he can already gain lifesteal with his Vicious Strikes. However, purchasing Titanic Hydra during the early game is not recommended as you need some health to make this item's passive (and active) worthwile.
  • You can buy Tiamat early for the waveclear and health regeneration, then save it for the mid/late game and upgrade into Titanic Hydra once you have some health.
• Righteous Glory is especially useful for Olaf giving him health, mana and an active that grants him and his allies 60% movement speed for three seconds and slows all enemies near him by 80% for one second at the end of the duration. In combination with Mercury's Treads or the Juggernaut enchantment, Randuin's Omen and Ghost, Olaf becomes extremely difficult to stop and will most likely need to be focused down before he kills his target.
• When Olaf does not have Ragnarok or Undertow available for use, he can be extremely vulnerable to kiting. A Randuin's Omen greatly reduces the effectiveness of this tactic and also offers a considerable amount of health and a useful active CC which Olaf greatly appreciates.
  • {ii|Dead Man's Plate}} can be considered an alternative to Randuin's Omen in a more offensive oriented build, as it also provides movement speed, situational damage and sticking power from the Dreadnought passive. However, it is recommended to build at least one AD item component such as Phage or Hexdrinker before completing Dead Man's Plate, to ensure that Olaf can actually deal enough burst damage once he gets to his target.
• Spirit Visage is one of the best items that Olaf can purchase. It synergizes with Vicious Strikes, increasing the sustain that is already increased by the ability itself even more, not to mention any lifesteal item that Olaf is likely to purchase. The cooldown reduction is also a great asset to Olaf. Due to these reasons, this item is nearly essential for Olaf, except when there are no AP champions on the enemy team.
  • Olaf does not need Banshee's Veil that much because Ragnarok makes him immune to nearly every crowd control he would want to block with this item. However, it should still be considered if there is an important damaging spell that Olaf should block.
• Some form of life steal or health regeneration is advised when dealing damage with Reckless Swing to negate the health cost. An early Vampiric Scepter can be sufficient for sustaining his health and removes the need to quickly level Vicious Strikes. Later on, it can be upgraded into The Bloodthirster for a highly offensive strategy, with the life steal stacking with Vicious Strikes. A more utility-oriented upgrade can be found in Bilgewater Cutlass and Blade of the Ruined King - both offer extremely useful active CCs and the latter additionally hastens Olaf, making him almost completely impossible to outrun with Ragnarok active.
• It is important to note that Blade of the Ruined King deals damage based on the enemy's current health. Generally, enemies want to stack health to mitigate the effects from the true damage dealt by Reckless Swing, but since BotRK counters this, there are very few things in terms of defense that enemies can do to mitigate Olaf's damage with this item. However, if offers lower raw AD, therefore less damage with both Undertow and Reckless Swing itself. The extra attack speed and the active from Ragnarok should compensate for that, however.
  • Also, Blade of the Ruined King does not offer minion clearing capabilities that Ravenous Hydra offers, forcing players to either buy Sunfire Cape or constantly spam Undertow to clear minion waves.
• A Maw of Malmortius synergizes incomparably well with Olaf's kit - the passive attack damage boost as his health drops increases his DPS exponentially when combined with Berserker Rage, and the magic damage shield lets him stay at low health more safely.
• Cooldown reduction synergizes well with Undertow. With a maximum 40% cooldown reduction, the cooldown on Undertow is a mere 0.3 seconds after picking up the axe, as the flat cooldown reduction from picking up the axe becomes even more effective. For the sole purpose of maintaining the slow of Undertow, assuming that the axe is retrieved within 2.5 seconds of throwing it, 12.5% cooldown reduction is all that is needed for the target to be permanently slowed.
  • Heavy cooldown reduction also greatly benefits his Reckless Swing - with access to at least 284 true damage nuke on a 4.8 second cooldown at level 9, Olaf has excellent damage output from it alone, allowing him to dedicate the rest of his build towards improving his defenses and tanking ability.
• Olaf has no dash ability, so augmenting his mobility with an early boots upgrade often proves to be very effective.
  • Boots of Swiftness are a good option in this regard. They make Olaf hard to kite, but at same time, they make him rely on Ragnarok to get rid of crowd control effects that are not slows. If those CCs are a problem, Mercury's Treads may prove to be a better choice.
• A Frozen Heart can greatly augment Olaf's carry-killing power by cutting their attack speed by 15%, in addition to its very useful armor and cooldown reduction bonuses.
• Olaf does not need armor penetration. When choosing between flat damage and armor penetration, it is better to go for flat attack damage because his main target is the AD carry with low armor and the true damage from Reckless Swing deals decent damage to tanks. Undertow also benefits from flat damage. If the enemy team is especially heavily armored, The Black Cleaver is still a reasonable purchase though as Undertow spam and basic attacks can quickly shred the entire enemy team's armor.

Jungling

• Starting items: Hunter's Machete, Health Potion x2
• Skill progression when starting at Gromp: Undertow → Vicious Strikes → Undertow → Reckless Swing
• Skill progression when starting at Krugs: Vicious Strikes → Undertow → Undertow → Reckless Swing

• Jungling order for blue buff: Gromp (Smite) → Ancient Krug → Wolves (Recall if necessary) → Red Brambleback (Smite if you didn't recall) → Gank

• Jungling order for red buff: Krugs (Smite) → Red Brambleback → Raptors (Recall if necessary) → Ancient Krug (Smite if you didn't recall) → Gank

Recommended builds

These are Riot's generic recommended builds, shown to the user by default

Countering

• If your team plans on killing Olaf you have to fully commit in doing so; leaving the job-half done will make him even more dangerous due to Berserker Rage and he is likely to simply life steal all the effort your team put on him
• Undertow is a slow projectile, meaning that you can dodge the spell easily.
  • You can deny Olaf from spamming Undertow by keeping him from picking up the axe that the spell left in the path.
  • In a similar vein, making significant course changes while Olaf is chasing you will prevent him from picking up his axe and continuing to close the distance on you.
• Save your CC while Olaf is using Ragnarok. It removes and negates any CC cast on him while it is active.
  • Olaf's Ragnarok also gives him bonus armor and magic resistance. However, when activated, the passive bonus is lost and he gains a lot of AD to boost his damage. It might be wiser to try and burst him before the buff duration is over.
  • As Olaf is immune to any forms of CC placed upon him, the most effective forms of keeping him away are self-displacement abilities such as Arcane Shift and player-created terrain such as Cataclysm. You should try to save these abilities for when he uses his ultimate to make him waste the duration.

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