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@Riot, and Summoners! Olaf kit 'update' ideas!

Dralas·7/5/2014, 7:27:22 AM·2 votes·1,116 views

Hello everyone! For the last couple of weeks I've decided to be a bit of a pest and speak about Olaf here or there, wanting to get some ideas rolling to help him out. Well, I've been brainstorming for a little bit, and I wanted your feedback on some concepts I had about some changes to Olaf's kit! Input is greatly appreciated!

So, who is Olaf? What is his identity? When I'm playing him, how do I want to feel? How do I want to play? Olaf, at his core, is a BADASS viking who plunges headfirst into battle, filled with bloodlust and thriving on both his brush with death and the death of his enemies as he butchers them to pieces! I want to be in the middle of my enemies and yell "I AM OLAF, TASTE MY BLOOD-SOAKED AXE!"

So, why don't I do that? Well, in Olaf's current kit, he suffers a bit from a couple of issues.

  1. Meaningful presence in a teamfight (Consistent damage output/diving doesn't feel as good)

  2. Survivability

In a teamfight, Olaf just doesn't feel that hot right now. If I'm a badass viking, I want to FIGHT! I want to KILL! However, due to how the nature of his current kit, getting consistent auto-attacks off isn't always plausible. On top of that, due to the fact he doesn't really provide utility in a teamfight, he can't setup his team well, so he relies on having to use the only hard CC he knows: DEATH.

In addition to this, sometimes it feels like Olaf has issues lasting in a teamfight. Olaf relies on being at lower hp to truely thrive in combat, but he doesn't really have the tools to make sure he doesn't get executed once he reaches that critical level.

So, here are some ideas I brewed up with a few suggestions I got from some a buddy.

  • Passive - Berserker Rage: I like how this works as it is, keep it!

  • Undertow - New Mechanic: Whenever Olaf picks up his axe, he also reduces the cooldown on his Reckless Swing by 1 second.

The idea behind this change is that it reinforces that Olaf needs to be using his axe to utilize his damage. This would help him output more damage in a teamfight with less auto-attacks because sometimes when you're chasing down those carries, you're spending more time juggling your axes to keep them slowed than actually auto-attacking to reduce the cooldown of your reckless swing.

  • Vicious Strikes - New Mechanic: When activated, Olaf gains Armor and Magic Resist based on his bonus Armor and Magic Resist (Items, Runes, Masteries). This increases with every 2.5% of missing health.

The concept behind this is that it reinforces the idea that Olaf WANTS to be at lower health, not just "Well I'll get a bit stronger at lower health, but eh, oh well, W now." However, getting to that critical level of health and STAYING there is difficult sometimes, simply because Olaf needs to itemize both damage and defense, but it's hard to strike a proper balance. You either feel a bit too squishy, or tanky but don't do much damage. This would help him survive at that critical health so he can output damage.

  • Reckless Swing: Honestly with the above changes, probably want to leave this as is.

  • Ragnarok - New Passive: Whenever Olaf gets a kill or assist, he rapidly regenerates X% of missing health.

Well, you see, if you want to be a REAL viking, you fight until the end! When I get a kill as Olaf, I WANT TO BATHE IN THEIR BLOOD AND ROAR! I'M OLAF! I LIVE FOR YOUR DEATH! So that means that if I'm a badass viking and I kill someone, I want to feel like I just became rejuvenated from the thrill of a kill! This would really help reinforce the concept of Olaf, to go headfirst into a fight and keep slaughtering, not disengaging after killing one person.

* (Bonus) Ragnarok - New Mechanic: At the end of Ragnarok, Olaf let's loose a battle cry, causing (immediate) nearby enemies to flee in fear for 1 second. This is more or less just an idea for feedback to see what people think of it, not something that is needed. The idea is more or less to reward Olaf for staying in a fight and not ditching when Ragnarok is about to end. Alright I suck at formatting, probably too much to want this in a kit anyway.

So, these are some ideas I had for Olaf, my favorite viking in the league! I'd love any input/feedback! Also, just to let others know, I do think his current kit was a step in the right direction, it makes him a great duelist, just a bit harder to get his full potential going sometimes.

Edit: I may have forgot to mention, these ideas are meant to be added on in addition to his current kit, not replace. I'll admit, I may have overloaded it, but that's where feedback comes in!

Edit2: Clarification on Bonus!

Edit3: Welp, I'm a bit new to the beta forums, but reading a bit more revealed that 'Live Gameplay' would have been more appropriate to post these ideas in. If any Rioters read this, can you help me out here? Much appreciated!

3 Comments

Vumsy7/5/2014, 8:48:40 AM1 votes

I don't really have a beef with Olafs current kit. He fits any teamcomp "well", counters CC teamcomps and countered by movement speed/kiting comps. He's a shameless dps tank.

He got a stupidly strong early game and his job is to snowball out of control, shutting down his main opponents and be a pain to deal with to anyone else. He's a bruiser tank, not a utility tank.

If you're behind, yeah, you'll struggle. If you're ahead, mid game is won. As soon as you reach 30-40% cdr, you perma slow, nuke people every two seconds and your W has a 3-4 second down time. He's really strong, not utility-wise, but simply because you need enough DAMAGE to kill him.

I usually go frozen heart, spirit visage, hydra, randuins/sunfire cape/maw/locket/warmog and BT/black cleaver/atmas/zephyr.

As long as you auto and pick up axes well, you're such a pain to deal with.

Still, I like the HP regen on kill/assists. Would go well with warmog or spirit visage, as well as his W. Not sure how to balance the numbers, either it becomes a Voli passive, or a Fiora passive. Good throughout the game/op, or op early game/useless late.

Not too sure how I feel about the other changes. Especially the fear. I think trying desperatly to run away from or kill Olaf until his ult ends, only by being further punished by a relatively onesided scenario would feel pretty oppressive for his opponents.

Cdr, HP and Resist, AD, once you get that early, mid and late in that order... Even your mom will be OP with Olaf.

Just my thoughts about your suggestions as well as my knowledge with Olaf to back up my statements.

YouLostMe7/6/2014, 11:41:38 PM1 votes

This makes Olaf into an assassin. Between the big regen, incentive for spamming true damage / axes, and his current ability to ignore CC, the best Olaf strategy would probably entail using R, then hitting Q and E as fast as possible to kill whatever squishy is available.

I think Olaf needs to go in the same direction they're trying to take Darius--sustained, ramping damage throughout a fight. I'd like to see a Jinx/Jax-style increase in AS with each attack, and a Shyvana-style increased duration of Vicious Strikes with each attack.