Thoughts on olaf

Fisk·Jul 29, 2014·1 votes·907 views

So, as we all know olaf is obviously not a mainstay pick in the top lane. However, I see no reason why olaf shouldn't at least be a competitive pick. While I realize he is easily kited, I feel as if building movement speed on olaf early will make him valuable later. I believe triforce->yoomuu's->boots of speed->bork-> >randuins->spirit visage->Then sell boots for zephyr is a viable build on olaf. I feel that this build give olaf enough damage and movement speed to make him a viable and even strong pick (especially if your support goes talisman). What do you guys think?

9 Comments

FIagAndDragJul 29, 20141 votes

i cant understand through det grammars

FiskJul 29, 20141 votes

xD my bad. Was tired when I wrote this. But I hope the point comes through and would love some feedback on this build

Hyrum GraffJul 29, 20141 votes

You're not getting a tank item until your 5th item; if you can be blown up, getting kited is the least of your concerns.

FiskJul 29, 20141 votes

This was one problem I saw. I think you actually get tanky enough early to avoid it. But that being said I also think maybe swapping yoomuus for where your randuins/spirit visage is might not be a bad idea. I played the build that way in a game I played just recently I would recommend you try it too (if you like olaf). I feel like triforce is a must on olaf though.

Hyrum GraffJul 29, 20141 votes

I guess I should (have) put a disclaimer that I don't play Olaf much, so I don't have a good sense of how tanky he is naturally or what items really synnergize well with him (which is why I didn't comment on the specific damage items you built). Whether you get the tank item earlier, and whether that's a good number of tank items to build, or later would probably depend on a couple things:

Are you winning your lane hard? You can afford to build more damage.
Is someone on the other team fed? You need some defense.
Are you teamfighting or splitting? If you're splitting, your build depends on who they are sending to deal with you.
Teamfights:
- Are you getting focused? Just keep building tank. As long as you're doing your job as a disruption tank, who cares how much damage you're doing? The more time you can buy for your carries to do damage, the better.
- Are you getting ignored? Now you should build damage so they can't do that.

Bee PositiveJul 29, 20141 votes

Unless you are stomping lane really hard (which isn't that hard with Olaf a lot of times tbh), Triforce isn't nearly enough tank stats to do much other than 1v1's. That kind of thing only works on champions like Jax because of his ult and E.

Also, if Q isn't giving you enough sticking power in fights early you can always go blade over hydra.

Don't get me wrong, that build would actually be pretty decent at the end but you'd be hella easy to kill in teamfights until it's done.

FiskJul 29, 20141 votes

I feel like olaf has enough innate life steal and stats (from his ultimate) to get away with it. And I tried jungling olaf last night and going the quill coat->sotag into triforce is actually rather beastly. And I feel like even with that great sticking power he still is lacking unless you have a considerable amount of movement speed

FiskJul 29, 20141 votes

I would have to agree somewhat, earlier tank is needed (I tried early spirit visage and it worked really well). But I disagree on triforce. It turns out that its actually really damn strong on him and even though it is pricey. But its build path offers so much to olaf its really quite strong. And olafs innate sustain and tank really make it worth buying. It makes your damage incredible. I believe that it is a mainstay on the champion. Also at the same time, if you fall far behind you don't wanna build damage anyway so rushing a randuins or spirit visage first would be viable. This build is just an itemization optimizing for the champion, you are gonna have to tailor it to each game. I will do more testing and try to find the perfect one but so far I havent lost with triforce olaf.

FiskJul 29, 20141 votes

Also I've been going jungle olaf with SOTAG and it seems to be pretty dang good