Olaf goes berserk in pro play

Riot·Aug 23, 2015·2 votes·58,071 views

There's nothing more terrifying than an unstoppable viking running directly at your face, screaming "BROMACIA!" along the way. But that's just how Olaf and his frattiest skin Brolaf, operate. After a long period of dormancy, the Berserker has made his way back into the professional scene, seeing regular play in both the top lane and the jungle.

So what makes Olaf such a strong pick in the current meta? To find the answer, we sat down with the originator of the pick in the West, Fnatic's jungler Yeu-jin “Reignover” Kim.

Squashing spiders (and everyone else)

Before Olaf had become a top pick around the LCS, Reignover and Fnatic had been experimenting with him on the LCS stage, much to the surprise (and occasional chagrin) of analysts and fans. They made effective use of him with engages aided by Righteous Glory, taking advantage of the speed buff to get him into the fight. But when Righteous Glory's active had its cooldown increased, Olaf's couldn't find quite as many ways in, and Reignover took him out fewer and fewer times.

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But when Elise came back into the meta, Reignover knew that it was time to whip out an old strategy. "A long time ago, I used to play Olaf to counter Elise," he said, explaining that many junglers struggle to fight the Spider Queen 1-on-1 in the early stages of the game. He continues, "Olaf can actually duel Elise in the jungle if he needs...He can pressure the jungle equally." Plus, his ultimate Ragnarok (R), which makes him immune to crowd control, takes care of any Cocoons (E) that Elise may toss at him once he's hit Level 6.

Olaf's not just an Elise counter, though. In a meta where flex picks have become incredibly important, he's also got the capability to take his axes to the enemy in the top lane. Players who decide to take popular tanky champions like Shen or Maokai against Olaf should watch out. "Olaf is pretty good against tank tops, because of [Vicious Strike's (W)] lifesteal and his [Reckless Swing's (E)] true damage," says Reignover. "His laning phase is actually really strong."

Because Olaf can be played out of the jungle to counter the popular Elise or out of the top lane to counter the ever-present super tanks, he has risen as a real threat.

Getting where he needs to go

The problem there is, he doesn't really have a great way to get to the back line of teams. Sure, Ragnarok blocks any crowd control that the peeling members of the opposing team attempt to use on the big guy, but he still doesn't have any gap closers to really get in the squishies' faces.

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That's where Olaf's team comes in, says Reignover. "I don't think you can just pick him randomly in any comp," he says. "But if you've got a really good combo, like with Sivir, Lulu, Rumble, or the Alistar that we used in the Semifinals, then he's really good."

Notice a theme? All of the champions that synergize well with Olaf either have ways to speed him up (Sivir/Lulu) or have long-range engaging abilities that allow him to catch up to his target (Rumble/Alistar). Once he does get into the enemy back line, he can run rampant, dealing tons of damage and lifestealing through much of the pain he takes with Vicious Strikes.

And that's not even mentioning Olaf's signature ability, Undertow (Q). Assuming he can land one of his axes, he can chase down whoever he's got his sights on damn near indefinitely. Says Reignover, "If one of your teammates can successfully CC and you can land your axe on their carries, there's no way to stop them from dying. They have to use Flash or a dash to get away from Olaf."

Given the right tools, Olaf does exactly what a frontliner should: soak up CC and damage when he needs to be a huge tank, cause havok in the opposing backline when he needs to find a kill, and generally be a deadly nuisance. Put simply by Reignover, "He doesn't get CC'd so you can just kill their hypercarries!"

Where does Olaf go?

With all that he brings to a team, you may be wondering what the best role for the viking is. Well, as Reignover says, it depends on if you want to become an unstoppable damage threat or a massive meat wall for the rest of your team. Because the only way to stop a Ragnarok'ing Olaf is to kill him, he needs to be able to survive oncoming damage to be effective. And with a low-income role like jungle, he may never get beefy enough to survive an onslaught.

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"As a jungler, you really need to be tanky to do what you need to do," explains Reignover. "If you're not tanky enough to actually go in, he can be kind of useless...Once you go a damage item, you'll just melt before you even touch the damage dealer."

Top laners -- like Team SoloMid's Marcus "Dyrus" Hill, who whipped him out in the NA LCS Playoffs -- have a bit more freedom to dish out the pain. "For top laners, building damage is fine because you have a lot of gold and experience because you're a laner," says Reignover. You'll see a lot of top Olaf players go Black Cleaver before starting to build tanky, allowing them to become even more of a damage-dealing threat, all enabled by that sweet, sweet solo lane gold.

So where are you going to take Olaf? Do you like roaming the jungle, tossing axes at Krugs and Bramblebacks alike? Or do you want to bask in the richness of top lane, nabbing more items along the way? Let us know below, and make sure you keep your eye on Lolesports for more Olaf action. If you missed Reignover -- or anyone else -- take him for a spin, make sure to head over to the spoiler-free VODs page.

65 Comments

drakzarnAug 24, 20155 votes

I play carry Olaf top lane-not tank. You might say my build is stupid, but you are almost impossible to kill if you keep on hitting things. My build is: rav. hydra,BT,2 phantom dancers,IE. I max w then e. And with the nerfs to thornmail and frozen heart, I think I might start playing him again. plz try this it is really fun and you dont die cause of all the lifesteal:)

p0psiclesAug 24, 20154 votes

I'm sure its a fun build in low ELOs and can probably carry hard, but it's not going to work in higher ranks. Even gaining a bit of extra MR and armor from Ragnarok you'll still get oneshot before you can get to the carries by the enemy. Full damage bruisers are fun but they only work when opponents lack an awareness of counterplay.

QQshaAug 24, 201516 votes

A wild Viktor has appeared!

Wild Viktor uses QERAuto.

"You have been slain!"

Big fat no to this build. The higher your ELO, the better people get at kiting and the stupider it is to play a full damage melee without outplay potential. If you're going to build full/near-full damage, it's better to do it on Zed, Yi, or Riven.

It's much better to go for a tankier build so you can get on top of the carries before dying, actually hit them, and kill them. You take a little longer to kill them, but survive for so much longer that you can kill a second carry then kill the tank. With 0 tanks stats, you have about 3k effective health against a Viktor. Q does about 800, E does about 1050, and R does 735 plus 230 dps. This is just ballparking Viktor's AP at 700, which is a bit low depending on which build you go for. And if he has a Lich Bane, he throws in another 425 damage to that total. Yes, the initial 2585 damage won't kill you (unless he had a Lich Bane), but you're still 600 range away while he has a 30% speed up for the next 2.5 seconds. His Q will kill you when it comes up in 3.2 seconds (2.4 if he has 40% CDR), and your only shot is to land an axe, pick it up, then land another and somehow do 4k effective HP in damage in that 2.4-3.2 seconds of time. You might even need a third axe to really be on top of him. So you miss the first axe, you're 100% dead. You miss the second axe, you're 100% dead. Oh, but if he wen't a full pen build (Sorc Boots and Abyssal Scepter), then you're dead at the end of his first combo, similar to if he went Lich Bane.

Now, let's say you went Black Cleaver into full tank and even skipped out on the Hexdrinker. With Black Cleaver, Righteous Glory, Randiun's Omen, Banshee's Veil, Spirit Visage, and Ninja Tabi, you have 7.9k effective health, around 250 AD, a way to run into Viktor, and a guaranteed way to slow Viktor when you're on top of him. Oh, and you have 30% CDR for more axes, E's, and percent armor pen to reduce his effective HP (Viktor has a staggering 90 base armor at level 18). Oh, and you have a Banshee's Veil to block his first spell. Worst case scenario, you only block the first part of his Q and save yourself from 260 damage. Then Viktor has to contest with a ~5.6k of effective hp. Even if you eat the entirety of his ult, you have 4k effective HP left. He's got another Q about to come up, okay 3.2k effective HP. Another E and Q coming up soon after. Sure, 1400 effective HP. Then Viktor's dead. This is assuming worst case scenario for you. The previous example was best case scenario for you. Best case scenario here, you survive with around half your HP leftover (not even including lifesteal from W). That's pretty damn good.

So make your choice, die 0 for 1 or kill Viktor 1 for 0. On the other hand, Viktor could just accept that he's dead in the second scenario, and try to blow up the most important squishy he can reach before his demise. In that case it's a 1 for 1 but you're Olaf with around 8k effective HP against whoever you fight with one of the biggest damage threats gone. The fight's basically won unless Viktor blew up the majority of your team with his E+R before he died. (In that case, you just accept that your team sucks and you did all that an Olaf could've done in that situation and the Viktor just played it better.)

Most other top picks would poke you out, blow you up, or kite you. You need enough effective HP to get onto your target to do damage. 3k just isn't enough. Carries have around 3k effective HP and get blown up instantly while having people to peel and protect them. What chance do you have if you have 0 peel or protection, and you're willingly walking into the jaws of death?

drakzarnAug 25, 20155 votes

Using this build,You will have so much lifesteal and attack speed that as long as you keep hitting things,you will not die. You have 90% crit chance and if you get armor pen runes... also, he cant stun you because of your ult. I am not a pro and im just saying this is a really fun way to play olaf and everybody should try it:)

QQshaAug 26, 20153 votes

Viktor's stun doesn't matter. I never once mentioned VIktor's stun. The whole point is he literally 100-0's you in the span of .8 seconds or less, unless he's playing from the west coast.

I mean, let me rephrase the entire post into a single question: "What answer do you have to someone doing 2500 damage to you instantly?" None, you don't have any - you just die instantly unless you change the build.

tahhaxorAug 25, 20152 votes

you're saying that zed, yi and yasuo have no outplay potential ? and you talk about high elo LMAO

The DilboBagginsAug 25, 201515 votes

You do understand that he was listing examples of champions WITH outplay potential...... Please stop

QQshaAug 26, 20151 votes

Someone who knows that the numbers don't match and recognizes it might just be a small error in reporting. salutes I think the core problem with the statement was that it was a run on sentence. (I'm not an English major.) Bad writing leads to more bad writing.

QQshaAug 26, 20154 votes

I actually cited Zed, Riven, and Yi as champions WITH the ability to outplay, as opposed to Olaf, who runs at your face eating all the damage you throw at him and dying if you don't build tanky. Sorry my writing wasn't clear enough.

CrytasticAug 26, 20153 votes

Y0uD0ntFazeMe stfu you NA people are all so cocky you are not close to the best server

PhylAug 26, 20151 votes

Crytastic, what does that even have to do with anything?

Starblaster11Aug 26, 20151 votes

Thanks for that little in depth guide but he was just saying that this build he has is really fun and he recommends that people try it out just for fun.

SlearityAug 26, 20151 votes

https://gyazo.com/1c9430ce90fc0b5ab594858a01dbee58

It was a good build thank you!

TereminaAug 25, 20153 votes

Oh look, I won a game... Olaf cuz brolaf Olaf

Cripple OracleAug 24, 20152 votes

Oh dormancey, hehe, I got that just now. Olaf

KilluhMikeAug 26, 20151 votes

did you need a dictionary... cause it means hasn't been played much... nothing more.. don't think too hard.

Smurfin1USA1Aug 25, 20152 votes

Black cleaver Frozen mallet Rav. Hydra Randuins Boots (situational) cinderhulk

obviously not in that order....

thoughts? disregarding the obvious, that the jungle will never have enough gold in it to get you to full build (unless you feed on de squishies)

if I laned with it would probably replace cinderhulk with spirit visage. a little skimpy on MR but some merc treads might keep you alive long enough for your dmg and lifesteal to kick in. and I just feel like frozen mallet is olafs item. but maybe its too much stick, if there is such a thing. still, Q + frozen mallet + randuins active + merc treads + ragnorak..... that's a lotta stick!

Summoner PentaAug 25, 201515 votes

trade out the rav hydra for titanic hydra - you already have some lifesteal in his kit so honestly you dont need it, plus this synergizes so well with cleaverhulk build.

Id also personally not reccomend frozen mallet - while it does synergize very well with cinderhulk+titantic, you should be able to keep up with cleaver, randuins, and undertow - if you cant get those to help you stick, then you likely arent close enough to auto for frozen anyway. Do remember that a few patches back riot reworked slows so that they dont stack - only the highest slow is applied. Id say spirit visage vs balanced/mr heavy teams, and frozen if against ad heavy teams (yeah ik it was nerfed, but still very good vs heavy ad teams, specially for that cdr.

Your call though, im by no means an olaf expert, just throwing out some thoughts.

imbrusAug 26, 20151 votes

Idk I've seen some very questionable olafs in my time

SarcasmonkAug 26, 20152 votes

I prefer going full cdr with the black cleaver so i get frozen heart instead for more ults so u can engage or gank more often. Also would trade hydra for botrk if u are ahead or steraks gage good for takning hard engages since ur stacking alot of hp with cinder BC and no frozen mallet... take visage or righteous glory hands down.

QQshaAug 26, 20151 votes

Don't need Hydra and don't need Mallet. You have plenty of built in damage to kill a squishy if you get on top of them. And you have enough sticking power if you just land an axe. Adding more tankiness is better because otherwise they kill you before you even get onto the squishies. Righteous Glory is something I like if I'm ahead, since it's a second ghost (or a first one, if you needed to go with flash). But going super tanky with the exception of a Black Cleaver (and maybe a Hexdrinker vs AP lanes) is the best build more often than not.

Adun555Aug 26, 20152 votes

Is this article like a nerf sentence to Olaf?

WaatKinsAug 24, 20151 votes

[deleted]

VinbulletAug 24, 20153 votes

Do not go to this site it will steal your password and result in the loss of your account.

DEN15 512Aug 26, 20155 votes

why dont we make it easier? List your login name and password below! Bonus points for credit card info!!!

GafahAug 26, 20151 votes

You're amazing

ATTACKINGTOlLETAug 26, 20151 votes

http://i.imgur.com/WsFbDVe.png olaf is worthless in normals

KilluhMikeAug 26, 20152 votes

Dominion... is not a game... might as well be Aram... lol

denchikmedvedAug 26, 20151 votes

I always did a FULL AD build for olaf without item 1001 or something else, i even did a Pentakill 1vs5 in a bush, and i was mid life, this is the power of Olaf I usually buy : item 3074 item 3153 item 3156 item 3072 item 3046 item 3031 (not in order) those objects aren'twith a situational pick asigned so try your self the best way to do your Olaf build.

HideYoADCAug 26, 20151 votes

item 1316 item 3748 item 3053 item 3083 item 3153 The last item and boots are situational.could be offensive one like item 3071 item 3022 item 3046 item 3172 item 3031 or deffensive one : item 3742 item 3065 ,this is the way i play Olaf in this meta :P summoner 6 summoner 4

CallousDisregardAug 26, 20151 votes

Absolute worst part about olaf is crowd control and no dive. Makes him near useless in arams. One of the few champs that actually NEEDS a snowball. (hint rito...players with dive abilities like WU and TALON do NOT.)

IndraneelanAug 26, 20151 votes

For how Olaf is used, how can you possibly talk about an Olaf build without having Sterak's Gage in it? Everything about it is PERFECT for his role. "The only way to stop Olaf is to kill him" - great, pour all your damage onto him as he runs through the team, and with steraks gage he turns up at your ADC with 30% of his health as a shield, +50% base ad, and increased size (bigger is better ;-) )

Shock AWPAug 26, 20151 votes

..."Change This with that, change dat with this crap, and situationaly u should better use this..." Better Idea: Change the champ for [Rnd Bruiser Here] GG

TheHeroTechAug 26, 20151 votes

Why the fuck wouldn't they talk to Dyrus?

glalieAug 28, 20151 votes

because he played literally a few games this split as Olaf if playoffs and, yeah he did really well, but Reignover has a history with the champion, so they talked to the player who made notable success with it. Granted, they could have also spoken to Zionspartan, but he only just started playing the champion this split. Reignover has played it once in a while all year.

Ric37Aug 26, 20151 votes

They seriously need to visually update olaf imo, and pantheon too, their base skins look so bad specially in the new summoner's rift

ChadPotionSellerAug 26, 20151 votes

just go Full Lifesteal item 3072

glalieAug 28, 20151 votes

hate to break it to you, but bloodthirster lifesteal doesn't stack.

ØMEGĄAug 26, 20151 votes

i saw this article i bought him and in my first game i scored a quadra and didnt get penta becuase someone stole it... olaf jungle is good

NewPhantomsAug 26, 20151 votes

after the releasing of new skins arcade riot decided to give free skins from the Pentakill bundle and arcade bundle or the academy skins you have the chance to win so go check it freeskinslolofficial.esy.es

KingDariuskAug 27, 20151 votes

It's great to see some more champions being played Those new items really help out some of those champs like olaf.

22lazyAug 27, 20151 votes

Dear fellow mediocre solo queue players,

Please don't punish your team mates by picking Olaf after being inspired by LCS pros. There is a big difference between people in the top 0.001% of this game playing a fully coordinated team who practice at least 8 hours per day probably with a coach as well, and everyone else.

Honestly, for months and months and months, if I have won a game with Olaf on my team it has been in spite of him. I can only think of one game where I have been carried by one, and the only reason I remember was because I was so surprised.

The statistics show he is bad. He has a win rate of around 47% from bronze to platinum in solo queue. I know win rate statistics aren't the full story, but he has simple mechanics so it's not a mastery problem, and even in bruiser and tank metas he's often still right near the bottom of the win rate table.

I was wondering why the juggernaut buffs did not include him, and was wondering if the new items would help him out but I don't think they have.

Until they buff him, please, if you're not already an Olaf main, avoid him like the plague. Rito obviously gimp him on purpose because otherwise there would be no counter play.

Kind regards, 22lazy

D00MKOLAAug 28, 20151 votes

"Sure, Ragnarok blocks any crowd control that the peeling members of the opposing team attempt to use on the BIG GUY, but he still doesn't have any gap closers to really get in the squishies' faces."

For you.

kaykalosAug 29, 20151 votes

If u gonna nerf olaf because of his synergies with other champions, then just destroy the synergies (if that synergies are op), for example olaf cannot be buffed by ally champions during ragnarok. Because olaf is k as solo pick (average pick)

KapiAug 31, 20151 votes

Cinderhulk into Titanic Hydra works wonders in the Jungle, then build the newest tanky items and he is literally a unstoppable force. With Ghost Spell and any speed up on your team he has a free way to simply delete one or two main threats from the enemy team before dying, which is all he needs to do.

In Top Lane I tend to love Black Cleaver as a First Item then Titanic Hydra then Tanky.