Season 5 Olaf Jungle tips plz?

TheSkullSplitter·Sep 28, 2015·2 votes·1,178 views

Hello Summoners, I have bought Olaf a while ago,but it wasn’t until today that I started to get interested in him. This Interest was created after watching an enemy Olaf destroy my team’s Riven top,then 1v3ing my team’s Kalista,Maokai and Vel’Koz. I knew he was a good and solid pick,but I just never knew how OP he was until now. I really want to start maining Olaf jg as jg is my main role. (For those of you who do not know what jg is it is an abbreviation for Jungler) Can someone tell me the order of jungle camps I should clear? And how to gapclose better with him? I played Olaf in a custom game,but I just could not gapclose well if my Ghost or Youmuu’s was on cooldown. Most importantly,can you give me a Olaf build? I want a tanky dps build. I was currently thinking of this build:Frozen Mallet,Last Whisper,Spirit Visage,Ravenous Hydra,Thornmail,Frozen Heart. ( I was thinking about substituting the Frozen Heart for a Merc’s Treads with the HomeGuard enchantment)

Ok So your thoughts? I would like it if you could give me a full build list.

Thank you

23 Comments

LmaoKnightSep 28, 20152 votes

of course he needs boots, that's his only mobility

ManDudeSep 28, 20152 votes

I generally go Trailblazer into Cinderhulk. Olaf has enough early game damage, you want early game tankiness so you can live to do it.

But yes, you need boots. I grab them after my machete upgrade. You're gonna want either Merc's or Tabi depending on the enemy's comp. The other boots don't give you anything useful.

After getting Cinderhulk, go for a Ravenous Hydra or Cleaver if you're ahead, or a Visage/Rabduin's if you're behind. Ultimately the goal is to become a giant HP/healing machine who never needs downtime after a fight. Trailblazer, Hydra and Visage all synergize with your W's bonus healing, so you can go from zero to almost full from a chicken camp with a full build.

Start with Q, then W, then E. I max E for early burst from there and then W, but it's basically preference.

Don't ever build Devourer on Olaf. It's a waste of his amazing early game.

Edit - also, practice throwing your Qs around in a bot game or something. The right way to do it is to throw them far enough to hit the guy, but not too far so you can't catch them while chasing. Proper axe juggling is the key to playing Olaf.

SmitemuffinSep 28, 20151 votes

If you go Cinderhulk, then try to build an expensive damage item after, you'll be even more behind than buying the compact Devourer and a real tank item. If you've only got 400 hp by your second item, you're pretty much tissue paper if anybody focuses you (remember, Ragnarok active removes the passive resistances). You have to have 2,000 bonus hp for Cinderhulk to even match the 700 from Frozen Mallet, so if you get Hydra after Cinderhulk, you won't match Mallet's hp itemsfrom Cinderhulk until you get at LEAST two more items and only if one of those two is Warmogs. That would leave you 4 items deep without either armor or mag res.

Additionally, Cinderhulk isn't worth it for damage either. It's only 15 + (0.66/level) , meaning it maxes at >27 when you hit 18. Sunfire is 25 + 1/level, as a comparison. Buying Devourer also gives you more attack speed, which gives you more sustain from repeated autos and gives you multiple seconds off Reckless Swings. Ragnarok active's AD buff synergizes FAR to well with attack speed to pass up devourer.

A good smite from item 3710 will stop a champ with item 3153 from kiting you or a smite from item 3718 cuts the damage from your target by 20%, both of which stop the ADC you'll be diving from using Olaf as a lifesteal battery ( which they will if you have item 3725 .

Olaf's early stats and ult passive are more than enough until you finish Devourer. By then, all you need is a item 1011 and you ALREADY match the hp from Cinderhulk. Plus your damage item is done and you're ready to crush skulls.You're strong much earlier and you stay that way. No single damage item can match the constant true damage nukes that you'll get once Devourer is sated. It also leaves yourbuild flexible to buy Thornmail or Frozen heart because you won't need to stack hp just so Cinderhulk becomes worth an item slot.

Humbe08Sep 28, 20152 votes

IMO, mallet is a really bad choice on Olaf (if I understood well your post and you are suggesting that he could go Devourer into mallet). Since a few patches ago, the slows dont stack anymore, and granted that Olaf is a melee champ that lives on top of the enemy lines, landing your Q is guaranteed, turning your Q into a mere additional damage source (rather weak one past mid game) and not really making use of the awesome slow that it includes (Q spell).

As for devourer on Olaf, i can see the synergy between Olaf's W and the phantom hit, but by the 20 min mark, wich is when you'll be hitting Sated (minutes more, minutes less), realistically you'll be sitting on Sated devourer + tabi/merc shoes + Giant's belt (if you decided to get either a Randoums, Sterak's, warmogs, deadman's), and at this point of the game, if not a little earlier, both teams start grouping to control objectives, be it towers, dragons and such. If Olaf will be the primary or even secondary meatwall on your team, you wont be surviving long enough with devo+boots+giant's belt as to make use of your W+devourer synergy, even more so granted the predominant picks for the current meta, where vayne's are common, tristanas, jinxes (for adc), for junglers where it's common to see some elises, shyvannas, Dianas etc, and with top laners such as Darius, Garen and Fiora. Devo may very well work in 1v1 situations, but Olaf's a monster already with his kit on 1v1s that I feel bringing to the table the extra armor/mr stats along hp pool via cynderhulk will pay off way more, specially during teamfights.

Just my 2 cents tho, I play him as a diver during teamfights, absorbing most of the cc and spells from the enemy team, and getting the adc or ap carries down with me, while the rest of my team cleans up. If i wanted a more "carry" oriented jungler, i'll say there are far better options that Devourer is crucial on them, such as Yi, shyvanna, WW and the like, compared to Olaf.

Regards!

SmitemuffinSep 28, 20151 votes

The slowing passive on Olaf isn't why I buy the Mallet, although it's undeniably effective vs players smart enough to run away from your axes so you can't pick them up repeatedly, which happens frequently in open areas. Also, let's face it: this guy posting the thread is new to playing Olaf. He's gonna whiff some Undertows.

Mallet is my second item because of the stats it offers. 30 AD is plenty on someone who has that much more attack speed than most, and the high hp lets you buy a quick chain vest before Visage to be a very solid champ in the front line. This lets you be really powerful while your opponents are just getting past their 2nd item and boots. Having the high hp up front without having to worry about buying more damage also gives a clear path to Thornmail. This lets Olaf dive AP Carries while knowing the ADC doesn't pose a serious immediate threat to him.

You also don't want to fail at your job just because somebody dodged an Undertow. My build path may also make more sense when I point out that (at least the way I play Olaf), I'm always flanking with Ghost. Having item 3710 also lets you do cute little tricks like ghosting into champs like Kalista or Tristana knowing they'll jump away, then smite their peelers as you run by with Ragnarok on. Now that adc is isolated, you're stupid fast, can't be disable, you hit like a truck and there's no escaping you. It's a one-way ticket on the Pain Train to Poundtown

Humbe08Sep 28, 20152 votes

I guess i see your point, altho I still preffer cynderhulk into black cleaver, mainly because it's 300g cheaper , the buildpath is nice, since u can start Phage and already have the synergy of hitting an axe from long distance and getting the passive movement speed increase, allowing you to catch ppl easier, aside of it having 10 extra AD, and more importantly 20% cd, compared to just raw hp and 30 ad from mallet.

With the 20% cd from black cleaver + the 10% cd usually any Olaf player starts, you hit the magic number of 30%allowing to have Q available as soon as you pick it up. On top of that, you can work out the front lines of the enemies by hitting 1 or 2 axes, applying the armor penetration, even in an AOE, considering Q can hit on multiple people.

I think it's a matter of prefference at the end of the day, I value more the overall stats cynderhulk + black cleaver offer me at the 17-20 min mark, being them AD, cd, HP, movement speed and armor pen, in comparision to hp, some ad, and super aspd (taking into account you went devourer instead of cynderhulk).

As long as your buildpath works for you, i think it's cool, but one cant deny the overall good stats that cynderhulk + black cleaver offer specially in the early game :).

SmitemuffinSep 28, 20151 votes

I've often considered Cleaver on him, but I never get in situations to call for it. But if you really like it, I would like to point out that Phage/Cleaver's passive is Rage, which gives flat speed. Furor enchantment gives Furor, which gives % speed. And they stack. You may like that and get good results from it.

Humbe08Sep 28, 20151 votes

I was intrigued by your devourer into mallet build, and tested both the aproximate stats that an Olaf would get with Mallet and Devourer VS Cynderhulk and Black Cleaver. This were the results i got, mind you that the aspd value with devourer was calculated by me, and not taken from the game itself, since it´s still disabled:

Cynderhulk and Black Cleaver:

AD:165 Armor: 106 Magic Resist: 67 ASPD: 0.86 CDR: 30% HP: 2446 Movement Speed: 395 Armor Penetration: Up to 30% with 6 stacks of BC

Devourer and Mallet:

AD:155 Armor: 106 Magic Resist: 67 ASPD: 1.23 (rough numbers since DEvo is still disabled) CDR: 10% HP: 2214 Movement Speed: 395 50 magic damage per hit.

After watching these numbers, I'm even more convinced that both in the early game as well as in the late game, cynderhulk into black cleaver, followed by the rest of the juggernaut items should be more powerful compared to devourer into mallet, followed by the rest of the same juggernaut items.

Part of this logic is due to the extra HP you'll get from the rest of the items via Cynderhulk (arround 750 hp from cynderhulk plus the rest of the items i get on my average game), as well as the armor penetration and CDR you get from Black Cleaver.

Early game you wont notice that much the 232 less HP you'll have if you went devourer and mallet, but the longer the game goes, the more you'll perceive it in the long run, since you wont have cynderhulk's additional hp passive. Thats on one side, on the other one, you'll be lacking the early CD and armor pen from BC,, wich imo is a crucial part for the early ganking power spike that olaf has.

Thanks for the tip on furor and rage btw, i'll try it out once i have the chance, but all my games so far i have went distortion for the CDR on ghost, as well as the movement speed increase on the spell :)

Regards!

SmitemuffinOct 7, 20151 votes

It's a fair point that the Cinderhulk/Cleaver build will leave you with higher stats, yes. But Devourer/Mallet's true value on Olaf is largely in HIDDEN values: your additional sustain from repeated autos while your lifesteal is up, the extra Reckless Swings AND the ability to keep people slowed (and more than one guy) for your team to beat them down.

Maybe my way will make more sense in context: I don't really play Olaf just to dive (I actually have a few pocket picks to do that), I play Olaf as what I like to call a "hunting dog". As a champ that leads the way for people who'll have way more damage than I ever could, keep people consistently locked down in fights and knock them low enough to clean up.

Now, this also isn't the only build I use either. Sometimes I DO go Cinderhulk if I think I wanna dive, but I don't get it first, I get Mallet or Randuins (although I could use Dead Man's now) then pick up Cinderhulk when it's more hp. The 1000 gold for item 3751 is part of a turret shot less hp than item 1011 and it also gives me less control over when I take turret aggro. I like to dive from the back so I can corner the target into the wall and shift aggro with an Undertow after somebody takes one hit from the turret (so it keeps the turret damage low overall).

SaltyKrackaSep 28, 20152 votes

Don't play him in the jungle.

KMannnnn1Sep 28, 20152 votes

I main Olaf in Top Lane, but I do jungle him on occasion, and when I do, my build is usually something like item 3709 item 3071 item 3800 and then boots of choice and whatever defense you need besides.

Important to note with Olaf is that your primary job is to dive backline squishies, and with your natural steroids and base damages, you don't really need to build that much offence to do that. However, if the backline is highly mobile (see: Vayne , Kalista ), it is often better to build more damage and focus on objective control and split pushing, since Olaf is a fairly powerful mid-late game duelist.

JotunheimrSep 28, 20152 votes

First off, I wouldn't say Olaf is OP. As a full tank, Olaf does not do signifigant damage unless you have at least Dead Man's and Titanic. My stats with Olaf have not been as good recently since playing him top lane. I used to play him in the nungle about a month ago, and tended to score triples and quadras. I built skirmishers(cinderhulk), ravenous, bloodthirtster, BoRK, ninka tabi/boots of swiftness, and warmogs/dead man's. I used to get niceeee triples with this.

I tend to milk lifesteal on Olaf with a bunch of lifesteal items. My original build for lane was Ravenous, Bloodthirster, BoRK, BoS, Youmuus, and Warmogs/Zephyr. If you don't fall behind and play smart, you're pushing power is amazing. You do a crap load of damage quickly. Your lifesteal plus w is thru the roof, so you have heavy sustain. Escape with low health? Take a jungle camp to regenerate in a few seconds. This build is not reccomened for ranked, as you are hella squishy. Lifesteal is your tank. Only ult in the right situations.

Gap closer: boots, dead man's, ghost and ult means you are one fast dude for a short period. Zephyr also helps, as well as Righteous Glory if you build it.

YOU CAN NORMALLY GET FIRST BLOOD WITH OLAF WITH GHOST, spam q with tact, and a long sword/dorans blade(running either ad or lifesteal quints) than farm asap if top lane. Know when to fight and when to fall back. Don't don't die a few times, or Olaf becomes useless.

Humbe08Sep 28, 20151 votes

Sounds like a fun build for normals like you point out, but i wouldnt suggest it, mainly because you'll end up with no resistances nor armor whatsoever and a little hp pool. Sure, your lifesteal will be amazing... the thing will be to make it to someone you can actually lifesteal from.

With the current meta, consisting of fighters in the top lane, more often than not, it's part of a good jungler's asset, to have good initiation potential, or atleast survive long enough in order to enable the rest of your team to do their jobs.

With the build you propose, you'll be depending on someone else on your team to initiate, and you would be wasting one of Olaf's strenghts, atleast imo, wich is that of initiating precisely, due to his CC immunity through Ragnarok.

Lets say you have a good initiator on your team, like a Maokai, he would be able to lock on just 1 person from the enemy team, and leave you pretty vulnerable to the other 4 ppl, that as soon as they'll see you comming, they'll focus you down, and i doubt you'll endure 3 - 4 seconds with Ragnarok on (due to losing 30 armor and magic res, and with your build thats A LOT), while you try to get onto someone.

No doubt that if you manage to get on top of someone, you'll be pretty much unkillable, but jax and master yi will do that even better with the same build imo.

Humbe08Sep 28, 20151 votes

Forgot to mention, one of the points you touched, regarding your build, is that you feel that Olaf, when build tank, does not do enough damage. IMO, Olaf does more than enough damage with only a black cleaver, or even a black cleaver and titanic hydra, and the rest of the items are tanky on their nature.

Olaf´s kit is made for spamming both Q and E, and throw aa's in between, so u lower the CD of E. If your main objective ona teamfight will be their ADC or APC (wich should always be imo) , the damage you'll do to any of those squishies is more than enough, and gives you the chacne to build tanky, while still doing good damage.

Even his E, when trading with a fighter or juggernaut, even when trading with tanks, is amazing, it's a tank buster skill, so imo there's no need to push Olaf even more towards the edge with more AD items, when you could live longer to punish more ppl with tank items, like someone else pointed out on this thread previously.

BijornSep 28, 20151 votes

Check out theoddone he plays a decent amount of olaf jungle. You can get most if not all the info you need from his streams/videos :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Z8OBpVrpNg

SmitemuffinSep 28, 20151 votes

Boots are a must. Flat speed buffs get multiplied in % ones like summoner 6 , which you need to have.

Buy either item 3710 or item 3718 . Devourer is also necessary. Some will argue, but you MUST have a high clear speed because Olaf is EXTREMELY item-dependent, and if you spam spells to clear, you'll be out of mana for ganks. Sating it also doubles the cooldown reduction of your E on every other hit, plus it's attack speed. THIS IS AN OLAF ITEM GIVEN BY THE RITO GODS. After Devourer, get item 3022 . Your ult grants passive defensive stata, so your best option overall is getting hp and Mallet is a hell of a lot of HP. From there, get whwhatever resistance items you deem necessary. Randuins and Visage are great, Thornmail is awesome where applicable.

If you want to gank over-extending lanes, max Q first. If you have pushing lanes, you'll need to dive so max E first so you can run in, nuke somebody and get out Whichever you max first, follow by maxing the other

In teamfights, play Olaf like an angry, axe-wielding freight train. You're just going down the tracks, it's their carries fault for being in front of you. It's also their fault that you're chasing them: they COULD always just stay on their nexus, after all.

Also: Olaf DOES NOT PEEL. So you want him for team comps that play aggressively and dive. You protect your ADC by being the biggest threat on the team.

Good luck and Happy Headhunting!

SmitemuffinSep 28, 20152 votes

Oh, I almost forgot: practice positioning yourself so that when you throw your Qs, they travel in the direction they have to go to escape. It lets you keep picking them up and chaining your ranged slows.

SmitemuffinSep 28, 20151 votes

Also, one of the best reasons to go item 3718 > item 3022 is that you can now just grab item 1031 then get item 3211 for a item 3065 . You'll have everything you need and you'll have it fast. Chain vest can be either item 3075 (which is really cheap, so great on junglers) or item 3068 if you want hp (I never get this, I like thornmail). You CAN also build into item 3742 , which is way more fun than Sunfire.

Humbe08Sep 28, 20151 votes

Hi, I started picking Olaf in the jungle recently, and have been trying some different runes/masteries set ups in the past week.

So far what has worked for me in Gold V division is:

Smite and Ghost on summoner spells.

Runes

9x attack damage reds 9x armor yellows 3x flat magic resist blues 6x flat cd blues

Total Stats: 4 Magic Resist 15 Physical damage 9 Armor 5% CD

Masteries 21/9/0

Offense Tree 1 pt Double-Edged sword 4 pts Sorcery 1 pt Butcher 3 pts Brute Force 1 pt Expose weakness 1 pt Spell Weaving 1 pt Martial Mastery 3 pts Executioner 1 pt Blade Weaving 1 pt Dangerous Game 3 pts Devastating Strikes 1 pt Havoc

Defense Tree 2pts Block 2 pts Tough Skin 1 pt Unyielding 3 pts Veteran's Scars 1 pt Juggernaut

With this set up you'll start the game with roughly 80 ad and 10% cd, along decent tankyness. My usual jungle route starts with Krugs or Gromp, depending on wich one is closer to my bot lane, after that i do a full clear, ie. If im Blue side, I'll start Krugs, then red, raptors, wolves, blue and gromp, and back to base. After this full clear, you'll be lvl 4, and be able to buy your upgraded machete (I used to go chilling smite, but have had better results recently with the skirmisher one (red one) ).

As for skills, you can start Q or W. Personally, if I know im not gonna be invaded at lvl 1, I start W, since you end up killing the first camp roughly at the same time if you had started Q, with the exception that starting with W, you'll have more mana, since you'll only use it once for the first camp. I max always Q first, for faster clears (Olaf has one of the fastest clears along the likes of shyvana), then I max E second, and leave W for last, since it's a one point wonder skill.

One thing to notice with the way I run him, is that on the first clear I dont use pots at all. The lower hp you have, the faster you'll clear with your aa's + Q. The only exception for this is when I'm facing a champion that's generally good at counter jungling this early in the game, such as Evelyn, Lee Sin, J4 and so.

After the first full clear, I get the upgraded machete, basic boots and 2 hp pots. With this, I solo drag at lvl 4 if I know the enemy jungler wont be around the area. I start drag around the 5 min mark, and get it by the 5:27-5:30 mark. You'll only need 3 out of the 4 hp pots you'll have (in case you didnt used any pots on your first clear) and your smite. Since your W enhances all the healing effects from all sources whenever it's up, it affects your hp pots as well, making it possible for Olaf to do drag this early. You'll end up with around 280 hp by the time you kill dragon, and will have an extra pot on your pocket. From here, you can either go back and heal, use your pot and gank mid or bot, or simply power farm your jungle camps until you see an opportunity.

My general build order is:

*Upgraded machete (skirmisher as of late) + basic boots on the first trip back to base. *Finish cynderhulk *Sightstone (basic one) *Black cleaver, starting with Phage *Finish Ninja Tabi boots (mid game i go for distortion enchantment, for the lower CD on ghost) (90% of my games i get this, unless the enemy tram has +3 ap champs) *Deadman's plate, starting with Giant's belt most of the time, to make use of Cynderhulk's passive. *Spirit Visage, starting with Spectre's Cowl for the magic resist. **If the game drags up to this point, I'll sell my Sightstone, and get one of the following items depending on the situation: --Titanic Hydra if im surviving teamfights long enough after I dive to the backline of the enemy team, in order to increase my damage and have more hp. --Randium's Omen if the adc carry/carries of the enemy team are killing me too quickly. -- Sterak's Gage if the APC of the enemy team is blowing me too fast while diving. -- ZZ'Rot portal if I just wanna get tankier overall, and my team doesnt need the extra damage I could bring with Titanic Hydra.

As for elixirs, I always go with the Elixir of Wrath, the offensive one for AD champs. Aside of the extra ad it brings, what I really value from this item is the 10% heal from all AD damage you do, this includes your Q, and not so sure, but probably from your E's true damage as well. Paired with your W active, and you'll have more than enough life steal to survive a longer, compared to getting a Ravenous Hydra in your build and losing hp or other stats from other items imo (this is why I preffer Titanic over Raveous in case I wanna go for one of the 2 Hydra choices.

Lastly, regarding the upgrades from machete, I ran 3 or 4 times Trailblazer on my build, but whenever i ganked , I felt I was lacking a key spell on my playstyle, be it the additional slow from chilling smite, or the 20% damage reduction AND true damage via physical attacks with the Skirmisher one, so this geared me towards picking either the chilling smite of the skirmisher one, and leave behind the trailblazer choice.

As to wich one pick (chilling or skirmisher), as of late, I've found out that the Skirmisher one fits better my playstyle for the following reasons. Early game, your ganks are devastating, even with just the skirmisher smite + boots. Your Q will deal considerable damage on any squishy enemy, be it the enemy mid laner or bot lane + your E's true damage, add on top of that that you'll get 20% reduced damage from all sources from the marked enemy, plus the extra true damage you may get from landing 1 or 2 aa's during the gank. The 20% damage reduction will have a bigger impact mid-late game when the enemy carries start doing more damage to you, and bring some armor or magic penetration on their kits.

I left the chilling smite out of my build, mainly because the slows no longer stack, and your primary and only real way to gank, is via landing your Q on the target, and then follow up with a second one, and land some E's and aa's, along a third Q, if the enemy last this long. Some ppl may argue that the chilling smite lets your prepare to land your Q easier, since the target will be slowed already, but in all honesty, once you get the hang out of Olaf's kit, the distance and speed travel of your Axes, you wont need the chilling smite anymore. Add to that the fact that you will be running ghost (at least I do), along Deadman's plate, and you'll have plenty of speed to catch your axe quickly, in case you missed it, and throw it again if you see the opportunity. Worst case scenario, the enemy burned flash, and it has higher CD compared to Ghost, so it's a win in my book.

Hope I may had been of some help, and keep practicing Olaf in normals before you take him to ranked =)

Regards!

Humbe08Sep 28, 20152 votes

Holy... didnt knew the post will be this long, this was the first time I posted, and didnt knew what to expect hahaha, also im bad at TL;DR , so sorry beforehand for not writting one :)

SirsirSep 28, 20151 votes

Well I haven't played him since the Jugg updates new items but

Tank item 3748 item 3111 item 3742 item 3800 item 3102 item 3053

Bruiser item 3153 item 3111 item 3742 item 3074 item 3143 item 3065

First build is entirely reliant on Titanic and your W for damage, whereas the second is reliant on Lifesteal to stay tanky. Glory or BotRK are used for gapclosing

EDIT: Oops, jungleing. Replace Steraks or Randuins with Cinderhulk and put it at the front of the line.

Vincent LuciusSep 28, 2015

As of late Olaf is my safety pick in the top lane. Other people seem to have the jungle paths and runes down, so I'll just say that whenever I need to get to the carries as Olaf and I don't have my ghost up Olaf's ult gives him a good burst of speed for about half a second if you're running at enemies. That alone isn't enough to get you on top of someone, though. To do that you have to set up a chase by landing an axe. The slow is enough that you can catch up anyway and your ult seals the deal nicely. Any slows they try to use will be pretty much pointless and stuns will just make them stop to cast and make it easy to hit them. As long as you keep hitting them with your Q and running over the axe you can stick to them long enough to kill them(squishy people tend to die pretty fast, though. One or two axes, an E should absolutely chunk them and a few auto attacks.)

In team fights it depends on how things are going. It's preferable for someone else to engage and in the confusion of the fight you should be able to make it into the backline to wreck face and remove some of their damage.

The big thing is landing the axes, though. You can keep up with just about anyone as long as they don't have a jump or a dash that'll get them over a ledge or under their tower.