Can olaf Get more meaningful buffs?

Best Olaf NA·12/8/2017, 5:07:18 AM·5 votes·925 views

I've mained olaf since season 2. Heck he's even in my name. Currently on the pbe there are a bunch of buffs/changes to olaf that don't fix what his current issues are. Currently he has 4 huge issues, 1 he has no late game, 2 there isn't really a perfect olaf-type keystone comet sorta fixes this but it's honestly just a broken combination and doesn't fit how I think his lane phase should go. I see pbe grasp being a new decent option but it still doesn't fix that olaf has no "synergizing" keystone. 3 he only has 2 damaging abilities, 4 his w+passive feel really shitty even when it contributes to your strength for instance at level 1-4. He also has too much power budget spent on his q and r for the rest of his kit to be fair. As much as I enjoy hitting q and then ghosting ulting into a carry and killing them it's too binary i either hit an axe on a squishy and go after them or i don't there's no in between, this also affects his lane phase because he HAS TO be ALL IN ALL THE TIME no in between.

  1. His late game are kinda tied to reason 3 but it's separate because he has too much attack speed and not enough ad or ad added. All he gets is ad from his r, if we look at darius, darius gets up to 180 ad, olaf gets is 80 at rank 3 thats a 100 damage difference, yes I understand it takes time for darius passive to proc etc. etc. the point is that he just doesn't scrounge up enough ad. Plus he has to juggle buying tank stats as well as ad items that help with giving up 60 armor/mr which leaves him as a bruiser in a more rough spot than others, i guess it's a drawback to having a range ability?

  2. The keystone: Currently comet is among the best performing on olaf, and that is because olaf is one of the VERY FEW bruisers to have a ranged ability. I like that, it does make him unique. As far as a keystone olaf want's a keystone that: gives him more power for using his axes. No other keystone archetype is good. Think original fervor, you got free ad that stacked up to 8 every time you hit an axe. That made his pattern of all ins, trades, very potent and it synergises with the goal of his kit.

  3. He only has 2 damaging abilities. Now his passive and his w give far too much attack speed. Olaf's reckless swing is the only thing on his base kit that want you to auto attack, except you also self harm yourself to simply cast his e. So even though the cooldown is effectively lowered with auto attacks come late game, you end up doing more damage to yourself so you're actually dis-incentivised to build ad because his e does true damage to himself.

  4. His w+passive feel really shitty even with its part of the reason it makes you strong. Basically as an olaf player, I can never really tell when my passive is making me stronger than someone until im about 10-25% hp. His w giving him attack speed is honestly both unnecessary and over-giving a stat that olaf doesn't even scale well with.

Buffs or changes that could make him stronger as a champion:

Keep his passive the same and just give his w ad again like it did back in season 2 before the rework. Granted I will give out that his w before was crazy good because it was a free atmas, Now that somethings meta and champion wise have changed, I think this should honestly return. So if he were to get ad as well as ad based on maximum hp that would allow him to scale, and it would also allow for him to not be worried about getting all of the ad items when he can buy a steraks and get some amount of ad from that.

Change his q to include base ad but lower the ratio or make his e scale off of bonus ad and buff the ratio slightly OR nerf the health cost. Doing any of these changes would benefit olaf greatly, I think the best bet would be to make e scale off of bonus ad and buff the ratio slightly and nerf the health ratio too maybe instead of 30% make it 20%.

Change his W into an actual ability not just a self buff. Really he should just get healing from his passive and then an execute or some form of cc on his w. If say it was olaf lets out a terrifying roar and fears enemies for x seconds marking them, when olaf attacks marked targets he heals % of his max hp. An execute could be something along the lines of Olaf strikes with both of his axes in an area in front of him dealing x physical damage + %missing hp

Things to avoid:

avoid giving him more attack speed, he doesn't scale with it, he doesn't need it, he doesn't want it. It also makes him scale even worse than before because you barely have enough time come late game to kill a carry, i'd say if both champs are full build you have roughly 6-9 seconds to kill a squishy target before they blow you up.

Avoid giving him a gap closer, I realize this is an inherent flaw in his kit but I think that the power budget of his kit would just be over-spent if he were to gain any kind of gap closer.

Giving him base ad, Olaf doesn't scale well with base as i've already covered it, of course if you're giving him base ad and attack speed he will do more damage with auto attacks but the majority of his damage shouldn't come through auto attacks since he doesn't have a gap closer, he should be rewarded for closing the gap not punished.

I hope I put up some good points and that my goal for ways to buff olaf is clear. but to quickly recap: Olaf doesn't need attack speed he wants ad, his w giving attack speed doesn't feel great come late game. Either give him more ad, more hp or find a way to get him some more damage come late game or he will just continue to have no late game.

8 Comments

SCP 10612/9/2017, 10:47:50 PM2 votes

He DOES need a buff lol he really does, I miss the old days where Olaf was a TRUE BERSERKAAA!!

Cavemantero12/8/2017, 5:54:06 AM1 votes

NAH....I like his kit. I think he's one of the more balanced champs nowadays and doesn't have a massive overloaded kit and doesn't need it. Some stat buffs might be in order but that's because with the recent mastery/rune changes all overloaded kits are stronger.

The attack speed buff makes him good clearing the jungle and for tower sieges and adds the berserker flavor. He hits hard with the e but a at a price...do you want the kill or do you want to tank for the team? Just ban Vayne and Quinn if you play him top and you might be alright.

Its people like you that we got fucked up Galio Evelynn and Mordekaiser. They didn't need the 90% complete new champ redesigns that they got and neither does Olaf.

Durzaka12/8/2017, 5:56:52 AM1 votes

hes currently sitting at 53% win rate top lane, and 58%!!!!!! win rate jungle.

He has the highest win rate in the jungle in the entire game right now. He doesnt need buffs.

Bucklesss1/20/2018, 9:50:36 AM1 votes

Olaf needs a buff, i main him top and play him a little bit in the jungle and he seems to be even harder to play now then he was before the buff in my opinion.