Olaf - our beloved viking and how we can improve him.

Edit: I have added an alternative version of his Undertow. You can say which one would help him out more when it comes to it.

Hello, people of the boards. After watching Stonewall008-s video about Olaf I started thinking: how can we actually rework Olaf while keeping his identity as a vicious, murderous viking. Bear with me, it is a long one.

There will be a TL;DR version in the bottom for everyone who doesn't want to go through everything. Let's begin, shall we?

To me, Olaf is, and always should remain, a fighter. Sure, building him tank right now is viable, however, I really don't see a viking just soaking up damage and then dealing mediocre damage back at people. One may argue that if he is ahead, he will do a lot of damage. Newsflash - whoever is ahead can dish out damage. The way I see it, Olaf in his current state is doomed to obscurity because of his ultimate, Ragnarok. Giving him a period of CC immunity (we are talking about full CC immunity, not just slows like with ) is bound to have Riot tone down the rest of his abilities. Right now, the biggest problem with Olaf is the fact that, during his ultimate, he can be kited (dashes, blinks, ) and render it useless. For an unstoppable machine, he loses his innate tankiness for something which is arguably not worth it. Why is it not worth it? Because even when Olaf pops Ragnarok, he has only 1 way to stick to his enemies (unless he builds for it) - his Q, Undertow. Now, why is this bad? Well, for starters, Olaf needs to Melee his opponents to death, his W and Passive give him much needed AS to do it, however, how can he use this AS if the enemy can just run away from you? His ultimate is the only thing keeping him relevant right now and, let's face it, it still doesn't do much.

Now, I will write my view on how his playstyle can be improved, the core of his kit kept and how his ultimate can be balanced. Keep in mind that numbers can always be changed.

Berserker Rage: Olaf gains 1% attack speed for every 1% of his missing health.

Undertow 1: Olaf throws an axe in a line to a target location, dealing physical damage to enemies it passes through and slowing them for 1.5-2.5 seconds, depending on the distance the axe has traveled. Each hit applies a stack of Crippling Wound, increasing the slow amount by 10% and damage by 10%. At 3 stacks, Olaf's next AA or Reckless Swing will consume the charges, stunning the target and dealing more damage. Crippling Wound lasts 6 seconds.

The axe remains at the target location until Undertow is off cooldown. Olaf can pick up the axe to reduce Undertow's cooldown by 4.5 seconds. The axe sticks to terrain upon colliding with it.

• Physical Damage: 60 / 105 / 150 / 195 / 240 (+ 85% bonus AD)
• Slow: 20 / 22.5 / 25 / 27.5 / 30%
• Auto Attack trigger damage increase: 50% of the AA-s damage
• Auto Attack trigger stun: 1 sec
• Reckless Swing damage increase: 25%
• Reckless Swing stun duration: 1.5 sec
• Cost: 45 / 50 / 55 / 60 / 65 mana
• Range: 400 / 1000
• Cooldown: 8 sec

Undertow 2: Olaf throws an axe in a line to a target location, dealing physical damage to enemies it passes through and slowing them for 1.5-2.5 seconds, depending on the distance the axe has traveled. Enemies hit by the axe receive Crippling Wound. After Olaf hits the enemy 3 times with basic attacks or spells, the enemy will be stunned and be dealt damage. An enemy will be immune to Crippling Wound for 6 seconds after it triggers.

The axe remains at the target location until Undertow is off cooldown. Olaf can pick up the axe to reduce Undertow's cooldown by 4.5 seconds. The axe sticks to terrain upon colliding with it.

• Physical Damage: 70 / 115 / 160 / 205 / 250 (+ 100% bonus AD)
• Slow: 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40%
• Crippling Wounds stun: 1.1 / 1.2 / 1.3 / 1.4 / 1.5 sec
• Crippling Wounds damage: 20 / 40 / 60 / 80 / 100 (+ 40% bonus AD)
• Cost: 60 mana
• Range: 400 / 1000
• Cooldown: 7 sec

Vicious Strikes: For 6 seconds, Olaf gains bonus life steal, bonus attack speed, bonus damage dealt and increases all damage taken by 10%. During this time, Olaf also gains 0.5% enhanced healing from all sources for every 1% of his missing health.

• Attack Speed: 30 / 35 / 40 / 45 / 50%
• Life Steal: 8 / 10 / 12 / 14 / 16%
• Bonus Damage: 5 / 7 / 9 / 11 / 13%
• Cost: 30 mana
• Cooldown: 16 sec

Reckless Swing: Olaf attacks with such force that he deals true damage to his target and himself. The health cost is refunded if Reckless Swing kills the target. Olaf's basic attacks will reduce the cooldown of Reckless Swing by 1 second.

• True Damage: 70 / 115 / 160 / 205 / 250 (+ 40% AD)
• Cost: 21 / 34.5 / 48 / 61.5 / 75 (+ 15% AD) health
• Range: 325
• Cooldown: 14 / 13 / 12 / 11 / 10 sec

Ragnarok: Passive: Olaf gains bonus damage based on his health. Active: Olaf instantly removes all crowd control effects from himself, gains 99% tenacity and is granted immunity to Knock-ups for 2 seconds. The tenacity then starts to fall off, beginning slowly but increasing gradually over time. For every 1% of tenacity lost, Olaf gains movement speed and for every 10% tenacity lost, Olaf's takes more damage.

• Attack Damage Bonus: 1.25% of Olaf's maximum health
• Movement Speed Increase: 0.3 / 0.4 / 0.5% per 1% of Tenacity lost
• Damage Taken Increase: 0.5 / 1 / 1.5% per 10% of Tenacity lost
• Duration: 6 / 7 / 8 sec
• Cooldown: 100 sec

**Now, let me get into detail with the changes. **

Olaf's passive is good as it is. It provides him clear speed and suits the whole "thirst for battle" he has going on. Me gusta.

Undertow, as it is, is a good chasing tool, however, with the changes to it, Olaf will have increased sustain in the jungle, faster clearing and a conditional stun(hit someone 3 times with a thrown axe, hit them in the head with melee... axes... huh). For lane Olaf, it will mean better trade opportunities, however, they can be easily telegraphed (Olaf hit you 2 times with his axe? Better to try and dodge the next one or expect an all in). The damage nerf is because of the scaling of his ultimate. CD increase is needed, otherwise Olaf could stun you the moment he got to you and send you to hell and back. Sure, it is a 0.3 CD increase at max CDR if you pick up the axe, however, it will keep jungle Olaf's early ganks and top lane Olaf's trading in check while also providing counter-play when he does not bother to pick it up in the lane.

Vicious Strikes is currently really good, however, it is not on the right champion. Olaf should be, in my opinion, focused on throwing axes and cleaving people's heads in(with... the axes in his hands... sigh). The AS/LS nerf is needed for the power shift I am doing with these changes. The Damage dealt bonus includes AA-s and spells (not summoners or items, that would be really broken cough cough) which means that, instead of relying only on his AA-s, Olaf will be able to used the increased damage on the 3rd proc from his Undertow. It opens up counter-play as well. The damage taken increase should help keep him in check when it comes to top lane Olaf and will not really change his jungle play style. Remember, he has a stun now so he can use it to his advantage.

Reckless Swing is one of those abilities where I thought about it, a lot. In the start, I thought about completely re-hauling his ultimate in order to make Reckless Swing a targeted leap which deals damage, however, it would have to lose the whole basic attack reduces CD by 1 sec thing. Instead, I just left it as it is and made it deal more damage based on his Undertow Stacks. Procing his Undertow stun with his Reckless swing will provide a moment to moment challenge - do I Reckless Swing in the start of the fight or do I keep it so I can proc the stun with it? Is the sustained damage better than the burst damage and a tad longer CC? Do I all in and use it, follow with Vicious Strikes and try to win the trade/get the kill while risking death? It all comes down to the player and it will differentiate the good Olaf players from the REALLY good Olaf players.

Ragnarok. Sweet, sweet Ragnarok. On paper, it sounds insanely strong. In practice, well, it is not. When casting the ability, Olaf clears his mind and then starts rushing towards the enemies. With each passing second, he will give in to his viking rage, losing that focus to gain momentum. However, this momentum will make him prone to CC and damage. It is a double-edged sword. The current version of Olaf's ultimate is unfair. It is unfair towards his enemies, his team and to Olaf himself. Because of the full CC immunity, Olaf needs to compensate other places. With my proposal, the ultimate is not only fair, but it has counter-play. Olaf still gets to keep that "I WILL NOT BE STOPPED" factor for a while, however, as the ultimate's duration goes on, he will not only become prone to CC but also become prone to death. The movement speed increase is there to punish teams who did not bother to pick at least 1 CC champion or to focus him down during a teamfight, while the increased damage taken is there to reward those who wait out the first 2-3 seconds and then unleash hell on him.

Building the new Olaf: Olaf, because of these changes, will excel at prolonged fights. He will also be able to have some bursty moments, however, they will not be or bursty(that's not what I want). The new Olaf will benefit from going into a bruiser-style build. 1 damage item(BotRK, Hydra) is going to be enough for this Viking, maybe throw in both or a Trinity, there could be many items which fill this slot. Afterwards, going for defensive items will reward him. The damage increase from his ultimate's passive, on paper, seems like a lot, however, at 4000 health(something highly unlikely to happen) it is a 50 damage increase. Now, at 3000 health (more realistically) it is a 43.75 damage increase. As you can see, he is rewarded for building defensive items. He could still be built as a melee carry if he gets really ahead. Sure, it will not really be the optimal way to build him, however, he will be able to annihilate people if he gets to them. His playstyle will be relatively the same, he gets to keep his core identity and he gets a fair ultimate which still has the whole "I WILL NOT BE STOPPED" factor. Wait, I already used that, dammit.

TL;DR

Passive is the same. Q damage and slow lowered, now applies a debuff on your opponents, at 3 stacks the next AA/E is going to stun and deal more damage. W gives less AS and LS, gives Olaf more damage and makes him take more damage. E is relatively the same, CD and self-inflicted damage increased a tad (power shift yo) R gives 99% tenacity which decays over time, a 2 sec immunity to Knock-ups and Knock-backs(which are the same thing), gives him MS when he loses tenacity and increases his damage taken.

Thank you for reading this post. I would like to see what everyone thinks of these changes. I have a few changes set in mind for other champions as well, some are bigger reworks, some are just QoL changes, some are complete overhauls(who keep the champion's overall theme in tact). I would love it if people took a second(well, more than that...) to read it and tell me what they think. Again, numbers can change, I just wrote rough estimates.

Thank you all and have a nice day/night :)