Olaf kit concept 'update!'
Hello Riot and Summoners! So, a little while back I made a post with some ideas to spruce up my favorite viking, Olaf. I wanted to get some feedback then, and after a couple of comments and trying to think of a way to make Olaf feel more unique and strong, but not blatantly overpowered, I've come up with a more updated version since then! I'd love to hear any comments/feedback as to what your opinion is on this 'update' and why (good, bad, overpowered, dumpster reading material, etc.), along with any ideas you may have!
So, let's get started!
First, who is Olaf? What does he do? How should you feel when you're picking this champion?
Olaf is a badass viking who should thrive in the heat of battle. He shouldn't want to be afraid to charge in, he should be wanting to jump immediately into the fray. He is a champion that should be targeting a backline of a team and looking to be a massive threat. When you pick Olaf, you want to feel like the closer to death you are, the more enraged and deadly you become. So, this should be a clear part of Olaf's playstyle and be more defining.
Next, let's discuss Olaf's strengths and weaknesses.
Strengths: A high sustained damage dealer / strong duelist / good at chasing single targets down in extended runs
Weaknesses: Poor teamfighting / Lack of natural mobility / No burst damage
So, with those strengths and weaknesses in mind, we want to find a way to emphasize what Olaf is good at, what he is weaker against, and how to address his teamfighting problems.
Here's the list of my version of a kit 'update.'
Passive
Berserker Rage -
Current: The more health Olaf is missing, the more attack speed he gains.
Honestly, I like this current passive. It goes with his theme and kit, and it's what helps him be a good duelist.
**Undertow - **
Current: Olaf throws an axe at target location, dealing physical damage and slowing enemies along its path. The further an enemy is, the longer the slow lasts. Picking up this axe reduces the cooldown of Undertow by 4.5 seconds.
Update: Olaf throws an axe at target location, dealing physical damage and slowing enemies along its path. The further an enemy is, the longer the slow lasts. Picking up this axe reduces the cooldown of Undertow by 4.5 seconds** and the cooldown of Reckless Swing by 1 second.**
Cast time: Removed.
The idea behind this first change is a couple of things. The first is that since Olaf has issues reaching a backline in a teamfight due to his lack of natural mobility, he needs a slightly better time getting their due to not having a gap closer. Removing the cast time from his axe would help this, and hopefully it would make entering a fight a bit less frustrating.
The other change, which is the cooldown reduction on Olaf's Reckless Swing by picking up his axe, is to attempt to address another issue. Since auto-attacking a backline in a teamfight can be rather difficult as an immobile melee, this would hopefully make it less painful and also give him better scaling into the late game since he would be able to refesh his Reckless Swing more often.
**Vicious Strikes - **
Current: Olaf's attack speed is increased and he gains bonus lifesteal for a short duration. He increases all healing sources he receives during this time, this bonus increasing based on how much health Olaf is missing.
New: Olaf's attack speed is increased and he gains bonus lifesteal for a short duration. In addition, Olaf gains Armor and Magic Resist for the same duration (based on his BONUS Armor and Magic Resist), this bonus increasing based on how much health Olaf is missing.
Removed: Healing sources he receives during this time increases.
So, this change is something that is similar to something that I had before. However, the change being that the healing bonus is now completely stripped away. The idea behind this change is that it would tone back some of Olaf's dueling power in exchange for better teamfighting. More specifically, it would allow him to be able to last longer at lower health and keep that power spike he gets from being at low health. The current mechanic is more or less very difficult to actually use since it requires heavy auto-attacking (which isn't always possible) to benefit. This change would allow him to use his W so that he will still be stronger from activating it at lower health, but it won't be useless because you are unable to auto-attack a target.
Also it introduces some new choices you can now make with Vicious Strikes. Do you use it at the beginning of a fight with Ragnarok passive to try and tank out damage, but put it on cooldown and make it harder to survive later? Do you use it during Ragnarok to try and not be bursted? Or do you go MAN MODE and save it for after Ragnarok has ended, receiving your passive bonus again, and being at low health to benefit more?
Reckless Swing -
Current: Olaf attacks with such a force that he deals true damage to his target and himself, refunding the health cost if he destroys the target. Basic attacks lower this cooldown by 1 second.
New: Olaf attacks with such a force that he deals true damage to his target and himself, refunding the health cost if he destroys the target. Basic attacks lower this cooldown by 1 second. In addition, Reckless Swing gets stronger the more the ability is casted within a limited time window, capping out eventually.
Now this change is new. Since one of Olaf's defining strengths is that the longer he is in combat, the more deadly he becomes, this would fit this idea. However, with a change like this, the base damage on Olaf's Reckless Swing may need to be tuned back slightly. This concept is to reward Olaf for staying in a brawl, not to burst a champion down. Ultimately, Reckless Swing would probably be weaker on the first, maybe second cast, but can quickly ramp up and overall become more powerful.
Ragnarok -
Current: Olaf passively gains bonus armor and magic resist. Whenever Olaf activates Ragnarok, he loses this passive bonus but removes any disables and becomes immune to crowd control for a short duration. He also gains bonus attack damage for the duration.
New: Olaf passively gains bonus armor and magic resist. Whenever Olaf activates Ragnarok, he loses this passive bonus but removes any disables and becomes immune to crowd control for a short duration. For a short time after Ragnarok has ended, he can reactivate the ability to cast Yggdrasil.
Yggdrasil: Olaf sends out a shockwave in the immediate area around him, dealing physical damage. This damage is increased based on how much health Olaf is missing.
Removed: Olaf gains bonus attack damage during Ragnarok.
This is the final change I wanted to introduce. Now, the explanation as to why this change. There are a lot of things I've read about Olaf and experienced it myself as an Olaf player, one of the main issues being that whenever Olaf casts Ragnarok, you feel like you're giving up a lot sometimes. In a duelist scenario, its current version is alright, but the problem is Olaf does not like split pushing. He doesn't have burst damage or natural mobility like Jax or Tryndamere, so this leaves him to attempt to teamfight.
The issue with Olaf's teamfighting is that Olaf rarely casts his ultimate for the bonus damage. In most scenarios, Olaf uses his ultimate to break any disables and get to the backline. By the time he reaches their carries, he may have 2 seconds or so left on Ragnarok, making the bonus attack damage he had not feel very good. So instead, I wanted to turn the fact he takes a large amount of damage from a weakness to a strength unique to him. This creates some interesting gameplay mechanics with this new mechanic.
For the enemy team, they know Olaf is now squishier, so they have a window of opportunity to attempt to burst him down, with the combination that Olaf has to pay health to use his Reckless Swing. However, if they fail to kill him, Olaf can turn that window of vulnerability into a deadly force. If Olaf chooses to commit to a brawl and not ditch after Ragnarok has ended and he's low health, he can bring a lot of pain for not being executed.
Now, you may ask, "Why not just give Olaf a gap closer instead of all these changes?"
Give a champion that has crowd control immunity a gap closer? Do you know how god-awful that would be to play against? What would enemy teams do if he hops on their carry instantly? Unless they have a team composition tailored just for countering Olaf with some absolutely atrocious disengage, you're going to have a bad time.
Another question you may ask, "Why can't Olaf cast Yggdrasil during Ragnarok?"
Well, basically it's because that if Olaf is bursted, the last thing we want to introduce is basically an ability that is guaranteed to go off. You can't crowd control him to stop the ability, and if he's quick enough he will get the ability off before he dies. So basically it's to make sure he can't abuse it and has to not die while committing to a fight and surviving.
Last question, "Why are you keeping that attack speed steroid on Olaf's W? Why not attack damage?"
Well, basically attack speed works very well with Olaf's current E, and also attack speed scales decently into late game. Also, we're trying to stress that Olaf is a high *sustained *damage champion, not a burst champion.
So that's my idea/concept for an 'update!' What's your opinion on this? What would you do instead? What are your ideas on what Olaf should do? <3 you Riot if I saw a red post, won't get my hopes up too much though =P
Thanks!
Edit1: Added a question.
Edit2: Alright, so based on some feedback I got from some other buddies of mine, here's a tweak:
Rather than Yggdrasil having this window after Ragnarok ends, instead chop out the idea that it needs to be an ability. Instead, make it so that it automatically triggers after Ragnarok has ended. Reasoning behind this is that if a team decides to not dps Olaf, that he can't just hold onto the ability for when they eventually have to deal with him, just for him to wreck them as a result because he still has it up.
Another idea was for that shockwave to slow enemies around him, but that seemed a bit excessive. Thoughts?
