Olaf needs changes (again)

Draceaux··1 votes·671 views

TL;DR - Olaf's Undertow (Q) needs a movespeed boost for him when he runs towards it, just to see if that would help his kiting issues and win rate.

I love playing Olaf and the playstyle of Olaf (the low health = stronger playstyle), but I think he needs changes again. I hate using comparisons as to not cause homogenization, but take Skarner or Trundle for example. Closer to 50% win rate. Both have a SLOW and a movespeed buff. They all 3 have aspd buffs, they all 3 have mitigation (Olaf's W's lifesteal, Trundle's AD debuff and ult, and skarner's W and ult). I just find it kind of strange that we're so worried about Olaf's balance that he's remained untouched for some time. Skarner can slow, gain movespeed, and even more movespeed via Q AND Triforce/frozen gauntlet. Trundle can slow an area, gain a movespeed area, stick better with the Q slow AND triforce. Olaf can aoe los slow and pick his axe up, yes, but that's rarely the case, he still has no movespeed buff, and triforce/frozen gauntlet isn't the greatest item for him, because E'ing too much hurts, and he's so item reliant (youmoo's/frozen mallet/righteous glory) if he wants to have that same-ish stick ability. Sinking early gold into frozen mallet or youmoo's is detrimental to his kit and playstyle. He needs the free reign to pick up hydra or botrk first like fiora, trundle, jax, and the other similar bruisers. I feel that if move speed was added to his kit (W is already too heavy with the aspd/lifesteal/lifesteal increase passive) he'd be better in line (at least we could try and see) with other champs. Adding movespeed to the direction he throws his axe would help him stick to people better or decide to throw it in front of him to get away from people like skarner/udyr/tryndamere/others can do just by simply pushing a button. Just having that extra option on him to throw his axe and him go running after it would help tremendously and not break him. Not to mention Q costs would keep that in check sorta like a blue-less udyr spamming away his bear speed.

7 Comments

EffectFX1 votes

Or you could try building that new catalyst item.

You keep forgetting that Olaf can be completely immune to CC where as skarner and trundle not so much.

Draceaux1 votes

I included that item in the description above. The cc immunity only gets olaf so far when you can't stick to people/kited/forced to build one of the movement speed items. Righteous Fury is 3 seconds long and still more or less REQUIRES him to build either that, frozen mallet or youmoo's which are all 3 different playstyles and hinder his entire itemization, further pigeon-holing one of these 3 items just to receive sub-par versions of the other champ's built in "stickiness".

EffectFX1 votes

As long as he is capable of being CC immune he will never have their stickiness, you'll just have to deal with it.

Draceaux1 votes

I think something similar to captain shoes placed on his axe would not be game breaking. more than 10% move speed, but still focused towards his axe so he can throw it away to escape or throw it in to better gap close. super unfair ult or not, his win rate has been 42-46% forever. I don't think a movespeed towards axe addition would put him at current warwick-level broken or overpowered.

Disregarding win rate or not, just playing him compared to other champs you can feel his complete reliance on sub-par or pigeon-holed items like ghost, righteous fury, youmoo's, and STILL not be able to gap close all the time. The game has adapted and adopted the jukes/gap close/in-out gameplay style. He doesn't have that. Gimping his itemization (when he's already highly item reliant, excluding movespeed boost items) doesn't even make up for this completely.

blubabby1 votes

Does EVERYONE forget that item 3142 is still core on him? Or am I the only person who buys this?

Draceaux1 votes

I understand that this is considered core on him (and mentioned it in my original post), but it obviously isn't enough and no one else realizes it is core. Look at his most bought items and you'll see most people build him tanky. He has no cc, so building him tanky makes him hit like a wet noodle considering the AD ratio added to E to keep people from building him pure HP and being broken. He then brings little to the team without AD. Building him damage-based with youmoo's gives him a way in OR a way out, but not both. He is then open to being bursted down, especially if he has no tank items yet or no lifesteal items yet (considering his necessity to have youmoo's or righteous). Overall, I still believe he is more item-reliant and item-pigeon-holed than other similar champions. I like that with the newest patch youmoo's and righteous are on his recommended item paths, as they are more or less required, but his consistently low win rate still needs some help. I personally build him either hybrid or pure AD and still only achieve a 50-52% win rate with him. My best streak was the release of Feral Flare when it was considered over power - I had a 32 game win streak with Jungle Olaf.

LANWhale1 votes

Why not make it so when he lands the axe (or hits a unit) he gains a movement speed buff? That seems to make more sense with the whole viking feel.

Or, just for the giggles, make his Q have a passive that every time he hits a enemy he gets a MS buff but when he kills a unit he gets a larger MS buff, kinda like item 3044 but is also applied onto his Q. Might make item 3078 seem stronger on him but is that really a bad thing?

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