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Olaf Rework, Putting the Viking back into League

Mongobear·12/6/2015, 2:07:07 AM·3 votes·657 views

Before we get to the meat of this post, I suppose a bit of background is in order.

I have always loved Olaf. Ever since I began playing way back in Season 1, he has always been a personal favorite champ of mine, even when patch after patch, and nerf after nerf has gone by and rendered him nearly useless, compared to modern day champions with all of these fancy Dashes/Leaps/Charges/Teleports/Blinks/etc. I always try to play him now and again, whenever something such as the Juggernaut patch a few months ago, or Jungle reworks are done, but I always come back around to the same conclusion: His kit is outdated and non-competitive in today's "Mobility Era."

So, I have tinkered around a bit with a way to modernize his kit, while maintaining his identity as "A Raging Viking that just throws himself into battle regardless of the odds stacked against him."

Now, without further adieu, my idea for a modernization of Olaf:

> Passive: Might of the Lokfar - Olaf deals increased damage the lower his current health becomes. For every 1% of his maximum health Olaf is missing, his attacks and abilities deal 1% more damage to a maximum of 50% extra damage at 25/30/35/40/45/50% of his maximum health based on level. > > Olaf's basic attacks and abilities generate a point of Rage when used on enemy champions or jungle monsters. He may have up to 5 Rage at any given time. When used at full Rage, Olaf's abilities consume all of his Rage, and have a bonus effect. >

A double passive introducing an alternative resource system similar to Rengar's as well as his actual passive, which is a damage boost the closer to death he gets.

The intention is that as the game progresses and Olaf levels up, he can achieve the same damage boost without dropping as far in his hp to do so. Early game, Olaf will only reach the maximum damage bonus when he is at or below 25% of his maximum hp, but by level 16+ he will reach the full damage bonus when at or below 50% of his max health.

> Q: Undertow - Olaf gathers his might and throws one of his axes in a line ahead of him. Enemies struck by the axe have their movement speed slowed for 4 seconds. Olaf will generate 1 point of Rage if the axe strikes an Enemy Champion, Rift Scuttler or large/epic jungle minion. Olaf's axe will then become lodged in the ground at the end of its path for a short time, and if he walks near it he will pick it up and reduce the cooldown of Undertow by 4 seconds. Enemy champions may stand near an axe lodged in the ground for two seconds to claim it themselves, removing it from the battlefield and removing the ability for Olaf to retrieve it. > > Range: 750 > Damage: 25/50/75/100/125 (+100% AD) > Move Speed Slow: 30/33/36/39/42% > Cooldown: 15/14/13/12/11 seconds > > If used at maximum Rage, he may recast Undertow within 4 seconds and leap forward to where his axe has landed, damaging enemies in the area again, and knocking them up for 1 second. > > Range: 750 > Area of Effect: 150 > Damage: 25/50/75/100/125 (+100% AD) >

His Q remains functionally the same, but it has a secondary effect now that allows him to have a real gap closer if used with his maximum Rage ability boosting effect, but also allows enemies to interact with the axe, similar to Rek'sai tunnels.

Lowered the cast range a small amount to account for the new jump functiionality.

> W: Vicious Swings - Olaf's basic attacks occasionally deal bonus true damage to his target and himself. He may activate Vicious Swings to gain bonus Lifesteal, as well as increased healing and regeneration. > > Passive: Olaf's 9/8/7/6/5th basic attack deals bonus true damage to himself and his target equal to 1/2/3/4/5% of his maximum health. If this attack kills the target, Olaf is refunded the damage dealt to himself. This damage does not trigger if Olaf is below 5% of his maximum health. > Active: Olaf gains 10/13/16/19/22% Lifesteal and all healing and regeneration effects on him are increased by an amount equal to his damage bonus from Might of the Lokfar for 6 seconds. > > Cooldown: 20/18/16/14/12 seconds > > If used at maximum Rage, Olaf's basic attacks also deal 20/30/40/50/60% to 60/70/80/90/100% of their damage to enemies near the target on hit for the duration. >

A merger of Olaf's old W and E, he now passively deals a thunderous blow every so many attacks, similar to his old E, and the active portion gives Lifesteal and increased Healing/Regen equal to his damage bonus from his passive.

If used with his Rage bonus, he gains a temporary effect similar to the Cleave from Ravenous Hydra, but slightly more powerful at higher skill ranks.

> E: Berserker's Slam - Olaf slams the ground infront of him with both axes, dealing damage in a cone to enemies nearby. > > Range: 550 > Damage: 60/90/120/150/180 (+120% Bonus AD) > Cooldown: 10 seconds > > If used at maximum Rage, Olaf reduces the armor of all enemies struck by the shockwave by 35%. >

A new skill added to replace the merged W and E from his old kit. A basic AoE cone, about the size as Annies W that can be used to shred armor if used with his Rage bonus.

> R: Ragnarok - Olaf calls forth a blessing from his ancestors, causing him to be immune to all disables and other crowd control effects while inside the zone for 6 seconds. Enemies caught inside of the AoE of Ragnarok are knocked back a short distance and stunned briefly by the surge of power from Olaf's ancestors. Olaf gains a protective shield equal to 25% of all damage he deals to enemy champions and epic monsters while effected by Ragnarok. While under the effects of Ragnarok, Olaf's abilities always receive the bonus effect for being at maximum Rage. If Olaf slays an enemy champion while effected by Ragnarok, its duration is increased by 1 second, up to a maximum total duration of 8/10/12 seconds. > > Area of Effect: 1000 > Cooldown: 100 seconds >

His new(ish) Ultimate, redone to actually make it function as a teamfight enabler/initiation tool. It still renders Olaf immune to disables, as it always has, and now protects him via generating a shield similar to Bloodthirster when he deals damage. Olaf also causes his abilities to always receive the Rage bonus effect if used during Ragnarok.

EDIT: And I don't like the formatting of these boards, it didnt separate the skills/explanations in quotes like I tried to do when typing.

4 Comments

masterdragon48112/6/2015, 2:41:17 AM1 votes

This........is actually a really cool idea for a rework.

First, my favorite part of the rework is the new R, which fixes his "run the carry down and don't care about anything else" attitude by putting a zone of immunity instead of a buff on him at all times. Additionally, I really like all the buffs he gets during it. BUT, I would question your decision to give knockback/stun to the ability as well; from two sides. One, its already doing so much this might be overkill. And 2, you are knocking people back, as in closer to escaping your CC immune zone.....kinda counter productive no?

Now onto the not so good things.

Since you are removing mana from Olaf, his Q can't slow. Its just that simple. You can't give someone that is CC immune (even if its in a zone), has a gap closer, and has the kinda damage you want to give him the ability to permaslow a target as well. This has long been a problem when balancing Olaf and will continue to be until someone mans up and just gets rid of the slow. By giving a conditional gap closer (of sorts, it can't really go through walls), I think you have paved the way for this perma slow to finally disappear.

I think the W might be a little too strong (also annoying that I am forced to hurt myself, but hey, hes a berserker so I guess it makes sense), and I sorta voiced my concerns with his ultimate when I was praising it (ironically). I would be a little concerned that his ultimate is a little overloaded also; the bloodthirster effect might be overkill (considering you've already given him hyper healing). Finally, I think the passive might be too strong, but I like the idea and it might be more of a matter of changing the health values (50% missing health for +50% damage is a VERY powerful steroid).

Overall though, I really like this kinda update considering you never see Olaf anymore..........

Neamean12/6/2015, 9:15:01 AM1 votes

This was really a good read but I feel that I should remind you that he is a Juggernaut and I feel that Riot would not accept a Juggernaut with a gap closer and tons of CC.

Also I feel that you made him too close to a fighter like Irelia. Olaf can just build atk speed and jump and carry and decimate them he can't be peel off though which would be problematic.

I guess all I'm trying to say is to reevaluate the kit and see if X, Y, and Z is appropriate on a juggernaut. Remove the gap closer maybe instead of dashing to his axes he just get a movement speed buff running towards it.

Lastly kind of a personal opinion, it is to take a look at Shyvanna because I think she is the quintessential example of an auto atk reliant Juggernaut. However she is kind of the opposite of Olaf in that she speed herself up while Olaf slow the target down. It might be a bad idea to look at a champion who are similar because you don't want to create the same play style because it just become who does it better but I think it a good idea to see what succeed on her and to know what can benefit Olag.