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Olaf Build Guide by

Lord of the Treeline

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Olaf Build Guide By Updated on

Guide Discussion (10) More Olaf Guides

Spells:

Flash

Exhaust

Ability Order

Olaf Passive Ability

Revision History

Note that I'm constantly polishing and improving the aesthetics of this guide, so those minor updates won't be logged :)

10 September 2011

Began writing the guide

Added 'Revision History', 'Introduction', 'The Runes', 'The Masteries', and 'The Summoner Spells'

11 September 2011

Revised 'The Masteries' to reflect feedback from reppinFTC and Ssyrak

Added 'Pros and Cons', 'Match History', and 'The Skills'

14 September 2011

Added 'The Items' and 'The Summary'

Match History

Here I'll show a few matches of mine using this build :)

Here's a game I just had while taking a break from writing. My team had Gangplank and Nocturne, while the opposing was comprised of Jax, Corki, and Gragas. It was a solo queue'd game. Pretty fun :P

First game of the day. Had an Ezreal and Fiddle (who took top >:c) but Ez and I held bottom. Other team had a Katarina, Cho'Gath, and Nocturne. Solo queue.

Introduction

Keep in mind I'm in my mid-20s, so this might not be competent at level 30.

This is my attempt at an extensive, unorthodox build. I try to focus on three stats - Attack Damage, Critical Chance, and Life Steal; secondary stats being Cooldown Reduction, Attack Speed, and Armor Penetration. I often use this build in arranged 3s, and it dominates 80% of the time. Remember to solo-lane whenever possible. This is a build where you need to win fast - it has little late-game viability, but is insane early/mid-game.

The Runes

greater mark of desolation

Greater Mark of Desolation

These help complement 's amazing true damage by making Olaf's auto-attacks, and his , penetrate armor.

Greater Seal of Malice

By increasing Olaf's Critical Chance, we boost his effective healing (through Life Steal) and damage output greatly.

Greater Glyph of Focus

Reducing Olaf's cooldowns will allow for constant harass via as well as additional Attack Damage and Life Steal buffing through . It also lets Olaf and much more often.

greater quintessence of desolation

Greater Quintessence of Desolation

Again, complementing the given marks, we further increase Olaf's armor penetration, thereby allowing for near-true damage via and auto-attacks.

The Masteries

Offensive

Deadliness - 3/3

Additional Critical Chance is always nice for an auto-attack-centric champion.

Cripple - 1/1

This only benefits those who run Exhaust, obviously, and I happen to be one of those people.

Sorcery - 4/4

This compliments the Cooldown Reduction derived from the runes and items I've incorporated in this build.

Alacrity - 4/4

Again, another mastery that greatly aids all auto-attacking champions.

Sunder - 3/3

The additional 6 Armor Penetration (at rank 3) that this gives makes it an enticing mastery to dump points into.

Brute Force - 3/3

Olaf is one of the four champions whose abilities utilize Attack Damage only. Enough said.

Lethality - 3/3

We want to reach around 60% critical strike chance on Olaf. If we're critically striking an opponent every 3 out of 5 hits, why not increase how much that critical damage does?

Havoc - 1/1

I doubt I need to explain this, but doing 4% extra physical damage is good. It's as simple as that.

Utility

Good Hands - 3/3

Death is always a possibility. Seeing as how this is more relevant than or , I drop 3 points into it.

Perseverence - 1/3

The increased regeneration is negligible - the point is really only spent to advance to the second tier of the Utility tree, for the Awareness mastery.

Awareness - 4/4

This mastery will help you level faster, and since you're to be solo-laning, you don't need to worry about experience normalization :).

The Summoner Spells

Flash

Flash is an exceptionally amazing spell, one that can either save or end lives. Running it on a map as small and twisted as Twisted Treeline (no pun intended... okay, maybe so :P) is where you'll find it most useful.

Exhaust

Exhaust can be used to either slow an escaping enemy, ward off an assailant, or weaken any hostile that would do you harm. It is an extremely versatile spell, and often proves useful in a variety of situations.

Pros and Cons

This build is very experimental, and so I'll list some of its benefits and drawbacks.

Pros

Scary from level 1 to 18

Massive Life Steal coupled with allows for great 1v1 sustain as well as easy laning

Stacked Armor Penetration means that Olaf's and auto-attacks are capable of shredding through even the tankiest of champions

Low cooldowns means that Olaf is harder to kite, due to decreased downtime on and

Cons

Lacks the same survivability as the traditional 'Atmogs' build

Easily shut down by burst characters (, , et.) if they catch you off-guard

Heavily reliant on Life Steal; vulnerable to -type debuffs

Thornmail = gg

The Skills

Undertow

Advance at levels: 1, 14, 15, 17, 18

You'll use this skillshot to slow/execute/harass enemy champions and last hit minions. Always try and position this in such a way as to allow you to pick it back up, shaving 6 seconds off of its cooldown. It's worth remembering that if you activate prior to throwing, your axe will do more damage. I always max this last.

Vicious Strikes

Advance at levels: 3, 7, 9. 12, 13

A magnificent ability that you'll pretty much always want up whenever you're in combat. It's great for smashing towers, farming minions, and healing. Don't forget that you can a row of hostiles while this is up to heal for every target your axe passes through. I don't quite understand why it gives Spell Vamp, but whatever. :P

Reckless Swing

Advance at levels: 2, 4, 5, 8, 10

Olaf's signature move. An instant attack that you can use to fully penetrate any hostile's armor for maximum damage. Note that you cannot cast it if you're under the required health cost, as Olaf isn't that reckless! I like to level this up as soon as possible. It's high damage and low cooldown make it an awesome finisher.

Ragnarok

Advance at levels: 6, 11, 16

One of my favorite ultimates. You'll want to use this at the beginning of a fight in order to completely render yourself immune to snares, slows, suppressions--disables, period. Not only this, but it passively rewards Olaf with Armor Penetration as well as reducing incoming damage when activated.

The Items

Executioner's Calling

I like this weapon because it gives a good amount of Crit Chance as well as Life Steal (two main stats in this build) and puts a little DoT on the enemy every hit. This DoT, as miniscule as 32 dmg over 8 seconds may seem, has gotten me kills, believe it or not. Not only that, but its on-use ability is amazing! It's pretty much an Ignite, without the damage, with only a 20-sec cooldown.

Berserker's Greaves

You'd pretty much expect these boots on a character like Olaf. Tier two boots with a bonus 25% attack speed. :)

Youmuu's Ghostblade

This is a fantastic weapon. Not only does it give you Attack Damage and Crit Chance, but it also gives Cooldown Reduction and Armor Penetration - all relevant stats to this build. Not only this, but its on-use effect lets you rip through pretty much any champ who would dare 1v1 you.

Infinity Edge

The Infinity Edge - such an amazing piece of equipment. It gives Olaf a bunch of Attack Damage, lots of Crit Chance, and makes it so that his critical strikes do 250% damage. This means Olaf will start hitting way harder, and healing for way more because of it.

The Bloodthirster

This weapon gives Olaf exactly what he needs - more Attack Damage and Life Steal. Add in the fact that you can farm to buff this weapon up even more, and it's a definite buy.

The Black Cleaver]

Lastly we have this weapon, which will give Olaf more Attack Damage and more Attack Speed. It also shreds enemy armor, continuing the true damage theme of Olaf's.

The Summary

I hope my guide can help a few new Olafs smash face, and show a few veterans that the traditional 'Atmogs' build isn't the only way one can build an Olaf. Comment below, and thanks for reading!

deejKdeejK