Pros:



+ Good early game damage with Reckless Swing.
+ Great chaser with Undertow if you can land it.
+ Decimates carries with his "True Damage".
+ Can soak up a lot of damage and extremely hard to kill late-game.

Cons:



- Prone to early game harassment and easily kited.
- Mana problems early game when being aggressive without Blue Buff.
- No natural escape mechanism pre-6.
- One of the most item/gold dependent champions in the game.

Viable Runes

Most people use teleport getting back to their lanes after recalling back, thinking "Oh, it's just a summoner spell to help me farm more!" Wrong. If you think that's what it's for, DO NOT GET IT! Teleport can be used defensively (The most obvious way) as-well as offensively (In ways many people do not exploit). Your team setting up for dragon? Push lane, recall to base, run to dragon, get it before the enemy even notice, and TP back to lane like nothing happened (OR Vice Versa). Read the section on teleport for tips and tricks on how to use it appropriately.





Ghost vs Flash. It's a common debate and in my opinion, it differs for each champ. Since Olaf is tanky, ghost proves more useful than flash because of the lower CD, and better distance covered by it in total. And it seems that after the Flash nerf, although it isn't much, ghost is definitely the better alternative for me.





Pretty viable on Olaf, probably the best choice after Ghost, although for some peoples play style it might even prove more useful. Try it out and see which suits you. However, this remains to be the seen after the Flash nerf.



Useful for health regen champs like Mundo and for finishing of fleeing champs, but I find that with ghost/exaust and your Undertow/Reckless Swing, finishing them off is an easy task.



Can help you get back to lane faster or defend/backdoor at will, but 1 of your means for chasing/escaping has to be taken away, which I feel is not a worthy substitute. Again, personal preference.

If your Solo Top however, which you most likely will be, check who is most likely to be your opponent. If it's someone you can dominate easily, get Exhaust where-as if it's someone who might give you some trouble, or your playing with premade's and Dragon is an actual objective as opposed to most pubbies, get this. Although in blind pick, I usually get this as you never know how good of a team your'e gonna get/face off against.



It's obvious that you must take this if jungling, and don't think, for even one second that you can, or rather should, jungle without this. No doubt if youv'e been playing a while you will probably have seen champions like WW jungle without a smite once in a while ... well, not only does it slow you down, but you have no real guarantee of protecting your buffs, dragons and barons from an enemy team so yea ...


The rest you ask...? Well their not even worth mentioning for Olaf!

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• There are things to keep in mind when picking teleport.Do NOT use this all the time for getting back to lane when there is no evident threat to your tower. And no, 3-4 minions and your opponent at it while tower is Half-Full HP dosen't count as a threat.

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• Team at a stale-mate somewhere not near you? Carry on pushing your lane... HARD. The enemy will have to decide to either come gank you, or loose a turret. If they come to gank you, you team can push where-ever they were a minute ago. Let's look at this scenario:

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• Your in top lane vs lets say, a Cho' Gath, and the rest of your team + enemy's team are middle lane. You notice 1-? of them coming up to gank you. You go in a bush, but getting out frequently so not to deter the ganker, and as soon as they get like, past halfway the river, TP to ward in mid, engage 5v3 and win the fight.

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• If they decide not to come gank you (while you still have their top laner with you) and they initiate, good for you. TP mid, and clean up as it will become 5v4 (Unless their top has TP up too) ^^

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• However, if they decide to to leave you completely alone, and engage in mid 5v4, you MUST, MUST go help mid rather than getting the tower unless it's like 1-2 hits away from falling.

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For each 1% health missing, Olaf's attack speed is increased by 1%.

This will make your attack speed go through the roof when low on health, but can be a problem as Olaf has pretty low ASpd without items when full with health.





Olaf throws an axe to a target location, dealing 50 / 90 / 130 / 170 / 210 (+1 per bonus attack damage) physical damage to units it passes through and slowing them by 24 / 28 / 32 / 36 / 40% for 2.5 seconds. If Olaf picks up the axe, the ability's cooldown is reduced by 6 seconds.

Does what the description says. In the recent patch, this has been changed to +1 AD ratio but now results from BONUS AD only. So see your starting 55 AD (Usually), that won't count for 55 extra damage. Although Tough It Out now increases the damage this does, DO NOT DO IT. Read the E section for more info.

This skill is what differentiates the "Good" Olaf's from the "Bad" Olaf's. Also, this is your only from of CC (slow) so you must use it wisely when chasing or running. Also note that throwing this somewhere will reveal a small area around where the axe lands for a short time, so it is a good tool for checking bushes.

Scenario 1: Olaf is chasing a Xin Zhao who is 1 Reckless Swing away from death, but has greater MSpd than you. Olaf uses undertow at full range, hits Xin, but he still manages to get away as the slow did not last long enough and wasn't that strong for you to catch up.

Scenario 2: Exactly the same as 1, but this time, Olaf uses his Undertow to hit just ahead of Xin, so he is able to pick it back up, and throw it again giving you enough slow time to Reckless Swing that Asian pain the the butt to death.

You decide which is better.





For 6 seconds, Olaf's attack damage is increased by 7 / 14 / 21 / 28 / 35 base damage plus 1% of his max health. While active, Olaf gains 9 / 12 / 15 / 18 / 21% lifesteal and spell vamp

In the latest patch, Undertow now has increased damage with Bonus AD, which at first seems nice that your E will give you lots of extra damage on it..but no. Seriously, don't ever use it to increase your Undertow damage when chasing someone. If it's just for harass, fine, but you are a complete idiot if you do it while chasing someone you want to kill (Unless they are extremely low, and will die if you use E to boos your Q)

The lifesteal/spell vamp isn't noticeable until rank 3 or so, but the AD bonus is definitely nice. You always want to be using this in fights. Never think that the life-steal will prevent you from getting low HP to benefit from your passive is better than the AD bonus and a potential life-saver.





Olaf deals 100/160/220/280/340 True Damage to his target and 40/64/88/112/136 true damage to himself.

Your main nuking ability Early-Mid game, and late game tank mince-meat maker also. It dosen't scale that well into late-game, as 360 damage isn't much, but if it was increased, maxing it early and utter dominating early-mid would be too OP. Use this with your Undertow combo in lane for harrasing you laner. And since the mana cost has been taken off, it's even more useful. Also, the reason I now go with Armor and HP pots is so that I can repeatedly use this skill and recover the damage I take from Opponent/Minions/Skill usage.





Active: For 6 seconds, Olaf breaks all CC on him currently and is immune to disables. Also gives flat Armor/Magic Resist: Passive: Olaf has 30/45/60 increased armour penetration.


In some ways this is better, in some ways it is worse. The flat 60 MR/Armor isn't bad, and although the previous flat damage reduction which workes for DoT's like ignite e.t.c doesn;t apply to this now, it is still....o.k.

1.The passive is not to be ignored. 30 Armor Pen is quite a lot.
2.Immune to ALL disables. Any form of CC, e.g. stun,silence,fear,slow e.t.c. And now breaks any your'e in currently as-well ^-^
3. 60 Armor/MR just makes you tankier and tankier.

This is what makes you that "Anti-Carry". Rushing in, immune to all forms of CC, soaking up quite a bit of damage, completely obliterating the opponent carry then running out like it's a walk in the park, only with a angry bunch of mob attacking you with everything they got. All in a day's work for Olaf! ;)

Balanced Team

I sometimes start off with this (Mostly in Twisted Treelin only though) as it can really help save your *** when you would have otherwise died without it.





Another items which nearly always make, no matter what the enemy team composition. Helps you slow down enemies as early on, your Undertow probably won't be good enough. Not to mention the health bonus.

After phage, you must look at the enemy team, and ask yourself the questions I wrote above. Ill re-illiterate: Is their team AD or AP based, or is it very balanced? If it is balanced, who poses the most threat? With the answers to those questions, you decide on what to build. The other viable options will be explained in the "Situational Items" section

Start working on this, but I usually get Giant's Belt before finishing this, (After the Phage of-course) as Phage does not provide enough of a health bonus early on, so getting Giant's Belt can make you that much more tanky. The go for Zeal for that extra Movement Speed and ASPD and then Sheen. Why zeal first? I find that sheen's passive is useless if you can't catch up to enemies, and Olaf is pretty slow. although if your'e ok with catching up to them, get Sheen first.





The health bonus synergies's well with your Vicious Strike and helps you take a lot more damage. The thing with Olaf is that you can build a lot of tanky items, and still get a fearsome amount of damage due to Vicious Strike and Reckless Swing. It's like this item was Tailor Made for Olaf! <3





Not only does this give you 18% Critical Strike and 45 armour, as just health is useless, it synergies's EXTREMELY well with HP items, namely Warmog's/Frozen Mallet which are very common on Olaf. At first glance, 2% might not seem much, but with 4k hp, this adds up to 80 AD. And that's a whopping amount for an item costing only 2.3k!!





The health regen is great, especially when you have 4k+ hp, making it around 40 HP per 5 + 14 per 1 sec = 110 HP regen per 5 seconds. The movement speed bonus is not it's main factor, but don't under-estimate it. Now here comes the main part, 76 magic resist. The most on 1 item in the whole game!! Feel free to swap Atmas - This order depending on how well you are doing.





This is a great finishing item to get on Olaf after games have dragged on too long. Sell your wriggles and get this to be truly feared. There's 1 in a million chance of you dying, unless your'e team/you are stupid, and getting this means pretty much securing a win for your team if they are at-least smart enough to back you up. But don't get overly cocky, running in 1v5 thinking your totally un-kilable is well... I'll leave you to find out what it is.

Boots

These are pretty standard boots, the ones I usually use, since most of the time, I am facing against a pretty balanced team composition, with some form of CC or another. Also, the 25 MR is also very useful as they will be looking to burst you down before you get too tanky/strong for them to handle, so they really help. The Tenacity is no joke either, as it helps a LOT, especially when your against people such as Fiddlesticks/ Le Blanc/ Rammus e.t.c





If you feel that there isn't any Major threat from CC or AP casters, these would definitely be a great choice. The Aspd is useful on any AD champ, and its definitely not an exception on Olaf, as his Aspd is fairly low, unless missing a lot of your health to fully utilize your passive.





Not seen on Olaf much, but if you feel than you are not in need of Aspd or MR/Tenacity, feel free to get these as they help greatly in chasing/escaping since Olaf is a fairy slow champion.





Facing off against champs like Tryndamere, Master Yi, Miss Fortune and they seem to be getting too much of a thereat? Or simply because their team is made up of 3 AD carries or more? Get these! The dodge chance and the 25 Armour certainly prove useful against those pesky champs.

Offensive

- VS -

Trinity Force VS Frozen Mallet: After you get Phage (ALWAYS Phage first!), decide on weather to build it into a Trinity Force or a Frozen Mallet. It's pretty straight forward, get Frozen Mallet if you need more survivability, as that 700 HP bonus is not to be ignored, as-well as the guaranteed slow from Frozen Mallet rather than the 25% chance on Trinity force, since the slow from Undertow sometimes is not enough.

Or get Trinity Force if you are doing well (And have a main tank) since the movement speed bonus as-well as damage buff proc when you spam your Reckless Swing (Unless it's a easy fight, or a 1v1/2v2 e.t.c, then use it to finish some-one on low HP) is certainly useful. Not to mention all the other goodies it has to offer.





Bloodthirster: This is a great item for Olaf, as it provides a hefty 60 AD bonus,not counting the extra 40 you get when maxed stacks, as-well as the life steal, which synergies's great with your Tough It Out . You can swap out any item after Trinity Force/Frozen Mallet, although Warmogs+Atmas would be a better choice, considering this build is focused towards the fact that your team doesn't have a proper full-on tank.





Phantom Dancer: Not as good as it is on champions such as Master Yi, but that doesn't mean its not good! the movement speed really helps, as-well as the 55% Attack Speed since Olaf's normal ASpd at full health is quite low. The 30% critical strike is nothing to look down at either! Buy this as a substitute to preferably Force of Nature + onwards.





Black Cleaver: This can be quite useful if the enemy team is building armour or just consists of champs with high armour. Not only does it apply a -15 armour reduction (Stacking 3x for -45), it gives great Aspd too. Can be really useful getting through those enemies defences, as 340 True Damage late game isn't really enough to damage someone late game when they have 3k+ HP paired with high armour.

Defensive

Randuin's Omen: This is the last item, and also the one most likely to be swapped around each game (That is, if you mange to get this far). It does what it says it does. Nice amount of armour,5% CD Reduction, 350 HP and a chance to slow the attackers movement AND attack speed by 35% for 3 seconds.

Also, the active (60 sec CD) slows the ASpd and Mspd of all surrounding enemies by 35% for 2 seoncds (+0.5 per 100 Arm/MR, so 1.5 + 2 = 3.5 with this "build"). Quite useful for shutting down Aspd champs like Master Yi.





Banshee's Veil: Against a heavy CC team? No problem. Not only does this give you 375 HP+MP and 55 MR, it also has an awesome passive which blocks 1 un-friendly ability targeted towards you every 45 seconds. But be careful not to get this popped before a team-fight by the likes of Ashe. This could substitute for Force of Nature but I wouldn't personally recommend it. Why? Well you Ragnarok is basically this, only lasting a lot longer.

If you feel that you are having to use you ultimate quite frequently, and don't always have it up when facing off in team fights, feel free to get this.





Thornmail: Having a tough time with AD carries in the enemy team? No worry, with this baby and your usual 3-4k HP, you can treat them to some of their own medicine. Returns 30% of all incoming AD damage back to the attacker. Not forgetting to mention the 100 armour bonus (Highest in the game!) all for 2000 gold! I would suggest getting any time you think you need it, preferably after your first 2 main items - Boots, Trinity/Frozen Mallet. But only get this is you think you cannot win without it. Getting it while you can win fights without the need of this is a waste.

Item Build

Runes

Jungle Routes