Hey guys! First of all: This is my first guide, so don't be to hard with me. I am not a pro player and I don't claim to know everything. Secondly I would like to mention that this guide and the information provided is/are not a guarantee for you to own every game. Everything written here is just personal preferences and just "the way I do it". There are plenty of other options concerning masteries, runes and so on.
With that being said I hope this guide will help you to improve or to establish your Olaf jungling skill.

Everything is still under construction so don't judge by thinking this guide is complete to my understanding.

Actually I don't like pros and cons but since this is a standard at mobafire I'm going for it:

Pros
+ fast jungler
+ capable of being very tanky while still dealing a lot of damage
+ with his ultimate he is a good choice against any CC heavy team
+ can stay very long in fights due to his lifeleech
+ deals true damage

Cons
- can easily be kited
- Undertow + Ghost is the only Combo to enter a gank properly
- missing Undertow can ruin a gank
- gets low in the jungle and can therefore be killed by any good counter jungler

There is probably a lot more that one could mention, but this, to me, are the most important points.

Ghost is a must for Olaf. He can easily be kited, so this is often the only chance to ensure a kill. Combined with Undertow it is the best way of entering a gank.

Smite is an obvious choice, since we are jungling.

There are other spells you might pick instead of Ghost, but trust me Ghost is simply the best way.

As already mentioned in the introduction there are a lot of ways how you can build Olaf. That's why I'm just providing you with my choices and the reason I picked those particular runes.

First build, starting at double golems:

Quintessences: 3x Greater Quintessence of Desolation - Always a good choice on AD champions, even better if you are jungling, since you will deal lots more damage, which helps your sustainability in the jungle. It also keeps up your late game damage.

Marks: 9x Greater Mark of Attack Speed - Since you don't have any potions and lifeleech is the only way to gain health, I feel attackspeed is vital for jungling on this route. Furthermore it supports your overall jungling speed.

Seals: 9x Greater Seal of Armor - Simply for your survival early in the jungle.

Glyphs: 9x Greater Glyph of Attack Speed - This is kind of a really optional choice, but I feel they really push my damage. You can substitute these with magic resistance per level if you are having trouble late game. In my experience this isn't necessary, but it's up to you.


Second build, starting at Blue:

Quintessences: 3x Greater Quintessence of Desolation - For the same reason as above.

Marks: 9x Greater Mark of Desolation - Since you start at Blue Buff and can spam your Undertow very early I don't feel I need so much attackspeed on this route, but this is totally up to personal preference.

Seals: 9x Greater Seal of Armor - For the same reason as above.

Glyphs: 9x Greater Glyph of Attack Speed - As already stated this is really up to preferences, but in my experience it is good to have at least some attackspeed runes in your build.

This is the part I don't like about most guides and I probably won't like about my own. With Olaf it is really possible to play with any masteries, so it's hard to tell why I chose this particular ones and not something different, but I will give it a try:

The masteries of the two guides that are shown are not related to their jungling route as it was the fact with runes. So you can play around with them as you like and look what suits you best.

The first build's masteries is what I like to play at the moment. It provides additional health, attackspeed and overall a more tanky like feeling. What it lacks is movement speed, which in some situations might be vital to gain a kill.

The other mastery build focuses more on movement speed. The cooldown reduction enables you to spam abilities a bit more, although it is not a huge of a difference.

There is just one thing that you should stick to when doing your own masteries. I really advise you to keep the improved buff duration. Having the slow of red buff helps so much in almost any situation and blue buff will really speed up your early game jungling.

I will leave this section with this lame explanations and hope you figure out your own way or find that mine is working for you.

Items; a yeah, let's get to it:

In my opinion this is the core build you should almost always stick to:



Boots is really a choice item and is higly situational. I mostly grab attackspeed Boots, because I love having a good attackspeed even with full health points. But as usual if you are facing a high CC/AP team grab mercurys and against AD Ninja Tabis. You could go for Boots of Swiftness, but I don't think it's really worth sacryficing the other stats you could gain by chosing one of the other three options mentioned.

Of course there are games where a single enemy is fed and owning your whole team. In that case you should leave out an item and go for something that counters him. I'm not going to mention everything you might grab instead of anything in that or that case. This is totally up to experience and I won't argue about this point.

In this section there is actually only one thing to discuss:

VS.

Maxing Undertow early provides you with range, more damage and a better slow. Reckless Swings gives a lot of true damage.

This is a point where people argue about a lot. I can see the point of maxing Undertow first but in my opinion Reckless Swing just provides you more overall damage.
Undertow is a skillshot so you can miss it. Of course you can pick up the axe and spam it while chasing someone, but there is always the possibility you miss or that your enemy runs into a different direction and you won't be able to pick up the axe.

In my opinion Olaf is all about getting close to your enemy and then kill him in short time with massive damage. This is what Reckless Swing gives you. Once maxed it has a very low cooldown and you are able to throw it in even while camping an enemy tower.

You might ask yourself why I don't pick Reckless Swing as second skill. This is for the reason that you don't have enough health points to spam it early on. You only use Tough It Out, so you have enough mana to throw one or two axes each creepspot. Staying at at least half of your health ensures that you are not being one hitted when someones comes at you while jungling. After blue you will be able to spam Undertow endlessly. Also it gives you the opportunity to gank succesful earlier than if you skilled it at level 4.

This section is under construction. I will be adding a lot more Information soon, but I wanted to publish this guide first.

Soon Coming:
- Video of jungling routes
- Pictures
- Places to ward

For now I will be explaining both jungling routes:

Start at double golems:
1. In the best case let someone pull for you, if not it is ok. Activate Tough It Out as soon as one of the golem attacks you. Let them do one or two hits, then use Smite. If you got a pull Smite the one that has full health points, if not use it on the one you started attacking. Since you gain lifeleech and spellvamp during Tough It Out, Smite will give you back health. Finish them with auto attacks.
You should hit level 2 now and skill Undertow.

2. Head to wraiths. Throw Undertow in the middle of them so that it just at the edge reaches the big ghost. Activate Tough It Out, kill the big ghost first. Depending on how low you are use Tough It Out another time to lifeleech some health.

3. Head to wolves. Undertow the three of them, activate Tough It Out and kill the big wolve first. If you didn't use Vicious Strikes] at the wraiths, then you should do now. For your third skill take [[Vicious Strikes.

4. Head to Blue. Wait a few seconds for your Vicious Strikes] to be off cooldown. Then [[Undertow and auto attack the big golem with activated Tough It Out. Use Smite when the golem is around 500 health. If you feel you don't survive without an early use of Smite by all means use it, while Tough It Out is on to get some health. Just be sure an enemy is not taking your golem with his Smite or a good aimed skill / auto attack.

5. Now you should back to base, buy your items and start red. Act as before at blue. Now or before starting red is a good time for a gank.


Start at Blue:

1. Get someone to pull blue for you. Auto attack and as soon as the golem attacks you use a health potion and Tough It Out. Once the golem is around 450 health points use Smite. Skill Undertow.

2. Head to wolves and use Undertow right in front of yourself so that he automatically picks up the axe instantly. Enable Tough It Out and kill the big wolve first.

3. Head to Wraiths again use Undertow in the middle of them so that you hit all four of them. Activate Tough It Out, take a health potion and kill the big ghost first. You should hit level 3 by now and skill Tough It Out.

4. Head to Red. Depending on how fast you went by now you should wait some seconds so that Smite has around ~ 15 seconds cooldown. Start with Undertow on to the lizard, activate Tough It Out. Keep on throwing Undertow so that you pick it up instantly. Smite the lizard at around 500 health.

5. Go to double golems. Undertow them and use Tough It Out. Depending on how much life you have left. Now is a good chance to either gank or go back in base to buy items.

There are some things you should know / do when jungling. I will just state some general rules in no specific order:

Red Lizard and Blue Golem have a respawn time of 5 minutes and first spawn at 1:55.

Wraiths, wolves and double golems initially spawn at 1:40 and have a respawn time of 1:40.

If you have a mana AP carry mid always give him second blue buff and ask him if he also needs the buff in the future.

If you see a fight on any lane, stop jungling or what ever you are doing and head there.

Remember at what time you killed dragon, red and blue in order to know when it respawns. This often helps timing and whether you are going back to base or not. This accounts especially for dragon.

Ask your teammates regularly if they need a gank or you to take over the lane for a second. Often they desperately need help because they get outfarmed but are just not into asking and just assume you have the overview over every lane.

Take the role your team needs. If they need a tank: get tanky. If they need damage: get a real Viking and slaughter them.



There is probably a lot more I could say, but since this is a jungling guide for Olaf and not a general jungle guide I won't state more.
Nevertheless I advise you to read this guide about jungling by Hahano: Hahano's Jungling Guide
It provides really helpful information for new and advanced players as well.

I hope I could give you a good insight on how jungling with Olaf works and that it is really fun.

I'm open for constructive criticism. If you have any further questions comments or what so ever feel free to comment or leave me a message on this board.


Greetings Lukorn.