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Recommended Items
Runes: STANDARD
1
2
Precision
Inspiration
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+2% Movement Speed
+10-180 Bonus Health
Spells:
1
2
3
STANDARD
Flash
Ghost
Items
Ability Order GENERIC SKILL ORDER
Berserker Rage (PASSIVE)
Olaf Passive Ability
Threats & Synergies
Extreme
Major
Even
Minor
Tiny
None
Low
Ok
Strong
Ideal
Akali
Zilean
Very good with Olaf, the speedups make him impossible to escape unless you Flash or dash over walls
Ideal
Strong
Ok
Low
None
Zilean
Very good with Olaf, the speedups make him impossible to escape unless you Flash or dash over walls
Champion Build Guide
ABOUT ME/ FUTURE GUIDES
ABOUT ME
On League I go by Federals1, and since 2018 I have hit challenger with at least 900 lp every single season.

I have also hit Challenger on EUW

I was also the number 1


Over the years have gotten top 10/5 on








I will be livestreaming at https://www.twitch.tv/federals123 , so if you want to check it out and see how it's going be sure to tune in! I will be answering any questions and trying to give my thought process while playing, giving general tips and such. I hope if you end up checking it you will enjoy your time.
FUTURE GUIDES
I will be making more guides in the future, some already being in the works. My goal is to make a guide for every single champion I am extremely confident with, and ones I've been playing for a very long time where I have unique insights to share.
I am currently working on multiple guides but I cannot give an exact date when they will be out. I will post them gradually as I finish them, so if you want to see when they are out for a new champion you can follow and be up to date. To make sure they are done quicker not all of them will them will have a matchup spreadsheet at the start, that alone takes me a week by itself, it's massive.
TIP BEFORE LANE STARTS
While you wait in the loading screen, or even before minions spawn, go on an external website and check what runes your opponent has. I use op. gg or u. gg, but any website that show runes in full works. You will be able to see exactly what your opponent's runes are, and it can play a big part in your very first trade and knowing exactly how you might want to play out the first few waves. Here's an example: you see the enemy has
Resolve secondary. It's extremely important to see what he has in
Resolve. You can check and let's say they have
Bone Plating and
Overgrowth. Now you know you should play out your first trade a bit differently, trying to proc down
Bone Plating first, or knowing that if you go for a trade he has that extra block power. This is something you should look to do every single game to gain an advantage.





MATCHUP SPREADSHEET
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1VNP-vbM1ql2DlDQXK077kSBRDaJln62MsKeGxE4L0H0/edit?usp=sharing
Here you will find every single champion matchup in the entire game and the way I tend to play them most often.
Here you will find every single champion matchup in the entire game and the way I tend to play them most often.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
xMid Game xLate Game
xCombos xAll final items explained |
xPros xCons |
EARLY GAME




The one thing you have to watch out for when going to fight the enemy laner is that you can get ganked. There's actually a lot of times when you can just turn it around and kill both players, but typically it's best not to challenge it and just try to back off. You will automatically push the wave because of your Q

If you actually manage to kill your enemy laner and it's first blood, you can recall and buy







Level 6 is another big spike for







Due to your high early game pressure you can always secure priority for Voidgrubs







MID GAME
This is by far
Olaf's strongest point. His item synergy is insane and his power level is through the roof. Typically by this point you should have at least 2 completed items, usually
Ravenous Hydra and
Experimental Hexplate, but not always the case. With just 2 completed items you can take over the game and start to get your other 2 core items.
Into any champion that wants to cc you down and kite you, you can pop ult
and kill them every single time.
Ashe is a perfect example. No matter what she does she cannot peel you off her, unless she Flashes
over a wall but that's something anyone can do really. It's actually on her team to have enough damage to kill you because peeling through cc is literally impossible, and that's another thing with
Olaf. The enemy team is either equipped with some very specific champions to deal with you, or you can quite literally walk into 3,4 and in rare cases even all 5 people and kill every single of them of them if you are strong enough.
The reason
Olaf is so insanely strong mid game is due to his kit and what his abilities do and because his item synergy is insane. His "full build" will almost always be
Ravenous Hydra,
Experimental Hexplate,
Death's Dance and
Maw of Malmortius. Even though you don't have every item slot used with this build, this is basically the full build for him. It's when he has his peak power and the sooner you get it the better. If you get to this and the enemy is behind they have 2 options to deal with you: either try to kite your ult out and let it drop off, or have enough damage to burst you down instantly. If they can't do either of those things, they straight up die. You can walk into the middle of 5 people and instantly kill their priority target because their only form of peeling you off that target is killing you.
You can look to split push a side lane, generally the lane opposite to the main objective, and force people to come deal with you. If they send just one person and you are fed you can dive them and then take the turret. That being said, there are some champions who do beat you in the 1v1 on side lane at this point, but they are more direct counterpicks and champions that beat you in lane as well. In those matchups
Olaf's job becomes to group for teamfighting, looking to kill the immobile enemies. It's very rare an entire team has all their champions be able to deal with you running in, so you should at least get one.



Into any champion that wants to cc you down and kite you, you can pop ult




The reason





You can look to split push a side lane, generally the lane opposite to the main objective, and force people to come deal with you. If they send just one person and you are fed you can dive them and then take the turret. That being said, there are some champions who do beat you in the 1v1 on side lane at this point, but they are more direct counterpicks and champions that beat you in lane as well. In those matchups

LATE GAME
You really do not want to get this point with
Olaf. By this point the enemies start to get their items and it takes you longer to kill people. If you rush in headfirst into a fight late game you will more often than not get burst instantly due to the high damage that is present. You actually need to wait for an opening to go and get a pick, and even then it can still be very hard to find it, as you can still get anihilated by high damage. However, if you can find yourself a kill quickly you can snowball the fight. You just need that one initial kill, the issue is that it's extremely hard to reliably get that first pick.
There's still a lot of matchups you can 1v1 even in the late game, but it is much harder to do so reliably and some matchups you would beat out in the early and mid game become close to impossible to 1v1 late. It goes without saying that if you get counterpicked and get to this point you will get absoutely destroyed in the 1v1 and possibly be weaker in teamfights as well.
Typically look to close out the game at a maximum of 25 minutes, anything beyond that and you risk to start falling off big time. The only time this isn't the case is when you have a comp built specifically for Olaf that allows you to go in and chain kill quickly, or if you have
Taric. He is the best champion to pair with
Olaf, because
Olaf will go in and
Taric will pop his ult
, and during that time he can get a kill and take over a teamfight insanely fast.

There's still a lot of matchups you can 1v1 even in the late game, but it is much harder to do so reliably and some matchups you would beat out in the early and mid game become close to impossible to 1v1 late. It goes without saying that if you get counterpicked and get to this point you will get absoutely destroyed in the 1v1 and possibly be weaker in teamfights as well.
Typically look to close out the game at a maximum of 25 minutes, anything beyond that and you risk to start falling off big time. The only time this isn't the case is when you have a comp built specifically for Olaf that allows you to go in and chain kill quickly, or if you have





ABILITY TIPS AND TRICKS
BERSERKER RAGE (P)

Due to the way your passive


Undertow (Q)

Your main chase tool and the ability that sets you up to go in for a kill. Chaining axes one after the other means that unless the enemy has high speed, a ton of dashes, or good slow resistance, they are most likely not getting away and you can run them down hard. You also don't need to wait for the axe to land to use other spells. For example, if you are in melee range and use Ereckelss swing first then use Q





TOUGH IT OUT (W)

You don't always need to be at low





RECKLESS SWING (E)

Olaf's E










The other skilled part to this ability is the interaction it has with his ultimate






One more thing worth noting: if you start your E



RAGNAROK (R)

This is you "go" button. When you use it, you know it's time to go for an all out fight. You are immune to any crowd control, but there are things that can stop you that you need to keep in mind. For example,





If you are going up against a champion that has little to no mobility and can't push speed away or give themseleves enough distance to outlast your ult, just pop it and you almost always will just kill. On top of that, your ult cooldown starts on cast, meaning the second it is used it starts to tick down in cooldown. If you fight a mega tank like


That being said, there are situations where it's better to save your ult


Another one is when you are split pushing and you know that you can use the initial burst of speed

COMBOS
Olaf doesn't really have any insane combos, basically every combo he has is very basic. That being said, here are the combos he does have:
SHORT TRADE COMBOS:
+

+
+

These 2 are the combos you will be using most often when looking to short trade, especially the first one. You just quickly throw your Q
out and then instantly E
. The second one is really good specifically when playing around your E
cooldown and looking to use it right as comes up. You can instantly shave off 2 seconds from the remaining cooldown and possibly catch your opponent by surprise, thinking your E
is still on cooldown when going in for the trade.
Olaf can also use
Tiamat mid combs if he has it, but it will make the combo a bit longer, making it possible that the enemy is out of range for the final attack.
FULL BURST COMBO:
+
+
+
/
/
+
+

This is the highest combo you can do on
Olaf to deal maximum damage in the shortest amount of time. You kind of mix the 2 previous combos into it, alongside one of the
Tiamat items, 99% of the time
Olaf will have at least one of the
Tiamat items. Always try to start with throwing out your Q
first so you shred
armor, so your followup damage is higher.
SHORT TRADE COMBOS:







These 2 are the combos you will be using most often when looking to short trade, especially the first one. You just quickly throw your Q






FULL BURST COMBO:









This is the highest combo you can do on






ALL FINAL ITEMS EXPLAINED






















































































































Tier 2 boot upgrades:









Tier 3 boot upgrades:







ALL POSSIBLE RUNES
KEYSTONE RUNES:
Conqueror: The keystone
Olaf will take 99.9% of the time. Not a whole lot to say here, just the best rune that goes with him by far.
Lethal Tempo: You only really ever take this if you go something like full crit
Olaf. You don't really care much for the on-hit damage, and in the late game you overstack attack speed
with it big time.
RUNE SLOTS:
Triumph: Very consistent rune. It can really help you to clutch out fights with barely any
health remaning.
Legend: Alacrity: You will take this almost every time you don't go
Ravenous Hydra.
Legend: Haste: Can be taken instead of alacrity for more ability usage.
Legend: Bloodline: Can be used in a healing focused build or if you really want more
lifesteal. It's not bad if you want extra healing, and when you get it fully stacked the 85
health feels pretty decent, it's like having a flat
health shard in your runes that gives you even more
health. It's now almost always the default take, and basically always when you take
Ravenous Hydra, as the extra
lifesteal means the active on the item will heal even more.
Last Stand: This is by far the best one from the 3 options.
Olaf fights at low
health points usually so you will almost always have maximum value from it.
Taste of Blood: You can always proc it on cooldown with your Q
. Can be used as a decent sustain option.
Cheap Shot: You can proc it quite a bit in fights as you will always slow people down with Q
. Has decent value.
Deep Ward: Best one from its respective space generally.
Ultimate Hunter:
Olaf usually wants to play around his ultimate cooldown, so having it even lower is good.
Manaflow Band: Decent
mana sustain option.
Nimbus Cloak: Can be pretty good,
Olaf likes speed
and when you use your
Ghost you typically wanna get in there fast.
Gathering Storm: Best one in its respective tree.
Demolish: Solid for turret taking, can take a lt of plates and put pressure on side lane later on.
Shield Bash: Works with
Olaf W
shield but nothing else, not the greatest but can be used.
Conditioning: More scaling as you get into the mid game, most of the time you want to take this if you are on that tree.
Second Wind: Best rune in its respective space for sustaining in the lane.
Bone Plating: Works best against combo champions like
Sett,
Riven,
Renekton etc.
Revitalize: Best one in its respective tree, increases your W
shield and passive
lifesteal.
Magical Footwear: Extremely good on
Olaf. If you combine this with the 2%
Movement Speed shard in the small rune slots you will not only match, but outrun champions with the base move speed of 340 while they have tier 2 boots. So if they spend quite a bit of gold for
Plated Steelcaps you will be faster than them while you didn't spend any gold on yours.
Tripe Tonic: Solid rune for
Olaf. Makes your lvl 6 all in stronger and the skill potion at lvl 9 is also good for him. The reason I don't really take this is because
Magical Footwear feels so good for
Olaf and
Approach Velocity is also really good for him.
Approach Velocity: The best rune for
Olaf in this tree by far. It has insane synergy with his Q
slow and allows you to catch up to opponents much quicker.






RUNE SLOTS:




























































PROS
+Very high early game pressure
+Can completely shut down certain matchups and never let them play
+If he gets ganked more often than not he will kill both players, especially whenever his ultimate is up
+He will take over the game by himself if he gets a lead
+Can quite literally walk into 3 or 4 people and kill them all if ahead without problem
+Simple to build and to take runes on, 99% of the time it's the same stuff but still has a lot of adaptability
+His cc immunity allows him to bypass the counterplay of an absurd amount of champions
+High chase power and hard to peel off once he's on you
+Can completely shut down certain matchups and never let them play
+If he gets ganked more often than not he will kill both players, especially whenever his ultimate is up
+He will take over the game by himself if he gets a lead
+Can quite literally walk into 3 or 4 people and kill them all if ahead without problem
+Simple to build and to take runes on, 99% of the time it's the same stuff but still has a lot of adaptability
+His cc immunity allows him to bypass the counterplay of an absurd amount of champions
+High chase power and hard to peel off once he's on you
CONS
-He falls off hard into the late game unless you have a comp specifically built around him, or very specifically Taric
-Can be hard counterpicked and completely destroyed, he has some absolutely horrible matchups
-Champions with a ton of dashes or ways to stall out his ult will typically beat him out conistently
-Pre 6 he's actually not as strong as you would expect, he can still do well but it's not as free as you would think and can struggle
-Needs to chain axes into champions with high speed or slow resistance, or else his ultimate will run out and you can get turned on, one axe miss can mean you die instantly
-Can be hard counterpicked and completely destroyed, he has some absolutely horrible matchups
-Champions with a ton of dashes or ways to stall out his ult will typically beat him out conistently
-Pre 6 he's actually not as strong as you would expect, he can still do well but it's not as free as you would think and can struggle
-Needs to chain axes into champions with high speed or slow resistance, or else his ultimate will run out and you can get turned on, one axe miss can mean you die instantly
OTHER GUIDES
If you liked this guide, perhaps you would like to check out some of my other ones as well. As I make more guides for more champions this list will be updated to contain all of them. Simply click on the words below the champion portrait and it will take you to the respective guide.

Volibear Top Guide

Darius Top Guide

Garen Top Guide

Dr. Mundo Top Guide

Mordekaiser Top Guide

Udyr Top Guide
UPDATE LOG
Here there will be a list of all the significant changes I am going to make going forward on the guide, so you can look here to see what the newest updates are, or old ones:
11th January 2025:
- added tier 3 boots to the items section
- added tier 2 and tier 3 boots to the all final items explained guide chapter after all the legendary items
-
Eyeball Collection has been removed, so the new rune
Deep Ward has been placed in its place as a possible rune you can take
- removed
Berserker's Greaves as possible boots to take
- removed
Nullifying Orb as a rune you can take on
Olaf as it has been removed from the game
7th December 2024:
- added
Udyr to the other guides chapter
Patch 14.21
25th October 2024:
- on the standard rune page
Legend: Bloodline is now the default take instead of
Legend: Alacrity
Patch 14.20
9th October 2024:
- added
Mordekaiser to the other guides chapter
Patch 14.19
5th October 2024:
- added other guides chapter
- added table of contents
25th September 2024:
- added
Lethal Tempo back on the possible keystone runes and a
Lethal Tempo rune page
- added some visual flair and coloring to every guide chapter section exept pros and cons, no need for those
- removed
Biscuit Delivery as a rune choice
Update Log
Season 15
Patch 25.S1.111th January 2025:
- added tier 3 boots to the items section
- added tier 2 and tier 3 boots to the all final items explained guide chapter after all the legendary items
-


- removed

- removed


Season 14
Patch 14.237th December 2024:
- added

Patch 14.21
25th October 2024:
- on the standard rune page


Patch 14.20
9th October 2024:
- added

Patch 14.19
5th October 2024:
- added other guides chapter
- added table of contents
25th September 2024:
- added


- added some visual flair and coloring to every guide chapter section exept pros and cons, no need for those
- removed

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