I've been a big olaf fan for a while but I never really saw any use for him in competitive games. With the changes to the masteries as well as my experience with different champions I ended up trying him as a solo top. Turned up to be quite outstanding, honestly.

This build focuses on exploiting the IMMENSE damage output from your "E" while staying alive to snare and mentally cripple the other team due to your amazing presence.

In this guide I will try to explain my playstyle as well as the reasoning behind the choices I made in runes, masteries, skill sequence, summoner spells and items.

The ability I focus on explains exactly how I play olaf.Reckless Swing: Olaf attacks with such force that it deals true damage to his target and himself.
Land your axe, run in for a reckless swing turn around before the enemy retaliates. After repeating this a few times you will notice you barely lost any health and your enemy is going through his potions like it's Diablo 2.

Being punished is very possible, especially if you get snared while attempting to "poke". Stand back, let the health regen do it's wonders and come back in for some pokage.


In the end your goal is to focus the carries and the supports while being unstoppable.

1-Mid is honestly not your place.
2-Trying to farm bot with a support or a ranged AD will make you denied as well as underfarmed.
3-Jungling is cute and somewhat effective if you manage to land your axe appropriately for ganks but all the running around makes you underfarmed compared to what you could attain soloing a lane.

The presence of olaf in a lane is undeniable and surprises many people. Most solo top champions have ways of sustaining themself against poking and being denied... unless it's Olaf's pokes. Then it's another story.
The damage from E will make most of the current solo top rage quit from being taken to 100/100 to 60/100 in one axe/swing combo.

Pros
Olaf is fast.
Olaf is strong.
Olaf is unforgiving.
Olaf is unstoppable.

-A Slow which can hit multiple enemies.
-Great sustain.
-His passive makes being low hp rewarding.
-Massive true damage with a short cooldown.
-A ultimate to nullify ultimates that incapacitate you (Malzahar's is a good example) as well as a get out of jail for free card.
-Squishies hate Olaf.


Cons
-Needs farm.
-You are not effective against tanks at all in the late game.
-A few champions will make your solo top life miserable.
-Relies on the team to dish most of the damage late game.
-Needs farm.
-Enemies with escape mechanism like stealth or blinks will make you go

Greater Mark of Desolation:Every champion has some base armor, your goal here is to negate some of it to be effective when auto-attacking.
Greater Seal of Resilience:Being a melee character will require actually hitting people in the face and doing that without decent armor will make you cry.
Alternative Seal - Greater Seal of Replenishment:As much as it's fun to be able to take ang give punishment, if you can't use your ultimate to run away from a gank because you kept swinging your axe will make you cry more.
Greater Glyph of Celerity:Spam your E and throw that axe more and more often as the game drags on.
Alternative Glyph - Glyph of Warding:You never know who you might be going against and the little edge given by the magic resist might let you brush off early enemy attacks and AoE spells.
Greater Quintessence of Swiftness:I'll get more into details about this, but moving fast is what makes you TRUCK people down. (As well as get away singing "can't touch this!"

Magic resist, armor, health, reduced damage, movement speed and tenacity. You're a tank, you're unstoppable and you TRUCK people down. Enough said.

I pick Undertow first and max it last. The speed olaf goes at lvl 1 without boots is decent enough to catch up with anyone without boots, the axe throw will slow them enough to poke and run away without harm. Surprise them by throwing your axe through minions and run right throw to land your E.
I take Vicious strikes 3rd and Max second to last priority. Sustain is nice and the amount of health given back is very decent to sustain yourself if you get pushed to your Tower.
Maxing out Reckless Swing and taking advantage of it is your priority. Take it 2nd and max it first.
Goes without saying that the ultimate Ragnarok should be taken as soon as it becomes available every time.

Build 1: Core
This is what I will start with 95% of the time. Start up with a Regrowth Pendant OR small boots all depending on the enemy.
When you know for a fact that you can dominate your top opponent, get boots and pots. If you're uncertain start out with a pendant to negate the damage you take from your Reckless Swing.
I always take warmog's early by the 10 minute mark. Finishing it too late will slow you down so you really need to get those last hits going.


Build 2: Enemy is focused on Physical Damage / Enemy AD carry is fed.
Your objective is to stay around forever, take little to no damage and dish out punishment to carries.
Taking Ninja Tabi and Heart of Gold quickly after warmog's (Heart before boots if possible, you're already quite fast.) Then preparing yourself for your ultimate build taking TWO Chain Vests.
If you find you're dealing enough damage and taking too much, start with a Thornmail then pick up Atma and vice-versa. Randuin's omen to keep the enemies from running away as well as a debuff for anyone who dares hit you.
Lastly, you can opt to pick up a Force of Nature OR a Guardian Angel. FoN if you're not quite fast enough and want more HP/Sec OR GA if you're already unstoppable.


Build 3: Enemy is focused on Ability Power damage / Enemy AP Carry is fed.
Again, your objective is to stay around forever, take little to no damage and dish out punishment to carries.
Pick up Mercury's threads right after your Warmog's, then TWO Negatron Cloaks to prep for your ultimate build.
The order in which you take Your Banshee's Veil, FoN and Spirit Visage does not matter much, it's a matter of how farmed you are and how the enemy is reacting to your team. Banshee's veil is most of the time my first choice simply because I do not like having to use my ult for one lucky CC/grab that might let the enemy catch onto me/kill me.


What if the enemy has a well balanced AD/AP team?
Mix and Match from your knowledge of the enemy's abilities.
Examples:
If Master Yi and Malzahar are fed, grab Randuin's Omen, Thornmail, GA and Banshee's Veil.
If they have two powerfull AD carries but little to no AP, remove the FoN and take more armor to your choice.
It's all about countering the enemy with decent item choices, doing this will make you a better player in the end.

Olaf is a very powerfull and durable character from the beginning to the end of the game and that is why I prefer to solo top with him.


Leave comments or critics if you want. Most of this build comes from experience, doesn't always work when your team is playing bad or is countered by enemy abilities but you should make the tide of the battle turn in your favor if you play smart and exploit your resilience to punish the enemy team.