This is a updated version for patch 14.1B. Meta shifted a lot, indirectly hurting Olaf because of the lethality and mage changes, but when played right Olaf can still become a 1v9 machine.

Hello, I'm Haearnbleidd, Olaf OTP With around 400k mastery points on Olaf.
I've started playing league in summer 2023, and I have reached emerald in solo queue playing mostly Olaf.


This guide is mostly my personal opinion and playstyle.
If you have any questions or advice, feel free to comment.


One thing to mention, is that this guide is more Olaf Top sided, because of Olaf's viability on jungle. Riot hit jungle with harsh nerfs and if someone plays Olaf in the jungle, it's probably an OTP. It works very good in low elo due to snowball power but I guess everything can work on jungle in low elo.

Olaf is not one of those flashy 200 year champions, he is closest in gameplay to Tryndamere. When in right hands, Olaf can become a 1v9 machine, especially in low elo where people can't kite him and you can win lane easily.
If Olaf gets fed early game, he can dominate the mid game and end the game before he gets outscaled.
If you get fed early, Olaf can solo baron nashor if he has around 3 items at 20 minutes, so try to take advantage of it if you can. Even when you didn't get fed so much you still have a great duo baron potential.

Olaf is a champion who wins by having more stats than the opponent, but in order to win consistently you need good decision making, matchup knowledge and macro skills.
The most important mechanics on Olaf are:

• Being able to hit your Undertow and then pick it up, remeber to not overthrow it so you don't have to walk up too far for it. If you want to start playing Olaf, you need to remember that picking up Undertow refreshes it cooldown to 2.5s (reduced by AH). But don't worry because picking up axes will come to you naturally after some games, just like resetting Draven's q.
• AA and ability timings. When throwing Undertow or casting Reckless Swing you can sometimes cancel your AA, casting Undertow at wrong time can sometimes lead to not extending your ultimate. Apart from the Undertow timing, you need to remember that Tough It Out is an AA reset. So to get max damage you want to AA > W > AA.
• Keeping Ultimate Up. Olaf's Ragnarok is the strongest part of his kit, without your ultimate, you will just get cc'd or kited and killed. Ragnarok gives you Immunity to CC and a lot of AD, it has a very low base duration (3 seconds after cast) but each AA or Reckless Swing gives it another 2.5 seconds of duration. In order to get the most value of Ragnarok you need to cast it in the right moment. Cast it only when you know you can stick to a target, so after you hit someone with Undertow or the enemy is stunned/rooted, or if you really know that if you don't cast it you will get cc'd and killed. However remember that if you misuse ultimate, you shouldn't go in fights.
• Baiting enemies. You can try to bait enemies into thinking you can't kill them because you are low, to then 100-0 them with Tough It Out shield, ending up with more hp than you began. If you don't have Tough It Out up, and you know enemy is going to fight you, stall for time and wait for it to come up.
  Remember that your Tough It Out, Berserker Rage, Ragnarok and Last Stand combo is dangerous. You can stand still and auto attack and kill the enemy while gaining hp thanks to Berserker Rage lifesteal.
  At level 3, with Doran's Blade combined with Tough It Out and Berserker Rage and one cast of Undertow and Reckless Swing you have about 200 dps against enemy with 40 armor, so if they can't burst you out you will probably win if they have less than half hp.

Map Changes

While season 14 isn't very good for jungle, it's great for Olaf Top. With river changes effectively making top even more isolated, you have don't have to worry about getting ganked too much, if you watch your map you can avoid any gank maybe except zac and kayn. Olaf has very good 1v1, so you can snowball on enemy without jungler ever coming, but it could hurt you as you won't be able to 1v2 without enemy jungler coming. So less free gold from junglers in lane.
For jungle you can prioritize farming and objectives even more, as ganking will be harder, and Olaf excels in taking objectives, farming and fighting 1v1 with enemy jungler.

Item system changes

Olaf is a very versatile champion with build paths, in season 13 there was one meta that got spammed over and over, Ravenous Hydra and Jak'Sho, The Protean. It was good, but it didn't give you the whole value of Olaf. But now, you can itemize for every occasion, effectively making Olaf even more broken. One big change is that you can build Jak'Sho, The Protean without losing other items like Stridebreaker and Trinity Force which are very good on Olaf. I will explain items and build in the next chapter.
Also Divine Sunderer is no more, so it will be easier in matchups that abused it - Illaoi, Fiora, Jax, etc.

New season has made a lot of changes to the item system, removing mythics is great for Olaf, as it opened up a lot of different ways to itemize without losing a lot of value.

I've come up with a schema for builds.

• First two items for top are in explained in threats. As for jungle, you will just want to build Experimental Hexplate or Stridebreaker first, so you don't need to rely so much on hitting axes.
  However if you are confident that you don't need that much ms and slow, you can build around the enemy team. For example build Black Cleaver first when facing armor stacking enemies like rammus and malphite. In some cases getting items like Black Cleaver, Ravenous Hydra, Spear of Shojin early can be better than building Experimental Hexplate/ Stridebreaker, but remember you will be dependant on hitting axes.
• Survivability items are needed so you won't get shredded so easily. Best item for this is Death's Dance as it's passive allows you to survive the initial burst and kill the enemy to cleanse the damage. Another good item is Jak'Sho, The Protean because it gives you both armor and mr, but it almost always needs to be paired with Death's Dance or Sterak's Gage because you will just get bursted with only Jak'Sho, The Protean. However if you don't need to build all damage after Jak'Sho, The Protean or instead of it, and you aren't going against full ad team, build Spirit Visage, Kaenic Rookern or Force of Nature. Your choice is almost always between Spirit Visage or Force of Nature because Kaenic Rookern is only good if you need to survive heavy ap burst, but for that you should just buy Maw of Malmortius if you didn't go Sterak's Gage.
• Fourth and Fifth items are explained in mid game chapter.
• Boots are essential for Olaf, only time you can sell boots is when enemy team consists of 4/5 tanks and juggernauts or when you build armor/mr in first 2 items.

Olaf has a lot of items that are viable, because of this we can itemize against every situation.

List of viable items and their use

• Iceborn Gauntlet - niche item, buy it when you need tankiness, good against someone like Tryndamere.
• Eclipse - It's viable but nothing more than that, too long cooldown for it to be good.
• Maw of Malmortius - Sterak's gage but only for 4/5 ap teams. If you really need magic resist you should just go Spirit Visage, Jak'Sho, The Protean or Force of Nature. If the shield was normal and not magic it would be great, but with the magic shield it's only good into full ap teams.
• Chempunk Chainsword - Best anti-heal option, but when playing Olaf you shouldn't buy antiheal, just stay with Executioner's Calling or Bramble Vest and then sell it for a better item.
• Dead Man's Plate - Movespeed, Armor, Hp, it synergizes well with Olaf's kit but after buying Death's Dance you already have enough armor, however it can be useful against mobile ad assasins such as Zed. If you want to buy it only for movespeed, you should just go Hullbreaker.
• Experimental Hexplate - New item, and very strong for Olaf. It has all the stats you want, definitely one of the strongest items for Olaf.
• Hullbreaker - Riot wanted to nerf it, but the only thing they nerfed is armor and mr, the rest I would say is even buffed. More damage to towers, more damage to champions and you don't need to be alone for it. It's very strong for Olaf right now.
• Black Cleaver - Tanks don't stand a chance against you, combined with Undertow you get 40% armor reduction. Pair it with ADC building Lord Dominik's Regards and ADC goes trough 58% of initial armor. One of the best items for team fighting.
• Sterak's Gage - A lot of AD and a shield when you need it the most. Very good synergy with Berserker Rage. Buy it when you need extra burst survivability.
• Stridebreaker - Always good on Olaf. AD, AS, HP and it's active. Buy it when against ranged/mobile champions.
• Spear of Shojin - It's even better in season 14, as it boosts your ability damage. Very good first or second item, but kind of falls off late. Buy it when you need more frequent abilities or you want to poke.
• Sundered Sky - Goredrinker but more situational. It can be op in teamfights as you can proc it on all enemies, and it has 6 second cd for each enemy. Very good item for Olaf
• Blade of the Ruined King - Situational late game item. Buy it for health stackers like Cho'Gath or Sion. It doesn't have a lot of value early game and against squishies.
• Death's Dance - AD, Armor, AH and it's passive. Very good in teamfights when you want to go for the ADC.
• Guardian Angel - It's okay but don't build it very often. It's passive isn't really good on you as you rely heavily on your ult in late game.
• Ravenous Hydra - Makes Olaf a 1v2 monster early. Gives you way more waveclear and sustain in lane. Very good item for Olaf. Build either first or second because it has more value early/mid game.
• Titanic Hydra - Good item, synergizes well with Hullbreaker, more of a mid/late game item.
• Trinity Force - AD, AS, HP, AH, all very good stats for Olaf. It's passive makes it even more worth for Olaf as it gives your attacks 200% base ad after using an ability, 1,5 second cd so it's almost the same as your Undertow cd.
• Frozen Heart - Good item into auto attackers. It doesn't lose value in late game.
• Thornmail - Viable but i wouldn't buy it. Stats are good but not the best for this price. Passive is only good for it's antiheal, and that anti-heal is easy to avoid.
• Randuin's Omen - Good into a lot of crit, active is also good.
• Force of Nature - DOT counter, buy it when you need mr and ms.
• Spirit Visage - Standard good item for Olaf, mr, hp and it's passive that gives you 25% heal and shield power. It synergizes good with Berserker Rage, Tough It Out and Sterak's Gage
• Kaenic Rookern - It has a lot of mr and it's passive is good. But I would only buy it into heavy ap teams or as a rush for hard ap matchups like Akali.
• Heartsteel - HP is good on Olaf but heartsteel will only be good for those off-meta tank builds with Hullbreaker and Titanic Hydra.
• Jak'Sho, The Protean - Armor, mr and hp. It's very good into comps that don't have a lot of burst, but even with the armor and mr it gives you shouldn't buy it without Death's Dance because you will still get oneshot.

Olaf has one of the best lvl 1's in the entire game. Only champions that can kill Olaf 1v1 on lvl 1 are Trundle, Urgot and Jax. Darius, Riven and Yone with Lethal Tempo are skill matchups lvl 1 and Tryndamere can win if he gets some lucky crits.
Use this knowledge to your advantage, I have explained which champions to fight lvl 1 in matchups tab, you can also go with your jungler to invade topside to help them snowball or to get an early lvl 3 gank.

Matchups you win early:

You want to be as aggressive as possible, poke them and contest every minion. Shove the third wave and recall. When you get back to lane, wave should be pushing into you, if enemy recalled then freeze and if they didn't - run them down, you should have item and hp advantage so they can't really do anything.
When you have a frozen wave, just keep last hitting and if enemy comes for a minion you can run them down or trade that minion for some of their hp.
Don't let them farm and keep them away from exp if possible.
When the wave is pushed up on enemy side, the only thing you can do is poke with q and e out of the tower range, you should go for dives only when you know you can kill them in one combo (q > AA > W > AA > E > AA) and when you know the enemy has no abilities to cc you or dash away. If they do, you will just get stuck unable to get away without using flash.
If you see a fight in topside river, and you know you can get something from it then go for it, if not, just stay in your lane and if your enemy comes back kill them or shove the wave if they recalled.

Matchups you lose early:

You mostly want to farm with q, and wait for the wave to push into you. If you know you can lose some hp while going for cs, try to mitigate it with Tough It Out. Try to freeze the wave so enemy is gankable while you aren't. If your jungler isn't coming just farm until 6, and you should be able to run down your opponent.
Then it's the same as the matchup you win early with the exception that you should play safe when Ragnarok is on cooldown. Freeze, trade, run them down with Ragnarok.

I didn't include matchups for jungle because I think it's not that important, but one ban I recommend is Kayn. He isn't really a problem because of his damage, but because of his ****ton of mobility and his ult. His ult duration is exactly 2.5 seconds so if you used r when fighting him, he can just r you and cancel your r.
Another problem is that you can't keep up with his tempo, because he can gank through walls, and that's a big problem.



Olaf has one of the best, if not the best lvl 1 as a jungler but remember that because riot buffed starting items for laner, you will lose to majority of laners 1v1.
In jungle the only way for Olaf to win, is to get level and gold advantage. Otherwise you are useless as you will get kited and shredded by laners.
Playing as Olaf most of the time you want to invade, you can invade bot side but I think it's better to invade top as most junglers start bot side for leash. When you know enemy jungler started other side then take his Blue and Gromp/Red and Krugs. Then go to your jungle for full clear, as well as take scuttle crab after it spawns. Make sure to ping your toplaner that they may be ganked soon and when you finished full clearing, try pathing to the lane that's pushed up to your side.
That's why I like to start topside because i can go for a early bot gank. Pop ghost and they are most surely dead if they pushed up. As for mid, you can try ganking from the enemy's side of the lane but you don't want to prioritize mid as it's hard to gank for you, especially when enemy is a mobile assasin like zed or qiyana.
As for objectives, you want to prioritize getting early drake. Try to force it lvl 4/5 when you know the enemy jungler can't come. If you know he is botside, you can ward drake and go for voidgrubs.
After you have hit lvl 6, you want to play around your ult cooldown. Force objectives when it's up, or when you have succesfully ganked or killed the enemy jungler with it.


Remember - Olaf wins by having more farm, exp and gold than your enemies. Prioritize farm and objectives over forced ganks that you know are 50/50. Gank only when you know it's 100% kill.

I will be merging Top and Jungle playstyles mid and late game, because they are mostly the same with the only difference being smite.
Mid game is Olaf's most important moment in the game, that's where you shine the most.
After good lane phase, mid game is your playground. Once you have 3 items you are too tanky and deal too much damage for most other champions. You want to play for picks, push waves and taking towers. Mid game you need to generate as much gold as possible so you have item advantage over others. Try to feed your team, especially adc or other scaling champions (i.e Vladimir, Kayle, Kassadin). Go for objectives and try to force baron nashor at 20 minutes. This will get your team even more ahead and let you siege towers easier.
If you lost or went event on lane phase, you want to play as a kind of second support. Olaf is not the best champion while playing from behind, but he still has some value. Try to make plays for your team, and put as much pressure on enemy team as possible, for example: take towers on sidelane while both teams are playing aram on mid.


Olaf top is essentially a second jungler and a split-pusher in mid game.

End items

Your end items will depend on the enemy team. You want to counter as much as possible with one item. For example Stridebreaker against mobile comps, Randuin's Omen against crit users, Spirit Visage with Death's Dance and Sterak's Gage or Sundered Sky against bursty comps, Force of Nature against magic Damage over time champions, Blade of the Ruined King against health stackers when your adc can't build it, Black Cleaver into tanky comps and Hullbreaker with Trinity Force or Titanic Hydra against a fed vayne or something like that when you know you can't beat them in a fight.

If you got this far into the game, you already got outscaled. If your team doesn't have any late game champion, you are ****ed.
If your team has a late game champ, stick to the playstyle, let your team do their job. Take every opportunity for catching someone, one mistake can decide the whole game. Don't run 1v5 into enemy team as you could in mid game. Play for your team and try to punish every mistake enemy team does.

• Crit Olaf - It's not the same as the old Crit Olaf but it's fine. Removal of mythics lets you build Jak'Sho, The Protean with Infinity Edge. Paired with Lethal Tempo you can get a lot of dps, and thanks to Jak'Sho, The Protean you have lots of armor and mr.
  Build:
  Immortal Shieldbow > Essence Reaver > Jak'Sho, The Protean > Infinity Edge > Kraken Slayer, with Berserker's Greaves
  
• Lethality Olaf - You are basically unpeelable assasin that can kill ADC with one rotation of abilities and one or two AA and still having around 200 armor and mr on lvl 18.
  
  Youmuu's Ghostblade > Opportunity > Jak'Sho, The Protean > Serylda's Grudge/ Lord Dominik's Regards > Profane Hydra
• God of thunder Olaf - it's honestly a fun build, works best against tanky comps. On full build with Ragnarok and Spear of Shojin stacked your Reckless Swing deals 650 true damage and resets every 2 autos.
  So your e becomes Camille's q on steroids. Also you have perma Tough It Out attack speed buff. This build isn't really that bad, with the only thing you don't have is a lot of mr.
  
  Build: Spear of Shojin > Trinity Force > Death's Dance > Navori Quickblades > Ravenous Hydra, with Plated Steelcaps or Berserker's Greaves
  
• Support Olaf - Hear me out, you trade cc from engage support for a slow and a lot of damage. Zeke's Convergence new passive gives you a smaller udyr r, with 50 magic damage/second and a 30% slow for 5 seconds. This gives you a lot more sticking power and lets your adc run them down with you. Thanks to your high base damage and Ragnarok's ad boost, even when building tank item you still have enough damage to solo kill an adc. New support item Bloodsong is perfect on Olaf as it's a spellblade scaling with 150% base ad, 1,5 second cd and increasing damage they take by 12% for 6 seconds. Take ability haste in runes and you can poke the enemy a lot to get Bloodsong faster. Take exhaust and ghost and with semi-competent adc you win every lane.
  Build:
  Experimental Hexplate > Zeke's Convergence > Death's Dance > Sundered Sky or any fill item, > replace Zeke's Convergence with any tank item, and choose Bloodsong for support item