Overview
A strong duelist, Olaf is great at literally running at one target and focusing them down because of his ultimate making him literally unstoppable. He’s a champion that can often feel completely overpowered or completely useless depending on his game state and is not for the weak of heart -- though people weak of heart wouldn’t lock in a nordic viking to begin with, would they? Click here for the latest data on his best builds, including Runes, Items, Summoner Spells, and more.
Keys to Remember About Olaf
You'll need to keep track of enemy Flash timers, as that's often going to be their only way to get away from you. Even with Flash, you can often run them down so long as you hit one Undertow [Q].
Your job in fights is to pick one target (typically the enemy ADC) and then run them down. Olaf has sustain but it can be hard to chain multiple kills unless you are super far ahead or if you're able to find a good flank.
Strengths
Well, the short of it is if you are ahead and can tank enemy damage, then there’s literally nothing they can do against your Raganarok [R] when they don’t have Flash. Even with Flash, as long as they can’t go over a wall, you can still typically just run them down. The only way to stop him is for the enemy team to focus fire him and try to kill him first. This means Olaf players who are good at understanding how strong they are and what their limits are at any point in the game are going to be extremely hard to deal with. Undertow [Q] also lets him slow enemies to chase them down in long extended fights.
Weaknesses
If he falls behind and lacks kill potential, then running at enemies can often be tantamount to running to his own death. Enemies that are aware of his positioning are going to keep their movement abilities up at all times to be ready to thwart him, and ultimately, he may lose too much time in Ragnarok [R] if he’s forced to literally run at a champion. That means he’ll have more success on flanks, but that can be difficult to find late game. He’s also susceptible to ganks early game before his ult comes online, so be wary of teams camping him even if his early trade power is strong.
Game Plan
Early Game: Undertow [Q] gives you some good opportunities to win trades, especially with all of the sustain built into your kit, but be wary of where the enemy jungler is as you won’t have escape tools early.
Mid Game: At this point in the game, he should have a level advantage over the enemy bot laner and can easily run at them in fights. You should use this chance to bully them and secure kills to help you scale into late game.
Late Game: Without good flanks, it can be hard to find value with Ragnarok [R] this late into the game -- enemies can burst you down very quickly, so try to catch them off guard instead. Olaf
