Welcome to the Olaf sneak peak Champion Spotlight presented by Riot Games
Olaf is a unique melee DPS champion who scales up in damage by building more hit points as
well as conventional damage items.
So you'll see a lot of radically different builds on him.
First comes Undertow, where Olaf throws one of his axes, damaging and slowing every enemy
it passes through.
The axe becomes embedded in the ground, allowing him to pick it up and refresh most of the cooldown.
Second is Vicious Strikes which Olaf activates for life steal, spell vamp and bonus damage
based on his maximum health.
Reckless Swing is Olaf's third ability, dealing a set amount of damage which completely bypasses
armor and magic resistance, but hurts him as well.
His ultimate is Ragnarok, significantly reducing the amount of damage he takes, preventing
all stuns, slow and knock-up effects and giving Olaf a bunch of armor penetration.
Lastly his passive is Berserker Rage giving Olaf bonus attack speed as he gets lower in life.
I use standard melee DPS runes, armor penetration marks, dodge seals, flat magic resist glyphs
and flat health quintessences.
I recommend these for any melee DPS champion you play, with very few exceptions.
My masteries are a bit different.
I go 12/17/1, taking improved Cleanse, improved Ghost, the health bonus in defense and the
armor penetration bonus in offense.
Olaf has the potential to pick up champion kills very early in the game.
Mundo is clearly overextended here and by using Undertow, picking up the axe and throwing
it again and again, Olaf has great chasing potential.
However, in most cases, Olaf is not an early game champion killer.
The slow on Undertow is very low for its cooldown and because he's so powerful later on, your
best bet is to focus on minion kills.
With good timing, his 57 base damage should be enough to get at least half the minions
in the lane, combined with a friendly Janna for even better results.
Let's talk about aggression.
You always want to kill off the easiest champions first for gold and experience but killing
a 0-3 Dr. Mundo and dying for it is significantly worse than just farming minions, especially
since I just donated 476 gold to Malphite for my killing spree.
You should always err on the side of caution when turrets are involved.
I head to top to farm minions.
Most carries should try to farm non-stop for the first 15 to 20 minutes, because you typically
never get a chance again.
Note my item choices, Phage and eventually Frozen Mallet is by far the best item you
can get on Olaf.
I've also grabbed a Vampiric Scepter but in hindsight, I think rushing Mercury Treads after Phage
is more important.
Let's discuss target selection.
Notice the previously fed Malphite has 142 armor.
There's really no way I can kill him, but I stick around anyway with Undertow and Vicious Strikes.
Don't make this mistake yourself.
I even use Ghost to try to chase him which costs me a kill later on.
As soon as you have enough money, you must buy Frozen Mallet.
As I catch up with my team in mid, notice that I purposefully ignore Gragas until he's
left the protection of the turret.
I max Vicious Strikes first and Reckless Swing second so I hit Gragas extremely hard while
Blitzcrank and Morgana keep him in place.
As the clip plays out you see that I have to give up kills on Ezreal and Dr. Mundo.
Note that I would have been able to kill either if I hadn't wasted Ghost during my chase on
Malphite earlier.
Your summoner spells are very precious.
Sometimes you just have to hit the tank.
Thankfully you have Reckless Swing at your disposal.
While your critical strikes may only be 95 against targets with over 200 armor, the
pure damage of Reckless Swing means that Malphite gets chopped up when it's time for him to die.
The third super important item after Frozen Mallet and Mercury Treads is Stark's Fervor.
Flat armor reduction is great on Olaf because it mixes in perfectly with his runes, masteries
and ultimate, making you the best at killing low armor targets.
Even against 3 beefy tanks, Vicious Strikes and Ragnarok allow me to cut up Mundo and
Gragas into little pieces.
Olaf is most dangerous while low on life.
Morgana and I fight Mundo and Anivia, killing Dr. Mundo. As Morgana dies, I'm fighting Anivia
with under 100 health while inside her ultimate.
Thanks to Stark's Fervor, Vicious Strikes and my passive, I can even tank the nexus turret
while just hitting minions.
Finally I get Elixir of Fortitude and Agility, as well as Youmuu's Ghostblade.
Olaf's ability to chase and stick to single targets with Frozen Mallet, Ragnarok and Ghostblade's
active is ridiculous.
Gragas tries to get away but I catch up with Undertow.
He keeps running for the summoner platform, but I pick him off with the axe throw.
Thanks for tuning in to the Olaf Champion Spotlight.
Grab your axe, grab your helmet and hear the call to action