Olaf has been almost unchanged for all the time he has been in the League of Legends. He has received a VGU and VFX update a couple of years ago and some small rework to his kit, but nothing that would really make him a new champion, like Riot games have been known to do a lot of times when they were remaking and reworking champions. It looks like they have decided to stay on course when it comes to Olaf, since he will again be receiving a small rework to his kit, and not a much needed full rework that he deserves.
Introduction
Olaf is really old champion that portrays a Viking persona and come from Freljord. Primarily designed as a top laner, Olaf has soon made a transition to the jungle where he has the best use to this day. His kit revolves around throwing his Axes and reducing the cooldown on his Q when he picks it up. His passive makes him gain a great amounts of attacks speed, while his ultimate stops him from being under the effects of crowd control for a couple of seconds once it has been cast.
As you can see not the most imaginative and creative kit in the whole game. It makes a person wonder why wouldn’t Riot give some flare to this guy, rather than just reworking his completely outdated kit over and over. He will still be underplayed, since a lot of new players don’t even know he exists. It was so long time ago that I have even seen him in the game, that I don’t even recall it.
Olaf’s abilities:
P – Berserker Rage
INNATE: Olaf gains 0% − 100% (based on missing health) bonus attack speed.
Q – Undertow
ACTIVE: Olaf throws an axe to the target location, dealing physical damage to all enemies it passes through and slowing them for 1.5 − 2.5 (based on distance traveled) seconds.
Olaf grants ghosting to monsters hit for 6 seconds.
The axe impacts at the target location, briefly grants sight of its immediate surroundings and remains there for a duration equal to the cooldown. Olaf reduces the cooldown of Undertow by 4.5 seconds upon retrieving the axe by walking within pickup distance of it.
Undertow will cast at max range if cast beyond that.
W – Vicious Strikes
ACTIVE: Olaf empowers his axes for 6 seconds, gaining
bonus attack speed, bonus life steal, and 0% − 33% (based on missing health) increased healing from all sources for the duration.
Life steal and spell vamp bonuses are calculated on-cast and remain static for the full duration.
E – Reckless Swing
ACTIVE: Olaf strikes thunder onto the target enemy, dealing them true damage.
Reckless Swing heals Olaf for its health cost if it kills its target and its cooldown is reduced by 1 second every time Olaf lands a basic attack.
R – Ragnarok
PASSIVE: Olaf gains bonus armor and bonus magic resistance while Ragnarok is inactive.
ACTIVE: Olaf becomes enraged for 6 seconds, initially cleansing himself of all crowd control and becoming immune to crowd control and gaining bonus attack damage as well as 10% increased size for the duration. For the first second of Ragnarok, he also gains bonus movement speed towards visible enemy champions within 2000 units.
Olaf’s mini rework in the upcoming Patch 12.8
So as you can see, this is that infamous mini rework that we have been talking about a bit up the line. It’s not great but at least Riot is trying something to make Olaf relevant again. It is a shame that they won’t give him some more attention that he really deserves.
Stats:
- Attack Damage increased to 68 (+4.7/level), 148 at level 18 from 68 (+3.5/level), 127.5 at level 18
- Health increased to 575 (+105/level), 2360 at level 18 from 575 (+100/level), 2275 at level 18
- Mana increased to 316 (+60/level), 1336 at level 18 from 316 (+42/level), 1030 at level 18
- Berserker Rage (Passive):
- Riot has reworked calculation to grant maximum effectiveness when you’re at or below 30% health
- Maximum attack speed changed to 40-100% (levels 1-18) from 99%
- New! Now gives up to 12-35% life steal (levels 1-18), based on Olaf’s missing health
Undertow (Q):
- New! Shreds 25/27.5/30/32.5/35% armour for four seconds on champion hit
- Damage decreased to 60/110/160/210/260 from 80/125/170/215/260
- Minimum range increased to 425 from 300
- Mana cost changed to 40/45/50/55/60 from 60 at all ranks
- Cooldown increased to 8 seconds from 7
- Cooldown refund on axe pickup increased to 5 seconds from 4.5 seconds
Vicious Strikes (W):
- New! Resets Olaf’s basic attack
- New! Olaf gains 70/115/160/205/250 (+25% of Olaf’s missing health) as a shield for 2.5 seconds
- Removed! No longer grants Life Steal
- Removed! No longer amplifies Olaf’s healing based on missing health
- Attack speed decreased to 40/50/60/70/80% for 4 seconds from 50/60/70/80/90% for 6 seconds
- Cooldown changed to 16/14.5/13/11.5/10 seconds from 16 seconds at all ranks
Ragnarok (R):
- New! Hitting a champion with a basic attack or E – Reckless Swing extends the duration of Ragnarok to 2.5 seconds. Olaf can refresh Ragnarok indefinitely
- Duration decreased to three seconds from six seconds
- Removed! Ragnarok’s passive’s bonus resistances are no longer lost for the duration of the cast
Conclusion
I hope that Riot Games will see the potential that Olaf has both in the way in-game, and for lore since it too needs a little bit of maintenance if you ask me. I think that Riot games is simply running out of solutions when it comes to champion’s abilities, since we can see the repetition on many new champions, and some slightly retouched old abilities. They have been known to break the 4th wall from time to time with some great innovations like Kayn, Taliyah, Talon and a couple more units, but mostly that’s it. Everything else is just recycled old abilities on new champions with some nice colouring and added effects.
Stay tuned, since there is a lot more coming about League of Legends, only on The Games Cabin!