Counter Tips to Beat Olaf
Olaf
The Berserker
Olaf is played top or in the jungle
Abilities
Counter Champions
Counter Items
Introduction
Most back line divers have one of three weaknesses: lack of damage, lack of tankiness or a weakness to kiting. Not this berserker. Olaf will run past your front line straight onto your adc. Your support will watch helplessly as her stuns and slows have no impact on the beast slaughtering her adc. Then your support is targeted next. The only way to stop this terror is to have your entire team burst him down, or else he’ll just heal off the damage. And that’s when he does his job as a tank perfectly.
Olaf is a high damage back line diver. With an immunity to crowd control, a huge amount of lifesteal and a movement speed buff, it's very difficult to peel him off your carries. The only way is to either wait until his ultimate wears off or to put walls between him and the carry.
Unfortunately for you, he also has a strong landing phase. In this guide I'll be helping you deal with this old Viking.
Abilities
Passive – Berserker Rage
Olaf gains attack speed for each point of missing health.
Q – Undertow
Olaf throws an axe, dealing damage and slowing all units in its path. He can pick up the axe to vastly reduce the cool down of this ability
W – Vicious Strikes
Olaf gains a large amount of attack speed and gains a large amount of lifesteal. All healing effects have increased effectiveness on Olaf.
E – Reckless Swing
Olaf shoots down a bolt of lightning on his target at the expense of his own health. If he kills his target, the health cost is refunded.
R – Ragnarok
Olaf gains immunity to all crowd control effects for a few seconds and gains a large speed boost when moving towards enemies.
Our Top Counter Tips For Olaf
Olaf is more and more powerful the lower he becomes on health. Be careful about fighting him when low.
Olaf’s animation for his ultimate changes his color. Don’t use any crowd control abilities when he's using his ultimate.
If you stop Olaf from catching his axes he can't permaslow you. Try stunning him before he reaches the axe, as it has a large cooldown if he doesn't pick it back up.
Champions like Anivia or Jarvan work well against Olaf because he has to run around their walls. Try telling your team to pick them up.
Olaf's ultimate makes him gain attack damage and lose armor as a passive. If you see him ult towards your carries, focus him, he won't be as tanks as his items may suggest.
Olaf thrives in sustained fights. Try not to fully engage if you're playing a bursts champion.
Champions That Counter Olaf
LANE DOMINANCE
Kennen
Olaf does much better versus melee champions. You can harass him with your auto attacks constantly, and as long as he doesn't hit an ax on you, he won't be able to catch you. In this matchup, Olaf may build Spirit Visage so consider buying a magic penetration item early.
Volibear
You simply heal more when you're low than he does from his passive. Go for an early engage; flip him into your minions and if he attacks you he’ll attract your minions, meaning you'll win the fight. If he doesn't fight back, he’ll take a bad trade. Build whatever you want first.
MIDGAME
Kayle
Olaf's greatest strength is being able to run at your carries and kill them, so you simply ult and negate his impact. In lane you can harass him, although if he's high on health be careful of overextending. He can permaslow you and run you down the lane. Build Nashor’s Tooth first or go for a Morellonomicon if he's healing up too much.
Itemization
Frozen Heart
Randuin's Omen
Morellonomicon
Olaf heavily relies on auto attacks. Therefore items like Frozen Heart and Randuins Omen both do well against him. However, if you build Frozen Heart, he may max his Reckless Swing, which does true damage.
Morellonomicon is a good choice for mages against him as it reduces his healing and therefore survivability.
