Talk:Olaf/@comment-5494818-20140411230514/@comment-5557556-20140420090322

There is actually.

You need to realize that people are not playing him properly and that is why they lose with Olaf.

Most valuable stat on him is cooldown reduction which enables him to cast Reckless swing very frequent. I see that many people build Spirit Visage on him which is not that great on him. Don't get me wrong, Spirit Visage is a great item, but to Olaf is like Morellonomicon to Fizz. Not very useful. You can get way better results with other items. Yes, there is that passive which gives you increased healing effects but Olaf can get 25% of that while his Vicious Strike is active and 10% of his health is missing. With 30% missing health you get 75% enhanced healing, so getting another 20% won't do much. Better get lifesteal which will get enhanced and which you get only 21% of it.

First off, the best item for Olaf is Frozen Heart. It gives everything you need. Gives you a metric ton of armor, gives 20% cooldown reduction which makes it very valuable and overall gives you nice attack speed reduction and mana which Olaf needs in early game since you will go out of mana because of Undertow casting.

Another very good item for him is Maw Of Malmortius which is simply a must. Goes nice with his own passive.

Don't build Ninja Tabi since there are items like Frozen Heart to fill armor role, instead go with Mercury Threads. When your ultimate is not ready, tenacity will save your skin and more magic resist won't hurt.

Avoid any attack speed items at all costs. You simply don't need them, you can get up to 179% attack speed from your kit alone so wasting more gold on it is not smart. Instead of Blade of The Ruined King go for Bloodthirster. It gives way more raw power and way more lifesteal.

Warmog's armor is a must, also Randuin's Omen is a very good choice for Olaf. Remmember without health you won't do much in a teamfight.

One very strange yet very nice item for Olaf is Zeke's Herald. It can buff your entire team and it gives you another 20% cooldown reduction. It is very risky but sometimes it can pay off really good. I mean +10 attack damage on Baron buff is not for throwing away.

As for skills, max E first, in early game it deals crazy ammounts of damage and can't be reduced by anything which will give you an edge over most top laners. It is also a very good farming tool with no cost if you kill a minion. Max Q second for ranged harras and leave it at 2 or 3 points. Max W after that so you get dueling power by the mid game.

In teamfights your mission is this: Ult, walk up to enemy carry and attack them no matter what, other targets don't exist for you, it's only you and enemy carry. If you chase someone else you failed. Once enemy carry is either dead or far away from the fight your team fights with AD carry while enemy team fights without AD carry and in most cases support runs with carry tro protect it which makes it 4 vs 3 fight for your team.

Always remmember that you can cast Q in the middle of the fight. Many Olafs that I've seen only rely on auto attacks and E but fail to use Q. That is crucial, you need to throw everything you got and throw them near you so when enemy is trying to escape you immediately pick up that axe and slow them again.

Axe is a good scouting tool. Check the bush with it before entering. If you built Frozen Heart you can afford extra axes from time to time.

Your ultimate gives you a lot of AD and disables Magic Resist and Armor passive bonus. Be sure to not use it in a way to weaken yourself. For example if you haven't bought any MR items and you use Ultimate it will make you vulnerable to magic damage, ult only when necesary.

Bait your opponent with skills. Don't activate W immediately, wait for them to get some advantage, then use ult when they disable you and then use W. By the time they realize you are pummeling them you receive more AD and thus more healing from your autos.

Be first in front of your team since you can escape very easy and nothing can stop you. For example you can block Amumu from stopping your entire team in their tracks by simply being in front.

Walls will make your axes to fall short so you can actually throw then and pick them up immediately. Good for jungling if you have blue buff.

E won't cost a thing if you kill the target with it. It can be used as a weaker form of smite in early jungling.

Well that's it, I don't have any good advice. This is my personal way of playing Olaf so you don't have to blindly listen it but this should make it a lot easier for you to play Olaf. Also winrates don't mean much, what matters is your own skills.

I played Karthus a lot and my current winrate with him is over 80% and I won some pretty messed up games with him but his winrate overall isn't that great.