Talk:Olaf/@comment-5077844-20141108222537/@comment-24073465-20141111080638

Actually, looking at the list you've shown, many of those can be won, or at least break-even, but it depends on how you build and play against them...in fact, I got up to silver 1 (SO CLOSE TO GOLD 5 BUT JUST MISSED...ok, rant over) because they'd underestimate Olaf's strength and I could poke them to death....With any ranged person top, you focus on leveling Q over E, and poke them to low...then get to 6, use ghost and ult, and plough the field with their corpse....for most melee, it's the opposite, where you level E over Q, hit them with true damage whenever they get close, and take them out once they're low enough...

As for post lane, yeah, many of them out scale him, but their job is mostly different...Olaf either tanks for the team, stays close to your carry and holds off whoever gets close, or he runs screaming into their team and makes a beeline for whoever on their team is causing the most damage...usually the APC or ADC, who are squishy, thus easily getting killed...and he does these jobs better than most of those others, since he naturally builds tankiness over damage, and doesn't even need much early damage to do that job (General Olaf build is: 3 tanky items, 2 damage one, and boots which can later be replaced by Zephyr...in fact, in about 70% of games, Maw is one of the offensive items and it counts as semi-tanky...)

The great thing about Olaf is how virtually any stat (except AP) helps him out early game, so I find so many ways to start...if going against AP guys like Ryze or Kennen, I usually take sword+pots and rush hexdrinker, followed by HP/MR/boots/what have you...against Auto-attackers or guys with huge damage like Darius, Shield is best way to go, wheras cloth armor+pots works well against those like Pantheon or Jayce who's damage is physical, but not aa based...then, for those passive farmers (*couch*Nasus*cough*) or those who can't really fight against Olaf early (akali and the like), Doran's blade is a great pick...as for summoners, I feel Ghost is a must over flash, while second is usually TP or ignite (if you really need to shut them down early)...

For jungle Olaf, he's not the best ganker, but when the axe connects, goddamn! It just feels great making their carry waste either both summoners or die miserably because your axe keeps hitting him....this is especially true post 6, where he doesn't give a damn about cc during ganks....As for counterjungling, I agree you should be careful of it, but that depends on who their jungler is...if it's either high burst or sustain, a little worry, but anyone else can give you their buffs if they show their fae near your red....generally, the logic I follow here is if the enemy jungler is someone like Mao, Heca, etc, just do your jungle as usual, and worry comparitively little about invades...if it's Lee, Xin or Fiddle, be a little careful and ward red, and if YOU try to counterjungle, be careful of their sustain....almost anyone else, like Jax, Fiora, possibly Nautilus (though I suggest you wait for his shield to go down before attacking) or equivalent weak early junglers, and you should ward THEIR red, meet them there, and either make them blow summoners or put your fist through their face....

When it comes to runes and masteries, I find that defense is the best offense over here...I go 9-21-0, but I've heard of guys going 3-27-0 or even 0-30-0, simply because he has early high damage and the added defense helps make him harder to put down....Runes-wise, it's a toss-up between AD or Arpen marks (I take ArPen as it helps a lot by midgame), a mix of HP per lvl or Armor seals, MR per lvl glyphs (though straight MR might help if the opposing laner is AP...it's your choice, but I've never needed them), and AD quints...

I'd agree that Olaf's biggest weakness is poke, and mobility, and he's better when you're not dealing with people who jump away at the first sign of trouble (Cait, Trist, Quinn, Lucian, most other cowards who can't take a punch), but he does fine and because of his tankiness and kit, fits in with almost ANY team comp....only difference is depending on team comp, his objective changes based on what's needed...