Looking at the patch preview, it got me thinking about Olaf.
You know, Olaf is a bit weird. He wants to be Tryndamere... but at the same time he wants to be Udyr. Let's look at his kit:
Olaf kit:
Q: Honestly, this skill is really shit. It looks really awesome on paper but come on... in practice it's ridiculously bad. It's too easy to miss, too easy to screw up somehow, and it eats all your mana. It doesn't do that much DPS either for its cost. The slow is great, but in the end it's really a pretty unreliable slow (not the kind of OP slow that Nunu brings to the table). Screw this skill. Also, the pathfinding keeps screwing up whenever you use this.
W: Well.. it's good. Nothing much to say about it. It also translates into Olaf scaling really, really well regardless of his items.
E: Has anyone looked at this skill recently? It's a MASSIVE true damage nuke. It's huge. It's on a 4 second cooldown. The only problem with it is its range. It's also FREE. In fact, if you think about it logically, this skill is a steroid for Olaf as it gives him more AS. Why aren't all Olafs maxing this first?
R: His ult is honestly pretty shitty right now for an ult, it's probably going to be better when the patch comes.
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Anyway. If you look at it from a technical perspective, eliminating all the previous bias you had of Olaf before this. Lets think about the two ways that Olaf scales:
1. HP - The more HP Olaf builds, the more damage he does for the few seconds his W is on.
2. Lifesteal - Olaf gets massive innate lifesteal for the few seconds his W is on.
Notice something weird about this? The two big ways that Olaf scales only show any use when his W is on. This is retarded! It doesn't make any sense! It means Olaf is only a threat for 10% of the time he's hitting your face in a teamfight. The entire time his W is on cooldown, it'd be as if he didn't scale at all. This is the same problem Kog'Maw used to have. I could also go into how lifesteal actually gets WORSE if you stack HP but I think the point is made.
So, I propose a completely new build for Olaf. Full, hyper tank Olaf. Fuck Warmogs. Fuck Atmogs. We're talking Frozen Heart, Banshee's Veil, Force of Nature, Randuin's Omen, Guardian Angel. Full 300 resistances on everything Olaf. No offensive items at all to speak of. Then send him solo top.
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It makes so much more sense. For one, lifesteal is a helluva lot more potent when your hp healed is protected by 300 resistances. It's why Tankwick is so brutally effective compared to regular Warwick. Secondly, that kind of uber tankage takes advantage of his most potent skill. His 4-second true damage nuke. He will literally never die. But he will do MASSIVE true damage on everyone. This is awesome. He'll kill everything.
So, when the patch comes out and you want to try new Olaf, keep this analysis in mind. Don't bother stacking HP on him. Go full tank for the win.
Tl;dr: Current Olaf builds are dumb and unviable. Build full tank and max E first. Max Q last. Trololol. Edit: I also just noticed that with 40% cooldown, not only is Olaf's E on a 2 second cooldown (!!!), but his axe throw's cooldown is 6 seconds. Since if you pick up your axe, it reduces the cooldown by 6 seconds... heh heh you can do some pretty cool shit with smarcast.
Basically, with 40% cdr, whenever you engage anything, hammer the q key at your own feet. Instant cooldown. Doesn't matter if it's a champion or whatever. It basically translates into a permanent 200 damage per second AOE slow to anyone that stands next to Olaf. It also translates to unlimited Trifoce procs. Super fun. Try it out.