The Best Olaf Tips & Tricks For Beginners

Olaf is one of the most aggressive champions in League of Legends. He enjoys the heat of battle and isn’t afraid to jump in the middle of the enemy team to wreak havoc and take as many names before he drops, as is fitting for a berserker like him. Today, we’re sharing some of the best Olaf tips and tricks that veteran players have shared for aspiring anyone who wants to use this in the jungle or even in the solo lane.

Olaf Tips and Tricks

Olaf is a true-to-name berserker whose sole purpose is to run at the enemy team and start dealing as much damage before he drops. He isn’t encumbered by the threat of the enemy team because of his ability to be completely immune to all crowd control effects and only gets stronger the lower his HP gets. To understand how to use this champion, we’ll be sharing some advanced Olaf tips that will surely make you have more confidence playing him.

The best Olaf tips and tricks available can really help a first-timer be more successful at playing the champion even if they had no experience playing him before. Of course, it will take a while to fully master the champion and everybody makes mistakes the first time around even if you’ve read some of these Olaf tips. However, it’s a good idea to start practicing and here’s what we have to offer if you’re looking to use this champion as a jungler or top laner.

1. Don’t Overthrow Your Axes!

The most common mistake that beginners make when playing Olaf is that they throw their axes too far when using their Q ability – Undertow – to hit enemy champions. Remember that a huge portion of the ability’s cooldown is reset when you pick up your axes, so it’s a good idea to throw them in a short distance just behind the enemy so that you can easily pick it up without having the need to stop attacking just to pick them up.

Olaf throwing his axes - Olaf tips and tricks
Make your axes accessible

A good Olaf tip is to throw your axes in the direction at which your opponent might run away to. This is because they’ll most likely try to kite you back so try to predict where they’ll go so that you can pick it up easily as you try to chase them. Smart players will try to run away in the opposite direction of where the axe is thrown so that Olaf is either forced to pick up the axe, which them the opportunity to reposition, or force you to chase them knowing that your Q ability is on a longer cooldown.

2. Don’t Run Away When You’re Low HP

The hardest part about playing Olaf is knowing when to run away. In the case of other champions, you are most likely advised to run away when your HP falls below 15%, but in Olaf’s case, that’s when you’re truly online. Olaf’s passive gives him increased attack speed and lifesteal depending on his missing health percentage. You should build the confidence to understand that even at 1%, you can still fight since you’ll be able to turn the fight around.

Olaf being chased by raptors - Olaf tips and tricks
Don’t be afraid to fight back!

The only right time to run away as Olaf is if you’re extremely low and outnumbered and understand that you can’t get any relevant kills on the enemy team. If you’re playing as a jungler, your life is extremely important so you shouldn’t try to die in the teamfight before you’ve secured an important objective. The thrill that comes when you’re playing Olaf at such a dangerous position makes it so that he isn’t a boring champion to play.

3. Practice Auto-Attack Resetting

Olaf’s main strength comes from his auto-attacks since he’s able to gain increase attack speed depending on his missing health. Even though he’s able to attack quickly, you can still increase your damage output if you know how to reset your auto-attacks efficiently. Luckily, Olaf has so many ways to weave his abilities in-between his auto-attacks to make it so that he’s constantly dealing damage with as little downtime as possible.

Olaf auto-attacking a target dummy - Olaf tips and tricks
Maximize your damage output.

All three of his basic abilities can be used in between his auto-attacks to deal more damage. The Q and E abilities are good buffers to allow Olaf to create a basic combo with attack > Q > attack > E while trying to pick up the axe somewhere in-between. In addition, Olaf’s W ability directly resets his auto-attack and increases it for a duration, which will significantly increase your damage output especially if your sieging the enemy base.

4. Use Your Ultimate Proactively

You always see Olaf users using their ultimate ability reactively, when they get hit by an enemy crowd control ability that would otherwise ensure a kill on them. While this is a good tactic, most beginners get the wrong idea that that’s the best way to use your ultimate ability. In fact, it’s recommended that you use your ultimate ability proactively, as when you’re trying to charge at the enemy team since you can maximize its effects more by doing so.

Olaf chasing a scuttle crab - Olaf tips and tricks
Charge at them!

Olaf’s ultimate duration increases whenever you attack an enemy champion or land your E ability on them. This means that they’ll have a hard time kiting you because your increased movement speed and immunity to movement impairing effects will almost always ensure that you can catch up to the enemy. Simply using your ultimate defensively is a complete waste of your champion’s potential. You’re not Alistar, you’re Olaf.

5. Don’t Forget to Move Around

Olaf is a champion that enemy players like to kite around so it’s a good thing that his entire kit revolves around him having the freedom to run at the enemy. However, his kit also forces him to repositioning himself to pick up axes constantly and try to use his E ability to smack an enemy champion. This means that you’ll need to learn how to run around and chase after enemies while trying to make sure that your cooldowns are in check.

Olaf surrounded by target dummies - Olaf tips and tricks
Be slippery in combat!

Olaf doesn’t necessarily need to kite the enemy players or avoid any dangerous skill shots, but it’s still a good idea if you can dodge incoming damage to make sure that you’re not instantly erased from a fight. One of the best Olaf tips that you’ll hear from other players is that you should always move in a way that the enemy least expects. Most players visualize Olaf running in a straight line, but there’s a lot of ways you can move around while fighting.

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