League of Legends is a game that is ever-evolving, with a new massive patch dropping big gameplay balancing updates and new skins to buy every two weeks. Players who have stuck around all these years, still dedicated to the long-running competitive game, are used to keeping up with their favorite champions’ best builds and gameplay styles. While many champions receive consistent updates, the latest champion to receive massive changes is Olaf. Players of the beloved viking are in store for some massive adjustments, as Riot Games will finally attempt to push him out of the top lane for good.
League of Legends is by far the most popular MOBA, and one of its oldest champions is Olaf, the Berserker. Olaf is feared for being one of the more difficult fighter champions to deal with as he has huge amounts of HP while utilizing one of the more powerful ultimate abilities in the game, Ragnarok, which unleashes his warrior rage, granting him movement speed and making him completely immune to crowd control.
Over the years, Olaf has morphed from a skirmisher in the Jungler role to a solid lane bully in the top lane. As his ganks weren’t top tier, and power farming junglers have slowly been pushed to the wayside, his role in the top lane was to harass as hard as possible, build up a handful of items, and be an unstoppable force.
Now, in patch 14.7, developer Riot is looking to force him back to his original jungle role. League content creator Spideraxe reported on some changes the devs are testing in the Public Beta Environment (PBE) for the upcoming patch. The Olaf changes, as of now, are as follows:
- Undertow (Q) now deals 5 – 25 bonus monster damage
- Tough It Out (W) attack speed duration increased from 4 seconds to 5 seconds, and mana cost increased from 30 to 50
- Reckless Swing (E) cooldown refund increased to 2 seconds against monsters
- Ragnarok (R) now costs 100 mana, bonus Attack Damage changed from 10 – 30 to 15 – 25, and movement speed increased from 20% – 70% to 30% – 70%
The increased mana directly shows that Riot is attempting to force him out of the top lane, as mana is already a huge problem for Olaf to stay in lane. The increased monster damage will also help Olaf’s jungle clear speed.
While these changes aren’t yet confirmed to hit live servers, it’s extremely likely we’ll be seeing the last of Olaf in the top lane soon enough.
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