[Patch 4.3] Vel'Koz General Discussion - Page 43

Yeah man, totally the game's fault!

Damn, Hexakill down means it's gonna be harder to get the Garen games going.

After mentioning Olaf as one of the good current junglers right next to Wukong, it made me think, seeing how I've been unable to do well with him in soloQ from top, despite being matched against players theorically worse than me (post-placement and such) and felt like he had become really weak. Not that Riot necessarily wanted to nerf him with the rework (I don't think so), but the circumstances did it for them anyway:
- having less (arguably nowhere near enough) damage when built full tank means he has to get an offensive item, which skews his timings a lot
- resistances being crushed in favour of HP reversed the tendencies and made itemising against him easier, while nerfing his own laning against magic damage champs
- Q slow nerfs make his laning in general really awkward against anything that doesn't need to melee you to harass/fight you, and he gets oom (and thus powerless) even more easily against such opponents
- the meta enforces the "top lane island" with laners joining the rest of the team even later than usual. Because Olaf peaks in the midgame and is actually quite weak lategame (for the same reason that Caitlyn is strong, both of them in spite of their numbers), this, combined with the first point (meaning his midgame peak will be weaker than previously since he won't be able to have damage + both kinds of resistances at that point), makes him usually unable to exploit his peak, and he's close to be on the decline when he finally joins
- CDR itemisation got hit hard too, with FH, SV, Shurelya's nerfs or disappearance, while Olaf relies very heavily on it for both damage and stickiness

On the other hand, in the jungle:
- he gets access to more CDR itemisation thanks to the free 10% for the jungle item
- he can get his levels and some farm way more easily than top where his mana issues and troubles forcing trade (or fighting shovers) give him losing match-ups against most popular opponents
- through objective control and ganks he gets to fight way earlier than from top lane, making better use of his power spikes
- he puts less strain on his team since they can use a top laner who performs better than him, and will use the additional farm better, especially if it goes lategame (like Shyvana)
- lack of mana issues from the jungle thanks to the Butcher passive and big monsters' relics lets him use said mana in ganks instead, without running oom in 2 chases through a long lane

Of course pro play also has the advantage of being able to incorporate him in team comps that'll cover up his weaknesses and provide him with the initiation/mobility he needs to function (especially past midgame).