Olaf’s rework has broken League of Legends as juggernaut dominates meta

Olaf’s rework set the Freljordian juggernaut on a path back into the League of Legends meta, and he seems unstoppable. The once-middling jungler is now a power pick in two roles, dominating his old role while finding new (and more lucrative) success in top lane.

When Riot set out on Olaf’s “mid-scope update” for League of Legends patch 12.9, they had goals of making the Berserker at home on Summoner’s Rift again.

He lacked a dedicated playerbase despite fluctuating in and out of the meta for years, and was essentially a pretty one-dimensional jungler. So, Riot wanted to add “significant excitement to his kit” by making him a beefier pick that could stand up to both jungling and the top lane.

It seems the rework did its job ⁠— perhaps too well ⁠— as Olaf is now unstoppable come LoL patch 12.9.

Olaf now boasts a 53.28% win rate in top lane across all ranks according to LoLalytics, as well as a 50.45% win rate in jungle. This is an improvement in both roles compared to LoL patch 12.8, which saw both roles suffer with a 42.91% and 45.06% win rate.

In case you’re keeping track ⁠— that’s more than 10% added onto Olaf top’s win rate in just a single patch, which scales into Diamond elo and higher where he has a 15% presence. Across all ranks, he now has the highest win rate in the role.

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The big swing in the top lane comes from where Riot focused their mid-scope update. Adding more dueling power with a shield on his W, as well as an indefinite active on his ultimate as long as he’s hitting an enemy, has made him a solo-killing monster at Level 6.

Sweeping buffs across his kit like armor shred on his Undertow and base stat improvements have generally made him stronger across the Rift too.

With pros yet to get their hands on him just yet ⁠— MSI 2022 is currently being played on LoL patch 12.8 ⁠— it’s unclear whether the rework will translate to pro play presence like the recent Ahri mid-scope update or major Wukong buffs.

However, it’s likely even after LoL patch 12.10’s durability update that Olaf will continue to be a force to be reckoned with, and one top laner players should be keeping an eye on.