How to play Jax vs. Olaf?

Question

I just played a ranked game as Jax top lane against Olaf and I outlaned by quite a bit.

So can anyone explain to me, does Olaf beat Jax or is there a specific way to play Jax so that I win the lane?

Thanks!

Answer 1

Olaf does naturally beat Jax. What you can do is:

1. ask for ganks. Since Olaf uses his Axe(Q) to do dmg, he pushes the lane and can get ganked (pre lvl 6)
2. Go for Phage first. One Patch ago, I would have suggested you to go for HoG, but since it got nerfed I wouldn't recommend that. Try to get 2-3 Dorans Blades and then go straight for Phage -> Sheen.
3. Max W (as always). Try to make the trades longer. Olaf has really really strong trades as long as they are short, since his main dmg is his E. You have to know the CD on his E. You can just eat one E, than activate your stun and chase him down for several seconds (~5). After you stunned him and did 1 -2 hits (obviously using W, Q if necessery to gap close) you can just back out, or if you have Q up jump away.
4. Healpots and a red Elexier. Use the red elexier to make him overextend, after lvl 6 if noone has an advantage you will probably be stronger.

its just a bad match up for Jax, but if you play deffensive and leave the lane with 10-20 cs less, you are still going to do work in teamfights.

Answer 2

If you're Jax versing an Olaf in top lane here are some things you can do to lessen the (true) damage he does to you. Jax players generally favor smal damage traids until the enemy is half-ish then jump on them and finish them with auto attacks, against an Olaf you will lose every small damage trade you attempt to do from his Reckless Swing Undertow combo.

Solutions

• You will need help from your jungler, a lot of it, so make sure he is aware of this and that you coordinate your ganks to make sure you take him down, pre-6 is the best time to do this as he gets Ragnarok at 6 making ganking him much more difficult.
• If you're going in, go all in, by this I mean don't try to jump on him and back off thinking you've sufficiently damaged him for the time, as you'll be walking away with 2-3 times as much true damage taken, after your jungler has helped you get some extra farm / kills on him and you have some damage items and think you can take him, go all in, Olaf has amazing quick damage but solely relies on his 4-5 second cooldown (without 40% CDR) Reckless Swing for his damage output, that 4-5 seconds he can only use auto attacks (not including Undertow as once he throws it you must try to kite him away from it to stop his ability of spamming it at you).
• Finally for best laning against an Olaf I would grab some extra armor penetration (brutalizer should do the trick) and try to get as much extra damage as possibly, since most of his damage output in lane is true damage, armor stacking against him will do very little to save you.