Olaf vs Locke Counter Pick

Two champions who pay health for damage meet in the top lane, and the one with the larger pool wins the arithmetic. Soul Ignition damages Locke for its attack speed and move speed window and returns only a portion at the end, while Reckless Swing takes health from target and caster alike but refunds the cost when it kills. At level 18 Olaf holds 2,668 health against 2,508, and 290 games on patch 16.13.1 leave him at 56.9%, rated Easy.

• Berserker Rage rewards being low. Attack speed and life steal scale with missing health, so the health Olaf spends comes back through his own attacks.
• Silver Stake wants the same window. Locke’s on-hit magic damage grows with the enemy’s missing health, which is precisely when Olaf’s life steal is strongest.
• Ashen Pursuit is his only reset. The teleport into a dash gives one repositioning tool per cooldown, and Undertow’s slow with armor reduction punishes a mistimed one.

Neither wins on reach, since both are melee at 125, and move speed favours Olaf at 350 against 340, so leaving a lost trade is difficult. Purgatory can still execute a low Olaf outright, which argues for holding Ragnarok until the binding artifact is thrown rather than opening with it. Magic resist rather than armor is the correct early buy against Locke, whose passive damage is magic.