How to win lane as Trundle against Olaf · 51.21% win rate over 248 Emerald+ games · Updated 2026-07-27
| Stage | Favoured | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Level 1 | Olaf | Olaf retrieves his Q axe and immediately resets the slow — at level 1 he controls the trade range and you cannot close before Chomp lands, so he wins the exchange. |
| Level 2 | Olaf | With W not yet a factor, Olaf kites you with axe slows and weaves true-damage autos; your Frozen Domain tempo is irrelevant until it is down. |
| Level 3 | Olaf | Full kit on both sides but Olaf's lifesteal and sustained true damage beat you in the open — he does not need to commit to the duel you want, and you cannot force it cleanly yet. |
| Levels 4-5 | Even / skill | Chomp AD steal accumulates over repeated procs and starts to blunt his output, but Ragnarok is online; the duel is genuinely coin-flip depending on whose cooldown is up. |
| Level 6 | Even / skill | Subjugate is online but Ragnarok is too — whoever baits the other's key ability first wins the all-in, making the window an even chess match of cooldown tracking. |
| First item | Even / skill | Trinity Force Spellblade procs start to close the damage gap but neither of you has a clean advantage without your respective ultimates, keeping the duel on a knife-edge. |
| Two+ items | Trundle | Full Subjugate drain plus Trinity Force burst inside Frozen Domain — you out-duel Olaf decisively in any extended side-lane fight with his resistances siphoned mid-combat. |
Olaf's thrown axes are the whole early story — each one slows and deals flat damage, and at levels 1-3 you have no reliable way to close on him before he kites out. He wins level 1 by hurling an axe the instant he retrieves it, keeping you in range of a slow without stepping into Chomp range; do not trade auto-for-auto into his axe pattern. At level 2 he can retrieve the axe and reset the slow in one smooth motion, making the short-trade window he creates genuinely punishing before your Frozen Domain is even on the ground. Level 3 he completes the kit and has the durability to just stand in your face and out-sustain — his lifesteal and true-damage autos mean you cannot bleed him out either. Farm safely, hold the wave on your side, and do not burn Pillar just to delay his retrieve — save it for a real pattern.
The full Trundle vs Olaf report continues with the mid-game plan, the late-game and teamfight plan, every power spike to play around, and the win conditions for both sides — plus cooldown tracking and the live enemy-jungle tracker inside the app.
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Playing the other side? Olaf vs Trundle guide →
All Trundle top lane matchups →