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Mid Season Tanks Update - Maokai

RiotCaptain Gameplay·2/22/2017, 6:52:45 PM·1 votes·115,784 views

Why hello there. It’s time to turn over a new leaf for Maokai, the next champion in our Tank Update!

We choose Maokai for a slot in this update because we felt that there was a great opportunity to push this champion as a whole into a really good state. With fairly modern visuals and an updated lore courtesy of the Harrowing, there were only a few major flaws remaining. As per the general goals set out in Sol's post on Sejuani, lets chop down Maokai’s situation.

  • Generically Powerful - This is the primary driver in the work being done on Maokai. We feel Maokai’s kit doesn't offer enough distinct strengths compared to other tanks, leading to a situation where if Maokai viable, he is almost always the right man for the job. This is most visible in pro play, where he has remained a generic pick whenever a team needs a solid tank, agnostic to other factors such as enemy or ally team composition. Maokai after the update should feel more powerful in certain gameplay scenarios, but less so in others. Expect us to play up both the anti-caster slant from his passive and his ability to claim and control areas with his Saplings, and for his efficacy and durability to be contingent on leveraging these strengths.

  • High Power, Low Satisfaction - Currently, we believe there are major mechanics and abilities on Maokai that offer significant power with low understanding and appreciation, such as the % Damage Resist on his Ultimate. Expect work towards either coalescing this ambient power into more noticeable moments, or removable of the ability/mechanic entirely in favor of something with greater clarity.

  • Rewarding Gameplay Mastery - As one of the lowest Mastery champions as far as win rate improvement over games played, there's very little reward offered to players who take the time to learn Maokai’s current kit. We believe a compelling part of the League of Legends experience is the path towards mastering a champion, and this should be appropriately rewarded. Currently we feel most of the tanks in our game have fallen a bit short here. Expect Maokai’s kit to offer more meaningful decisions around how to optimize his abilities.

  • Damage Reliability - This is part of the Mastery Curve issue. Expect a shift in how his damage is dealt, making his optimal output less of a guaranteed thing.

  • Fleshing Out Fantasy - With the recent update to his lore during the Shadow Isle Harrowing event, Maokai has progressed from a depressed and gloomy tree into a vengeful and twisted treant. However, the glimpses of his character visible in game are not in line with this new character. We are continuing the work towards cleaning and sharpening his thematic to create a more compelling champion. Don’t worry, saplings will still be silly and adorable, but expect Maokai to express more than just sadness and remorse.

Best, Beluga Whale

198 Comments

Sharjo2/22/2017, 7:53:04 PM25 votes

Regardless of what you do there is one thing that must happen:

Get rid of the name "Arcane Smash".

Do what you want with the ability, but scrap the name. Since his updated lore came out he no longer has any connection to the arcane, so the name is completely out of place.

Ralanr2/22/2017, 8:09:31 PM8 votes

If I could put in my opinion on Maokai's kit:

Either remove %max health damage from the point and click root or make the root not point at click.

That's the main ability on his kit that bothers me. It's incredibly reliable on top of the %max health damage. Personally I think %max health damage on tanks should be on unreliable abilities with clear counterplay (Sion's W for example can be broken or you can get out of the blast zone). Also, a common thing that Vanguards share is that their initiation is usually AoE hard CC. Maokai's Q isn't really much of an initiation ability and his W is single targeted. Will you be changing his abilities to provide an AoE hard CC initiation?

As for fantasy, that sounds like voice work. Is he getting a new VO?

Ninavi2/22/2017, 7:49:20 PM5 votes

But Maokai is not twisted or vengeful. He is a nice tree protecting life on the island from the baddies. He is only vengeful towards the undead.

Jeddy0172/22/2017, 6:58:04 PM3 votes

I just have to ask, do you guys still consider Maokai a Warden (protective tank)? Or will he be changed to be more like a Vanguard?

Daetnas2/22/2017, 7:04:11 PM3 votes

Will Maokai be balanced for the top lane still, or will you shift his kit so he fits in the jungle more, like before his previous update?

Illâoi Evê Siôn2/22/2017, 7:31:42 PM2 votes

Any plans to change his passive heal? Because Maokai is currently the only Tank who can just straight up heal himself (something that Tanks aren't supposed to be able to do).

The only other Tanks with heals are Zac, Tahm Kench, and Alistar. But Zac has Health Costs to offset his heal, Tahm Kench's Grey Health is like Health Regen and requires him to disengage, and Alistar's heal more of a support ability.

Glarblar2/22/2017, 8:30:50 PM1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Beluga Whale,realm=NA,application-id=A7LBtoKc,discussion-id=HAQtAoTH,comment-id=,timestamp=2017-02-22T18:52:45.265+0000)

  • Rewarding Gameplay Mastery - As one of the lowest Mastery champions as far as win rate improvement over games played, there's very little reward offered to players who take the time to learn Maokai's current kit. [...] Currently we feel most of the tanks in our game have fallen a bit short here.

I thought this was the purpose of tanks? They were Low risk - Low reward champions that allowed new people an opportunity to understand with very few games played

The Yetii Rider2/22/2017, 9:51:23 PM1 votes

I can understand needing to nerf Maokai because he's just generically powerful and reducing the viability of other champions at the highest levels of play. Believe me, I get that. But he's not a Vanguard by any stretch. If you remove his current ultimate it will make him less of a warden, to be sure, but his kit does not offer the level of initiation that a vanguard is expected to provide. His Twisting Advance is definitely a reliable initiation technique, but he has very little AOE crowd control (just his Arcane Smash, and it's not a very wide AOE) and his initiation is strongly limited by range.

Seems like Maokai is invading the list of reworked Vanguards because of convenience on your part and that will crowd out the actual expectations we had of the update as you told us, which was that you would be giving stronger identity and definition to champions who all felt like some form of Amumu. Actual vanguards. First you only do three updates, and now one of them is to a warden and not a vanguard? This is incredibly disappointing. I was actually looking forward to champions like Rammus, Zac and Leona getting more diverse sets of skills from one another.