Why was maokai, the top lane tank, turned into a support mage with this rework?

It wasn't their intent, it just turned out like that.

You become a Support Mage, YOU become a Support Mage, EVERYONE BECOMES A SUPPORT MAAAAAAGGGGGGEEEEE.

I dont think riot intended to make him a support. Theres someone on the rework team who is REALLY good at making top and mid laners not function properly alone, and they do a great job at it.

Realistically his huge %HP damage, high CC, and relatively low bases make for a good support. Its hard to kill with maokai, and his E punishes flankers really, really hard. If he were to get any nerfs, they should be to his %HP damage. Give the landing a base damage, lower the base %HP, and increase the scaling.

cus that is how bad of a rework it was... riot shit the bed once again

Read about what happens on the pbe... i swear boards always tries bring up issues without checking if riot is doing something about it.

I heard a high elo player say he is a jungler now with only a minority playing him support. He specifically said that no one plays him top lane anymore and he is officially a jungler.

It was an accident, like Tank Ekko, Support Malzahar, and Rek'sai becoming a knock-up bot

I dunno, why did they take him away from being my favorite jungler first?

You top laners are so entitled, you take all the good stuff and leave us choosing lee sin or auto-feed.

kappa not kappa

He wasant turned into a support, its just that his E is overpowered so hes best played in a role that can build to abuse it the best.