When he ganks, it's very hard to escape since 3 of his spells have CC. Laning against him, he has so much sustain and poke. Mid-Late game when we group, we're scared to engage on him because of his ult. Should we NOT group and fight? He is very tanky, and even if you don't focus him in teamfights, he still reduces the damage dealt to his teammates, then bursts you down.
Ward? I mean, his sapplings have the longest range, and quite honestly they are no where near out ranging good ward coverage.
As far as teamfights go, stun him. Beleive it or not, simply stunning/rooting him then moving away will render his ult useless. Don't focus him, just cc him and move so he has issues holding his ult near his team.
I haven't really been able to play much last few weeks, but it is what I would do.
At the moment, it's incredibly difficult to deal with maokai... He should be getting nerfed pretty heavily in the upcoming patch, which I believe is focusing on lowering his damage and limiting the amount of time you can leave his Ulti up. My suggestion would be to try to avoid teamfighting against a maokai; he brings come of the best teamfight power in the game. Focus on weakening his teammates and pushing down objectives, avoiding fighting as much as possible. If fighting his team becomes unavoidable, relegate your own team's tank to keeping Maokai busy, and hope you win vs. their damage dealers.
Probably not perfect advice, but hopefully it'll help.
Aside from "bursting" I agree, hes a pain. He is gettting nerfed tho
top lane pick an aggressive champion with some sustain that can abuse his mana costs and generally weak laning. zone him from farm since its pretty hard to outright kill him. suggestions being rengar, trynd or poppy who all scale late and can beat him in lane if played right.
if he's the Jungler, ward up. if You're Jungling against him go into his jungle at every oppertunity. he's powerful in 2v2's and team fights, but his dueling is pretty pathetic. obvious choices being lee sin or elise, but for a less skill cap dependant champion, xin or udyr are also good choices.
