I've been playing Maokai recently because I liked his CC and peeling potential as well as amazing in-combat sustain, and I won lane against both Renekton and Garen, who are known for being amazing laners. I'm still low elo (or MMR since I'm not ranked yet), so maybe people don't know how to play against Maokai, but I'd like to learn some weaknesses of Maokai so I can be a better player.
IdbangKatakuri4 votesFire is good against grass type i believe.
50000000000000001 votesIsn't Garen steel type?
IdbangKatakuri1 votesSteel/fighting, so maybe related to lucario.
50000000000000001 votesSo he should beat Maokai, right? Or maybe Maokai is a dark/grass type?
Matezoide2 votesA shame they are nerfing him next patch for absolutely no reason, Maokai is pretty balanced.
RookPusher3 votesA shame they are nerfing him next patch for absolutely no reason, Maokai is pretty balanced.
This.
Maokai has a lot of them. I main him, and I feel like:
His mobility is painful His mana sustain is brutal He relies heavily on his team showing up His jungle clear time sucks His E is unreliable and not worth the cast-to-result cost His ult requires your team have a clue
I could go on
Rito Staff1 votes"He relies heavily on his team showing up" - this one is easy come on, at least in normals that's the standart, the tank goes in people go nuts and all in. I don't "main tank" but whenver I play one like Sion or Aatrox, and jump in everybody follows. Just check if they're not that behind =P
"His jungle clear time sucks" - lot of champs do, so what, he's best top. Same as ashe is better bot but her clear jung time sucks.
RookPusher1 votes[{quoted}](name=Don Noat Amu,realm=EUW,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=LpTNVhQ2,comment-id=000100000000,timestamp=2015-08-26T22:25:23.122+0000)
"He relies heavily on his team showing up" - this one is easy come on, at least in normals that's the standart, the tank goes in people go nuts and all in. I don't "main tank" but whenver I play one like Sion or Aatrox, and jump in everybody follows. Just check if they're not that behind =P
"His jungle clear time sucks" - lot of champs do, so what, he's best top. Same as ashe is better bot but her clear jung time sucks.
You're missing a few things.
He relies heavily on his team to show up because his kit is built around it. He doesn't do a lot of damage on his own when he builds tank. His Ult is designed for a melee team, or ranged with a clue. Everything else is for lockdown. Well if there's no pressure behind his lockdown, mobility doesn't matter.
He's newly good top. He's always been a jungle. Those of us who main him don't want to suffer because Top Laners are cry babies. If you're jungling against a Udyr, Lee Sin, Xin, or J4, you're basically praying that first lap of clearing goes well. If he misses a jungle creature, or gets countered effectively - he's set back about 5 minutes. And god help you if you miss blue, or you're up against a Nunu who basically eats your jungle in the time it takes you to go Blue/Gromp.
Personally, Idgaf what he does top lane. He's a balanced jungler and if they screw that I'm not going to be pleased. I'm sure most of the mains won't be.
7ha7guy7771 votesWhat if the nerfs are Riot's way to justify finally giving him magic resist per level?
Sir ArmaMalum1 votesHe's weak in the areas of mana sustain (mitigated by catalyst) and lack of real poke. He does very well against tanky (due to his w %hp damage) melee (lack of range is null when they come to you) fighters and thus does very well in top lane. As well as everywhere else right now what with juggernaut craze.
In higher ELO you'll run into people with patience, and that is where the challenge comes in. make sure not to burn your mana quickly and beat them at the waiting game yourself. Mao has a decent late-game in terms of being tanky and teamfights, so all you have to do is make sure not to get screwed in lane.
50000000000000001 votesI noticed the mana problem, so I usually start 
4*
against anyone who scales off AD (sometimes even 3 hp and 2 mp).
I think you're right in that he has no good poke, since his E is pretty easy to dodge. I used it against Garen to prevent him from procing his passive, but otherwise the damage itself was meh.
Rito Staff1 votesExactly how I feel fighting Mao and Malphite. What can I do? Tanks, damages. What else do they need. I'm sorry I'm a hater of "I'm tank, I'm near you and you die"
Matezoide2 votes[{quoted}](name=Don Noat Amu,realm=EUW,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=LpTNVhQ2,comment-id=00000001,timestamp=2015-08-26T21:30:49.225+0000)
Exactly how I feel fighting Mao and Malphite. What can I do? Tanks, damages. What else do they need. I'm sorry I'm a hater of "I'm tank, I'm near you and you die"
Can people please stop this "Tanks can 100-0!" meme?
Rito Staff1 votesMy butt is still sore from the past. I've got melted by shens, shyvanas, amumu (this one lmao). But k, amumu isn't that hard to damage.
Malphite with 500 armor? Might aswell itemize and bet in the chances of killing their squishies and forgeting overall about malphite. (Maokai with his ult, pretty similar)
Last whisper plus 6% armor pen from masteries = 41% pen, to 500 armor = 296 armor left.
You could go BC and Youmuu and Armor Pen runes but --> 
& 
core? 
Only two more items remaining, LW and BC (so no Youmuu). Still the damage I dealt wasn't relevant. The teamfight was over. Happens so many times..
I guess there's a reason for ADC itemization incoming.
Oh but it's k, they're tanking and CCing, you can kill them faster, right? .. no.
GroundRuleDouble1 votesMaokai's weakness? Me controlling him.
50000000000000001 votesDamn, all these downvotes for asking an actual question... This isn't even a QQ thread.
7ha7guy7771 votesAxes cut down the tree. Also true damage in general is annoying to deal with as Mao
50000000000000001 votesCould you be more specific about axes? Darius, Sion, and Olaf all use axes (honorable mention to Draven).
Also, isn't true damage annoying to all the tanks? I'd imagine it's less impactful because of sustain passive.
7ha7guy7771 votesOlaf is annoying to deal with because of the frequency of true damage and his ability to farm without using abilities (less sap magic procs for you). Darius was also pretty effective against mao (in my experience as mao) pre-rework. I haven't played the match up this patch. Garen is annoying if he gets a few items because of the silence and your only hard cc requiring you to dive onto him. Draven can be annoying early game (mao can play support) but once you get some armor and health he becomes less annoying. I haven't played against Sion as mao but i imagine the % hp magic damage combined with large base and % hp physical damage is annoying to itemize against.
warpenguin5551 votesin lane he's stupidly easy to bully
50000000000000001 votesI found it pretty easy to fight back when being harassed by Renekton. Do you know a specific champion who can bully Maokai well?
warpenguin5551 votesi used renekton lol