Maokais ultimate should not have a mana cost per second + a cooldown. That's just absurd. Give him a FLAT mana cost with the ability to end it early if desired OR greatly reduce the cooldown. There's no reason he has a per second cost and a cooldown.
inb4 maokai every game inb4 op cant inb4
The Yetii Rider12 votesWhen Maokai's ultimate is strong, he is the strongest top laner in the LCS. Them's the breaks, unfortunately. Riot has to balance the game for all players, not just solo.
BiscuitWitch2 votesBasically this. A while back they buffed Maokai jungle, but then they just took him top and he was the/oneofthe strongest tops at the time.
EcchiOtakuTM6 votesThey nerfed his CD on ulti for no reason. They need to just revert the ulti CD nerf and maokai will be fine again. Or they can just give it a flat cost of 100 mana cause maokai takes too much mana for something that's not even OP to use for damage or defense.
Turdong lite3 votesNot op for defense? did you forget it can reduce your entire teams damage taken by 20%?
EcchiOtakuTM1 votesThat was only good when the CD was on-demandable now it's meaningless with such a high mana cost and less usable CD.
Sinlaire2 votesnot to mention the "damage" tacked on to it is capped at such a low number you're better off letting it time out in a team fight to mitigate the most damage sometimes rather than trying to pop it to be effective damage wise.
EcchiOtakuTM1 votesIf it didn't have capped damage the CD AND MANA COST would be understandable but even before the meta changes the CD increase was dumb and needs reverting it wasn't what should have been "fixed"
Silents4295 votesI think Maokai in general needs a tune up.
Top lane kind of made jungling as him pitiful, his Ult has been nerfed a lot, his clear speed is bad and such.
I rather his ult has a lower cooldown and mana cost like it used too, but make it not block as much damage or something.
Dominick Destine3 votesMaokais ultimate should not have a mana cost per second + a cooldown. That's just absurd.
Nukronic16 votes[{quoted}](name=Dominick Destine,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=UyGp34kX,comment-id=0001,timestamp=2016-03-06T09:22:52.390+0000)
A few seconds vs 60.. Please. Like the OP said, or greatly reduced.
Silents4294 votesThey can keep them up indefinitely, Maokai has his capped at like 10 seconds.
Rhai2 votesSwain cant as his cost scales too
DorkunedAuras2 votesNot comparable, and it's not a set limit.
Rhai2 votesActually considering what was pointed out was that: it has a cooldown and it has scaling mana cost thus making it is quite comparable. Swain's is also the closest to maokai in that its continous and has an effect whilst having a continous mana cost
LordGeovanni1 voteswhich you can turn off and turn back on in a few seconds while maokai has significantly longer and a cap on how long he can use it
Silents4291 votesNo he can have his up until he is out of mana, Maokai has a time limit in place regardless of his mana
Rhai2 votesDoesn't change the fact that the ult meets the criteria originally stated
Ariel the Cruel1 votesThey capped it because he would have it up almost indefinitely. Resulting in a permanent 20% damage reduction aura for his team.
Silents4291 votesYes I know why it is capped.
LordGeovanni1 votesat that amount of mana cost what people building mana maokai like mana ryze with blue buff and athenas unholy grail
Zero Skill Tank3 votesIDK why he uses mana at all, it's not like he is more of a ranged champion than say 
LemurKick2 votesAre you saying melee champions don't use mana? Because that is very wrong
Comrade Napoleon2 votesI remember Riot Charizard or whatever Pokemon name interviewing someone from riot, he said the Mao was too safe of a pick, if the top laner didn't know what will he play or what enemy will he face or what comp will he be against he will just pick Mao and be fine, this is why they nerfed him
Personal Opinion: Lulu has been doing exactly that (and more! she can be Top Mid or Supp) for the last 2 seasons and continuing it this season and it is totally fine by riot.
LegacyDAP1 votesOP cant inb4 :^)
As a Maokai main in season 5 I can agree with this. I'm probably just biased though. It's a fairly strong ultimate.
WadeWilson13371 votesMaokai is quite weak at the moment though. I love Maokai on free week, but i cant justify spending the ip on him, as sad as that is considering i own over half of the champs.
MunchCrunchLunch1 voteshe needs buffs all over the place. reduce all his mana costs.