to me the issue isnt the root duration its the speed in which it travels, i think it needs to be speed up, nothing crazy but come on.
but i as a maokai OTP typically have no issue hitting my ULTs. but then again if im using it to engage ill typically W in to try to get behind the enemy team and then ult towards my team as they follow or i use it in tight spaces in angles across the area so they have blow flash to get over terrain.
i think they need to revert two changes ... give his W the % hp back and take it from E
give E its damage on impact back. to use E in wave and wait for it to randomly run around or whatever to hit something is hit n miss. if it has its impact damage back it does two things. make it more reliable as a farm tool when in bad match ups and more reliable as a form of poke.
but this giving him damage which is nice but i think he and most tanks need better base stats
maokai with a 
has 565 base hp + 80hp = 645 hp lvl 1
lucian with 
has 571 base hp + 80 hp = 651 hp lvl 1
darius with has 582 base hp + 80 = 662 hp lvl 1 ( not only does darius has more base hp, he has a higher hp per lvl gain and have same starting base armor and mr with more ms and range ) darius hp gain per lvl +100 , maokai hp gain per lvl +95)
i know its seems like not alot ... but at lvl 18 darius has 2282 hp and maokai has 2180
as far as armor /mr at lvl 18
darius 107 armor 53 mr , maokai 107 armor 53 mr
rumble with has 589 base hp + 80 = 669 hp lvl1
akali with has 575 base hp + 80 = 655 hp lvl 1
ryze with 
has 571 base hp + 80 = 651 hp lvl 1
zoe with has 560 base hp + 80 = 640 hp lvl 1
i tried to get a good mix of types of champs /roles to compare base hp stats
i do know they dont get all the same hp growth per lvl as maokai and dont necessarily build as much hp in game
but tanks are the worst in early game currently which legit handcuffs them
majority the counters to tanks have as good base stats if not slightly better and scale to do damage ( juggernauts for 1 )
and on top of that juggeranuats by end game are comparably as tanky with out the cc but with damage.
i have purposed a few things to help tanks.
one is the hp rune in flex runes gives 15-90 hp based on lvl. well this is great if you have 460hp lvl 1 but dont make a lot of difference if you have 565 hp
i think this needs to scale with % of max hp , rewarding tanks for building hp and not rewarding squishy champs
also buffing tank items by giving it a % bonus hp /armor /mr component based on how much bonus hp/armor/mr you have
this wouldnt buff their damage but buff tanks with tank stats and not allowing non tanks to benefit from it. cuz well they just dont build into those stats
a flat buff to tank items would see what we had before with no tanks going "tank' and still doing damage ( fizz top lane sunfire/iceborn one example)
