Update Maokai?

With the mage updates, and the current tanks or ap champs that are available, I feel that Maokia has severely fallen behind. His popularity as a champ hovers around 5%. So, since I used to main him, I wanted to share some ideas for updates.

I think for a champion to have a connection to the players, they need to fit a role of course, but the abilities also need to make sense for the champion.

His Q, it's just a basic skill shot slow. I think reworking it to look like roots tripping the enemy, a bit like Zyras, would make more sense. Same ability, different graphics and reason for slow.

I think Maokia's W, saplings, make sense as an ability, though not sure why they explode, but it works. The only downside to them is they're small, easy to avoid, and a single minion can block them. I'd like to see the damage reduced by about 10%, and instead of one sapling, throw 3 that land near each other. Divide the damage in thirds to each sapling, so each sapling is 30% of what the current sapling damage is. If you land it right on top of someone with no minions around, it'd still be full damage of the ability.

Mao's E, the root dash, makes some sense, as he travels through the roots of plants in the ground, but I think it should be able to be used as a dash and either do some damage at the end of the dash, or an ally shield, or both if balanced.

I think Mao's R, his ult, is his least useful ability. It simply is too small an area, too easy to avoid, and doesn't often benefit anyone but himself. I'd like to see it reworked to be a shield of thorns, which makes sense as a plant anyway; it'd be like a small AOE thornmail. Maokia and nearby allies are covered in thorns. Percent damage done in the area is returned, while allies are given an incoming damage reduction. The obvious counter being just run away til it wears off.

I love Mao, I always have; but I think his 5% play is fairly solid proof he needs an update too. He's just easily replaced by so many other AP tanks now.