Holycrap how 2 maokai

Leti the Yeti·Dec 7, 2014·3 votes·1,292 views

I like this guy... I think ;l

I dont feel like my skills are making much impact tho his overall damage is sooo insignificant and root duration is abysmal ;/ top or jungle? this guy is more mp starved than any champ I've ever played so I cant imagine him in lane x. x... does riot want me to build athenes and go mid? throwing babies/root/groundpound? I feel like roots most useful but ground pounds best for jungle clearing.. but then baby toss got that nice slow and aoe boom boom for that aoe dmg groundpound gives and some cc

I have found that I heal so much in team fights lol

8 Comments

EndlessSorcererDec 7, 20142 votes

Playstyle and build can be pretty matchup dependent. I only really play him top lane, but I'll try.

For top lane: Runes: Armor Quints, MR Glyphs, Scaling Health Seals, Hybrid Pen Marks Masteries: 9/21/0 Skill Order: QWQEQR, R>Q>W>E Item Build (Standard): item 3047 item 3111 item 3027 item 3110 item 3190 item 3143 item 3065 Item Build (My Preferred): item 3025 item 3151 Starting Items: item 1054 item 1056 item 1029 item 2041

You have to build and play him differently depending on your lane opponent. Typical items I find myself buying early are: item 3057 item 3211 item 3010 item 3024

When trading in lane, I find that Q is the most efficient and it's easy to use after an autoattack to prevent retaliation. This is very good for bullying melee opponents and waveclearing. When trading with opponents, you want to try and avoid as much damage as you can by using your Q to interrupt autoattacks and W to avoid skills.

I find that it helps to let my opponents push toward my tower, since it leaves them more vulnerable to jungle ganks, which Maokai has the CC to easily set up.

As a jungler, I'd recommend using MS Quints, Armor Seals, MR Glyphs, Attack Speed Marks. Max Q first, since it's your best consistent damage and has a fairly low mana cost. I'd recommend building Juggernaut+Ranger'sTrailblazer, Frozen Heart, Locket of the Iron Solari. While this might put you a little over the CDR cap, Locket or Spirit Visage is still a better pickup than Banshee's Veil.

redniwediSDec 7, 20141 votes

He's still alright in top and jungle, but I've actually seen him have a fair impact as a support now. Might be something to look into.

WeGDec 8, 20141 votes

His kit is perfect for the support role, but he has mana issues. Not to say it cannot succeed, because it's actually not that hard to do so. But, the exp/level/gold advantage you get from solo laning or the jungle really helps Maokai thrive, not to mention your team can also have a Leona or Braum or Morgana etc so you aren't the only CC/tank on the team.

If you do well enough in a solo lane and get any sort of advantage, it's damn near impossible for him to be killed unless you really put yourself out of position or wander off and get 5v1'd.

One of my first games as Maokai top, I got to the fight late and all my team died right as I got there. We were at the enemy Inhib tower when they started chasing me. All 5 of them chased me and burned every summoners/movement ability they had, and I made it all the way back to my base with them hitting me the entire time. They simply could not get on top of me because of saplings/the displacement from Q.

Maokai is a monster once you get the hang of him anywhere you go.

redniwediSDec 8, 20141 votes

All fair points. Honestly the only position he can't do well in is ADC, and that's only because you don't normally have a support capable of enough cheese to pull it off.

BluePolarizerDec 11, 20141 votes

{quoted} All fair points. Honestly the only position he can't do well in is ADC, and that's only because you don't normally have a support capable of enough cheese to pull it off.

Behold, the legend:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nI0LICpjMkI

CenturosDec 7, 20141 votes

Toss sapling, jump to enemy, then walk behind them and pound them towards your team. He's pretty good with allies, since he has a good spammable knockback/slow.

WeGDec 8, 20141 votes

Wow... I feel the exact opposite about him, when I picked him up late in S4 I took him top and something just clicked. Never had such a strong startup with a champion, had over a 4 KDA ratio and 70% winrate in ranked until I hit gold.

I would start dorans ring, with armor/magic resist/attack speed reds (for his passive, abuse this)/AP quints, and 9/21/0 masteries. After that dorans rings and the AP quints, I never built AP again. Full tank every single game. Start q, then W if you expect your jungler to come before level 3, otherwise E. Then take the other at 3, put another point in Q @ 4, then another point in E @ 5 and R @ 6. Then Max RQWE.

You get the early 2nd point in E for the waveclear, I noticed most of hte minions would have a sliver of health left after a combo. Your goal isn't going to be kills ever, your a tank and you want to get assists. Your goal is to farm as much as possible while still poking the enemy while CSing. Anytime they stand in the middle of a wave, throw an E to lead and land on him, W in, then Q him into your sapling. This combo with barely any AP still chunks the shit out of everybody. Do this 2-3 times and they will have to back, and you can survive the damage they put out because your building full tank.

Farm farm farm and wait for your jungle to come.

Learn h ow to properly farm a minion wave and just do that forever and ever. Teleport ganks to bottom are also very potent.

WeGDec 8, 20141 votes

Another decent option, is instead of QEWQERQQQQQ, you put the 2 points into Q+E then max W. This is more useful for teamfighting, so if you plan on not sitting top lane in farm island for over half the game, I'd max W first. But in my experience putting the 2 points into Q+E is essential for my playstyle at least, clearing the minion wave as fast as possible without actually pushing, opening up a few seconds where you can duel without enemy minions messing up pathing or doing that little bit of extra damage pushing trades in your opponent's favor.