EPT![[image loading]](http://www.thegamedude.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Maokai.jpg)
Introduction
Maokai is a caster-tank, quite similar to the likes of ChoGath and Galio. He uses his innate beefiness in order to maximize his disruptive potential. He contributes 2 cc: a spammable AoE slow, and a very reliable root that also blinks maokai to the target. His ulti is also extremely useful in a teamfight because it gives 20% damage reduction your whole team, if placed correctly, and it does a great deal of AoE damage to boot. His passive also makes him impossible to kill later on. He is quite underrated by most players.
Abilities
[Q] Arcane Smash – Slight knockback + slow
Magic Damage: 70 / 115 / 160 / 205 / 250 (+0.4 per Ability Power)
Slow: 20 / 27 / 34 / 41 / 48 %
Cost: 55 mana
Cooldown: 6 seconds
Range: 700
Comments: + Show Spoiler +
It’s cheap, the cooldown is low, and once you max it, it becomes a huge amount of slow. The knockback is minor but it’s not irrelevant. I do believe the knockback creates a ministun that stops channeling and stops the usage of abilities and attacks by a fraction of a second.
[W] Twisted Advance – Root
Magic Damage: 80 / 115 / 150 / 185 / 220 (+0.8 per Ability Power)
Root Duration: 1 / 1.25 / 1.5 / 1.75 / 2 seconds
Cost: 75 / 80 / 85 / 90 / 95 Mana
Cooldown: 13 seconds
Range: 650
Comments:+ Show Spoiler +
Maokai’s hard-cc. It’s a point-and-click cc, extremely reliable.
[E] Sapling Toss – Spidermines
Impact Magic Damage: 40 / 75 / 110 / 145 / 180 (+0.4 per Ability Power)
Explosion Magic Damage: 80 / 130 / 180 / 230 / 280 (+0.6 per Ability Power)
Cost: 70 / 80 / 90 / 100 / 110 Mana
Cooldown: 12 seconds
Range: 1100
Explosion Area of Effect: 350 (estimate)
Chase Aggro: 250 (estimate)
Sight Range: 700 (estimate)
Comments: + Show Spoiler +
Maokai’s best skill. Just like spidermines, these things do ridiculous amounts of damage and are VERY annoying. When this skill is maxed, it does 460 (!) base damage. It also has a 1:1 AP ratio. Oh, and you can stack a couple of them for lulzy ambush. They’re NOT replacement for wards. They give good vision but they don’t last long enough at all.
[R] Vengeful Maelstrom: It’s a Toggle AoE like Anivia’s ult. Creates an area that reduces all damage to team (except tower damage) by 20% and deals damage once you toggle it off.
Magic Damage: 100 / 150 / 200 (+0.5 per Ability Power)(+2 bonus damage per damage absorbed)
Maximum Bonus Damage: 200 / 250 / 300
Cooldown: 40 / 30 / 20 seconds.
Initial Cost: 75 mana.
Upkeep Cost: 30 mana.
Range: 575.
Comments: + Show Spoiler +
You basically get the EHP equivalent of an extra champion with this ulti (assuming everyone faught until they died that is 
). The cooldown is low, especially at level 3, and the damage is very high. The AoE is so big that it’s pretty hard to NOT fight in this thing.
). The cooldown is low, especially at level 3, and the damage is very high. The AoE is so big that it’s pretty hard to NOT fight in this thing.Passive: “Each time a champion near Maokai casts a spell, he gains a charge of Magical Sap. When he has 5 charges, his next melee attack will drain energy from his target, healing Maokai for 7.5 % of his maximum health”
Comments:+ Show Spoiler +
It’s a powerful passive, to say the least. It provides maokai with lanestaying power, but it really shines in teamfights since everyone is spamming spells around you, making Maokai impossible to kill. Maokai’s own skills charges this passive.
Summoner Spells:
Ghost + Ignite. + Show Spoiler +
Ghost for chase + getting close enough to use root. Ignite for a ridiculous early -> midgame burst.Teleport can be better than ignite in arranged teams, so you can pull off stunts like stealing half the enemy jungle at the start or getting easy dragons.
Masteries:
9/0/21
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Pretty standard I think. Maokai doesn’t need SoS. He’s definitely going to run oom before he runs out of health so who cares. The combined 9% cdr is pretty useful.
Runes:
Quints: Movement speed x 3.+ Show Spoiler +
Having a slightly higher movement speed is always useful for a champion like maokai, since frequently you only need to be slightly faster than your target to catch up and root a target, netting you the kill. 4.5% extra movespeed brings his pathetic 305 base movespeed to a sexy 318. Add to that the 3% from the utility tree and you start out with 328 movespeed.
Marks: Magic pen x 9
Seals and Glyphs: Magic Resistance per level x 9. + Show Spoiler +
I use magic resistance per level on both seals and glyphs. This nets him an extra 40 MR at level 18. This is because of my item choices, which will not allow for too many big-ticket MR items.
But he’ll run out of mana if you don’t use MP5 runes!”.+ Show Spoiler +
Actually he is going to run oom either way. Stacking your entire runeslots with mp5 runes will delay his oomness by maybe 2 creepwaves, which is pretty pointless since everytime he goes back he buys more mana or mp5 items anyways, so your net gain isn’t all that much.
Skilling Order:
E,Q,E,W,E,R, then R>E>Q>W
“Why you no level W over Q? Root duration is powerful!”. + Show Spoiler +
Sure, having 1 extra second of root sounds great, but the damage increase is pitiful, and the cooldown on W is way too long to be worth it. Leveling Q brings the pathetic 23% slow to a beastly 48% slow. The cooldown low enough that you can fire 2 of them off in a trade.
“Why you take Q and not W at level 2!?”+ Show Spoiler +
Mostly because it’s a little too early to use W without getting your face stuffed in after your root wears off. The damage isn’t really that impressive and the ridiculous scaling on your E hasn’t kicked in yet. Plus, at level 3, E + Q kills all three ranged minions. Last-hitting the ranged minions is usually difficult for melee champs. Having a way to get all of them early on is very good for your cs.
“Why level R? You still only get 20% damage reduction?!” + Show Spoiler +
For 1 point you still end up getting at least an extra 50 damage on your burst, or an extra 100 potential damage in a teamfight in a huge AoE blast. Also, the cooldown is reduced by 10 seconds. The mana cost doesn’t go up, so why not?
Item build:
Dring
Dring
Dring
Merc Treads
Spirit visage/Glacial Shroud (in whichever order you need more, then finish the other one)
Frozen heart
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For a final itembuild that costs 7k gold, you get a total of 45AP, 2.5k HP, 200armor, and around 125MR and 39% cdr.. With your passive and ultimate they really won’t be able to kill you. Meanwhile you’re spamming a 50% slow on a 3.6second cooldown pretending to be nunu and rooting people every 7 seconds.
The itembuild is very fluid so have to make adjustments based on:
- Whether you can control both team’s blue buffs
- Whether anyone else on your team needs blue buff
- Whether anyone on your team will be building soul shroud
Depending whether you can get cdr from blue buff or soul shroud, ditch spirit visage for catalyst and then build it into banshees. Do NOT build catalyst before 3drings. The 45AP from the drings is very powerful on maokai and will help him burst his opponent senseless.
The itembuild is very fluid so have to make adjustments based on:
- Whether you can control both team’s blue buffs
- Whether anyone else on your team needs blue buff
- Whether anyone on your team will be building soul shroud
Depending whether you can get cdr from blue buff or soul shroud, ditch spirit visage for catalyst and then build it into banshees. Do NOT build catalyst before 3drings. The 45AP from the drings is very powerful on maokai and will help him burst his opponent senseless.
Maokai gameplay
Before minion spawn: Start the game with doran’s rings. If your team is up for it, 5-man invade the enemy’s red buff. You can jack the wraiths with 2 + 1 saplings while your team takes the red buff. Leaving the enemy jungler with half a jungle to work with. Use your own judgment whether you want to jack their wraiths like this, however. Maokai really doesn’t use a whole lot of mana the first two levels, so even if you use 3 saplings on the wraiths you will regen enough mana by level 3 to farm the ranged minions, and the exp from wraith generally will make up for it.
Laning: Take a solo lane. Solotop would be ideal. Solomid can work too. Levels 1-2 just try to last hit as best as you can without eating too much harass. Toss a couple of sapling at the enemy if you have mana to spare but avoid pushing the lane too hard; your time will come.
At level 3, toss E into ranged minions and then Q. This gets you 3 cs everytime, allowing you to farm comfortably against anyone really. Melee minions are much easier to farm as well. After a couple of waves you probably pushed up to the enemy tower and are low on mana. Recall to buy another doran’s ring.
Once you are level 5 you can really start beating on your opponent if they overextend. Get in range, toss an E directly at your opponent, and then root them in place. Your sapling will be guaranteed to hit them + explode in their face. This does a LOT of damage. If they’re standing back, E + Q to kill the ranged minions, wait for E to come off cooldown, and then toss another E at them; they won’t have ranged minions to attact the attention of the derplings so they’ll have no choice but to run around and be denied a LOT of farm.
Once you hit level 7 that’s when maokai becomes ridiculous. Sapling will 1-shot ranged creeps, so you just 1-shot ranged creeps and then zone them completely with another sapling. If they dare to come farm, nuke the shit out of them with E + W + Q. You also have ignite to let you get a kill.
Remember, Maokai’s “thing” is to push his tower 24/7. This isn’t a bad thing for him because he can continue to harass and deny last hits even after he pushes the wave, and it frees up a lot of time for him to gank or buy + get mana back.
Midgame:
Your saplings are a great poking/seige tool. You can toss them as much as you want, since unlike Cho Gath, using your skills to poke doesn’t make you use up valuable cc.
Saplings can be stacked in a brush for ambushing. You can basically 1-shot someone if they walk into 3 saplings + all your skills + ignite.
I will update this section a little more later on.
In teamfights
PLACE YOUR ULT PROPERLY. I.e. place it before all the damage is being dealt, but after forcing commitment from the enemy team.
Spam your Q. It’s a wonderful slow. Use W to help you position your Q to hit multiple people.
Saplings still deals good damage. Toss it at their squishies and then burst them down when they get low enough.
Don’t go off chasing after their carry right from the start. You’re a tanky caster, not a tanky DPS so you lack sustained damage. Only jump on their carry once they’re low enough to be bursted. Until then, just be a good cc-bot for your team.
