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Czech Republic11293 Posts
Just want to make a quick comment regarding the Wraiths camp start. First, you need some amount of AP to do it (11 I think?) so that scales a little bit worse than what you would usually have (movement speed in quints). Second, you can't use your saplings to scout for enemy, which makes it much easier to invade you. Third, wraiths start makes sense only if you plan to go Wraiths-Blue-Wolves-Wraiths, which makes it very very easy for enemy jungler to steal your red buff (particularly if Maokai is purple side). So I'd generally not reccomend doing it.
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Maokai strat for low ELO:
Say to your team, "I'm a smurf, just don't feed."
Then your team is magically 5-0 after 10 mins.
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I just explained two pages ago on how you don't need any AP to do the wraith start after the jungle remake.
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On September 07 2012 00:15 koreasilver wrote: I just explained two pages ago on how you don't need any AP to do the wraith start after the jungle remake. You'll be at blue late if you're staying there to auto the blue wraith. And it isn't even the biggest argument against doing wraiths first - the biggest reason is that it's very easy to invade against, since you can't use saplings as level1 wards. It's not a substantial acceleration in exp or gold above the wolves-blue-wraiths start, either - it ranks poorly in a Risk v Reward analysis. You put yourself into a position where you are very ineffective if an invasion comes, for very little gain.
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I've done wraiths -> blue -> wolves -> wraiths without AP and it isn't much of a difference in terms of getting to Blue.
The problem is it requires at least two guys leashing blue for the .5-1s it takes you to get there and that you have no protection against invasion because you are at two points on the map.
You hit lvl 4 at around the same time, so I would only do it if you want the fast lvl 3 for a mid gank AND the enemy jungler clears slow as well AND you don't need more than 1 pre 1:05 sapling to scout what the enemy team movement is.
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I already did talk about why the wraiths start isn't viable all the time. Even prior to any talk about jungle invasions, many people now simply just check your wraiths if you're Maokai to pop your saplings, Just one sapling pop makes the wraith start unviable. But aside from that, if you start with boots then you get to your blue less than 1 second after blue spawns if you do the wraith start, so there really is no actual time delay. That argument only works if you're talking about regrowth openings but regrowth openings are really bad. This was all talked about 1-2 pages ago.
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On September 07 2012 00:46 sylverfyre wrote:Show nested quote +On September 07 2012 00:15 koreasilver wrote: I just explained two pages ago on how you don't need any AP to do the wraith start after the jungle remake. You'll be at blue late if you're staying there to auto the blue wraith. And it isn't even the biggest argument against doing wraiths first - the biggest reason is that it's very easy to invade against, since you can't use saplings as level1 wards. It's not a substantial acceleration in exp or gold above the wolves-blue-wraiths start, either - it ranks poorly in a Risk v Reward analysis. You put yourself into a position where you are very ineffective if an invasion comes, for very little gain.
dude the biggest reason is that u can do wolves before blue pops and all the wolves ! if u start ghost u wont get the blue one and if u do u will only annoy ur mid who will lose xp. if u rly want to start ghost, do it at the ennemy, but again just killing the small ones doesnt make a big disadvanteage to the ennemy jungler and if u get the blue one ur mid will be late for xp.
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Any tips for playing Maokai?
How do I get the most out of my ultimate in team fights? In ganks? Who is my target in team fight? Do I peel from our carries or do I disrupt enemy carry? I understand WQE-combo when ganking (or WEQ when stun is long enough) but what combos do I use in team fight? Am I prime initiator during dances or is too risky cause it puts me away from team if I W in? Is "Always autoattack" how I max utility of my passive in fights?
Any and all insights are appreciated! TY!
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On October 10 2012 21:37 Cuddle wrote: Any tips for playing Maokai?
How do I get the most out of my ultimate in team fights? In ganks? Who is my target in team fight? Do I peel from our carries or do I disrupt enemy carry? I understand WQE-combo when ganking (or WEQ when stun is long enough) but what combos do I use in team fight? Am I prime initiator during dances or is too risky cause it puts me away from team if I W in? Is "Always autoattack" how I max utility of my passive in fights?
Any and all insights are appreciated! TY!
1. put ult at where u think the bulk of the engage is gonna happen / around current target of focus by enemy. this could be you after you shurelia+flash/W into an out of position enemy champ. could go something like flash/shurelia+W onto some guy, immediately put R with the circle around you. the decision to place the ult with you at the centre or top/bottom tip of the circle is purely dependent on whether you think the enemies are going to counterengage or run.
2. your target in teamfights is the bulk of the action. Q is a real OP slow/miniknockback so hit as many people as you can with it as often as you can.
3. just mash all buttons no joke. cast skills off cooldown. W->Q targets that require positioning / movement to deal dmg. examples include most bruisers and any priority targets who would be out of range of influencing teamfights if you rooted / slowed them.
4. yeah maokai initiate is really good because of that R and the Q following up the W.
5. yes. you can easily get 1-5 stacks of your passive off depending on the length of teamfights
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On October 10 2012 21:37 Cuddle wrote: Any tips for playing Maokai?
How do I get the most out of my ultimate in team fights? In ganks? Who is my target in team fight? Do I peel from our carries or do I disrupt enemy carry? I understand WQE-combo when ganking (or WEQ when stun is long enough) but what combos do I use in team fight? Am I prime initiator during dances or is too risky cause it puts me away from team if I W in? Is "Always autoattack" how I max utility of my passive in fights?
Any and all insights are appreciated! TY!
I always find Mao's passive to be insanely strong in teamfights but usually overlooked. It heals 7% of max health, with 2.5k hp that's 175hp every second autoattack in teamfights As for using it in teamfights you can usually just run after the carry and whack them with your tree-arm
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I dunno, I generally prefer sticking to my carries after the initiation and just W any melee trying to engage them and Q anything that is channeling and/or trying to move where I don't want them to be (bruisers near us, carries running away). During the clean-up phase I usually try to W whoever's trying to get away if we won, or I just run, eating the pursuit spells for my carries and WQing anybody diving them (with its short cooldown, Q is very good during chases once you've got some cdr).
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So, top lane tree is pretty crazy strong.
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On April 09 2013 14:13 Tooplark wrote: So, top lane tree is pretty crazy strong.
OK, I'll bite (can't be worse than the bark!) - running him Cho'Gath style up top? Maxing E or Q? I imagine some sort of RoA/Spirit Visage/Sheen(Iceborn?) thing could work, maybe a Chalice? The S3 jungle hasn't been kind to him, and I miss throwing saplings at people's faces :/
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He's pretty flexible, is the great thing. Max Q first against most people, and E first against anyone who can zone you. Basically you just Q their face every time they get near, and your passive keeps you alive through just about everything. RoA/Spirit Visage/Sheen is pretty much what I've been building, though not precisely in that order, but you can get pretty creative with your items. My build order is usually a flask start (works well with teleport), into either fast cata or fast sheen depending on how hard I'm bullying them. If I got Cata, I get Sheen, then finish RoA. Then I get Locket against physical damage or Spirit Visage against magic. Always build Mobos by the way. You can just run at them for easy initiates.
If you want to just throw saplings, try running him 1v2 bot. He's hard to dive, thanks to Q, W, and ult, and he can safely clear waves from a long distance thanks to saps. With proper runes I *think* he can even oneshot the ranged minions at level 3 (level 2 saplings) which is pretty crazy if you ask me.
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You can't one shot the caster minions at level 3 with just Saplings, even if you run a full AP page, Amplifying Tome, and Offensive masteries. However, you can one shot them with Q + Rank 2 E with just AP Glyphs or AP Quints or Offensive Masteries or a Doran's Ring (etc. etc.).
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What about rank 3 saplings?
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On April 10 2013 03:09 sylverfyre wrote: What about rank 3 saplings? Not too hard to math out.
Rank 3 sapling does 110(+0.4) impact and 180(+0.6) explosion for 290(+1.0) total damage. Caster minions have 280 hp(+15/3min) and 0 mr(+2/3min).
Assuming mpen marks and 8% mpen mastery for lane maokai, then: 0-3 min = 1-shot (but doubtful you have rank 3 sapling) 3-6 min = need +5 ap (+1 ap/lvl prerequisite mastery for 8% mpen mastery is enough) 6-9 min = need +20 ap 9-12 min = need +35 ap 12-15 min = need +50 ap *(not sure if the minion level up starts from when they spawn at 1:30 or actual game time)
After that it will take a little over 15 ap per 3 min since they will have more mr than just mpen marks and 8% will take care of.
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So i love the tree but havent played him S3, due to other OP junglers out there (heca / zac op + nunu / xin) but i want to start playing him more as i beast-mode in ARAM and love his style.
Whats a decent build for mao nowadays? In S2 it was just pure tank with abyssal, im thinking you could do something better in S3?? his numbers seem op.
Something like
Machete +5 Boots + Stone Seekers Tabi + Tank stone Zhonyas Abyssal Rylais Frozen / Athenes
Seems like a good power build to me.
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How in the world are you going to afford to build a NLR on Maokai jungle? Maokai's jungle farming is really really really bad with the current jungle right now. Everything hinges on your ability to make successful ganks right now and you have to accept that you're going to be very poor so you have to make do with cheap cost efficient items.
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Ap -> power -> Jungal, with some AP you can tax your lanes 2-4 CS everytime you gank with an E, its np np.
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