Mao'Kai Top Lane Build Guides - Runes, Items, Abilities & More - Patch 14.21

• Overall Maokai it's a fun and easy to use Tank that can be really useful in fights because of his high CC and the capacity to incapacitate and shutdown a concreate target.

• Even if he is easy to use his abilities have some little things like cooldown control or especific interactions with other champs, wich makes a slight difference from a good and bad Maokai.

• Maokai also has very good vision control with his E and a good teamfighting potential with a good landed R, since it can root multiple champs.

• But Maokai has also his weaknesses, he has no gapcloser or movement speed buff to engage, so you relie on using E, R or waiting for your team to get in a TF to use your abilities, R and E are very slow, so you need to plan very well and wait until the enemy misspositions.

• He is also Very weak in the early game, is Mana hungry and has no moblity.

a. Pros:

• Has a lot of CC and can shutdown a target in almost every phase of the game.
• With 2 items you become really tanky.
• You sustain yourself super good thanks to your passive Sap magic healing.
• Has good engages and peel in teamfights.
• Easy to play, abilities are very straighfoward.
• Point n click CC with W.
• Has some peeling with Q.
• Good even if behind thanks to the utility you can provide.
• Can give vision of bushes with E.

b. Cons:

• Needs to scale and get some items to.
• Weak early game.
• You relie in your team and good Teamfights to succed.
• Struggles against true damage and armor penetration.
• Can be easily countered thorugh items.
• Ranged matchups can punish hard your early game.
• High CD abilities early and very mana hungry.
• No mobility or escape when flash its on CD.
• Your ultimate it's very slow.
• Gets kited as he has no gapcloser and W has low range.

• Before engaging with your Twisted Advance W, always check the positioning of your ADC. You shouldn’t go in unless your ADC is in a position to follow up.

• When roaming around the map, place Saplings Sapling Toss E in nearby bushes to scout for vision. You can also place Saplings Sapling Toss E in the bot lane

• Maokai’s Ultimate Nature's Grasp R is great in team fights. Once you engage with your Ultimate Nature's Grasp R, fall back and protect your ADC and peel for them.

• Basic: Q + Flash
• Basic: W + Flash
• Medium: W + AA + Q + AA
• Medium: E + W + AA + Q + AA
• Hard: R + E + W + AA + Q + AA

• Mao'Kai build guide:

1. Early game:

• In laning phase your objective it's to farm all you can and sometimes trade with the enemy (especially if you have Grasp of the Undying so you can prock it), if you fight with someone try to make them walk near a bush and use Sapling Toss on it, so it deals extra damage, and if you have a Corrupting Potion remember to use it while fighting for the extra DoT damage.

• In the early game Corrupting Potion + Sap Magic helps Maokai by giving him additional sustain in lane both in HP and Mana, since Maokai it's really mana hungry in the early-mid game, for this reason don't spam Q too much and use W or E only when you need them, because wasting mana forces you to back to base very early. Sap Magic works on minions, so if you have it available attack one to heal yourself, use it as soon as you can to put on CD.

• Maokai it's not really strong in the early game, so if you want to trade with the enemy laner do it at Level 4 or 5, when you have atleast 2 or more points in your Q, since Bramble Smash doesn't do almost any damage at level 1, this is also important when clearing waves, because Bramble Smash at lv 1 and 2 doesn't do much damage, it isn't recommendable to farm using it until you put more points on it.

• In the early game i like to put a second point on Q at level 3 because of the reasons listed above and because Sapling Toss does not offer much on top as opposed to support, it has a big mana cost and enemies can easily walk away from it. You can start doing more agressive trades with the enemy if you have atleast 2 item components of your mythic and you are not in a hard matchup.

• Don't fight with enemies that can Wreck you and chase you down in long fights or short trades, like: Darius, Sett, Mordekaiser, Olaf, Fiora, Cho'Gath, Sion, etc... Only fight them if you are really confident that you can win the trade, or if you have some items (like Bramble Vest), and if your jungler is going to Gank, otherwise respect your opponent and only do short trades and concentrate on farming. In most Hard matchups you are gonna have to use Bramble Smash to farm, so dont feel bad for missing a few minions or wasting mana to farm, since Maokai it's based al around scaling and being super tanky in late game.

• Remember to use Sapling Toss E in the toplane bush near river if you have mana ,so you can have vision and prevent possible ganks or to know where your opponent is, using Sapling Toss it's very recommended against agressive early game junglers like: Lee Sin, Elise, Olaf or Xin Zhao.

And don't forget to look at the Map for a potential TP in botlane or skirmishes in the jungle or mid, you can also TP to help your team on dragon or if the enemy overextends, with your Ultimate and your W you can help to lock a target and let your team kill them.

2. Mid game

• After the turrets start falling and people already have 1 or 2 items it's when you start to enter the mid game, the difference from the Early game it¡s that Maokai starts to become Tankier and more useful than in early-game, but in this phase you still want to farm and Steal jungle camps from the enemy if it's safe to do, as much as you can.

• You should also start to Group with your team and help in fights or when constesting objectives, and remember to Ward and use your Sapling Toss to give vision, this is an extremely important tool when fighting for a Dragon so that you and your team knows what the enemy wants to do, or if the enemy jungler its planning to steal theDragon.

• In Teamfights or skirmishes your job it's to CC juggernauts like Darius away from your team and peel your team, but you can also use your CC to engage on the enemy team if your team wants to play more agressive. And if you see the opportunity to engage and CC a squishy target do it, incapacitate them so that your team can kill them, but do it only if you know your team will follow your engages.

• Your main combo when engagin or fighting someone its going to be Twisted Advance + Bramble Smash (from behind the enemy), use Bramble Smash when the rooting from your W it's going to end, to maximize your CC.

3. Late game

• After you have 4 or All of your items and the match it's more than 25-30 minutes long you start to become really hard to kill, and with Sunfire Aegis you can also kill someone in a 1v1 or destroy squishy enemies, the problem is that in this phase most Adc's and Mages will also have items to ignore your tankyness and melt you, against items like Blade of the Ruined King, Liandry's Torment, Kraken Slayer or Lord Dominik's Regards you can die quickly if you and your team don't fight and position well in Teamfights, because when you engage you become the enemy team focus, wich also let's your team do their job.

• Remember that most items have some kind of counterplay, so always build against them and their user, for example kraken slayer has true damage, but if you buy more HP and also a Frozen Heart, you can diminish the items efficacy.

• In the late game your Job it's to protect your team and peel, or CC important targets, engaging in teamfights while your team does the job. Always prioritize the enemy ADC, if he has items and isn't too behind, or in short, if he deals damage, he is an important target for your team.

• With a Thornmail or a Force of Nature combined with your Sap Magic passive, geting hit by abilities or attacks actually helps you to deal with enemies.

• In Lategame Maokai can either CC targets eternally and never die n' win the game ,or you get melted by a Master Yi and Brand.

• But always remember that even if you get melted by the enemy you still are a high threath for them because of your strong Peeling, CC and free Vision.