Maokai, the Twisted Treant


Introduction!

Maokai, the Twisted Treant, is the type of champion that you should pick if you feel like dealing a ton of damage while soaking up a lot of damage, although these are not your only responsibilities. As Maokai, you will be expect to fill many other roles in addition to these. Among these roles are zoning out opposing champions during the laning phase, pushing your own and other allied turrets, CC'ing(Crowd Control) opposing carries during team fights, and protecting your allies throughout the entire game. I hope you are prepared to carry your team to victory.

Skills! (They pay the bills)

Sap Magic (passive) - Each time a spell is cast near Maokai he draws energy from it, gaining a charge of Magical Sap. When he has 5 charges his next melee attack energizes Maokai, healing him for 7% of his max HP.

Sap Magic won't make you invincible, but it is certainly useful. Utilize this to keep you in the lane for much longer periods of time than your average champion. An important note is that your passive won't go off until you need the health. If you attack something while at 100% health, your charges won't reset.

Q. Arcane Smash (active) - Maokai knocks back nearby enemies with a shockwave, dealing magic damage and slowing them.

Maokai releases an arcane shockwave. Nearby enemies are knocked back and all affected enemies take 70/115/160/205/250 (+0.4) magic damage and are slowed by 20/27/34/41/48% for 2 seconds.

Cost 55/55/55/55/55 Mana

Arcane Smash is an excellent way of slowing enemies to ensure a kill and/or escape. It is also a great way to farm a wave of minions, as you can hit all 6(7) minions at once if used correctly. Arcane Smash's range is slightly more than 2 inches on your screen, use it well.

W. Twisted Advance (active) - Maokai dissolves into a cloud of arcane energies. He regrows near a target enemy, dealing damage and rooting it in place.

Maokai transforms into a cloud of arcane energy that quickly travels to a target enemy, deals 80/115/150/185/220 (+0.8) magic damage and roots it for 1/1.25/1.5/1.75/2 second(s).

Cost 75/80/85/90/95 Mana

Twisted Advance is easily comparable to Ryze's Rune Prison. It's uses include stopping your fleeing enemy to ensure a kill and doing the same thing to an enemy chasing your ally to ensure s/he lives, both of which are made so much easier when used in combination with Arcane Smash's slowing component. Another combination use of Twisted Advance is with Sapling Toss, to ensure that the Sapling's Toss and Explosion both hit your enemy, which will result in significantly more damage done. Twisted Advance has many more advanced uses, such has hopping over a wall to a neutral monster/enemy, running away from the enemy by using it on a minion, and many other chasing/escaping capabilities. I will leave your imagination to run for this ability. Twisted Advance's range is roughly 3 inches on your screen.

E. Sapling Toss (active) - Maokai flings a sapling that deals area damage on impact. The sapling then wards the nearby area. When enemies approach, the sapling attacks enemies with an arcane blast.

Maokai flings a sapling that deals 40/75/110/145/180 (+0.4) magic damage on impact.

The sapling wards the nearby area, and will chase enemies that approach, exploding to deal 80/130/180/230/280 (+) magic damage. Saplings last for 35/35/35/35/35 seconds.

Cost 70/80/90/100/110 Mana

Sapling Toss, the bread and butter to Maokai's laning strength. It's many uses vary from makeshift wards, harassing, farming, and zoning. It is a very powerful skill from level 1 to 5. It came be used to check over walls and in bushes for your opponents, and has the capability to reveal neutral monsters on which you can use Twisted Advance, which is seen here = http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t61/GangstaBloo/MaokaiSaplingTossandTwistedAdvance.jpg. At around level 3, this skill will be taking out waves of minions at a time. Sapling Toss's range is roughly 5-6 inches, one of the largest non-global ranged in the game.

R. Vengeful Maelstrom (toggle) - Maokai shields his allies by drawing power from hostile spells and attacks, reducing non-tower damage done to allied champions in the area. When Maokai ends the effect, he unleashes the absorbed energy to deal damage to enemies within the vortex.

Toggle: Maokai creates a magical vortex that protects him and allied champions by reducing damage from non-turret sources by 20/20/20%.

Maokai can end the effect to release the stored energy, dealing 100/150/200 (+0.5) (+2 per damage absorbed) magic damage to enemies within the vortex. Maokai can store up to 200/250/300 bonus damage.

Cost 75/75/75 Mana, 30 Mana Per Second

Vengeful Maelstrom is the reason you will win this game. All of your carries who aren't skilled/experienced enough to get that defensive item you asked them to get will be thankful that you are giving them such powerful mitigation. Not only is this mitigation so powerful, but it also does a good amount of damage. DO NOT use this damage to KS your teams carries, I will yell at you about this more later on. Vengeful Maelstrom range is roughly 6 inches across.

You're skilling order will never change!

Start off with Sapling Toss at level 1. At level 2, throw a point into Twisted Advance; level 3, Sapling Toss; level 4, Arcane Smash. After this , continue to level using the priority list R>E>W>Q. This will allow you for the most damage output in harass, farm, and successful zoning while maintaining a very good CC for yourself and/or your allies, and of course you have your ult in your left pocket.

Summoner Abilities!

Flash - Teleports your Champion to your cursor's location (roughly two inches on your screen). This makes great combination of chasing and escaping with Twisted Advance. A must take.

Ignite - Ignites target enemy, dealing 50 true damage plus 20 per level over 5 seconds, and reducing healing and regeneration by 50%. I take Ignite because it helps in zoning by keeping opposing health down, especially if they are popping health potions, this is an easy way to counter that. It is also a good counter to champions like Tryndamere (while in the lane, late game team fights it won't make a huge difference), Fiddle, and Dr. Mundo. It is also good for it's main use, to take down that damage you just couldn't manage to do before having to run away or before they get under their turret. A great spell to take.

Heal - Restores 120 + 20 x level Health to your Champion and 50% of that to nearby allies. A great spell to keep up your team. In combination with your ult, it can win a team fight for your team.

Exhaust - Exhausts target Champion, reducing movement speed by 40%, attack damage dealt by 70%, and ability and item damage by 35% for 3 seconds. A great summoner spell to help your team win fights and push down the opposing teams turrets and buildings. A great way to support your team. Make sure you take the Mastery for this spell if you take it!

Runes!

9x Greater Mark of Insight - +0.95 Magic Penetration (+8.5 Magic Penetration total). In combination with your Masteries, these will get you passed most of the opposing teams base Magic Rests.
9x Greater Seal of Replenishment - +0.41 Mana Regen per 5 seconds (3.69 Mana Regen per 5 seconds). These will give you the ability to spam Sapling Toss without running out of mana. You will see why I chose flat Mana Regen in the Item Build! section.
9x Greater Glyph of Force - +0.17 Ability Power per level (+3.06 at champion level 18 (+1.53 Ability Power at level 1; +34 Ability Power at level 18)). The scaling Ability Power will catch up to the Ability power offered by flat Ability Power Glyphs at level 5, and continue to surpass them. This will give you the Ability Power to keep up damage until you finish your first item.
3x Greater Quintessence of Potency - +4.95 Ability power (+14.85 Ability Power total). These will give a strong champion an even stronger start.
Most sensible Quintessences are usable, but I chose these ones for better damage, which results in better farming, zoning, and harassing.

Masteries!

http://leaguecraft.com/masteries/1003400100000000000000000000013040032031301

These will get you through the opponents base Magic Resist and keep your mana up through most of the game, and being able to use your ult without going OOM (out of mana) incredibly fast. It will also lower your Cooldowns so you can activate your passive (if you need to) more often. I also take Utility Mastery to keep my Blue Buff up (which will cap off your CD Reduction and give you an indefinite Ultimate) and to maintain Baron's Buff, which is always nice in combination with your items (we will touch more on this later).

Item Build!

Start with Doran's Ring, every single time, no exceptions. It gives you life, which is great with your passive and everybody loves a great big health pool. It also gives you mana regen, which will keep you casting those spells and keeping your Passive on reserve. Ability Power is also offered by this item, which is exactly what Maokai wants to keep you opponents zoned out and to keep yourself farmed up.

Work your way to 3 Doran's Rings (this will leave you with incredible health, near indefinite mana (unless you are doing mindless spamming), and a great amount of Ability Power to hold you through the laning phase and beyond), and Boots of Speed. You can get Boots of Speed quickly if you need it to dodge some of the larger skill shots like Brand's, Swaine's, etc. Otherwise, take the Doran's Rings first.

Rush Rod of Ages. Start with Ruby Crystal/Catalyst the Protector and finish it A.S.A.P. This will give you enough Ability Power to keep your damage up where you want it to be, the mana to be able to spam your abilities and keep your Ultimate going, and life to keep you up and assisting your team to the best of your amazing ability.

Unless your team is getting slammed by an opposing magic damage dealer, build Sunfire Cape. Start with Giant's belt. This will get your Life Pool up to about 3k depending on how long your Rod of Ages has been providing for you. It also gives you enough AD to hold off the an average Auto Attacking champion, and gives you some nice damage since Maokai is a melee style champion (in the meta game, via Twisted Advance and Arcane Smash).

If your team IS getting slammed by opposing magic damage dealers, I would go for Force of Nature. You are going to have a 3k+ Life Pool soon, so the regen is very useful. The increased movement speed also gives you an increased chance land Twisted Advance, which could make or break your ability to chase or escape.

If Magic Damage is no problem at all, then after Sunfire Cape, if you are NOT getting melted by the opposing teams Auto Attackers nor Casters, I would go for Abyssal Scepter. It is a great time to support your own Casters (including yourself) including the Ability power and the Magic Resistance Reduction. It obviously also gives you added Magic Resistance which will balance out your Armor and Magic resistance, which puts you in a great position if the opposing team is in no way fed.

If at this point you are a train, pushing down their turrets and buildings, and no one can put a dent in you, I would go for Rabadon's Deathcap. This will polish off your Ability Power items, which will have you doing incredible damage coupled with the amount of damage you can soak up. However, if you are starting to get beat up by Auto Attackers or Casters, then skip this.

If Auto Attackers are currently putting a stop on you, build Guardian Angel. It gives you a great amount of armor, enough to (coupled with your Sunfire Cape) shut down almost all of the Auto Attackers on the opposing team, if not all of them. It also offers a little bit of Magic Resistance, which always balances out nice. As for the life after life? Well that is the icing on the cake. IF the opposing team even manages to kill you (which is not likely), then this will definitely finish the team fight, giving your team a W(win), and propelling you that much closer to game victory.

If Casters are bursting you down, then now is the time to pick up your Force of Nature, for obvious reasons.

You probably noticed that you haven't finished your boots yet, well they aren't THAT important, since you have so much CC. However, you can grab Ionian Boots of Lucidity if you aren't constantly running around with Blue Buff and wanted that Cooldown Reduction. You can grab Mercury's Treads if YOU are the one being CC'd hard, but chances are this won't become a problem for you. You can also get Sorcerer's Shoes instead, for the added damage. Last but not least, Ninja Tabi are available if you are being melted by some Auto Attackers, but again this is probably not the case. You can do this at ANY time you can afford it, after you get Rod of Ages.

This post was edited by GangstaBloo on Jul 18 2011 12:59am

Other items to consider!

Get Health potions if the opposing lane is doing well and pushing back, but this will probably not happen.

Get Mana potions if you are spamming abilities so much you find yourself going OOM.

ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS get wards. We will touch up on ward placement later on.

Oracle's Elixir if the opposing team is warding up or running invisible champions.

Elixir of Brilliance, Agility, and Fortitude can be bought at the end game when your build is finished, or at any point during the game when you have 250+ gold left over and could use more life or Ability Power/Cooldown Reduction.

Gameplay!

When your game loads, level your Sapling Toss and drop it as fast as you can. You want to start working your Passive as soon as possible. Get 2-3 stacks before heading to your lane, you don't want to be late!

Laning Phase!

Some people like to jungle with Maokai, but not you. Your zoning ability is much too great to waste in the jungle. If you want to go somewhere and gank, go for it, but don't waste your time taking the jungle away from other teammates who can get better use out of it than they could being in a lane.

Picking your lane partner!

Your best bet is to lane with a ranged auto attacking carry, because your Twisted Advance and Arcane Smash are best utilized for them, and they can maximize on those abilities without putting themselves in danger better than any melee. You can also lane with another ranged caster carry, because they can benefit in the same way from your abilities. The stronger melee carries can benefit easily as well, especially Master Yi, Jax, and Xin Zhao - champions with the ability to instantly dash to the opponent. Other melee carries won't benefit as much as those who are instantly able to switch to someone you just rooted in place.

Also, Maokai is a powerful Middle Lane Champion, however I feel he is best taken advantage of if he can use his two CC'ing abilities to support a lane mate. Along the this idea goes Soloin'g the 1v2 (most likely Top) lane. It is slightly harder to instill threats when going 1v2, so you cannot zone (one of Maokai's greatest abilities) as effectively, I suggest taking a partner.

A last note, try not to take a partner who needs a ton of farm to be successful in the meta game, because you are going to be taking a lot of it. Gangplank, Tryndamere, Veigar, Annie, and Nasus are all good choices to NOT lane with, as they need their farm/are great farmers.

Farming!

Maokai's Arcane Smash and Sapling Toss abilities are extremely powerful ways in which you can farm. Throwing your Sapling so that the edge of it's landing raidus will barely hit the casters (of the minion wave) will almost always land you three minion kills (once your Sapling Toss is level 3 or higher, or if you already have a lot of Ability Power). You can see what I mean by this here = http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t61/GangstaBloo/MaokaiSaplingTossFarm.jpg. There is a chance, though, that it might net you 6 kills. This will also help in taking out the tank minion, af he usually stands just in front of the casting minions. While this will not kill him (typically) in the earlier game, it will take him down a couple notches. He is, in my opinion, the most important minion to kill, and should be killed as soon as possible.

Arcane Smash hits in an area around Maokai and in a line in from of him. If you stand behind (the backs) of the melee minions (in the minions wave) and cast this spell towards the casting minions, you should hit all of them, the same will be said if there is a tank minion. You can see what I mean by this here = http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t61/GangstaBloo/MaokaiArcaneSmashFarm.jpg. This is an excellent way to damage all of a minion wave, which is always good when farming them. You can also use your ult to farm exceptionally large minion waves by simply placing it around all of the minions in said wave and deactivating it to damage them all. If you have your ult, you probably have a good amount of AP, so this is an excellent way to farm a group of very many minions. Be careful though, don't put your Ultimate on CD if you think you might be in a fight soon, that mistake will cost you dearly!

Harassing/Zoning!

Harassing can be very straightforward, just throw your Saplings at the opposing champions! However, the later the game gets, the harder this harassing will get. People run from your Saplings. How can you stop this? Toss up a Sapling and root that little bastard in place. This will ensure that the Spaling hits and explodes on the opposing Champion. This will also help you land your Arcane Smash, as you are now right in the face of an opposing champion! This harass combo isn't free though, keep an eye on your mana, and be sure you do not waste it all.

Zoning is a little bit more advanced. The act of zoning implies that you are instilling enough threat to keep the opposing lanes champions far enough back (for feear of being damaged or killed) so that they cannot gain neither gold nor experience. This is risky because you have a chance of being ganked, targeted very harshly, and to grab minion aggro. However, if this is performed successfully, you will set yourself up for a great meta game because your opponents will be very far behind. This is hard to display in a custom game, but I am showing you the basic idea behind zoning here = http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t61/GangstaBloo/Zoning.jpg. The Red line is a rough estimate of the turrets range, and the Blue areas are good places to stand while zoning. Another good place to stand is simply between the opposing minions and the opposion champions, pushing them as far away (towards their own turret) as possible. You obviously zone by threat of your Sapling Toss, which has amazing range, which is why it is such a good ability to zone with. Zoning isn't a one man job, your lane partner must also present at least some threat, too, so that the opposing champions don't simply try to slep you in the face while you sadly attempt to zone them out. Ashe, Corki, Zilean, Anivia, Caitlyn, Gragas, Heimerdinger, Lux, Miss Fortune, Orianna, Rumble, Sivir, Swain, Urgot, and Vladamir are all great champions to lane with whom also have a great ability to zone, in their own respect. Make sure you lane with your partner, that's why they are there!

Post Laning Phase!

When you finally do get the killing blow on that turret, it is probably a great time for you to back. However, if you just recently backed and are currently good on health/mana and can't really afford anything, it's time to go help your team.

Pushing!

As soon as your turret is down, if there are other Outer Turrets that have not been destroyed yet, your best bet is to go and get them down. Use the same techniques you used to down your turret to down opposing ones. HOWEVER, since you aren't in your lane, you must keep an eye on it at all times. The opposing champions from that lane will probably be trying to destroy it since you are not there anymore. There is also a good chance that they are coming to the lane you are newly occupying to counter your pushing. DON'T GET GANKED! Chances are your presence will be enough to take that turret down in a short time. Do this for all of the Outer Turrets before attempting to do so on an Inner Turret (unless it is painfully obvious that you will destroy that Inner Turret). Once all of the Outer Turrets are down (and maybe even before that) you and your four other team mates must NEVER be without eachother. This will increase your chances of getting kills in the jungles/lanes, decrease your chances of giving up kills in the jungles/lanes, and increase your chances of successfully pushing a lane and destroying more building. There is no down side to this method.

The only problem is that now that they have no Outer Turrets to defend, you do not know where they are at all times. This is where warding comes in. I have compiled a map of great ward locations here = http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t61/GangstaBloo/SummondersRiftMap.jpg. The Red circles represent where the turrets will go, and the Blue lines represent the areas that this turret will reveal. There are a ton of places you can place them, but these give you the most benefit per ward, in my opinion. You can also feel free to exlusively ward Ancient Lizard himself, but I have in that image place wards that make it painfully obvious if someone were to attempt to get Red Buff. Warding is especially important because from now on they will be able to cut through their own jungle to get to you when you are pushing lanes, so you need to know where they are.

An important note to make is that downing Turrets is more important than getting kills. If you kill 3-4/5 of the opposing team, and the rest is putting up a good run (run away from you of course), and you have even the slightest doubt you will catch them, a good bet for you is to turn and push a turret. With so many of the opposing team dead, you run next to no risk of pushing and possibly destroying a turret. While I say this, I would like to remind you to periodically hit your [Tab] button and check the death timers on your opponents. Don't get caught over extended! Along with team fights, another time when you might find yourself conflicted as to whether you should push or not is when another team is pushing your turret. I.E. you are in mid pushing their Inner Turret, and the opposing team is Bot pushing your Outer Turret (or Inner, whichever it may be). Chances are you are better off just continuing to push this turret than running to defend another. My reasoning is that it does take time for you to run to that turret. Chances are they will destroy it by that time, or get massive damage on it. You COULD have been doing the same to their turret, and that is definitely the way to go. There is a great chance that the opposing team will see that you are all pushing mid, and they will flinch, and come up to defend their turret. It is at this point that YOU will destroy the opposing teams turret and get away with it, instead of the opposing team getting that over you. As long as you have wards placed like you should, then you run no risk of your team getting Ace'd while doing this, as you will never lose sight of your opponents.

Team Fights!

Alas, the moment you have been waiting for! The chance to slam your opponents has never been so tempting.

Initiation!

Chances are you will be initiating the team fight. In this case, your best bet is to first throw a Sapling at their most powerful carry (I mean the one doing the most damage) and then using Twisted Advance to land on top of them, ensuring the Sapling hits and Explodes as you intend it to. You will continue to place Vengeful Maelstrom around your team and then use your Arcane Smash to knock their most powerful carries into the middle of the Lion's Den: Your team. He will be melted away and soon enough you will walk away with an Ace under your teams belt and probably a few buildings.

Fighting!

Your job is to snare and slow their strong melee carries so that your team does not get killed and to grab those runaways who think they ever had a chance. You will also be tossing sapplings at the opposing ranged carries and casters. What you are not doing is trying to steal the kills of your team. This means that when the opposing Ashe get's low, you do NOT toggle your ult off to close the kill. If you do this, you take away 20% mitigation from your team, also known as giving away five kills. A dead dps is no dps, and that is what you will do to your team if you prematurely end your ult. The only time it is okay to end your ult is if, after you have tried everything in your power to keep the fight inside of your ult, but it moves outside of your ult. At this point you can cancel your ult, and when it comes back up, drop it on the newly formed team fight. Use disgression!

Cleaning Up!

When that bitch ass Ashe flashes away and attempts to run, you Twisted Advance her and then call her the next morning. If she disappearns into a bush or Fog of War, throw your Sapling as far as you can in her direction and then do the same thing. If she ghosted too and you doubt you can catch her, then just get to pushing more buildings. Chances are she won't be able to stop you later anyways.

Remember, keep your abilities on cooldown at all times (except for your ult)!

Thank you for considering my guide, and I hope you get a win!

This post was edited by GangstaBloo on Jul 18 2011 01:02am

No offense, but I couldn't get myself to read the guide

Too much wall of text

Hopefully you will come across more dedicated readers

3 dorans is fail it will take you forever to get your cata and by the time you do its pasive is useless to you as far as lane sustain

i agree that starting 1 doran is great for tree

but after that if you dont get cata right away ur kinda foolish

Cant stand the colored tex...

2-3 dorans can be farmed fast, lol?

...

all i noticed is the stupid way you used "inches on your screen" for skill range

didn't read, but i lol'd @

I'm sorry, I should have said:
Arcane Smash: Range 200000
Twisted Advance: Range 650
Spaling Toss: Range 1,100
Vengeful maelstrom: Range 575

I am sure everybody gets an exact distance based on those numbers, taken from: http://na.leagueoflegends.com/champions/57/maokai_the_twisted_treant





Sorry, some of them were hard and I didn't look up the codes for certain ones, I just guestimated.



Yeah, to be perfectly honest, I just started swapping AP/lvl Seals for Mana Regen. Two should be fine, I just liked three because of where it put your life and AP, but an earlier Catalyst could do you just as much justice. I never noticed myself struggling to get three Doran's, though. My first back I can usually grab two Doran's and Boots of Speed, no problem (unless I get messed up and have to back really quickly. Thanks for the actual feed back!

E: I wanted to point out that I totally get that two more Doran's Rings AND Boots of Speed cut dangerously close to the cost of Catalyst, the Protector. This knowledge HAS NOT escaped me.

E2: As a little "fight back", I do mostly make Catalyst, the Protector instead of Blasting Wand first for the life/mana (and passive, who doesn't enjoy that) because with Scaling AP (runes) and a good amount from those Doran's Rings, it isn't your biggest concern. My biggest concerns at all times in the game is "How can I perform my job the best and while taking the smallest risk of giving up a kill?", and that is a pretty decent answer. Most of the time, Maokai won't need the passive for his heal because he has his passive, which works better the more life you have. I do enjoy the larger mana pool because if you are running rotation after rotation (which does happen more often in the later laning phase, in my opinion) then it does cost some mana, which you never want to be without on any champion, but especially those with toggle Ultimates like Maokai, Anivia, Swaine, and Taric.



Yeah I went really crazy. It also occurred to me several times that I didn't have an outline but I didn't set it up in the end.
It got pretty late and escaped my mind by the time I came around to actually posting it. I was just having too much fun until the end.

This post was edited by GangstaBloo on Jul 20 2011 08:38pm