Thanks for the feedback, but if you read the item section, you'd know I suggest FoN. Cheat sheet isn't everything.

FFS! add pros & cons! also add more advanced BB -coding! like collumns or (center), for example!
And i don't prefer building like you at all! no FON for example! Bye bye!

//KM

PsiGuard, I truly appreciate the feedback. Not only did you teach me a few things, but you got me to think about multiple things in a different way. You clearly read more than just enough to quote, and gave me detailed reasonings about each of my points in that section. While I don't think I got my point across on some of the ideas, on the whole, you allowed me to see which parts of my guide are weak and need improvement. Again, thank you.

I have some issues with your reasoning for laning Maokai. More specifically, I take issue with the way you treat jungle Maokai as if it was inferior or counter-intuitive. It's not. If you want to make a lane mao guide, go ahead, but don't presume that it's a better idea than jungling him.


Maokai is one of the strongest junglers in the game and has been for quite some time. It would probably be a good idea to simply admit that instead of creating this haze of conjecture that he "could be a viable jungler."

This is backwards. Laners get much more gold than the jungler and have always done so. Carry builds are more expensive and it's more crucial for damage-dealers to have items built than it is for tanks. Maokai's utility allows him to be quite item-independent, which makes him a great pick for the jungle.

This is actually a better argument, but Mao's sustain is just fine in the jungle. His passive does indeed make a great sustain tool for laning (especially against certain matchups). However, you're wrong that junglers shouldn't need to use their abilities to clear. Almost every jungler uses abilities to clear the jungle, especially tanks. Simply picking up a philosopher's stone should solve most of your mana problems after your first blue. Get Expanded Mind and Meditation and you should be fine for mana sustain.

You're half right. Maokai can't duel as well as other junglers, but he can lock them down and generally becomes pretty tanky early into the game. With some coordination, you can defend against invades by pulling your nearby lanes to cut off the enemy jungler. With your Q and W, you can seriously slow them down, long enough for your laners to come and assist.

Your first argument here makes little sense. Ganks are powerful because of the element of surprise and the advantage of a 2v1 or 3v2. Just because a champion has good ganks does not make him a good laner. Amumu's ganks are incredible but he's an awful laner. The number of Ws you can get off does not correlate to your success in the game. One key snare as a jungler is going to be far more impactful than spamming it in lane.

Spamming sapling in lane sucks up your mana and typically pushes the lane. It's a nice poke, but it's still outclassed by other champions with harass spells that either don't push the lane or don't burn so much mana. I don't think sapling alone is enough justification for laning. With a few levels in E you can farm the ranged minions safely, but I usually don't have any problems zoning a maokai from the melee minions. If you only get half of every minion wave, you start to fall behind pretty quickly.

Partly true, though you can use it in dives. It's not the strongest part of his kit and it's a little more useful in lane, but it's not useless in the jungle. Tower dives, straight-up fights and counter-ganks are good situations to use your ultimate.

I'm not voting because I'm not really contesting your build or guide, just some of the arguments in it in favor of laning and against jungling. I don't think lane Maokai is the worst idea in the world (I just don't think it's very strong), but I think you should acknowledge the fact that jungling him is far superior. There's nothing wrong with writing a guide for a role other than the most viable one (like AD Kennen, AD Ahri, support Morgana, AP Tristana).

GlavTech, you clearly didn't read the build, and are exactly the type of person who I suggested didn't bother commenting on this guide. You didn't give me constructive criticism, and you most obviously didn't read the entire section dedicated to my reasonings for why I play lane Maokai.

Jungle Tanks are the current meta. Don't release an opinion regarding the metagame that you have no support for.

Thank you very much, Fersken.

Very good guide.

nice

I definitely agree with you about Maokai being very useful in a lane, and I actually enjoy it much more than jungling with him. His sapplings can be so frustrating for enemy champions and are awesome for disrupting their farm. If I get partnered at the bottom with a champion with good burst dammage then we can quite often get some pretty quick kills if they are able to burn down the target once I use the W after weakening them with a couple sappling hits.

Good guide and nice to see one focusing on using Maokai in a lane as opposed to the jungle (of which there are MANY).

Thank you for taking the time to read my build and and respond so quickly. I constantly update my guides, so I'll get around to any spelling errors, and I always add more to them as time goes on. I'll work more on the visuals, as multiple people pointed out. Also, thank you for reminding me to discuss jungling vs laning. Since that's a rather bold claim, I should definitely have more to back that up. As for the items, if you read the actual item section, I address both the issue of the boots and the rest of the items to build. I've given all of you rep, and thanks again.