This is not a very good guide. The jungle information is good, but the item choices, skill order, alternate item suggestions are all very poor. Sunfire is bad, Force of Nature is not very good on him, Shurelya's is actually very good, and Abyssal is mediocre. Actually, your alternative items section is just a list of items you think are bad. And most of them are. Your description of Q is incorrect, too. It knocks back anyone around you, and slows anyone in the skillshot. You should also max it first for faster jungle clearing and stronger ganks.

I've got more, but I can't actually see every detail while I'm in this comment box. I might add later if you want. I'll also be willing to change my vote if you can give me good reasoning or change the guide. However, I'm pretty set on my opinions I've given here.

Best of luck with the guide.

KA-DERP

Look. I know there are other ways to play a champion, that's fine. But, the way you're saying to build simply won't work in most games. If you get a lot of ganks, sure it'll work.

Quick quote from your guide:


Just because you buy wards, you are not a support. Just because you have an item that helps the team, does not mean you are a support. It is almost always helpful to have that speed boost.
Small edit: Maokai also had "support" in his tags for a while on release.

Think of it like this: You're mid lane, doing the teamfight dance before one and poking the enemy with saplings. Nobody wants to engage. Suddenly, a great opening emerges! Now, you can either flash or ghost to take advantage of this. Or, you could use Shurelya's to help your whole team get in to position.

"What if the support also has one? Is it bad now?"
No. That just means you now have two bursts of speed to help reposition yourself and your team. Only you directly control when you use one instead of relying on a teammate.

In the alternate itme section, don't suggest an item if you're not even going to consider buying it.
Summary of Lich Bane's section: "Don't buy it over anything else I have in my core"

Something I didn't mention last post is Randuin's Omen. You buy it for the on-demand slow. It's also AoE and a better AS slow than Frozen Heart. Sure it's not as much CDR or armor as Frozen heart, but it gives health and again, the slow. It's also building out of a GP10 item which makes it a lot cheaper to build.

Building HoG and Philo stone may look more expensive than Catalyst, and it is, but you get a lot of that money back because you're generating gold.

Moving on to your jungle route and ganking ASAP: It won't matter when you gank if you don't have the proper damage or CC to do it.

Don't say something is what it's not. If W was a stun, i'd be using it on Kat to stop her ult when in reality, I have to use two spells. W and Q.

I can tell now that English is not your first language so, I'll let that go now.

Moving on to your small critique of my guide.

If you would look through all the builds, you would see they are mostly "incomplete."
You know why? It's because as a tank, you have to build for the situation at had. Sure you can generalize it a bit but, you always want to be building for what's in the game you're playing at that moment. Not the game you just won, not the game you lost last week. This one right now.


That is all I will say on this.

First for a guy that not knows a lot about you sure are telling me a lot of stuff. Secondly, you just downvote me because you THINK this build doesn't work and you don't even tried in a real game(you know that there are other ways to play a champion right?). Thirdly, I know a lot of Maokai and if you even read write you would have seen that I mention that your Q slows all enemies around not just the ones in front of you and that if you max your E you will have a faster clear of your jungle. More ever, with that jungle routes you will always be able to gank at lvl 3.
Also, if you know who to play Maokai you could do the combo with Sapling Toss right. And yes I know that your W is a snare but I mention it like a stun to be easier to understand. I don't only say that I won't choose Shurelya's Battlesong and Aegis of the Legion because they are more supportive items.I have a paragraph for each item explain with detail why not to choose them. And finally, the total money that you spend to buy Heart of Gold and Philosopher's Stone is 1625 gold and Catalyst the Protector only costs 1325 gold. Try to fix your incomplete jungle guide and then talk about min..Oh yeah you can try my jungle routes for a change and you should know that when jungling you must gank as soon as you can in order to surprise your enemy.

I pretty much agree with what Lugignaf said.

I'm going to upvote though because you have a lot of good stuff in this guide as well, you just need to fix some things up. Keep improving where it's needed :)

I was referred to this guide by Beeswarm17 as I have more experience than him on Maokai.

First of all, Maxing Sapling Toss in the jungle is a terrible idea and will not help your ganking at all. Secondly, you will not be getting the gold for that build in the jungle without any gold per 10 items like Philosopher's stone or Heart of Gold.

Secondly, your item choice is fairly appalling. Again, rushing Rod of ages before any gold items for Maokai, especially in the jungle, will always give you bad results.

Next, stop saying that Aegis of the Legion and Shurelya's Battlesong are support items. Shurelya's Battlesong is a great initiation item and escape item.

Moving onto the skilling order, you don't want to skill for damage, you want to skill for ganking. Maxing Twisted Advance over Sapling Toss will make it much easier to get the gold that Maokai needs for this build.

General problems with the guide:

Twisted Advance is a snare, not a stun. Check your spellings on a lot of things. Q is a knockback on people directly next to you. Everyone hit is slowed. Your jungle route is a little flawed as you will not always get a gank at level 3. IF you do not, your jungle speed is severely hampered.

This is no offence to you but, I do not think you know enough about Maokai to write a guide effectively. It looks pretty, but that is it.

Thank you for your time.

Thanks a lot..Tell your friends about it..;)..But they don't have to vote if they don't want..

Good ideas and very well explained. Very easy to read as well. Good job! +1

Ok i will..Thanks again..:)

Nice guide structure and valid build. Might wanna grammar/spell check ;3

I am really thankful for spending time to read my guide and make suggestions about it..I will try to make your suggestions reality because i find them very useful..Thanks again..;)

You have a great understanding of the jungle, and Maokai specifically as well. I don't think you mentioned this, but his arcane smash also effects a small radius all around Maokai as well. What this means is if E=Enemy and M=Maokai:

EM--> (Direction of arcane smash.

E does get affected by the ability. This can have situational uses in teamfights and based on the situation. Obviously, if you use this trick right after your Twisted Advance in a gank, you will probably waste a second or so of the snare, but you could use this trick in a teamfight to knockback one target while stalling a member of the enemy team in the back at the same time. I'd mention this in your ability explanation, since a common misconception about Maokai is that his arcane smash only affects the area in front of him.

Also, Maokai has very flexible routes for the jungle. One of my favorite routes when I start blue side is this:

Wraiths, Smiteless Leash on Red, Blue, Top Lane

What this allows is an earlier, level 3 gank on top lane with double buff. Most top laners will not expect a Maokai this early since, they would have predicted you to have started blue and be somewhere in the bottom jungle at that time. I believe this start is particularly strong on a more AP-orientated Maokai, since your early game strength will be even higher than the common tank Maokai. I'd include an alternative route such as this one because Maokai is so flexible.

Other than those slight critics, I'd say you have a very strong guide here, with strong use of BBCode to keep it from just being a wall of text. I really hope your guide continues to grow and that I can see more of what you have to offer. This site really needs more authors like you.

NOTE: When you write, there should always be a space after punctuation. EX: Grammar is dumb. I hate it. This includes commas, periods, exclamation points, etc. This isn't a priority thing to fix in your guide, since it would take a while to fix from what I can imagine. But it's something to consider in the future when you write.