Must have

Flash can be used in many ways on Maokai. Ideally you will use it as a getaway because you will have a gap closer with your Twisted Advance or to position yourself to hit an enemy into allies with your Bramble Smashbut mostly you will use it early game to escape ganks[/color]

optional

So Teleport can be swapped out for Ignite if you really want to go for a heavy kill lane, But I personally prefer Teleport because of the fact that it allows you to either gank and get back in lane quick or secure crucial teamfights

Must have

Now we have touched on Flash being used in a defensive way, which of course is still going to play a huge part in jungle and invades, but what haven't touched on is that Flash can be used to in an aggressive manner to gank lanes or perhaps steal a buff. What I do is Twisted Advance -> Sapling Toss (preferably in bush -> Bramble Smash -> Nature's Grasp -> Flash -> Bramble Smash to knock them backwards. You will not need to use the Flash as most of the time the enemy will be dead but if not that's where I use it to knock them back

Must Have

So Smite is essential to any jungler. Going for Stalker's Blade is crucial, it allows for that little bit of extra CC when ganking. Not that Maokai lacks Crowd control with his Twisted Advance and bramblebash not to mention a Nature's Grasp it can provide that little bit of extra slow that might just secure a kill. of course you want to upgrade into Stalker's Blade - Cinderhulk even though this is more of a aggressive build you will still want to be tanky

Play Video Is Maokai's passive, Now this doesn't seem like the best ability but although it gets underestimated it is such a huge heal for him. Not to mention that the Cooldown of Sap Magic is reduced every time you use Bramble Smash so you will want to spam Bramble Smash as much as possible.(please keep in mind that Maokai is a very mana reliant champion and his spells cost allot so although I say spam it you will want to farm with your auto attacks as much as possible)

Play Video Is your main ability, Not only does it provide a knock back and slow, as mentioned before it lowers the Cooldown of Sap Magic, allowing for an amazing mount of lane sustain as well as team fight sustain. Combine the with a Spirit Visage and you will have heals for days. Pro Tip: Remember you can also use it to knock your own minions out of your towers range to freeze lane easier (please do keep in mind that Maokai is a very mana reliance champion and his abilities cost allot. So although I say spam the ability, keep a close eye on your mana pool and do not overuse it when its not nessecary lane control & wave freeze is much more important.)

Play Video & is your basic combo. You Twisted Advance rooting the enemy, then Bramble Smash to knock them backwards. What you can also do, is fill a bush with Sapling Toss and then using Twisted Advance to lock them in place allowing the saplings to reach the enemy and explode. Twisted Advance can be used to get over walls swell such as raptors blue buff krugs red buff and gromp , you can NOT however reach dragon or baron Pro Tip: You won't need a ward to see the above mentioned camps if you use a Sapling Toss to gain vision.

Play Video is the most under utilised spell you can find in Maokai's build. By themselves the saplings are fairly useless but when stacked in a bush they can absolutely destroy and win lanes in a way you couldn't imagine. They do % damage according to you ability power. But when they are in the bush they will damage 67% on hit (aka explosion) and then again 67% for 2 more ticks slowing them aswell which works wonders with Liandry's Anguish. What is not common knowledge is that Sapling Toss's saplings gain movement speed according to Maokai's movement speed! Pro Tip: stack saplings in bush then use Twisted Advance to lock an enemy in place forcing them to hit.

Play Video Finally this is Maokai's ultimate ability. Now there's allot of debate on wether or not his ultimate is great or not! A wave of roots makes their way forward rooting enemies in place! Now this sounds super great and saying that the further the enemy is away the longer they get rooted sounds even better. BUT Nature's Grasp is fairly easy to out run making it sometimes obsolete or just easy to miss. I myself use Nature's Grasp to cut off enemy pathing or onto of another sort of cc like a Amumu ultimate.

The rotation itself once you get the grasp is fairly obvious but I will quickly go into depth explaining each spell and why I use it.

If you get the chance you will want saplings in the nearby bush but I won't count it as its not always a given!

🍀 1 Engage Twisted Advance is your engager locking down an enemy for you or your team to focus down. (if possible allowing the saplings you have stacked to hit)

🍀 2. Knockback & Slow Bramble Smash is followed by Twisted Advance to knock an enemy away from safety and keep the crow controlled! (also can knock them towards saplings)

🍀 3. Lifesteal & sustain You will want to use Sap Magic aka auto attack every time its up to life steal from your enemy and sustain yourself in team fights

🍀4. Mass Root Nature's Grasp can be used either at the start of the fight or at this point will be when the enemy team comes to the aid of their ally.

🍀 5. Damage + Slow Sapling Toss You will have noticed how I have not prioritised it earlier. Although Sapling Toss is your greatest damage dealer, It is really only useful if you can utilise it in bushes and even then your crowd control will be much more use in team fights then your damage. As Sunfire Aegis & Thornmail are your biggest damage dealers, you will want to focus on standing in fights. (unless you are running jungle Maokai then your sapling toss will still do insane amounts of damage with your Liandry's Anguish

As mentioned above you will see the jungle rotation.

I will give a quick and brief explanation as to why this rotation & where to watch out.

1

Blue Buff Blue buff is first on the jungle list, due to Maokai's need for mana and cool down reduction. Start stacking Sapling Toss in the bush at 30 sec before buff spawns Pro Tip: Ward river to defend yourself then back and get sweeper for maximum gank potential

2

Gromp Gromp is second on our menu! Now you will have Q bramble bash & E Sapling Toss but sadly you can't really put your saplings in bush without fear of gromp resetting if u pull him towards blue buff so here is where I use my first potion of my Refillable Potion

3

Wolves With wolves you most certainly don't have any bushes to use your Sapling Toss in so use Bramble Smash to knock them back and throw a Sapling Toss into the wolves pit before you engage. Pro Tip: Kill off the small wolves first!

4

Raptors Raptors is where we can utilise a bush again, use Sapling Toss in the bush then use Twisted Advance on the big raptor while using Bramble Smash to knock them towards the bush allowing your saplings to kill the small raptors . Pro Tip: Use first Smite on big raptor murdering it instantly.

5

Red Buff Red buff is pretty much your go to at this point, BUT do NOT use Smite at because you will want it for the scuttle which is likely contensted.

6

scuttle scuttle is next up on the list and you will want to use Smite as it is quite likely the enemy jungler will have started red buff and is ready for it aswel. scuttle takes more damage when it is Crowd controlled so make sure to use your Twisted Advance. Pro Tip: Keep a sapling inside the river brush to make sure you have a getaway or ace in the hole in case of a fight.

is a must have! When playing Maokai you have to keep in mind your damage is partially your abilities but mostly you passively killing them with sunfire and Thornmail

is 90 % a must have! Unless you are going up against an Ability power top lane! Thornmail is what pretty much counters every top Laner of being able to trade with you. unless its Vayne.. in which case you should have banned her :p. But to re iterate Thornmail plays again in them killing themselves on you and works wonders with sunfire

spirit is huge, it allows your passive Sap Magic to really bring back 1 quarter of your life and is defiantly a must have at some point in the game! Now I know you are asking "Freddy! what is this magic resist item doing in your anti armor build?" Wonderful question, I put it in there because after Sunfire Aegis and a Thornmail you will have a solid foot into the game! Now unless they go Executioner's Calling this item will pay off in ten fold with the health gain it will provide in both teamfights swell as lane & jungle. Pro Tip: keep an eye out for Executioner's Calling IF THEY DO replace this with a Frozen Heart

Can will make any attack speed building champion cry! Now I know what you are thinking... "Freddy! Does Frozen Heart stack with Thornmail's passive of cold steel?" Yes it does my sweet little pumpkins... yes ... it... DOES!! So that 20/0 ADC that has been fed beyond belief is going to absolutely cry when you hit him with Twisted Advance (if you don't believe me click this link

gargoyle stone plateAt this point you have the choice between Gargoyle Stoneplate or a randuim's omen incase they stack critical chance. If you feel you need a little more damage you could go for a Liandry's Anguish just to ruin their day

Now Spirit Visage becomes an absolute must due to its magic resist and your life leech nessescity. You can still go for Bami's Cinder but it has started to become a little more difficult to counter

Is second up unless its a Cassiopeiain which case you will want to run a Adaptive Helm first. The magic resist reduce will allow you to still life leach and do more damage without actually building heavy Ability power.

Is almost every time a must have! Against champions that spam or have a heavy aoe like Mordekaiser Anivia or even a Katarina this item will be worth its weight in gold and you might want to run it before Abyssal Mask when playing agains these champions

is your jungle choice

laundry's torment is your main damage dealer. Half of your abilities slow already and the rest root. So it works wonders with Bramble Smash and Sapling Toss if you like to play an aggressive jungle like myself. I also reccomend running Zeke's Convergencewith it.

Seems like an odd pick right? haha I knew you would say that. I chose Zeke's Convergence for a very special reason! It works wonders to cast your natures grasp then follow up with a Twisted Advance slowing the entire enemy team allowing them to get rooted by your Nature's Grasp

Early Game with Maokai. I highly encourage you guys to check out my stream and ask me to play him for you because there is so much to cover. Minions: Maokai's early game is amazing. First off you will want to freeze lane as a fast as possible in your favour, ie: right outside of tower range. Should the minions happen to get closer then allowed use Bramble Smash to get those little pests back out of range. You will want to conserve mana by killing with your auto attack, which TRUST ME takes some getting use to if you are use to a heavy ad top laner. The reason for freezing lane is that you want to make sure your lane is open for ganks to feed yourself and that greedy greedy jungler. :p. Abilities: You will not want to spam your abilities like I said before your mana pool is tiny. So only when you see the enemy make a mistake like dive or get caught out will you want to use Twisted Advance to root him under the tower or occasionally throw a Sapling Toss into the brush to when u are unable to ward to are prepping for a gank. Other then that keep your lane slow and steady by focusing on freezing and farming. Kills: We do not go for the kills in the early game, Should your jungler see it fit to gank only then will we try to get a few Sapling Toss in the brush and use your crowd control to keep him steady while your jungler goes in for the damage. Now I will contradict myself a little by saying that if you have a Bami's Cinder and you have lane dominance you can start to stack saplings and bait the enemy into a bush. I personally prefer to wait until I atleast have a Bramble Vest or a Thornmail but I have won quite a few early game kills with just a cinder. You will have to learn your matchup for yourself. Summoners spells: Things get a little tricky for me to tell you when to use them. If you are in a little higher Elo the game is fairly slow paced and you can use your Teleport to continue laning. However in low elo things go quite a bit quicker and a drake is a nice objective to get or perhaps that over extended bot lane is open for some damage. You will have to figure that out for yourself but I personally will focus on lane rather then force out objectives.

Minions:

Maokai's Now we have gotten our Thornmail and Ninja Tabi or Mercury's Treads depending on who we are up against, and are ready to make some plays. At this point you should be able to farm quite easily with Bami's Cinder and your spells are allowed to be used to force out a lane giving you some gank potential or push. Ofcourse always prioritise farming over getting kills but do make sure to show some lane dominance and don't be afraid to start heading into objectives and team fights. :p.

Abilities:

Use abilities accordingly :)
Now although your mana pool Is still not ideal for spamming spells. You are allowed to make sure you have Sapling Toss in the bushes ready for some engages. Try to lure your enemy into or close to a bush and then root them with Twisted Advance you can then knock them into or close enough to the saplings allowing them to burst your enemy down. REMEMBER Twisted Advance can cancel effects being cast on you like a Darius Ultimate, or just be used to avoid skill shots & stuns. Ive even been known to dodge a Summon: Tibbers ultimate and a Cassiopeia ultimate.

Kills:

When it comes to mid game you have some serious engage potential and will almost ALWAYS win a 1V1 but this comes at a cost of wards usually. Just because you barely had to ward in the early game doesn't mean you won't have to ward now! So make sure to keep up vision.

Pro tip: check bushes with Sapling Toss before face checking

Summoners spells:

Although I will always tell you to prioritise lane farm over needless greed. The team fights will start rolling in so make sure to keep your Teleport ready to help out your team mates. If you do chose to be part of fights rather then farm do keep in mind that you are not a super easy farmer compared to some champions and are expected to be the engager. So use your brain :)

Late with Maokai. Minions: Minions are of little to no use to you now. Make sure to keep an eye on objectives and help ward up. Leaving minions to your allies Abilities: Your kit is designed to both engage and save lives. It is up to you to decide wether or not there is a carry worth pealing for or wether you are able to go for the enemy carry keeping them out of the team fight. Either way you NEED to be with your team at ALL times. Wether you use Twisted Advance to engage or defend a carry I can't tell you because it will differ from game to game. Personally I prefer to duo with ha hard carry and keep them alive. But if I can lockdown an enemy hard carry and allow my team mates to murder them off then I will do that too. Kills: Kills at this point will do you little to no good except for feed your ego. Yes a free kill can be taken but try to distribute the gold a little more to your carries and provide some much needed crowd control for them. However a blue buff is always appreciated. :) Pro tip: check bushes with Sapling Toss before face checking Summoners spells: I mentioned before that I like to save Teleport in mid and late game for team play. Technically with Demolish you can split push... and it can defiantly be useful if you have your Teleport ready but your team has a much harder time getting caught out with your Nature's Grasp ready if they face check bushes.