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Carry the soloQ with Maokai! Build, Guide and Matchups [4.19
Build Guide By Nakakata
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73,149
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Maokai Build Guide By Nakakata
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Recommended Items
Spells:
Flash
Smite
Items
Read the Notes
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Tanking Hard
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Ability Order
Sap Magic (PASSIVE)
Maokai Passive Ability
Threats & Synergies
Threats
Synergies
Extreme
Major
Even
Minor
Tiny
Show All
None
Low
Ok
Strong
Ideal
Extreme Threats
Ideal Synergies
Ahri
Be carefull! She can ult and run under the tower when you use the W! With the taunt and the true damage could be hard to stay alive
Synergies
Ideal
Strong
Ok
Low
None
Maokai: The Items
Obviously the
Spirit of the Ancient Golem, the perfect tanky item. It gives you the HP and the armor to not lose hp in the jungling. Buy a Quill Coat first, because you need more speed and you can still dive a couple of tower shots at level 4-5. Never build the Spirit of the Spectral Wraith, you already have enought damage and you need tankiness to tryhard.2)The Shoes:
I learnt the importance of the
Boots of Swiftness with Maokai. At a high level game, it's very hard to gank with other boots, after the nerf on the W's range. Remember, then, that you haven't got so much magic resist, without the Mercury's Treads. Your "Scaling Magic Resist" runes will help you, don't worry.3)The Iceborn Gauntlet and the Spirit Visage:
Now let your brain work, finally! Have they got magic damage or not? Are you ahead or not?
-Usually the opponents have got one AP carry and some AP damage on the support, nothing more. In this case, you can start with the
Iceborn Gauntlet. Now: are you ahead or not? Is your team pushing too far? Do you need more damage? Build the Sheen if you are ahead and if you want more damage to carry your team; build the Glacial Shroud if you are behind or if you are too much ahead (it's hard to think, isn't it?): if you are too much ahead, you don't need more damage to gank, but you could need some armor to dive better or to gank better in the bottom lane. Then, close your item. Why the Iceborn Gauntlet and not another tanky item? It's been a hard choice: it doesn't give you HP, so it doesn't stack with the jungler item and it doesn't help you against the AP enemies; but it gives you the Sheen's passive and Maokai has one of the highest AD in the game and gives you another slow, that can always help.-If the enemy team has got more then one AP carry, start with the
Spectre's Cowl. You can also combine the 2 items, building the Sheen first and then the Spirit Visage, if you are ahead; or the Spectre's Cowl and then the Iceborn Gauntlet if you take an advantage during the game. Why the Spirit Visage? It helps your passive and gives you super-tankiness in the teamfights.4)The rest of the build:
-
Sunfire Aegis/ Randuin's Omen: If the enemy team is not full AD, you usually take just one of them. Let's see how to choose! You want to build the Sunfire Aegis when you need to do more AP damage (if you are the only AP champ in your team) and/or if you are ahead and you don't risk to die and you can stay in the middle of the fight all the time; usually, you prefer to take the Randuin's Omen, which gives you more tankyness, reduces the attack speed and can slow with its active.-
Banshee's Veil: Build it if you need more magic resist. You can also take this one instead of the Spirit Visage, if you need to block abilities (like Blitzcrank's hook or Le Blanc's Q)-
Warmog's Armor: Build it against the true damages-
Frozen Heart: It's very rare. Build it when the enemy team is full ad and needs attack spees to work well.-
Rylai's Crystal Scepter/ Liandry's Torment: They are very rare, too. Build one of them two if you must carry hard a game and if you are the only one in your team who knows how to play this game.
Maokai: The Jungling
There are 2 combos: W+Q+E and W+E+Q. Use the first if the enemy has got flash (or something like that) or tenacity, and send your sapling to block the way; otherwise, use the second one.
You are a ganker and always want to gank, never forget it.
When to start with the other buff? Do it when the enemy jungler is very strong in the early game and if he could invade you on the second buff (Lee Sin and Shaco)
Maokai: The teamfighter
Iceborn Gauntlet's passive. If you need some extra damage to kill the target or simply to do some other AoE damage, let your ultimate explode (use it wisely). If your team can't burst the target, do some peeling to the carries and take all the damage you can take to protect them. Otherwise, keep going and use your W on the next target, to start the combo again.The cooldown of your ultimate is very low (it can be something like 20 seconds): don't forget it, if the fight doesn't end fast!
This is my second build and it is not completed yet, so give me a feedback and a comment, please, this will help me a lot! Look also at my Sion guide!
Thank you and Good Luck with Maokai, Summoners!
Nakakata
Maokai Guide
Carry the soloQ with Maokai! Build, Guide and Matchups [4.19
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