Maokai is a fairly simple champion to pick up and play. His abilities are not very hard to understand individually and the long range on Sapling Toss allows for some really low-risk plays in the early game - whether you play him in lanes or in the jungle. Once you get used to his kit, however, you'll discover that there is a surprising amount of depth to it. When playing Maokai, it is not especially difficult to do things right. The difficult thing is knowing what you should be doing in the first place.

Understanding what Maokai is -- and, perhaps more importantly, what he isn't - is absolutely crucial for anyone wanting to improve their Maokai game. Maokai is NOT a carry champion. He is not going to win team fights by himself. In fact, you should not expect to get many kills over the course of a game. Rather, Maokai excels at locking down entire teams and protecting allies with his vast array of crowd-control abilities, and in this regard he is perhaps only rivaled by Nautilus - a champion who currently suffers from a high ban-rate. As Maokai, you should aim to lock down the enemy carry so that your allies can more easily follow up. If they can't, however, you are likely to lose the fight. In short, Maokai excels at creating opportunities for your allies to win the fight - but if they are too far behind, he is unlikely to turn the fight around.

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Due to 'low' Ability Power scaling ratios, Maokai's abilities lack the burst damage of carry champions. I put the word 'low' in quotation marks because the short cooldown of Bramble Smash more than makes up for it. Maokai dishes out his damage periodically over the course of a fight - not in large bursts. Instead, each use of Bramble Smash and Twisted Advance either slows, roots, or knocks away an enemy, creating an opportunity for an ally to catch up and secure the kill. This is the very reason why building Maokai as a Tank is more beneficial than buying items to increase your damage output: You die too quickly when focused by an enemy carry and your Rabadon's Deathcap won't matter if you only get to cast two or three abilities. Staying alive for longer is more important because your long-term crowd-control potential can be hard for the enemy team to deal with - especially once you reach the Cooldown Reduction cap.

Cooldown Reduction is, in my opinion, Maokai's most important stat. Not only does it increase your damage output but also your crowd-control potential. At max rank, the cooldowns on Bramble Smash and Twisted Advance can be brought down to 3.0 and 5.4 seconds, respectively, and you can initiate or disengage with Nature's Grasp every 48 seconds. This alone should be reason enough to stack Cooldown Reduction - but the story doesn't end there. Although Maokai's passive ability, Sap Magic, isn't directly affected by Cooldown Reduction, it indirectly benefits from it because its cooldown is reduced every time you use an ability.

Furthermore, Sapling Toss is an absolutely phenomenal map control tool due to its long-range warding functionality. You never need to daringly face-check bushes or other areas where vision is obstructed (like the Dragon and Baron pits). Instead, you can safely toss a sapling in there to ward the area and possibly deal some damage to whomever might be hiding there. The base cooldown of Sapling Toss is 10 seconds and it is not reduced by upgrading the ability. With 40% Cooldown Reduction, though, you can toss a sapling every 6 seconds.

To sum up, Cooldown Reduction very effectively boost your offensive, defensive AND utility capabilities and should not be underestimated.

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My way of playing Maokai differs slightly from what other guides I see online teach, the most apparent difference perhaps being my choice of runes. Most people like to choose Domination as their secondary rune path due to runes like Cheap Shot, Sudden Impact and Relentless Hunter, and while those runes definitely can be useful both during ganks and teamfights, I present a different approach to choosing runes. I choose my secondary runes from either Sorcery or Inspiration because they provide utility-oriented bonuses like Movement Speed and Cooldown Reduction which, in my opinion, benefits Maokai more than the usual alternative.
I can think of many viable rune options and I will discuss each of them in greater detail in the runes chapter. In the end, it really is a matter of personal preference.

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Everything I have said so far applies to Maokai regardless of your role. You could play him in the Top lane, as a support, or maybe even in the Mid lane if you're feeling adventurous, and your role in team fights would mostly be unaffected. In this guide, however, the jungle will be my focus because it is my favorite role to play and therefore the role I am most experienced in.

This guide is primarily meant to teach you how to properly play Maokai in the jungle. Tips and trick that apply to all junglers or jungling in general may be left out because my focus is to communicate how Maokai specifically excels in the jungle.

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Now, who am I? Am I a top-tier Challenger Pro jungler? Absolutely not. In fact, I almost exclusively play games casually. My motivation for writing this guide mostly stems from the fact that I, myself, tend to learn new things when explaining what I already know - so, in a way, I wrote this guide for myself.
I am by no means an expert in any sort of gaming. I'm just a guy with a brain. And this is my guide on playing Maokai in the jungle. Enjoy.

- Waxillion

Maokai's abilities are quite simple by themselves but can truly shine when the player executes them well. Every single ability has multiple uses, as is often



In this section, I will explain his skill set in detail to the best of my ability. My goal is to shed light on the many advantages this simple skill set provides and warn against rookie mistakes an unskilled player might make. I will begin by briefly explaining what each individual ability does. I will then go into a deeper discussion about the way they interact.

Q: Bramble Smash

Bramble Smash is your Q ability. Maokai send out a shockwave in the target direction and knock nearby enemies away from himself. Whether an enemy is hit by the shockwave or the knock-back, they are damaged and briefly slowed. This ability is the source of most of Maokai's damage. Upgrading it increases its base damage and lowers its cooldown.

W: Twisted Advance

Twisted Advanceis your W ability.

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Grasp of the Undying

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