Maokai Is a Ability Power Bruiser/Tank. The reason I say that he is a bruiser and a tank combined is because I run very offensive Masteries and Runes on him, and then build tanky. This makes him very strong early game but also giving him some slight tanky'ness because of the itemation. You want to make him offensive during the early game because this is where is strongest until he reaches full build.

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A basic starting item for any jungler. This later builds into your Spirit of the Ancient Golem which is a must have item on Tree.

Take four of them. Having a health pot is standard, try having atleast one in your inventory everytime you go to the shop. This will increase your sustain.

Sight is key to win. But as a jungler its good to start with it, but when you complete your Spirit of the Ancient Golem you should get a Sweeping Lens.

This item is crazy. It gives Tree Armor,Health,Cooldown Reduction and most important, Health multiplier whis is the key stat for Tree. Because you stack alot of health. Even your offensive item has health.

Since Spirit of the Ancient Golem gives you armor, its important to balance out the scale and get some magic resist. And also Tenacity is good on any carry. Homeguard is just good later. Try getting it when the enemy team starts to siege towers.

This Item is also crazy on Tree because it gives him mana which works well with your Vengeful Maelstrom since it drains mana. But it also gives you a great amount of healt which works amazingly with your health multiplier. And it also gives Tree some ability power to do some dmg. Rush this item since it gets better the longer the game progresess.

Incase they have a realy heavy ability power team then you have to rush Spirit Visage. This Item is realy nice on Maokai becuase it increases self healing by 20% and his passive is a self heal. Even though the team isnt a heavy ability-power you should get this item 70% of the time. A heavy ability-power team happens pretty often if you think about it. Aslong as top/jungle/mid are al Ap and maybe they have Ezreal or Corki as adc which are realy Ap dependant.

A realy nice item on any Ap champion. I compair it to the Last Whisper because they pretty much offer the same thing but for different champions. Consider getting this item if you are realy ahead and your if your team is realy reliant on your damage. But try getting your tanky Items first. Save this item for last.

As a jungler it is partly your job to put wards on the map. like I said before, Sight is key to win. That dosent mean that you should buy 1 ward and then never do it again. As long as you have room in your bag then you should always buy wards. PS dont forget your limits.

Pros
Best tank in League of legends
Great ganking pre six
Great CC with Knock up and root
Is a Tree and Trees are cool
Okey Poke for being a tank
Low ban ratio in lower elo
Realy fast lvl 1 clear speed

Cons
Sappling takes a while to explode
No fun spam emotes
Gets outscaled between 6-11
Risky pick, cause bad when behind

Green Spots: Keep Warded.

Orange Spots: Ward If You Can.

Red Spots: Ward if realy necesary.

usaly as Maokai I would normaly start at the Blue buff camp since I would start stacking my sapplings at 1 minute 20 seconds. If I did this on the red camp I would most likely get Out of mana realy fast and it would delay my ganking potential. Try also to position your Sapplings right on where the camp would spawn so they dont just explode on the little minions next to the buff holder.

During the Laning Phase its important just to spam gank lanes. Since Maokai is so strong pre 6 ganking is very easy. Keep in mind not to only farm since Maokai Is a tank and if al of your lanes are losing because you didnt bother ganking then what is a tank without any allies to rely the damage dealing on. Also Rush Boots Because since you are ganking alot you dont wanna waiste three seconds walking up to your enemie to hit your Twisted Advance. Also try Throwing your Sapling Toss to their escape route becuse if they run at that direction then your [[Sapling Toss] will be there to finnish them off.

During the teamfights Maokai should focus on being the second ingage. I would recomend having some ranged CC in team such as maybe Dark Binding or maybe Aqua Prison or my favorite Command: Shockwave. When these abilites have been hit. It is your job as the tank to ingage. Try to get your Vengeful Maelstrom activated early so you can pop it as fast as possible. Try also to peel for your friendly APC or/and ADC. It could also be smart to block of any escapes with your Sapling Toss since it gives a nice slow which will give your team a nice re'engage on low hp enemies. Also dont be afriad to Dive enemies under their tower cause Maokai is realy tanky with this build and he has nice burst damage aswell.