1. Introduction Why should i play AD Maokai and why is he viable? 2. Building Explanation of summoner spells, masteries, and runes. 3. Skills What are his abilities and how do i use them? 4. Itemization Which items shall i buy and when? 5. The Game How do I behave in every stage of the game? 6. My Lane Who has a good synergy with me, who can be a hard enemy? 7. The End Summary and last words

Introduction

A D C

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M A O K A I

Hello guys, welcome to my new AD Carry Maokai guide! Some of you may have listened to the song by Instalok (if not you can listen to it here). Before we start Okay, now I see that everyone is contesting the viability of AD Maokai, well .... I know everyone has his own opinion and I understand that being confrontated with something new can be quite confusing. AD Maokai is: -not recommended for new players! -not recommended in rankeds (they will just leave lol) - recommended with premades, especially because you have to communicate with your team very much as AD Maokai You may think now: What? AD Carry Maokai? Trollguide.... You won't believe me but Maokai is actually pretty viable on the botlane! His built in sustain synergizes very well with a laning partner (especially if he has to spam his skills like Sona). High natural stats and a solid engage are only a few examples from Maokai's positive attributes. Flow .... Why should I play him AD, he has no AD scalings AND he is melee.. Well, have you ever seen a tree running towards you? No good feeling at all ... Most "normal" AD Carrys lack CC and are getting killed very fast. Maokai has both, 2 hard CC spells ( arcane smash and Twisted Advance) and with his Vengeful Maelstrom and Sap Magic he has a pretty solid survivability. But the main problem if you play Maokai botlane is, that you get poked. HARD!

Well, anyways! Now let's take a closer look at AD Carry Maokai!

Pros + High burst with, especially with Statikk Shiv + Built in sustain with Sap Magic + 2 forms of hard CC + Can jump over walls to the enemy with the Sapling Toss + Twisted Advance combo + 35s Wards with his Sapplings!! :D + Strong Team fights with Vengeful Maelstrom

Cons - Difficult to farm - Melee!! - Get's kited very hard - No escape ability - No AD scalings on his abilities - Mana hungry - Very slow base movement speed

Summoner Spells

The standard Summoner for every ADC, even Maokai! He has no escape skill at all, so Flash is pretty necessary. Flashing over walls, escaping and chasing are only a few examples for what you can do with this summoner. Highly recommended.

Ignite improves our burst, reduces healings (also Lifesteal, so it's pretty good at botlane!) and can be used as a decent finisher. Normally I don't like taking Ignite on AD's, but only because the auto attack range is higher than the range from Ignite. But that's no problem as a melee Chammpion. Recommended.

Alternative to Ignite. It's a good summoner to save your wooden butt, but because of his solid sustain I think Ignite works better with Maokai, so take what you prefer. Only use this at the very last second, maybe you can bait out Ultimates or even summoners with it Recommended.

If the enemy Support or ADC has some hard CC, consider taking this as second Summoner Spell, to cleanse it away. Some good examples where you can take Cleanse are: Sona, Nami, Taric. Remember, Cleanse disables also an Ignite! Situational.

Priority:




Runes

- Greater Mark of Attack Damage: These runes outclass greater mark of armor penetration becasue Maokai has no spell that would benefit from ArPen. So we take flat AD to hit harder and last hit easier. It boosts our early-game damage pretty well, so there is no reason why we shouldn't take them (beside of not playing AD Maokai ...)

Alternatives: /



Greater Seal of Armor: Take these runes with you, no alternatives, nothing. They are a must because you will get poked so hard from the enemy ADC (who is usually ranged), you need the extra armor so you won't get poked out of your lane. It also helps against the enemy AD Top or Jungle if they have one, and against minion damage. Never underrestimate!

Alternatives: /



- Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist: These glyphs help you out to survive longer in Teamfights, especially if the enemy APC is fed. Because this build doesn't have much MR items those runes are very helpful.

Alternatives: Greater Glyph of Magic Resist: If the enemy support (or even AD Carry) has some high magical damage early game, then this is a better option. (Example's are: Sona, Lulu, Zyra, Corki, Tristana)



Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage: Same reason like above, easier last hitting and more damage overall.

Alternatives: You can swap out 1-2 runes for Greater Quintessence of Life Steal, but I don't recommend this because you won't be able to do much Autoattacks in Lane without getting harrassed, so ..





Masteries

Offense Tree

We want to take both, Weapon Expertise and Arcane Knowledge for the highest amount of damage with autoattacks and spells, Summoner's Wrath for an AD + AP bonus when Ignite is on cooldown, which is actually pretty good. Then Brute Force , Sunder and Executioner to improve our damage output even more

In the defense Tree we want to take Durability , Hardiness , Resistance and to be a bit tankier overall to prevent getting poked/bursted down instantly. Standard masteries

Defense Tree

Utility Tree

We take 1 point in Summoner's Insight to get our Flash a bit earlier, and we'll need that. Imagine you had to flash over a wall to survive but Flash had still 10s Cooldown.

Abilities

[R]

Vengeful Maelstrom: Maokai shields his allies by drawing power from hostile spells and attacks, reducing non-tower damage done to allied champions in the area by 20%. Maokai can prolong the effect as long as he has mana to spend on it (Upkeep Cost: 30 mana per second). When the effect ends, Maokai unleashes the absorbed energy to deal 100 / 150 / 200 (+50% of ability power) (+2 bonus damage per damage absorbed) damage to enemies within the vortex. Maximum 200 / 250 / 300 bonus damage.

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[R]

This is a very powerful ultimate, we get reduced damage from non-towers and after popping the ult again we deal some great damage, even without AP! The problem with this ult is the placement. Placing it right can be key to win a teamfight! Because of the low cooldown we can use this in nearly every fight, but remember to reactive Vengeful Maelstrom so it won't drain all your mana!




Skill Sequence


Lvl 1-4:


We want to take a point in Sapling Toss at level 1 to scout and ward brushes and maybe to last 1-2 minions from range. Then we take arcane smash for early skirmishes and to knockback and slow an enemy if your or the enemy jungler is ganking. At level 3 we want to take Twisted Advance if you want to engage on the enemy, if not take arcane smash and level Twisted Advance at level 4.


Post Lvl. 4:

Because arcane smash has a high base damage and a scaling slow we want to max it first to enhance our burst damage. Then we max Twisted Advance for a longer root duration and higher damage. Last is Sapling Toss because the damage is too low for too much mana cost early game. Of course we put a point in Vengeful Maelstrom whenever possible. (6,11,16)




Items

This item is perfect for AD Maokai in the laning phase, because he can use it to bait the enemy and then reengage or he can pop it when engaging to destroy the poor enemies. The 3 Health Potion's also let you have some extra sustain in lane.

This start is crucial against hard poke champions like Ezreal or Caitlyn. Without the extra movement speed you won't be able to get some creeps at all or dodge skillshots, and the 4 Health Potion's let you stay in lane longer.

These boots are core for every adc because they want to hit the enemy as often as possible. Maokai is no exception! The extra movement speed also helps against getting kited or even kiting (rare situation, because the adc is ranged).

For the bit extra AD and Lifesteal to stay in lane. This item is essential against high poke adc's and should be rushed in nearly every game, otherwise you won't be able to get EXP and gold.

For expanded gold income you take Avarice Blade. Otherwise you may fall behind, ending up in being useless. Everytime you get a last hit (even towers or champions) you get 2 extra gold, another reason for last hitting constantly.

Statikk Shiv is the first finished item for Maokai. It improves our splitpush-ability even more and gives nice offensive stats like ATK Speed, Critical Chance and Movement Speed.

After finishing Statikk Shiv and Infinity Edge Maokai will have a pretty noticable burst because of his strong Crits combined with high Attack Damage and Attack Speed. But remember that you're still squishy as hell, so don't run into the enemy team like a raging Tryndamere!.

Because of it's recent buffs, Trinity Force is a quite strong option in my opinion. Because of the low cooldown from arcane smash we can proc the Sheen-effect very often and all the stats it gives are very useful.

Now the mid-late game begins and the enemies will have tons of health. Blade of the Ruined King lets us shred through the enemy health and has an very useful active for chasing.

More Sustain and raw AD to keep up with the Damage, and the best: Our Autoattacks get an AoE-effect! This helps with waveclearing or higher damage output in teamfights. Never forget to use it's active! It's on very low cooldown and resett's our AA-timer.

This item is perfect for the last defensive item, because it not only gives us HP and armor, the active effect does synergize very well with our kit, because we want to be in the middle of the fight. Very helpful against fed ADC (or toplaner like Tryndamere!

If you're getting focused too much and the enemy APC is very feed, take this over Randuin's Omen. Because of the revive and the extra MR you should be able to stay alive in Teamfights combined with your Vengeful Maelstrom.

Sunfire Aegis or Warmog's Armor can be replaced for Randuin's Omen (or Guardian Angel). Sunfire is actually pretty the same, but you get AoE magical damage instead of a slow, but if you the enemy ADC or AA-reliant Toplaner is too fed Randuin's Omen is definitely the better option.

Warmog's Armor is not the best option because we don't need so much flat health and regeneration, but if the enemy has so much Armor/Magic - Penetration flath health CAN be the better option.

Bloodthirster can be replaced for Ravenous Hydra, but IMO RH is superior. The AoE Damage is just too good for a bit more AD/Lifesteal, and thats only if it's well stacked.







Early Game

The Early Game is the weakest part of the game for Maokai. He'll get poked very hard from both the ADC and the support. So it's very important to have a support with Heals like Taric or Nami. A good trick to farm without getting to much damage is to stay in the bush and only go out to last hit, like shown in the screen.



If you use this tactic, make sure the bush isn't warded!


Tell your support at the beginning of the game that you can't engage until your level 3-4, and stay very passive until you are.

When you are ready to engage use this Combo (prefered on the ADC):


This is your standard pre-6 combo. You throw a sapling at your target and snare him with Twisted Advance to make sure he gets hit by the sap, then you run behind him and use arcane smash to knock him towards your tower and slow him. Always use Autoattacks inbetween and after your combo to maximize your damage!

When you have Vengeful Maelstrom then you should be able to survive nearly every little skirmish, but you have to make sure that you place your Vengeful Maelstrom right, because many high experienced player will just walk out of your Ult and then poke you down, so you have to place your Ult like shown in the screen.





Mid Game

Mid-Game is where AD Maokai shines. His high burst potencial combined with solid survivability allows him to become a teamfight-monster. The only challenge is WHEN to engage, the answer is: never.

You have to remember that you're still squishy, so let your Tank (mostly Top or Jungle) engage and only join the fight when many hard CC Spells are burned. Stay behind the tank and wait until you can engage, then use Twisted Advance on the AD Carry (or AP Carry, depending on their protection for their allies or their escape skills) and burst your target down.

The Combo:

Maybe you're wondering why we don't use Sapling Toss in the combo, but the answer is very simple, the little damage output is not worth the cast time. Autoattacks are way stronger.




Never forget that Maokai is a great pusher, so if there are no fights at the moment Maokai can easily splitpush the sidelanes with his strong waveclear. But you have to be cautious, if you overextend you have no escape tool to survive!



Late Game

If you come to this point of the game, you try to take objectives with your team, win teamfights and push to the enemy base. Nothing has really changed, in teamfights you still want to wait until you can engage, Splitpushing is still the same, but everyone will be full build now so even the champs who lost their lanes hard are dangerous again! Try to get baron nashor , win teamfights and destroy their nexus!




Synergy & Match-Ups

Good Synergy! Lulu is very awesome with Maokai, she can spam her skill to stack up his Sap Magic, has a perfect kit for engages ( Wild Growth on Maokai while using Twisted Advance to engage) and her she can boost both, or our Autoattacks with Help, Pix! and our abilities with Whimsy. Con: She has no heals.

Good Synergy! She has some heals and can improve our autoattack with Tidecaller's Blessing and has 2 forms of hard CC. You can stunlock your target with Twisted Advance followed up by Aqua Prison from nami. Con: Quite squishy and no escape tool.

VERY HARD She has the highest Autoattack-range at lvl 1 and she will simply poke you down. Try to rush Vampiric Scepter and stay in the bush until you can last hit, play very passive and ask for jungler ganks

The End


Okay guys, that was my AD Carry Maokai guide! I hope you enjoyed, and if you still think Melee Carries suck feel free to play him Top Lane :) IMO AD Maokai is very difficult to play and not recommended to new players because of his different playstyle. Furthermore it's not very recommended to play him in rankeds, you can try it but don't expect to get positive comments from your teammates.

Anyways, thanks for reading my guide! :) Leave a Comment or a Vote if you want, i really appreciate some critic to improve my guide.

At the end here some AD Maokai Videos, bye!

English Let's Play: (not me)
Play Video
German Let's Play: (still not me)
Play Video
Instalok Song:
Play Video


Credits to:
- YayaFTW for her awesome images! :)
-jhoijhoi for her template!



Coming up soon:
-More Support synergy + Match-Ups
-Screens
-Hall of Fame





Good luck on the Field of Justice!