Welcome to my first ever guide on mobafire!

This guide is based on a fun way I like to play Mao'kai if we don't have a tank. He still retains some of his tankiness while being able to become a nuker!
Note: DO NOT TRY THIS GUIDE IF YOUR TEAM DOESN'T HAVE A TANK! Mao'kai is a great laner and harrasser with this guide, and has nuking capabilities early-mid game, while straying a bit late game, but he is also greatly played as a tank! Only play this if your team has a tank, while you still can play off-tank with this build.

Pros
- AMAZING Harrass early-mid game, with the ability to easily get kills with a nice teammate.
- Saplings sound epic
- He roots you up the *** nicely, and keeps you stuck, while doing a great amount of damage and the ability to land all your other skills
- Deals crazy damage early-game and mid-game
- Passive lets you lane for a while, as long as your patient with your mana and know how to harrass
Cons
- Not as tanky as Maokai is preferred to be.
- Can be shut down quickly if getting Mejais
- Terrible Movement speed.. his a tree after all.
- Mana starvation sucks.

Greater Seal of Replenishment x9
These seals are great for the fact that Maokai is mana starved a lot. Can be replaced with armour seals if you rely on your clarity

Other runes are self explanetory, but you can always change up glyphs for Magic Resist if you feel the need to be more tanky.

I find Maokai gets mana deprived fairly easily, but clarity isn't a must. If you don't want to take clarity, there are many other choices. Cleanse is also a great summoner spell against a lot of hard CC if your in the middle of your epic amazing maokai combo!

This tree is pretty damn slow as well, if you want to or need to, take ghost! Trees dont move fast, or through things, ghost can change that. Don't be afraid to use it to run away or even to run in and make sure you can land that gank.

Either 9/0/21 or 9/21/0
I personally go 9/0/21 for all of the extras involved there, but by going 9/21/0, you probably don't have to rush rod of ages, Explained later..
If you don't feel confident with survivability, go 9/21/0, as Maokai will still be able to nuke, as his base damage capabilities are amazing early game.

Maokai is an amazing farmer! Use your saplings to harrass your enemy champions, and if you don't land it properly, theres always minions right? Maokai's passive works greatly to encourage auto attacking with him and farming, as extra hp is always great. Late game, farming with maokai is really easy. Chuck a sapling and knock em around, even root one up it's *** if you want to, but he is easily one of the best farmers late game with his saplings destroying waves instantly.

Ah, Items. I'll add pictures later, but for now.

Starting off I like to grab either a dorans ring or a sapphire crystal. If I feel the need to have to off-tank from the start, I will get a sapphire crystal to build into Rod of Ages as soon as possible, but if our team has enough tankiness, I will start off with a dorans ring and rush mejais and sorc boots. Don't be afraid to dorans stack if you feel too squishy or you get shut down too easily, or you have spare cash after all your items for the amazing little bonuses it gives!

From there, you can be flexible with your items. Get Rylais first if your not going so hot and need a bit more hp and punch, and if you don't think you can stack in a game, Morello's is a great item to replace mejais. After that, it'll probably be mid-game, where you will start doing a lot of damage, so from there, get your death cap. Abysal scepter is a nice finisher for the aura and the extra magic resist. Otherwise, you can get any other items that are game dependant. Don't be afraid to burn yourself, maokai can just chuck away saplings, sunfire cape is nice on him if you believe he just can't nuke anymore and he needs the extra health, or a void staff just to add a little bit of pain in there ;)

What to do when your laning?

Laning with maokai is fairly simple, it is very rare to ever lose a lane using maokai. It is much better to be playing with someone when laning with maokai rather than solo laning, though he does have the capabilities. I still have yet to tried solo laning with him, but he seems greatly viable as he already makes enemies run away in fear or your epic saplings!

Skill Sequence is fairly simple for maokai

Early Game Harrassment:
E x 10000000
Going for a kill?
R > E(land it right on top, if unconfident can change this with W) > W > Q > R
Make sure to land all your skills inside of your epic ultimate, and watch them go kaboom!

In teamfights, stay at the back a bit if you only have AP nuking items and throw your saplings whenever you can, Remember, with this build, DO NOT INITIATE. You aren't tanky enough. If you want to be a badass initiator and do an occasional small burst, build tanky, but with this guide, just keep throwing your saplings.

When your tank initiates, and your sure that everyone will be in your AoE, don't be afraid to run in with your tank as an off-tank and pop your ulti. Stay in your ulti and try to nuke while inside of it to the squishies, and they will drop, fast.

Thanks for taking your time to read this and if you like it, thumbs up, if you don't, post a comment!
Just a reminder, this guide is for more NUKING rather than TANKING with Maokai. Initiating isn't your first option, but remember to have fun!
Maokai is definetly my favourite champion at the moment, who doesn't like tossing grenade like things at enemies and seeing them flee in fear?

Thanks for taking your time to read this and if you like it, thumbs up, if you don't, post a comment!
Just a reminder, this guide is for more NUKING rather than TANKING with Maokai. Initiating isn't your first option, but remember to have fun!
Maokai is definetly my favourite champion at the moment, who doesn't like tossing grenade like things at enemies and seeing them flee in fear?

Sorry, I'm not really devoted to the guide at the moment, but I'll try my best to keep it going, any tips or help would be great.

You could give me reasons to update this build if I can be bothered, remember to comment with whatever you want to about it!