Welcome to my guide on playing jungle Maokai. If you are already a jungler, then you know the ropes and may just use my items build order for your game. If you are new to jungling and looking for great tips then this should help you out alot.

I also wanna say that Maokai is one of my favorite champions to jungle with as well as one of my most picked champions too. I put alot of time into perfecting this champion's build guide so it should work out great for you if you follow it.

More on this build below as well as in game strategies for you.

PS: PLEASE RATE AND COMMENT!

“I will use this power until I am free of it.”
-- Maokai

- 25 Armor. UNIQUE Passive: Enhanced Movement: +45 Movement Speed. UNIQUE Passive: Blocks 10% of the damage from basic attacks.
- 35 Armor, 10 Cooldown Reduction, 425 Health, 10 Health Regeneration. UNIQUE Active: Shield yourself and nearby allied champions for 5 seconds, absorbing up to 50 (+10 per level) damage . 60 second cooldown.
- 20 Armor, 400 Health, 30 Magic Resistance. UNIQUE Aura: Legion: Nearby allies gain 10 armor, 30 magic resist and 10 health regen.
- 250 Health, 10 Health Regeneration, 10 Mana Regeneration. Passive: +10% Cooldown Reduction. UNIQUE Active: Nearby allies gain 40% Movement Speed for 3 seconds (600 range). 60 second cooldown.
- 70 Armor, 500 Health. UNIQUE Passive: Cold Steel: If you are hit by a basic attack, you slow the attacker's Attack Speed by 20% and their Movement Speed by 10% for 1.5 seconds. UNIQUE Active: Slows the Movement Speed of nearby enemy units by 35% for 2 seconds + 1 second for every 100 Armor and Magic Resistance you have (500 range). 60 second cooldown.
- 20 Cooldown Reduction, 200 Health, 50 Magic Resistance. UNIQUE Passive: Increases your healing, regeneration and drain effects on yourself by 20%

Why I go these items

Defensive Items

- 45 Armor, 450 Health. UNIQUE Passive: Deals 40 magic damage per second to nearby enemies. Range: 400.


- 1000 Health. UNIQUE Passive: Restores 1% of your maxmium Health every 5 seconds.
This is the highest health item in the game. I actually dont like it as much as other tank items becasue I prefer to stack as mix of Armor with Health with my items. I think it works best on champions that are going full CC tanks or champs that only have the ability to build one defensive item like a top lane AD/AP Bruiser or even your main AP/AD carry.

- 400 Health, 45 Magic Resistance, 300 Mana. UNIQUE Passive: Gain a shield that blocks one enemy spell. The shield refreshes if you have not taken champion damage for 25 seconds.

Offensive Items

- 50 Ability Power, 300 Health. UNIQUE Passive: Eyes of Pain: +15 Magic Penetration. UNIQUE Passive: Dealing spell damage burns enemies for 5% of their current Health as magic damage over 3 seconds. If their movement is impaired, they take double damage from this effect. 300 max damage vs monsters.


- 60 Ability Power, 450 Health, 450 Mana. Passive: Your Champion gains 18 Health, 20 Mana, and 2 Ability Power every 1 min. Bonuses cap at +180 Health, +200 Mana and +20 Ability Power. (Not included in stats) UNIQUE Passive: Valor's Reward: On leveling up, restores 150 Health and 200 Mana over 8 seconds.


- 40 Ability Power, 60 Armor, 10 Cooldown Reduction, 500 Mana. UNIQUE Passive: Spellblade: After using an ability, your next basic attack deals bonus physical damage equal to 125% of your base attack damage to surrounding enemies and creates a field for 2 seconds that slows enemies inside by 30% (2 second cooldown).

PROS:

1. Easy to gank once your level 3+
2. Has good jungle sustain with his passive Sap Magic
3. Great catch ability with his Twisted Advance
4. Ultimate is great for zoning team fights
5. Very effective against poke comps

CONS:

1. Low damage output
2. Very mana dependent throughout the game
3. Cant carry a game because your team needs to finnish the kills
4. Pretty useless whiile your abilities are on cooldown
5. Not as effective against dive comps

or


I have played a lot of games with both Flash and Ghost so I think both are great summoner spells to use. I personally like flash because it scales the best into late game and allows you to jump walls to avoid getting caught or even steal a Baron Nashor as well. Flash is also very useful when diving an enemy AD carry because he will like use his flash to get away or the enemies support will CC the heck out of you once you jump on them so this allow you to stay with your target the best. Ghost works best for early game ganks and is way more effective in chasing down your fleeing targets.

I have used a lot of different summoner runes and grown to like a combination of attack speed and Movement Speed for early game jungle clear and better ganks throughout the game. The attack speed helps lower the cooldown on his passive Energize as well as procs more bonus damage from your Madred's Razors. The movement speed Quints are great for getting around the map early and mid game to help your team and help out a lot late game for catching people in the wrong place. Also if you build Mobility Boots your speed out of combat if ridiculously fast.

Jungle Path #1 (For highest farm and less ganks):
1. Wolves
2. Blue buff
3. Wraiths
4. Little golems
5. Red buff
6. Wraiths again
7. Gank an open lane

Jungle Path #2 (Smiteless blue buff with early level 3 red buff gank):
1. Wolves
2. Blue buff (Ask your team for a smiteless leash on blue buff)
3. Red buff
4. Gank an open lane

Jungle Path #3 (Eearly Level 2 Red Buff Gank):
1. Wraiths
2. Red buff
4. Gank an open lane
4. Blue buff (Once Smite is back up)

Blue and Red Buff Respawns:
These have a 5 minute respawn timer so if you started at blue buff then make sure your back to your blue buff at or around 7:10. If you kill the second blue buff at 7:30, then the third one respawns at 12:30 and so on. One thing you can do is type out the respawn timing in chat so you dont forget. Also remember to ping your mid laner unless your mid is a champion that dosent use mana becasue blue buff helps out an AP carry tremendously early on and even late game.

Counter Jungling:
If you see the other Jungler showing himself or ganking a lane feel free to walk into their jungle and take the big wraith or big wolf or even the big golem too. If their Junlger ganks a lane when their Red or Blue buff is up, then make them pay for this by taking their buff (but only do this if you have smite up becasue this is very risky and if they have it warded you will likely get ganked and killed) If you ever take an enemy buff I like to ward the brush at that location so you can keep tabs on the enemy jungler.

Ganks:

1. GANK #1 (Mid Lane) - I will ussually take my first shot at ganking mid in hopes for a kill or to burn their flash. If the flash was burned then I will always gank them again before their flash cooldown is back up. Flash has about a three minute cooldown.
   
2. Gank #2 (Top Lane) - I always gank top before they return to base and buy wards. I would say 100% of top laners get into 1 on 1 fights with each other so I like to use this knowledge and gank 2v1 after they engauge on the top laner.
   
3. GANK #3 (Bot Lane) - After I go back to base and buy I will ussually try for a gank on bot lane. For two reasons, their wards have ussually run out by now, and I like to have full heath and boots if ganking bot lane. I always ask my bot lane support if they know where the enemy placed their ward. This will help you decide what path to gank from.
   
   Laning phase ussually ends once two+ outer towers go down or if the game gets to around the 20 minute mark because by that time tower dive ganks will happen as all champs are strong enough to tank the damage.

As the jungler, you are ussually the one the will set up taking the first dragon in the game. You wanna make sure this is timed with your team first. Also, makes sure you or your support puts a pink ward on dragon beforehand to clear enemy vision.

The dragon in Summoner's Rift spawns in an alcove in the middle of the lower river between the middle and bottom lanes. It spawns at 2:30, and it has a respawn time of 6:00.

Killing dragon gives each champion on your team 190g, with a 25g bonus for whoever landed the final hit. This is roughly worth 6 entire creep waves, making him a high-value target. He is also worth 400 total experience, though the experience is not global.

His attacks add a damage over time effect, as well as a 20% attack speed reduction debuff. He is also immune to crowd control effects, as well as armor and magic resistance shred effects.

He has 3030 + (220 * highest champion level) HP, 190 AD, 21 armor, and 30 magic resist.

STATS:
These stats are summarized, and they do repeat some information that is shown above.

Gold: 190 (Global) (+25 to killer)
Experience: 400 (Global)
Health: 3030 (+220 * highest champion's level)
Attack Damage: 190
Range: ~500
Armor: 21
Magic Resist: 30
Critical Strike Chance: 0%
Attack Speed: 0.658/sec
Movement Speed: 330
Initial Spawn Time: 2:30
Respawn Time: 6:00

This is something that you will need to get used to for ranked play. I call it the Baron Nashor dance becasue you are either trying to force a team fight or take Baron buff yourself gaining a late game advantage.

You will need to make sure you clear all wards with an an Oracle's Elixir or just a pink ward can do so you dont get caught.

Your best bet is have your support ward the brushes all around Baron and then camp in the brush right outside for about 15 to 20 seconds. If the enemy team dosent respond then start on Baron. Have your AP carry and/or Support try to keep the enemy team at bay without getting caught. Always make sure you have your smite ready to finnish off Baron so it dose not get stolen.


SPAWNS: It spawns at 15:00, and it respawns 7 minutes after slain.

DROPS:
- The whole team who landed the last hit gets 300 gold and 900 experience.
- The champ that landed the last hit gets 25 gold.
- Every alive member of the team gains the Exalted with Baron Nashor buff, which grants Attack Damage, Ability Power and bonus Health/Mana regeneration.

STATS:
These stats are summarized, and they do repeat some information that is shown above.

Gold: 300 (Global)
Experience: 900 (Global)
Health: 8852 (+125 every minute)
Attack Damage: 600
Range: ~955
Armor: 120
Magic Resist: 70
Critical Strike Chance: 0%
Attack Speed: 0.208/sec
Movement Speed: 0
Initial Spawn Time: 15:00
Respawn Time: 7:00