Well i started playing Maokai the first day he came out and he is an amazing support/tank with his spells.

I am picking alot of magic resist on Maokai because of his passive ablitiy. Every 5th spell cast in his prescense he gains "Sap Magic" wich heals him 7% of his max health on his next melee atack. And also i pick the health runes to survive abit longer the early ganks and laning issues with health as it boosts his passive ability. I also took a few mana runes since he easily gets out of mana during laning phase.

I personally take this masteries because of the health/magic res/dmg reduction it provides as well as a few in utility wich increases his max mana aswell as his regeneration rate on both mana and health.

The sapling toss is a must have spell in lvl 1 since it deals a fair amount of damage and scouts a little area and has a pretty long range so you can harass them when they are tower hugging as you can easily get an FB when there hugging a tower. Twisted Advance is a great skill and deals a decent amount of damage and roots your target but its not recomended to pick as first skill. Arcane smash dont have a big area of usage in the early laning phases since it doesnt deal much damage however it is great to combo T.A the enemy when they are rooted get behind them and do A.S since it does knock the closest targets to Maokai back a bit and slows them. The ultimate is an awsome team savior as it reduces all damage done to allies inside the ring and on de-activaton the ring explodes dealing a set amount of damage and the reduced damage as bonus.

Ruby Crystal is a great item to start with as u upgrade it to a catalyst pretty early but if u dont got clarity on your lane you can pick Sapphire Crystal to get some more mana during the early lane. On first recall you should have a catalyst and a pair of normal boots and if its going good you should even have a magic res cloak. Get an early Banshees Veil for magic resi/hp and mana. Build a force of nature for some health reg and magic resi because it suits every tank well. And the reason for picking Frozen mallet is beacuse of the combo you can produce T.A -> A.S combo and they will be slowed for quite some time wich allows your team to catch up and pick the enemies off.

I usually go with Clarity because of the mana starvation the champion has with his spells and i also use flash because it is a general OP spell for both chasing and escaping. You can also use exhaust to further disable a enemy, Or you can use ghost to catch aup and root an escaping enemy.

Pros: Great harraser
Strong support
Great disabler

Cons: Very slow movement
Easily loosing mana
Not a great escaper

A very strong support champion with a great beneficial ultimate in team fights, strong in lane as Maokai can harass pretty often.