Good guide! I might disagree a little bit with some of your choices. Sunfire Aegis in particular; your teammates' jobs are damage, Maokai's job is CC and, like you have made a point of, auras. Better auras/AoE's could include Randuin's Omen, Abyssal Mask, Aegis of the Legion, and Shurelya's Battlesong.

A few item choices aside, you did a great job writing this guide! Good job with the colors and formatting. The next step in rising up the Maokai tree (ahahaha I'm going to hell for puns) on mobafire, is to add coding and more formatting. There is a wonderful Guide on making a guide by jhoijhoi that will cover everything you need to know about guide formatting, templates, coding, and more. :) Good luck with your guide, and keep it up!

This guide is quite amazing my friend. Definitely helpful in every aspect.

I use this as my main strategy going into a match. Thanks for the help! I've got Maokai down to a "t" now.

I am using this guide as of May 16, 2012. Even though it is expired and outdated, I find that the skill sequence is great and easy to follow; the mastery tree is outdated but with some thinking it's easy to figure out the current form of the mastery point allocation; the item sequence is quick and easy to use. Overall, I find it very friendly to the reader and after reviewing it, Maokai is a lot easier to play and understand.

The degree to which you should be spamming saplings in the early game REQUIRES that you have clarity. If you have some actual input to provide, then you should give it. But since you haven't, I'll just report. :D

clarity

@Mrs Warboys : I too go for Twisted Advance as 2nd spell, since it combos really well with saplings. Team-fights you say? There wont be any until at least level 6. And rooting a carry is team-oriented :P I took the liberty of answering as i believe that we share the same reasons.

Nice guide. I think I might incorporate Soul Shroud into my Maokai build, it's an item I never really thought I needed if I get a Tear, but didn't realize the HP was so high!

Wouldn't Randuin's Omen be a good item for this build? The active is a pretty nice addition to your team, I'd say it could possibly be better than Frozen Mallet

PS: Why Twisted Advance first? I find Arcane Smash brings a lot more utility and this build is all about team fights.

Good guide, especially since this is your first. Good job on the sapling harrass positionning too!

Here's a couple of friendly recommendations:
-Have you considered Aegis of Legions, a great tanky/support item? The Armor and MR aura is great in teamfights, and it would really fit in your item build.
-Shurelya's Reverie is item you should consider for it's team speed buff active, with a CD keeping it up for every fight, and a healthy HP and Mana regen.
-Switching the masteries in Ardor for Harden skin for a slight increase in tankyness, since you wont be needing AP nor AS boosts.

All in all, a superior Maokai guide that doesn't fall in the ridiculous AP-trend. Good job!

I have considered speed quints, but for 2 reasons, I have not used them:
1.) Because, I haven't bought them and can't afford them yet lol.
2.) Because, I REALLY like having the quints of insight for my early game pressure and I feel like the speed quints wouldn't be worth the loss of my magic penetration.

Have you tried buying boots of mobility? Also, around the time that team fights start breaking out, stop laning and if you are not sure where to go to be most useful, try following around your team's carry or the player on your team who is most fed. If you help your carry to survive and to get fed/more fed, then that could help your team win.

I like your guide a lot. Great explanations and your build suits my style. This build gives great survivability.
Also have you considered move speed quints. Lately I have been loathing the fact, that a team fight begins when I'm 5-6 seconds away and unable to give any support.

lol, no harm done bro, i re-edited the picture so that it would make more sense, and thanks for the +1.