Hello, this is my first guide here on mobafire and in this guide I will outline how I play my favourite champ, Maokia, in both classic and dominion in these three builds. The first and third being for Classic games while the second is for Dominion.

Maokia is most often played as a off tank, sporting high sustainability and a good damage output with his Sapling Toss and Arcane Smash, using Twisted Advance to close the gap and lock a champion down to allow Sapling Toss or a team mate to finish the kill. This strategy works well, and I personally know players who swear by this method of play.

=-=-=-=-=-:DISCLAIMER:-=-=-=-=-=
Above this you can see my Twisted Treeline and Cristal Scar builds respectively. These builds ARE NOT a win making build, but a build that will aid you in supporting the team as Solo-Top, Dominion Defender, or Team fighter.

Now that we are finished with that, let’s get into the builds.

In this section I will outline the pros and cons of each build respectively.

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MAOKAI BUILD ONE (SOLO OFF TANK LANING)

\/\ PROS /\/
Strong mid to late game
Can solo a Lane well with lane partner Jungling
Can Initiate and Sustain throughout a team fight with his Vengeful Maelstrom

\/\ CONS /\/
Runs out of mana A LOT early game
Must keep high map awareness in order to avoid enemy Ganks and see team fights starting
Vengeful Maelstrom chews through large amounts of mana if maintained to long, be mindful of your mana levels

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MAOKAI BUILD TWO (THE DOMINION BUILD)

\/\ PROS /\/
Works to protect “Mine” or “Boneyard” as a defender, outlined HERE!
Can escape Ganks relatively will if you stay MAP AWARE! (Can’t stress that enough, a map aware player doesn’t need to rely on MIA’s for survival)
If the Enemy Defender rotates out to help push “Windmill”, often you can panic the Enemy team into abandoning a push by starting to capture their bottom tower. (.:NOTE:. This can be extremely dangerous and is not recommended to those not confident with Maokai in Dominion.)

\/\ CONS /\/
Squishy against fast DPS champs such as Master Yi, Tryndamere, Xin Zhao, Poppy and Lee Sin
Dose has problems if facing a well organised team.
If the enemy taker goes for you mid points (I.E. “Drill” or “Refinery”), it becomes dangerous to defend your tower as not only will minions spawn on either side of you, but you can’t move to push them off without risking a push bottom and lousing your tower as well.

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MAOKAI BUILD THREE (THE TEAM FIGHT SUPPORT)

\/\ PROS /\/
Buffs Friendly champs and reduces Enemy magic resistance by 20, which is always nice.
By maxing out Twisted Advance early you can help hold down an opponent and slowing them with Rylai's Crystal Scepter
Runes and masteres help to improve you sustain and spell damage early game

\/\ CONS /\/
Not as tanky as other builds, thus much harder to stay in the lane.
Has a big problem with mana if Sapling Toss is not used reservedly, this is why most of the runes and masterys are aimed at boosting your sustain.
Has problems farming throughout a game, so it is best to get you laning partner to feed you as much as possible and to get any neutral minions as you can without overextending.

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In the first build the main goal is to make you as tankey as possible from the start of a game to allow you more freedom with early game play while boosting your regen to help sustain those moments when you do get hit hard.

The second build puts more focus on mobility and sustane as Defender rarely gets help in time to prevent a death. Some people will wonder why I have so meany different runes for Dominion, this is so I have a bit of everything to start off with and I can adapt to try and counter my opponent.

Finally in my last build i try to get as much AP as possible and hang back from team fights, rushing in to help pin fleeing champions and using my Sapling Toss and Vengeful Maelstrom to help support the rest of the team. (.:NOTE:. be sure to tell everyone on your team to try and fight with in Vengeful Maelstrom's AOE where ever possible, as the effect only applies to champs within the AOE.

Yes, This was a short guide. I hope this gives others some Ideas on how to make their own builds as I have done. If you have any criticisms or ideas you, please leave them in a comment so that I can continue to improve and refine these builds... maybe I'll add some more variations.

thank you for reading my guide to how I personally play as a Maokai