Very detailed, good job.

With regards to the jungle; learning how to get sight over the walls by using your saplings, then greasing underneath the trees with Twisted Advance to make the initial hit simultaneously is one of the things that makes Maokai so effective. It's like Amumu tossing bandages to get through the trees. Additionally I like the mention about how to time the Sapling toss, TA (E), Auto-Attack, Arcane Smash (Q), AA.

Even with a tanky mid build you can destroy most opponent AP Champions. I often will run mid with Maokai with a 0/21/9 build (mana, movement) and start with mana regen and two potions, going into a Chalice of Harmony. Your Sapling poke becomes a nightmare for them and what you end up doing is denying a ton of CS to the opposing mid. I can often build a 50 CS differential by the end of the laning phase, and often will combine the Sapling, TA, AA, Ultimate, Arcane Smash, AA, Flash then R for a kill. Eventually getting the Unholy Grail means you can sit forever with your ultimate left open.

Love the guide. It's clear and presents alternatives to the standards, and the out of the box Mejai's is certainly thought provoking. +1

Great job DRP, thank you for the +1, and I'm glad I could help you win some games!!! XDDD

Just won my first game with mao using build #1 :D really fun champ and a very nice guide!
Nice little trick im proud of doing: tower dived a champ but i just couldt dish out enough dmg, so i popped my ult over him and myself as I was walking away. After 1 tower hit I let it explode and got the kill while getting away safely myself :D
deffinitely a +1!

Hey guys,

When I first made this guide, it was before the changes to the jungle, and Maokai was not a viable jungler back then. Since then I have changed and even added an entire jungle section, because with the new jungle nerf, he has become a tier 1 jungler!

So make sure to try him out as a roaming jungler and let me know what you think!

Really great build man! This guide has something a lot of other guides don't; versatility!

... in the guide you said for smite "just no"...? Mao is one of the best junglers in the game. He has the strongest ganks in the game and is overall very strong.

Hey, i read your guide, loved it, but i dont rly agree with the smite... maokai is good at jungling, can kill blue without pull... and almost the best ganker, the kill is not but the enemy's flash and hp is guaranteed to lose

Thank you so much for the kind words TuCKeR! Maokai is a great starting champ for learning the lvl 30 game! He was my main during that time and treated me well! Have fun!!!

awesome guide, ive just hit 30 and was looking for a champ to main from now, this guide has completely made me fall in love with Maokai, ty for inspiration and what im sure will be the biggest help i can to play him :)

Thank you so much Izzio, it feels so good to have so much positive feedback! I'll constantly continue to update this guide as League of Legends changes and evolves!

Great job on this guide! Def one to bookmark lol
Thanks for putting the effort into this much info