Maokai, the Twisted Treant, is taking over the support role in League of Legends in ranked matches worldwide. With the introduction of the new support items of season 14, this historic jungler is switching roles to support. Since Maokai’s strength comes from his many potent engagement tools, the switch is only natural, as for a long time now, Maokai, in the jungle role, has functioned on a budget.
Now, with patch 14.2 coming to an end, Maokai is towering over all other support champions with a staggering winrate of over 56% at all ranks. This article will delve into everything you need to know to start winning with the Twisted Treant, Maokai, from his abilities to the best-performing rune choices, and why the new Trailblazer item synergizes so well with Maokai’s game plan.
Maokai, the Twisted Treant, ability breakdown.
Starting off the ability breakdown for Maokai, the Twisted Treant is his passive, Sap Magic. Sap Magic is a simple yet effective tool that provides Maokai with additional sustain for the laning phase.
Much of Maokai’s strength comes from his Q-Bramble Smash. The ability does exactly as you expect, and getting used to it takes no effort. After all, Maokai is one of the easiest champions in League of Legends. It is important to know that Bramble Smash affects the area surrounding Maokai’s champion model, making it much easier to land against opponents you target with your W-Twisted Advance.
In addition, as Bramble Smash has a (small) stall with its animation, it is possible to transfer the ability with Flash. This means you can cast Bramble Smash and use Flash immediately after, causing Maokai to cast Bramble Smash with a reduced animation where you land after flashing. Before you try this in your matches, please try it in the League of Legends practice tool. While the mechanics are similar to what you might already do with other champions, the window where this works for Maokai is much shorter than you would expect.
Maokai’s W-Twisted Advance is your main way to gap-close during the laning phase. In addition, it is a great tool to move around in teamfights as you try to lock down an enemy threat. While Maokai’s Twisted Advance is a point-and-click ability, the travel time is notoriously long, meaning your opponents have time to respond. Therefore, be careful when using Twisted Advance near towers, as you don’t want to fly straight after your target into a tower at the wrong time if they choose to flash during the ability.
Additionally, a neat trick Maokai players can do is to activate Twisted Advance and then, during the travel time, use flash to close part of the distance. Doing so significantly reduces the travel time, often surprising your opponent, allowing you to comfortably follow it up with a Bramble Smash or even with R-Nature’s Grasp. This trick is especially potent in the laning phase in the bot lane whenever you have a high-mobility jungler to follow up on your engages.
Sapling Toss is easily one of the most frustrating abilities to play against in League of Legends. You can throw a sapling in every area of darkness, allowing you to ‘face-check’ areas if you don’t have a backup. In addition to that, the saplings deal a surprisingly high amount of damage. These things combined give you near-complete control over the brushes in bot lane, which is an immense strategic advantage.
Also worth remembering is this often-forgotten aspect of Sapling Toss: saplings placed in the brush last longer, scaling with Maokai’s bonus health from items and runes.
Nature’s Grasp is what Maokai is famous for in competitive play. This wide-area engagement tool’s strength allows Maokai to always serve a purpose, regardless of how far ahead or behind he may be in a match. The ability signals the time to go for your team, making coordination between your team easy. The purpose of the ability is to control space and enemy champions. Therefore, Nature’s Grasp is good with a poor or a rich Maokai, making it perfect for support and jungle players.
Rune Page discussion for Support Maokai
Across all regions, Support Maokai players use rune pages with primary Resolve for Aftershock. For the secondary option, there are two worthwhile considerations. Domination secondary, with Zombie Ward and Relentless Hunter or Inspiration secondary, with Biscuit Delivery and Cosmic Insight. While opinions split between these two rune pages, there is a rough theme to follow for players looking to add Maokai to their champion pool.
The Domination secondary setup has a higher overall win rate. However, much of the difference comes from players utilizing this in easier matchups, such as against other melee supports. Meanwhile, the Inspiration secondary setup provides more safety and additional sustain for the laning phase, which is preferable against many of the double-marksman bot lanes and into enchanter supports.
Itemization Options: Solstice Sleigh vs. Celestial Opposition
Support Maokai’s itemization options are simple, but you must remember a few points. First, as with all supports, the starting item is the World Atlas. Two options to upgrade this are worthwhile after you complete the quest, similar to our recent Leona support guide.
Both Solstice Sleigh and Celestial Opposition are valid options for Maokai support, with Solstice Sleigh being the more popular option overall. For those unfamiliar with the new support itemizations, here is what you must remember. Solstice Sleigh provides Maokai and a nearby ally some health whenever he slows or immobilizes a target during a fight. Whereas Celestial Opposition works like Aftershock, providing a brief period of damage reduction when first hit by an enemy champion.
After your support item, Maokai’s first key item is Trailblazer. An item that grants Maokai and his allies a drastic increase in movement speed, in addition to the abilities effect that grants Maokai a slowing effect on his first attack. As Trailblazer speeds up your team by 15% of Maokai’s current movement speed, many Maokai players use Boots of Swiftness to maximize this speed bonus and their roaming strength.
After that, there are your usual candidates of items to consider. The Knight’s Vow remains criminally underrated, and the Locket of the Iron Solari will always be a favorite for support players. Other items like the Abyssal Mask or a Bramble Vest are more situational but are always worth consideration.
Best lane partner champions for Maokai
With Maokai providing crowd control for the bot lane, he pairs best with strong laning marksman champions. The uncontested best pairing is Miss Fortune, a duo effectively unbeatable in the lane in the current meta. Other options include champions like Jhin, Ezreal, and Samira. Similarly, Maokai doesn’t pair well with champions who prefer to play the lane from a distance. For example, Caitlyn, Jinx, and (lethality) Varus all perform better with other champions than alongside Maokai.
As Maokai is currently just OP, there aren’t any “bad” matchups. But if you face a Maokai in your matches, here are some picks worth considering for the support role. The main two options are Leona since she can counter-engage very well into what Maokai attempts to do, and Zyra, as she can lay down her plants where Maokai is going to land or to cut off the path for his marksman, allowing your partner to escape safely.
We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.OkPrivacy policy
Maokai, the Twisted Treant, is taking over the support role in League of Legends in ranked matches worldwide. With the introduction of the new support items of season 14, this historic jungler is switching roles to support. Since Maokai’s strength comes from his many potent engagement tools, the switch is only natural, as for a long time now, Maokai, in the jungle role, has functioned on a budget.
Now, with patch 14.2 coming to an end, Maokai is towering over all other support champions with a staggering winrate of over 56% at all ranks. This article will delve into everything you need to know to start winning with the Twisted Treant, Maokai, from his abilities to the best-performing rune choices, and why the new Trailblazer item synergizes so well with Maokai’s game plan.
Maokai, the Twisted Treant, ability breakdown.
Starting off the ability breakdown for Maokai, the Twisted Treant is his passive, Sap Magic. Sap Magic is a simple yet effective tool that provides Maokai with additional sustain for the laning phase.
Much of Maokai’s strength comes from his Q-Bramble Smash. The ability does exactly as you expect, and getting used to it takes no effort. After all, Maokai is one of the easiest champions in League of Legends. It is important to know that Bramble Smash affects the area surrounding Maokai’s champion model, making it much easier to land against opponents you target with your W-Twisted Advance.
In addition, as Bramble Smash has a (small) stall with its animation, it is possible to transfer the ability with Flash. This means you can cast Bramble Smash and use Flash immediately after, causing Maokai to cast Bramble Smash with a reduced animation where you land after flashing. Before you try this in your matches, please try it in the League of Legends practice tool. While the mechanics are similar to what you might already do with other champions, the window where this works for Maokai is much shorter than you would expect.
Maokai’s W-Twisted Advance is your main way to gap-close during the laning phase. In addition, it is a great tool to move around in teamfights as you try to lock down an enemy threat. While Maokai’s Twisted Advance is a point-and-click ability, the travel time is notoriously long, meaning your opponents have time to respond. Therefore, be careful when using Twisted Advance near towers, as you don’t want to fly straight after your target into a tower at the wrong time if they choose to flash during the ability.
Additionally, a neat trick Maokai players can do is to activate Twisted Advance and then, during the travel time, use flash to close part of the distance. Doing so significantly reduces the travel time, often surprising your opponent, allowing you to comfortably follow it up with a Bramble Smash or even with R-Nature’s Grasp. This trick is especially potent in the laning phase in the bot lane whenever you have a high-mobility jungler to follow up on your engages.
Sapling Toss is easily one of the most frustrating abilities to play against in League of Legends. You can throw a sapling in every area of darkness, allowing you to ‘face-check’ areas if you don’t have a backup. In addition to that, the saplings deal a surprisingly high amount of damage. These things combined give you near-complete control over the brushes in bot lane, which is an immense strategic advantage.
Also worth remembering is this often-forgotten aspect of Sapling Toss: saplings placed in the brush last longer, scaling with Maokai’s bonus health from items and runes.
Nature’s Grasp is what Maokai is famous for in competitive play. This wide-area engagement tool’s strength allows Maokai to always serve a purpose, regardless of how far ahead or behind he may be in a match. The ability signals the time to go for your team, making coordination between your team easy. The purpose of the ability is to control space and enemy champions. Therefore, Nature’s Grasp is good with a poor or a rich Maokai, making it perfect for support and jungle players.
Rune Page discussion for Support Maokai
Across all regions, Support Maokai players use rune pages with primary Resolve for Aftershock. For the secondary option, there are two worthwhile considerations. Domination secondary, with Zombie Ward and Relentless Hunter or Inspiration secondary, with Biscuit Delivery and Cosmic Insight. While opinions split between these two rune pages, there is a rough theme to follow for players looking to add Maokai to their champion pool.
The Domination secondary setup has a higher overall win rate. However, much of the difference comes from players utilizing this in easier matchups, such as against other melee supports. Meanwhile, the Inspiration secondary setup provides more safety and additional sustain for the laning phase, which is preferable against many of the double-marksman bot lanes and into enchanter supports.
Itemization Options: Solstice Sleigh vs. Celestial Opposition
Support Maokai’s itemization options are simple, but you must remember a few points. First, as with all supports, the starting item is the World Atlas. Two options to upgrade this are worthwhile after you complete the quest, similar to our recent Leona support guide.
Both Solstice Sleigh and Celestial Opposition are valid options for Maokai support, with Solstice Sleigh being the more popular option overall. For those unfamiliar with the new support itemizations, here is what you must remember. Solstice Sleigh provides Maokai and a nearby ally some health whenever he slows or immobilizes a target during a fight. Whereas Celestial Opposition works like Aftershock, providing a brief period of damage reduction when first hit by an enemy champion.
After your support item, Maokai’s first key item is Trailblazer. An item that grants Maokai and his allies a drastic increase in movement speed, in addition to the abilities effect that grants Maokai a slowing effect on his first attack. As Trailblazer speeds up your team by 15% of Maokai’s current movement speed, many Maokai players use Boots of Swiftness to maximize this speed bonus and their roaming strength.
After that, there are your usual candidates of items to consider. The Knight’s Vow remains criminally underrated, and the Locket of the Iron Solari will always be a favorite for support players. Other items like the Abyssal Mask or a Bramble Vest are more situational but are always worth consideration.
Best lane partner champions for Maokai
With Maokai providing crowd control for the bot lane, he pairs best with strong laning marksman champions. The uncontested best pairing is Miss Fortune, a duo effectively unbeatable in the lane in the current meta. Other options include champions like Jhin, Ezreal, and Samira. Similarly, Maokai doesn’t pair well with champions who prefer to play the lane from a distance. For example, Caitlyn, Jinx, and (lethality) Varus all perform better with other champions than alongside Maokai.
As Maokai is currently just OP, there aren’t any “bad” matchups. But if you face a Maokai in your matches, here are some picks worth considering for the support role. The main two options are Leona since she can counter-engage very well into what Maokai attempts to do, and Zyra, as she can lay down her plants where Maokai is going to land or to cut off the path for his marksman, allowing your partner to escape safely.
Share this:
Like this: