Introduction

Maokai has been played all across the world over the past two weeks from the GPL (Garena Premier League) to the NA LCS. Almost all of the games out of past 100 pro Maokai games have been played on patch 6.6, which is the patch where his E, Sapling Toss, and base stats were buffed. The buff increased his base MR from 30 to 32, his MR growth from 0 to 1.25, and it increased his E duration from 35 seconds to 40/45/50/55/60 seconds. It is easy to look at the numbers and act like you understand it but how did these buffs actually help Maokai? The MR buff made his early game and late game tankiness way better and made him a better pick against AP matchups. His E is now also better at scouting at where the enemy jungler is early.

Maokai's new splash, courtesy of Riot Games

That isn't the only reason Maokai is strong however, because of his MR buffs he can now be played effectively into AP matchups and a lot of the current meta top laners are AP. Playing Maokai into Nautilus and the new meta top Ekko is effective now, so he can now act as a good counter pick. Not only that, he brings an annoying gap closer and snare in one ability. Plus, his R, Vengeful Maelstrom, is a really good teamfight ultimate, and in a meta where most games have a lot of teamfights his ultimate is a very strong ability.

Builds

So now that we know why Maokai is picked, let's take a look at how some of the pros build him. For the first example, we will be looking at TSM's top laner Kevin "Hauntzer" Yarnell and how he built Maokai in his series against Immortals.

In this game, Hauntzer started Doran's Ring, which is just the standard starting item for Maokai's because of the mana, mana regeneration, health, and AP. The mana, mana regeneration, and AP help Maokai clear minions with his abilities and the health helps him survive in lane. We also see that Hauntzer went Sunfire Cape second, the reason for this is Sunfire Cape gives even more with wave clear and in this game he was against a Graves in lane and Immortals also had a Rek'sai and a Jhin. So the plus 50 armor from Sunfire Cape really helped against the enemy team. Now after this he built only one Magic Resist item and it was Spirit Visage. The reason for this was because Immortals had only one source of magic damage in a Lissandra. This was just one specific game against a triple AD composition so let's take a look at a Maokai build against a more balanced composition.

This was a build by Jin Air Green Wing's top laner Yeo "TrAce" Chang-dong. In this game he was against an Ekko in the top lane, an Elise in the jungle, a Corki in the mid, and a Sivir ADC. You see that he started Doran's Ring again and we went over why most Maokai's do that above, but this time the player built Spirit Visage first instead of Sunfire Cape. The reason for this was so he could sustain more in lane against the Ekko. Then after the Spirit Visage, which is pretty standard for Maokai against an AP top laner, he built Frozen Heart. TrAce built the Frozen Heart so he would sustain more against the Corki and Sivir and the Attack Speed reduction is really strong against Sivir late game. TrAce's build is pretty standard against a team with an AP top and jungle and then two ADCs. Both of these builds are very good against the composition they were facing in each game. Most players tend to go the same build as Hauntzer in most games, but may swap out the Thornmail for either Iceborn Gauntlet or Randuin's Omen.

Matchups

Now we can address when to pick Maokai and against what. Maokai can be a very strong pick if you cannot get Ekko. They both offer high magic damage and good utility. You can also pick Maokai when your team has a carry jungler like Kindred or Graves. When your team has a carry jungler, Maokai is super strong because he makes up for the tank you lose when you pick a carry jungler. When run with a Braum or an Alistar support Maokai is even stronger because he has someone to back up his strong engage. Maokai is really good against Poppy, because he can itemize against Poppy really well. He can build Sunfire Cape for the wave clear and health or he can build Iceborn Gauntlet for the wave clear and mana. He can also be picked against Rammus because Rammus can't itemize against Maokai well.

Conclusion

Overall now that we analyzed some pro Maokai builds, pro matchups, and some nice team compositions into Maokai, we can say that Maokai is currently a very strong champ in pro League. However, the best part is that he isn't only strong in the pro league. He is also rocking a 50.39% winrate in solo queue since his buffs. So Maokai right now is strong in both solo queue and pro play.