Maokai - viable AP/Tank?

This is true. Maokai has a fair amount of natural tankyness. His passive restores life and his ult reduces damage by 20%. He has a spell with huge base damage and 1.0 ap ratio(if both hits connect). He has 2/3 cc. A 1-2 sec snare and a knockup/slow. His burst can be pretty powerful(snare, throw sapling, aa, slow), he has pretty good poke with his E and good initiation with his ranged snare(not a skillshot).

I like mao jungle, his lvl 3 gank is so strong, almost always a kill

problem is that I feel his jungle is kinda weak and he falls off late game

its also hard to get your team to fight in his damn ult

chu8 reached rank 1 playing mainly maokai. He would usually take a solo.

I've tried it and it works, the main reason that it does is that nobody really knows his damage. So they never expect you to take half their hp off with a combo (W->E->Q)

Here's a guide that took what chu8 said his build was and wrote it down http://www.solomid.net/guides.php?g=1285

And the top rated jungle guide for Maokai http://www.solomid.net/guides.php?g=6644

TBH I feel that Rod of Ages is a must buy on him from when I've played.

I ONLY play Maokai pretty much, at least over %95 of the time. Maokai's metagame IS teamplay. Without your team Maokai is next to useless. The only reason he can solo lane is because the enemies cannot push a power effectively against him especially when he drops is ult. That said, positioning with him is key. I've held a tower against 4 baroned opponents before while solo.

I will usually start dorans ring because he NEEDS the AP/Mana regen. because of this he is not tanky early game. Needs to keep distance from 80% of all champions and slowly place nukes and widdle down the enemy using sappys. Farm is also relative, in a tight situation or when you're laning with someone else, it is best ot complete ignore last hitting minions in order to conserve mana and allow a lane partner to farm. This is also advisable if you are extremely underpowered vs whomever in a solo lane. Mana conservation is huge. At level 5 the sappy's should be able to take out the back row of minions. At level 7, you can engange a group of minions, throw a sapy and use shockwave to hit the front and back row then imediately run away. Because of running away the minions will start to move and all of them will be in just enough range for the delayed explosion of the sap to take out the whole group of minions, front and back, powerfarm! After dorans ring I will usually pick up the mana regen rod and slowly build it into the book, and also grab boot and upgrade to boots of mobility. Boots of mobility is huge for two reasons, ganking is one of them. Running out of the woods at super speed allows you to latch onto someone easily with a root snipe. Second reason for mobility is lane presence. If the enemy team's map control is only so-so, you can switch lanes and cover two lanes at once effectively, this can win games.

After those non-tanky items are ready to provide you with speed/AP/mana regen, TANK TANK TANK. Ill usually buy a belt for HP, if the enemy is AD heavy thornmail right away, if not, warmogs then force of nature then thornmail. Late game I'll sell the dorans ring, complete the book upgrade and buy either frozen heart or archangels.

He is to be played by avoiding champions and pushing lanes while solo, and initiating teamfight. As a tank he is a rather weak one, so using his full health/armor to your advantage is key, only got one shot. Initiate a teamfight, pop an ult and keep the damage dealers away from your squishies as best as possible.

That's maokai in an extremely large nutshell enjoy.

P.S. the suggested build is shit.

use utility masteries with a few in attack as well, ignore defense points, just play safe and micro like a madman while farming. Get AP/Mana Regen runes and quints with Magic Pen red. Teleport and Flash seem to work best for me.

added

my dominion build is 100% different. It is purely defensive masterires with a few in utility. I use garrison/ghost both with the mastery. People do not understand how garrison works quite yet and effective use of it is serious business. I was able to hold top tower against an onslaught of 3 people mid game quite easily. I also ignore mana regen now because everything happens so quick it's pointless. AP can also be ignored, I could match a carry in kills with pure armor and boots of mobility.

He's great. He's beefy, can put out some nice damage and CC, as well as a lot of utility. He can even jungle! And he's a lot of fun; throwing screaming jihad babies is quite entertaining :)

A++ Highly recommended, would buy again.

Check TheOddOne.

I think he's the only person that actually plays Maokai at high levels and does very well. Check some of his Vods on Own3d. He also occasionally streams on Reginalds stream so there might be a Vod from yesterdays game there.

As for viability, yeah. I've seen people start with a Rod of Ages rush and go a Singed route with defensive items and health. He can jungle as well, though I assume it's not as good as it could be. Solo Mid Maokai can push pretty hard though.

I've always liked Maokai. You can be incredibly aggressive with him in lane, he has good sustain, he provides free wards, safe harass, reliable CC, and an anti-AoE teamfight skill. He's also a beast jungler with a fairly fast early clear with a good few options depending on whether you want to be aggressive and gank early at level 2 or do a traditional jungle 'til 4-5. His potential as a jungler has mostly gone unrealised by the masses despite Stonewall's vids - his clearing might slow down as you go along, but by that point you really need to start tanking and hanging with your team anyway.

Also, an experienced Maokai in mid can be something to be feared. If he stacks a few Doran's Rings early on, it can be really difficult to push him out of the lane, and his saplings give him vision to avoid being ganked. He's a pretty effective counter to Annie and Ryze with their constant output of spells giving him greater sustain, and he locks down targets for successful jungle ganks.

also note that his jungle ganks are GODLIKE

maokai has one of the best early ganks in the game right now, i'd say he's a pretty viable jungler based on that alone.

I love Mao, he's a hybrid, so you can do a lot with him. Although, he's really not a min/max type of champ I think. I usually rush RoA, and get Sorc Boats... although lately I've been snagging merc boots early.

I've played maokai pretty extensively at ~1800 elo in season 1.

From experience building him and failing miserably with alternative builds:

RoA is amazing on him. I usually do Doran'sx2 -> RoA. From there, depending on how well you're doing, going into Death cap or Rylai's is a good build choice. Rylais for extended tankiness on the dps side, Death Cap so you can deeps harder.

From here, building tankier as the game goes on will benefit you more so than DPS items. You have to get extremely close to do a large portion of your damage, so extra tankiness will go far. Not to mention your passive gets even stronger with high resistances. Frozen Heart and Banshee's are yummy items that synergize well with your champ (banshee's so you don't get nuked trying to dive into them, Frozen heart for the armor/cdr).

The best part of maokai is that he can be built the same early on and easily switch gears mid game depending. Are you guys ahead and having little issue with initiation/tankiness? Go for damage. Need someone to hold the front line/initiate? Build tankier.

Maokai is IMO one of the best junglers and initiates 1v5 like a boss. Just follow this guide and you will rape the enemies :3 http://www.solomid.net/guides.php?g=6644.

To quote many good players at once: Anything can be viable, if you are good with it. SK Ocelote: "If a player has 2000 games on a champion, we can't have him play that champion against us. If he has 2000 games on heimerdinger, he will know how to carry as heimerdinger and we will ban him.".

The bad feeling of "Wow I can't do as well with this champion like I could with XY because he lacks something" usually comes from approaching the champ the wrong way, mostly from lack of experience with him.

Maokai is a very solid solo top, and is very much like Cho'Gath in that sense. He is able to farm very easily with his sapling toss and provides solid, easy CC for his team with his snare. The ulti is also very invaluable in team fights. 20% extra reduction is no joke. The only thing Cho'Gath has on him, in my opinion, is lane sustain. Maokai's passive heals him for 7%, which you can only make use of after a certain number of cast spells. Cho's heals him for about 40 hp for each creep kill.

TL;DR Good top solo (easy farm/decent lane sustain), easy one-click CC/gap closer, contributes with damage reduction in team fights.

Maokai is a beast. Just make sure your teammates understand what his Ult does.

Get 10 referrals, the prize from Riot is a champion of your choice.

I play hime quite similar to Singed. Just less "overextensive" ;)

I'd totally buy him again!

He's really fun to play and screwing the enemies jungler by stealing his wraiths is epic :D

Maokai is a beast.

He can jungle well, he can solo well, he can support well. He's strong early, mid and late game. His ult is incredible.

I have no idea why more people don't play him.

Maokai is a beast! I love playing him with an AD carry in bot lane. As soon as an opponent is out of place root to him, toss a sapling up, slow him with smash. The AD carry plus your spells will tear through opponents early game.

If you succeed there, end game you can afford an awesome set of items. Hes super versatile you can build him anywhere from full AP to full tank.

Favorite items on him:

• rod of ages (rushed from start)
• mercs treads
• trinity force
• rylais
• frozen heart
• force of nature
• warmogs (if farmed you can soak so much damage initiating fights)