Talk:Maokai/Strategy/@comment-71.31.0.193-20120705001712/@comment-50.140.152.102-20120712075234

Solomid Regen ammy + mana pot Then boots + philo stone From their build as necessary to finish a 4 item core consisting of: SH-rev, FoN, FH / randuin's omen, and mercs. The last two items will be your situationals, I like to get RoA+Ryleis most of the time for the health and AP. but a warmogs + banshees is great too.

Early game play hyper aggressively, you outburst a surprising number of mid champs with ease, while keeping them CC'd to boot.

Get magic pen marks, flat armor yellows, MR per lvl blues, and movement quints. The lesser runes are more flexible but the quints practically must be MS. As after your burst, you walk off. No dash or speed boost, albeit they'll be slowed for a sec. But a smart player will try to kite you as you leave the engagement. This can turn a landslide victory of a trade into an even exchange if your slow.

Leveling order: Lvl 1, E 2, Q 3, W and start bursting, try not to use any mana before now. You'll run low fast trust me.

Here on you have a simply priority list. R > Q > W > E

Flash ignite is pretty awesome for this as people often try to stay in-lane at low health but out of range. Flash gives twisted advance 400 more range, add ignite damage the rest of your burst and AA's and you EASILY get a kill.

Late game, you forget bursting entirely, your not there to damage. Your job is to initiate, disrupt, and keep the team fight inside your ult. See Kay in death lotus? Q See master yi pop his ult? W I won't detail this much more as a lane Mao should have roughly the exact same late as a jungle Mao