Talk:Maokai/@comment-68.8.222.209-20120822003903/@comment-50.81.130.142-20120905004202

As people have stated, his burst is unreliable and has high base damages, and also, unlike kassadin, his passive scales off defense. The main thing, however, is the fact that the longer he stays alive, the more effective he is in a teamfight. The longer you are up, the more damage your ult absorbs, the more damage it deals, the more spell rotations you get off due to your low cooldowns, and the more passive procs you get off. Unlike Kassadin, where if you can ult+q+e to kill a carry in half a second but die right after, you've still done your job.