Maokai/Strategy

Skill usage

 * gives him a lot of staying power during the lane phase, especially if facing/laning with champions that spam skills like, , , ordsf AEqw Eq .
 * Using your abilities at the start of a game to charge your passive grants you a small burst of health after taking damage in a level one skirmish.
 * will not trigger when attacking structures. If fighting under a tower, be sure to attack nearby minions if you need the heal.
 * does not trigger when you are at full health, so do not be afraid of last hitting minions at full health while this ability is up.
 * When used close enough causes a small knock-back in addition to the slow it provides, use this to interrupt channeled spells such as  or.
 * and can make a surprise grab and provide an opportunity to open a team fight.
 * is a great initiator and has good tower diving/chasing capability thanks to . His is also able to chase retreating enemies past their towers and possibly kill them.
 * can farm using, as mid-game the sapling can kill 3-5 minions easily. The Sapling deals damage twice: once upon impact and another after a short delay. It can also be used to damage enemies in brush safely.
 * Use to harass enemies in the lane. Try to overshoot your target slightly, just enough to get the impact damage and allowing the enemy to dodge into the explosion.
 * Try to aim your saplings so there are no enemy minions nearby to trigger them, as they may choose to explode on them rather than the desired champion. You can also use it to zone out enemies by placing them behind the enemy minions, forcing the enemy to duck away from experience range or take damage.
 * Champions with can outrun the sapling quite easily, making this form of lane-control mainly effective at the very start of a game.
 * Saplings won't detonate on stealthed enemies, but can hit them. This is very useful if the enemy tries to flee through both minions and stealth.
 * By using  multiple times in a bush, stacking them on top of each other, you can catch unsuspecting enemies off guard resulting in a huge burst of damage if they walk into your saplings.
 * is not a channeled spell, so is free to use other skills while supporting his teammates. Remember to deactivate right before all enemies leave the AoE, or else they will suffer no damage.
 * is very useful when the battle ground is stationary, such as during a tower push or defense. Using it in the open will usually cause enemies to run out of it, wasting its potential unless you want them to go away. During a push, however, the designated fighting grounds remains around the tower, which forces the enemy team to fight on your terms.
 * Small skirmishes in the jungle or even the occasional team fight are good times to use, as escape routes are few and the fighting ground is often crowded and fast paced.
 * The damage output from is very powerful with some ability power. Using it in team fights to hit as many enemies as possible can turn the tide greatly in your teams favor.
 * is good for small skirmishes in laning as well. If you aren't sure you can kill your enemy with the normal E-W-Q combo, throw down to add that extra bit of damage you may need.
 * Use while tanking minion waves to quickly kill minions and shut down the enemy's push.
 * can be very useful for a kamikaze operation. A fully built can easily store up the 300 bonus damage when 1 v 4 thanks to . In addition to free hits while they try to kill you, the resulting nuke from  can often get an unexpected kill.
 * Place it over enemies and yourself should you expect the enemy to focus on you, reducing your damage taken while possibly let it cause more to enemies. Place it over allies if you expect enemies to aggressively attack them instead.
 * Enemies running from isn't necessarily a problem, as long as you are damaging them while they flee from it. With,  and even other allied crowd-control effects, the enemy fleeing  can allow your team to do a lot of damage upon them without receiving reprisal before they escape the circle.
 * is a great counter against other champs' AoE ults. Activate during a channel such as  or  to absorb some damage and later retaliate with some of your own.
 * typical initiation is using, rooting them near the sapling with to ensure the sapling explodes on them, and finishing off with . Waiting until the root is just about to end before using his knock-back on  increases disable time on them as well. If a team battle is about to start, use  after you jump in with your , positioning its location to net as many enemies and allies as possible.
 * 's damage output early game is very high being able to bring a squishy enemy to about 1/3 of their health using a few well aimed . When they get low enough use the above combo, you can easily get a kill.
 * can have a support role similar to, being able to deal decent damage and still protect allies, or , being able to disrupt enemy positions and set-up kills for his allies while still remaining relatively tanky.
 * has great jungle potential and is one of the fastest clearing junglers with, and his passive.

Jungling

 * Starting items: ,
 * Skill progression: → →  →  →  →
 * Jungling Orders:
 * a) Since 3.8 Patch made all jungle creeps spawn at 1:55, begin your jungle path at Blue. Do Blue(Smite) -> Wolves -> Wraiths -> Red(Smite) -> Gank(optional, take  at level 3 if ganking) -> Wolves -> ... If you can get a big leash at blue you can save smite and go straight for Red, in order to perform a faster gank
 * b) You can also start red in order to perform a level 2 gank. Red -> Gank -> Recall -> Blue -> Wolves -> ... In this case, take  at level 2

Build usage

 * suffers from naturally low MR and benefits greatly from cooldown reduction, so is a perfect defensive item as it provides a nice amount of both along with synergizing well with.
 * Health items synergize well with and improve his sustainability.
 * and its active effect is excellent for helping getting into range of good targets to use  on, or peeling allies as a tank is wont to do, in addition to having generally useful stats.
 * The that is part of the recipe also as vital: providing health regeneration, mana regeneration and gold over time - all very useful for a jungler that will be constantly getting damaged by monsters, using mana to kill them, and have lower farming potential compared to laners.
 * is an excellent item for, giving him armor for survivability, cooldown reduction to allow him to do more damage and control fights better with his abilities, mana to allow him to maintain longer, and an excellent passive to reduce the damage of enemy autoattackers.
 * If using a, it is possible to save your until after you have resurrected as the stacks stay with you through death. Doing this could save your life if a champion decides to wait around until you've revived.
 * , much like has rather high ability power ratios for a tank, making tanky ability power  items like, , highly effective him, however, don't pick more than two of this as you might leave your tankyness behind.
 * provides great synergy with, as it applies the slow with its first hit and then again after it chases down and explodes near an opponent. The health will also benefit his tanking.
 * can be used to enable to tower dive more aggressivly, and save himself significant damage in situations where he is dragged under tower by someone using an escape during.
 * Rebemeber that if yor team is alredy very tanky and are in the needs of damage, you can actually build ability power amounts similar to an actual mage, but keep in count that you still have to get very close to an opponent and as such you should try to remain hard to kill
 * Using a or  can offer great results due to  high base attack damage and low cooldown on .  can be aggressive alternative to  as it provides almost the same stats.
 * is very useful on as it provides valuable MR and greatly increases his mana regeneration to extend the duration of.
 * It can be later upgraded into a for increaced MR and valuable ability power, as well as a lot fo CDR

Countering

 * Part of ability to tank comes from him being able to consistently heal through . If you can spare it, try using  or another healing-reduction ability to minimize its effect.
 * When jungling, can reach level 2 and gank earlier than most junglers due to  stacking and strong ganking at low levels with . Be aware of this and play accordingly.
 * Using can pull a  using  into a bad position, such as into your turret.
 * will detonate for damage even if it ends due to death or mana loss; don't forget this when finishing him off at low health.
 * Avoid fighting in his, as the spell effect can turn the tide of a teamfight in favor.
 * When facing a laning, the most reliable way to avoid is to stand near your minions, then run when he throws the sapling. This way, the minions draw aggro instead of you, allowing you to reliably get out of the explosion radius.
 * Avoid the bushes if possible. Not only is bush-hugging ineffective against, it can actually make landing the explosion damage easier.