Talk:VPBE/@comment-24062574-20140621113216/@comment-1330314-20140621141735

Taking 0.5 seconds off of Maokai's slow in exchange for a 1 second 50% slow on his E (plus having the saplings benefit from his movement speed) is a buff to his stickiness, and that's not taking into account the 5 second reduced cooldown at max rank on his W. He's not going to be diving the enemy back line as easily anymore, but he's going to be a lot better at actually tanking and disrupting the frontline.

As for his damage, his bases were reduced, but his AP ratios are unchanged. He's actually better at taking down tanky enemies thanks to the max health damage on his W. On top of this, he's getting his mana costs lowered and a more functional ult, so overall this is going to make him a lot better at doing what he was made for.