Talk:Maokai/@comment-10561475-20130923214649/@comment-865625-20130928080147

Well, it's important to consider that Maokai is a melee champion, meaning he needs to have a much tankier skillset than his ranged alternatives just to survive more than half a second in front of the enemy Corki+Sona. Unfortunately, he benefits very little personally from his skills; as it scales with health, his passive is unremarkable, and he has a grand total of 500 mana around your first level-6 fight - roughly enough to sustain the damage reduction of his ultimate for 5 seconds (assuming you actually use your other spells.)

...Long story short? Leona simply outclasses the tree. There's very little Maokai offers that Leona doesn't, and Maokai must deal with severe drawbacks (which Leona doesn't suffer from) to utilize his full potential. If you're interested in considering the specifics, read on...

Pros:


 * Heavy crowd control; a slow, snare, and a large round ultimate that dares the enemy to fight in winding jungle corridors


 * Temporary, makeshift vision from saplings

Cons:


 * In order to sustain his demanding mana costs, Maokai is forced to neglect his essential Sightstone (and crucial early map control) in favor of a Chalice


 * Lacks the inherent tankiness you'd expect from a melee support, diverting even more gold to tank items just to survive


 * Passive scales off of effective health, making it nearly useless on a support


 * Poor lategame

Let's compare the tree to Leona, mainstay for those needing a melee engage.

Pros:


 * Leona's passive in your average level 6 engage will contribute about 150 extra magic damage over a few seconds, making her a formidable threat on her own.


 * Reasonable mana costs allow Leona to zone weak lane opponents with threat of high burst


 * Hard crowd control can briefly lock down the enemy carry in lane, synergizing well with burst threats such as Corki and Graves


 * Eclipse's impressive shield and resistance bonus grant her the power to force fights of any scale by locking down single targets with Shield of Daybreak and entire areas with Solar Flare

Cons...? None specific to Leona that aren't inherent to every melee support, such as:


 * If you fall behind in lane, you risk becoming irrelevant due to your inability to poke without a hard-engage


 * Being melee requires you to have more foresight with your positioning and timing - two seconds can be the difference between a secured baron or an ace in the enemy's favor.

...Long story short? Leona simply outclasses the tree. There's very little Maokai offers that Leona doesn't, and Maokai must deal with severe drawbacks (which Leona doesn't suffer from) to utilize his full potential.