Maokai is a beast in the jungle

[Ziek88]

It's been awhile since I've played Maokai and last night I played 4 games as him with my friend (4 of us with 1 random). I don't count the 4th cause it ended up being 4v5. We were winning till we had a quit. Anywho, in 3 consecutive games I didn't die once and we won every game within 25 minutes due to enemy surrender. May be fast becoming my favorite jungler for aggressive play. Add a Malphite to the team and things just get awesome.

Game one:
Rage of the Forest - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRWiBv-Migk)

[xLykos]

Yeah he's been my favorite jungler ever since I started jungling. I'm used to play support champions so playing Maokai just fit me like a glove

[LiNuX]

I've never jungled with Mao although I wanted to plenty of times. Good work in your games.

I originally used to jungle with Shaco but then picked up Amumu which became my favorite jungler, Now I alternate between the two and they both fun.

[xLykos]

I like Alistar jungle too but he has really long cooldowns and if you mess up his Headbutt/Pulverize combo then you're gonna have a lot of failed ganks. Amumu is probably my favorite but he is always banned in ranked games so I don't get to play him very often :( I also reallllllly like Cho'Gath jungle too. Easy ganks, insanely tanky and a very good clear time when you have some attack speed.

[Ziek88]

Cho'gath is really fun in the jungle. I mostly pull him out for Twisted Treeline though. My main junglers are Nocturne, Maokai, Cho'gath and sometimes I'll use Sion. I have a lot of champs for jungle though.

I like Maokai so much because he has so much CC and it seems not a lot of people play him nor do they seem to know just what he does. I don't think I'd play him with randoms though. If my team doesn't follow me in, your dead.

Lykos, how do you usually build Maokai? I'm always open to new ideas.

[xLykos]

My runes consist of Attack Speed Marks, Armor Seals, Magic Resist Glyphs, and Ability Power Quints and I use 0-9-21 masteries. I like to build Spirit of the Ancient Golem, Boots of Mobility, Abyssal Scepter, Sunfire Cape, Runic Bulwark, and Wit's End. But depending on what's going on my build can change. Like maybe a Warmog's if I'm not tanky enough or a Randuin's if they're really AD heavy.

[Ziek88]

Not terribly different from mine. I like to get Spirit of the ancient golem, iceborn gauntlet, rod of ages and then whatever else I need for what I"m against. I almost never get much past that in my build though. I tend to be getting a lot of wards too. The support and I handle the vision. Malphite and Maokai frontline is scary.

[xLykos]

I don't like to get RoA out of the jungle cause if you don't get it early it kind of loses it's muster. I go for more of a tank build when I play Maokai.

[Ziek88]

The tank build makes sense. It really depends on what your team is doing too. I would probably build more tanky too in other circumstances. For me, we have a malphite or someone else playing true tank so if I get some good AP items and build off-tank when the real tank goes all in I can drop that ult on him and it does a LOT of damage when I trigger it making it easy for our ADC, mid and top to mop up.

[xLykos]

Yeah, there's no one way to play any champion. All up to each individual summoner and if it works then you can't really argue against it.

[Ziek88]

Yeah, there's no one way to play any champion. All up to each individual summoner and if it works then you can't really argue against it.

Indeed. Must admit though, I tried building tanky last night since we were against a team who's only successful damage doers were both AD since we effectively shutdown the rest of the team. Having 4000 hp and 200 armor was pretty nice. I think I'll have to work some more tank factor in to my build.

[xLykos]

It always puts a smile on face when it takes the entire team like 25 seconds to kill me in a 1v5. Or just dive in a 1v5, kill someone then walk away. That's so demoralizing to the other team lol

[Ziek88]

Yes, I laugh the whole time. Also a pretty big fan that nobody seems to even know he exists so odds of me not getting him in a game are pretty low cause he won't be banned and nobody will pick him. Then when I do, they don't know what I do haha. It's great.

[xLykos]

I've never in my life seen Maokai ban lol I don't see enough Cho bans though... People don't understand what a good Cho can bring to the game, it's frightening

[LiNuX]

So I finally tried jungle Maokai. 10-5-26. Great jungler. Although I had a hard time killing monsters early, almost died at blue and then at golems, but got the hang of it soon enough.

Had no idea what I was building though, just kept going for the recommended items.

[xLykos]

I feel like Maokai is still pretty good in jungle but no where near how good he was in season 2. I still like him and have him in my repertoire. The best way to get blue with him is to skip wolves and start laying down saplings at like 1:30ish then throwing your last one at 1:56 so it will land as they spawn and they will all explode killing the small minions, then the blue golem will be about half making him easier to kill. I don't even get a leash when I jungle with him.

[LiNuX]

Second time around with Mao, and it's like I forgot how to play lol. 0-1-2. Only won because our top and bottom was really good. Couldn't keep up with anyone.

I guess first game was beginners luck.

[Ziek88]

Ha, it happens. I do what xLykosx said as far as the saplings (or pikmins as they are in my brain) and I also have 3 AP quints so I start off with 15 AP. Clears jungle camps real fast.