Many of you are probably wondering about the Maokai move-up
Well in a nutshell...the tree is back!
What first appeared to be a simple tweak has actually brought Maokai a whole new dimension of strength as indicated by his rapidly rising winrate as shown below:
Data from LoLking.net based off ranked solo queue
So what's brought about this change?
Weakness Elimination
Originally, Maokai suffered from the following weaknesses:- Fell off hard when counterjungled early;
- Suffered from early mana problems due to high cost of Saplings;
- Low damage late game with all support type items;
- No damage vs tanks
- Power creeped in terms of CC by newer junglers (Vi, Nautilus, etc.); and
- Feral Flare offered more utility and scaling vs spirit of the ancient golem.
4.11 Buffs
- Quill Coat - Now gives Maokai a very early passive damage item without the need to rely on only saplings and/or attack speed reds. This means that blue is no longer a must (although very handy);
- Sapling mana costs reduced;
- Twisted Advance now does percentage based damage, Sapling toss movespeed increased;
- Twisted Advance now does percentage based damage;
- Added slow to Sapling Toss; and
- Huge buffs on Spirit of the Ancient Golem, now gives a ward to equalize the wriggle path.
Conclusions (TL;DR)
Come on guys...that was a bulleted list...LAZY.
TL;DR Huge Spirit of the Ancient Golem buff + Percentage based damage on W = OP Maokai is back!