After Riot’s buff in patch 12.17, Maokai Top is back strong in the League of Legends meta.
* Terminology Note:
Meta: stands for Most Effective Tactics Available, roughly translated: The most effective tactics that can be used at the moment.
DPS: Damage Per Second, ie Damage dealt per second. The higher the amount of DPS, the greater the damage done over time.
Patch 12.17 could not have been a better time for Riot to launch more tests to bring many interesting changes to the meta at Worlds 2022. One of them was a buff aimed at Maokai to bring this champion into the jungle. However, the change in the new version accidentally made Maokai extremely domineering when brought to Top Lane. From a long-forgotten gameplay, Maokai Top after just one version has become a powerful card with a terrible “buffalo” ability, which can cause huge amounts of damage with his skill set. mine. Let’s learn how to use this champion’s power effectively, to climb the rank quickly through the following detailed guide.
Top lane Maokai benefits in patch 12.17
Complementary spells:
As a top laner, Teleport is the most suitable summoner spell for Maokai. Teleport gives Maokai a more stable lane as well as gives Maokai the ability to support teammates across the map. In particular, the Teleport phase behind the enemy squad to establish the “burger” position in the fighting phase is also the trademark of this general.
Teleport is still a necessary summoner spell for Top Lane Maokai
For the rest, use Flash to increase Maokai’s mobility, allowing him to escape when being ganked or start a surprise fight with his Flash-W combo.
Complement Gems:
Undying Power is the most suitable super gem for Maokai in most melee matches in the top lane. The increased damage for enhanced attacks makes Maokai’s already strong trades even stronger. In addition, the ability to heal as well as permanently add maximum health of this rune also helps Maokai’s resistance to be significantly increased.
Rune for Maokai Top Lane 12.17
In addition, when meeting top long-armed generals like Vayne, Quinn, Teemo, etc., many Maokai players also use their Phase Acceleration gems. Phase Acceleration gives Maokai extra movement speed after using up all of his combos to retreat or stalk the aforementioned nasty enemies.
Equipment:
Start: Doran’s Shield is the best starting item for Maokai in particular as well as for Tanks in general. This item gives Maokai the ability to heal for better laning, which is very suitable for this champion’s playstyle when you will want to exchange moves with the opponent quite a lot during the laning phase.
Equip Maokai Top Lane 12.17
Core:
Tears of Goddess: This is the most important item of top lane Maokai. With the use of skills with extremely “dense” frequency, energy is the stat that Maokai desperately needs. Without Tear, Maokai will often fall into a state of low energy not only in combat but even in the laning phase. With a price of only 400 gold, you will easily get yourself Tears of the Goddess the first time you go home. Later, when you have enough 360 mana accumulated, take advantage of this item and build yourself Ice Armor, a powerful resistance item for Maokai.
Solar Shield: A mythical item that is extremely powerful when it comes to Maokai. With an extremely annoying set of skills to control and stalk enemies, the amount of damage to surrounding enemies from the passive of Solar Shield that he can deal is terrible. Combining the damage from the newly buffed Q and E skills, Maokai will have a huge amount of DPS like a Gladiator while possessing horror resistance with the ability to heal from his Passive. me.
Other Item: Thorn Armor with Grievous Wound is a way to counter enemy champions with strong healing abilities. Meanwhile, Spiritual Armor, in addition to providing Maokai with magic resistance against mages, also increases the ability to heal by 25%, when combined with Maokai’s Passive will make this general “buffalo”. more than ever. In the remaining positions, choose other tanks that are suitable for the situation of the game.
Shoes: Choose Barbed Boots if you notice that the enemy’s Physical Gladiators or Gunners are pale and can deal massive damage. In the remaining cases, choose Mercury’s Shoe to increase a little magic resistance and, importantly, reduce the ability to control, helping Maokai can “switch” much more heat in the fight phase.
Style play:
When on the road, especially with melee champions, be sure to use Q-Dust Strike to poke your opponent’s blood every time they get close to you or last hit minions. The amount of damage of this skill after being buffed is very large, so if the opponent continuously sticks to your Q, their health bar will quickly drop to an alarming level. Every time you accumulate an enhanced attack of Undying Power, use the EW-hands-on-Q combo to exchange moves with the enemy. The Q skill will knock the opponent away, so this combo will help you deal huge damage to the enemy, while they have very little time to return damage to you. After many exchanges of spells as above, you will easily win the lane when you can completely solo kill the enemy or at least force them to return to a difficult position and lose a lot of minions and armor to your hand. .
Maokai in the Top lane, in the hands of the Korean server Great Master
The R-Power of Nature skill after being buffed was much stronger in the fighting phase. Choose the best corner of the ultimate move to open the fight and quickly finish off those who are tied by this skill. In particular, unlike most other Tank champions, Maokai can deal a large amount of DPS damage as well as extremely annoying single-target swings. Therefore, Maokai can completely target the main enemy in the fighting phase, put pressure on the opponent as well as create space for teammates. If Maokai is pale and the opponent does not offer a reasonable protection plan, he can completely single-handedly defeat the enemy team’s ADC.
Counter:
However, like many other generals, Maokai also has his own “evil”. When deciding to play Maokai, consider banning some typical champions as follows:
– Olaf: The amount of damage and recovery is terrible in hand-to-hand combat, plus the ultimate immune to control will completely counter Maokai’s skills.
– Fiora: possesses the ability to deal true damage according to % of health and the W-Reflection skill can easily counter up to 3/4 of Maokai’s moves.
– Nasus: easily turret when going with Maokai and farm Q quite comfortably thanks to the extra lifesteal from the Passive. In the future, Maokai will have a hard time running away from Nasus when constantly being slowed by W skills as well as huge damage after being farmed by Nasus’ Q.
Olaf is one of the rare champions that can counter Maokai at this time
Conclude:
Maokai Top lane is back and stronger than ever. If you want to find a new, interesting but still cool champion to climb the rank, practice this champion right away and bring it to destruction in solo queue matches.
See also: League of Legends: Lee Sin promises to explode in the professional arena after being buffed in version 12.18
