Maokai is a little bit weak right now so we'd like to make him a better jungler and support without giving too much more to top lane, where he's fine. To do that, we're bringing his move speed back up and increasing his early game durability. We also want to smooth out an unusual optimization with his saplings that made him need to rush boots in order to speed them up.

Maokai is the other tree at risk of becoming the #1 jungler at Worlds this year and while we’re happy that tanks are viable, we’d like there to be more of them available. As such, we’re bringing down some pro-skewed power via his sapling vision control with a little damage off the top as well, as he shouldn’t generally need so much damage as a tank.

Maokai is still performing far better than he needs to at support, although some of that is due to Solstice Sleigh being overpowered. We believe that a mix of Solstice getting nerfed this patch and some direct changes should get Maokai support into an appropriate state. But even if we're nerfing him as a support, we want to maintain his viability as a jungler, so we'll be hastening his first clear which has become pretty slow after the recent nerfs to his Q and E.

Maokai is currently still the best support in the game, branch hands down. And while last patch closed the gap between his power as a support and as a top laner/jungler, he's in a state where we simply need to siphon off some of his baseline power to keep him in check.

Maokai Support finally has the freedom to rush movement speed tank items without facing off against other champions' mythics. He is extremely happy about this fact. So happy in fact that he’s the strongest-performing support in the game. We’d like to rein in his support power level while still retaining his ability to perform well in top and jungle. In order to do this, we’ll be lessening his affinity to the support item (which grants percent mana regeneration), lowering his access to early saplings, raising his reliance on gold, and giving him the ability to repeatedly press Q more freely, which is more important to his top lane and jungle gameplay.

Maokai has been overgrowing his welcome in Pro this season but is standing in a good place in solo queue. This tree is already at a good level when it comes to cc’ing his enemies during ganks and teamfights, so we’re looking to slow down his jungle clear speed a bit this patch instead.

Maokai is way too strong right now and incredibly frustrating with his sapling bombs which are meant to be zoning/vision tools, NOT damage ones. While AP tree is a compelling build, there's no risk to crafting a glass cannon when no one ever comes near to it. The Sapling cooldown nerfs will hit tank Maokai and he seems balanced at the moment, so we're compensation buffing Bramble Smash.

Similar to other tanks, Maokai’s been missing Sunfire Aegis and Immolate which increased his ability to effectively clear minions and jungle camps. We’re putting a bit more clear power into his Q to help him find his spot in the jungle and top lane once again.

Maokai's update has led to him taking root across several roles, but his roots run deepest (and strongest) in the top lane. We're trimming down his sustain in the mid-to-late game and upping his ultimate cooldown to hedge his strength.

Maokai's update has been transplanted to the Rift successfully, taking root not only in support, but in top as well (which was one of our major goals!). He's been struggling to branch out into the jungle, so we're giving him some jungle oriented buffs in hopes they bear fruit while trimming some of his strengths in other roles. We’re sorry. These plant puns are just low hanging fruit.

Maokai has been all bark and no bite for quite some time now. We’re helping this tree rediscover his roots in both the top lane and jungle without removing his ability to be a support.

Maokai's tanky support builds have been excelling in solo queue and even surpassing his already powerful AP support builds. We’re pruning his early game pressure and durability, and returning it later in the game for solo lane Maokai (which is also strong, but not as popular).

Top Maokai has been struggling to stay in lane even with his tank builds, so we’re increasing his sustain. On the other hand, Support Mao and his saplings have been causing a commotion in the bot lane, where AP builds offer powerful scaling. Maokai will still have strong poke, but we’re toning it down. One more thing: Maokai's original passive values were bugged. He was healing for less of his maximum health (5-13% instead of 6-13%) and it wasn’t scaling properly (it was scaling linearly at every level instead of its intended breakpoints of level 1/6/9…). so the previous values of his passive’s heal reflect the bugged, in-game values. Now, the scaling has been corrected, and the heal from his maximum health has an even bigger bump than his tooltip would have you believe.

Maokai support hit a growth spurt in the new season, and his enemies are feeling a bit… sapped. Making it so bushes around Maokai aren’t as scary.