How to play Maokai — Wild Rift guide, combos & tips
茂凯
How to play Maokai — Wild Rift guide, combos & tips
Maokai is a magic-damage Tank in Wild Rift built around a single idea: force fights on his own terms. Twisted Advance dashes him onto a chosen target while he's untargetable, and once he lands he chains root into root — his own snare, then Nature's Grasp rolling in right behind it — so his team can clean up whoever gets caught. He has almost no burst combo of his own, so his value comes from initiation, disruption, and raw durability rather than damage, making him one of the more beginner-friendly, high-impact tanks to pick up.
Strengths
- Safe, long-range engage: Twisted Advance dashes him onto a target from a distance while untargetable in transit, letting him initiate even into poke-heavy compositions without eating damage on the way in.
- Layered hard crowd control: landing W's snare and then rolling Nature's Grasp through the same fight gives two separate root windows on top of Sapling Toss's slow, more than enough time for a team to punish a priority target.
- Damage that doesn't need AP: Bramble Smash scales off the target's max HP, so he still threatens real damage even while building a fully defensive item set.
- Self-sufficient sustain: Sap Magic's free heal comes back faster the more he fights — every cast, or every enemy skill he eats, shaves 3 seconds off its cooldown — so he outlasts extended trades other tanks can't.
Weaknesses
- No real burst or follow-up damage of his own: outside R's flat hit and Q's max-HP chip, he relies entirely on teammates to punish whoever he roots, so he's far weaker without coordinated follow-up.
- Twisted Advance is a single-target, telegraphed commitment: once he dashes, he's stuck in the middle of the fight on a long cooldown if the engage whiffs or gets peeled off.
- Hyper-mobile kiting champions can dodge or outrun his only real gap-closer, neutralizing his whole engage pattern once they see it coming.
- Soft early levels: aggressive all-in junglers and laners punish him before his tank items and passive sustain come online, and he loses straight Smite races to bigger jungle threats.
Combos
- W → Q → Auto Attack: dash onto the priority target with Twisted Advance to root them, detonate Bramble Smash to knock away anyone trying to peel, then land a free auto to tick Sap Magic's heal.
- R → W: open with Nature's Grasp down a chokepoint to root and slow the whole enemy formation, then dash Twisted Advance onto whoever ends up isolated for a second, guaranteed root.
- E (bush) → W: pre-place Sapling Toss in a river or objective bush; once it detonates and slows a wandering target, follow up with Twisted Advance for a snare they can't outrun.
Skill order: W > E > Q (max R at every level it's available)
Early game
Poke with Bramble Smash whenever the wave crashes — its knockback disrupts channels and all-ins, and the max-HP scaling means it threatens even tankier laners early. Stay patient before level 5: Twisted Advance only roots for 0.8 seconds, so dashing in alone just strands you in the middle of a trade — wait until you have minion aggro or a jungler nearby to follow up. Weave in an auto-attack whenever Sap Magic is off cooldown to sustain through poke, and treat level 5 as your first real spike: with Nature's Grasp online you can start forcing skirmishes around river and the first dragon.
Mid & late game — teamfighting
Look to open fights from a flank or down a chokepoint with Nature's Grasp — it roots and slows everyone it rolls through, and every champion it connects with refreshes your bonus movement speed, which is what lets you stay stuck to a kiting backline. Once the fight is committed, save Twisted Advance for the biggest isolated threat rather than the first body you see, lock them down for your team's damage, then use Bramble Smash's knockback to peel anyone diving your own carries. Sit on the front edge of the fight rather than deep inside the enemy team: in tank items like Frozen Heart and Warmog's Armor, your job is chaining CC onto priority targets and soaking damage, not trading with their carries.
Pro tips
- Hold Twisted Advance for a target that's already out of position — it's a far stronger pick tool on an isolated squishy than an opener into a full, grouped enemy team.
- Pre-place Sapling Toss in bushes near river or objectives before a fight starts; the bush-triggered version hits much harder and its slow can turn a would-be gank into a free root chain.
- Track your own passive: Sap Magic's cooldown drops every time you cast a spell or eat an enemy one, so in a long skirmish it's usually back up — don't forget to weave in that free-heal auto-attack.