Note: Skill stats were updated after the release of Patch Notes 12.17 by Riot Games on Tuesday, September 7, 2022
From time to time, the development team at Riot Games decides to make adjustments to specific League of Legends champions to bring them back into the meta. Although it's not a mini-rework like Olaf and Taliyah, it receives enough changes to shine again and come back to our games.
This time it's Maokai's turn, a champion who barely made an appearance this season and needed some dev love. That's why Riot August announced big changes for the Tortured Treant, giving it a lot of power to clear the jungle at will and without losing life thanks to adjustments to its passive level.
Maokai is back
Passive - Magic Sap
New - Vengeful Tree: Magical Sap cooldown is reduced by 1.5 seconds per large monster attack taken
Healing changed: 5-45 (+4.5-11% max health) (levels 1-15) ⇒ 4-34 (+4.8-14% max health) (levels 1-17)
Q - Bramble Kick
Base damage changed: 70/110/150/190/230 (+40% of your ability power) ⇒ 65/110/155/200/245 (+40% of your ability power)
New - It's Believable Wood: Q now deals damage as a percentage of max HP (2/2.25/2.5/2.75/3%).
New - Branching: Q now deals 40/60/80/100/120 extra damage to monsters.
E - Sapling Throw
Removed - Fragile Health: Saplings no longer deal damage based on a percentage of max HP.
Base damage increased: 20/45/70/95/120 (+7/7.25/7.5/7.75/8% (+70% per 100 ability power) of target's max HP) ⇒ 55/80/105/130/155 (+42.5% Ability Power +6% Bonus HP)
Empowered damage of shrubs placed in tall grass increased: 40/90/140/190/240 (+14/14.5/15/15.5/16% (+1.4% per 100 ability power) of Target's max HP) ⇒ 110/160/210/260/310 (+85% of your ability power +12% of your bonus HP)
New - Minion Uprising: Saplings placed in tall grass no longer deal boosted damage to minions.
Mana cost decreased: 60/70/80/90/100 ⇒ 45/55/65/75/85
Slow increased: 35% → 45%
New - A Bit Sappy: Saplings placed in tall grass now slow enemies by 35% ⇒ 45% (+2% per 100 ability power) (+6% per 1000 bonus health)
R - Grasp of Nature
Initial projectile speed increased: 50 → 100
Max projectile speed increased: 650 → 750
Projectile acceleration increased: 250 → 300
New - Tree Escape Delay: Maokai now gains +40/50/60% bonus movement speed (decreases over 2 seconds) when hitting an enemy champion.
As you can see through these changes, Maokai is going to be a very important champion as he can be effective in the jungle and beyond. As a diehard tank, if you combine that with his ability to quickly finish off monsters, it makes him a pretty luscious choice, especially in the pro scene. E will be much better in the bushes and will scale to the power of the ability, plus R will be much more effective as it is faster and more troublesome.
These changes will arrive on live servers with the release of patch 12.17, scheduled for Wednesday, September 8 according to Riot Games' official schedule.
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