Maokai is not the tier list topper when it comes to ARAM, however, he is still a really strong and enjoyable pick. He can shove waves with Q, CC enemies with his W, damage enemies and give vision with his E, and most importantly, lock down the entire enemy team with his ultimate. To get the greatest efficiency with Maokai, today we are gonna take a peek at his greatest ARAM build.
Best Maokai Items
Blackfire Torch
Blackfire Torch is a great starting item for Maokai. It will give us the much needed early mana, as well as a host of other benefits. The key benefit would be it’s passive that burns enemies each time we damage them with an ability. The passive will be a really great addition to our E damage.
Liandry’s Torment
Another great AP item we will build on Maokai is the Liandry’s Torment. Much like Blackfire Torch, the item will also give us a burn on our abilities. Liandry’s will burn our enemies for 2% of their HP for 3 seconds. Since Maokai’s E gets procked multiple times, you can expect it to deal around 5% of enemy’s HP each time they get affected by the spell. This interaction between E and Liandry’s makes the item such a great purchase!
Spirit Visage
From the third item and on, we are gonna dial back on the AP items, and start building some tankier items instead. The first of the tank kind will be Spirit Visage. The item will enhance the healing we get from our kit and runes by 25%. It will also give us massive amounts of HP and magic resist, as well as some ability haste and basic health regen.
Thornmail
We will follow up the best magic resist item with the best armor item, Thornmail. This item has one of the best if not the best armor scaling in the game, and it will do more than enough to protect us against AD. It will also give us a really great passive that reflects back a percentage of damage dealt by enemies which also inflicts them with Grievous Wounds passive.
Jak’Sho the Protean
Now as with most tanky builds, we are gonna finish off our build with none other than Jak’Sho the Protean. The item will empower us with a mix of armor and magic resist, as well as a passive that will increase these stats the longer we are in combat.
Boots
The boots we can run on this Maokai ARAM build are either defensive boots or Sorcerer’s Shoes. Sorcerer’s Shoes are great for extra damage, while Plated Steelcaps and Mercury Treads will help us fend off AD and AP attackers respectively.
Runes for Maokai
- Grasp of Undying
- Font of Life
- Conditioning
- Overgrowth
- Triumph
- Legend: Haste
The keystone choice will rest at Grasp of Undying. The rune is great for dealing damage based on our HP, as well as getting some extra healing. Font of Life will also be used for healing, and it will proc when we impair an enemy.
We will also take Conditioning for bonus armor and MR, Overgrowth for extra max HP, Triumph for healing after scoring a takedown and Legend: Haste for overall cooldown reduction.
Final Thoughts
Maokai is a stable and extremely enjoyable ARAM pick. The most effective way to achieve victory with Maokai is to run a semi-AP, semi-tank build. This kind of build will grant us enough damage to bully enemies, as well as enough HP to create engages and win conditions for our team.