with a rylia's i found his ult to be brilliant, snare someone and punch him, drop your ult before they CC you, they start running and bam pop it to team slow them letting your other CC heroes catch up.

I'll probably throw this up on leaguecraft once they incorporate Maokai, but here's what I'm running:

Runes:
M: Magic Pen
S: Mana regen
G: CDR or AP (your choice)
Q: Health

I found that, being a support tank, you need a lot of mana and health. Combine that with some needed magic pen, and depending on your play-style, cooldown for more spamming or addition AP for harder hitting, you can hold a lane very well.

Masteries: 1-21-8
O: 01
D: 03030401240301
U: 00314

One point in Offense for improved Exhaust. Hitting all of the critical defensive stats, and boosting your Ghost and experience in Utility to help level faster and move quicker.

Summoner Spells:
ghost + exhaust

That's why we got the masteries we did!

Skilling order:
E, W, Q, E, E, R, then prioritize R > E > Q > W

Starting with saplings is a *must*. Already in 4 matches I've prevented a horrible clash in the bushes before the minions spawned because I was able to launch these little guys. And with no minions around, they'll chase after the champ guaranteed.

We get our next point in our root so we can help our lane mate safely damage an enemy, or, if an enemy is dumb enough to get too close to the tower, keep them there longer to take more damage. We'll ignore this for the most part until later in the game.

Our next point is in our Q. This gives us decent knockback, and is great for when you're being chased, or helping get enemies off a teammate.

At this point we have our combo. We root, then smash, then throw a sapling behind our enemy. After being rooted and knocked back, they'll run in the other direction, most likely right to the sapling for extra damage. I've gotten several kills early on this way.

After this, we prioritize our Ultimate (obviously), then our saplings for extra harass damage for the rest of the laning phase, followed by our smash to increase its damage output and assist in killing creep waves with our E, then our root.

Tank build:
Meki Pendant + HP
Regrowth Pendant
Tear of the Goddess
Boots of Speed
Warmog's
Upgrade boots: Merc Treads, Ionian Boots, Boots of Mobility, etc.
Randuin's or FoN (whichever is needed more against other team)
Archangel's Staff
Aegis
Randuin's or FoN (whichever you didn't already get) or Frozen Heart

If you are like me, you'll love throwing saplings all over the place during the laning phase. Mana regen is huge in helping to keep you in lane. Getting a Meki pendant won't solve the problem, but it'll help a lot until you get your Tear. The extra health pots will also help keep you in lane longer. I tend not to go back until I have enough to upgrade to a Tear, and also get a regrowth pendant and boots of speed. it is important to get the Tear quickly so we can take advantage of the additional mana we can acquire.

Warmog's is amazing on Maokai. With your smash and saplings, you can take down entire creep waves very easily. If you drop a sapling directly on the three mage minions, by lvl 3, it should explode killing them all instantly, and your smash should be able to take care of the melee minions in quick order. With Warmog's increasing your health, it helps with your passive which heals you for a %age of your max health. The more max health, the more healing.

Getting a Randuin's or a FoN helps keep you alive. Randuin's is great for the active, which will keep enemies in your ultimate a little longer in a team fight. The additonal movement speed and health regen of FoN is critical since you are pretty slow (even with lvl 2 boots).

Upgrade the Tear to an Archangel's staff. Now we're getting some additional AP to beef up our ultimate. Aegis is great for giving your team a little aura of happiness during team fights and in your ult.

The final item is really up in the air and depends on the situation. More defense if you need it (get a Randuin's or FoN - whichever you didn't get yet, or a Sunfire Cape so you can deal damage nearby and look like an awesome burning tree at the same time), or AP (Evil Tomb seems like a good item, or a Deathcap).

This is the build I have been going with thus far and have been doing fairly well with. I'm averaging 4 kills, 1-2 deaths, and 16+ assists a match. I'm also not very good, and not very aggressive, so results may vary.

Aggressive Build: (still toying with this, haven't actually tried it)
Sapphire Crystal + HP
Catalyst
Sorc Shoes
Rylai's
Rod of Ages or Banshee's (whichever is needed more)
Frozen Heart
Evil Tomb
Deathcap or defensive item

This focuses more on putting the damage down and less on survivability. You'll most likely want another tank on your team if you plan to go this route. We're looking to gain the health benefits from Rod of Ages and Rylai's, the extra mana from Rod of Ages and Frozen heart, the cooldown and the AoE slow of Frozen Heart (along with the slow from Rylai's when you attack), and the extra AP that comes along with all of the items.

tl;dr; - you're going to make everyone around you really slow and dish out damage, but you're not going to be as tanky as you could be, so make sure you have another tank (or pseudo-tank) on your team.

The ult hardly ever ends up working out as I think it was envisioned, and I use it more as a tool to prevent escape than anything else- if you cover mid with it, then any of the enemy stragglers you scare into it have about 200 more damage + excess to deal with. A nice root and it's over.

Besides that, though, his ult is by mana his worst skill- it costs a fair amount to keep up, it doesn't do nearly enough, and the enemy team will simply avoid it. The most fun I've had with it is against minion waves for pushing or defending towers (and yes, I know that tower damage procs nothing).

The sapling is great for AP jungling if you can get someone to cast 3 spells at fountain so your count is up. Get a smite on that and grab rally (for later game ults) and then go nuts on the jungle. You can really take off.

Hey guys

i just gamed maokai and found a build that seems to work pretty good went 14/6/23

my items were warmog's armor mercury's treads, randuin's omen, thornmail(depends on opponent maybe get some more magic resistance if alot of casters) banshee's veil and a force of nature

i started with a regrowth pendant which i builded into warmog's armor after i made mercury threads

then made force of nature followed by a banshee's veil and a randuin's omen finished off with a thornmail

plz comment if u got any ideas that would make it a better build maybe

I personally think just like any tank he doesn't have a specific build.

He is built around the enemy team. Personally I like having that one item (forgot name) that is built out of a philosopher's stone and gives a speed boost on active, the name eludes me right now -_-

Since it gives him a mini ghost + HP + regen for HP/MP

This is how I run with Mokai.. items only...

1. Dorans Shield # Helps you stay in the lane longer
2. Chalice # Mana and Mana Regen, helps you sustain longer laning and get more harasability
3. Merc Treads or at least Boots of Speed
4. Warmongers # I usually try and start with the giants belt
5. I usually then get a frozen heart at this point, start by getting your Glacial Shroud, then you have to wait until you have enough money to purchase your Frozen heart out right.
6. Lastly I get an AP Item, At this point it is probably okay to ditch your Doran's Shield and just built AP items. I like the RoA for this. Or you can get an AA (which I think people might like better as you get some extra AP out of it).

I play Mokai more as a tanky kinda champ. I find he has great staying power as long has your don't get to cocky early game and die. You should also be able to farm early without much worry because the enemie champs should not be able to kill you unless you're really complacent. If your not farming well, then I would suggest making sure you are jungling at some point to make up for the lose in gold. I have found that you can even solo dragon if need be.

On another note, I usually go with teleport and ghost as summoner skills. Mainly because I find it is very very important to get back to your lane. So I usually will not leave my lane unless I absolutely have to without having Teleport available. Ghost helps you get to an enemy who is running away and since your flash CC thingy has pretty good range it works to keep the enemy close to your teamates.

It's takes some practice to get laning down for Mokai I think, at least for me it did. If you don't push, and last hit only, as long as your close to your tower you should get at least one early game kill.

Also, one more thing, you should be using the saplings for keeping sight inside brushes. Especially if your attacking a tower, just drop one in the closest ganking brush to make sure you can get out safely if someone does try to attack you from behind.

I really am a noob (been playing for about 6-8 weeks, maining Ryze only) so any constructive criticism is welcome.