Maokai
Matchup Summary
Maokai is a very easy and free match up for Renekton, as his weak laning and tanking ability lets him down throughout the match up. As Renekton we can utilise runes such as Conqueror, and items such as Black Cleaver and Blade of the Ruined King to easily deal with his HP and armour stacking build. Renekton will typically always dominate Maokai super easily with R up, however Maokai's main strength relies within his teamfigthing and heavy CC prowess, making him a threat if not taken seriously. As long as you don't coinflip 1v3 or 4 fights into his CC and play consistent with your teammates and side lane pressure, Maokai can't really do anything.
Detailed Tips
- 01
Level 1 Q Start - Level 1 Q start allows you to poke Maokai within the wave, allowing you to secure level 2 priority, as well as allowing you to abuse Conqueror and your auto attacks and Q to force him low off the wave. By level 2, you can typically kill him if he’s low enough from punishing his weak start.
- 02
Play For Level 2/3 Kill Angle - Once you chunk out Maokai you're most likely able to kill him with your W, Dash or Flash up. Look to shove the wave around your kill timer, so you're able to make Maokai lose a lot more.
- 03
Respect Maokai’s Q - Maokai’s Q is the only tool that can really help him within the match up, as he can use it to cancel your E if you mistime your dash, or use it to help him space away from you if you walk up to him. When playing against Maokai, whenever he uses his Q on the minions or fails the Q knock back, you’re able to utilise a heavy combo onto him, forcing him in a terrible situation. When you’re comboing against Maokai, try to always stay in front of him, to avoid being knocked back towards your side of the map. If Maokai is unable to keep you off of him, he is typically a free kill most of the time.
- 04
Respect Saplings - Saplings aren’t really that problematic since his E and item nerfs, however it should be said that if he is strong on a patch, try to always avoid directly walking into the bushes. You can walk towards a bush to bait a sapling, allowing you to walk out of range if you have the movement speed or dashes to waste his sapling. Removing his saplings can be important to remove his gank protection within the top lane, so make sure to check the bush before your jungler walks towards it.
- 05
Play Waves Accordingly - Simply assess whether or not you want to play for freeze, to help you deny XP and CS, while presenting yourself more opportunities to create fights. Or, play to shove waves to create proxy angles, tempo resets or create a dive opportunity. Renekton has all the cards to do whatever he wants with wave management. Also respect that if your laner tries to proxy, simply proxy back or coordinate a kill on them with your jungler.
- 06
Abuse Renekton's Early Game - In this match up Renekton is essentially able to do whatever he simply wants. With that said, really hone into your strong early to mid game strengths to help you dominate and win the game. Play to deny your enemy of gold and xp, play to proxy and generally lead any top side skirmishes with your insane lane advantage.
- 07
Heavy Trades - Being that Renekton carries a lot of high damage, Renekton is able to just jump on his target nearly at will. Whenever your laners present you with the ability to jump on them, simply take the opportunity to burst them as much as you can. If you didn't kill them already from that, use your options of freezing or your tower diving ability to help you finish off your opponent.
- 08
Abuse Renekton's R Powerspike - Once you reach level 6 your ultimate will essentially help you consistently stat check and dominate any match ups you were winning or losing. Make sure to always wait for your R CD to help you make plays, otherwise it will lead you towards a major disadvantage in dueling your enemies.
- 09
Respect Maokai’s R - Maokai is a very free match up, however his R can be a great tool to help catch you or your teammates out, making it a very threatening ability. Against Maokai R, you can typically try to use your dash to dash off your minions, monsters or enemies to help you escape his R range. Escaping his R disallows him to apply his heavy CC kit, removing the only main danger of his kit. Do note that Maokai ult stuns longer the longer it travels, so if you’re on top of the starting position of his R, you will break out a lot faster, allowing you to tank it then use your dashes to escape bad situations.
- 10
Build Eclipse, Black Cleaver or BoTRK - Go Eclipse for consistent power through mid game and damage mitigation with the shield. / Go Black Cleaver for additional CDR and other versatile stats for utility based gameplay. / Go BoTRK to one shot and snowball with a damage focused build.
- 11
Mid Game + Teamfighting Tips - Maokai’s only hope against Renekton, is trying to utilise his heavy CC kit in being able to set up plays for his teammates, while trying to hard CC any of your carries from being able to play teamfights. Typically against Maokai, the main thing we should do is try to jump on his own carries and try to one shot them. Maokai cannot go alone and engage on your team without his carries damage, otherwise he will be isolated and most likely shredded against the right comp and itemisation from your team. With that said, typically the win condition is just to try and remove as many of his carries as fast as possible. If he tries to focus and lock you down, ensure that your team is in position to help fight back, allowing you to use your defensive stats to help soak up any incoming damage and win the fight. Within the mid game, make sure your team isn’t also walking alone into the fog of war, as Maokai will try to get his engages using that to his advantage.