Original Post — Direct link

Today a set of Maokai changes appeared on the PBE, below is a complete changelist. I have not seen any Rioter talk about these so keep in mind that they are possibly not final. The current PBE tooltips are also attached below. Special thanks to u/FrankTheBoxMonster for compiling the changelist so quickly.

Passive

  • jungle monster attacks hitting Maokai now reduce the heal cooldown by 1s
  • possibly a scrapped mechanic for dealing bonus damage too? client tooltip mentions it, in-game tooltip refers to "both" cooldowns, but functionality unchanged
  • tooltip no longer mentions that it won't be consumed at full health, functionality unchanged, might be a relic of the scrapped bonus damage

Q

  • base damage: 70-230 --> 65-245
  • now deals an extra 2%-3% max health damage
  • new data value "NonChampMax": 9999 (effectively uncapped besides epics? Might be placeholder amount for later tuning)
  • now also deals 20-80 bonus damage to monsters

W

  • no changes?

E

  • base damage:
    • default: 20-120 --> 45-185
    • brush: 40-240 --> 75-315
  • no longer deals extra percent health damage, instead scales with AP and Maokai's max health as flat damage
    • default: (7%-8% +0.7% per 100 AP) target's max health --> 40% AP flat +3% Maokai's max health
    • brush: (14%-16% +1.4% per 100 AP) target's max health --> 70% AP flat +6% Maokai's max health
  • slow:
    • default: 35% --> 45%
    • brush hits: same as default --> now increase the slow to 55%
  • hitting an enemy champion or epic monster reduces passive cooldown by 4s (once per cast)
  • brush hits no longer apply on minions (unsure if they can still block the sappling though)
  • mana cost: 60-100 --> 45-85

R

  • hitting a champion now gives 40-60% haste decaying over 2s (unsure if this can happen multiple times per cast)
  • missile speed: 50 +200/s, maximum speed 600 after 2.75s --> 100 +300/s, maximum speed 750 after 2.17 seconds
  • missile hitbox: 120 half-width --> 85 half-width (unsure if spawn pattern was changed)

Screenshots of the ability tooltips:

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/969264440602132491/1012070765732044830/unknown.png

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/969264440602132491/1012070766117928981/unknown.png

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/969264440602132491/1012070766432497715/unknown.png

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/969264440602132491/1012070766784807042/unknown.png

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/969264440602132491/1012070767095205968/unknown.png


Edit: Official changelist on twitter: https://twitter.com/RiotAugust/status/1562526496681369601


What are your thoughts about these?

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over 2 years ago - /u/RiotRayYonggi - Direct link

Still going through active tuning but direction is correct; should add some consistency to his spell casts and shift some power back into Top+Jungle without sacrificing the support players

over 2 years ago - /u/RiotRayYonggi - Direct link

Originally posted by moody_P

I'm curious what your criteria is for allowing flex picks vs discouraging them like with say sylas jungle. Maokai being potentially a 3 way flex if these changes go through will be fine? If it ends up being an issue later what role would you take him out of?

It's almost always around pro play dominance. Sylas is very quickly in 100% p/b if he can be flexed out of bad matchups to the jungle.

over 2 years ago - /u/RiotRayYonggi - Direct link

Originally posted by ShiznazTM

So glad you guys are finally taking time to look at the tree.

Have you considered giving him additional jungle monster damage as well if these changes don't speed his clear up enough? Maybe that will be irrelevant with preseason though.

His Q has bonus monster damage now which we can/will tune to get the clear speeds we want

over 2 years ago - /u/RiotRayYonggi - Direct link

Originally posted by T51bwinterized

Okay, but what's keeping him out of top lane is his bad waveclear and mana issues. Does this do much to address those problems?

His waveclear isn't actually bad compared to most toplaners, but agreed on the mana front. We believe he can be a viable toplaner opting into mana starting item and/or runes like PoM

over 2 years ago - /u/RiotRayYonggi - Direct link

Originally posted by HalfAssResponse

the support maokai is just a most recent fad that never really got popular aside from select regions and miniscule playerbase, why cling onto it instead of fully satisfying his og playerbase? making a champion a three way flex is never a good idea for pro especially since mao supp was seeing play here in korea

Maokai support has been pretty popular for years, if we can avoid telling those players they can't play their tree in support we would like to.

over 2 years ago - /u/RiotRayYonggi - Direct link

Originally posted by moody_P

any chance of nautilus jungle/top being revisited in a similar vein? it's been a lot longer since he was made exclusive in supp but I'm sure theres more boomers than me who'd like to play him in a solo role again

I can't speak to what other champions we are/aren't working on, but we are definitely aware of a number of other champions (including Nautilus) that have similar identity issues to Maokai/Swain over time and could use a touch-up.