In case you’ve queued up for any League of Legends solo queue within the final two months, there’s an excellent likelihood you’ve performed with, or in opposition to, Maokai in practically each single recreation. The twisted treant has been dominating the meta, notably as a help choose, all of Season 14 so far. Riot pushed nerfs for the tree in patch 14.3, after which once more in 14.4, however to no avail. As Maokai continues to sprout free LP like tree saplings, Riot has revealed for a 3rd straight patch they’ll be making an attempt to do some lumberjack work and firming down Maokai as soon as and for all.
When League of Legends Season 14 launched, gamers scrambled to know all the brand new objects and map adjustments that got here with the brand new season. Almost all the objects have been utterly reworked, notably for the help position, as all champions have been funneled into shopping for the brand new and extremely highly effective World Atlas.
With the World Atlas, help gamers have the potential to evolve the merchandise right into a handful of various choices with critically game-impacting particular talents. Considered one of these things within the in style MOBA is Solstice Sleigh, a tank-support merchandise that heals a proportion of a champion’s well being when slowing or immobilizing an enemy champion, in addition to granting a burst of motion velocity. Maokai synergizes the merchandise with fellow newcomer Trailblazer, which has the distinctive impact of leaving a path behind your champion to provide allies 15% of your motion velocity. As Maokai zips across the map and roots enemies, his teammates can fly throughout Summoner’s Rift simply behind him.
His win price for help champions has been the very best within the recreation all season lengthy. Even after nerfs in patch 14.3, he remained on the prime of the meta. Now, Riot devs tease that 14.5 will try and decrease his effectiveness as a help as soon as once more whereas shifting him again to the jungle.
League’s lead gameplay developer Matt Leung-Harrison, AKA Riot Phroxzon, shared a preview of patch 14.5 which confirmed the precise adjustments to Maokai within the upcoming patch: Motion velocity decreased from 335 to 330, Bramble Smash (Q) bonus monster injury elevated from 80 – 160 to 120 – 160, and Twisted Superior (W) cooldown elevated from 13 – 9 seconds to 14 – 10.
Moreover, Solstice Sleigh is getting nerfed as effectively, because the merchandise’s cooldown goes from 30 to twenty seconds, well being healed adjustments from 7% to flat quantities of 50-230 (ranges 6-18), and the motion velocity goes from 30% all the way down to 25%.
The focused nerf to Maokai’s spells, coupled with the nerfs to the help merchandise, might lastly spell doom for the bot laner.
In case you’re searching for a substitute for taking part in Maokai, be certain to check out our LoL tier checklist. Moreover, we’ve damaged down all of the LoL ranks.
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