If there’s been any one champion that has dominated solo queue in League of Legends since the start of season 14, it’s been Maokai.
The Twisted Treant has been at the forefront of the meta for a few months now, especially at the support position, where he’s been posting one of the game’s highest win rates throughout the first four patches of the new year. In Patch 14.4, Maokai support was the best champion at any position in the game, with his win rate eclipsing a mark of 54, according to LoL stats site U.gg. But in Patch 14.5, Riot took reactive countermeasures to knock Maokai down the leaderboards, including direct nerfs to some of his reliable engagement tools, as well as his most-purchased item.
Although the sample size still needs to be a bit bigger for us to make a real determination on the effectiveness of these nerfs, it’s safe to predict that Maokai might not be as strong as he had been in impervious patches.
Here’s everything Riot is doing in Patch 14.5 to make sure that Maokai’s reign of dominance in the support position (and Summoner’s Rift as a whole) slows down a bit soon.
Direct nerfs to Maokai could knock him down
The biggest nerfs to Maokai directly came in the form of his ability to approach enemy champions and gap-close via his innate movement speed and most reliable fight-starting ability, Twisted Advance (W). Twisted Advance is easily one of the most reliable engage tools in the game as the untargetability that’s attached to the spell makes Maokai extremely slippery for a tank.
With that in mind, Riot nerfed Maokai’s base movement speed and also increased the cooldown of Twisted Advance, making the champion less of a threat to chase down enemies and consistently close the gap.
All Maokai nerfs in LoL Patch 14.5
- Base movement speed decreased from 335 to 330.
- Twisted Advance cooldown increased by one second at all ranks (now a 10-second cooldown at max rank).
To further incentivize not playing Maokai in the support role, where he’s been extremely dominant as of late, Riot buffed the champion’s Bramble Smash (Q), giving it extra early-game bonus damage to monsters in the early-game. While jungle is definitely an off-role for the champion, it’s not the wildest occurrence to see him played there, and this change could diversify the positions where you see him on the Rift.
Hitting Maokai’s strongest item where it hurts
In addition to direct nerfs to his kit, Maokai should also feel the effects of nerfs to his best item, Solstice Sleigh. The tank support item has been the best option in the game for Maokai (and other similar engage tank supports) as of late “by a wide margin,” according to Riot, but the devs put measures in place to make the item less desirable for champions like Maokai. In Patch 14.5, Solstice Sleigh received targeted nerfs to its cooldown, bonus movement speed granted, and HP bonuses.
Solstice Sleigh nerfs in LoL Patch 14.5
- Cooldown of item increased by 10 seconds.
- Now grants between 50-230 HP based on level instead of seven percent extra bonus health
- Bonus movement speed decreased from 30 percent to 25 percent.
Not only was Solstice Sleigh nerfed, but Celestial Opposition received buffs to its shockwave effect, which now slows enemy champions for longer and by 10 percent more.
Early returns show Maokai slowing down in LoL Patch 14.5
Just a few days into the Patch 14.5 cycle, Maokai’s win rate has dropped from its former high point. Now, the champion has a win rate just over 51 percent in Platinum Elo and above at the support position, according to U.gg. While that’s still inarguably good, the dropoff from where that number was pre-patch is a sign that the nerfs are trending in the right direction. We expect Maokai’s win rate to continue to smoothen out as Patch 14.5 rages on.
