Maokai

Immobilizing enemies is what Maokai does best. This resilient tank alternates between top lane and support, and he brings the same toolkit to both: sustain-heavy laning, stacked crowd control, and one of the widest area-denial ultimates available.

Sap Magic keeps him alive through extended lane phases. A basic attack empowers into a heal, and its cooldown drops each time he casts a spell or takes one, so every exchange speeds up his recovery. Sapling Toss handles zoning and vision: the saplings it launches guard an area and hit harder when planted in brush, which is why Maokai supports are so often in charge of river and dragon-pit vision. Bramble Smash delivers a knockback and slow for close fights and protecting carries. Twisted Advance turns him into untargetable roots that lunge toward a target and root it upon arrival, making it his main engage and gank-setup tool.

The advancing wall

Nature’s Grasp conjures a huge bramble wall that slowly moves forward, dealing damage and rooting anything it reaches. Placed into a chokepoint or over a wall, it can lock down a whole team or cut a fight in two, and it serves equally well for starting or ending a skirmish. The downsides are weak damage without items and a dependence on hitting his root through minions. Maokai suits players who like flexible, utility-focused tanking: enabling kills for teammates and holding objectives rather than winning through raw output.