Maokai with Bard
How to Synergize Maokai and Bard
based on 1,197 Maokai with Bard pairsHow We Analyze Champion Pairings in LoL
Maokai Bard Synergy Summary
Best Maokai vs Bard Counter Build
Items
Starter Items
Early Items
Core Maokai Items
Optional Items
Summoner Spells
Skill Order
Runes
Guide to Synergizing Maokai and Bard
Tips for Playing as Maokai with Bard
Maokai's passive makes him extremely durable against focus fire from spells - so long as he can still basic attack something.
Try looking for flanks or other situations where Nature's Grasp is unavoidable or takes enemies by surprise.
Saplings can be tossed into brush for empowered effect - but don't stack well.
Advice to Understand How Bard Will Play
Don't forget that enemies can also use your Magical Journey doorways, and that your ultimate can also hit your allies!
Let your Caretaker's Shrines charge up - they heal for a lot more when at full power.
It's important to collect chimes to improve your meep's attacks, but don't neglect your lane partner! Try to make a big entrance by bringing an ally into the lane with you with Magical Journey.
Maokai Bard Synergy Stats
How to Play with Bard as Maokai in LoL
The Maokai Bard synergy stats shown here demonstrate the areas of his gameplay that do better (or worse) when paired with Bard, compared to his overall stats. Significant differences are areas of focus that highlight how his gameplay changes when paired with this other champion.
Overall, Maokai sees a large worsening in his KDA (ratio of kills and assists to deaths) when paired with Bard. His KDA fell from NaN to NaN. This negative change shows that Bard helps Maokai perform poorer in competitive LoL games. Yet, the small difference proves that this performance change is only marginal.
When Maokai is paired with Bard, he gets a massive increase in his total damage dealt. This change may demonstrate that Bard supports by providing protection for him to deal more damage or that his presence also helps extend the round's duration. Similarly, when Maokai is played with Bard on the same team, he usually scores many fewer killing sprees compared to when he plays on his own. This is contrasting evidence that he is worse when playing alongside Bard.
Additionally, when Maokai plays with Bard on the same side, he usually receives much more damage than when he plays alone. Receiving more damage may indicate that Bard does a poor job of covering Maokai during teamfights.
Synergies between Maokai and Bard
Damage Types Compared
Champion Playstyles Contrasted
Is Maokai better when played alongside Bard?
There is no ideal companion for Maokai that will always be his #1 teammate. However, overall, Bard is a very typical ally for Maokai. By being on the same side as Maokai, he lowers their win rate by -0.6% to 52.0%. This proves that there is a weak strategic relationship between Maokai and Bard that allows them to perform worse together than without each other.
Bard has a much greater difficulty compared to Maokai. That means you need to be very careful when arranging Bard teammates to go into battle on the same side as, as they will need a much greater level of skill to be able to fight well with you.
Fighting cooperatively, Maokai players should see an overall large increase in your team’s ability to provide utility and CC for your side. Together, these two should be able to manipulate the pace of team fights.
In contrast, by aligning Maokai and Bard together, you will not be giving your other allies a great deal of sustained damage output. We recommend you bring other champions on your team that offsets this disparity in this pairing's playstyle.
Regardless of your Bard ally's ability, you need to focus on increasing your gold income, staying alive by avoiding foolish fights, and taking down objectives. If you follow these simple suggestions, you should do well anyway.
Other Champion Matchups Against Maokai
Other Top Synergies by Role
Additional Information for Maokai Players
How We Calculated Our Maokai Bard Synergy Build and Stats
Other Useful Resources
Further Insights to Win with this Champion Pairing
To truly master Maokai in order to work well with Bard during both the early game and mid / late game phases of League of Legends games, you should continue reading to master additional tricks and insights into this champion pairing. If you pay attention to the build and stats shown here, you will grow your win rate significantly.
The most important finished items to get in your Maokai and Bard synergy build include Thornmail, Hollow Radiance, and Jak'Sho, The Protean. When Maokai included at least these three items in his build, he performed a lot better as an ally of Bard than with most other typical item sets. In fact, Maokai boasted an average winrate of 52.0% when synergizing his build and playstyle to Bard with these items in his kit.
To have the greatest probability of crushing your oponents, Maokai players should take the Phase Rush, Nimbus Cloak, Transcendence, Waterwalking, Cheap Shot, and Treasure Hunter runes from the Sorcery and Domination rune sets. Out of all the runes that we analyzed for Maokai and Bard pairings, this order of runes resulted in the top win rate. In fact, these runes provided a 52.0% win rate overall.
If you need to see Maokai with Bard collaboration tips and builds for a an individual division, feel free to choose one from the selection menu above. By default, the statistics and strategies given are computed using all rounds with data with both champs.