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Maokai vs Nasus
Top Lane MatchupMaokai vs Nasus TOP matchup tips: who wins, how to trade, wave control and common mistakes.
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Who Wins
- Pre-6 you win this lane clearly: your W root into E slow lets you dictate every trade, your passive heals off Nasus's Q and any spells he uses, and Nasus has no mobility or burst to punish you — level 3 is your first meaningful spike when you have all three abilities to chain a full trade pattern; post-6, your R reduces Nasus's damage by up to 20% in an area, which directly counters his R power spike and keeps you ahead in sustained fights.
How to Trade
- Your best trading pattern is to W him when he walks up to Q-stack a minion, immediately follow with E to slow his retreat, then auto-attack to stack your passive healing — this forces him to either burn his W (which does nothing offensively) or take the full trade on your terms; repeat this every time W is off cooldown and he will be perpetually low or forced to back, losing critical Q stacks.
Wave Control
- You want to consistently shove the wave into his tower using W and E to clear efficiently, then look for roams or reset to deny him the freeze he desperately needs — Nasus's entire gameplan depends on farming safely under pressure, so denying him a stable wave state by keeping it pushed starves him of stacks and forces him into uncomfortable positions; do not let him establish a freeze near his tower, as that is the one scenario where he stacks safely and you lose late game.
Mistakes to Avoid
- Do not stand in front of Nasus at levels 13–16 when he has 300+ Q stacks and his R active without your R up — even with your damage reduction, a fully stacked Nasus with R can kill you in a short window if you are not respecting his numbers, and many Maokai players get overconfident from winning early and walk into a death they could have avoided by simply waiting for their R cooldown.
Created on 09/07/2026
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