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Nasus vs Maokai
Top Lane MatchupNasus vs Maokai TOP matchup tips: who wins, how to trade, wave control and common mistakes.
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Who Wins
- Pre-6, Maokai wins every extended trade due to his W root, E slow, and passive healing from your spells hitting him — you have no reliable way to disengage or punish him, and your only real option is to take short trades by Q-ing a minion and immediately backing off; post-6, your R gives you enough bulk and damage to survive longer trades, but Maokai's R still reduces your damage output significantly, so you never truly 'win' a 1v1 against him — you survive it.
How to Trade
- Your best pattern is to Q a minion near Maokai to proc your Q stack while taking minimal poke, and only auto-trade if he has already used his W, since his W root is the ability that locks you in place and lets him stack his passive healing; never commit to a full trade unless he has burned both W and E, as without those he is just a melee champion with mediocre auto damage.
Wave Control
- You want to freeze the wave as close to your tower as possible to deny Maokai easy poke access and to safely stack Q — Maokai has strong enough wave clear with W and E to shove you in if you let him, which denies you stacks and sets up jungle dives; do not let the wave bounce freely under his control, as he will use that pressure to zone you off minions entirely.
Mistakes to Avoid
- Do not walk up to stack Q when Maokai has his W available and you are not near a minion you can immediately Q — his W root into E slow into auto-passive healing cycle will chunk you for more than you expect, and repeatedly taking that trade will put you in a position where you cannot safely farm at all, which is the one thing that makes Nasus unplayable.
Created on 09/07/2026
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