How to win the jungle race as Maokai against Nunu & Willump · Matchup data reviewed on patch 26.15
Read from Maokai's seat: the race windows this plan plays for against Nunu & Willump.
| Stage | Read | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Level 1 Clear | Maokai Favoured | Sapling Toss bush-bombs poke contests for free. Nunu & Willump can make it awkward — the Biggest Snowball Ever arrives as a knock-up gank, and Consume cheats every smite fight — but not before either of you has a second camp down. Trade, then walk away with a camp and a chunk of their health bar. |
| Level 2 Skirmish | Maokai Favoured | Twisted Advance root trades keep skirmishes on your schedule. The margin is thin: the snowball is gank pressure, not duel pressure, and one slow camp on your side hands the window straight back, so keep the trade short. Never let an objective reach smite range with him alive nearby — he duels poorly otherwise. |
| Level 3 Route | Maokai Favoured | Bramble Smash knock-back plus the W root is a solid pick kit, not a stat-check. Consume chunks monsters, not champions, so this is an edge and not a blowout — take the level-3 river fight only with the HP and cooldown lead. |
| Levels 4-5 Macro | Maokai Favoured — Take Duels | Through levels 4-5 you remain the stronger duelist — keep taking short, decisive trades vs Nunu & Willump, but only with the HP and cooldown lead. |
| Level 6 Breakpoint | Nature's Grasp Favoured | Nature's Grasp roots the whole river — objective fights start on your terms. Nunu & Willump's six is not empty — a fog-channeled ult chunks everyone holding the pit at once. Take the duel from even health rather than from behind, and keep interrupt CC ready — the channel cancels and refunds nothing. |
| First Item Spike | Sunfire Aegis Spike | Completing Sunfire Aegis gives you a constant area burn plus health, so camps melt while you stand in them and every extended fight with a brawler has free damage ticking on your side. Nunu & Willump's first item mostly buys durability and cooldowns, so his spike is objective control rather than damage. |
| 2+ Items Scaling | Maokai Favoured at Full Build | Full-build math leans your way: extended fights and side-lane duels favor you over Nunu & Willump — make late fights about 1v1s, not coin-flips. |
Start your clear at the Raptors or Wolves camp utilizing your stacked E saplings to maximize early AoE clear speed without a leash. Nunu & Willump clears fast with Consume and never drops below half health, so his early map presence is constant.
Ranked by the race windows in Maokai's plans — the jungle race carries no win-rate sample.
The full Maokai vs Nunu & Willump report continues with scuttle & dragon rules, invade windows and safety boundaries, the top-side objective fight, macro rotations and the win condition — plus the live enemy-jungle tracker that shows their start, clear and gank timers in game.
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Maokai's race plan controls 7 of the 7 windows — Maokai holds the tempo advantage in this jungle matchup.
Not exactly — Maokai's race plan controls 7 of the 7 windows, so Nunu & Willump is playing catch-up and has to lean on the map.
Playing the other side? Nunu & Willump vs Maokai guide →
All Maokai jungle matchups →
More Maokai jungle matchups: vs Naafiri · vs Nidalee · vs Nocturne · vs Olaf · vs Qiyana · vs Rammus