How to win the jungle race as Maokai against Zac · Matchup data reviewed on patch 26.15
Read from Maokai's seat: the race windows this plan plays for against Zac.
| Stage | Read | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Level 1 Clear | Maokai Favoured | Sapling Toss bush-bombs poke contests for free. Blob sustain keeps their clear healthy, but champion trades are losers, so this is an edge and not a blowout — take the level-1 crossing only with the HP and cooldown lead. |
| Level 2 Skirmish | Maokai Favoured | Twisted Advance root trades keep skirmishes on your schedule, but Elastic Slingshot is for ganks. You still win the straight exchange on the second camp; keep it short, keep it decisive, and keep the scuttle line yours. |
| Level 3 Route | Maokai Favoured | Bramble Smash knock-back plus the W root is a solid pick kit, not a stat-check. Zac can make it awkward — a fog-charged Elastic Slingshot knock-up opens a gank-grade engage onto you — but not as the first scuttle timer lands. Trade, then walk away with the first scuttle and the gank window behind it. |
| Levels 4-5 Macro | Maokai Favoured — Take Duels | You hold the edge at 4-5, not a blowout. He charges Elastic Slingshot from fog through 4-5 and is more dangerous off your screen than on it, so meet them where the camps are, not where their laners are. |
| Level 6 Breakpoint | Even Ult Window | Neither ultimate cleanly beats the other — the fog Slingshot into Let's Bounce! keeps your whole side airborne, but Nature's Grasp roots the whole river — objective fights start on your terms. The breakpoint goes to whoever reaches it first with an objective on the map. |
| 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. Zac's first item is a durability spike, so he does not start killing you — he starts surviving whatever you send. |
| 2+ Items Scaling | Respect Zac Late — End Early | The full-build comparison goes to Zac: he is a fog engage with two health bars, so the first kill is only temporary. Play for picks and objectives, and end before the fight has to be fair. |
Start your clear at the Raptors or Wolves camp utilizing your stacked E saplings to maximize early AoE clear speed without a leash. Zac clears steadily with blob sustain and Unstable Matter, and he never has to recall for health before six.
Ranked by the race windows in Maokai's plans — the jungle race carries no win-rate sample.
The full Maokai vs Zac 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 5 of the 7 windows — Maokai holds the tempo advantage in this jungle matchup.
Not exactly — Maokai's race plan controls 5 of the 7 windows, so Zac is playing catch-up and has to lean on the map.
Playing the other side? Zac vs Maokai guide →
All Maokai jungle matchups →
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