How to win lane as Maokai against Bard · 57.22% win rate over 1,405 Emerald+ games · Updated 2026-07-27
| Stage | Favoured | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Level 1 | Even / skill | Level 1 is even: your guaranteed short root versus his long conditional stun. |
| Level 2 | Even / skill | Level 2 stays a skill check on who lands CC first. |
| Level 3 | Maokai | At level 3 your reliable engage beats his skillshot-dependent poke. |
| Levels 4-5 | Maokai | At 4-5 you punish his roams and dive his ADC 2v1. |
| Level 6 | Maokai | Level 6 favours you as Nature's Grasp is unavoidable and forces the fight. |
| First item | Even / skill | First item evens out as Bard's Meeps and chime scaling grant roam power. |
| Two+ items | Maokai | With 2+ items your W-R lockdown is more consistent than his skillshot stun. |
Levels 1-2 are a skill matchup: your W-Q is a guaranteed root but short-ranged, while Bard's Cosmic Binding is long but needs terrain or a second unit to stun. Neither of you dominates; punish his misses and dodge the Q angle by standing off walls with your ADC.
The full Maokai vs Bard report continues with the mid-game plan, the late-game and teamfight plan, every power spike to play around, and the win conditions for both sides — plus cooldown tracking and the live enemy-jungle tracker inside the app.
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Playing the other side? Bard vs Maokai guide →
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