How to win lane as Graves against Maokai · 54.44% win rate (270 Emerald+ games, lolalytics, sampled July 2026) · Matchup data reviewed on patch 26.15
He stacks exactly the stat that blanks you — chip early, then stop donating shells to armor.
Track: Maokai's W — Twisted Advance (14–10s cooldown). Point-and-click root — count its cooldown before stepping up.
Read from Graves's seat: which stage windows this plan plays for against Maokai.
This is Graves's own plan; across 270 pooled games the lane is leaning Graves.
| Stage | Favoured | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Level 1 | Maokai | Maokai's saplings ward the bush and chip you with magic damage while you have one magazine, no E charges, and no clean way into point-blank range. |
| Level 2 | Maokai | His sapling chip plus passive regen out-trades your single magazine, and Twisted Advance threatens a root-dash all-in before your E charges come online. |
| Level 3 | Even / skill | Your full Q-E-W kit comes online — E in, smoke for the slow, End of the Line point-blank — making this your genuine swing window rather than a loss. |
| Levels 4-5 | Even / skill | Levels 4-5 trade roughly even: your E charges and magazine reset answer his saplings, and his passive regen answers your shells, so neither side runs away with it. |
| Level 6 | Even / skill | Collateral Damage and your Dirk/Eclipse spike give you the cleanest kill attempt of the lane, but his sustain keeps even this a skill check that often slips away. |
| First item | Maokai | Past first item his passive regen and sapling sustain start outlasting your burst, and his Twisted Advance root locks you in melee where you can't reposition. |
| Two+ items | Maokai | Full-tank Maokai out-sustains your shell DPS with passive regen — and every spell of yours that strikes him shortens that heal's cooldown, so hurt him with pellets, never with poke. |
Maokai owns the first two levels — his saplings ward the lane and chip you for free magic damage, and you have no E charges yet to weave into your point-blank shell spread without eating a Bramble Smash knockback. Don't walk into a sapling field to last-hit; eat a little CS loss instead. Your one real swing is Level 3: E in, drop W on him for the impact slow, unload point-blank, then dash out before his passive regen erases the chunk. Respect Twisted Advance — he is untargetable through the dash, and once the root lands no amount of True Grit peels you off a tank.
Pooled Emerald+ win rates from Graves's side, sampled July 2026.
The full Graves vs Maokai 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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Graves, slightly — a 54.44% win rate edge over 270 games; execution can flip it.
Mostly — Graves has a small statistical edge (54.44% win rate), but execution decides this lane far more than the pick does.
Not a hard counter — Graves has a slight edge (54.44% win rate), and play quality decides the rest.
Graves takes Fleet Footwork on the Precision tree with Triumph, Legend: Alacrity and Coup de Grace, and Resolve secondary (Second Wind and Bone Plating) vs Maokai.
Start Doran's Blade + 1 Health Potion and back for Executioner's Calling (≈800g) — cuts his healing. Build Eclipse / Hubris first, then The Collector, with Mercury's Treads.
Playing the other side? Maokai vs Graves guide →
All Graves top lane matchups →
More Graves top lane matchups: vs Locke · vs Lucian · vs Malphite · vs Master Yi · vs Mel · vs Mordekaiser