How to win lane as K'Sante against Maokai · 50.98% win rate over 512 Emerald+ games · Updated 2026-07-27
| Stage | Favoured | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Level 1 | Even / skill | Both of you are weak at Level 1 with no engage — you have only Q, he only saplings, so it's a farming stalemate. |
| Level 2 | Even / skill | He picks up W or Q knockback and you pick up W or E — both get safer, neither gets a kill threat, so it stays even. |
| Level 3 | K'Sante | Your full Q-W combo lands first: W-charge unstoppable through his root and Q3 knocks up an immobile Maokai who can't dash away. |
| Levels 4-5 | K'Sante | This is your tank lane-control peak — you trade on his Q-knockback cooldown and bank small leads his even trades can't match. |
| Level 6 | K'Sante | All Out converts you to a duelist who out-DPSes his passive sustain, and the recast pulls him out before saplings reset. |
| First item | Even / skill | First items even it back out — Iceborn keeps you durable but his sustain and W-root mean neither tank can close the 1v1. |
| Two+ items | Even / skill | Two armor-stackers stalemate: your R can't execute through his sustain and his root can't kill you, so the lead comes off the map. |
Two tanks farming — neither of you wins Level 1, so just hit your Q tip and stack passive marks on him. The thing to respect is his W: it's a targeted root-dash, and if it lands while you're mid Q-combo he pins you for his Q-knockback plus a sapling free-hit. Don't throw W into him at random — hold it until he commits, because your charged W is unstoppable and eats his root.
The full K'Sante 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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Playing the other side? Maokai vs K'Sante guide →
All K'Sante top lane matchups →