How to win lane as Maokai against Cassiopeia · 48.84% win rate over 43 Emerald+ games · Updated 2026-07-27
| Stage | Favoured | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Level 1 | Even / skill | You have one ability and no combo at Level 1, but she has only a single poison tick too — last-hit at range, don't eat free Q (Noxious Blast), and set up your level-2 spike. |
| Level 2 | Cassiopeia | She gets her W (Miasma) grounding online and can drop it on your W (Twisted Advance) dash to cancel your only engage and start stacking poison. |
| Level 3 | Cassiopeia | Her Q+W poison now out-ticks your Sap Magic heal across a full trade, so a clean W-root all-in no longer comes out ahead. |
| Levels 4-5 | Cassiopeia | Repeated poke means her stacked poison damage beats your Passive sustain over the 4-5 window — every trade leaves you lower than her. |
| Level 6 | Cassiopeia | Her R (Petrifying Gaze) face-stun stops your W-in cold, stunning you mid-engage and letting her kite the reset — your 6 doesn't answer hers. |
| First item | Cassiopeia | Her first item (Liandry's/Malignance) plus boots-free move speed lets her stack poison faster than you heal and kite your step-up. |
| Two+ items | Cassiopeia | Two items in she out-DPSes your full HP bar through your resistances and kites forever — you're a teamfight engage tool, not a duelist. |
Levels 1-3 are your only real window, and even that is thin against her. At 2 your W (Twisted Advance) root into Q (Bramble Smash) is a hard trade she cannot match in melee, so step up the instant she walks forward to last-hit and proc Sap Magic off the all-in to heal the chip back. Do not face-tank her Q (Noxious Blast) poke for free — and watch her W (Miasma): if she drops that ground on you mid-dash it grounds you and cancels your W, so bait it or E (Sapling Toss) the spot first.
The full Maokai vs Cassiopeia 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? Cassiopeia vs Maokai guide →
All Maokai top lane matchups →