How to win lane as Nasus against Maokai · 49.83% win rate over 291 Emerald+ games · Updated 2026-07-27
| Stage | Favoured | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Level 1 | Even / skill | You're both weak level 1 — he has no sapling pressure yet and you just soak Q farm, so neither of you owns it. |
| Level 2 | Maokai | His Level 2 saplings out-poke you and you have no Wither to punish his W-root step-up. |
| Level 3 | Maokai | Maokai's W-root into Q-knockback bullies your last-hitting and you can't trade back without stacks. |
| Levels 4-5 | Maokai | He shoves you off Spirit Fire farm and his passive sustain heals through your only ranged poke. |
| Level 6 | Even / skill | Fury of the Sands plus Wither lets you survive his root all-in and contest — it's a coin-flip on who commits. |
| First item | Even / skill | Your Sheen-empowered Q starts to bite his HP bar but his tank items and saplings still trade you even. |
| Two+ items | Nasus | Your stacks plus ult plus Wither shred his tank HP through Spirit Fire's armor reduction — he has no true damage to answer your scaling. |
Maokai owns the first few levels here — his saplings chip you while you're trying to last-hit with Siphoning Strike, and his W-root dash into Q-knockback punishes any greedy step-up before you have Wither. Don't trade autos into him; just soak Q farm and let Soul Eater lifesteal heal the sapling poke. You have no ult and barely any stacks, so there's nothing to win — eat the lane and stack.
The full Nasus 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 Nasus guide →
All Nasus top lane matchups →