How to win lane as Pantheon against Maokai · 49.91% win rate over 527 Emerald+ games · Updated 2026-07-27
| Stage | Favoured | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Level 1 | Pantheon | My W stun plus an auto is one of the strongest level-1 hits in the game — before he has saplings or root, I win the first trade outright. |
| Level 2 | Maokai | The moment he gets W root-dash and Q knockback he punishes my W-in, and his passive healing undoes any poke I land. |
| Level 3 | Maokai | With his full early kit his root-into-Q-knockback trade beats my squishy all-in, and saplings out-poke my Comet Spear. |
| Levels 4-5 | Maokai | His passive tree-sustain out-heals my empowered-Q poke through 4-5, so the lane stabilizes in his favor. |
| Level 6 | Even / skill | Grand Starfall is built for roams not a 1v1 tank kill, and his sustain holds the lane — it's genuinely even as I look to leave the lane. |
| First item | Maokai | My Eclipse/Dirk spike can't burst through his first tank item and passive healing, so he edges the duel. |
| Two+ items | Maokai | He becomes an unkillable frontline with W root and Q while my damage plateaus — he reclaims the lane decisively. |
Level 1 is the one window that's truly mine — my W stun plus an auto is one of the hardest level-1 hits in the game, so if he walks up for a cannon I vault him and win that exchange clean. But the second he gets his W root-dash and Q online, the lane flips: if he roots me with W, his Q knockback and a sapling free-trade me, and his passive tree-healing erases the poke I land. Don't greed a level-2/3 all-in into a tank with root and sustain — bank the level-1 edge and respect his combo.
The full Pantheon 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 Pantheon guide →
All Pantheon top lane matchups →