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Riot posted the official Maokai ability list to the forums today, and he already sounds different than the PC Gamer exclusive. I’m glad to say that – his ult sounds much better and it’s very cool that his traps deal damage when they land in addition to their explosion effect on detonate.

Here’s the official list:

Arcane Smash: Maokai slams the ground, the force of which knocks nearby enemies back and sends an arcane shockwave forward damaging and slowing his enemies.

Twisted Advance: Maokai dissolves into a cloud of arcane energies. He regrows near a target enemy, dealing damage and rooting it in place.

Sapling Toss: Maokai hurls a sapling, dealing damage on impact. The sapling becomes implanted in the ground warding a nearby area. When enemies approach, the sapling attacks, exploding in an arcane blast that damages enemies.

Vengeful Maelstrom (Ultimate): Maokai shields his allies by drawing power from hostile spells and attacks, reducing non-tower damage done to allied champions in the area. Maokai can prolong the effect as long as he has mana to spend on it. When the effect ends, Maokai unleashes the absorbed energy to deal damage to enemies within the vortex.

Sap Magic (Passive): Each time a champion near Maokai casts a spell, he gains a charge of Magical Sap. When he has 5 charges, his next melee attack drains energy from his target, healing Maokai for a percentage of his maximum HP.

The fact that his ult deals damage in, at least from what I can see of the screenshots, a pretty decent radius makes this guy sound much better than he did yesterday. I also really like his art direction. I’m curious to see how the ground slam will play out. From the description it sounds as though it’s a close range knockback but a long range slow.

Be on the watch for him this coming Tuesday.