i'm no jungler but i feel like he might have trouble clearing if his babies are weaker?
No change, really. Level 1 saplings deal the same damage and you level that last. Q also does the same damage. %health damage on W doesn't warrant maxing it first. His mana sustain after first clear is a bit better. vs. Double Golems and Wight you can add W do your spell rotation for a good chunk of extra damage, which helps save some hp. He's still unable to just run around the jungle and stay there indefinitely the way Vi, Elise, etc. can which is really sad. Even other tank junglers can do this once they pick up spirit stone.
The changes with their current numbers won't do much to help, honestly. He's marginally better, but every buff came with a nerf on a champion who's needed straight up buffs since the beginning of season 3. I'm not convinced the increased damage and CD on Twisted Advance is worth its range nerf and the slow reduction on Q. His early ganks - the only thing he has presently going for him - got nerfed without much compensation. E mana cost reduction doesn't do much and 1s slow isn't much because it's only on the explosion which isn't hard to avoid. Damage reduction on E isn't a big deal because you level it last anyways. I guess saplings are *maybe* better for the rare support Maokai, but I doubt it.
I'm withholding final judgement until I see the "new" tank oriented jungle item. As of right now, I'm unimpressed. I don't see anything to suddenly make competitively viable. He'll be lucky to even squeak into the mid-tier.
Ferrio said:
Oh crap that ult change on mao is a huge one.
I comes with a price, like every other change he got. I couldn't put my finger on why it felt off on the PBE so I headed over to Live and saw it right away. Fairly sure, the radius has been reduced by quite a bit, though I should have snapped some pics. It's maybe 2x melee range or so right now. The fact that it follows you is a lateral change, not a buff. You used to be able to plant the field on your squishies while you dived in. Now you can't, for better or worse. Ultimately, the biggest problem with the ability is that it still drains mana like crazy and the mana reductions on Q and E aren't remotely enough. Maokai will still constantly run into the situation from levels 6-10 where he just won't have the mana available to use the ult in any meaningful way.
EDIT: Just took some screenshots for comparison. Radius on ult has definitely been nerfed by 25-33%.