Overview

Maeve is a ranged Flank Champion that utilises eye-watering mobility and her trusty daggers to quickly burst enemy players down. In a similar vein to Evie, she is capable of travelling incredibly quickly and is easily capable of reaching difficult locations in a matter of seconds. Her ability to double jump, dash and increase her movement speed by 80% ensures she's incredibly difficult to pin down.

While she might be mobile, Maeve is more than capable of shutting down lone players quickly. Her daggers, which she throws from afar deal huge damage, while she can also deal instant burst damage by pouncing into players. Worse still, she can also reset the cooldowns on her two mobility skills, making her even moe slippery. Unsurprisingly Maeve is incredibly difficult to deal with and if she manages her cooldowns effectively, she can comfortably evade death. 

Despite that, she remains vulnerable to crowd control with slows, fear or high doses of area of effect damage ensuring she can be killed. 

Updated: 13 March 2017

Pros

Cons

Incredible amounts of mobility

Can die very quickly if she miss-manages her skills and their cooldowns

High damage from her Daggers + Pounce

Has to be relatively close range to be effective

She can double jump by default

Nerfed heavily already

Her Ultimate is a large AOE blind that prevents all those caught in it from seeing anything

Weak against ranged heavy compositions

Can reset her cooldowns and heal herself

Vulnerable on enclosed maps

Skills

 

Daggers (LMB) - Firing two individual daggers at a fast speed, Maeve's primary means of attack is interesting because it doesn't have a reload or ammo. This puts her at a significant advantage over many Champions as it allows her to be somewhat dagger-happy with attacking the opposition. It also should be noted that each dagger deals half the 450 damage so ideally, you want to be landing both. From testing there also doesn't appear to be any significant fall-off damage, so don't be afraid to poke with them. 

 

Pounce (RMB) - Acting as a mini-teleport, Pounce can be used offensively to instantly strike an enemy for 500 damage but it can also be used to escape. When combined with your double jump you can often quickly leap up and dart ahead to reach a ledge or to evade an attack. Be aware however that with an 8 second cooldown it's a skill you can't afford to waste, even with your ability to reset its cooldown.

 

Nine Lives (Q) - Nine Lives is all about resetting the cooldowns on her Pounce and Prowl. Instantly granting her the opportunity to use them both again. In a pinch this allows her to double strike someone with Pounce (for an instant 1000 damage) or to use a combination of Prowl > Pounce > Nine Lives > Prowl for a ridiculous amount of mobility. 

 

Prowl (F) - As her signature skill that offers her so much mobility, Prowl allows Maeve to move 65% quicker and jump higher for 4 seconds. It's only used an escape ability however as any action outside of movement will cancel the effect. Despite that, it's incredible for positioning, escaping or reaching the back line quickly. Just be aware it has a fairly lengthy cooldown. 

 

Midnight (E) - Providing a wide area blind, Midnight is an incredibly powerful Ultimate. Casting out from her location, anyone in its radius has their vision massively reduced (the screen literally goes black). If you can, try to drop it against as many players as possible, preferrably when they're on a Control Point. 

Legendary Card

Rogue's Gambit is amazing for Maeve as it allows her to reset her two most important skills: Cooldown and Prowl. Every time you eliminate an enemy, even if it's not a killing blow, you start back from scratch. Amazing.

Loadout

I've tested a variety of loadouts with Maeve and find focusing on her mobility and survivability is often best. I've already had good amounts of success with it, as the movement speed bonus on elimination or kill ensures you don't always have to rely on cooldowns. 

Item Shop 

I would strongly recommend you purchase items from Offense and Utility with no real requirement as Maeve to invest in other areas. There is some flexibility to pickup items in Healing, but this only tends to occur on long equal matches.


Please note where multiple options are presented below, the choice remains your own based on the composition you're facing. 


Utility (1st)

Chronos: Maeve relies massively on cooldowns, not just for her mobility but also her sustain and cooldown resets. Gaining a 10% reduction isn't is a must and with preference, the full 30%. 

Attack (2nd)

Cauterize: You should regularly be attempting to kill the enemy teams Support Champion so taking Cauterize - ensuring your attacks reduce healing - gives you a significant advantage when fighting them 1 on 1. 

Healing (3rd)

Kill to Heal: It's not surprising that it's easy as Maeve to kill players simply because you're so fast and you can work around fights so easily. Taking Kill to Heal provides sustain without you needing to rely on Nine Lives.

*Purchase order

Matchups

These Champion threat Levels (1 being lowest threat and 10 being highest threat) are to help you determine which enemy Champions can cause you difficulty. For Champions listed here, take extra care as they're particularly dangerous for Maeve. 

Hero

Threat 

Androxus: His ability to absorb your attacks, combined with his mobility make him challenging to fight. His basic attacks also deal more damage than yours. 

8/10

Barik: Simply because of his Barricade and Turrets (which can still track you if you get close), Barik can be a problem. A well skilled Barik will cut you down quickly if you get close. 

8/10

Buck: His Leap, self healing and close quarter damage make Buck a threat. You can escape him, but going toe-to-toe is challenging. 

7/10

Tyra: Simply because of her Hunter's Mark and her rapid rate of fire, she can keep tabs on you and unload her rifle without worrying about missing. 

8/10

Viktor: Similarly to Tyra, Viktor can free-fire against you, use Hustle to reposition and aim with accuracy when he looks down his scope.  8/10

Tips and Tricks

This list of tips and tricks are just a handful of things we think will help your Maeve play. We'll continue to add to the list as required and if you have any tips you'd like to share, let us know in the comments below and we'll place them here. 


1. Don't be afraid to spam your Daggers. Their rate of fire is high and you've no requirement to reload. 

2. Pounce isn't just an offensive ability - don't be afraid to use it to reach a ledge after double jumping or to evade an attack.

3. Nine Lives no longer heals by default so play a little more safe and retreat when low health.

4. Nine Lives is brilliant for double-using Pounce as it offers an immediate 1000 damage if you land both against a single target. If you follow this up with your Daggers, most Champions will die instantly. 

5. As a Flank it's your job to harrass the enemy team and their back line. Always try to get in, kill the opposing Support and get out. 

6. The blind on Midnight lasts for 4 seconds and causes its effect in a large area. Use it against multiple targets if you can. 

7. Prowl provides unrivalled mobility. It's only Evie that stands any chance of catching you. 

8. Maeve can double jump - use this to your advantage without wasting your skills. 

9. If you can, try to always follow a Pounce with instant Daggers. There's a window of opportunity to always land it. 


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Last Updated: Mar 13, 2017

About The Author

Lewis is a long standing journalist, who freelances to a variety of outlets.

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