oh sure. but it's a combo that puts you in melee range and doesn't CC other than root 1 person -> melee range small knockup, so if you're building AP, you're extremely vulnerable to being disrupted/killed in the middle of it if you're jumping at more than 1 person. I view AP Maokai, Gragas, and Galio as variations on the same type of character. They're naturally a bit beefy, sustain in lane, poke in teamfights and then have some form of initiation. In terms of poke, Maokai is the least reliable, but he has the most re-usable CC/initiation. Unfortunately, I think that the poking is the most useful part of these characters as APs, because it's difficult to itemize tanky enough to dive in with Maokai's CC and still utilize his higher damage potential from AP.
Like, when I used to solo Maokai, I always found myself itemizing drings -> deathcap and then going, "Oh ****, I just want CDR and Tankiness now... FUUUUU," which led to me never really abusing the AP ratios because when I'd try, I'd just blow up in teamfights. Eventually my build changed to 2-3 drings -> sunfire + banshee's -> frozen heart, and I just accepted that I couldn't find a way to utilize the AP ratios and still be tanky enough at the right times so I just made myself a lower damage (but still decent) cc-bot. *shrug* that's my take on it anyway.
Though I've considered trying DFG or Morello's on him.
