Updated: 6/12/11

Ap Shaco can dominate just almost no one knows how to do it correctly. I am writing this guide to clear up some misconceptions about Ap Shaco and show you how to play him without pissing off your team or feeding.

Pros
Assassin
Scary Damage
Stealth
Cons
Squishy
Focused
Can be useless if you keep dying and losing stacks
Low Mana

These are your best choices
Flash : Paired with deceive you can get away from most anything.
Inite : Very useful for getting the kill at the tower. You can either flash or deceive in use your shiv and ignite and run away.

These are your only real choices but if you really want to go against me then,
You can take others like:
Exhaust
Ghost

Do not under any circumstances take:
Heal
Clarity
Clairvoyance
Rally
Teleport
Fortify
Teleport
Smite
Revive

I go the standard caster masteries 9/0/21 because this is the role Ap Shaco generally plays. You will not need the extra things in attack tree and if you are being hit so much to need the defense tree you are doing something wrong. The utility tree offers us almost everything we need. The mana regen helps with the mana starvation Shaco has. The extra cool down reduction just adds to our harassment. The summoner spell reduction and flash cooldown reduction also help greatly. The 9 in offense is obviously used for the extra magic pen and cooldown reduction and the extra ap is nice to.

: A necessary rune to have and there is not much else to put here for Ap Shaco anyways except maybe more ap but the pen is much more valuable late game.
: Helps with the mana starvation Shaco has to deal with.
: More cooldown reduction to allow you to harass and run away more often.
: The health really help especially early game when you are vulnerable.

These runes are what I use and if you feel more comfortable using other runes you can replace a lot of them with straight up ap runes to do more damage but I know my setup works.

: We go this first because it builds into one of our items and to help us stay alive in the beginning. This will allow you to harass and then regain your health back from any retaliation. As long as they don't have heavy harassment you will stay almost full health most of the time.

philosopher's stone: This item seems useless but it is amazing. You keep the needed health regen and get an amazing amount of mana regen. This combined with your runes and masteries you will not run out of mana nearly as quickly. This does not mean you can just go crazy but it will increase the amount of harassment coming from you.

: Obvious choice to run faster. Gets you closer or further away to the enemy and is nice to close the distance.

: The staple of Ap Shaco. This is almost always a necessary item for Ap Shaco. I will almost always buy it even if I am dieing in the beginning. If you have seriously managed to feed and continue dieing with mejai's and don't think you can get stacks then sell it and buy another Ap item. You should buy either Blasting Wand or Needlessly Large Rod if you can afford it.

: Even more magic pen for those pesky people who have magic resist and to just pwn squishies without magic resist even more.

: Most of the time you will be next to the fight or inside it so why not lower everyone's magic pen even more. You also gain a decent amount of ap with this item. Also helps for those pesky nukers that can insta-kill you if you don't have magic resist.

: Obvious choice for almost any ap character. This will boost your ap to do ridicules damage.

: This is one of the final items and it is really good for Ap Shaco. With you having so much ap and doing nuke damage already this can be very useful. This is also a very good pairing with your deceive as it automatically crits and will then do increased lich bane damage for quite a lot. The ap that it gives is also nice.

Optional
: At this point in the game you should not need so much mana regen or health regen. You can afford to sell philosopher's stone if you have not already and buy banshee's veil this is up to you.

: After you have finished the build you might as well get more ap. This is another option to sell your philosopher's stone. You may think that it would be a good replacement for abyssal scepter but the magic pen is more useful and it still gives ap.

: Very useful skill but should not be needed before level 4. Play carefully and always be aware of your surroundings. This skill can jump over almost any wall and you should use that to your advantage.
How to Use:
Always try to jump over large walls the flash can't do so people can't follow you and have to run around. This paired with flash can get you out of some of the most sticky situations.

: This skill while very good should not be overused. A lot of people make the mistake of stacking them in the jungle and just sitting there waiting for someone to run to them. You should not do this because it leaves the rest of your team to die in lane.
How to Use:
Jack in the box should be used to clear lane and keep people away from the minions. It should also be placed in lane bushes and maybe stacked if they like to go in the bushes. This is the first skill you should get and you should always place them in the bushes one in your side and however many in the enemies or yours just make sure you have at least one in yours so you can run away through it. Always make sure to but it as close to the wall as possible so it does not attack the minions. This skill should always be used if you are going into the jungle because it provides you with an escape. If you are running away you should always try to place a jack in the box right before or after you deceive to try to fear them and get away.

: This is your bread and butter right here. This is the skill you must max first to be effective.
How to Use:
Always harass with this don't last hit with it and waste valuable mana. Even if you think it is not doing a lot of damage you should harass with it. It will widdle even the highest health champion down and the lower the enemy health the more they have to back or the higher the chance of you killing them. It also gets very annoying and can keep the enemy off the minions if your jack in the boxes are not doing the trick.

: This is your utility skill.
How to Use:
It can be used for so many things. You can use it to confuse the enemy and attack the wrong one while you run away. If you do this always try to deceive so they only see the clone and not you. With Ap Shaco the clone also does an insane amount of damage. It should almost always be in the teamfight because when it blows up it does insane aoe damage. There are so many cool things you can do with the clone. Use alt + click to control it and make it run around to where you want it. Then there is the issue of towers. This can be used to tank the tower hits for you while you get a kill or be used to do double the damage to the tower. Overall it is a very useful skill.

Ok this will explain the mindset and overall goal of Ap Shaco. One of the most important things is to NEVER die and if you do then do it before you get mejai's soulstealer. Always have an escape plan and try to not follow stupid teamates to your death. Always get out at the first sign of trouble. Do not be afraid to get back in but never get focused it is very bad for your health. You should try to place your boxes in the fight or to create an escape route if things are going badly. Try to shiv as many people as possible and always go for the kill no matter if you are stealing or not. You are the clean up crew and the pre-fight damage dealer. Try to do as much as you can in the teamfight like shiv people running away to slow them down and just try to do as much damage without dieing.

Ap Shaco is one of the best escapers in the game. One of the only ways to kill him is to have insane damage or a massive amount off cc pile you. As long as you play smart then you should see the kills and assists rolling in.

NEVER just camp in the jungle stacking boxes to get a gank unless you are in a 3v3. You may feel epic but the 5 minutes you spent sitting there just cost you a tower or kills or time not spent lowering peoples healths for ganks or even pushing a tower. Just do not do this unless the entire team is setting up waiting THEN you can start stacking boxes in the jungle.

Thank you if you took the time to read the wall of text that is my guide. I tried to go as in-depth as I could.

Constructive criticism is welcome.
Don't down vote this guide because you think Ap Shaco is useless.