Shaco, from what I am able to tell is a very misunderstood champion in League of Legends. Many people say that Shaco is his early game and that he loses his value as the game goes on, which I find isn't true. I want to start off by stating that Shaco's early is amazing! He has alot of nice early game burst, that partnered along with deceive makes ganking not only fun, but in most cases successful (unless of course they flash away or use a flash-like ability). And I don't believe that Shaco really loses that damage. Even in his late game Shaco is capable of heavy burst damage, but now with strong auto attack damage to back it up.

Pros:
- Strong early game damage
- One of the best split pushers around
- Deadly assassin late game
- Dragon control
- Fun to play

Cons:
- Squishy
- Item dependent for fast jungling
- Big learning curve
- SQUISHY

Marks: For marks I mix in attack speed with armor penetration for some pretty nice early attack speed and armor penetration you'll need for jungling

Seals: I mix attack speed and armor for more early game attack speed and armor for the increased sustain in the jungle.

Glyphs: I take magic resist per level glyphs because of Shaco's poor magic resist

Quintessence: I take armor penetration for the more help in the jungle and for a pretty decent armor pen during late game

Of course you can feel free to mix and match the runes you feel is best for Shaco, these are just the runes that I use and feel make the early jungle with Shaco much easier.

For masteries I go 16/3/11 which I know sounds unusual, but what I find to be best. I go 16 in offense and grab the smite and exhaust buffs, along with armor pen and attack speed to further help the effectiveness of my runes. Also, I get the extra minion damage and flat damage increase for faster jungling. I don't go full armor in my rune setup and grab the extra armor from defense to make up for that. And finally going into utility for the increase buff durations and extra experience.

There are different ways that you can do your skill sequence. You could level up your boxes first, which would lead to faster jungling and strong counter-jungling. If you plan to invade your enemy's jungle leveling boxes would be recommended. Leveling up your shiv first helps with your ganks. The slow effect increases per level and it gives you a stronger burst earlier on. I prefer to level my shiv first and focus more on getting my team kills then I do stealing my enemy's buffs (I still do counter-jungle but I wait until I finish my madreds razors before doing it)

Backstab (passive): Is a fairly decent passive, whenever striking your enemy from behind you deal an additional 20% damage. This applies for both your abilities and your auto attacks.

Deceive: A very fun ability! Unlike eve or twitch, you become invisible right away, even when your enemy's have an oracle it is very hard to catch up to Shaco because it also works like flash. And on top of being a very trickster spell your next auto attack does bonus damage, yes BONUS damage, I know that the description says it is a crit, but it does bonus damage not crit damage. That is a very important piece of information when building your shaco.

Jack in the Box: Soooo many uses for these little guys. You use them to tank the jungle for you in the early levels and help you fear your enemy's and deal bonus damage later on in the game. Don't be afraid to put one down whenever it is off cooldown, they give you vision like a ward. The more you have down, the better.

Two-Shiv Poison: Helps with your initial burst damage, and can do a nice chunk of health at early levels. It also has a built in slow, that also applies to your auto attacks. This slow does not take effect when it is on cooldown, and you should aways be aware of that when ganking the lanes.

Hallucinate: YOUR ULTIMATE! It has so many uses its crazy. You can use it to take Shaco out of the game for a little bit, about a half second. This can be used to dodge abilites used against Shaco, like Ezreal or Ashe's ult. And when you get back into the game, THERE IS ANOTHER YOU! It deals 75% of your damage to the enemey's. Which doesn't seem that good, but when you stop an think about it stat wise, you get an 100% increase in attack speed and a 75% increase in attack damage. Which makes quite a bit difference in a fight. And on top of that if it dies, it deals some nice AOE damage. If you see an enemy with low HP go back to their turret you can make your clone go in and die to the turret so the AOE damage hits that Champion and hopefully get that kill without you being in any danger. Just try and be as creative as possible when using your ult, you never know when it will come in handy.

Shaco has many paths you can chose from, preparing his boxes before the jungle spawns lets him be very creative in his jungle path. The route I use is setting my boxes at blue taking it out quickly, move to wolves, then wraiths. That path will give you a fast level 3 so you can start ganking! After the first initial jungle with your boxes prepared Shaco's jungle starts to get much slower, so what I do to counter that is rush my madreds razor for its proc.

Starting Items in the jungle should be based on what your comfortable with, if your new to jungling or new to shaco you should start with cloth armor and 5 pots. What I like to start with is a long sword and a pot. Getting used to making your boxes tank the jungle for you is very important, and should be learned fast!

Once you hit level 6, make sure your smite is up and head to dragon! Using your ult to tank dragon makes it much easier to do. Don't forget your ult also procs the items you have. So having your wriggle's when doing dragon is equal to having two wriggle's

Why Jungle on Shaco? Well Shaco have a very squishy early game and a pretty big mana problem. Both are solved with jungling! You can start off at blue for your early mana problems and you don't need to worry about someone in your lane harassing you when you jungle.

When ganking as Shaco you have to think like a troll. DON'T ACTUALLY TROLL! Just think like one. Think what would annoy the enemy team the most, and do it. For example, if I think mid would have a difficult match up, after blue buff and wolves I grab deceive and jump into mid and get an attack off try to make them use their summoner spells. Then quickly go to wraiths get level 3 and go gank mid again! And on the second run to mid use my exhaust to ensure that kill! And when mid comes back to lane, gank again! TROLOLOLOL :D

There are two main builds I use for Shaco. One build focusing more on team fights, while the other is focused more on Split pushing

Team Fight Build:
Team fight with Shaco revolves around the trinity force, it lets him be capable of extrreme burst damage with and increased survivability. Two very important things when playing as an assassin. Let me get one thing straight. Your deceive does BONUS damage NOT CRIT damage. Meaning getting an infinity edge will not increase the damage done by your deceive (well not its passive anyway). Then getting a youmuu's for finishing off of whats left after your initial burst.

Split Push Build:
This build revolves around pushing a lane quickly so that you can maintain a certain amount of pressure on an enemy's lane. This build also allows you to solo baron, so that you can set up your team to distract the other team while you do it. This build is usually done in losing matches, but feel free to do it whenever you feel it is necessary.

If your smart with Shaco you will see just how easy team fights can be with this evil jester. Its important that you do not initiate a team fight! I you do, you will die. And your team will lose the fight. And it will be all your fault. What you need to do is wait for that first initial burst to go off. Then you strike, your deceive when struck from the back hits for about 700 with just a trinity force (deceive is a free hit in the back, don't waste it!!!!!) Followed up by a quick shiv to the back for another quick burst. If their still alive exhaust and pop your youmuu's and finish them off. You are an assassin and should always be targeting the enemy's carry. Take out there strongest damage dealer and get out. It is what Shaco does best. A hard to kill shaco is a very annoying shaco, so don't be afraid to built some tanky items on him. I suggest banshees and Guardian's Angel for a balanced team, but feel free to change it up depending on the team comp or based on who's the most fed.

Sometimes you might feel like it would be best to avoid team fights, and in that case its time for some Shaco split pushing! Shaco is an amazing split pusher, he can keep pressure on the enemy's towers and if anyone comes to try to stop you, you deceive away, and problem solved. Wait for them to go away and repeat, chances are they won't send that 0/12/0 champion to go stop you, but a champ that knows that can take you 1v1. So if any team fight were to occur they would be losing a very valuable asset to their team. Or in some cases more than one champ will show up, and in those case your team should take advantage and push a different lane! And of course if no one comes pop that ult of yours put down a box and watch that tower lose all of its health. You should always be aware of what the other team is doing. Four people on your team dying and the enemy team pushing a tower is not worth getting yourself one tower.

I think that Shaco is an amazing solo que champion. He can be very versatile and force the game to go in a certain direction. If you managed to gank properly, then congrats your team is fed and now you will win! If you failed in you ganks, don't worry there is still hope! Split push, force their team to spread out and help avoid the team fights you know you will lose. Get there super fed carry to come kill you and tell your team to go kill his team. The classic 4 for 1 deal. I'll take it any day :D