Shaco Build Guide by MeowfaceMcGee

Introduction

Ok folks, Here's a basic build for Shaco, The Demon Jester. This Guild includes Skill Order, Runes, Items, Masteries and the explainations of the choices I have made with regards to these options for both jungle Shaco and AP Shaco. This is how I generally play shaco but these are NOT THE ONLY WAYS TO BUILD HIM. I am open to comments and new ideas or styles to play Shaco and will give all suggestions a fair trial.

PLEASE READ THE ENTIRE GUIDE BEFORE DOWNVOTING AND INSULTING IT!!! Some of my ideas may seem strange to you but I explain myself later on so bear with me.

JUNGLE SHACO GUIDE

If you are reading for AD jungle Shaco then continue, if not the scroll down to AP SHACO GUIDE

Pros / Cons of AD Shaco

PROS Shaco is an extremely mobile character High initial damage Early and efficient ganks Easy control over Dragon and both jungles Free 1 minute wards with Jack In The Box Less Squishy than AP shaco Deceive makes opponents paranoid which reduces their initiation early game, letting your lanes farm easier

CONS Still fairly squishy Needs a good feed to be useful late game (which reduces his efficiency of feeding team-mates early game) Less slippery than AP shaco due to Deceive initiation rather than escape. Often targeted as an easy kill or because he is annoying ^_^

Skill Sequence

Basic Shaco jungle skill setup based around first boxes for quick first buff then emphasizing slow then increased damage over maneuverability.

Backstab: (innate) Shaco deals 20% bonus damage when striking a unit from behind with his autoattacks or abilities.
Deceive: (Active) Shaco instantly blinks to a target nearby location and enters stealth for up to 3.5 seconds. His next auto-attack in the next 6 seconds will critically strike with modified critical damage (normal critical strikes are 200% damage), dealing physical damage and ending his stealth.

• Cooldown: 11 seconds after exiting stealth
• Range: 500
• Cost: 90 / 80 / 70 / 60 / 50 mana
• Critical Strike Damage: 140 / 160 / 180 / 200 / 220 %

Jack in the Box: (Active): Shaco creates a Jack in the Box at the target location with 150 health. It will stealth after 2 seconds and trigger when an enemy comes near, fearing nearby enemies briefly and attacking them. It deals magic damage, and lasts 60 seconds stealthed or 5 seconds while firing. Casting Jack In The Box breaks stealth.

• Cooldown: 16 seconds
• Range: 425
• Trigger Range: 300
• Sight Range: 700 (estimate)
• Jack in the Box attack speed: 9 times in 5 seconds
• Cost: 50 / 55 / 60 / 65 / 70 mana
• Fear Duration: 0.5 / 0.75 / 1 / 1.25 / 1.5 seconds
• Magic Damage: 35 / 50 / 65 / 80 / 95 (+0.2 per ability power)

Two Shiv Poison: (Passive) Shaco's attacks poison his targets, reducing their movement speed for 2 seconds. It also gives affected non-champion units a chance to miss their attacks.

• Slow: 20 / 22.5 / 25 / 27.5 / 30 %
• Miss Chance to Non-Champion Units: 20 / 22.5 / 25 / 27.5 / 30 %

(Active) Shaco throws a dagger to target enemy dealing magic damage and applying his slowing poison to them for 3 seconds. The passive is deactivated during the cooldown.

• Cooldown: 8 seconds
• Range: 625
• Cost: 50 / 55 / 60 / 65 / 70 mana
• Magic Damage: 50 / 90 / 130 / 170 / 210 (+1.0 per ability power) (+1.0 per bonus attack damage)

Hallucinate: (Active) Shaco stealths for half a second and creates a clone of himself next to him that will last for up 18 seconds. The clone deals 75% of Shaco's damage and receives 50% extra damage. This clone deals 50% damage to towers and inhibitors. At the end of its duration or when dying the clone will explode, dealing magic damage to nearby enemies.

• Cost: 100 mana
• Leash radius: 1125
• AoE radius: 250
• Cooldown: 100 / 90 / 80 seconds
• Magic Damage: 300 / 450 / 600 (+1.0 per ability power)

Masteries

I build a 21/0/9 based around attack and damage in the offensive tree and movement speed plus buff duration in utility. However you could shift all the points from utility in the defensive tree based around physical defense, health or health regen to provide a safer jungle and more durability. This comes at the cost of the buff duration though and as a jungler having longer buffs is a rather large advantage. I grab Summoner's Wrath to just buff up ignite, exhaust or surge (depending which one you pick) and as it is a much better pick to get to the next level than any of the others.

Runes

Grab 9 Greater Mark of Critical Damages because your Deceive will ALWAYS CRIT and this will just buff that damage up.
You could also grab Greater Mark of Attack Damage to quicken your jungle and just boost your damage (remember Backstab's damage buff) but I find that the crit damage works better with his skill set.

I take 9 Greater Seal of Armors to make Shaco a more durable in the jungle and a bit harder for AD champions to kill during ganks. This is a standard jungling rune and should be taken for most junglers as you dont need to use as many Health Potions to retain health. AD or AP Seals are pretty bad and health regen or MR aren't what Shaco needs to jungle well.

You should grab some Greater Glyph of Scaling Attack Damage to boost up your damage through the game. The damage per level is better than the flat damage glyphs as it outranks them at lvl 7 leaving plenty of levels with better damage output from these runes. Other possible runes are the Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction as this allows you to place more boxes per box duration and gives you a (slightly) quicker re-Deceive or Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist to give you more magic resist later in the game when the mages will become the main threat.

I grab Greater Quintessence of Scaling Attack Damage for more damage ealry game and a faster jungler or Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed for better chase/escape/further stealth walk. Others option combos would be Greater Quintessence of desolation if you grabbed Greater Mark of Attack Damage to replace the extra crit damage with armor penetration.

Summoner Spells

Ignite is a general spell that I use on Shaco, it allowed you to reduce healing and gives u those last extra bars of health to get you that hard to reach kill.

Smite is a standard jungling spell but is not really required on Shaco due to his quick and powerful jungle route. I take smite just to ensure a quicker and safer jungle or invasion. I highly recommend taking smite as, even though he CAN jungle without it doesn't mean he SHOULD jungle without it. Just take it if your jungling.

Ghost is a good option for Shaco as it gives him that extra movement speed which could allow an escape, quicken your jungle route or invasion or even provide an easier gank due to the increased movement range while stealthed due to Deceive.

Exhaust is also viable on Shaco as it totally shuts down their damage, always a good thing with a low health champ like Shaco, and slows them down allowing you to catch up and apply even more slow with Two-Shiv Poison's passive. Also extremely helpful for counter-jungling or other 1v1 situations.

Surge is an interesting choice on Shaco and not one to be ignored. It gives you much needed life regen from the extra life steal gained from the increased damage and can be used in stealth, really bringing up that first crit damage from Deceive.

Flash is also an interesting choice on Shaco and can be used as a quick harassment or bailing tool. It can be used after a Deceive in for the crit damage as a second deceive, making Shaco much more slippery. This however becomes redundant after purchasing Guardian Angel as your Deceive will have refreshed once the resurrection has completed.

PROMOTE IS USELESS FOR A JUNGLER!!! Seriously, don't get this spell :P

You are an AD jungler. For a majority of the game you will not run out of mana. If you are in the jungle for a long time early then you generally have blue clearing all your mana problems. This is basically wasting a slot that could be used for more slipperiness or damage.

Shaco is a stealth based jungler. If someone sees the teleport ring they will become aware of your existence. You do not want that. A good jungler will make sure the enemy has no clue they are there until you appear behind them and their screen turns grey making them think "what the sh** just happened..? oh... Shaco...". Teleport will put you in danger of being annihilated as they can set up to gank YOU! do not take this.

It is not your job as a jungler to take this skill. If anyone gets it it should be a support character. Now, this is useful for setting up invasions, ganks, and for seeing where the opposing jungle is at (buffs and camp timers and jungler position) HOWEVER this slot could be better used for Ignite or Ghost :P.

No... Just no... This would only ever be useful if you got ganked at your first blue buff at lvl 1 because for the rest of the game you can EVADE EVERYTHING WITH Deceive and Hallucinate.

All other non-mentioned spells are viable depending on the situation and are not particularly useful or useless for jungle Shaco.
(Please note, Fortify, Garrison, Barrier and Rally have been removed/cannot be used on Summoner's Rift.)

REMINDER: This is MY opinion. Anything I have said is not absolute! If you always carry a Revive then all power to you! But I have only stated what I have found to be good or useful from my experiences with Shaco.

Items

I generally start off with Cloth Armor and five Health Potions because it gives greater jungle survivability and I find that I use 2-3 potions before my first gank, leaving me 3-2 to recover the damage from that gank and it also allows for ganks one after another, constantly harassing all the lanes.
Some junglers prefer Boots of Speed and three Health Potions for a faster jungle and this may be an option if you got more defense based masteries or runes for survival instead but this is by far a more risky approach for little gain as shaco is a fast enough jungler anyway.

Building your Cloth Armor into a wriggler's gives you more damage and some life steal plus ANOTHER FREE WARD! If you're nearly dead from a gank and are FORCED to recall before you can afford the whole thing then prioritize Vampiric Scepter to give you that health regen Shaco needs so badly. You should get this as soon as you have enough money or even wait til you can get Boots of Speed as well (or even second boots). I can generally afford this after my first gank, if not then my second will allow me to pick up the boots as well. If for some reason your owning or the other team is making WAY too many mistakes, ignore this item and just grab The Bloodthirster. the earlier you start stacking the better. But this is only if your owning their face off in which case they will probably surrender anyway.
Now is the time to get your second boots. Most of the time I buy Berserker's Greaves to give me the more hits per gank which synergises with my passive slow quite nicely and makes it hard for early ganked champions to escape. If you find that you're seriously lacking in movement speed for my stealth run while ganking, the Boots of Mobility are your best friend. Also noteworthy are defensive boots such as Mercury's Treads and Ninja Tabi. Mercury's Treads are brilliant seeming as you get magic resist AND tenacity. FROM A PAIR OF BOOTS! If you complete your build and have enough to replace your boots with these, do it. That said they don't really help you early game as most mages try to run from your ganks rather than burst you down.
This is the game changer. It boosts your damage and crit chance AND stacks with your Deceive crit modifier, giving you some MASSIVE initiation damage. this also allows you to smash down towers infinitely (see what I did there?) quicker, turning a successful gank into an additional 150 gold bonus for your team.
This is the build maker on any Shaco. There is nothing quite like using a Deceive in, popping hallucination, bursting down 1-2 people and dying to the horde... THEN USING Deceive TO ESCAPE AGAIN! Seriously though, this makes Shaco even more annoying as his Deceive cooldown will be off by the time he dies and comes back to life, allowing for a free kill/clean up. Once you have this feel free to buy any item with stacks as you are no longer squishy while this passive is up.
Now it comes down to how the match is going. You have some lovely damage from Infinity Edge, massive suvivability from Guardian Angel plus the slipperiness of being Shaco! Now its time to decide whats best for the situation.

• Someone with too much health? Grab madred's bloodrazer and burst down that health wh*re.
• Is there someone with too much armor that your just not hurting? Grab Last Whisper of if your whole team isn't hurting them a The Black Cleaver.
• Want to attack more and crit more often? Or shift around the map with AMAZING speed? Get a Phantom Dancer or even Two!
• Do you like throwing your Shivs? Grab a Frozen Mallet and keep that passive slow! Or use it to buff up your own passive slow.
• Do they have too much CC on their team? Can you not use the full advantage of being a zombie because of Guardian Angel? Buy a Quicksilver Sash and cleanse those pesky stuns and silences.
• Feel like some AOE damage that DOUBLES with your clone? Twin tank it with Sunfire Cape.

REMEMBER: Whatever you buy your clone gets too so having double slows, double armor reduction, double percentage health burst really kicks butt! Item effects are really handy on Shaco as he technically has two of any unique passive's effect under his control.

After you have decided your build and deemed it worthy of ownage then just replace your Wriggle's Lantern with The Bloodthirster if you havent already.

Jungling

Now for the interesting bit. The Jungle Route.

• Blue Buff Golem
• Red Buff Lizards
• Wraiths
• GANK!
  
  OK, game starts and you grab you armor and HP and run down to Blue Buff. Grab a team mate and get them to stand in river to give you vision in case your opponents don't like Shaco and decide to gank you. This is all the leash you need. Blue Spawns at around 1:52 so start stacking your boxes behind where the golem will spawn (place them at the back of the cove) at around 0:56 just to make sure the first box survives until the buff spawns. Wait for the traps to gain aggro a use your passive Backstab to smash down the golem. Finish off the ranged minions and you'll bump up to level two and grab Two-Shiv Poison. DO NOT USE SMITE OR POTIONS HERE!!! You shouldn't need to.
  
  Run over to Red Buff and place two boxes out of activation range. Run in and hit the Lizard once, gaining aggro then drag him into your traps. Once again let your traps get the aggro after the fear and backstab the Red Buff. Finish him off with smite then take down his pets. Shaco holds the fastest solo double buff obtaining in the entire game due to this technique. REMEMBER YOUR SHIV'S PASSIVE and hit one minion with it then kill the other, giving both a chance to miss you. Use a health pot and let it work while you head on to Wraiths.
  
  Walk over to Wraiths place a box in the middle of them and take down the big one. Your box can solo one minion so use that to take down the others and you will bump up to level three.
  
  Grab Deceive and look for an opportunity to gank. Is anyone low? Is anyone over extended? Is any lane having trouble? If you answered yes to any of those then go help out that lane. If not then gank mid for a 2v1. A fed mid is the bane of the other team's existance, feed your mid kills whenever you can. Even wasting a flash or forcing a recall is a successful gank. Anything to give your champion the edge over the opponent.
  If a champion dies or recalls, cover their lane for them. Harass the enemy with Deceive and Two-Shiv Poison. You have blue buff, waste mana. Grab some farm but don't take it if your lane could use it. You have the jungle to farm.
  
  
  KNOW YOUR ENEMY!
  If you are versing another jungler then you should disrupt them whenever you feel like it. If you want a level 2 invade then grab Deceive instead of Two-Shiv Poison, grab blue buff then gank them at red. place boxes in bushes forcing them to take the long way round, throw off their jungle timing. Killing them is the most efficient way of doing this but even just wasting their time or stealing their creep camps is enough to ruin most jungle routes. When you steal a camp however, always leave one minion so the camp takes longer to respawn. For example: During Warwick free week I had a ball. Having owned that champion I was well acquainted with the Top Jungle Guide for that champion and knew his jungle route extremely well. Warwick goes Golems, Red Buff, Wraiths, Wolves then Blue Buff and repeat until level six. Attain kills. Knowing this I grabbed HIS blue buff (I still have plenty of time to get there for the 0:56 schedule such as for getting MY buff) then stacked boxes just around from Wolves. What do I know and he comes along, unwittingly into my traps. I pop ignite to destroy his life steal and Deceive over for the kill and then bailing before their mid champ came along. One health pot and Wraiths later and I was ready to gank, double buffed with the other jungle completely ruined. That Warwick lost 2/9/5 and if anyone knows anything about warwick thats TERRIBLE. This just shows how much you can destroy their ganking opportunites and thus laning and teamfight capabilities just by knowing and ganking your enemy jungle. Remember! Both jungles... are Shaco's jungles!
  
  IMPORTANT NOTE: Lee Sin's reveals totally destroy your ability to escape or hide and must be approached with caution. Do not gank him if he knows you are there or if he may use his AOE reveal Tempest / Cripple. That said try to shut him down with an early surprise gank to slow him down but there is really nothing you can do against him late game. Just make sure to ward lanes to alert allies and to make sure he doesn't get fed. He normally starts at red then ganks bot so you can counter-gank him bot or jungle trap-gank him on his way to his blue.

AP SHACO GUIDE

If you are looking to build AP Shaco then continue, if not then stop here.

Pros / Cons of AP shaco

PROS Shaco is an extremely mobile character High initial damage and harass Better escapes than AD Shaco due to Deceive not used to initiate Deceive makes opponents paranoid which reduces their initiation early game, letting your lane farm easier Jack In The Box will cause enemies to be hesitant about going into bushes which will allow some escapes that otherwise may not have happened

CONS Extremely squishy Needs a good feed to be useful late game Often targeted as an easy kill or because he is annoying ^_^ Most damage caused by trapping bushes which can waste time and exp against semi-intelligent foes Extremely hard farm

Skill Sequence

Depending on how intelligent your enemies are will affect the skill order you choose. For a majority of matches start with Jack In The Box because of it's fear and damage output. However, most opponents will expect an AP Shaco to do this and so if you ever feel like mixing it up you can chuck a point in Two-Shiv Poison first to make initiations easier or to give them a false sense of security then baiting them into boxes once you hit level two.

After level three once you have all your skills its time to determine the intelligence of your enemy. After this amount of time you may be fairly sure of their standard and style of play. How many times has the enemy fallen into your traps? What kind of escape mechanisms to they employ to survive those traps? Can they bait your boxes into wasting their active? If they don't even bother giving your trapped bush a second glance and no matter how low you get your health down to they refuse to be baited, if they can fake out your boxes then evade most of the damage, or if they have pets or minions at their disposal that they can use to scout out bushes and spring traps then max Two-Shiv Poison first. Giving a skill sequence of:

If they continuously run blindly into bushes to face-check you or stand next to an active box hitting you, if they are slow or squishy or have no moves to escape their doom with then max Jack In The Box first, enabling that 1.5 second fear to keep them in range of your massive burst, giving a skill sequence of:
Seeming as you may not have read the skill explainations in the AD Jungle Guide above here they are again: Backstab: (innate) Shaco deals 20% bonus damage when striking a unit from behind with his autoattacks or abilities.
Deceive: (Active) Shaco instantly blinks to a target nearby location and enters stealth for up to 3.5 seconds. His next auto-attack in the next 6 seconds will critically strike with modified critical damage (normal critical strikes are 200% damage), dealing physical damage and ending his stealth.

• Cooldown: 11 seconds after exiting stealth
• Range: 500
• Cost: 90 / 80 / 70 / 60 / 50 mana
• Critical Strike Damage: 140 / 160 / 180 / 200 / 220 %

Jack in the Box: (Active): Shaco creates a Jack in the Box at the target location with 150 health. It will stealth after 2 seconds and trigger when an enemy comes near, fearing nearby enemies briefly and attacking them. It deals magic damage, and lasts 60 seconds stealthed or 5 seconds while firing. Casting Jack In The Box breaks stealth.

• Cooldown: 16 seconds
• Range: 425
• Trigger Range: 300
• Sight Range: 700 (estimate)
• Jack in the Box attack speed: 9 times in 5 seconds
• Cost: 50 / 55 / 60 / 65 / 70 mana
• Fear Duration: 0.5 / 0.75 / 1 / 1.25 / 1.5 seconds
• Magic Damage: 35 / 50 / 65 / 80 / 95 (+0.2 per ability power)

Two Shiv Poison: (Passive) Shaco's attacks poison his targets, reducing their movement speed for 2 seconds. It also gives affected non-champion units a chance to miss their attacks.

• Slow: 20 / 22.5 / 25 / 27.5 / 30 %
• Miss Chance to Non-Champion Units: 20 / 22.5 / 25 / 27.5 / 30 %

(Active) Shaco throws a dagger to target enemy dealing magic damage and applying his slowing poison to them for 3 seconds. The passive is deactivated during the cooldown.

• Cooldown: 8 seconds
• Range: 625
• Cost: 50 / 55 / 60 / 65 / 70 mana
• Magic Damage: 50 / 90 / 130 / 170 / 210 (+1.0 per ability power) (+1.0 per bonus attack damage)

Hallucinate: (Active) Shaco stealths for half a second and creates a clone of himself next to him that will last for up 18 seconds. The clone deals 75% of Shaco's damage and receives 50% extra damage. This clone deals 50% damage to towers and inhibitors. At the end of its duration or when dying the clone will explode, dealing magic damage to nearby enemies.

• Cost: 100 mana
• Leash radius: 1125
• AoE radius: 250
• Cooldown: 100 / 90 / 80 seconds
• Magic Damage: 300 / 450 / 600 (+1.0 per ability power)

Masteries

You should be building a generic AP damage build in the offense tree with 21 points in it grabbing Executioner and then placing points in mana, mana regen and G/per 10 because you want some lane endurance however AP Shaco doesn't get much farm and needs a bit of a gold boost. The is pretty much no point to chucking anything in the defense tree because any minimal sustain he would gain would be lost in the main scheme of things and could be put to better use in terms of helping him spam his moves.

Runes

Grab 9 Greater Mark of Magic Penetrations to grab that early magic penetration making your early boxes even more devastating damage and to make sure you still have some slight penetration even if you don't choose to replace your Sorcerer's Shoes' magic penetration with Void Staff. Other options for marks are some Greater Mark of Scaling Ability Powers which are better than Greater Mark of Ability Power due to the fact that they out scale potency's AP increase at level six. Do the math. These marks also help Shaco to scale into late game slightly however you will be getting more AP with your other runes and utilizing the mark's magic penetration bonus will help you more in the long run.

I take 9 Greater Seal of Scaling Mana Regenerations to make Shaco a more durable in lane and to allow him to use his abilities when he wants to and when he has to. Seals give the greatest mana regen of all the minor runes (non-quintessences) and as such should be the kind used for this purpose.

Greater Glyph of Scaling Ability Power Should be used to gain that AP to help Shaco scale into the game and give him that bit bigger a bite. The Greater Seal of Scaling Ability Power has the same multiplier as the Greater Mark of Scaling Ability Power however the glyphs have a slightly greater multiplier of 0.17 per level which is why they are being used instead of losing the other runes' main strengths.

Greater Quintessence of Ability Power Will give your Shaco's early game a nice buff, bringing up the damage of his moves and allowing him to be useful. I chose these flat AP runes instead of the AP per level runes to give Shaco that early damage but also because the AP per level runes only out scale the flat runes at level eleven! Remember to check the maths on any runes you use to give you the best possible advantage for what you're planning.

When choosing what runes you have always think about it. Use common sense and do the maths (or just look it up on the internet if you're lazy, I'm sure its there somewhere) to find the best runes for your tactics or strategies.

Summoner Spells

I grab ignite for the reduced healing effect and the extra AP while its on cooldown with the mastery. This is a fairly generally used skill as it could just nab you that 10 hp remaining kill after they get out of box range and you'v tossed your shiv.

Some people claim that grabbing heal is a waste of space or a cheap and/or noob tactic. Truth be told its one of the best summoner spells there is and will help you to bait enemies while you're low or give you just that much more time to chuck another box down to grab some space to escape.

If you find that your playing style causes you to run out of mana quickly or you didn't get the mana regen runes and don't know how to conserve your mana then grab this and spam away. Grabbing Heal and Clarity pretty much makes your lane invincible or just very hard to push out of lane allowing both of you to harass and take damage with no worries about how long you have to conserve your mana or health for. This skill has saved my skin a couple of times and just makes the laning phase just that little bit more cruisey.

As mentioned earlier in this guide this is an interesting but not unheard of choice for Shaco. Having two flashes, one of which makes you invisible is a rather nice idea but not strictly required for his survival. It would make more sense for the skill to be used on an AD shaco as his first flash is used to initiate but AP Shaco should be slippery enough without it.

Always a nice skill to have, it just lets you get where you're needed faster or escape further with your stealth.

This skill is surprisingly good on an AP Shaco and is not the shame of the family if you grab it as opposed to on jungle Shaco because it lets you move around the map and teleport to your boxes for a sneak attack (if you're quick on doing what you did once you set the box). AP Shaco is also an amazing defender of one certain point (if that point attacks) against any number of opponents and teleport allows him to get there with enough time to set up a few boxes before they get there.

Exhaust is also an interesting choice as it allows Shaco to take minimal damage while slowing the enemy and stopping them from escaping your boxes. This would only help with box traps as you stand no chance 1v1 if both are full health even WITH this move. Would be used purely in a support role during teamfights late game.

Items

Start off with an amplifying tome to start you on the way to Kage's Lucky Pick. If you didn't grab clarity then you may want to grab a Mana Potion just to give you that little more sustain otherwise grab the ever important anti-ignite: Health Potion.

Upon your first recall try to time it so that you can at least get Kage's Lucky Pick and Boots of Speed for the movement and the gold generation to make up for your terrible farm capabilities. If your enemies are foolish enough to run into boxes and feed you money you may be able to afford Sorcerer's Shoes on your first recall but if not then prioritize them before your next item.
Now for your first big item decide what you want to turn your Kage's Lucky Pick into from what you like the most: Deathfire Grasp gives you AP, CDR and mana regen but its main selling point is it's active. Seeming as your character is not totally equipped with 4 mind blowing AP damage abilities it may be a good idea to grab this extra AP nuke to make up for Deceive's AD based skillset. Morello's Evil Tome has better stats in every aspect. It has better AP, better CDR and more mana regen, making it better for anything apart from that one nuke. Take your pick. I would generally pick the nuke but if your the kind of person that forgets about item actives then it would be better just to pick morello's. Now you should be able to spam your boxes all you like and never run out of mana.
Now its time to be dealing some serious damage. Everyone knows that this is the pillar upon which all AP builds sit. It is the most holy ability based item of them all. and with 130 AP PLUS 20% of all other AP you control its no wonder XD. Seriously, this shouldn't need an explanation.
All you need next is some spell vamp! Grab this and reap your health back from foolish enemies. NOTE: The passive aura DOES NOT STACK WITH OTHER WotAs ON YOUR TEAM!!! Make sure to communicate who is getting it so you dont waste money. If someone else IS getting it then you may consider becoming a hybrid with Hextech Gunblade and Lich Bane for some serious AD?!?!
Now you may find that you need some more damage penetration. Void Staff buffs up your magic penetration although you may find that your Sorcerer's Shoes are plenty to overcome the natural MR if people have build NO MAGIC RESIST WHATSOEVER. Abyssal Scepter on the other hand lowers their magic resist allowing all the abilities of your team to make more of an impact. Remember to communicate as the aura does not stack.
archmage'sNow that your build is nearly complete you can top it all off with some extra mana and AP to help buff up your Rabadon's Deathcap's passive. Once this is complete now you can just muck around with your build, swapping Sorcerer's Shoes for mercury treads is required or if you have enough magic penetration from Void Staff.

Strategies

When you start the match and if you don't have a jungler, head to the lane that is closest to your blue and enter the grass near the edge of the map. place three boxes at the edge and get your ally to check the other bush and bait your opponents into your traps. If no one is there then head down to blue buff and stack boxes in the bush near it. Once you have 4 boxes set it should have spawned already, hit it and drag it into your boxes and grab the blue buff. Don't worry about the minions there but get back to your lane as soon as possible. Stack boxes in any bush of your choice; River gives you sight and anti-ganking mechanisms but the outer bushes are more traffic prone early game. Once you hit level two spam your shiv toss... you have blue buff so mana isn't a problem and you'll be able to harass the hell out of your opponents. If you get low on health then try dancing or recalling just outside of a trapped bush. It may just bait your enemies into your traps giving you a free kill for nothing. Keep this up all through early game. Remember to head back to base for your Kage's Lucky Pick to buff up your gold unless your REALLY good at last hitting and your lane partner doesn't need it.
Once you get your ultimate then the game becomes even more of a game. Send your clone in to die, run it under the tower, pretend its you so they jump on it... Its your own personal suicide bomber, use your imagination and play with your opponent's minds a little. Soon they'll learn to not initiate on you as you may be the clone which allows you a hell of a lot more freedom.
Once it becomes late game when everyone is tankier, you'll NEED to use your boxes to deal much damage to anyone at all. Try and get your team-mates to initiate a teamfight then bait them back into your boxes. The fear and damage is sure to pick up a win. Either that or become extremely proficient at baiting yourself, they'll come if your enemies are stupid or over confident.

Dominion

Shaco is an extremely strong dominion player due to his massive amount of defensive power, his disruptive abilities and his maneuverability around the map. As you should know, towers stop attacking when the start being captured by a champion who in turn is stopped when they receive damage from another champion. Shaco has the ability to force enemies to follow him or target him instead of the point due to his long range and AoE fear and damage created by his jack in a boxes and can hold a point indefinitely against up to three people for a reasonable amount of time. His abilities to duke and trap opponents really comes into play with his clone and boxes to protect him during captures and, with both having AoE effects, disrupting enemy captures.

Grab Ghost and Heal or Ignite for your spells and grab a Kage's Lucky Pick and Boots of Speed when you spawn. Once the barrier goes down run over to your enemy's closest point (run through the middle). Evade the champion who stayed back to capture it and place 2 boxes in the bushes just inside the jungle circle then start grabbing the point. This may cause the champions up the very top to split up giving your team the advantage or they may ignore you, giving your team a free point. If they do choose to come for you they will often be given the shortest route by the computer... through your boxes, possibly giving you enough time to grab the point or deal enough damage to them that you can finish them with a shiv.

Continue the rest of the game harassing low health players causing them to stop capturing points or going to the points where they aren't and stealing them. Just generally be a nuisance. It's what Shaco does best.

Chapter 19

Massive thanks to jhoijhoi for her guide-making guide which really helped me compile my ideas and put them out in an interesting way. Hope you guys liked my Shaco guides and if you have any questions or queries don't be afraid to chuck a comment down below or pop me a PM. Have fun with your new found ownage character :P