First off there is a Reddit post about this guide that also contains some useful information as well as answered some user questions. LINK TO REDDIT POST

Also, I am subscribed to replay.gg which allows anyone to watch replays of my games. Instructions on how to view the replays are straightforward and listed on the site. These can be a helpful resource to see how it is I play shaco support. Here is the link to my replay.gg match history:
I have recently subscribed to replay.gg on my smurf as well so I'll go ahead and post that one too, though games will be a lot less frequent on there.

Aloha fellow Shaco enthusiasts. I am Lazily, a Shaco support main currently in Gold 4. I have played since Pre-season 3 and since I started shaco always stood out to me as a ****ing awesome champ and I considered him my main but I eventually began to support and had to leave my beloved clown behind thinking "How could support shaco possibly work." It wasn't until Pink Ward rose to popularity and claimed he had climbed with support Shaco that I decided it was totally possible and I would learn it. I wanted to make this guide to share some knowledge I've attained through an innumerable amount of games as support Shaco against almost any matchup. All guides I've seen are outdated and involve building entirely damage and a mejais which I don't consider viable or even support. Hopefully this guide can inspire some of you blossoming clowns. Enjoy!!



I just recently released my first montage. It's short and rather uninformative. There's a few cool plays that might interest you in support shaco. CAUTION: NSFW AUDIO Play Video

MOST RECENT MONTAGE: Play Video

Pros

Brush Control
Easy to set up kills in lane
Strong Dragon Control with cooperative jungle
Scales well with AP
Lots of pick potential
Potential to snowball botlane
Enemy doesn't really know how to play against it
A good Shaco can tilt the enemy team off the Earth's axis
/dance
Mastery emote spam

Cons

Squishy
People think you're trolling
Difficult to learn-

TAKES A LOT OF PRACTICE
Lack of hard CC/ relies heavily on box placement (which takes practice and instincts)
Need one or two designated tanks on your team

Exhaust: I recommend exhaust because Shaco along with his ADC are essentially squishy and susceptible to strong burst no matter what part of the game and no matter the enemy. Exhaust allows Shaco and his ADC to pick off enemies, lessen their MR/Arm, movespeed, and damage output. Allows Shaco to save ADC from otherwise lethal damage or from relentless pursuers. My idea behind this is basically, "If I Q into a bad spot, chances are flash will not help me escape, but I can survive long enough to get cooldown back or simply kill them."

Ignite: Ignite is the necessary ingredient to every bot kill lane and Shaco is certainly no exception. Ignite helps secure the level 1 bush camp first blood. Ignite helps kill that enemy ADC more quickly. Ignite reduces incoming heals which is important with the heal/flash summoner's ADC meta and with any sustain champs like Soraka and Sona. Overall it just gives Shaco that extra edge of potency to make him that much more difficult to deal with.

If you don't like Exhaust I'd recommend taking teleport as Shaco with teleport can have some nasty global presence. I would not recommend flash because you already have a more OP flash built into your kit. You just need to learn some discipline in when to use it safely as it is both your engage and escape. Being able to distinguish between what situation you yourself are in is a key importance to mastering our Clown.

Let's start with the glyphs (blues):
-2 Magic Resist ~ +2.7 MR
[*] These are here so that it appears you have more MR runes and to give slight survivability
-7 Ability power ~ +8.3 AP
[*] These are arguably the least efficient of the rune page and can be switched for MRes but I prefer the AP for the stronger level 1

Next let's talk Seals (yellows):
-9 Mana regen ~ +3.7 Mana regen/ 5
[*] I use these to compensate for the early game lack of mana shaco has. Without them you will become oom pretty early and be forced to go back, or stay in lane and be irrelevant until you can afford to get frostfang. In my opinion you need some mana regen somewhere in the rune page, so I find these are necessary

Next let's talk Marks (reds):
-3 MPen ~ +2.6 MPen
[*] These are here just for some better poke ability with shivs and give a bit more MPen. I guess these could be exchanged as well but personally I wouldn't know what to exchange them for other than maybe some more armor reds
-6 Armor ~ +5.5 Armor
[*] Since we are using MReg yellows we need to put some armor back into the rune page and armor marks are pretty efficient. They give you a little bit of extra resistance so that when you go into enemy AA range to shiv them, you can still win the trade.

Lastly Quints:
-3 Ability Power ~ + 14.85 AP
[*] These I hope are more obvious than the rest. Shaco is strong early and this AP along with runes and the glyphs will give a nice 27 AP at level 1. While this doesn't seem massive I'll discuss in the next section why that early AP is useful.

Season 6 has brought some shifts in the meta that accommodates snowbally champions and has taken the focus off of the juggernaut meta. Both of which are beneficial to our beloved clown and his presence in the botlane as a support. I am still toying with runes though I think I have made an optimal mastery page. My issue with the runes are that I no longer get 5% CDR from my masteries so presently my full builds with the same runes I've used previously leaves me at 35% CDR which is not necessarily a bad thing but 40% would be preferred. I could potentially remove the 5% from my rune page and build the new Boots of Lucidity which I like, but I am not sure how best to replace the 6 CDR glyphs in my rune page. Details aside, I really like the new meta changes and I think it allows shaco support to snowball his lane along with the strength of the new adcs.


EDIT: Here is where I will discuss some of the changes in my Support Shaco build and playstyle in this new season now that I have played what I would consider a decent enough amount to give feedback. FIRST AND FOREMOST, I find Tear to NO LONGER be the optimal item to rush. In discussions on Reddit, a fellow shaco enthusiast expressed his opinion on my build and commented on the significant amount of mana regen. I have always built tear because I believe that shaco's mana pool is small and Tear provides a cheap means to essentially eliminate the fear of going oom. The problem I always faced however was my lack of available item slots in building. I would rush tear and not upgrade to Archangel's until after I finished 3-4 other items. This would mean I had a 700 gold item occupying an inventory slot for ~40 minutes of the game and while I knew this wasn't the best idea, I thought there was no other way. Now in Season 6 I start with Spellthief's which can quickly be upgraded to Frostfang which grants +100% Base Mana Regen and a noticeable amount of AP. Taking frostfang greatly benefits your mana regen, arguably enough to warrant no longer needing that tear. Without tear in my build now I have an extra item slot that I much needed. I now build a sightstone every game and I feel like snowballing is much easier.

First back:
~500 Gold ---> Frostfang
~800 Gold ---> Frostfang + Boots
~1,000 Gold ---> Frostfang + Amp tome

Next Back:
Fiendish Codex
Sightstone
Forbidden Idol
Ionian Boots of Lucidity

First Major Item:
The new Frost Queen's Claim is a great item and the nerfs it received a few patches ago were understandable. It is still a great first item as it provides the same Mana regen as Morellonomicon (100%), passively generates gold, and not to mention the active.

Next Big Item:
Still a very important item for Shaco, I get Morellonomicon. The fact it is slightly more expensive and Grevious Wounds no longer work the same makes it less of a priority. Though the CDR, AP, and Mana Regen make it still extremely important on Shaco.

Now you should be sitting pretty with a FQC, Sightstone, Ionian Boots, and Morellonomicon. From here you get options:

Against AD HEAVY team:

ZZ'rot to deal with splitpushers. It is also one of the most gold efficient items in the game and provides good MR/ Armor resistances.
Zhonya's if they have some crazy burst you need to survive
Iceborn Gauntlet if you need to kite. If you get IG though you should forego some other CDR items in the build. I don't typically build IG.

Against AP HEAVY team:

Banner of Command is normally my go to item against AP teams. The AoE MR, AP, and active are all great
You could potentially build Athenes Unholy Grail instead of Morellonomicon

Play Video

I intend on creating another video with several of my early game cheddars (successful and unsuccessful) against multiple matchups to show how it should be played.

Shaco upon entering summoner's rift has a tight agenda to follow. Buy your starting items; 3 HP pots and spellthiefs. Tell your jungler to start bottom side and NOT TO SMITE IMMEDIATELY (if he does theres a good chance your box will steal the camp). At 0:41 Seconds place a box at gromp or kruggs, then wait for the cooldown, place another, and immediately head to lane with your adc. Tell your ADC to stand in the middle of the lane and farm as soon as creeps arrive.You should make it to the edge of the bush on the enemy side by the time your box cooldown comes up and you want to take your hand off the mouse, press W, wait 16 seconds, press W, wait another 16 seconds, then place a third box. If done without moving your mouse they should all be on a single stack which is important because if/ when the enemy face checks that bush, all the boxes will immediately go off which is maximum DPS.

This small trap set up will 7/10 times result in first blood or summoner spells blown. There is a bit of strategy to it however, if the enemy support is a relic shield starting champ, you want your adc to stand in lane and farm as soon as the creeps arrive because relic shield champs will almost never facecheck and if you and your adc stay in the brush hoping for it you will end up losing farm and they will get the early advantage. If the enemy is a coin or spellthief champion then they will almost ALWAYS facecheck.

Some quick math to finish this section: At 27 AP your box will deal 35 + 5 damage per attack. With 3 boxes you will deal 120 damage with each attack. Each box will attack 9 times over 5 seconds so there's a potential damage output of 120*9 = 1,080 over 5 seconds or 216.0 DPS at level 1. While this is obviously much more total damage output then will actually happen (because they wont stand in it for the full 5 second box channel) it makes you realize the pick potential if they decide to facecheck. Add in basic attacks from both you and your adc and a 0.5 second fear and ignite you can almost guarantee yourself or your adc will get FirstBlood.

In my opinion, through much practice and trial I will make a tier list of the ADC's that work well with out beloved clown. I find that ADC's with strong early burst and an escape work best.

God tier:

Caitlyn: While she isn't the most used ADC and can fall off late compared to others, I find her to be very strong with shaco because both of their early games excel and you can bully the enemy lane hard. A cait with a shaco support should start yordle traps level 1 and should go straight to the enemy brush and place these traps on the edges of the bush. If done right this is literally a 95% or more chance you WILL get first blood.
Tristana: Start Bomb level 1. Works well because she has a good escape and it resets on kills which shaco can almost guarantee that reset. Great siege potential and solid range.
Lucian: With the pre-S6 changes Lucian has become incredibly strong. He's slippery and can poop out damage. This is a very strong lane. I expect nerfs to him in the near future but for now he is a great compliment to Support Shaco.
Jhin: The newest marksman has found his way to the meta rather quickly. His strong trade, long range, traps, and snare really compliments Shaco's kit. Start W level 1 and try to snare them if they facecheck. I really like Jhin.

A tier:
Jinx: Lacks an escape, but her strong poke, her trap, and long range help her and shaco bully. Similarly to tristana, Jinx's ability to escape comes from proc'ing her passive which shaco can almost always do.
Ezreal: Ezreal is a solid choice with Shaco. He has good pew pew and mobility/ escape. His ult works great for picks and finishing kills. I didn't like him much last season but now I feel like he is a much more reliable choice.
Sivir: Another strong pick, her spellshield if used well gives her a better way of handling herself than any other adc. I consider Sivir a safe pick. Her ult is good with shaco and she can poke hard.
Corki: Strong burst and a good escape. Very strong kill lane.

B Tier:
Quinn: Quinn is in a very strong position with the new changes to her but she has seen less play botlane and I can't say I've played enough to properly evaluate her. I definitely think she is a strong pick with Shaco. I think I will be moving her up to A Tier pretty soon unless a nerf hits her.
Miss Fortune: Good mobility but lacks the escape. Does work well with shaco but you gotta be careful

C Tier:
Ashe: Lacks escape and relies on an support with good peel. I actually play a good amount of Shaco/ Ashe. It's much better than I imagined it in my head. But against anyone with strong engage I would not recommend picking ashe. Good poke tho and a the ult is great with shaco.
Varus: Too immobile but the poke and the ultimate work great with shaco. It's just risky because if he's in a bad spot there's not much you can do for him

D Tier: (These are champs I would not recommend using with shaco)
Urgot: LOL who plays him?
Twitch: Early game is weak and you can't peel for him. It also makes the lane too susceptible to pink wards.
Kog'Maw: He needs more peel than you can offer

If you notice I left out two very important ADC's. I did this because they depend on the skill level of a player. Both Vayne and Draven are completely viable with shaco and in the hands of a good player I'd consider them God or atleast A tier.

Ruby Sightstone: This is normally not upgraded until I have FQC and ZZrot/ Banner. I normally just keep the sightstone for a while before upgrading but the new passive that reduces item active cooldowns helps shaco keep up pressure.

Ionian Boots of Lucidity: The new CDR boots are a good choice on shaco. You already have a solid amount of damage and the mastery changes this season has made me emphasize CDR less level 1 (i took CDR blues out of Rune page). Without the CDR in my runes or masteries I have to get 40% CDR purely from items. These boots give us that 40% after just finishing FQC and Morello. The new passive on them that reduces Summoner Skill cooldowns by 10% helps Shaco have Ignite and Exhaust available more often which obviously makes a big difference in fights.

Frost Queen's Claim: The new FQC is a great item. It is cheap and provides a ton of Mana regen. It gives a sizeable amount of AP and 10% CDR. The main benefit of this item; however, is the Active which I have found to be invaluable. It is CLUTCH for chasing, fleeing, finding nearby enemies, allowing you to check if enemy is at dragon or baron, etc. It has a ton of uses, all of which are greatly beneficial to Shaco and complementary to his kit.

Morellonomicon: this item is vital for support shaco. It's cheap and every Stat is what our clown needs. 20% CDR gives you more boxes and shiv spammability while allowing you to Q sooner and thereby escaping more situations. The 80 Ability power is a sizeable amount that gives shaco a solid spike in power. The mana Regen helps with keeping your mana up obviously. Lastly the passive, Grevious wounds, is great for shaco who relies on bursting down enemies quickly.

Banner of Command: this item is another more utility focussed one that may seem peculiar on shaco but hear me out. The recent changes to aegis of the legion and it's build paths helped support shaco. Aegis is cheaper and gives you and your team some MR. It also builds into the new banner of command which gives you some more ability power and the active which can apply significant Lane pressure. By putting a super minion bot you can pressure baron and someone will have to go botlane to kill it or risk losing a turret. Similarly placing one toplane allows you to pressure dragon.

ZZ'Rot Portal: This item is normally my alternative to Banner of Command. If the team is more AD heavy and has the threat of split pushing, ZZ'Rot gives some counterplay and sizeable resistances which will keep you alive longer.

Rylais: this item recently was changed and became much stronger and more useful. Your boxes proc the slow which makes your boxes even more cancerous. I normally don't end up building this unless the team has got juggernauts or a comp that needs to be kited, even then though, at 3000 gold, it can take a while to finish this item and it lacks some usefulness and utility I feel you can get out of some cheaper items.

Zekes harbinger: this is an item I was really excited about when it was re-released and I tried building it a number of times but it never really seemed too impactful the way I play shaco because I'm not normally alongside my ADC long enough to get the active off. I play shaco as the assassin he is and in team fights I'll stay back and box and poke until I can see an enemy that is weak and able to be burst down by me. Check out my tank shaco section for more info on building this good item.

Ludens echo: another good item on AP shaco but I feel like it is too expensive and only necessarily gives kill potential and no utility. Definitely would not be a bad item to grab, but for the gold there is probably other items that you could finish building earlier and have more affect.

Zhonyas: same thing as with Ludens. It's expensive and the gold could be better spent elsewhere. The active is solid and will help you stall out for Q to come off cool down.

Play Video ^Another ****-tier video of mine. Takes far too long to explain things but is a visual and literal explanation of where and why I box.


During the laning phase you will want to retain brush control in Lane and brush control against incoming ganks. A box at the edge of a brush or even making it appear as though you've placed a box there applies pressure and Lane dominance. I try and keep one box in the lane brush, which Lane brush depends on who is pushing, you or the enemy. I like to keep another box on the side of the lane in the middle of the river to deter any ganks and impede on any aggressive movements by the enemy. I also try and keep a box or my trinket in trip bush if I'm on blue side. Getting an early pink ward for dragon is great, but getting 2 early pinks, placing one in the furthest corner Tri bush and a box in front of it will protect your pink ward until you either leave Lane or die. Maintaining a pink ward in tri allows you to ask for ganks and will keep you safe for a while. When your jungler is ready to do dragon you have another pink to drop down and get a free dragon.

Now more into how the laning phase is played... You want to mostly focus on using your mana for boxes in the early game. Do not use unnecessary Q's as it makes a large dent in your early game mana pool and can easily put you at a disadvantage. I will use the shiv to poke if my level 1 brush trap worked as I can B soon and get a frostfang. After you get the frostfang you still have to be fairly cautious of mana consumption but you're definitely more capable of poking with shiv. Depending on how the lane is pushing you want to keep some boxes behind your wave to stop any aggression that comes. You want to tell your adc to care when he has creep aggro. Unnecessarily pulling creeps into boxes while the enemy is in lane hurts much more than you'd think. With a ~15 second cool down you can only have 3/4 boxes up at any given time, so having one go to waste hurts your counter aggression and puts your adc at risk. If the enemy is not being too aggressive and you know they don't have vision somewhere you can use the same box stacking technique you used level 1 to get summoners, potions, or kills out of the enemy lane. Be careful though that you do not tunnel vision on stacking the boxes and forget about protecting from enemy ganks. I normally only do this against melee supports or squishies when I have/had vision on the enemy jungler and know he won't be botlane any time soon.

If the enemy goes in on you and your adc you want to place a box so that after the 1.5 second delay, it is in a good position to stop the enemy and save your adc. This takes general knowledge of shaco and honestly just experience.

If you and your adc get an early advantage, you can be aggressive, this is where I love shaco support. As a jungler shaco excels because of his unparalleled gank potential, as a support, his kit gives your Lane tremendous kill potential. You can Q behind, box between where the enemy is and where he is going to go, as you place the box and lose stealth

Remaining relevant throughout the game:
As you get later in the game it can be increasingly difficult to see how shaco can remain relevant in fights and objectives. After laning phase you want to roam and get vision either with sightstone or by placing boxes at important choke points which in turn gives you map control and zoning. For objectives you want to have a pink ward or upgraded red trinket to be sure they have no vision. You can begin boxing dragon a minute before it spawns, while this will make you lose a decent amount of experience, if your team shows up at spawn the Dragon will go down incredibly fast to 4-5 boxes and allies. If you don't feel the need to box the Dragon pit you can set up boxes to stop/slow down the enemy team coming to contest it. If you know a fight will happen over the Dragon you can take scuttle and then box in the middle of the river outside the Dragon pit. Alot of shaco relevance comes from experience and knowing when and where fights will occur and properly anticipating where your boxes will most effectively be placed. The illuminati shaco box trick is obviously a very useful zone control in teamfite

Alright guys, this is arguably the most important section. In League of Legends the most important principle is teamwork. Teamwork in the form of communication, synergy, and togetherness. In order to properly synergize with your ADC you've got to match. This section will be your cheatsheet for what Shaco Skin to use with which ADC skin.

ADC Skin

---

Shaco Skin


Ashe:
Base

---

Madhatter

Amethyst

---

Royal

Heartseeker

---

Base, Nutcracko, Royal

Marauder

---

Wildcard

Queen

---

Masked

Sherwood

---

Workshop

Woad

---

Workshop


Caitlyn:
Base

---

Royal

Arctic

---

Workshop, Wildcard

Headhunter

---

Wildcard

Lunar Wraith

---

Asylum

Officer

---

Asylum

Resistance

---

Workshop

Safari

---

Workshop

Sheriff

---

Madhatter


Corki:
Base

---

Base

Dragonwing

---

Nutcracko

Fnatic

---

Wildcard

Hotrod

---

Madhatter

Ice Toboggan

---

Masked

Red Baron

---

Base

UFO

---

Workshop

Urfrifer

---

Wildcard


Draven:
Base

---

Wildcard

Beast Hunter

---

Royal, Madhatter

Draven Draven

---

Workshop

Gladiator

---

Workshop

Pool Party

---

Royal

Primetime

---

Nutcracko

Soul Reaver

---

Asylum


Ezreal:
Base

---

Workshop

Ace of Spades

---

Wildcard

Debonair

---

Masked

Explorer

---

Workshop

Frosted

---

Madhatter, Asylum

Nottingham

---

Workshop

Pulsefire

---

Asylum

Striker

---

Masked

TPA

---

Base


Graves:
Base

---

Wildcard

Cutthroat

---

Nutcracko, Wildcard

Hired Gun

---

Asylum

Jailbreak

---

Wildcard

Mafia

---

Madhatter

Pool Party

---

Workshop

Riot

---

Wildcard, Madhatter


Jhin:
Base

---

Masked, Base

High Noon

---

Base, Madhatter


Jinx:
Base

---

Royal

Firecracker

---

Nutcracko

Mafia

---

Masked

Slayer

---

Royal


Kalista:
Base

---

Asylum

Bloodmoon

---

Nutcracko

Championship

---

Asylum


Kogmaw:
Base

---

Masked

Battlecast

---

Wildcard

Caterpillar

---

Workshop

Deep Sea

---

Nutcracko

Jurassic

---

Workshop, Masked

Lion Dance

---

Nutcracko

Monarch

---

Royal, Asylum

Reindeer

---

Workshop

Sonoran

---

Madhatter, Nutcracko, Base


Lucian:
Base

---

Masked, Madhatter

Hired Gun

---

Royal, Asylum

Project

---

Wildcard

Striker

---

Asylum, Masked


Miss Fortune:
Base

---

Base

Arcade

---

Royal

Candy Cane

---

Base, Nutcracko

Captain

---

Base, Nutcracko, Wildcard

Cowgirl

---

Workshop

Mafia

---

Madhatter, Royal

Road Warrior

---

Madhatter

Secret Agent

---

Royal

Waterloo

---

Nutcracko


Quinn:
Base

---

Asylum

Corsair

---

Madhatter

Phoenix

---

Royal, Base

Woad Scout

---

Masked, Workshop


Sivir:
Base

---

Wildcard, Madhatter

Bandit

---

Base, Wildcard

Huntress

---

Royal, Base

Inquisitor

---

Wildcard

PAX

---

Asylum, Madhatter

Snowstorm

---

Asylum

Spectacular

---

Nutcracko

Victorious

---

Royal

Warrior Prncs

---

Royal


Tristana:
Base

---

Royal

Buccaneer

---

Royal, Workshop

Dragon Train

---

Royal

Earnest Elf

---

Workshop

Firefighter

---

Base, Nutcracko

Guerilla

---

Wildcard, Royal, Nutcracko

Riot Girl

---

Royal

Rocketeer

---

Wildcard


Twitch:
Base

---

Workshop

Gangster

---

Madhatter, Wildcard

Kingpin

---

Wildcard

Medieval

---

Nutcracko

Pickpocket

---

Madhatter, Wildcard

SSW

---

Asylum, Masked

Vandal

---

Madhatter

Whistler Vill

---

Wildcard, Workshop


Urgot:
Base

---

Workshop?

Battlecast

---

Wildcard

Butcher

---

F*ck he's ugly

Crabgot

---

See above


Varus:
Base

---

Royal

Arclight

---

Masked

Arctic

---

Asylum

Blight

---

Madhatter, Royal

Heartseeker

---

Base

Swiftbolt

---

Royal, Workshop


Vayne:
Base

---

Nutcracko, Asylum

Arclight

---

Royal, Masked

Aristocrat

---

Wildcard

Dragonslayer

---

Asylum

Heartseeker

---

Base

SKT T1

---

Base

Vindicator

---

Asylum