I really like the Talent Tree in Season 3. It gives AD casters alot of burst potential and fits perfectly with Shaco's Kit.

The mastaries are pretty standard, but I would like to add a bit more detail and Justification to a few of them.

frenzy - This mastery is perfect for Shaco. An idea of how this works is whenever you use Deceive, you will guarantee yourself a free 10% Attack Speed buff. Who needs Zeal?

perseverance - Critics will frown upon this skill. Some others like me will think that the skill is practical, and some would not give a ****. My justification on this skill is that Shaco at times does have some ideal time between jungling, ganking and setting up traps. I feel like this skill will help Shaco maintain a "fuller" HP pool, which enticeses me to get this skill over Durability which will give me a higher HP pool (by very little). Eh.. The choice is yours anyways (if you have some ground breaking mathematical proof)


ALTERNATIVE

Personally for when I'm in the mood to counter jungle I like to take: Butcher and Destruction cver Frenzy and Lethality .

Shaco's kit is very psychological, you want the enemy team to have fear in their hearts. Fear to extend, fear to enter a bush or area and fear that you can be anywhere watching them and waiting for the perfect opportunity. Shaco is a DPS champion who has a good kit of skills which can potentially make you a sort of AD CASTER.






Backstab - 20% more damage... if you attack the enemy from the back. This can make a massive difference in your DPS and also will make the enemies dig their own grave when running away from you. When playing Shaco it is very important to install a psychological advantage to your enemies, make them fear you. Make them scared. Shaco feeds off this fear and it only will make him stronger, consider this idea: if you scare the enemy, his natural instincts will be to run away from you, an attempt which is quite foolish when you think about all the abilities you have to catch up to them, whilst the enemy is running away his back is turned to you... this means when auto-attacking you will deal 25% more damage so you kill them faster.



Deceive - With upcoming nerfed range, it has crippled the power of this skill's SURPRISE potential, since the orange smoke when you deceive is a bit more visable to the prey. But who gives a ****? you can still make plays.

This skill is for trickery, escapes and initiates. This skill in short is a spammable flash with motherf***ing stealth. Many Shaco's panic a little and think their stealth will not last long so they just Deceive and attack instantly, this is a decent move but you should understand that the effect lasts is 3.5 seconds long, you can deceive in and like the mad twisted clown you are get out of stealth by placing a box behind the enemies escape route (which will break stealth) but you will still be able to land the "special critical" on the target enemy!

Jack In The Box - Right about now this section is looking like a rainbow with all these colors, but I can't help it, I want you to understand the proper uses and understand how to play Shaco. This now comes to his hardest skill to master, the dreaded JiTB.

These boxes are very fragile and have a terribly long and boring cooldown, the damage they deal is pretty good early game but just slack off mid-late game without ability power. The best feature of these boxes are the AOE fears, which is basically an AOE stun. When ganking, after you deceive attack the enemy place a box right infront of the enemy or behind the enemy, basically try and interpret the path he will be taking as an escape and place the box there for hopefully a fear which will secure the kill for you. Use these boxes as a map ward also 90 seconds of stealth is a great way to ward the map and control your surroundings! The sheer number of uses this ability has is limitless!

A fun trick for counter-jungling champions who start at blue is to run straight for the bush near the wraith camp and stack these boxes. Its hilarious when the unsuspecting Amumu walks in the bush, dies, gives you blue, and proceeds to suffer a slow jungle.

Two-Shiv Poison - The best part of this skill is the inbuilt phage effect that stacks with Red Buff. Your auto-attacks will slow the enemy so you will be able to land more auto-attacks and reduce the chances of an enemy escaping. The active however is difficult to use because once you throw the dagger you have 3 seconds of a strong slow to finish the enemy off, if you fail you cannot slow with auto attacks for 8 seconds (or how long it takes for the two-shiv poison to get back up).

Use the active when the enemy flash's away, ghost's or uses some escape mechanism. You can also use it to finish off a kill. Lately I just use it to poke the enemy, pressure, just leave something for the enemy if I fail to gank a lane.


Hallucinate - I must admit, I have grown to like this skill. Using it to trick an enemy is beyond hilarious. But just keep in mind that your buffs will reveal you.

If you are pro tier. Hallucinate has a slight delay before the illusion spawns, allowing Shaco to evade damage and projectiles, including things such as Karthus's Requiem or 1 tick of Ignite. So yeah, good luck using hallucinate as your last attempt to survive or negate damage.

Another use is when tower-diving, using Hallucinate will reset tower aggro from you to the clone, so if your planning on a dive, try and plan when to use his ultimate, I think the best time to use it is for escape purposes. This ultimate can also be used to tank towers when backdooring but considering how fast it dies off I question how useful it really is.

Depending on your skill level if you are able to control yourself and the clone you can also use the clone as a projectile blocker - a.k.a "Human Shield". However becareful about this, since it can be a problem when you are low on health and running away since some champions like the ever so popular Akali can "R" to your clone in order to catch up to you. It also follows you when you are doing a quick "Q" get-a-away which can foil your plan, or if you can micro the clone to the opposite side of where you Deceive, you can guarantee an escape.

Controlling the clone is simple, HOLD ALT+RIGHT CLICK


Reminder: I will keep updating this section, adding pictures.. basically polishing it off later on, it can be quite boring to update guides.

center Proper itemization is vital in order to not waste the precious gold you have tried so hard to achieve. The whole concept of my itemization is to get MORE for LESS. In reality Shaco is not much of a farmer, and to be effective he does need a gradual build up. So these items are in a very reasonably price range and provides so many stats which benefit Shaco the most.

Hunter's Machete - It simply provides you with the fastest clear time. The faster you clear, the faster you can gank lanes.

Berserker's Greaves - Provides a huge boost in damage, also provides much needed ganking mobility and clear speed.

Madred's Razors - Faster clears. Better Jungle.

Statikk Shiv - For some reason this item feels like an Infinity Edge if you get it early. Your damage will sky rocket and you will notice it. It also speeds up jungle clears and provides some pushing power.

Ravenous Hydra - This item has quickly risen to my least favorite items to one of my special necessities on Shaco. It provides you with so much sustain and even more pushing power. But also, combined with Statikk Shiv it gives you some very scary and potential penta-kill power. (GOT A QUADRA IN RANKED WITH IT.)

Guardian Angel - You are now getting closer to the Late game stage, where Shaco shines as an assassin with huge burst damage but terrible survivability. The point of G.A is to increase your resistance and also allow you to be in the teamfight for longer before retreating with your precious second chance.

Optional items can be : Frozen Mallet , Sunfire Aegis. Lately I have been getting the Frozen Mallet instead of guardian angel because I feel it provides enough health to last teamfights and also provides more damage.

Trinity Force or Infinity Edge - Get Tri-Force if you want more survival and a small boost in damage. Get I.E if you want to 2 shot people and get 2 shot.

I usually get a G.A+Tri, or Frozen Mallet+I.E for late.

After finishing off your initial jungle route, you will want to constantly monitor and set a huge priority to grabbing Dragon when ever you can!

Sometimes it will be just impossible since the enemy team has better team co-operation, but usually you can finish dragon very fast, as early as level 6!

Attempt to do dragon only when you have a Wriggles Lantern (people who run Bloodrazors.. Meh, get a Wriggles, then a Bloodrazor)


Get your clone to attack dragon first, (Holding Alt and right clicking will send your clone to where you click). Whilst your clone is tanking dragon, attack from behind (this will allow you to deal more damage!), place a JiTB where you are positioned also, it helps in increasing DPS. Finally Smite the dragon when he is low on health and a Smite will insta-kill him, this prevents people from stealing your dragon.

Reminder: Always ask your team for help when you are doing dragon! I understand that you will want to be sneaky, but if anyone catches you... your pretty much screwed. GET YOUR TEAM TO DEFEND YOU/HELP YOU, the enemy will most likely want to dodge a teamfight and let you take dragon!

Warding is very important through-out the game. Shaco is very lucky to be gifted with a free ward his JiTB! The obvious downside however is that it attacks and eventually dies off. "Permanent" (time-based) wards such as the Wriggles Lantern ward are also key to control the jungle and provide more map awareness.

Warding the map for your team can save them from getting ganked (even though a few might be blind and not see the ganker, etc.) It gives them a better chance to react to the situation.





Oracles on Shaco, optional. I am very very tempted to add it to the item builds, however I feel that when you get it can be situational. In a good game, I rush it after I get my Wriggle's Lantern whilst in a bad game I get it when I notice I am dying less often.

You see there are Vision Wards that can SHUT YOU DOWN, they will cause you to be exposed and reveal you whilst stealth, this destroys your element of surprise and can ruin a gank/escape for you. Oracles also counter wards being placed by the enemy team, there is nothing more satisfying that making the enemy team WASTE 75++ gold for wards.

Grabing an Oracle can also counter other stealthers.. and an interesting fact about stealthers is that they are REALLY SQUISHY, so if you reveal a stealther.. they are pretty much D.E.A.D. Stealthers include: eve, akali, twitch and shaco. HOWEVER NOTE THAT SEASON 3 ORACLES HAVE A TIME LIMIT SO BUY WITH CAUTION. VISION WARDS MIGHT BE A BIT MORE TEMPTING PURCHASE IF YOU HAVE AN IDEA WHERE A CRITICAL GANKING SPOT IS WARDED.