In this guide i want to show you how to carry ranked games with Shaco. Shaco is one of the most underrated junglers in this game. Everybody says Shaco fails late game, or he can't carry, etc. I run into alot of players who will dodge games just because I picked shaco. He has a reputation because so many players aren't good with him. Shaco is probably the strongest early game champion to gank with, his mid game is always decent, and late game with this build is always a benefit if you follow this guide.

I will be going over a few different things, trying to avoid the common sense stuff. This includes:

Pro's/Cons

Runes
Masteries
Spells
Items
Jungling
How to best apply Shaco

Pro's

-One of the best champions to carry ranked games.
-Jack in the box makes him a fast paced jungle
-assassin, adc's and apc's better run
-Strong Early game
-High damagae, easily taking dragons and baron by himself
-can splitpush, backdoor, counterjungle, or pull double and triple kills most of the game
-Good at stealing jungle kills including baron and dragon
-Underrated as hell
-Fun to play

Cons

-Squishy
-Champions with slows/stuns/taunts make ganks alot harder
-His jungle is easily ruined if team doesn't give him protection at level 1.
-No escape for a few seconds when you deceive into fights

I've seen alot of different rune setup's for Shaco over the last few years. Typically, Shaco runes armor and attack speed runes although with season 3 I've come to see the benefit of running some damage runes to speed up the early game kills and jungle so I can be where the other team doesn't expect me.

ex: because of my damage, after I get my first buff at the 1:55 mark, blue is dead by 2:05. I can get to the other jungle's red, lay 2 boxes and steal their red before they even enter that side of their jungle. Just to give a little perspective on how fast Shaco is compared to other jungles, I can lay 4-5 boxes in their jungle by their red before they come that way from their blue. That's 15 seconds per box, so 1-1:15 ahead of the jungle coming out of the gate to start the game.

Other runes that I've seen work decently are replacing the damage runes with attack speed which helps in jungle and ganks after your 2nd buff/once u get bloodrazor's. Beyond that, the runes don't vary too much.

Spells for Shaco

Obviously, you will take smite, so you can steal buffs,dragons,barons. The second spell i take is ignite, since atleast a few times during the early game the opposing team will escape under the protection of their tower. After level 6 its common to use ur clone to tank tower damage, so u can dive turrets for kills making ignite useful.

The second ability that you could take instead of ignite is exhaust, for the same reason of diving turrets and because of my movement speed and passive, nobody will escape.

I know there will be quite a bit of a discussion, seeing as how everybody likes to argue my build is wrong. Duel Infinity Edge's, no other item gives you damage like that, and a high crit chance. We're looking at an assassin with over 400 damage, around a 2.0 attack speed, 90% crit chance that does 250% damage per hit. add another 20% if their running away, and a 500 damage shiv. Then include the clone doing damage. Now for the why's of each item

Bloodrazor

asap, obviously helps in the jungle. I never build it beyond the bloodrazor, it isn't required and is a waste of gold after 15-20 minutes of gameplay because your banking on kills,and items should be build up enough to jungle without it at a fast pace.

Berserker Greaves

are a big help early and mid game to increase attack speed and movement speed for those ganks until you can afford the more expensive movement items like zephyr and trinity force, and phantom dancer. Typically i don't sell these off until i have my last movement speed item.

Blood Thirster

an obvious item, +70-100 damage, and lifesteal. shiv is physical damage based, and slows the target down. Building this allows for more damage and therefore more kills during ganks not to mention no more wasted gold on potions. Once you have this you can take dragon with little to no damage done to urself, low risk basically.

Phantom Dancer

is the turning point in early/mid game because it gives you the movement and attack speed along with your first chunk of crit chance. Allows ganks to come faster, ward avoidance is easier because you can move further while deceived.

Infinity Edge

is your 2nd chunk of damage, not to mention more crit chance. By this point any champion who isn't a tank should be an easy kill. 55% crit chance once you have this. Definitely a mid-game item unless you have 8+ kills.

Another Infinity Edge

same benefits 80% crit chance, this puts you over 300 damage.

Trinity Force

is amazing with shaco, one of the huge items to get. increases basically everything he needs not to mention the passive with him. This item makes his assassinations alot stronger because of spellblade. 200% damage on the next hit after using an ability. ex: deceive for 120% bonus damage, shiv for slow and damage, then spellblade for 200% of regular damage. This combination will put down any typical fluffy champions.

Zephyr

is the last item, makes attack speed fast for multiple kills, along with replacing the beserker greaves movement. Also helps a little against all the slows and stuns you will probably be receiving in team fights. 25 extra damage doesn't hurt either.

Shaco is a little unique in his jungling. Its not the hardest thing to figure out. You can start at blue or red, and solo for the buffs at level 1. First box needs to be placed by the 1:00 mark though, then every 15 seconds until the monster appears. A smart way to play this out is that i rush my items then run into the grass that most teams run through to steal blue and slow Shaco down. I place a box there at the 45 second mark, then have my mid stand behind the box. This allows my mid to do some damage when my box goes off, or escape if its their whole team.

I will normally grab blue, since shaco is a little reliant on mana for ganks until level 9. Once i have my blue, i can run to the opposing jungles red, and set a trap or steal their red. A trap is risky, because i need to keep aware of the lanes closest to me, and go after him at the perfect time else he escapes and i miss stealing his buff (aka the bait). The best thing to do is hide in the grass and watch him fight the red. when u can throw a box behind him, smite the red to steal it, then shiv him. Most jungles you will kill, although a few escape those being udyr, and hecarim. If you team hasn't messed up, this will typically get you first blood.

The best way to use Shaco in my opinion is to feed off of the ganks, steal the buffs and wraith jungle, and take towers whenever possible. Don't let anybody get too fed on their team, if their is a spree you need to end it. Once the team fights begin, your goal is to wait until the fight is initiated, then deceive behind their back line where the apc and adc is and take them out using the deceive, shiv, clone, box combination in that order. Without their apc and adc, your team should have an easy win on that team fight.

If someone buys an oracle's elixir to counter you, you need to communicate with your team and have them focus that person. The only real counter to Shaco is wards, when you play Shaco you need to know where the wards are, how to avoid wards, and sometimes deward the map if its required.