Shaco - Right Next to You

Introduction

Hello everybody, and welcome to my AD Shaco guide.
This is my second Shaco build. He's my favorite champion, that's why I wanted to show you the way I play him. Please be sure to reconsider any downvotes.

Hope you enjoy it!

Pros / Cons

Pros

• Stealth.
• Great escaper/chaser/troller.
• A good backdoor-er.
• Can neutralize enemy carries in seconds.
• Can jungle without smite :) (i'm not doing that :/)

Cons

• Very early-mid game dependable.
• Item dependable.
• Some mistakes can make you useless overall.

Masteries

I prefer usual offensive masteries to jungle with.

They work fine on Shaco, especially Brute Force and Lethality

Runes

For runes, I choose my usually DPS build, even tho you can change them as you prefer it best. Now, to get tanky early game (so you can early game gank and jungle with no problem) you need armor and magic resistance.

Now, you may say that crit damage setup or even attack damage marks are better. Critical damage was O.K. on old Shaco. This new dude needs some armor penetration.

Viable and non viable summoner spells

Here I will explain you what spells i usually take with Shaco and what spells are not taken, because they do no effect/are useless to him and his tricky gameplay.

Clairvoyance is a support spell that does not fit to Shaco

SPACE

Shaco doesn't needs Rally to jungle, he can do it quite well without it

SPACE

Fortify is usually taken by tanks...

---

Now, the good spells, the ones who's "worth it"

Smite is a needed jungling spell, even you can jungle without it.

SPACE

Ignite gives a good damage output to finish enemies off

SPACE

Flash is the best escaping skill![/colums]

Abilities explanation and sequence

Backstab
Bonus damage if you strike enemies from behind.
It's one of your best tricks to use. It's added damage is 25%, which can mean really much when you get some attack damage and start pissing enemy carries off.
Deceive
Four seconds stealth and a 100% critical hit.
This is your signature spell. You can use it to escape, chase enemies, get tons of damage if combined well with your passive.
Jack In The Box
Places an invisible box which gets activated when enemies get close.
The boxes are not so useful when you play as attack damage and lane, but much useful when you jungle. You can also use them to fear enemies and kill them faster.
Two-Shiv Poison
Throws a dagger which slows enemies.
You can use this skill passive to slow, take miss chance from minions (which can result in a better jungling) or just throw it to boost damage.
Hallucinate
Creates an illusion of yourself.
This illusion deals 75% of your damage but takes 150% increased damage. It's your best trick as a joker. You can use your clone to tank the dragon, to self explode for AoE damage, and to trick and troll foes, making them think he's the real YOU.

Core Items

• : We need this item to jungle better and to place wards around the jungle.
• : Ganking boots. As you're a jungler you must "roam" and gank to get kills.
• : Best choose. It stacks with your passive and Deceive so you will get tons of damage after this item is done.
• : It gives you health, mana, ability power, attack speed, attack damage, so overall one of the best items to get.
• : Resistance for mid-late game when you are pretty much squishy and easily killed if disabled.
• : You can have a second chance every 5 minutes. Eminem had his second chance, why don't you get it too?

Situational offense items

The Bloodthirster
You can take this item if you need more damage with your skills and more lifesteal. Now this item is usually taken by carries. If your team needs another carry or it's carry is too weak you can do the role of the carry. Still it's too hard for you to carry, because you begin to fall off late game. Leave this job to guys like Nocturne Ashe etc...
The Black Cleaver
If your damage isn't working fine against enemies with slightly 100 armor, you can take this item over Last Whisper, it will give you more damage, attack speed, and will work as well as last whisper at penetrating enemies' armor (+armor pen runes). Still try not to waste money on this item if it's not too necessary.
Last Whisper
Well in situations when enemy tanks are getting fed as hell and you can't get a piece of their damage you can get this item (combined with The Black Cleaver and armor penetration runes). But if the tank is so strong it's no problem for you because your job is to finish the carries, so this item is taken only rarely when they're really pissing you off. Don't forget to possibly combine it with The Black Cleaver.
Wit's End
Maybe it looks really ******ed. I'm not an hungry Warwick or a ninja Lee Sin but this item stacks perfectly well with Deceive and attack speed. Dropping their carry's magic resistance down makes him even more fragile and squishy AND targetable.
Phantom Dancer
It gives you attack speed, critical chance and movement speed. Each one of this items' goods stack with your skills and boots. As I said before, you need to leave items like these to carries. Please don't try to carry with this dude as in 80% of cases you will fail. You'll need to be lv18 with lv10 enemies to be really really successful and/or finish all your build before 25-30 minutes. Yes, now you can carry...

Situational defense items

Thornmail
Let's guess their team is full of attack damage carries. I think this item is your best choose then. It gives you +100armor, and it turns back 30$ of the damage they deal to you.:
30% x 300 = 100. Everytime they hit you (let's guess 300 dmg or crit 300) they'll take their damage back. So, no fear bozo' go straight to them. Still don't abuse, get this item only rarely.
Frozen Heart
It is an adorable item when it comes to ganking. Can slow enemies without even touching them. Combined with your Two-Shiv Poison slow the enemies won't ever run away. It's a great defense and offensive (a bit) item really but still remember to not abuse it. Until now I played only like 2 matches where I needed to take this item because of enemies running away with Ghost or Flash.
Frozen Mallet
Again a "Frozen" thing. This item gives a big amount of hp, and also a big amount of on-hit slow. It works so good if combined with Frozen Heart but together they cost like 5k+ gold. With that cash you can almost get Infinity Edge + Trinity Force awesome combo. DON'T ABUSE IT!!
Warmog's Armor
This item is the last thing I would consider picking as you. It gives nice HP and it's the best HP item in the game, but seriously, I never used this item. You can buy a Frozen Mallet instead. It's on the list because it's useful at very rare cases when you can even go Atmog's ( Warmog's Armor + Atma's Impaler). If it's worth trying it out, leave me your feedback so maybe I can try it.
Spirit Visage
I consider this as the best mid-game counter AP item. It's so cheap, and it gives you lots of HP and Magic Resistance. I personally recommend this item if enemies got high AP damage. It's a good and cheap counter...

Gameplay

To make the explanation easier, I will divide this chapter in "mini chapters"...

Yellow: Usual spots.
Orange: Thinkable spots.
Red: How can the enemies get there? o.O

---

Summary

Thank you all readers. If you took your team to read all my Shaco guide, then please comment and give me +rep. I will be happy to see some upvotes and please if you downvote contact me so I can think about what I did wrong.

Special thanks to:

jhoijhoi

for his awesome template which you can find here:
jhoijhoi's awesome guide template

<3

Frequently asked questions

You said Shaco is not a carry, nor an offtank, nor a tank. Why should I pick him as a jungler? I can pick Amumu or Nunu or Warwick which are way better...

I can never win a 1v1 battle if I get counter jungled. What should I do to jungle successfully and without staying back with XP?

You said I can jungle without smite. Why you don't teach us how to do that?

I can notice at the beginning of the guide that you places two kinds of glyphs. Which of them fits more?

Change Log

DATE:01/11/2011

• Guide Created

DATE:05/11/2011

• Added some new chapters
• Fixed grammar mistakes

DATE:06/11/2011

• Added tags
• Frequently Asked questions chapter

DATE:08/11/2011

• Divided the 'Gameplay' chapter onto mini-chapters

DATE:09/11/2011

• Adopted jhoijhoi's template
• Fixed grammar mistakes
• Added new chapters
• Divided the 'Items' chapter into 'Core Items' and 'Situational Items'

DATE:11/11/2011

• Added 'Change Log' chapter

DATE:12/11/2011

• Fixed grammar mistakes
• Last check of the guide
• Guide ready to publish

DATE:12/11/2011 - TIME: 10:43 AM
GUIDE PUBLISHED
HURRAY!