DISCLAIMER: This build is an alternate to jungle Shaco, I'm not trying to demean jungle Shaco in any way, this is just an alternate.


Many people prefer to jungle with Shaco, but there are people that don't excel at jungling (with Shaco) and prefer to lane with him, which many people say isn't viable. In this guide I'll be explaining reasons of why I prefer lane Shaco to jungle Shaco, and the pros and cons of each approach. I will also be explaining the reasoning behind my items, masteries, skill sequence, and summoner spells. Additionally if you don't think that the items that I state in this build are viable enough for a lane/late game Shaco, I will be providing alternate items with explanations for each of them.

Pros
-Alternative to jungle Shaco
-If played correctly, Shaco can be devastating in lane
-If you don't excel at jungling, experience gain can be faster
-Similar item build to jungle Shaco
-There's the possibility of jungle Shaco being ganked, whereas if you're in a lane, you'll most likely not get ganked.


Cons
-If you can jungle properly with Shaco, the experience is much better for everyone, two solo lanes, and a jungler
-Easier ganking with jungle Shaco.
-You may be harassed in lane.

Runes

For my runes, I go with armor penetration, and attack speed, which is self-explanatory, explanation available on request.


Masteries

For my masteries I go 23/0/7, many people will probably say "OMG NOOB WHY YOU NO GO 21/0/9?" Well, with the extra two points in Utility (I'm assuming) you'll put into Awareness and Utility Mastery. Awareness will be useless when you're level 18, so there's no point in maxing it, might as well put it into something like Sunder because it will help you through out the whole game opposed to just early/mid game. Now, Utility Mastery... YOU ARE NOT JUNGLING, there is no need for it. Now, you say it can be helpful late game, I have to agree with that BUT mid/late game, you can take down blue/red in a couple of seconds and it'll last you a couple of minutes, a nice buff, but it's not needed. If you think about it, 1 point into Utility Mastery will just add an additional 10-30 seconds to your buff, where as those seconds could be used getting dragon, the buff in the enemy jungle, getting an enemy tower etc. Now, Good Hands over Perseverance/Expanded Mind (HP/Mana Regeneration), go look at your match history. Now tell me, how many games you've had when you've 0 deaths, probably one or two right? Now, tell me, have you ever been in the scenario when you were level 18 and 6-7 seconds away from being revived (assuming you took hp/mana regeneration) and something important happened? If you take Good Hands over HP/Mana regeneration you could have those 6-7 seconds to peruse that important event opposed to having an additional 10 mana/second which you can get with an item. This is why I think it's much more effective to go 23/0/7 with lane Shaco opposed to 21/0/9.


Skill Sequence

I usually max Two-Shiv first because of early game harassment --> kills, which will be further explained in this guide later on. The rest is self-explanatory.

Awesome Summoner Spells for Shaco

Ghost-hmm...MORE movement speed, which means more ganking and chasing. :) Great way for getting easy kills, and a nice escape with excellent synergy with your Q.

Ignite-I prefer to use this and ghost but just because early/mid game people ALWAYS get away with 30 health and it pisses me off. x.x I just ignite them and poof, ToastedPopcorn has slain _________.

Exhaust-A good alternate choice for ghost, helps with escaping and getting the kill and decreases the target's attack speed and damage. :)

Average Summoner Spells for Shaco

Heal-Always nice to have a heal. :)

Clarity-If you're playing AP Shaco, it's nice to have a mana boost to continuously harass your lane.

Flash-A nice alternative to ghost, your Q and flash is quite a hefty distance.

Cleanse-If you're being heavily CC'd and need a quick escape, you can Cleanse and Q out.

Really?

Revive-Free kill for the enemy?

Fortify-You're not a support.

Smite-Laning with Shaco and you take smite? AND you have a Mandreds? *facepalm

Early Game

Well, early game you essentially have to farm minions and constantly throw Two Shivs at your enemies and hopefully you'll get some kills. Remember this, NEVER go for the kill before you're level 2, the reason behind this is that you won't have your Deceive which is a great escape and has great damage output (automatic critical strike.) For example if you were Exhausted and stunned, when the stun is over you could get out with 100 health (using Deceive), better than dying right? So by mid game, about level 10-14, you should have your Sheen and Boots of Mobility, remember, all you do during early game is farm, harass, and hopefully get some kills. Two tips during early game is to NEVER tower dive and to last hit most of the minions (never auto-attack), this won't only help your Shaco, it will improve your overall performance as a player.


Mid Game

Mid game is similar to early game, except you don't really need to harass, focus on farming minions, and getting kills, preferably from "smart" ganking. Last hitting isn't a very important aspect of mid game because you're going to also focus on getting towers, don't you dislike it when your team IS SCARED OF TURRETS, they don't dare touching them and the aftermath is that you lose the game because your team is SCARED OF TURRETS and focuses on KILLS instead of PUSHING. To sum this all up, mid game is about farming your items without being an idiots and abolishing turrets.


Late Game

Late game is your time to shine, all that hard work farming those items and extirpating turrets. It's time to KILL. Spend late game going for kills and continuing extinguishing turrets, you will start to rip down everything that comes in your path, tanks, turrets, minions, EVERYTHING. Keep annihilating and carry your team to victory, well unless they're idiots and run away from turrets. *facepalm

Two Shiv/Deceive

Well, you hear about harassing in lanes a lot but you just can't do it. The key to harassing in lane is to NEVER, NEVER overextend, last hit minions so you don't push and keep the minion waves near your tower/in the middle of the lane. When your enemies come too close to you throw your Two Shiv/Deceive combo at them, toss a Two Shiv at them and deceive in and hit them. Go into the bush and wait until they go back and get back into your lane and start last hitting. Simple? Just rinse and repeat and you'll be fine. If there's no room for you to Deceive, you can just throw Two Shivs at them, surprisingly they do a hefty amount of damage, so that'll keep your opponents occupied for a while. :) I'll be happy to answer any of your questions concerning Shaco, just buddy me in game, ToastedPopcorn.


Hallucinate

Many people don't know the potential that Hallucinate has, you can control the clone by holding down ALT and the command you want it to do. I usually use this technique to tower dive, you send the clone in to tank the tower, do some damage to the enemy using the Two Shiv/Deceive combo, jump out, and make your clone follow the enemy, easy kill. Most people don't know that the clone does damage when it dies. This is one of the many ways to get an easy kill with Shaco.

This is why Shaco is famous in the LoL world, the infamous Jack in The Box. This is a game changer, I'm not exaggerating either. There are so many things you can do with these things you can use them as wards, you can use them as a escape, and you can use them to kill people (lol.) The infamous JiTB escape is when you run away from a person usually into a bush and you place a JiTB there, that person will be feared and you go in for the kill. You would usually run towards the bush, wait there, let the target get feared, hallucinate and take them down, easy kill thanks to the use of JiTB.

If you really want to get First Blood, you can use JiTB to achieve that. First you would get a Mana Crystal and then you rush down to the bush by the river on the side lane, either one works. Then you would spam JiTB inside of the bush until you have 5 or 6. You would tell one of your team mates to lure one of the enemies to that brush, and you'll be amazed at how fast they die, it's quite hysterical. Oh, and just ignore them if they start raging. :)

Boots of Mobility

The Boots of Mobility are my preferred boots on Shaco, because it provides many ganking and chasing opportunities and lets you get from Point A to B much faster. If you hate these boots with a passion or need to adjust to a situation you could get Berserker Greaves, or Mercury Treads, maybe even Sorcerers Boots.


Trinity Force

The Trinity Force is an AMAZING item for Shaco, it's a MUST HAVE for Shaco in my opinion. First of all, it provides movement speed which is already a reason of why you should get it, you already have Boots of Mobility and you'll soon get a Phantom Dancer, that will get you around ~500 movement speed, you can hunt down and chase enemies extremely quick and kill them with ease, who doesn't want that? Next it provides "the Sheen effect," so let me get this straight, you get a 120% critical strike from your Q AND an attack that DOUBLES your attack damage? These are just the essential parts of the Trinity Force, it provides almost every stat and a nice slow from the Phage, and to the people that say the slow is useless, when your Two Shiv is on it's cooldown you still have a slow. I know this paragraph is a bit rushed, but trust me, the Trinity Force is ESSENTIAL for a Shaco, it will dominate in most scenarios.


Mandreds Bloodrazer

This item can be replaced and you may not get it to adapt the the scenario, but I get it most of the games I play with Shaco. It's a VERY nice item, it provides the 4% life shred (I guess I could say) and you'll essentially have 2 attacks per second. That means in a second, you'll do 8% of a target's health ON TOP of your attack damage. If that isn't enough, you also get attack speed and damage. :)


Phantom Dance

Attack speed, critical strikes, and movement speed, what more could you want for Shaco?


Infinity Edge and Bloodthrister

A bit self-explanatory attack damage, critical strike, and lifesteal. :)

[Work in Progress]

Shaco is a great all around champion, he can jungle effectively and efficiently in the right hands. But if you hate jungling with a passion or you just don't like to jungle, laning is a viable option. It has many advantages and disadvantages, it's all based on your personal preference, so either way, just have fun and enjoy the game. :)

*Any constructive criticism is appreciated*

-Many additional sections.
-AP Shaco?


-Improved Introduction and Conclusion
-If anyone has any suggestions for sections/information or if I've made a mistake, I'll add/fix it and give you full credit. :)