The Competitive Guide to Jungle Shaco

Intro of Darkness then Redness then Whiteness

Basically I'll be showing you how to jungle, gank, lane and anti-carry with Shaco.

Shaco is a great champion and is extremely underestimated in high elo games. His jungling speed is pretty quick, but most of all he has INCREDIBLE ganking potential which I see not enough of from other Shacos.

As a shaco, you want to focus on jungling, ganking and roaming. He has something which no jungler has, that is his Deceive and on-hit slows from Two-Shiv Poison. Basically this combo is what makes Shaco so unique and powerful early game.

This comprehensive guide will show you truly how to Shaco including items, runes, masteries and of course tactics.

Enjoy

Runes

What you need and why...

The Greater Mark of desolation offers 1.66 Armor Pen. each and in total 14.94 Armor Pen. This is an essential rune for any Physical DPS champions simply because Attack Damage Runes are not mearly as good in Marks.
Greater Seals of Resilience will give you an exellent boost in early game jungling simply because Shaco lacks and health regeneration and is very squishy. These give you 1.41 flat armor and 12.69 armor in total which means a reduction in at least 6% of all physical damage.
Glyphs of shielding are my personal favorites. In total, they will give you 24.3 magic resistance at level 18. This is great because Shaco has horrible MR and will be a super easy target for their AP Carry.
Greater Quintessences of swiftness are great throughout the game. As Shaco, your job is to Jungle, Gank and roam which is what these babies are designed for. Shaco has one of the highest movespeeds in the game and along with your Zeal/ Trinity Force, your ganks and roaming will be that much quicker, giving you more time to jungle and improving your ganking power.

Masteries

NEW MASTERIES

The new masteries are very simple to for Shaco. Grab 21 points in the offence tree putting every single point in the left two columns. This is for your improved Exhaust, Armor pen, life steal for early jungling, Crit chance and damage. Some say why not get the Havoc mastery? This is simple. Most of your damage will come from your auto attacks through Shaco's Hallucinate so grabbing 0.5% increased damage is not worth getting a 1% Crit chance which will scale with the 10% crit damage mastery.


Defence or Utility???

This is a problem I face as well. Basically, I am currently using 9 points in the defence tree grabbing the improved smite, armor and health. The other option is to invest points int he Utility tree for improved recall, reduced death timer/mana per level, then grabbing increased Movespeed and the 20% increased buff duration which is extremely useful throughout the game. I've tried both out and asked many people on their opinion and each person has different views on this issue.

The Verdict

To this point I would recommend the Utility Tree. Here is my reasoning:

Pros:
- Increased Buff duration at 20% is just OP in itself for a mastery due to the power and benefits of all the Buffs especially Baron Buff.
- Movespeed is overall an extremely effective mastery on most champions especially Shaco who needs to be ganking and roaming the map constantly.

Cons:
- No bonus 10 gold on each smite
- Flat health and health per level both give Shaco that bit more tankiness as well as a couple more damage after Atma's Impaler

In my honest opinion, the Pros outweigh the cons which is why utility is better for Shaco and junglers in general.

Items

Wriggle's Lantern - This is what every jungler needs no question. You get attack damage, armor, lifesteal, a free ward every 3 minutes and a 20% chance to deal 500 damage to creeps. You cannot go wrong with this especially at only 1600 gold.

Mercury's Treads - This is your source of Magic Resistance and tenacity simply to keep you in battle longer. At the end of the day, the longer you stay in battle, the longer you have to kill. Also, it means you can get out of awkward stuns quicker than normal if you ever get caught out.

REMEMBER, on Shaco you really can get any boots you want based on your preferences and the circumstances provided. If you like zerkers, mobility, swiftness, ninja tabiness then go for it.

Tri Force - A great item on Shaco in every aspect. Shaco needs the larger mana pool, AP for 3 of his abilities, attack speed, crit chance, hp, damage, movespeed, 25% chance to slow and the all amazing sheen proc which will give you a ****load of bonus damage on your Deceive.





Warmog's Armor - Shaco is squishy but with your merc treads, wits end and wriggles, you have a pretty nice amount of armor. Shaco is a super strong pusher and jungle so you can farm up Warmogs really quickly not to mention the kills you should be getting.

Atma's Impaler - This is your final item in your core build. If you can actually build this in game, you will be boasting plenty of damage and tankiness. Basically if you get Warmogs, you get atmas



Once you have your full build and you have 2k to spare, sell your Wriggle's Lantern and buy yourself a The Bloodthirster. You can farm this up SUPER DUPER quickly with the huge amount of damage you have, PLUS it will give you heaps of lifesteal and attack damage so you really cannot go wrong.






You have two choices of boots - Ninja Tabi and Mercury's Treads. Make this decision based on how much CC your opponents have and/or how much damage your opponents do through auto attacking or abilities:
Auto attacks - Ashe, Caitlyn, Gangplank, Graves, Kog'Maw, Master Yi, Miss Fortune, Nocturne, Sivir, Tristana, Tryndamere, Twitch, vayn, Xin Zhao.
Abilities - Corki, Ezreal, Garen, Irelia, Pantheon, Urgot, Talon

You might not agree with this build because of the super early Atma's Impaler, however by the time you get this item, you will still be receiving roughly 30 damage which will constantly be increasing.




The only difference will be that you will build a QSS ( Quicksilver Sash). This is a great item and very underestimated. Its a cleanse which will also remove suppress so you can heavily counter:
Malzahar, Skarner, Urgot and Warwick.

It also removes Ignites, Stuns, Fears, Silences and just about every CC except for knock ups and knock backs made by:
Alistar, Cho'Gath, Janna, Jarvan IV and Xin Zhao

Skill Sequence

Well what's there to say. Start with your Jack In The Box for the jungling. After this, put your points into Two-Shiv Poison and Deceive. After this, you need to level Two-Shiv Poison except for level 6 when you get your ulti. After your E is maxed, level your Deceive for the reduced mana cost and increased percent damage.

Leveling deceive brings one benefit apart from the reduced mana cost which is an increase in the crit damage. Obviously crit damage scales of your flat damage and early on, Shaco does not have enough damage to make it worth while.

Summoner Spells

Basically Smite is mandatory. Its possible to jungle shaco without smite, but this will really speed up the process. When laning and pushing, use smite on cannons.

The second summoner spell is optional. I usually grab exhaust, simply said, it will give you heaps of kills early and late game. The slow is key, as well as the armor reduction and of course enemy damage reduction. As Shaco has a Flash as his Q,

OPTIONS (w/ratings out of 10)

Ghost 9/10 - Very good summoner spell on Shaco. If you feel you need the utility then grab ghost.

Ignite 6/10 - Again, this is purely for getting those early game kills. It runs ouut of use late game and it works better with casters. Will be extremely useful against health regening champions like Dr Mundo, Fiddlesticks and Master Yi.

Flash 7/10 - Basic utility. You don't really have any strong nukes or CC so this isn't really the best summoner for initiating. There is nothing in this which Ghost can't do other than flash saves and occasionally saving you if Deceive is on cooldown or your out of mana.

Teleport 7/10 - A surprisingly underestimated summoner spell for shaco. Remember that you can place a Jack in the Box, recall and tele back onto it. It will give you plenty of ganking opportunities. Also, place wards in the enemy blue and red buff (in the grass). Tele in and smite for the steal.

IMO the other summoner spells can be useful but I wouldn't recommend them for this style of play / build.

Pros / Cons

Now that you know how I like to build my Shaco, lets look at the goods and bads.

Pros
- Strong defensive build with high damage
- Gives high mobility for roaming, ganking and escaping
- Less risky in higher ELO games and extremely strong in low ELO
- Lets you stay in team fights for longer, maximising you damage output

Cons
- Slow damage build until after Atma's Impaler

A little note before we begin...

This build like any build in the world of LoL won't work in every game. It is designed for versing a balanced team and to maximise your role in each game. You may prefer full damage on Shaco which is understandable, however the tankiness is to make Shaco more viable in team fighting.

Art of Deceiving (For Beginners / Dumbies)

What you need to know:

Deceive causes smoke particles. Even though you may be in the Fog Of War, enemies will sometimes see it which will ruin ganks.
The flash is EXTREMELY important
Stealth only lasts 4 seconds.

Now, what I just said theere was the basics of the basics. Deceive, believe it or not, will save your clown butt heaps (which is why utility summoner spells aren't that important). Furthermore, it can be used offensively and defensively, knowing when and where to use it is KEY.

"Pro" Tips

- When being chased by enemies, try to deceive into nearby bushes. Place a Jack In The Box in front of you before deceiving if you have enough mana, to make them think you are running in that direction.
- In team fights, deceive is key to getting yourself to the enemy carry. Make sure you dont run into enemy abilities on the way.
- Whenever you think you could be ganked, ALWAYS leave some mana for a deceive.
- Remember to run in a different direction to which way you will deceive, for example if your pushing the second tower in your top lane and get ganked by 3 enemies, run towards your tower then deceive towards your enemies and run into their jungle, recalling from a brush.

Video hopefully coming soon.

Jungling

There are numerous jungling routes for Shaco. I've started at, blue, red, wraiths, wolves AND twin golems, but what Shaco needs most early on is quick mana regen from the blue buff. Your route is simple:


- Stack as many Jack In The Boxes in the Blue Golem camp. Make sure the last one is positioned to attack a small lizard as they may become out-ranged after the blue golem is killed.





Clean up the rest of the camp and kill wolves as well. Place a JitB on the big wolf and wait for it to start attacking before you auto attack.



Then go to the Wraith Camp and place a Jack In The Box on the blue wraith. Wait for the wraiths to aggro the box and IMMEDIATELY Smite the blue wraith and kill the rest.



At this point, you should be level 3 with all of your abilities (except your ulti). If any lane needs a quick gank, do it now, otherwise head to red buff and stack 4 jack in the boxes outside the camp so they dont initiate. Make sure it is off cooldown and attack the lizard elder, leash it to your boxes and place another one behind it. Your smite should be off cooldown, but even if it isnt you should be able to take it down. Now is a prime time to gank as your auto attacks will slow the enemyby around 28%. If you ganked or not, Head over to the twin golems. If you are low on health, stack two jack in the boxes outside the camp, otherwise just kill them normally. Smite if you can.

And that my friends is how you jungle as Shaco.

When to Dragon

Doing dragon is an extremely important part of winning games. You want to do it as early as possible but at the same time if your enemies known about it you will be taking a huge risk.

A lot of it comes down to common sense, but basically you want to do dragon when:

1. Your bot lane is pushed
2. Your enemies have no way of initiating you while doing dragon. Basically this happens when you have at least two more champions doing dragon than the possible amount of champions they could have

In order to ensure your opponents dont know that your doing dragon, you can either buy a Vision Ward or an oracle based on how much money you can spare.

I WILL ADD MORE TO THIS SECTION IN THE NOT TOO DISTANT FUTURE

Ganking

Depending on which side you are on, your main entry point will be the river. This is the most efficient entry point if the opponent is over-extended. Try to deceive behind the bush to ensure the particles are not seen by the enemy. If they have a flash, dont exhaust them. Your aim is to make them use flash so that next time round, they wont be able to escape easily. If they dont have flash, use exhaust if you think they could escape, or they are fighting back.


These are your easiest ganks. Again, deceive in from the river (preferably the bush) and make sure your teammate knows your there ready to attack.


Again, deceive in from the bush. It is PARAMOUNT that your allies know your about to initiate and that they are ready to fight, otherwise you will probably die. Exhaust the deadliest / most fed / most likely to rape your team late game champion and target them.


This is one of the things which will separate a good Shaco from an excellent Shaco. Remember, the passive from this ability is lost while its on cooldown, so after activating it, your attacks wont slow or blind the enemy. Use your Two-Shiv Poison when:

1. Your enemy is almost dead
2. Your enemy is fighting back
You need to increase the slow on your enemy for some reason.


Remember, Two-Shiv Poison is ranged, so use it to slow enemies who are chasing you if your deceive is on cooldown.

Laning

As the jungler, your role also includes babysitting lanes while your allies go back to heal and buy. During this time, you need to focus on last hitting creeps and ward surrounding bushes for when your ally returns. If you can, harass the opponent(s) with Two-Shiv Poison and don't be afraid to Hallucinate if your struggling with controlling creeps at your tower.

When fighting minions, auto attack as much as possible but at the same time you need to be prepared to last hit. This means there is a higher chance of your Wriggle's Lantern passive ocurring giving you more CS and experience.

Team Fights

The classic glass cannon Shaco is an anti-carry where you would basically deceive in and kill their strongest carry. This is the same with my build, however the only difference is you will have slightly less damage in exchange for being more tanky. You will still get targeted if you get fed/farmed so don't initiate,

What to do:

- Deceive in if the fight is not risky.
-Run behind their carry AND RIGHT CLICK!
-Chuck down a Jack In The Box central to your enemies to get a larger fear
- Hallucinate and target the carry
-If they get out of reach use your Two-Shiv Poison

Warding and Assassinating

This is where Shaco excels at. ALWAYS buy wards even though you have a free ward from Wriggle's Lantern. Place them at dragon and baron as well as your enemy's red and blue buff. When an enemy goes for them, deceive in near the end and take them by surprise. If you dont think you can kill them, just smite the buff and run off. This method is a great source of kills and free buffs. Make sure you do this throughout the game and start early on for the free buffs and kills.

Stealing Baron / Dragon

Shaco is surprisingly efficient at stealing baron and dragon, although it usually means you will die. Persoanlly, I've stolen heaps of barons, only once i ran out alive, only because I was fed and my whole team decided to initiate... plus i got shen ulted.

Now, what you need to do is:
1. Ward baron - Make sure you have a few wards in case they have oracles / vision ward.
2. Watch how quickly they are killing baron.
3. When there is half a second until baron reaches 1000 hp (assumig your at least around level 14), deceive in
4. Attack and smite

Stealing dragon is a different story because of its value. If your not on a spree and your team doesnt need you for the next minute or so depending on your death timeer, then by all means go in and die for the dragon kill. If this isnt the case, the only way you should steal is if you go in through the river, somehow get a smite on and deceive away (although this is extremely hard to do).

Ending

Well, there is my wisdom of Shaco. He is a great chamption, if you don't have him i suggest you buy him. Leave a comment and like/dislike. Make sure you give me feedback.

Please also recommend my guide to everyone you know and +rep me if you want to

Yuzrii