





Your votes and comments encourage our guide authors to continue
creating helpful guides for the League of Legends community.
Choose Champion Build:
-
AD Season 15
-
AP Shaco madness
-
Tanko
Recommended Items
Runes: Hail of blades 14.9
+10% Attack Speed
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+10-180 Bonus Health
Spells:
Ignite
Smite
Items
Ability Order
Backstab (PASSIVE)
Shaco Passive Ability
Threats & Synergies
Jax
Jax is strong early, mid and lategame. You can kill him on his jungle if you see him using his E to farm or to avoid damage.
Make sure he doesn't get kills early. Countergank him and push lanes a lot to get as much gold advantage as possible.
Champion Build Guide

IMPORTANT: We creators rely on you readers to grow. If this guide somehow helps you out, PLEASE VOTE IT and comment so I can keep improving!
Pros
+ Strong pre-6 Ganks. + One of the best counterjunglers out there + So good for soloing drake/herald + One of the most fun champ to play with. + So Slippery and annoying. + He is the most mental champ out there. + You can easily win people with Coulrophobia. |
Cons
- Weak early ganks if not used to them. - Hard to play. Extremely hard to master. - You MUST stay focused and calmed to play him. - You'll get flamed sometimes for picking him. - Squishy champ. - He have troubles against ![]() ![]() |


Is he a carry?No.
Is he an initiator/engager? No.
Is he a tank? No.
Is he a support jungler? No.
Is he an assassin like

Is he a bruiser that can fight for a long time? No.
So.. What can this little funny guy do for my team? Is it there anything he can do better than anyone?
Shaco has evolved over the seasons. While he isn't the best assassin, his kit is perfectly designed to tilt enemies and attacking them when they less expect it. With his built in dash with invisibility and his nasty invisible boxes, Shaco is one of the most terrifying Champions of the Rift.
Shaco Roles
A good comparison would be








![]() ![]() Aaaah... Deceive. This is ![]() ![]() IMPORTANT: DECEIVE CAN CRIT WHEN STRIKING WHEN BACKSTABBING. |
We will grab this Amazing heaven gift at lvl 2 and is gone stay as youre one-point-wonder ability.

![]() ![]() SURPRISE! This is ![]() |
We're taking a point of



- Placing a
Jack In The Box in the feet of an enemy during a 1vs1 can make you win the fight. Never forget it.
- In teamfights use it to protect your carry. Place a
Jack In The Box near your
Varus, so when that
Kha'Zix jumps into his face to burst him he will get feared and you'll be able to burst him down.
- Place one or two boxes before a Teamfight, they'll grant you and your team an escape route if things go wrong.
- It not only grants vision to you, but your teammates. Gift the lane you ganked with a Box in that bush without a ward. If you are low and the ganked one died, their jungler may be coming. Put a box, save a life.
- JITB works as an skillshot blocker. You can place a box in front on you when
Blitzcrank is trying to grab you. If the box is still visible when the grab reach it, it will take the box instead of you.
- Always take care of your mana. If you are in middle of a fight and you have less than 50MP, dont be a suicidal machine and use that mana to place a box that will probably die in secs. You'll may need that MP to
Deceive to safety.
- Red trinket reveals Shaco boxes, but it doesn't deactivate them anymore.
![]() ![]() KNIFE IN DA BACK! An amazing ability that will work both as a finishing nuke and as a perma-redbuff. With the recent changes, TWO-SHIV POISON DEALS BONUS DAMAGE WHEN STRIKING FROM BEHIND. |
Since the slow's strenght and the damage increases with the skill level, you're going to want to max out

Good news: It deals enhanced damage according to enemy missing HP, but being the max already when under 30% (yay!),it scales with bonus AD (yay x2!) and now DEALS MAGIC DAMAGE (yay x3!)

- Don't use your
Two-Shiv Poison to engage. NEVER, unless you're facing someone like
Sivir or
Nocturne that could block it.
Two-Shiv Poison does magic damage now. That means that even if we're building AD and enemy builds armor, they will take a lot of damage from it!
- Remember this skill PROCS
Backstab AGAIN. Always try to use it from behind, a knife thrown right between the eyebrows won't hurt as much as if it is thrown on the back.
![]() What is worse than one annoying ![]() ![]() This little guy will duplicate yourself, and will help you to kill people, bait people, melt turrets, check bushes and solo Dragon at lvl 6-7. I personally move clone with Alt+right click. Some people do move it with R, but you'll find it rather unconfortable. |
Just take


- Shaco's have 75% of your AD, but procs all on-hit sources of damage such as
Blade of the Ruined King. Your Hail of Blades will be used on Shacos Clone, too!
- Controlling your Clone (alt+click) is an art to be mastered. Think as if you were using two champs at once, don't use your main shaco and clone shaco by turns.
- It's really easy to bait with
Hallucinate. If someone is chasing you and your
Deceive is on cooldown, enter a bush, use
Hallucinate and make the Clone go out to the path you would normally take if you were fleeing. If they chase him it will explode and damage your follower, while letting you deceiving out to safety (if you are low and he high on hp) or deceiving in (if you think you can kill it) for the WOMBOCOMOBO of
Hallucinate explode +
Deceive + AA +
Two-Shiv Poison +
Ignite
- If you are 1vs1ing and someone fights you back (and is facing you), position your clone at his back and make him attack from there, so he procs
Backstab.

SEXY/SWEET ITEMS
You must understand that Shaco doesn't have a fixed item setup. You need to adapt to the team you have and the team you're facing in order to take the maximum profit from the gold you spend. Don't stick into a fixed build, or you will find yourself failing in a game while you actually played nice and you won't understand why.
So lets start with the items:
Starting Items
![]() |
|
Gustwalker Hatchling: Standard start. Better exp, better farm, better sustain, basically a must for every jungler out there. We're taking this little guy at lvl 1. I prefer Gustwalker instead of ![]() |
![]() |
|
Health Potion: Not needed anymore, but it's ok to grab it lvl 1 for an early duel. |
Core Items
![]() |
|
Tiamat:Tiamat is a wonderful choice for newbie Shaco players. It makes our waveclear decent againt without needing to spend 2-3 points into ![]() |
Situational Items
![]() |
|
Profane Hydra: An amazing item and the natural upgrade for those Tiamate ![]() ![]() |
![]() |
|
The Collector: I was always sceptical on this item. I felt it gave a little of everything but nothing much. Well... I was wrong. It hits freaking hard, it helps us finish off targets with ![]() |
![]() |
|
Infinity Edge: The old Infinity Edge is back. Shaco's passive and Q synergyze's it so flawlessly. Couple it with ![]() ![]() |
![]() |
|
Opportunity: One of the best items I found for Shaco in mid-lategame. it boosts your damage against the first champion you hit -like a poor ![]() |
![]() |
|
Guardian Angel: Guardian angel brings great aid when facing bursty AD champions on lategame, like Rengar, and you're fed enough to be everyone's main target. Being able to survive the first combo in a late Teamfight is key. GA is a wonderful choice when an enemy saves his combo specifically for you. |
![]() |
|
Maw of Malmortius: You are not going to use Malmortius a lot. It's a situational items that can work wonders in certain situations (2-3 AP assassins on enemy side), and be useless and a waste of money in others. Take it when you're fighting AP bursters (Annie/evelynn/Katarina) and you need to burst them faster than they burst you. |
![]() |
|
Mortal Reminder: Like Maw of Malmortius, Last whisper and Mortal reminder are situational items. Extremely strong in some situations and pointless in other ones, you'll have to use your brain in order to decide if to purchase it or not. Mortal is an AMAZING choice when you have tanky, sustainish champions as enemies (Fiora,Vladimir,Mordekaiser,swain) as you will melt them. Useless against squishy targets. |
Worth Mentioning
![]() |
|
Bloodthirster: While it still needs testing, bloodthirster rework makes it a WONDERFUL choice for Shaco. You will be full HP 90% of the time when trying to burst someone, and 40AD is A LOT of damage. I usually build it as last item if i need damage+sustain over defensive stats (hello GA) |
BOOT CHOICE
![]() |
|
Boots:Even after the nerf, they still are a must for early ganks. Don't do your second back if you can't afford them. |
![]() |
|
Berserker's Greaves:I used to hate this boots. A lot. Not only I used to hate them, but I thought they were the worst option for Shaco. However, with the new jungle and new runes, I still have the mobility I used to have with ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() |
|
Boots of Swiftness: Some Shaco players use these. If you are in a one-shottish game where do you expect very short fights, these shoes will let you in-and-out quite fast. |
[/list]
IMPORTANT: Remember that we creators rely on you readers to grow. If this guide somehow helps you out, PLEASE VOTE IT and comment so I can keep improving!
✦ ![]() Hail of blades has recently become the main choice for Shaco Players. HoB now brings a wonderful tool for ![]() |
✦ ![]() Some amazing shaco players like Facet's still use Electrocute. It is a safe, wonderful choice for newbie Shacos too. It gives a little burst to your combo that people doesn't usualy expect. Those of you that come from playing other assassins like Kha'zix will enjoy using this for a while. |
✦ ![]() Dark Harvest is the greedy choice for those Shaco players that expect a lead. Shaco's kit doesn't include a lot of direct damage, so getting Harvest stacks is going to be hard. This is, however, an amazing choice for AP Shaco. |

Summoner Spells
Smite hands down. This is one of the best spells of the game! Not only cause it let you finish the jungle buffs faster and safer, but allows you to counterjungle and steal every single monster in game including baron and dragon. With the new buffs, Smite is also a part of your burst combo. |
Amazing for finishing people and extra damage. The other choice instead of ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
I like ![]() ![]() ![]() |
The spell everyones loves. I'm not an exception, I think ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Good for ![]() ![]() ![]() |
: Not a bad option for a second spell if the enemy team have more than 4 Stuns/jails/snares. A combo made of ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
|

|

|


As


Shaco is CARNIVORE. If you want to properly play


"But White Crooooooooow! I want to faaaaarm my own jungle creeeeeps or my mid steeeeaaaals them and I can't build my

Now listen kids, Remember your roles as

Your job is to make you and your team incredibly fed and strong, and enemy team incredibly useless and weak.
To do this, you have to do things that solves both missions:
- Choose your strongest lane and abuse it with your strong early ganks .
- Get into enemy jungle often. Steal enemy jungle if they are alive and/or get the timer of it so you can track enemy jungler.
- Let your mid have your raptors whenever possible so he gets ahead in gold regardless of his kill/farm numbers.
- Time and Steal enemy buffs whenever possible. Be sure to use trinket to clear your path of wards in the process.
- Shaco traps are strong early. Try to kill enemy jungler to make him stay behind.
If you do these jobs correctly, you'll get more Gold than if you would if you kept farm your camps over and over. With the bonus of also making enemies behind (and tilted lol) in the process.
Jungle routes
The most efficient route to start as Shaco is, for me,the one that lets Shaco be level 4 at 3:20. Which is a huge lead in comparison to other junglers.
STEPS:
- Buy a
Gustwalker Hatchling and a potion.
- Head your RAPTORS. Ask your teammates to cover.
- Place 2 boxes on the camp from min 0:50, and a 3th one outside of Red's camp.
- After cleaning the chickens (USE BACKSTAB ON THE BIG ONE!), go after your red buff and clear it with your box tanking it, you will have time to place another one.
- cross midlane and get blue and Gromp.
- If you do it right, you will be level 3 at 2:35 aprox. Your job now is to make a decision: Gank your closest lane or go to counterjungle and kill enemy jungler. After that you can base and do a krugs -> wolves -> gromp again process.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION: Counterjungling is EXTREMELY important for these reasons.- You get a lot of money over your jungler (+1 for you, -1 for him. +2 advantage balance)
- You delay his JUNGLE ITEM FARMING. with the new system, your smite can get stronger by counterjungling if you need to contest Big neutrals like Drake.
- Track enemy jungler. Sometimes you will face junglers you can't duel (udyr, trundle, whatever). Getting TIMERS allows you to know where enemy jungler is and act in consequence, or punish him if he does a bad pathing.





So lets say you are on a game, you took your Wolves and Blue Buff and stole enemy Red like a baws. Now Seems that it's the perfect time to gank a lane and score a first blood. But... sh1t, you enemy in top is a

Where to
Deceive in from.




As you see, you should never gank directly from river but from alternative routes. Your

The white spots are where you should

- Try to keep on the communication with your team. Ask them for the placement of enemy
Control Ward so you can avoid them better.
Shaco is one of the best lane-gankers of the game. If there is a
Control Ward on river 'cause the enemy laner knows you may come after him, try to gank directly from lane. Use
Deceive in your turret and run towards the mid of the lane to start a 2vs1.
- Remember that enemies can see your *poof* red smoke when you
Deceive, even trough fog of war. Be sure they aren't close enough to see it.
- The range of
Deceive has been nerfed recently (WTF RIOT), so if you used to play
Shaco and you want to play him back again, get adviced that jumping walls is harder now.
- Most junglers needs the lane somehow pushed to gank efficiently so the enemy cant escape even when they have seen you thanks to
Control Ward. Shaco can't gank in any point of the lane, specially when both laners are trading at mid, since the enemy won't expect a gank yet.
How to gank
So we just Deceived in a gankable lane. How should we act now? It also depends on WHO ARE WE GANKING. Depending on it, our performing will be different on ganks:
Option 1: Baitable Trade
We will use this when we are ganking an enemy who is pretty strong in Early Trades. Most common cases are





How to do it:
Our objective is to bait a trade that will turn into a 2vs1.
We will deceive in, but we don't attack yet. Tell your teammate/s your intentions by pinging the target so he initiates it. Enemie/s will expose and initiate what they will think is a 1vs1 or a 2vs2 early trade, which they also think they'll probably win. After the engage and after enemy initiated (so often they do initiate with the escaping skill too, since "nobody is coming from river", he he he), go in and turn the battle into a 2vs1. They will panic, going back trying to save his butt.. so you will face his back. Do you know what does it means?

When going in you have 2 choices. If there are no minions, your most efficient move will probably be placing a

with red, your passive E and with box fear you'll mostly get the kill. If the enemy flash away, use the active of your E to catch him up.
Option 2: Pwn da weak
We will use this when we are ganking an enemy who is pretty weak in Early Trades or doesn't like trades at all. Most common cases are



So what to do? Tell your teammate you're going to gank, but ask him to let you position behind enemy first ] so he can't flee that easy.
How to do it:
Our objective is to SURPRISE and instakill.
So we have a


Instead of waiting, if our ally is in range we will just pop our Q from behind to proc



100% Result on enemy:































If this don't happen or he just used flash before, your teammate will be able to help you to kill him thanks to your red buff +

Whatever you are facing, you should be keeping on with the pressure the whole game, even when lane phasing is over. You must give the enemy fear. Make enemies think they will never have a true XvsX since you could be anywhere, hiding somehwere preparing to rush in and turn the battle.
After few turrets are dead and you lead your team epicly ahead, change your role from epic counterjungler/ganker to splitpusher thanks to your

Climbed back to diamond on Season 14, split 2, and everything looks quite nice. Emerald is quite frustrating, but Shaco quite feeds on that chaos. Updated build guys! :)
8-feb-2024
New patch, a lot of testing and a lot of changes. After tons of builds and more hours than I want to admit into the practice tool, we got the most efficient Shaco build for new season. Enjoy it, Shacomaniacs!
11-jan-2024
SEASON 14 IS HERE :D of course, it needs tons of testing, but the feeling is good regarding to Shaco. As the weeks advance i will update the item section and the reason behind them.
24-dic-2023
The farm meta looks stable on jungle. While you should still be ganking, be sure to clear at least 3 camps before doing a gank to proper lane or you will fall behind in exp.
1-dec-2023
Not the best meta for AD Shaco currently. With the new playstyle in league, farming champions are hella strongs and carnivore champs like shaco suffer a little. This doesn't mean you cannot play it, but be sure that you have your winning condition clearly and you play over-aggresive over it.
9-nov-2023
Not many changes that affect us in 13.21/22. The vision-from-bush changes of the last patch may be good to avoid enemies spotting us when our allies missclick an attack from the same bush we're on, but that is not much of a critic scene.
As for the changes that happened a couple of patches ago that "nerfed" jungle pressure, Riot noticed that they blew too harsh and they reverted some nerfs, so we can expect a healthier clear. Monsters have more health, but our pet deals more damage. Overall, a slight balancing issue that won't affect us that much and maaaaaaay force us to farm for a little longer before ganking. Again, nothing game-changing.
13-oct-2023
Many changes, kids.
Not in Poppy itself, but 13.20 is a huge nerf for junglers. Riot lowered the skillcap of jungling by making smiting easier, but all jungler companions got nerfed. While it still needs testing, removing mosstomper slow resist and tenacity hurts way too much. We will stick to Gustwalker for a while since it seems that the nerf is not that hard on that one.
28/09/2023
13.19 is out! There are no changes for



Good news regarding

14/09/2023
GUIDE UPDATED! Massive build revamp with the best current option for AD shaco. Thanks to the admin @Hades4u for telling me about some mistakes involving old-naming, since I still call "tabis" to armor boots. Oh, well.
22/06/2023
Season 13 is reaching it's end and Shaco is in a OK state. Several tweaks and changes to itemization system made

Have fun, lads! I will try to keep the guide updated even after so many years! :)
22/12/2022
PRESEASON 12 IS HERE!
Shaco is in a OK Spot right now. He's not the best meta jungler out there and you won't see it on Worlds, but it works wonders on Solo Queue.
I've updated the guide with new builds, items, paths and runes, and I'll keep updating it as the patches goes by. Enjoy backstabbing!
22/11/2020
SEASON 11 IS HERE!
I like shaco in the new season. There are better choices out there, as always, but our Mad jester is in a decent spot right now. I'll try to keep updating the guide until it's finished :)
28/10/2019
Shaco has been completely reworked and now he's back as an early game assassin. After tons of work I updated this whole guide to make things clearer for you guys.
Good luck, and backstab everywhere! Remember that you can check my Twitch if you want to ask questions LIVE.
1/09/2019
SHACO IS GETTING A REWORK. Shaco is coming back to an earlygame beast soon. I leave the changelist here.
The changes may update. Be sure to stay tuned to the youtube Channel and Twitch for talking about this.
04/02/2017
Aloha all! This Shacomania just won the prize as the Best Assassin Guide of 2017 by Mobafire, and I gained the Title of "Backstabber" on the forums. YAY!
To celebrate this, I updated the guide even more, providing details about the currently OP lethality build on Shaco and more tips/tricks to succeed on it.
10/12/2016
Today is the day that our Shacomania Guide reached the TOP 1 GUIDE ON ALL MOBAFIRE.
I can't believe it, you guys are freaking sexy. Thank you so much!

Best Regards,
White Crow.
You must be logged in to comment. Please login or register.