Hello fellow Summoners.

Welcome to my first guide ever. My name is Fox, and I'm currently playing on EUW in GOLD. Now you may ask yourself, why the hell would I take this guide, he's only gold DUH. Well, I have been playing Shaco since the start of my League of Legends career, which was back in Season 3. Since then I have played many many games on my favourite Champ.
So here are my Stats for Season 3 and the current Season.
I reached Gold 1 for S4.






In season 3 I started in Bronze III, dropped to bronze V and started to play Shaco. Got to Silver at the end of S3 and currently sitting in Gold IV, although I was in promo for Gold 1 once. My ING was Matthew Fox, and is now Hi lm Fox.

I am a 23 year old student from Luxembourg.

It's a question my friends ask me many times. How am I able to play Shaco so often.

Shaco is unique. His kit is so much fun. You surely had games where the ennemy Shaco just annoyed you and ruined your fun, because you were scared. Shaco might gank now, or?

You can do amazing jukes with Deceive, tricking the ennemy team and getting away with very low health.

So as every Champ, shaco has his ups a downs. Commenting on the Pros;

Deceive can be used as a gap closer/escape. For ganking it's the perfect ability, as it is for escaping. His early game is huge. So make use of it. When you are fed, you are able to kill the ennemy adc/apc in about 2 seconds. With Shaco, you dont need to worry about wards, you will gank from spots where there's no ward most likely.

On the Negative part;

He offers a lot of damage, but not much Crowd Controll like Amumuor Sejuani for example. Shaco is VERY squishy, and has NO escape after using his deceive as a gap closer. Keep that in mind. He seems to be easy at first sight, use Q to gank that's it, but there's more behind Shaco like using Deceive correctly, using Backstab efficiently and most importantly Hallucinate which can be used to dodge nearly EVERYTHING, so there is some skill involved in playing Shaco. People generally dont like Shaco, they always keep in mind the bad Shacos they had in their games and will be like "pls no Shaco" in champ select. I ignore it and make my game. Late Game, he falls off, but I'll explain in a different section how to be usefull.

I've tested a lot, tried out some stuff and came to a few conclusions;

Early game junglers like Shaco have been nerfed via the dmg output of the new camps.

Now here's my new route:

Put down boxes at 2.05-2.10 in the BRUSH of the buff you are gonna start.
Ask your Bottom lane (or toplaner) to give leash on the golems or the frog. SMITE if FROG, keep smite if golems.
Go to your red/blue, do it with your boxes, smite RED only, otherwise keep it.
Do your other buff. YOU DONT WANNA SMITE BLUE. Gank 1-2 Times, GO BACK, get Trailblazer EVERYTIME. IT's the best jungler item right now. Don't bother building a different one. Your enchantment depends 1. on how you're doing 2. on how your team is doing:
If lanes are pushing (Winning - outcsing) go for devourer, you wanna farm up, since you can't gank cause your laners are pushing.
If your lanes are struggling or going even, Warrior.

For the itemization, try to build some tankyness when you're doing OK, if snowballing hard go full AD, if losing go tank after hydra.

That's a short resume for our patch 4.20.

Armor yellows because most ennemy jungler are AD, and to take reduced damage from the jungle camps.
AP Blues, help you with the burst on E and clearing camps.
AD Reds & AD Quints for the early burst damage.

Why take AD over Arm pen? Your E scales on 1.00 AD, but deals magic damage, so having AD reds has more dmg output than Arm Pen.

The Masteries are cleary 21-6-3. Offensively you wanna focus on AD damage output, while the 6 in defense are used to improve your armor. 3 In utlitiy for the MS boost.

Start W for Boxes of course.

Then; depending on what you are doing, either invading or standard going for the next buff,
take Q, or E.

Take your ult at lvl 6.


Discussion:

So some people max Q before W, because of the damage output (Crit dmg goes up), but maxing W brings much more to the table. You get a longer Fear, meaning you can attack longer AND you get a little more damage out of the Boxes.

Further more, the debate is to max your ult at the available levels. I try not to, since it doesnt offer a lot. It gives you slightly more damage, and the cooldown is reduced. Leveling W or Q offer more in my opinion.

Why Feral Flare over Spirit of the Elder Lizard?

Elder Lizard can be build on Shaco, and is most of the times. The problem is that the item does not provide the early burst Shaco needs. Therefore, we try to pick up an early pickaxe/vamp and the machete, and just use the machete for better jungle clearing and drake. Late game, the Feral provides you with a lot of damage compared to elder lizard.

• Ravenous Hydra
  This is a must item on Shaco. Provides so much AD and aoe clearance for splitting/jungling. The active adds even more damage to our burst.
  
• Statikk Shiv
  Passive. It's all about the 100 magic damage when you hit your Q. Provides more burst, and helps splitting.
  
• Infinity Edge
  You might be able to guess why this Item is so strong on Shaco; a 100% crit after your Q means huge damage. It's expensive but the powerspike it offers is amazing.
  
• Last Whisper
  More AD, plus the ignoring of the armor, strong item.
  
• Trinity Force
  If you got the money from pimping all dem *****es, just buy this swagger Item. Incredibly expensive, but Shaco makes use of everything. The Sheen proc is nice for your Q and adds even more burst!

Getting Firstblood as Shaco, is not that hard. You got to pay attention to a few things.

• First of all, who am I up against? Is it a strong early jungler, or a rather weak one. You can use my Champion explanations as a reference to see if you can counterjungle or be cautious.
  
• Secondly, WHERE did the ennemy jungler start? Since S4, people mostly start at the bottom side of the map, where botlane can give a leash. Standard route is Blue-Red-Top or Red-Blue-Top depending on side.
  However, some jungler mostly start blue, like Amumu or Fiddlesticks. Those start 90% of the time with blue. Other junglers, like Rengar or Lee Sin might start red. Therefore you need to pay attention if Toplane or Bottomlane are already in their lane at 1.55-2.00. By that, you gonna see where your ennemy jungler started.
  
• Further more, other factors are important. Is their jungler premade with Top/Mid? If so, you need to be carefull, since they might be communicating through Skype/Teamspeak/Cursevoice. They are then likely to come for help, destroying all the fun.
  
• Wards can spoil all the fun too. If you notice that the ennemy Support/Toplaner are missing, they might be placing a ward. For example, the ennemy ADC is on the lane, but the support is missing, this could be because he is placing a ward. If both are missing, and the toplaner too, he might be placing a ward. Be carefull.
  
  

So, let's start with Shaco's Passive : Backstab

Most people, forget about his passive. Backstab adds 20% more damage, regardless which ability. This means, Two-Shiv Poison scales also with Backstab. How do you use Backstab correctly? When ganking, position yourself behind the ennemy, to get your crit + 20% damage, granting a lot of burst. When they run away, you just chase and add the damage. When jungling, try to run around the monster, to procc Backstab allowing you for faster jungle clear. What I like to do is, when standing behind the wall to Golems, Blue or Red, I put down my box inside the camp, for vision, then use my E on the back of the Golem/Lizard and then Deceive over the wall. This allows for a lot of damage output.

Shaco's Q, Deceive is his signature move. Shaco goes invisible for a short time, and travels some distance. This is the ability you need to master. Deceive can be used for so much, but mostly for ganking. On a later chapter, I am gonna go over ganking with Shaco. Remember, Deceive lets behind a small orange smoke cloud, or a sparkling cloud for Masked Shaco, which is sometimes harder to see. The thing about Deceive is to use it, to trick your ennemies. Someone is chasing you? Deceive into the opposite direcetion for example, or make a re-engage. Deceive allows you like flash, to go over walls, like baron or dragon pit, and many more. That's what makes Shaco so strong in the Jungle, since he has his Deceive to escape.

Jack In The Box is Shaco's only form of hard cc. The box itself, lasts for 1 minute while invisible, and fires for 5 seconds when triggered. That's why you start putting down boxes at 0.56 for your buffs. The box will last 0.59 seconds + the 5 seconds firing. So more than one minute. The thing about Jack In The Box is using it correctly for warding/ganking/jungling. JITB can change the outcome of a gank perfectly. If you put it into the escape way, the ennemy either has to change direction to avoid the box, or flash over it. Otherwise he will get feared and you got your perfect gank. For jungling, the boxes have 2 purposes: additional damage and tanking. You can decide if you want the box to tank or to fire for 5 seconds, by changing your own position. Remember that when the box is tanking, and you placed it properly, the Backstab passive can be used easily.
Use Jack In The Box to cut off escapes, or to prepare your own escape when splitpushing. Always try to put down a box somewhere here's an example why.



Shaco's E, Two-Shiv Poison is another great damage skill, and mostly used when playing AP shaco. For us, it's important to know that Two-Shiv Poison has a passive. When it is on cooldown, it slows the ennemy, and you have a chance to not get hit by minions. That is why, you should never use it immediately when ganking, but rather to finish off, or to slow the ennemy when he flashed/dashed. Remember that Two-Shiv Poison can use Backstab when hitting the ennemy in the back.

Hallucinate is the skill which defines Shaco players. The thing about it is that you can use it to dodge nearly everything. (No Zilean bombs.) For example, the Lux ult, Morgana Cage, Ezreal Ult, Darius Ult, and many more. It's all about timing. You can make the ennemy waste a whole skill on you by timing it correctly. When using your ult, your clone appears and applies all on hit effects like you, Ravenous Hydra, Blade of the Ruined King etc. The problem is, BUFFS reveal the real Shaco. So, make sure you got no buff when trying to 2v1 with your clone. There are many techniques you can use to trick the ennemy into thinking that you are your clone, like walking behind it, or just standing around it. Im also gonna make a video of the clone!

This guide is not finished. I'm planning on adding more and more over the next time. So come back regularly.