Hi, I'm koreancrimson, playing almost exclusively Shaco on 'chat is evil' in high diamond EUW. This is my first guide, so if I don't explain something, leave a comment. Shaco is my favourite champion for various reasons: he can do so many things. Outsmart the enemy, outmaneuver the enemy, pressure the map with stealth and be uncatchable!

Check out my stream ( www.twitch.tv/koreancrimson ) for more in-depth Shaco play!

AS Quints are pretty standard and boost your clear a lot - an alternative that you could consider are MS Quints. Only take them if you want to exert more pressure on the map and are sure that you have enough damage to snowball off ganks (where farm-intensive play is not required). (3 AS Quints are ok too).

The AD quint and a couple of AD reds boost your clear a bit more, but importantly give you damage for level 2/3 kills. Every bit of AD you take scales 240% with just a Q-E at level 2!
One can also consider going full AD reds.

However, the hybrid pen adds nicely to Shaco's damage output, especially early. Hybrid pen is especially efficient, because his W-E-R all do magic damage (Statikk Shiv later on will add more magic damage to the mix).

Armour yellows are mandatory in the jungle - even though Shaco has his box to tank a bit of damage, he's absolute paper in the early game and those 9 armour help out your early clear a lot and ensure that you are healthy enough to gank. Scaling hp can be considered and is an ok option - but if you are at risk of getting invaded early or like to have an active early game, these are not for you.

Finally, blues are practically up to you. Some prefer to take flat AP for more damage on your E and slightly better box damage, others take Scaling Magic Resist. Both are good options, but I generally prefer Scaling CDR to get at least close to the 40% cap with blue. The bit of Magic Pen again helps out with Shaco's mixed damage burst.

Ferocity:
- Attack speed is a must in the jungle - ability damage doesnt help much with AD Shaco.
- 3% more damage helps you oneshot the enemy carries faster
- More AP and AD is great on Shaco's hybrid scalings, but lifesteal/spellvamp is good too (choice)
- I prefer Bounty Hunter, because it gives greater reward for risks, although Oppressor gives you a little bit more damage early on, since your E gives you a permaslow.

Cunning:
- The choice between free MS and better clear is up to you. I prefer the better clear for healthier ganks and more gold in less time.
- Assassin or more buff duration is good (up to you whether you are particularly buff-dependent or not).
- 5% increased damage is the obvious choice.
- Dangerous Game will ease your escapes out of sticky brawls.
- Hybrid pen is exceptional on Shaco due to his mixed damage. Penetration is good on any assassin, but 5% cdr isn't *bad* either.
- Thunderlord is the way to go here for more burst - this will allow you to one-shot carries at almost any point in the game. Stormraider's is ok but requires you to have enough burst (low elo it's ok but high elo I would recommend the burst due to less income).

An alternative build path would be to get Strength of the Ages in the Resolve tree (300 hp is nothing to sneeze at, although I personally prefer Thunderlord's burst), going Recovery, Tough Skin, Runic Armour, Insight, Swiftness OR Legendary Guardian (depends on amount of CC on enemy team) and finally Strength of the Ages.

Starting Machete is standard on AD - the refillable potion is good because I like to take Hunter's Potion for the extra sustain (I have little lifesteal in my setup and the extra mana/hp helps). You can start triple potion if you think you're gonna snowball heavily off the early levels.


First back - Which smite?

First back for me generally is around 900 gold and I upgrade my smite and get my Hunter's Potion for improved ganking and clear. Blue smite is good for ganking and for not getting kited by AD carries - red smite is an option against assassins and strong duellists (the 20% reduced damage taken really helps). Most of the time I don't look to duel anyone as Shaco though, but to oneshot the carries, so I'll take the blue smite. Green smite IS an option, as more vision is extremely valuable, as it helps you to more favourable ganks and enables your laners to not get surprised by cross-map movements by the enemy team. However, control-style play as Shaco is not the way he should be played imo. It's good, it's certainly do-able, but I stick to the combat smites on Shaco.

Your first power spike will occur once you complete your warrior - generally I'll go bot or to the solo lane that is easiest to gank and oneshot someone at that point. You can assassinate pretty much any carry at this point - but you have to be wary of other good Warrior junglers, because they tend to outdamage you (e.g. Rengar, Kha'zix, Nocturne).

At this point, it is a good idea to consider upgrading your boots: All boots are certainly viable on Shaco, but generally I tend to stick to 4: the 2 combat boots (Ninja Tabis and Mercury Treads) and the 2 speedy boots (Mobi and Swifties). Unless you're facing a lot of CC (=mercs) or a lot of AA-reliant champions (=tabis), I take the fast boots because they enable you to enter and leave fights quickly. Mobi boots are my boots of choice, because of the insane out-of-combat speed allowing better assassinations and much more pressure on the map. If you're facing a lot of slows (.e.g. Iceborn Ezreal and Frostqueen users), Boots of Swiftness are the go-to item.

Your second, and biggest, powerspike occurs once you finish your Statikk Shiv (standard itemisation). The reason why SS is so good on Shaco is because it gives you
a) better clear
b) waveclear for splitpush
c) much more mobility with the MS
d) a lot of burst on your Q since SS is guaranteed to crit
Finally, it's cheaper than alternative itemisation and thus presents the best power spike Shaco can hope for.

However, if I find myself snowballing heavily, I generally replace Warrior with Runic Echoes and if snowballing even harder, get a Ravenous Hydra instead of Statikk Shiv. (heavy snowball = several kills before 10 minutes).

Assuming you're doing normal, your third item will either be a Maw of Malmortius or a Titanic Hydra, depending on whether the enemy team has a lot of magic damage (double AP comp) or a fed AP assassin/mage that might worry you (Ahri, Viktor...). Titanic Hydra is my to-go item, because the active gives you an auto-attack reset that helps you proc Thunderlord easily with Q-Titanic-E and does A LOT of damage. The AA-reset can crit and on top of that Titanic Hydra gives you a decent chunk of health, which I find myself needing at that point of the game in order to not get oneshot before I oneshot someone myself.

After that, you can again consider to build a Maw and, otherwise, go tanky (to-go-to items are Randuin's Omen (vs. crit and Attack Speed), Banshee's Veil (AP casters) and Dead Man's Plate (vs. AD that isn't AS or crit reliant).

At any point in the game, if you're snowballing heavily, it is generally a good idea to just continue building a lot of damage, unless the enemy team is entirely squishy and you're able to oneshot any/most of them, at which point you can just start to get tanky instead.

Shaco works best as an AD assassin in the jungle. Your job is to get to squishy targets and oneshot them - and then hope to get out. The way I accomplish this is by identifying lanes that are easily gankable - for example, they have no mobility (e.g. Malzahar) or your laner has CC (Twisted Fate) - and then I farm until those lanes are exposed. Farming non-stop is core to my Shaco play, as he relies on his items to have his large mid-game damage spike in Warrior/Statikk Shiv. THAT BEING SAID - farm is nice and good, but a free gank is a free gank, so if you have a lane with great kill pressure (Shen taunt, lock them down long enough OR burst them down fast enough), go for it. Essentially, Q in from over a wall, unless you know their side-bushes aren't warded. Place a box far enough behind them that they'll have to use flash to get away or walk around it, wasting enough time to get killed. It's important to note that it's generally good practice to farm near lanes you expect to need your help or that might be gankable in the near future. Shaco has an ok early game and his late isn't *terrible*, but it's better to get a lead and press it.

So. How do you press a lead once you're ahead through farm and kills? Shaco isn't great at sieging. If you're really far ahead and got a Runic Echoes instead of Warrior, sieging gets easier. But side lanes are easily exploited by a fed Shaco. Tell your laner to go mid instead and then start pushing down a side lane. With Statikk/Titanic Hydra, you'll have a ton of waveclear. Place boxes in choke points (jungle entrances) to create zones of comfort that guarantee your safety alone in the side lane. Once the enemy wave is cleared, wait out of vision (denying the enemy team vision of your position on the map), unless you can safely push down a tower. At one point or another, unless they have a great tanky duellist that can actually fight you, a squishy will come down to stop the push. If they're alone, you can easily kill them (that is, if they're a squishy), dive them if you need to. If there is more than one enemy, tell your team to push mid or go baron and then escape, using boxed escape routes that will slow the enemy down.

Remember that Q gives you a guaranteed crit, so Statikk Shiv will crit and do double its base damage after you Q on a priority target. Your typical burst combo is Q-Titanic Active-E-Smite-Ignite practically at the same time. Titanic Hydra gives you an auto-attack reset, so you proc Thunderlords with just a Q-E-Titanic very easily.

Once you're in the fight, identify large bursts of damage and/or CC that comes your way and try to dodge it with your ultimate. Shaco *disappears* from the map for 0.5 seconds, meaning you can dodge stuff such as Malphite ultimates if you're fast enough. Expecting a certain ability beforehand increases your chances of dodging it! Shaco ult can also be used to drop turret aggro, which is very useful for turret diving and makes Shaco a beast past level-6, as you can more or less walk down to bot and one-shot the enemy adc under their turret and get out (given your bot lane helps you).

Objective control with Shaco is all about boxes. Spam those boxes EVERYWHERE, so as to zone enemies off places of interest. If they do get feared by your box, they can often get oneshot by your team. A very under-estimated fighting tool. Another use of your boxes in combat is to block skillshots coming your way by placing the box in front of you.

If mid lane towers have fallen, you can wait outside of vision and then Q forward to your wave, as generally an enemy carry (i.e. juicy squishy target) will be clearing the wave. Don't be afraid of 1v2 or 1v3 even unless they have extremely good peel (e.g. Janna, Lulu), including big shields/heals and instantaneous CC. Generally lane wards do not exist below diamond so your chance of successfully getting to your target are surprisingly high. Lane ganks in general are quite effective with Shaco, especially once you have Mobility boots for that extra movement speed.

With the introduction of Runic Echoes, I found it fits Shaco's playstyle quite well. He has decent AP scaling, Runic Echoes gives you a lot of mobility with that 7% extra movespeed and your jungle clear is greatly enhanced by AOE and mana sustain.

Additionally, the Echoes passive procs on your E, which makes your poke quite potent and increases your sieging potential, as well as powering up boxes (which again, even if not maxed, will do quite a bit more damage).

On top of that, you can proc thunderlords with just a Q-E, because the echoes passive counts as a thunderlords stack for some nice instantaneous burst.
An added bonus is that your damage is largely shifted towards magic damage (around 70% of your damage to champions will be magic), making magic penetration more efficient and thus allowing you to buy Sorcerer's Boots, which in my opinion, are really good on AD Shaco. In fact, I found myself buying them even before Runic Echoes was introduced whenever I was snowballing very hard, because your main goal will be to oneshot squishies as fast as possible (i.e. largely in one thunderlord proc) - E, statikk shiv and thunderlords all do a lot of magic damage, so magic penetration is surprisingly good on Shaco. Going slightly more AP Shaco with Runic Echoes just makes it this much more efficient.
On top of all of this, Runic Echoes is *also* a very good choice when your team distinctly lacks AP damage. Shaco already does mixed damage, but going Runic Echoes will ensure that your team doesn't fail because of the enemy's armour stacking tanks.