Hey there, I'm hoping this guide will teach you to be as annoying, and strong as Shaco as possible. But remember you don't have to follow this guide to the letter, take what you will from it, and make alterations as you see necessary.

And, if you have a few bad games trying as Shaco, don't lose faith, you'll get it eventually, just stick at it!

Greater Mark of Critical Damage
Greater Seal of Critical Damage
Greater Glyph of Critical Damage
Greater Quintessence of Critical Damage

The runes I go with are pretty self explanatory; Crits, crits, and crits.

With Deceive, and the items you'll be buying the more crit damage the better!

Simple, right?

Spells that I use:

Teleport & Exhaust

Exhaust is a great tool for first blood, in fact I'd go as far to say 90% of my first blood kills have been because of Exhaust, it's just amazing. I highly recommend you use it.

And as for Teleport, I've lost count of the amount of times we've been losing and I've used Teleport to backdoor and destroy an inhibitor, forcing the enemy to come back and defend, and giving my team some time to compose itself.
In fact, I've managed to backdoor and destroy a Nexus on my own a hell of alot of times.
And not to mention Teleport is great for getting back into lane quickly, helping defend another lane, and ganking.

Other useful spells:

Ghost: Ghost is great defensively and offensively. You can use it to chase down a fleeing enemy, or run from an opposing team trying to gank you. Works great with Shaco's Deceieve seeing as you can cover more ground whilst stealthed.

Cleanse: Great if you've already used Deceive and Ashe decides to throw one of her ult's your way, however, it's not very versatile like Ghost, or Exhaust.

Heal: I actually reccomend taking this maybe for your first couple of tries, I mean, you're bound to mess up, everyone does. A nice little safeguard, becomes useless mid/late game though.

Flash: Another versatile spell, great defensive, and offensive. I see no reason why you shouldn't take this. I'm pretty set in my ways, and love Teleport & Exhaust too much.

Ignite: Ignite's decent, I mean, it does what you'd expect it to. But same as my reason for Cleanse, it's not exactly versatile. But if you wish to take it, by all means do so.

Spells I wouldn't even consider:

Revive: Come on...

Smite: Seeing as you won't be jungling, I don't see much point.

Clairvoyance: I wouldn't reccomend it seeing as it just isn't that useful in my opinion.

Clarity: Mana isn't really a problem with Shaco, especiially not since your first purchase is a Sapphire Crystal.

Fortify: If you're defending right you shouldn't need it.

Promote: Does anyone even use this?

Rally: Another spell I never use. But hey, each to their own.

Backstab: Shaco deals 25% bonus damage when striking a unit from behind.

Shaco's passive ability, works great in conjunction with his other abilities, and the items used.


Deceive: Shaco instantly stealths for 4 seconds, and teleports to target nearby location. If he attacks while stealthed, the attack is guaranteed to crit for 40 / 60 / 80 / 100 / 120% bonus damage.

Cooldown: 10 seconds.
Mana Cost: 90/80/70/60/50

Mix this with Backstab, Infinity Edge, and all our critical damage runes, and you've got a recipe for disaster.


Jack In The Box: Shaco creates a Jack in the Box at the target location. It will Stealth after 2 seconds, and pop out when an enemy comes near, fearing nearby enemies for 0.5 / 0.75 / 1 / 1.25 / 1.5 seconds and attacking them.

It deals 35 / 55 / 75 / 95 / 115 (+25% of ability power) damage, and lasts 90 seconds while stealthed or 5 seconds while firing. Casting Jack In The Box does not break stealth.

Cooldown: 16 seconds
Mana Cost: 50/55/60/65/70

Jack In The Box can be absolutely crucial in gaining you that first blood. Not only that, they're great in a team fight, and as mentioned later on can be Teleported to to get behind enemy lines, or to get back in lane.


Two-Shiv Poison: Passive: While Two-Shiv Poison is ready to cast: Shaco's attacks poison his target, reducing their movement speed and chance to hit by 20/22.5/25/27.5/30% for 2 seconds.

Active: Deals half weapon damage + 40/80/120/160/200 (+100% of ability power) Damage to target enemy, and poisons them for 3 seconds.


Cooldown: 13 seconds
Mana Cost: 50/55/60/65/70

As you can see Two-Shiv Poison has potential to do crazy amounts of damage! Not to mention the 30% slow down, which is great to chase a fleeing enemy, or flee from a chasing enemy.


Hallucinate: Shaco creates an illusion of himself nearby, which deals 75% of Shaco's damage and receives 150% increased damage. (Deals half damage to turrets.) On death, the illusion deals 300 / 450 / 600 (+100% of ability power) magic damage to nearby enemies.

Lasts up to 30 seconds.

Cooldown: 105/90/75 seconds
Mana Cost: 100

Amazing for pulling down turrets, you need to see it for yourself to see just how incredible this is for taking them down. The best thing about you "clone" is that he stays even if you die, so you could still get the kill after you die!


Starting with Jack In The Box is great, it allows you some lane control early game, protects the brush on your lane, and can be vital in earning you kills early game. The element of surprise is your friend.

And then I try to increase Deceive as much as possible, increasing Two-Shiv Poison whenever unable to. The reason for this is Deceive mixed with Shaco's passive, Backstab, can cause a lot of damage, then throw in a Two-Shiv Poison whilst fleeing, or whilst the enemy is trying to, and you're laughing.

And don't forget to increase Hallucinate whenever possible. For obvious reason's. It's awesome!

Well, I like to start by buying Sapphire Crystal & two Health Potion's, and then proceed to build Sheen as soon as possible.
Next, buy some Boots, and upgrade to Berserkers Greaves whenever you can.
Next I'll buy Zeal, and again, upgrade that to Phantom Dancer whenever I can. Phantom Dancer is an incredible item, it helps farming & killing a hell of a lot!
And then I go for one of the most helpful items of this build: Infinity Edge! As I stated before, this build is all about Critical Damage, and the boost that you get from Infinity Edge is amazing, not to mention the attack damage you gain from it!
And my next purchase would be Trinity Force. You already have one component, Sheen, so you can decide, what do you need more; Survivability, or more DPS? Dependent on your answer, choose Zeal or Phage, and then upgrade to a Trinity Force whenever possible.

If the game's still going, I'd go for Guardian Angel, simply for the fact that the amount of survivablity you gain from this is very helpful, OR, if you're against a very mage-heavy team, I'd go for a Banshee's Veil instead.
At this point the next item is situational, choose whatever you like, as long as it makes sense.

First thing's first; make your first purchases and Teleport to the furthest tower on whichever lane you're going. You might be asking "Why would I waste Teleport so early?" Simple, you wanna place some Jack In The Box's down, and the more the better. So, like I said, Teleport to the furthest tower in your lane, run into the brush as far as you can towards the enemy tower and proceed to place Jack In The Box's. If two enemies come into the brush, don't be silly, retreat.
If one comes, however, first blood could be yours. Once the Jack In The Box's have started to attack, Exhaust, and go in for the kill! Simple right?

Now, defend or push as necessary. And if the enemy starts to get close; Deceive and run towards the enemy, hit, and Two-Shiv Poison as you run back. Or, if you think you can do so safely, auto attack until a)death or b) one of you has to flee, and don't forget your Two-Shiv Poison.

Helpful tips;

• Don't forget: Deceive, then ask yourself, "Can I safely attack?" If not, keep your distance and Two-Shiv Poison until you can.
• Deceive can be great for getting away from enemies aswell as attacking.
• You can use Teleport on one of your Jack In The Box's.
• Keep placing Jack In The Box's down, especially outside the enemies base, and in the brush. Like I said before backdoor'ing the enemy can win the game for your team!
• Hallucinate is not only great in a fight, it's amazing at tearing down towers/inhibitors.
• Even if you die, your Hallucinate clone stays, and upon death it deals damage to surrounding enemies. If you didn't use Hallucinate in a fight and it looks like you're going to die, use it, it could still get you a kill!

To summarise; Shaco is great all-round, and annoying as hell to play against.

Like I said before; Don't follow this guide to the letter, take what you will from it, and adapt as you see fit!

Hope you have fun playing as Shaco! And I hope this helped!

Any feedback is greatly appreciated, but hey, take it easy, it's my first build :D

Edited 28/3/2011;

• Added icons.
• Added some formatting, more to follow.
• Added more in depth information on summoner spells.
• Re-wrote information on items.