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Shaco Build Guide by bouncingboxes

Support AP Shaco Support: A Ranked Guide to Making 9 People Hate You

Support AP Shaco Support: A Ranked Guide to Making 9 People Hate You

Updated on January 26, 2015
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League of Legends Build Guide Author bouncingboxes Build Guide By bouncingboxes 5 2 77,343 Views 4 Comments
5 2 77,343 Views 4 Comments League of Legends Build Guide Author bouncingboxes Shaco Build Guide By bouncingboxes Updated on January 26, 2015
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Spells:

LoL Summoner Spell: Flash

Flash

LoL Summoner Spell: Ignite

Ignite

Threats & Synergies

Threats Synergies
Extreme Major Even Minor Tiny
Show All
None Low Ok Strong Ideal
Extreme Threats
Ideal Synergies
Synergies
Ideal Strong Ok Low None

Introduction

THIS GUIDE ALSO CONTAINS A VIDEO GUIDE/COMMENTARY OF A HIGH GOLD SHACO SUPPORT GAME

Hello, I'm Bouncingboxes, a Gold 3 Shaco enthusiast in NA. Welcome to my first guide for Mobafire.

I'm also just starting out on YouTube: Bouncingboxes

Shaco has always been one of my favorite champions, and while most think he is only viable as a jungler, he provides unique and powerful tools to be a successful snowballing support. He has an incredibly high skillcap and you will never stop learning as you play him, and his insanely tricky playstyle can let you pull off things that no other champion could dream of, even as a support. If you can take your teammate's abuse, this is a viable way to gain elo, as I have carried games as Shaco Support even against high gold and low platinum players. In lower brackets he is even more powerful, as most players do not know how to play against a good Shaco.

Warning, fully understanding a complex champion like AP Shaco Support is a lot of work, so this guide gets very in depth. If you are up for it this guide can help you improve greatly and give you an awesome introduction to the champion.

Enjoy the guide, make sure to try always try it in normals before taking something this skill intensive to ranked, your teammates and I thank you.

(Pictures will be added to this guide, don't worry it won't always be just a wall of text)
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Pros / Cons

Pros:

[*] Boxes provide gank protection and warding
[*] High Burst Potential
[*] Extremely snowbally
[*] Hard to kill
[*] High Skill Ceiling
[*] High outplay potential
[*] Great Support for Roaming
[*] Scales well into the late game
[*] Can do a camp level 1 while in lane (instant lvl 2)

Cons:

[*] Squishy
[*] Weak to Poke
[*] Boxes don't proc spellthief's
[*] Hiiiiigh learning curve
[*] Tough to play from behind
[*] Can often bait himself into bad situations
[*] Teammates will rage at you in champ select
[*] Teammates will rage at you at the start of the game
[*] 0/9 teammates will blame you for the team being behind
[*] Ragemonsterragemonster omnomnomnom
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Abilities






Shaco deals 20% more damage when attacking from behind
Shaco's passive on AP Shaco is still very powerful, it procs off of Two-Shiv Poison and Hallucinate's explosion damage, and can often greatly increase both your burst and your overall damage.



Shaco teleports to a target location, and becomes invisible for 3.5 seconds. His next auto-attack will crit.
Shaco's Q is an astoundingly useful ability that goes hand in hand with man of his others. He can get out of a lot of tricky situation using this, and it makes him one of the slipperiest champions in the game. It also can be used to gap close effectively to get off your burst. When saving your deceive for the end of a fight, try to soak up as much focus and damage as your can before qing out at the last possible second. You can often win fights and still get out alive just because of the attention you draw and the natural safety of your skillset. This is also one of the reasons Mejai's soulstealer is not only a viable choice on AP Shaco, but a safe one. Unless you heavily misplay, you can often survive when most champions couldn't.



Shaco deploys a box that lasts for one minute, or 5 seconds when firing. If enemies come close to the stealthed box, it will fire, dealing magic damage and fearing them.
Jack in the Box is your main tool for lane and brush control, and also provides wards if placed well. A well boxed lane can zone the opponents, bait them into bad trades, and often save you from a gank all at the same time. Positioning of boxes is crucial, and there will be a later chapter detailing strategies and placement of boxes, along with early and late game cheese tactics and advantages.



Shaco's AAs passively slow enemies, and minions have a chance to miss their attacks on you. Shaco throws the Shiv to deal massive magic damage and slow the enemy.
This Shiv is AP Shaco's main source of damage, and provides the poke and burst needed to trade early game and assassinate late game. Shiv scales 1.0 with ability power, and has solid base damages, so building AP and Magic Penetration both greatly help its damage. Late game this skill can often take 1/2 of a carry's health, and when combined with DFG you can often take a carry out of the fight entirely, or even kill them, with one combo. This is what makes a fed Shaco so scary.



Shaco becomes untargetable for .5 seconds, and creates a clone that deals 75% of his damage, but takes 50% more damage. Shaco's clone will also explode dealing insane AOE burst damage.
Shaco's ultimate is one of the most intricate in the game. There is so much to talk about that it will have its own chapter, but this is what makes AP Shaco a truly terrifying beast that the other team shouldn't even want to kill. If his clone explodes it will take half the health of most enemies, and the tricks you can pull off are vast and immense. Clone play is what separates a good Shaco from a great one, and can often mean the difference between 4 more Mejai's stacks and losing half of them for nothing.
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Summoner Spells


In my mind this summoner is vital on Support Shaco, it is the quintessential snowballing spell, and you are all about snowball. It helps give you early game lane pressure while also giving you mid and late game assassination potential. Especially with this build and strategy's reliance on a Mejai's rush, ignite is the only choice.


Other than ignite there are 2 main choices for second summoner spell, and each represents a slightly different goal and strategy.



Flash?! On Shaco?! What am I stupid, I hear you saying. Flash is in fact an interesting option for Shaco Support, and my preferred spell. This spell makes you legitimately unkillable at every stage of the game, increasing your survival rates even further, and also makes your already insane chase potential even better. No one can kill you and no one will escape. It makes stacks easier to get and keep. The only downside is it sacrifices the possibility of a more team oriented spell.



This choice is the more lane oriented, protect the carry style spell. It provides great skirmish potential and can help to win many bot lane fights. This spell is much more team oriented, providing cc in teamfights and even keeping a target pinned down enough to get hit by your box's fear. You lose a lot of your safety however, and cannot play as recklessly and dangerously as with flash. You need to be much more careful with your aggressive q's, but what you lose in personal safety and potential you gain in other ways.


Preferred spell is honestly up to you, try them both out as they are both good. The only difference is one of style, so figure out what you want out of Shaco support and which one makes you feel all warm and fuzzy. Shaco is such a versatile champion that many decisions can be the right one, as long as you know the reasons behind them.
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Runes


This is my preferred rune set up for AP Shaco Support, it provides the offensive capabilities and early game survival that I want. Ability Power Quints and Magic Penetration Marks provide great early game boosts in damage and supplement my early purchases such as Mejai's and Sorc Shoes. Armor seals and MR glyphs give tankiness that forgive any early trades or misplays with a squishy support like Shaco.

AP Glyphs: This is another option for those more aggressive than I dare to be. You will deal more damage, but I would not take these against any sort of poke lane, you will have enough trouble dealing with early level magic damage as it is without giving up your resistances. Against a Leona or Thresh lane however, this could be just the tool to snowball your easy laning phase into a painful mid game.
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Masteries

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Skill Sequence


Two early points in Shiv before getting deceive gives much more lane presence and harass, and does not greatly sacrifice your safety.

After Hallucinate Maxing Two-Shiv Poison first is the only option, it provides most of your damage, and leveling it up only means you can use it more effectively for more damage.

I next suggest leveling Jack In The Box as it causes your already potent boxes to deal more damage and increased the duration of the fear. This is also clear when realizing that Deceive's cooldown is not lowered when leveled.
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Items


This is the optimal start for support Shaco. It provides AP, mana regen, and is cheap enough to allow a couple health pots to start.


None of the support items are quite right for Shaco, but this one comes the closest. I tested this item for a while, but eventually came to the conclusion that it just isn't worth it. Jack In The Box doesn't proc it, and other items are just a stronger start and provide more lane presence. I would even take an Amplifying Tome start over this.


This is the first item rush for AP Shaco. His natural safety and kill potential make him perfect for this item, and with the buffs it provides a solid boost to his damage even right after purchase. Rush this item and start stacking, because this snowbally support just got his big boy pants.


People underestimate the importance of Magic Penetration. With the amount of AP (sometimes up to 1000) that Shaco can end up getting, and the fact that most of his damage comes from a single, spammable spell, Magic Pen becomes vital. It can often be the difference between 2 more stacks and another frustrating near kill. Get these boots early, the MPen and speed boost will make roaming and skirmishing much easier in the mid game.


This is when Shaco Support starts really having fun. Once you have this item you can assassinate many squishies 100-0, and the extra damage can be vital in helping transfer some of your advantage onto the rest of your team in midgame fights.


Noooowwwwwwww we're talking. If you are far enough ahead to get this in the later mid game you are going to steamroll opponents. Your poke can take half their health in a single e, and you can often dive into a fight, ultimate when you are low, and cause it's explosion to massacre their team while you happily q to safety.


Remember that Magic Penetration discussion earlier? Yeah... still applies tenfold to late game. A void staff can turn games, and increase your damage massively. Notice what the enemy team is building, I will often get this before Rabadon's Deathcap depending on the situation.


Those 5 items will generally be your core build on AP Shaco Support, here are some other options/ 6th item possibilities:


This "defensive" choice will provide you with that last almost 200 AP to push you into effortless one shot territory. How you let the game go this long I'll never know, but it sure is fun. Pick up Baron and an elixer and you've got 1000 AP, congrats, your e is doing 1.7k damage... Now stop messing around and win!


This is a very situational item for if you are behind against a team with stealth champions or against a strong pick comp. It also helps you chase while providing CDR for when you just need to carry a heavy team against terrifying opposition.


This is an interesting 6th item that ensures you will be annoying for far longer than your opponents want. I tend to go on the philosophy that if I dove into a fight and killed a few of them with my e's and clone, and I die, I either died valiantly attempting a clone juke that managed to give my team the edge by pulling focus, or I misplayed heavily and deserved to die. I usually stay away from this item and go towards either more damage or more directly defensive options.


Shaco Support is one of the few champions who can viably use all 3 trinkets effectively:


This is the trinket I begin the game with. I often enjoy having this trinket for longer than most, because I forgo sightstone on shaco, preferring to use short term wards and boxes for map awareness.


Switching to this trinket is an important decision, as clearing vision and controlling the map is usually more important to Shaco than having wards themselves. His natural safety and slippery skillset make him able to use the trinket slot for more aggressive purposes.


Though a rare sight on most champions, Shaco can use this trinket powerfully. His chase potential and stealthy approach can catch many opponents off guard, and knowing where the enemies are is vital for setting up traps and outmaneuvering objectives.
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Boxboxbox

Shaco's Jack In The Box is a strategically complex tool that require knowledge and forward thinking to place correctly. Boxes can save your life and win you fights, but first you need to know their tricks:

Level 1/Leashing
There are two situations at level 1 in the current jungle. Either you have to leash or you do not. If you have to leash, only place one box for the jungler, and make sure it will hit the big monster in the camp, since you don't want to steal experience from the jungler. Once you have placed that box at around 1 minute, your powered up AP box will deal a normal amount of leashing damage on its own, allowing you to head to lane and get 2 boxes down in the bot lane brushes, establishing brush control.

If your jungler starts on the opposite side of the map you should be eternally grateful. This let's you take advantage of AP Shaco's insane box damage. At about 59 seconds place your first box at the small jungle camp, placing boxes off cooldown until you have 4 down. You can then head to lane, and will arrive before the minions. Yes, do not stay to kill the camp. Begin normal laning, but a couple seconds after 1:55 you will suddenly get an instant level 2, giving you a massive experience and lane advantage over the enemies.


Early Laning Attrition
When pre-boxing a lane, try not to clump your boxes, spread them out so they are a minefield rather than a nuke. The multiple separate fears and hesitancy this instills in the enemies is much better for your lane than one bursty trap at this level.

When the lane begins brush control becomes a war of attrition. You want to place boxes in neutral places to start with, establishing solid control of your own bush. Once you are able to zone them away from the minions and if the lane pushes towards their tower you can slide your boxes into the front of their brush, taking further territory and often making last hitting and trading a nightmare for them.

Once the lane is pushed to their tower you can establish your final position of brush control, going as far back in the brush as you can and stacking boxes near their tower. If you have poked them down a bit than once the lane resets they cannot come into the minions to last hit effectively, and will often end up dying as soon as they walk into the box trap. After level 6 this also provides an amazing initiation for a 2v2 all in. They get caught by the boxes, you Two-Shiv Poison the priority target, Deceive into the middle of them so they focus you instead of the adc, you can then Hallucinate to further confuse them and give your near full health adc free time to get a double kill while you dance on their bodies.


Warding and Fallback Boxes
In lane it is often a good idea to place boxes in normal ward locations such as river brush or tri brush, providing warding and a nice surprise for any jungler or mid laner who wants to roam on you. The most effective way to defend your lane however, is often to have a backup box or two in your own brush, or even on near your tower itself, so that if you lose a fight or get ganked they may overextend for the kill and get a surprise fear. This has saved my life countless times before and has even gotten me flashes and kills in 2v3 situations.

This idea of fallback boxes becomes even more important later in the game. Once mana allows, I begin to place boxes whenever they are off cooldown, as they are powerful tools to set up for a fight, whether around dragon or in mid lane. I try to have boxes in important choke points and vision spots, while also having some nearer to our side, so that if our carry is kiting away and being chased he has somewhere to go. The idea of placing late game boxes is to try and predict where the outer edges of the fight might end up.

You want two things to happen in a fight, if they engage on you they should get feared and disrupted, allowing for easy counter-engage. If the fight spreads at all and stragglers try to run you want them to have to run directly into your boxes.

During the fight itself you want to place boxes to peel for your carries or split the fight. If you can keep both of the carries feared and focusing you, that means they are both not dealing damage to your team. If you manage this you will almost always win the fight.

This sort of pre-teamfight planning takes a lot of practice, and you won't get it right away, but your boxes can truly turn the tide of a fight.


Box Blocking
Shaco's Jack In The Box provides a wonderful and useful mechanic against champions like Thresh and Nautilus. If you see them winding up their hooks, you can drop a box in the way. The box will take the hook, oftentimes not even killing it, and providing an additional fear if they keep chasing.

In a more general sense, drawing the attention of the enemy team, and baiting them can often make them overextend into a bad position. You can drop a box in the bush you run through, and it will be ready in time for the hunting party to get feared, frustrating them and usually causing the entire team to clump up further, making all of your team's AOE and wombo combo slam into all 5 opponents. If your team is in a good spot, like in a pre dragon fight preparation, this can mean a full team pick off, a 5-0, and a free objective or two on top of it.
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Clone Wars

Shaco's Ultimate... Hallucinate

This is one of the most intricate and nuanced skills in League of Legends, and even more so on AP Shaco. It let's you be deceptively unkillable, and provides many juke and outplay opportunities.


Dodging Things
Shaco's Ultimate, when cast, provides you with .5 seconds on untargetability. This means you can dodge basically anything in the game, whether it is CC abilities, damage, and even unwanted sexual advances. The timing on this ability is difficult to get right, but once you figure it out it can save you from otherwise certain death, and make any Karthus or Caitlyn in the game cry and/or rage.

During skirmishes and teamfights this ability becomes even more useful. When a Shaco appears in the middle of a team and takes 3/4 of a carry's health, he WILL get focused. Learn when the team usually sends all their ultimates and CC at you, because it often happens all at once when they all react. If you time it right you can make most of the team waste their spells and not even get hit by them. If you couldn't tell, this usually means your team won the fight.


Explosion of Your... Clone: Laning Phase
Your clone is incredibly powerful as AP Shaco, and knowing how to position it for damage and zoning is vital to making the most of your post-6 potential.

During 2v2 or other small skirmishes, your ultimate becomes a more direct tool. It provides extra damage, while greatly confusing your opponents. If you have done your job and forced them to focus you rather than your adc, then they will often kill your clone, causing massive damage to both of them. If they stop hitting you after you Ultimate then that means they just wasted all that time trying to kill you only to switch targets.

Another useful trick in a botlane skirmish is that you can use your ultimate to tank the turret, running just behind it to stay in range of them. This allows for safer dives and longer followup when many champions would just have to let them escape, and also allows you to save your Deceive to escape tower aggro rather than to gap close. The other advantage to this strategy is that the tower will kill your clone very quickly, allowing the explosion to deal its burst damage even when they thought they had escaped.

Ulting for dives from the enemy tri-brush when you are blue side is a very powerful way to set up the dive, especially when your jungler is diving with you.


Exploding in Teamfights
Aside from dodging things, your ultimate in teamfights can provide incredible zoning potential and even kills for your team.

When directing your ultimate into a teamfight, try to put it in the thick of things, where it will get hit with the most AOE damage, while also sending it to attack the carries. Your goal should be to force the ADC and/or mid laner to either hit your clone or run away from it, because if they are running or hitting your clone, they are doing ZERO damage to your team, and that means your team is putting out 2-3 times the enemies sustained damage.

This ability along with boxes can split a fight in half, as the enemies frantically try to escape your explosion radius from behind while dealing with 4 angry champions from the front, all while taking massive Two-Shiv Poisons to the face. This particular strategy is strongest in early to mid game skirmishes and dragon fights.

The other option if you still have Deceive available is to ult in their team and then both run in and start attacking. This will deal less overall damage because you shouldn't Two-Shiv Poison when attempting to confuse them, but it causes two interesting things to happen:

1.They do not know which Shaco is the real one in the heat of battle, so will probably kill the clone in range of at least 3 people.
2. They subconsciously react to anyone attacking their adc and think that they can kill you, so you draw all the focus of the team, allowing you to q out at the last moment and let your team wail on them from the back.

This is a more risky strategy, but often the right one, especially if you are ahead and they have learned to fear you, because then they will be trapped. They NEED to deal with you, but if they focus you they will lose the fight. It turns into a lose/lose. This is by far the best option for late game fights, as your team has the damage to destroy a teamfight if you waste enough of the enemy's time and abilities.
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Stages of the Game

Early Game/Laning Phase
In the early laning phase your focus should be establishing your lane presence. Gaining brush control with your boxes is the first step, and can get you early advantages in trades. Get two early points into your Two-Shiv Poison and poke the enemy champions while trying to not get into extended fights. Avoid wasting mana on your Deceive unless you think you can get the kill, otherwise save the mana.

Also use this time to establish your aggressive style. Show the opposing laners that any brush they walk into could have a box, and you will always stand right in their faces and throw Two-Shiv Poisons without fear. This will make them hesitant later, and also sets up baits later in the game.


Mid Game
The Mid Game is Shaco Support's time to shine. By this point you will have Mejai's Soulstealer and your snowball potential is immense. You now have your ultimate and are maxing out the points on your Two-Shiv Poison, allowing your harass and all in pressure to be at its height. You also should be looking to roam mid whenever you can. Shaco is a very strong ganker no matter what the position. you are very strong at this point, use your pressure and stacks to help snowball your teammates as well.

During the mid game you should also be looking to force 2v2 and 3v3 skirmishes, as this is where AP Shaco thrives. Your ultimate and overall kit is designed to chase down stragglers and overwhelm smaller groups of enemies. Mid game skirmishes are how you get stacks and get your team ahead.


Late Game
The late game is very situational for Shaco Support. Oftentimes, however, it is about preparing for future fights while annoying the hell out of your enemies. Try to set up Jack In The Boxes for objectives you know are coming, while also poking and distracting the enemies.

Look for opportunities to bait the enemies, as getting them to overchase you into traps can get your team easy picks, and remember, your job in teamfights is to use everything in your power to pull their focus and disrupt their plans. Make them do things they shouldn't because of your pressure.
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Roaming on Support Shaco

Support Shaco is one of the strongest roaming supports in the game. His Deceive allows for stealth approaches into a gank. and the same things that make him an amazing jungler still apply here. Learning when to roam mid can net you a lot of kills and help to get your entire team ahead. Playing AP Shaco is all about using your own advantages and leads to translate that into kills for your ADC, Mid, and Jungler.

Once you hit level 8-9, and once you have taken first tier bot tower, you can make a concerted effort to roam mid multiple times. At this point your ADC is strong enough to survive alone for the needed time, and you have enough points into your Two-Shiv Poison to be a big threat.

When making a gank mid, try to Deceive from a position outside of the enemy's line of vision, this way they will not see the puff of smoke and thus you can get around behind them. Then AA once from behind them, place a box in their escape path, and try to save your Two-Shiv Poison for if they get away. Try not to take the kill, but it is fine if you do due to your Mejai's.

When heading back to lane, if the opposing bot lane is pushed up you can Deceive from over a wall or out of vision further down the lane, and get off a surprise all-in onto the enemy ADC. The element of surprise is a powerful thing, especially for Shaco.
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The Psychology of Shaco

Messing With The Enemy
This is your main goal as Shaco Support. This is what the entire game works towards. The point of AP Shaco is to force the enemy to make mistakes, and to do things that they otherwise would never decide to do.

The most important thing to do as AP Shaco is to make your playstyle clear to your opponents throughout the game. Build clear patterns so that they will expect you to play in a certain way. You may say that no normal player is actually going to pick up on that, and you are very right, which is why you make it easy for them.

You want them to think you are a crazy person, that you will put yourself into insanely risky situations and still get out. Make them WANT to kill you. You are that annoying fly that you KNOW you can swat but juuuust keeps moving at the last second. By the end of the game you can pull off insane baits because no matter how many times you escape, each new bait just looks like the one time you FINALLY got too cocky.

If you appear in the middle of the team and blow up their carry, they will all dive on you instead of your teammates. You can even dodge most of their abilities with your ultimate. The more time they take trying to finally kill that damn Shaco, the more free time your entire team has to dump DPS and spell rotations into them for free. Make them hate you, and turn that into a win.


Do I Want to Go Into That Bush?
Trap Bushes. Trap Bushes. Trap Bushes.

Establish throughout the game your lane presence and map presence through brush control and Jack In The Box placement. Early game lane brush boxing is important for winning trades, but it also makes your opponents scared of brushes. Continue this throughout the game. Later on, whenever you have an enemy buff timer or know their path, set up a trap in their jungle and you will either get a kill on someone or at least get a flash and scare the living daylights out of them.

How likely is it that they’ll go walking into their jungle without fear again? This strategy instills a hesitancy in the enemy, and if you do it right, makes them believe that you could be in any bush. It makes them place suboptimal wards, and play scared. When an entire team is on tilt and moving AROUND the jungle instead of through, your team has a massive advantage.

League is also a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you and your team believe you can win, you often can pull off amazing comebacks, but if you feel overwhelmed and are not having fun, your team will often fall into raging at each other and blaming others. This in itself can often win you games just from making the opponents feel a certain way. This is occasionally going to happen all on its own, just because you are such an off-meta pick. I’ve lost count of the amount of times late game I’ve heard from the enemy bot lane that the top and/or jungler has been raging at them all game for losing lane to a Shaco support.


Mejai's Mindset
So many people believe that Mejai’s stacks are vital to keep, and that if you die you are stupid and have lost everything. This often causes them to play overly carefully and poorly. Like you can’t eveeerrrrr die. This is the wrong way to think. Mejai’s Soulstealer is a means, not an end.

You rush Mejai’s on Shaco Support, because he has the skillset to get stacks and the safety to keep them, but also because getting Mejai’s coincides perfectly with your first main power spike of levels 6-9. First skirmishes often happen at this time, and can often give you a very fast 10 Mejai’s stacks.

This Mid game advantage means you often get early stacks, but don’t guard these too tightly. The reason you want these stacks is in two parts:

1. To get yourself more powerful and get further items more quickly.
2. To transfer your lead and power into your teammates.

In the mid game you are using your mejai’s to power yourself up and get to other items faster. Once you start getting those items you will be ahead even if you lose some stacks. If you have the opportunity to draw focus and get your team 3-4 kills for just your death, the lead you give your team is more than worth the stacks you lose.

Transition gold and kills onto your carries, and use your mid game power to get objectives, the stacks will come.
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Styles of Shaco Support: Balancing your Presence

There are two main styles of Shaco Support, and finding the balance between the two is a constant struggle, and the right answer truly depends upon each game.


Roaming Trickster
This style is Shaco is all psychological, all the time. You stay in lane only as long as your ADC can’t physically survive without you (or you get Mejai’s). You then leave lane whenever you see an opportunity. Go mid and gank alone and with your jungler. Go into the enemy jungle and ward it up, get buff timers, set 3-4 box traps to kill the jungler. Whenever you come back to lane treat it like a gank, Deceive in from somewhere sneaky and go for the double kill. Treat yourself like a second jungler for bot side. Get stacks and instill fear.

This strategy can be powerful to get your mid lane ahead and is incredibly fun. The downside is that it often puts your ADC very far behind, and negates any lane advantage you may have gained up to this point in exchanged for map pressure. It is the much more risky style of play.


Classic Support, Just Better
This style of Shaco is the much more contained, classic support style. You are trying to gain and build a lane advantage, and snowball both yourself AND your ADC. Look for 2v2 all ins and skirmishes, and try to set up ganks. Mostly look to create 3v3 or 4v4 fights around objectives like dragons. Use your boxes for warding, defense, and also to set up these fights.

This style plays the role of a normal Support. Use your advantages however, your natural brush control with Jack In The Box, your poke with Two-Shiv Poison, and your kit’s safety provide you with natural advantages that can be powerful tools.

This is the style that will give you the most consistent success in Ranked, and will provide your team overall with the best chance of winning. Sometimes, however, roaming regularly will be able to give you a powerful advantage, so look for what the situation needs. Every game is different, and well timed roams while still maintaining your lane presence can often get your ADC, Mid laner, and Jungler all snowballing at once, and that makes for an easy win.
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Video Guide

Here is a full game commentary of one of my Gold Ranked games on AP Shaco Support. It covers much of what this guide does while letting you see me putting it into action. Enjoy!


Go check out the other videos on the channel if you enjoyed.
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Conclusion

AP Shaco Support is no troll pick. It is a powerful and viable option to snowball the bottom side of the map, and to instill fear into your enemies. Give it a try in normal, I promise you will have a blast. As you go remember you never stop learning more about Shaco. He is one of the most complex champions in the game, and he will never get boring.

Enjoy! And happy Boxing
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Teamfight Tactics Guide