Hello and welcome to my guide to successfully backdooring with Shaco, the Demon Jester. Now, first off I would like to explain you the very basis and idea I play Shaco with.

For a fact, Shaco as a champion has a very low team fight utility. In other words, he is unable to directly help the team in a team fight - mainly because he is a melee assasin and too squishy to maintain in battle. That's why I have figured to play Shaco in a way that benefits your team massively, and causes the enemy to rip their hair off trying to catch you from melting their turrets. Details on this playstyle is explain further in the Team Work section.

"Now you see me - now you don't!" - Shaco.

Pros:

- Immense movement speed
- Strong 1v1
- No one can escape a Shaco 1v1
- Virtually uncatchable
- Easy turret downing with your Clone and Boxes
- Can defend own turret against multiple enemies with Clone and Boxes
- Incredible early game ganks
- Can solo dragon at level 6 (with some experience, even at level 1)
- Early game Shaco causes fear in enemies' minds
- Late game Shaco frustrates enemies to madness

Cons:

- Very squishy as a melee champ
- Hard to master
- Thirsts mana all game

Armor penetration helps greatly in jungling and ganking early game and late game, for which I suggest armor penetration marks and quints. The armor seals are standard runes for a jungler, and I find them suitable for Shaco too. The cooldown reduction glyphs are very useful on Shaco as I don't know how many times a Deceive has just come off cooldown to save my ***.

The masteries I've picked for Shaco are pretty clear. The Utility points aim to obtain 1 point in Runic Affinity (for the increased duration of jungle buffs) and for some extra mana. The Offense points aim to increase Shaco's offensive capabilities. Picking Defense points for Shaco would be useless as he is utterly squishy and wasting masteries on increasing his defense would be dumb.

Boots - Starting out with a pair of boots is advisable, as Shaco relies on successful early game ganks. Without boots your probability of ganking success is diminished. However, inexperiences Shaco players should buy Cloth Armor to ensure more sustainable jungling.

Wriggle's Lantern - Essential item for Shaco. The life steal is crucial for sustaining in jungle, and the passive proc of 500 damage greatly enhances jungling speed - not mentioning the free ward that helps your team.

Mobility Boots - For a backdoor Shaco, roaming speed is essential. With these boots and your [*] Deceive going around the map becomes so fast it's not even funny. After these boots Shaco has completed his early game build and poses a great threat to any lane.

Trinity Force - Ah, this magnificent item. Shaco needs mana, TF provides mana. Shaco needs health, TF provides health. Shaco needs attack speed and movement speed, TF boosts them both. Can there be any better item for Shaco? Oh yeah, did I forget to mention the bonus damage proc given by Sheen?

Phantom Dancer - Backdooring turrets will become extremely fast after getting this, as your clone will also benefit from the attack speed. Phantom Dancer is also a great item for Shaco when assassinating an enemy.

Infinity Edge - When you get this, your single-target burst damage will be insane. You will be able to melt squishy carries with one Deceive-Shiv combo. The increased critical damage and crit chance works perfectly with Deceive, and the increased attack damage will enhance your backdooring capabilities even further.

Guardian Angel - This completes my build of backdoor Shaco. With Guardian Angel, you become virtually unkillable. Why? Because even if enemies manage to finally catch you from backdooring a turret, you will Deceive into thin air right after the Angel revives you - So long suckers ;)

Bloodthirster - You should replace Wriggle's Lantern with this luxury item after you have got everything else to add the final cherry on top of this Shaco cake.

Jack In The Box - You should max out the Boxes first for the prolonged fear duration and extra damage. However, using this skill to its maximum potential requires a lot of skill in placement and timing. That's why if you are only beginning to play Shaco, you should max out Two-Shiv Poison first.

Two-Shiv Poison - This skill should be levelled second, as it does more damage, and slows longer. Using this requires a bit of timing. Generally, you should aim to throw your Shiv after the enemy uses Flash or Ghost etc. Clever use of the passive slow is also very essential in 1v1 fights.

Deceive - The most important part of this skill early on is of course the 4 second stealth for ganking. The extra damage gained by levelling this skill is not as useful to Shaco early game as levelling Jack In The Box or Two-Shiv Poison. That is why I max out this skill last.

I primarily pick Ghost and Smite when playing Shaco. Picking Ghost improves greatly both your early ganking abilities, and late game backdoor strength plus escaping speed. Compared to other common summoner spells played on Shaco I believe Ghost provides a significant advantage during all stages of the game, which is why you should pick this summoner spell for a successful backdoor Shaco play.

Basic Jungling Route:

1. Start by placing 5 Jack In The Box at the Red Lizard camp as soon as possible. Those 5 Boxes will kill the Lizard and you will gain the Red buff.

2. After 5 Boxes hurry to the Blue Golem camp and place 2 Boxes in the bush. Attack the Golem and run to the bush to proc the boxes. Smite the Golem at 445 health.

3. Now, depending on the situation, either gank top or mid, or proceed to the Wolf camp.

4.After Wolves, again, depending on the situation, either gank or go to the Wraiths.

5.After finishing Wraiths go kill the two small minions at the Red Lizard camp, and then go to the Double Golems.

6.At latest, now you should gank.

Level 1 Dragon Path

Shaco is the only champion in the game that can kill the Dragon at level 1 with a bit assistance of the bottom lane AD carry and support, thanks to his boxes.

1. Be as fast as possible, and run to the Wraith camp. Place 2 Boxes where you estimate the Big Wraith will respawn. These two boxes will kill the Big Wraith. If you are inexperienced, skip this part and run to the Dragon immediately.

2. Spam Jack In The Box at the spot where the Dragon spawns. Your team should hide in the river bush while you stand at the very back end of the Dragon lair to avoid detection.

3. The Dragon will spawn at 2:30, request only your AD carry and support to stay for a bit.

4. Let the Boxes attack the Dragon at spawn, then quickly start attacking the dragon from behind to proc your passive.

5. Drink a HP potion right when the Dragon starts attacking you.

6. With the combined damage from you and your AD carry and support, plus Smite, the Dragon should be dead. You will have taken significant damage though.

7. After Dragon, go kill Wraiths, and teleport back to base.

8. Now either gank or run the Basic Jungling Route.

Now, the main story I want to share with all of you. The way backdoor Shaco should be played.

First of all, as explained in the Introduction, Shaco is too squishy for team fights, and therefore a worthless champion in team fights. However, his abilities make his turret downing capabilities very strong, and clever usage of Deceive and Jack In The Box makes catching him impossible. That's why I'll present you the way you should play backdoor Shaco.

So, during late game, when both teams start sticking together and preparing for team fights, you should stay away from your team and backdoor lanes far away from action. This creates a lot of frustration within the enemy team, and distracts their gameplay. Not only is there the psychological effect, but most importantly, you will cause at least one of the enemy champions to come after you. Perfect.

Shaco is very strong 1v1, and depending on which champion is coming for you, you can ambush them in the jungle when they are on their way to bust you. You can easily fight squishy champions, but you should not engage on tanks. Now, the thing is, by occupying one of the enemy champions, you basically decrease the enemy team's champion count to 4. Now your team and the enemy team will be able to fight equally 4v4.

This is not all. Very often the enemy team becomes so frustrated that you cause the whole team, or many of the members to come after you while you destroy their turrets. What does this mean? This means a scattered enemy team coming after you in their jungle. Now you have created a good setup for a team fight for your team, as you have displaced the enemy formation. If you see the whole enemy team coming after you, Deceive at the right moments and pop your Ghost. Run to the other side of the map and start backdooring the opposite lane. The enemy can't do balls.

I hope this brief explanation describes how backdoor Shaco should be played. Many team mates will complain that why don't you help during team fights, but you should know that actually, by backdooring, you help your team greatly. You cause distraction within the enemy team, and champions that leave their formation will anyways be more valuable team fight wise than you are. Therefore, they lose more from the team composition than you by coming after you - always.

Good luck on owning with Shaco!