Hello! I am Shaco In The Box.

I was in Diamond V in season 6, and currently in Plat I in Flex 5v5, as a result of my 10 placement matches. Mobafire cannot verify this information due to the region I belong, but I'll put screenshots as a proof ASAP.

After the Shaco rework, a lot of people are confused on how to play Shaco. There are many changes that forced Shaco mains to change their playstyle and gameplay. This guide will teach you how to kill enemies swiftly with Shaco.

You must understand first the changes they did on Shaco.

Shaco's main skill was changed from Two-Shiv Poison to Deceive.
The damage from Two-Shiv Poison was nerfed, but % missing health damage was added.
Backstab now deals critical strikes.

The early game damage of Shaco and his dueling potential decreased significantly. Counterjungling at level 1 has become a difficult task, or even impossible for difficult matchups. If the enemy jungler is squishy and has poor dueling potential at level 1-2, you can attempt to counterjungle. Examples of these kind of champions are Nidalee and Amumu.

However, Shaco's mid game has improved. If your early game is not that good, it is not difficult for you to come back in the game. Unlike the old Shaco, the new Shaco can come back in the midgame and late game. The new Shaco also has a huge power spike once you have maxed your Deceive, hit level 11, and bought your BF Sword.

Quint of Critical Damage

Quints of Critical Damage enhances the damage you get from dealing critical strikes. This gives you a big boost, even in the early game.

Mark of Precision

Since Deceive gets its damage from attack damage and ability power, you should get both lethality and magic penetration. This quint will also increase the damage of Two-Shiv Poison.

Seal of Armor

Just because you are an assassin, it doesn't mean that you don't need defenses. Most of the time, you will have skirmishes with the enemy jungler. This seal will help you survive those skirmishes.

Glyph of Magic Resist

You will encounter AP enemy junglers such as Elise, Fiddlesticks, and Nidalee. Furthermore, this glyph will help you survive your ganks on enemy midlaners who stomps on your midlaner early on. Examples of these champions are Syndra and LeBlanc.

I will only be disucssing contrasts of certain mastery points.

Greenfather's Gift vs Dangerous Game

On the advantages of Greenfather's Gift:

Greenfather's Gift requires you to step into the brush.
It applies to champions, and jungle monsters too.
It gives you a little advantage over the enemy jungler during skirmishes.
It gives extra damage on your ganks.

The disadvantages:

It requires you to step into the brush.
You need to kite the monsters to the brush to trigger it.
Kiting monsters takes more time.
You can't trigger Backstab while kiting.
To use it in ganks, you need to step into brushes, which are possibly warded.
Maximizing it limits your ganking paths.

On the advantages of Dangerous Game:

Helps you survive close fights.
Lets you live through Ignite.
Lets you gain the extra mana you need to kill the other enemies.
It can be triggered easily by Jack In The Box.
Can also be triggered by Hallucinate.

Disadvantages:

You can't use it in jungle clears, unlike the Greenfather's Gift.
It might require you to put the boxes strategically to trigger assists, which can be difficult for new Shaco players.

And for the reasons listed above, I still prefer Dangerous Game. Remember, the new Shaco is weaker in early game, but stronger in mid to late game. You would want to prioritize the part of the game in which your champion is strongest.

Precision vs Intelligence

You already have precision on your runes, right? Then why would you take another in the mastery? Then how about Intelligence?


Remember that your passive's cooldown is reduced by cooldown reduction. A 5% cooldown reduction would help you clear the jungle faster early on.

Stormraider's Surge vs Thunderlord's Decree

This mastery has 2 important advantages:

It lets you enter and exit teamfights due to your insane damage.
It helps you chase enemies early on.

If you happen to have a skirmish with the enemy jungler and you still have your red buff, you already have the advantage. However, some junglers have escapes, jumps, dashes, etc. If you took Flash instead of Ignite, then you can chase them. But if you have the Stormraider's Surge, you can easily chase them because of the burst of movement speed.

It also lets you assassinate the enemy ADC or AP carry, and then exit the fight without being harmed. If in the case that you fail to assassinate the enemy but deal a great amount of damage, you still get the burst of movement speed and have a bigger chance of escape.

Thunderlord's Decree gives you the extra damage you need. If that damage falls short, then you would potentially lose the skirmish in the jungle.

When assassinating, there are two possible outcomes. We can always assume that the ADC is protected by his teammates. First outcome is that you fail to assassinate the enemy ADC, and get caught by the enemy team. Remember, without Stormraider's Surge, your chance of getting caught is bigger than the chance of successfully escaping. The second outcome would be successfully assassinating the enemy ADC, and you get caught by the enemy team. Always remember that choosing this mastery will give you less chance of escaping. Always assume that you would die once you enter the fight. However, assassinating the enemy ADC doesn't mean that you already won the fight. If your team's ADC also gets caught, then it would be a disadvantage for your team, since you lose 2 for 1 enemy.

Always assume that the enemy ADC/AP carry is protected throughout the teamfight. The chance of escaping when you have entered the teamfight is slim.

I would always choose extra utility over extra damage. I can do more things with movement speed than damage. For those reasons, I choose Stormraider's Surge.

Bounty Hunter vs Double Edged Sword

You're already squishy during the early game. You don't need another mastery to worsen that. There is no need to rush for damage. Shaco is strongest at mid to late game now. That would be compensated by the kills and the mastery Bounty Hunter.

But if you feel like you need that extra 5% damage, you can always switch to Double Edged Sword. Choose which is more beneficial to you.

Question: Why not have 18 mastery points in the Ferocity tree?

The armor penetration has already been taken care of by the Precision runes. There are also no viable keystone in the Ferocity tree. Warlord's Bloodlust is not for him; Shaco is not built to survive long fights. He is designed to go in and out of the fight. Fervor of Battle is not an option. Deathfire Touch is damage per second; it doesn't suit Shaco.

Since the first spell is Smite, we will only talk about the other spell.

Ignite

You can choose Ignite for greater killing potential for your ganks and skirmishes.

Flash

Your Deceive is already a free Flash. However, you can always choose Flash for the repositioning, and if you're not yet comfortable with Shaco.

In the jungle, you would want to exploit your passive as much as you can. The main goal is to go behind and attack. What you want to do is to attack, and immediately go behind the monster to trigger your passive. You would see a small circle at the monster's feet, indicating the cooldown of your Backstab. Do this for all the camps.

Box Placements

Buy your items as soon as the game starts. Leave the base at 0:15. To avoid invades, immediately put one box on the path to your jungle along the river. Go back to your first camp. Put a box as soon as possible. Then put another one. You should be able to put four boxes before the jungle monsters spawn.

Now, on box placements, YOU CANNOT STACK YOUR BOXES IN ONE PLACE ANYMORE.

Don't put the box too near to the wall. There's a big chance that it won't trigger. Since you only have 4 boxes, put them in such a way that they would form a square. When planting a box, I recommend planting them "one Teemo" away from each other. If you attempt to put a box near another, it would

Wraiths Start

I recommend starting at the Wraiths camp. Put a box at 0:36, since the wraiths come out at 1:35. There are a lot of monsters in that camp, and it would be difficult for Shaco to clear the camp, since you don't have any AOE skill. Starting at 0:36, you should be able to put 4 boxes, and another one as you clear the camp.

When to clear the Wraiths camp again? You'd want to clear it again when you have finished building you Warrior enchantment on your jungle item.

However, you won't be able to get your buff immediately. If you proceed to your red buff, the enemy jungler would have the opportunity to steal your blue buff. Always look at the minimap. If the enemy jungler has a blue buff and he recently acquired it, then he must have stolen your blue buff. Proceed to his blue buff to steal it.

Red Start

You can start at the red buff for the possibility of skirmishes early on. Sometimes, you might to help your midlaner to fight the enemy midlaner. I also like starting at the red buff so that I have an advantage whenever I need to countergank, or there is a skirmish.

After the red buff, level up your Deceive, and use it to go to the Krugs. Plant a box immediately.

Now, after the Krugs, don't clear the Wraiths. The Wraiths are easy to kill for those with area of effect (AOE) skills. You do not have that. This camp even has more potential to kill you than any jungle camp in the game. THOU SHALL NOT DO WRAITHS UNTIL YOU HAVE WARRIORS.

Proceed to the other side of the jungle.

Blue Start

You can also start at the blue buff and grab the mana regen and the cooldown reduction. Kill the Gromp afterward. And then the Wolves. Skip the Wraiths because these monsters prove to be difficult for Shaco.

After the first camp

Now, you may start counterjungling at level 4. If the enemy jungler is not a big threat, you can kill him whenever you see the chance to do it. If the enemy jungler is far, you can steal his camps. Always take note that at level 4, you only have 2.25 seconds of invisibility. Use it wisely.

Start ganking at level 5. You should have 3 seconds of invisibility from Deceive. That gives you enough time to position yourself behind the target enemy.

As soon as you hit level 6, put the control ward in front of the dragon itself. You can solo kill the dragon at level 6 with your Hallucinate.

Important notes:

Always exploit Backstab in the jungle camps.
Counterjungle at level 4.
Gank at level 5.
Solo kill dragon at level 6.
The best time to do Wraiths is when you have completed your Enchantment - Warrior.
Use plants as much as you can.
ALWAYS DO OBJECTIVES.

You would want to take Hallucinate whenever possible, that is, at level 6,11, and 16. Max your Deceive first. Then your Two-Shiv Poison, and lastly, your box.

More sections will be added soon, especially discussions on items, pros/cons, AD build vs AP build, and certain skills you need to master on Shaco.