Greetings boys and girls! Your friendly neighborhood Jaykoya here and i'm here to share with you my Shaco Hybrid guide!

I know what you are thinking: Hybrid Shaco? Isn't that just ASKING for a death wish? Everyone ALREADY discredits AP Shaco, so why would you even CONSIDER a hybrid clown of huehuehue?

Well, that's easy: Hybrid Shaco IS a force to be reckoned with. ESPECIALLY when hailing from the jungle. As you know, Shaco is famous for his ganking potential from the jungle. His Deceive's ability to get him into enemy ranks easily lets him get his target out of position, hit hard enough from behind to get their attention, and if they attempt to escape, a well placed JitB will seal the deal.

STILL don't berieve me? Keep reading....We'll put a SMILE on that face....

Pros:

Able to gank as early as level 2
Has a built in Slow, Flash and Fear bomb
Amazing back door ability with Hallucinate
VERY tricky catch
Scales well with AP


Cons:

One of the squishiest champs in game
Oracles/Pink Ward
Can get caught out of position easily
Relies HEAVILY on gank kills
No Dark Knight Joker Skin...

Ok, let's get to the nitty gritty here. I'll explain each ability in decent detail, then explain their uses and how well they scale with a hybrid Shaco.


First things first: BACKSTAB!

Backstab:
Shaco deals 20% bonus damage when striking a unit from behind with his autoattacks or abilities.

Translation: More damage when you are behind your target. In most cases, you'll either be ganking from the bushes to where you can Ghost and Deceive your way to get behind the poor schmuck who decided to push with a Shaco jungling. ANY type of damage you do with auto-attacks or abilities is increased by 20%. I'll explain in the item build how this adds to hybrid Shaco's potency.

Deceive
Shaco instantly blinks to a target nearby location and enters stealth for up to 3.5 seconds. His next auto-attack in the next 6 seconds will critically strike with modified critical damage (normal critical strikes are 200% damage), dealing physical damage and ending his stealth.

Translation: The ultimate initiator for the clown prince of hybrid. The crit chance modification scales as such with his levels: Critical Strike Damage: 140 / 160 / 180 / 200 / 220 %. Normal crit damage is 200%. With your Lethality mastery (+10% crit damage) and your ol' trusty Infinity Edge will give you a 280% crit damage from that initial strike. Add to the mix your Lich Bane Proc, and your target is in for a bad time.

Jack In The Box
Shaco creates a Jack in the Box at the target location with 150 health. It will stealth after 2 seconds and trigger when an enemy comes near, fearing nearby enemies briefly and attacking them. It deals magic damage, and lasts 60 seconds stealthed or 5 seconds while firing. Casting Jack In The Box breaks stealth.

Translation: JitBs, aka the Fear Bomb. This keeps your prey from not only escaping, but keeps those pesky melee champs from tearing into your lovely, smiling face. A well placed Jitb can, and will, make your foe run away from you, allowing you to take full advantage of Backstab. At max level, Jitb does a base damage of 95 points of magic damage. It also scales with AP, gaining .2 points of magic damage per point of AP. Meaning, even if you have 100 points of AP, your Jitb will be doing over 100 points of magic damage. Also, it attacks 9 times in the 5 seconds it is around. Meaning: 900 points of magic damage over it's 5 seconds of attack time. You stack a couple in a bush? That's gonna leave a mark or two.

Two-Shiv Poison
(Passive): Shaco's attacks poison his targets, reducing their movement speed for 2 seconds. It also gives affected non-champion units a chance to miss their attacks.

(Active): Shaco throws a dagger to target enemy dealing magic damage and applying his slowing poison to them for 3 seconds. The passive is deactivated during the cooldown.

Translation: More crowd control? Why not? You hit someone with an auto-attack, it slows them. If they also run into a fear bomb, they are pretty much stuck for you to rip in to. However, that's not the bread and butter of this ability. The activation is where a nice little nuke comes in. Shaco's shiv scales with both ap AND ad. Doing magic damage, it simply rips into your target when thrown. The scaling ratio is as such: 50 / 90 / 130 / 170 / 210 (+1.0 per ability power) (+1.0 per bonus attack damage). This ability gains SO much potency from your hybrid build. I had EASILY done 500+ points of damage from a single shiv toss. In the AD heavy side of this build, you'll be doing over 600 points of magic damage with your shiv. With the AP heavy build, it'll be pushing the 700 range with your Rabadon's Deathcap.

Hallucinate
Shaco stealths for half a second and creates a clone of himself next to him that will last for up 18 seconds. The clone deals 75% of Shaco's damage and receives 50% extra damage. This clone deals 50% damage to towers and inhibitors. At the end of its duration or when dying the clone will explode, dealing magic damage to nearby enemies.

Translation: Shaco has a twin! So to speak. He makes a clone of himself which does 75% of the original Shaco's physical damage. He also takes more damage than the original when hit. The best part: you can control him to run into a fight first, have your opponents jump on him, only to kill him and get hit with a ton of magic damage (scales with AP 1.0 bonus damage.) A great surprise when you send it in, the squishies kill it, get hurt, you appear behind them to slice them down, then throw your shiv at the running away support for the double, maybe even triple kill. Been there, done that, huehuehue'd all the way home.

Depending on how you go, I usually flip the Runes/Masteries.

Example: If you are going more of an AP hybrid, my Masteries will be AP driven down the offense tree. In doing so, my runes will be more AD based If you go for more of the AD side of the force, it's the opposite.

I've shown above the following Runes/Masteries for the AP heavier hybrid Clown build:

Greater Mark of Attack Speed x 4
Greater Mark of Attack Damage x 5
Greater Seal of Critical Damage x 9
Greater Glyph of Attack Damage x 9
Greater Quintessence of Desolation x 3

Masteries: 21/3/6
Offense:

Mental Force x4 Sorceryx4 Arcane Knowledge x1 Havoc x3 Blast x4 Archmage x4 Executioner 1

Summoner's Resolve x1 Tough Skin x2

Good Hands x3 Improved Recall x1 Swiftness x2

And for AD:

Greater Seal of Attack Damagex9 Greater Glyph of Magic Penetrationx9 Greater Mark of Ability Powerx9 Greater Quintessence of Ability Powerx3

Masteries: 21/2/6 (the same as AP, except the offense tree and defense tree alter slightly)

Summoner's Wrath x1 Brute Force x3 Alacrity x4 Deadliness x4 Weapon Expertise x1 Lethality x1 Vampirism x3 Sunder x3 Executioner x1

Tough Skin x2

Good Hands x3 Improved Recall x1 Swiftness x2

Adjust as you see fit, but to me, all this makes perfect sense, and works fine. Just look at the piles of dead bodies (coming soon)

Now, for Hybrid Shaco, and to be honest, for most Shaco builds, there aren't many other choices than what i'm about to give you.

The DEFAULT jungle Shaco summoner's of choice are:

Ghost: THIS spell is your utility to match up with Deceive to get in quickly from the opposite side of the river brush, or top/bottom brush. You ALWAYS have to remember: the enemy can SEE your orange puff of smoke, EVEN in the fog of war. I have been a part of, and escaped from, many failed ganks due to this little giveaway. I see smoke, i'm heading in the opposite direction (consequently, that goes for your JitBs as well). Pop Ghost and Deceive to make haste to your possible first blood, or 6th kill :3

Smite: Given for all default junglers.

However, ONCE you become good enough with the hybrid Shaco build, you can venture to other choices.

Ignite: Good for those straggling clown-o-phobes who just don't want to die. Hope in with your Ghost and Deceive, then light one up, homie.

Exhaust: Not really high on the priority list, but a good addition if your support chose Clarity or Heal. I mean, stacking this WITH your shiv, they aren't going anywhere anytime soon.

Flash: You already have a low cooldown flash in your Deceive, but there are those VERY few instances where an extra flash would work in either getting away, or catching up. I would only recommend grabbing flash if you....well want to be flashy and dashy.

None of the other summoner spells could really help him, unless you wanted to use Teleport to pop to a JitB you placed on the opposite side of the map to really roll some heads, but with the lower timer on the JitBs, not really a viable idea. But i've seen crazier ( Cleanse and Heal .....*shiver*)

Now for the fun part: The item list and their reasons. We'll Start on the AD side of the force:

For both sides of the game, my default starting items are

Boots and Health Potionx3. Gets you through the jungle faster and with more HP on your first gank. Easy Breezy.

Another item that is standard for both builds is Doran's Ring. This will help with your early game Mana issues (Cause if you are like me, you are dropping fear bombs like a lyrical assassin drops dem mad Rhymes). This is especially useful once that lovely golem buff fades.

For the AD side of things, The next item on your list is up to you. You can opt to get your Mobility Boots first if you are doing relatively well.

Relatively well to me means 2-3 kills in the first 5-8 minutes, or 6-8 assists in 5-8 minutes, or a mixture of the two. If you have the cash, get the boots. Will not only quicken your jungling pace, but will make your Ghost dash even deadlier.

However, if you just can't seem to get those kills, grab a Sheen first. It's proc after you Deceive will definitely make up for whatever damage you think you may be lacking.

From here, you will have to make a judgement call for how the match is going. If you are absolutely face rolling, go straight for your Lich Bane. It will give you more movement speed, plus the additional 100% ap bonus will only help slice up your enemies.

If you are having damage issues, opt for the Guinsoo's Rageblade. The boost in attack speed and attack damage, with a twist of AP increase will edge out those tough corners. Whichever way you go, make sure the weapon you didn't go with follows. I.E: If you go Lich Bane first, get your rageblade next, and vice versa.

At this point, it's time to get the Big Guns...or Swords.

I'd rush your Infinity Edge Next. The crit increase, both in damage and chance, added on to the speed coming from your Rageblade will be the beginning of the end for anyone unlucky enough to be at the end of your blades.

Bloodthirster is next. If you are having sustain in fight problems, get this one first to get that hp back as you hack and stab.

At the end, I put the cherry on top with a Phantom Dancer. However, if the team is REALLY tanky, grab some Madred's Bloodrazor to fix that problem.

Just for a little heads up, if my calculations are accurate, your Two-Shiv Poison will be doing 650ish magic damage. A GREAT finishing blow for all those low HP squishies. I've killed many a Teemo with this ability.

NOW for the AP side of the force.

Again, start with Boots and Health Potion into a Doran's Ring

Next up: No choice - Sheen, then Mobility Boots then Lich Bane. This will give you the additional pep in your step you will need to get your prey into range of your Shivs.

Next up, Build yourself Hextech Gunblade. This little beauty is great in so many different ways. First off: another slow. Who DOESN'T like more CC? Second: lifesteal + spell vamp. EVERYTHING you do gives you HP. Third: it's the only good thing about Final Fantasy VIII. ......wait what?

*cough* anyway, next up you need to grab yourself a Guinsoo's Rageblade. However, if you are doing really well, i'd go for the Rabadon's Deathcap first for the super AP power. Then finish up with the rageblade.

At this point, you're late game, and you need that last little item to keep you rocking and rolling. MY personal preference is Void Staff for two reasons: the add 70 AP with your Rabadon's Deathcap will put you over the 400 ap ratio range. Dericious. On top of that, if the other team was smart, they stacked some MR to keep your damage down (silly, but they're trying at least). The magic pen will definitely fix that.

However, some teams will go pure glass cannon, in which you are doing your damage ANYWAY. So instead, they're trying to focus you in team fights the moment you show your face. If that's the case, a little survivability is in order. I would say grab you a Rylai's Crystal Scepter for even MORE cc on those elusive squishies, and the added HP will help you survive long enough to clench a kill or to pop that Deceive

With THIS build, your Shiv's will be doing anywhere around the range of 812! I find it easier to stack AP damage on Shiv than AD, and the numbers don't lie. A flying nuke of 812 magic damage is just scary, no matter how much HP you are stackin'.

Now, you will run into those with high MR. If you do, i'd trade your Mobility Boots for Sorcerer's Boots. You have other items to keep you going fast.

Now, I know my build may be more unorthodox than most. I've already had someone question why I left my Lich Bane in the AD build. My reasoning is my own and it works for me. BUT, to aid those unable to think for themselves and adapt to the game as it evolves, here are a few items you can consider instead for both builds.

If your team is lacking that AD presence cause the AD carry got stuck with a bum support, Trinity Force will aid you better in late game than Lich Bane would. The bane of the lich is great for initial burst damage to all those who see Shaco and think AD damage. If you WANTED a pure AD build, than you are in the wrong spot :3

In fact, i'd even opt out of both of them and go Phantom Dancers and an extra Bloodthirster if PURE ad is what you wanted.

Being a hybrid though, you gotta bring surprises to the table. Trinity Force CAN do it, but if the other team is tanky and preparing for you AD onslaught, the surprise damage from Lich Bane is much more useful.

((other to come))

The easiest way to make your opponents FRUSTRATED with you playing Shaco: Annoying the fire out of them.

Now, i'm not saying go into chat and start harassing them. With the honor system on the way, that would be bad.

No, you want to let them know you are there without letting them know you are there.

Drop JitBs everywhere. Early game, this will be more difficult than later strictly due to mana issues. Your Doran's Ring SHOULD help a bit, but mana is mana.

Your Shiv should NEVER, and I repeat, NEVER used to initiate an encounter. The instant you use it, sure it'll slow your target for 3 seconds, but your constant slow on auto hits will be gone until the cooldown is gone. Example:

You Deceive in, get behind your opponent and open with Two-Shiv Poison for the initial burst damage and slow. You manage to get a few auto attacks on, but your opponent goes into the brush, then flashes away from you with less than 60 hp to go. Your deceive is 3 seconds from CD, and your shiv is 4. He avoids any Jitbs you put down. Sad clown can only watch as they get away.

I know this seems very...detailed, but i've had this happen to me PLENTY of times when I first started playing Shaco. BIG no no.

Instead, Go in with your Deceive. After you come out of stealth with your initial auto attack, throw a JitB in the MIDDLE of the lane. This way, they would have no choice but to go around it. Even if they flash, YOU can run through the jitb to cut them off. Get a few more attacks in, cause if they are running you are going more damage anyway. Then, if they are approaching their tower, toss that Shiv and watch their HP vanish.

*more to come as I do them*

Update - 9/30/2012:

Added Void Staff to AP hybrid build list to round it off. Left it with the Doran's Ring in the final build and that's no good.