In this guide I will try my best to explain how to carry games using Shaco. The beautiful thing about Shaco is his versatility. This champion can be used to gank, farm, and push several lanes all at one time. When used properly, Shaco is a hyper farming, lane pushing, champ ganking monster. Not to mention he's SO FUN to play.

One of the most important things, not just with Shaco, but with ANY champion is to get out of the spawn area ASAP. I might even want to say that twice. GET OUT OF THE SPAWN AREA ASAP! A lot of players, especially in the lower elo have a really bad habit of stay in the spawn camp far too long.

Secondly, keep an eye on buffs early! Ask your team to watch your red if you are going blue first, and blue if you start red. They do not need to defend it, but at least watch it so you can react, and take their buff asap. If you want to carry to higher elo's you are going to need to pay a lot of attention to the map, not just early but throughout the game and warn team mates of what is going on in order to win games. Use pings often, but don't be annoying with them.

Another key thing I see in low elo's when it comes to jungle is the fact that MOST junglers have no awareness of their buff respawn timers. Knowing when your buffs respawn is a MUST!

TURRETS ARE HOW YOU WIN GAMES! NOT KILLS! Remember this. As Shaco you can shove a lane VERY quickly. If your team is fighting mid, and trying to defend, or push a turret, typically the best thing for you to do is shove another lane while that is happening, and determine whether you should go help them, or just continue pushing your lane. Kills help win games. Pushing turrets WINS GAMES.

These are just the key things I see as far as any game goes in lower elo and I thought I would capitalize on that first and foremost. Now let's get into the details of this build.

In my Shaco build, I run heavy AD runes with some armor and attack speed. Having a ton of magic resist isn't going to be a game changer at all for Shaco. You need to either kill them fast, or get the heck out of there. That being said, running more AD gives you the advantage early on, and helps a lot when ganking and pushing turrets.

Pros of Shaco would be that he can snowball very well. People have it in their heads that Shaco is NOT a late game champion, but he really is. If you know how to farm and push, he can be a force to be reckoned with even in 50+ minute games. You just need to focus more on pushing, and killing their ADC asap.

Shaco also have escape-ability that cannot be paralleled by any other champ. If you can keep your enemy guessing on which way you went, they will end up just giving up chasing you as soon as you Q and go back to what they were doing.

Shaco can push lanes and turrets just as fast as any champ in the game. His Box hits turrets and inihbs. and you can use your clone as well. This allows you to push a turret or inhib VERY quickly when you want to. Teams usually do not anticipate how fast you can actually push a lane. This typically causes one of the enemy team members to come to aid the turret or inhib. In this case, your team is 4v4 when they are defending or pushing, and you can most liekly 1v1 whoever is coming to defend the lane.

Shaco deals extra damage to enemies when he is behind them, so when they run they die even faster. Shaco ALSO slows enemies with auto attacks while his E is not on cooldown, and causes them to miss a fair ammount of their strikes. You can use E when they are running away and hit them with extra damage, and slow them as well typically securing the kill.

Another pro is your ult. You can use it in so many ways that make Shaco playing very dangerous.

Cons would be how squishy you are, how weak you are at lvls 1 and 2, the fact that the enemy can tell the difference between you and your clone when you have buffs, they can see the poofs when you Q with the Masked Shaco skin, and how useless your Q is when they use oracles. AVOID ORACLES!

You need to develop a habit on how to push, when to push, and when to gank. In order to properly push, and gank you will need to pay a lot of attention to the mini map, and see where exactly the enemy is at all times, as well as hitting TAB key often and see where they might be placing wards. The objective is to push more than 1 lane at a time safely, and have the enemy team on their heels guessing where you are and what you are doing at all times. They WILL fear your presence.

When ganking an enemy, I typically pay attention to where they might have wards. If I need to go through the lane in order to gank, I will so that they don't suspect I am there. Use your Q and get up to the enemy, then drop your box(W) where you expect them to run. Start attacking them, and pop Rav Hyrda if you already have that item in order to burst, if needed you can even pop your ult and I will get into ult timing. Shaco is best used in team fights when the engage is already initiated. You can stealth in and burst down whoever is in the back of their pack, typically the ADC in a matter of 2-3 seconds and secure the victory in most team fights.

Shaco's Ult: Using your ult properly is a skill that is typically acquired with time and experience. Your ult detonates which can be VERY useful in most cases. Shaco's ult can be used to dodge several skills including game changing ults used by the enemy. The most effective times to use your ult would be in situations that the enemy just wouldn't expect. You can dodge Fizz' ult by timing your R, you can also use your R to detonate on champs with powerful AOE ults like Kat, and Fiddlesticks. Bursting them down. You can also use your ult when you are running from the enemy. If you turn a corner out of their visibility and recall to safety while using CTRL key to move your clone as they chase it.

Boxes(W): Boxes are a lot more powerful that most people credit them for. They hit harder than you would think, they give visibility in an area for 60 seconds, their mana cost is extremely low and probably the best thing they can be used for is their .5 second fear. When enemy champs use ults that channel, you can throw a box at their feet and rain on their parade rather quickly. Ults like Fiddlesticks, Malz, Nunu, Miss Fortune etc.

Usually what I do is start at my lower buff. Whether it is red or blue if you start at the bottom buff with smiteless, you can easily get tot he top lane when they are lvl 2 with a double buff and lvl 3 advantage on the gank. If the gank is not successful, you can move back to the brush, and retry the gank. Be patient with your ganks. You will lear over time that you don't need to rush right in on every gank. Players might be upset you are standing next to their lane, but don't let that bother you. Go in when it's time to. Also take cs from the lane after ganking. You need it. It doesn't matter if they get a little upset, most times they will get over it, especially if the gank was a success. When lanes are over extended and you basically cannot gank, farm your jung and wait for a chance to counter their ganks. and KNOW YOUR JUNGLE RESPAWN TIMERS!

You get your Rav Hydra early not just for the damage, but the farm-ability. After I get the Rav Hyrda, and Berzerk boots WITH Homeguards I typically rush an avarice blade for the extra gold. That phase usually launches my farm to the next level rather quickly. then it's a static shiv. With those 3 items, you can farm lanes, jungle, and push turrets VERY quickly.Never stop farming. When you go to one lane to farm and several enemies show up, move to the next lane. Take their jungle, take your jungle, don't stop farming. At the end of a 30 minute game you should typically have near 200 cs.

Team work is important, but in most cases in NA you cannot rely on your team as much as you would like. You just need to push objectives, be friendly toward your team, and mute them when they are being a distraction to your game style. You can only be successful by getting better and better at your own game style. Don't let team mates throw you off. Also don't throw them off. Let them play their game. Just because they aren't doing as well as you does not mean they are a worthless part of the game. Some games will be very hard to carry, others will be very easy. You just have to keep playing and try your best to win. Most players in Diamond have a 60% win rate. Remember that.