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How to Perform the Shaco

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87 Comments League of Legends Build Guide Author Toshkun

Build Guide By Updated on

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Spells:

Smite

Ghost

Ability Order

Shaco Passive Ability

Intro

Most would say that death isn't funny. It isn't, unless you're Shaco - then it's hysterical. He is Valoran's first fully functioning homicidal comic; he jests until someone dies, and then he laughs. The figure that has come to be known as the Demon Jester is an enigma. No one fully agrees from whence he came, and Shaco never offers any details on his own. A popular belief is that Shaco is not of Runeterra - that he is a thing summoned from a dark and twisted world. Still others believe that he is the demonic manifestation of humanity's dark urges and therefore cannot be reasoned with. The most plausible belief is that Shaco is an assassin for hire, left to his own lunatic devices until his services are needed. Shaco certainly has proven himself to be a cunning individual, evading authorities at every turn who might seek him for questioning for some horrendous, law-breaking atrocity. While such scuttlebutt might reassure the native inhabitants of Valoran, it seems unimaginable that such a malfeasant figure is allowed to remain at large.

Whatever the truth of his history might be, Shaco has joined the League of Legends for reasons only he knows. He is a terrifying figure, typically shunned by both his fellow champions and the media at large. Only the summoners in the Institute of War know why such a creature was allowed into the League, but most Runeterrans suspect it to be a means that allows the power that be to keep an eye on the ever-elusive Shaco. Unsurprisingly, this champion is popular in places where madness can openly reign, such as among the power-hungry summoners of Zaun and Noxus.

"Whatever you do, don't tell him you missed the punch line."

Hi and welcome to my guide. My english isn't that good so don't expect lots of flow in my writing. is an really annoying champion to the other team if played well. He instills fear if you are against him just from the load screen with his evil smile. When you are playing against , you never know when he will strike. is amazing at applying pressure because of this. He is also very fun to play. is my most played champion. I will share with you my may of playing . This guide is going to be primarily focused on the first build.

Why This Guide?

I have a 71% win chance out of 46 games and 2:1 KDR in ranked games.

Pros & Cons

PROS

Annoying to play against
Amazing at applying pressure
Amazing ganker
Very mobile
Able to play very aggressive because of Deceive

CONS

VERY squishy
Useless late game if not fed early on
Bad at team fights
His jungle is simple to mess up
Has mana problems

Look at the pros and cons before deciding if you want to play .

Runes

Greater mark of desolationGreater Quintessence of Desolation

I use these runes to maximize 's jungling.

Greater Mark of Desolation
Greater Mark of Desolation
+1.66 armor penetration

Armor pen to do more damage.

Greater Seal of Resilience
+1.41 armor

Armor is a no brainer for junglers because you will be taking hits from the minions. I switched from attack speed yellows to armor because you will end up with more HP which I find more useful than attack speed.

Greater Glyph of Alacrity
+0.64% attack speed

Attack speed and armor pen are the best rune choices for Shaco.

Greater Quintessence of Desolation
Greater Quintessence of Desolation
+3.33 armor penetration

I get one of armor pen quint because the red and blue buff have 24 armor. You have 15 armor pen from your reds, 3 from your quint, and 6 from your sunder mastery. 15+3+6=24

Greater Quintessence of Alacrity

+3.4% attack speed
The more attack speed, the faster you jungle.

Total Cost of This Rune Page = 14,145

Masteries

I go 19-0-11 masteries because that 2 points utility mastery is very important for . It allows him to do his job better, lengthening his red buff longer to gank and blue buff longer so he won't have mana problems. It is much much useful than going the full 21 in offense for that 4% extra damage. The points in alacrity, offensive mastery, sunder, and brute force helps in jungling a lot. The 3 points if the critical strike damage is because your applies with that and you are building crit. That 1 point I put in mana regen is because has mana problems and only 1 point is spared so I decide to put it there.

Items

AD Build

This item build is focused on killing squishies fast and solo pushing and NOT teamfighting. You have to play more carefully with this build because you only have 1 defensive item but you output a lot of damage.

Cloth Armor
18 Armor.

Health Potion
Click: Restores 200 Health over 20 seconds.

This is your start because you are jungling not laning. Laning Shaco is horrible because you are so fragile and can't harass easily.

Wriggle's Lantern
30 Armor, 23 Attack Damage, 18 Life Steal. UNIQUE Passive: 20% chance on attack to deal 500 magic damage to a minion. UNIQUE Active: Places an invisible ward with 1100 range sight and lasts for 3 minutes. 3 minute cooldown.

It's an amazing must get item on Shaco because it gives cheap lifesteal, makes jungling easier, and gives a free ward all in one.

Boots of Mobility
Passive: When out of combat for 5 seconds the effect of these boots is increased to Enhanced Movement 5. UNIQUE Passive: Enhanced Movement 2

Mercury's Treads
25 Magic Resist. UNIQUE Passive: Enhanced Movement 2 and reduces the duration of stuns, slows, taunts, fears, snares, sleeps, and immobilizes by 35%.

Most of your games you want Mobility Boots to move around the map fast to apply pressure, but if they have lots of crowd control (stuns,slows, etc.) you would want Mercury's Treads to survive.

The Black Cleaver
30 Attack Speed, 55 Attack Damage. Passive: Physical attacks reduce your target's Armor by 15 for 5 seconds, (maximum 3 stacks).

Great DPS item on Shaco because his Hallucinate clone gets it's armor shredding passive. This item is also really good for solo pushing because it gives damage and attack speed.

Banshee's Veil
375 Health, 375 Mana, 50 Magic Resist. UNIQUE Passive: Blocks one negative spell every 45 seconds.

One of the best defensive items for Shaco. It gives a nice hp and mana bonus which he needs oh so much. Some magic resis to counter the spell casters that just kill Shaco in 2 spells, and a VERY nice spell shield that blocks 1 spell. If someone comes up to stun you, your spell shield will block it and you can Deceive away without harm.

Phantom Dancer
55 Attack Speed, 30 Critical Strike Chance, 15 Movement Speed.

Nice attack speed and movement speed bonus after you build damage. I facepalm when ever I see Shacos rushing this while they didn't even build damage yet, doing 60 damage a hit.

Infinity Edge
80 Attack Damage, 25 Critical Strike Chance. UNIQUE Passive: Critical hits now deal 250% damage instead of 200%.

This item is the item that gives the most DPS output of all the other items. It is great combined with your Phantom Dancer for 55% crit chance. The 250% extra crit damage works with your Deceive to give an extra burst.

Bloodrazor Build

Use this build if their team is rather tanky and lacks squishies.

Madred's Bloodrazor
25 Armor, 40 Attack Speed, 30 Attack Damage. UNIQUE Passive: On hit, deals Magic Damage equal to 4% of the target's maximum Health.

Great item on Shaco because his Hallucinate clone gains it's passive. 8% of maximum health not counting in magic resist hurts people with high hp.

Guardian Angel
68 Armor, 38 Magic Resist. UNIQUE Passive: Revives your Champion upon death, restoring 750 Health and 350 Mana, this effect can only occur once every 5 minutes.

When you have this item, you can just jump on the carry and not be afraid to die because you revive and can Deceive out.

The Third Build is What I'm Currently Testing

I test out different Shaco builds and the third build is what I'm using now.

Situational Items

Grab what fits your situation.

10 Attack Damage, 100 Health, 3 Life Steal.
- Grab 1-2 of these if you are having a slow early game and not getting ganks off. Gives you some cheap damage and HP, the lifesteal is barely noticeable unless you stack 3.
35 Attack Damage, 30 Magic Resist. UNIQUE Passive: If you would take Magic Damage which would leave you at less than 30% of your Maximum Health, you first gain a shield which absorbs 300 Magic Damage for 4 seconds. 45 second cooldown.
- Great item to get against mage heavy teams. It gives damage, magic resis, and a really good 300 magic shield to prevent you from getting bursted down. Get this item before Black Cleaver.
5 Gold Per 10 Sec, 250 Health.
- Some hp that Shaco needs and 5g/10sec. Grab 1-2 of these if you are doing poorly.
45 Armor, 450 Health. UNIQUE Passive: Deals 35 Magic Damage a second to nearby enemies.
- Get this item if the enemy team lacks magic damage and is mostly physical damage. Replace your Banshee's Veil with this.
75 Armor, 300 Health, 25 Health Per 5 Sec. UNIQUE Passive: 5% Cooldown Reduction and 20% chance on being hit to slow the attacker's movement and attack speed by 35% for 3 seconds. UNIQUE Active: Slows movement speeds and attack speeds of surrounding units by 35% for 2 seconds + 0.5 seconds for each 100 Armor and Magic Resist. 60 second cooldown.
- If you were having a bad game and built a few Heart of Golds, upgrade them to this if you believe you need more tankiness because you just die too fast.
Click: Gives your Champion stealth detection until they die.
- You might want want to get this if they have stealth champions but you can't play too aggressively when you have this like tower diving.

Skills

>>>

Backstab
Shaco deals 20% bonus damage when striking a unit from behind.

You want to hit people on the back with Deceive, and jungle creeps, to do 20% more damage. Two-Shiv Poison does extra damage if you hit them from behind too.

Deceive
Shaco instantly stealths for 4 seconds, and teleports to target nearby location. If he attacks while stealthed, the attack is guaranteed to crit for 40 / 60 / 80 / 100 / 120% bonus damage.

This is the skill that defines Shaco. Deceive what makes Shaco an amazing ganker and escape artist. It is a blink, mini-stealth, and nuke all in one skill. You can decieve over walls so be creative. I keep this at level 1 because it's cooldown is the same at all levels and leveling Two-Shiv Poison and Jack In The Box is much more useful then the extra 40-100 damage crit you get from leveling it up. Deceive in un-suspected directions while running away to juke them.

Jack In The Box
Shaco creates a Jack in the Box at the target location. It will Stealth after 2 seconds, and pop out when an enemy comes near, fearing nearby enemies for 0.5 / 0.75 / 1 / 1.25 / 1.5 seconds and attacking them.
It deals 35 / 55 / 75 / 95 / 115 (+25% of ability power) damage, and lasts 90 seconds while stealthed or 5 seconds while firing. Casting Jack In The Box does not break stealth.

If you think this skill is useless and is only for jungling, you are wrong. This skill is my personal favorite skill on Shaco. It is a 1.5 second fear when maxed out and a free ward. You can also stack 5 of these in a bush for a kill early on if they walk into them.

Two-Shiv Poison
Passive: While Two-Shiv Poison is ready to cast: Shaco's attacks poison his target, reducing their movement speed and chance to hit by 20/22.5/25/27.5/30% for 2 seconds.
Active: Deals half weapon damage + 40/80/120/160/200 (+100% of ability power) Damage to target enemy, and poisons them for 3 seconds.

This skill is awesome because it gives you a built in and throw able slow and nuke. It makes you a beast because you can keep on auto hitting them without them running away from you. Only use it's active to cover some distance if they are far away from you with it's slow, or if they are going to die really fast.

Hallucinate
Shaco creates an illusion of himself nearby, which deals 75% of Shaco's damage and receives 150% increased damage. (Deals half damage to turrets.) On death, the illusion deals 300 / 450 / 600 (+100% of ability power) magic damage to nearby enemies.
Lasts up to 30 seconds.

I love this skill because you can bait people with it, juke people with it, nuke people with it, dodge skills, and of course, for doing DPS. You can control your clone with alt and right-click.

Summoner Spells

Smite
Deals 420 + (lvl x 25) true damage to target enemy minion or pet. 800 Range.

Mandatory if you are jungling.

Ghost
Your Champion ignores unit collision and moves 27% faster for 10 seconds.

Speed buff is always very always nice on Shaco.

I take and because it is the most useful setup but you can also take and . I prefer over because there is so much more you can do with . You can and away from trouble or if you need to catch up to a team fight, you can there. During early ganks, if they and you too you can catch up to them because of your utility masteries and 's active.

Jungling

The Start

Right when the game starts, you MUST buy your starting items fast. Buy your from the items and 5 s from the consumables section by clicking on then spamming buy till you have 5 of them, run straight to the jungle to set up.

I recommended that you try jungling in custom games a few times because 's jungle is quite difficult.

Red Route
This is the best route because you can get red fast and gank at lvl 2, or 3 if you decide to take the double golems and get . You can just drop a and do blue right away if you want to do it faster but lose more hp.

The setup

2 boxes behind the spot blue wraith spawns and 3 at lizard next to the bush so they don't activate right away when lizard spawns.

Blue Route
This is an alternative to the red route.

The setup

1 box by wolfs, 4 boxes by blue buff in the bush.

No Runes/Masteries Route
This route is for people that don't have the runes or aren't level 30 for the masteries.

The setup

5 boxes behind where blue buff spawns.

What happens if the enemy team comes and pops my boxes or if I messed up my setup?

Don't worry, that's why you should start at red because if they pop your boxes you can go do the blue route. Go to blue buff fast (it would be best if you could get some help from your teammates) and set 1-2 boxes out of blue buff's range depending if you get help or not. When your box is on 5 second cooldown, lure the blue buff to your box and plant your second box right when its off cooldown. the blue buffs and go do wolfs, wraiths, plant a box at red like you did at blue and then lure and put a second +, kill the small golems and then gank.

Video on how to transition to blue credits to xShanex

It would be better if you went behind your boxes and them tank blue.

Dragon

If you are playing against an un-organized team that doesn't have a jungler or buys wards then after you get your Wriggle's Lantern you can dragon. Use your Hallucinate and send your clone to attack dragon, drop a Jack In The Box and attack dragon from the back to do 20% from damage from Backstab. Smite when it reaches around 500 HP to make sure no one steals it. If you are playing against an organized team that has a jungler and buys wards I suggest you buy a Vision Ward to get rid of their ward at dragon. You should set up for dragon by planting jack in the boxes around spread out just in case if the enemy team happens to come, or in a single area if you are baiting for a kill. If you get a gank off of bot or mid, try to take dragon with your team because they have 1 man down.

Counter-Jungle

I do not recommend counter-jungling unless you are experienced with Shaco and know your enemy jungler's route because if you fail, you will be wasting lots of precious time. Shaco is one of the best counter-junglers because of his skill set. Counter-jungling varies depending on where the enemy jungler start and how fast they jungle. I will use Amumu starting at blue buff as an example. If you are using stonewall008's route, after you finish the double golems and have red buff, run to Amumu's red and come in from the side where the bush near red buff is. Do not use Deceive past the red buff wall because you are not sure if he is there or not and only end up wasting mana. If he is there, wait for him to get low on HP then Deceive and hit him in the back, pop Ghost and auto attack him. If you see that red buff is already gone, immediately Deceive past the double golems wall and he should be there. Make sure to keep your eye on the map if the enemy team comes for you. Right after you kill their jungler or made a fail attempt, run the hell out of there because chances are, their jungler called for help.

Jungling TIPS!
- Place Jack In The Boxes behind neutrals creeps so they will turn around and you will be able to hit their back
- Jack In The Boxes are very glitchy so if you attack a neutral while it is feared, it will not attack the Jack In The Box but will attack you. Wait for the neutral to attack the boxes before hitting them.
- After you place a Jack In The Box behind neutrals creeps, hit your target two times and walk behind the box because it will activate. Don't hit them till they start hitting box to save HP.
- Don't Smite too early because people can steal your buffs if they last hit it, wait for the neutral to have low enough HP for Smite to get the last hit.
Smite damage chart credits to Jooma

Ganking

Ganking is very important for because he is a very strong ganker. When coming out of the jungle with your buffs on you, look for overextended lanes and signal your team that you are ganking them. First, you must check their summoner spells and ask your team if they used them. If they didn't just gank to get rid of their summoner spells and don't use your but come back again after they burned their summoners. To gank in from an area they cant see you and hit them the back for the crit and drop a right infront of where they are moving. Right after you drop a , throw your and auto attack to slow them with your red buff because you want to slow them long enough for your to fear them. Use only if they don't have flash.

Teamfights

You generally should be solo pushing and avoiding team fights because isn't useful in team fights unless you are ridiculously fed. If lets say 1 person comes to the lane you are split pushing, run to your team and tell them to initiate a 5vs4 fight. During team fights, wait for your tank to initiate and all the cc to be used. If the enemy carry is out of position and the tank is busy, you can just jump right on top of them and to make it 2vs1. You should join the team fight late, you should not go in the main battle because you die really quickly if focused. Try to put es around for the AoE fear if you can and save your if possible just in case something goes wrong. However, if you are using the madred's build and have your , after your tank initiates you can jump on the enemy carry with and . If it is possible not to use and just walk in don't use it because if you get focused, you will be able to escape.

Solo Pushing

is a great solo pusher because he is almost un-gankable with his wards and . He is also very good at 1vs1 because of his and fear. You should be solo pushing most of the time and forcing the other team to defend while your team pushes some other lane because you are not very good at team fights. Be sure to tell them not to engage or they will be fighting a 4vs5 fight until someone comes to defend against your push. Drop boxes while pushing in locations their team can come from so you can escape in case they come.

Tips, Tricks, General Gameplay

Early Game LVL 1-6
Early game is really important for because it makes or breaks . Early game determines if you will do well with or become underfed. You should practice your jungle route many times because if you mess up your jungle, you can't gank and you will become useless. is most powerful during early stages of the game and you should be taking advantage of this by ganking and counter-jungling. If you do well during early game then you will be doing well for the rest of the game. If you do poorly then expect to be flamed by your team for the rest of the game for being useless unless you are vsing bad players. Try to not die early game with , you will be losing your early advantage if you do.

Mid Game LVL 7-14
Mid game is when team fights start. You should try to set up and take dragon for your team during this time. If you did well early on and had successful ganks your mid and end game should be easy. You should start solo pushing during Mid Game and continue trying to get ganks off.

End Game LVL 15-18
End game is where starts to drop off unless he did well because he is VERY squishy. You should be avoiding team fights as much as possible and solo push. You need to coordinate with your team about when you should have team fights and not. You should be setting up for baron with es like you did with dragon. Plant boxes all over the map to give map control to your team.

Tip and Tricks

Deceive past walls to gank or escape
Gank as much as possible early on or you will be useless
Find a balance between ganking and farming because if you keep ganking you will be underfarmed
If you team is having a skirmish battle at mid, go to a different lane and solo push
It's ok to overextend and play aggressive because you have Deceive
When you are escaping and Deceive'd while your clone is up make sure you make him move the opposite of where you are moving because he follows you
Try to avoid team fights until if possible until you have your Guardian Angel
Use Deceive wisely and not go into 5 people
Shaco requires lots of practice so you must play many games with him to fully understand him

Final Notes

is my favorite champion because of his uniqueness. He is very fun to play because you get to annoy the hell out of your opponents. He requires lots of practice to be good with and is much harder to play against good opponents. Right now, I believe that is a bit underpowered because jungles better than and does everything better except escaping and having free wards. But don't let that prevent you from playing because he is so much fun to play.

Thanks for reading! If you liked my guide please give it a thumbs up!