Hey guys,
Jdmino here, this is my first guide and, as such, it won't have much detail. I will slowly add more things to help you guys, but for now, this will do.

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I first started playing LoL about 6 months ago. My friends had been playing it for a while themselves and they all recommended I play Shaco, due to my strategic Starcraft 2 mind. I bought him as my first tier 3 champ.

I didn't love him right away, I found him difficult to play and kind of boring. I ditched him for about a week. Then, I decided to play him a bit differently to how I had been playing him. I found out just how amazing he is.

After playing him as my main for the last 3-4 months, I thought it should be about time I wrote a guide for him.

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Shaco as a Champion

Shaco is an amazing champion if played right. He can lane pretty well, but his true strength is his ganking abilities if jungled. His abilities all center around being able to clear the jungle with relative ease and then ganking at level 3 with both buffs. I will go into more detail about that later ;).

Essentially, what I am trying to say is that Shaco is a Champion that if you get your head around him, he can make or break a game. That is why he is banned in ranked so often. If you go up against a good Shaco, you have little chance. A bad Shaco on the other hand will lose it for your team.

Pros:

• Strong Ganks
• Relatively fast jungle clearing
• High damage output
• Fast
• Clone can make a great initiate for team fights

Cons:

• VERY squishy
• Early vision wards can ruin his ganks.
• Mana hungry
• Only good late game if fed early-mid game.
• If hit with CC, there is very little chance of survival in a team fight.

I know my logic when it comes to the masteries isn't perfect, but here me out. The 21 in defense just ends up meaning you take less damage in the jungle, which means that you use less health pots and you don't need to recall as many times. You can gank much faster and with more health.I won't go into much more detail here, but bear with me and try it.

Now, I have noticed a lot of people that jungle Shaco don't gank enough or take a long time getting through the jungle. This is something that can easily be fixed.

Firstly, when jungling Shaco, take into account that Shaco isn't a Champion that relies on heavy farm. He relies on on gold from Kills and assists.

Secondly, don't worry about being ksed or ksing yourself. You are a Jungler. If you don't get the kill, you have still helped push the lane. If you get the kill, you helped the lane AND you can make future ganks more effective.

ROUTE:

You start at Blue Buff and stack boxes right where the golem will spawn. You don't want to smite blue buff. Save smite for wraiths/red.
After you get blue, level your shiv and head to the wolves. Place a box just out of range of the wolves camp, so it won't activate. Run straight to wraiths, smite a small wraith and run back to wolves and place a box in the same spot as the last. Throw a shiv, stand behind the boxes and kill the wolves.
Next, place a box out of range of the red camp, similar to how you did it with the wolves. Then go back and kill the two remaining small wraiths, leaving the bigger one. Place a box at red again, same spot, and kill the last wraith. Throw a shiv at red and place another box. Your smite should be back up, so wait until the Big lizard is at 400-500 health and smite it.

At this point, you should be level 3. Get deceive for level 3.

Now, you should check which lanes need a gank. Generally, I will gank bot first as they are closest to red, but sometimes mid is an easy kill. If no one is giving you much of an opening, just recall or clear out the jungle again.

GANKING:
Ganking as Shaco is all about timing. Too early, you will give away your position. Too late and your team will either be dead or you lost the kill and did very little to help the lane.

As should be obvious, deceive in first and try and go towards the back of your enemy. Once near them, place a box and hit them as soon as it is placed. The position of the box isn't really important, as long as it obstructs their escape in some way. The block and/or fear from your box plus your slow will get you an extra 2-3 hits in. Only use your shivs if they are starting to get out of range, or their health is low enough. You can throw it as soon as you hit them after you deceive, but there is no guarantee that it will be back up before they escape. It's all how you time it.