Hi, I'm Anero, and this time (my first one here in MOBAfire) I want to bring you a Shaco guide.

You may see the item build is very typical since there aren't a lot of different ways to build Shaco's early and mid game, but I'm trying to focus on the playstyle, the reasons of why I build like this and the tips to success as this very fun champion.
Also, you can see I have made 3 different styles of playing Shaco, "Which one do I have to use?", you might ask. Well, if you AND your team are playing really well then follow the Assasin way. Else, the Tanky-DPS is quite balanced, and the On-hit is better against a team full of tanks and offtanks.

Before I start, I have to say English is not my main language because I'm spanish, so if you see any mistake, please tell me so I can correct it.

I have played Team Fortress 2 for a LONG time, and my favourite class have been always the Spy, in general I love stealth games such as Splinter Cell and that stuff, so when I installed League of Legends and played a few games, and I saw a Shaco pwning everyone in a 3v3 match, I thought "WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO I WANT DAT CHAMP!!!11!ONE!1!".

Shaco fits my playstyle perfectly, he is an invisible assasin, he backstabs people, AND HE IS A DAMN CREEPY JOKER! so when I bought him, he just became my main, and now I've grown to level 30 and I've achieved loads of wins with him, guess what? He is still my favourite champion.

The best thing of Shaco is... that I enjoy him a TON!

Well, the runes are pretty much the default AD jungler runes, but with some changes.

For quints, I go 3x Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage because they give 2.25 instead of 1.9 (the double of Greater Mark of Attack Damage)

For marks, I go 6x Greater Mark of Desolation and 3x Greater Mark of Attack Speed. This is because although most people think the better rune structure is all runes with the same stat, maths show us that it's not true!

Let's see 3 different situations:

-For example, think you have 80 flat damage with 1 autoattack per second. That means 80 damage per second.

-Now think you have 9 strenght marks. That means 89 damage per second.

-And now think you have 6 strength marks and 3 AS ones. That means 86 * 1.05 > 90 damage per second.

This example works too with the combination of Greater Mark of Desolation, Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage and Greater Mark of Attack Speed.

For seals I think Greater Seal of Armor work pretty well, so I choose those.

And for glyphs you can choose either Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction, Greater Glyph of Attack Speed, or Greater Glyph of Magic Resist.

21/0/9 mastery page for jungling, but then I tried 21/9/0 with points on Butcher , Tough Skin and Bladed Armor and I definitively felt the difference.

I found me killing red buff and then blue buff losing just 100 hp!
Also my jungling speed improved a lot, so I could clean it fast and have more time for the thing I like the most, ganking.

I was amazed with the results so that's my current mastery page.

There isn't much to say about the 21 points on Offense... more AD, AS, Armor Pen, Critical Damage (it doesn't improve Deceive), and also more general damage for Two-Shiv Poison, Jack In The Box and Hallucinate explosion.

And the 9 points on Defense, well you need them to reach Bladed Armor . I also put 1 point on Summoner's Resolve for that 10 gold I earn each time I use smite... it's not much gold but... it's better than 0 gold D:.

I start with boots and 3 health pots, I do this because I can run faster from a buff to another and I can gank when people is only level 2 or 3.
Although I just use 1 pot or 2 if i have made a mistake...

Then I build my Wriggle's Lantern at level 6 or 7, so I can solo Dragon.

At this point of the game, you definitively NEED a Oracle's Elixir that will help you to succesfully gank, break enemy guards on dragon and buffs, and also see enemies such as Shaco, Twitch, Evelynn, Talon, Teemo, Akali...

I know many people preffer Mobility Boots, but I think that more attack speed ( Berserker's Greaves) means faster jungling and also faster killing enemies in ganks, so you can earn money faster to get a Zeal which will improve your movement speed.

Your core build should seem like this:
- Berserker's Greaves
- Wriggle's Lantern
- Trinity Force
- Infinity Edge

Now you have reach this point of the game, it's time to say good bye to our Wriggle's Lantern and say hello to our new and shiny Bloodthirster.

You probably are now in late game. At this point, you will be the second or third focus of the enemy team, so you need a Guardian Angel becouse you can't get out of battles quickly if you use Deceive to get in (we will talk about this later).

I used to think at this point you need armor pen and more attack damage, but then I thought two things:

1: You are not the AD carry.
2: Guardian Angel makes your health very efficient, giving you armor and magic resistance, aswell as a second chance each 5 minutes.


So, if your health with a Guardian Angel is so efficient, why don't you buy even more health? Well, I tried out some items and I find them very usefull. Here we go:

- Warmog's Armor The best balanced defense.
- Banshee's Veil Against AP and CC.
- Zeke's Herald If you are owning.

Anyways you won't buy the 6th item most of the times.

Well... Every player asks this sometime...
Lets check the stats:


Trinity Force:

-30 attack damage, this helps you with autoattacks, Deceive, Two-Shiv Poison and Hallucinate.

-30 ability power, this helps you with Jack In The Box, Two-Shiv Poison and Hallucinate.

-30% attack speed, this helps your autoattacks as you are a melee champion.

-15% critical chance, idem.

-250 health, since you are a squishy champion you'll need this sustain.

-250 mana, this helps you mid game when you don't have blue buff.

-12% movement speed, in this build you have Berserker's Greaves, so you need some speed bonus.

-The Slow, this synergizes with Two-Shiv Poison.

-Sheen effect, this gives you 150% of your basic attack and improves Deceive and every other autoattack after a skill.

I see a lot of people buy Phantom Dancer instead of Trinity Force, but this (much cheaper) gives you 25% more attack speed and 15% more critical chance.

I think having 55% attack speed, 40% critical chance, 110 attack damage, 30 ability power, 250 hp, 250 mana ( Berserker's Greaves, Infinity Edge and Trinity Force) + all the Trinity Force bonuses such as the passives, is better than 80% attack speed, 55% critical chance and 80 damage ( Berserker's Greaves, Infinity Edge and Phantom Dancer) + 1500 spare gold. (1500g is less than a B. F. Sword = 45 AD)


Also the point of Trinity Force is that you build it slowly buying 400g items, not like with the Infinity Edge (It's a pain in the *** waiting for the 1650g B. F. Sword).


The choice is yours.

This section credits go all for Lygarine who have shown me the following proves:


Image A Critical strike with Deceive with 90 AD
Image B Critical strike with Deceive with 90 AD and Infinity Edge passive.
We can see much more damage in the bottom photo, so it's proved that Infinity Edge's passive works

There are cases when you need something that fits the situation, such as more armor, more magic resistance, even more DPS...


These are the items I would consider to buy:

- Thornmail: if the enemy is heavy AD and Guardian Angel armor is not enough.

- Banshee's Veil: if the enemy is AP nuker and you want to deny ultis like Ashe or Ezreal ones.

- Quicksilver Sash: Screw you Malzahar :)

- Phantom Dancer: Do you like chasing? PICK 6 OF THESE!!!! Don't. Just pick one.

-ANOTHER Bloodthirster: One is not enough?... well, then pick another if you want to (although I don't recommend this)

- Maw of Malmortius: A Katarina is making you suffer? Pick this.

- Youmuu's Ghostblade: You have a bad early game? Then go straight for this item.

- Wit's End: Attack speed, quite a lot of magic resistance... and some bonus damage.

- Guardian Angel: WTF AGAIN? Not again, I just wanted to say that you can pick it when you think you need it, and not waiting until late game.


You can also find items that fit your playstyle and you think that improve Shaco.

Shaco has a skill set with a lot of CC, confusion spells and burst damage, and that makes him very strong early game and valuable in teamfights thanks to his Jack In The Box.


- Backstab: Not much to say about this... just try to attack the people in their backs.


- Deceive: This is the skill that makes Shaco... well... Shaco. It makes you invisible for 3.5 seconds and grants a special critic in your next autoattack. Backstab synergizes with this. Trinity Force's passive works with this too. And with the help of
Lygarine we have found that Infinity Edge's passive does apply on Deceive.

You can use Deceive to enter the line you are ganking without beeing seen, to initiate, to nuke... also it's a flash with stealth.


- Jack In The Box: You place an invisible turret (enemies see the smoke on casting) that triggers when an enemy is in its range, scaring him and dealing damage over 5 seconds.

This gives you the insane jungling speed characteristic of Shaco. Use it to jungle, to block the scape route of your enemy before ganking, to stun in a 1v1 fight or a teamfight... The damage of this is not the important thing, but the AoE stun is.


- Two-Shiv Poison: The passive of this is similar to Frozen Mallet one, and it also gives you dodge chance against minions (jungle included). Its active throws a dagger that deals magic damage (scales +1.0 per aditional AD and +1.0 per AP) that slows your target but your passive stops while this is on CD.

Use this to deal damage, to slow far targets or to finish an enemy that just flashed away.


- Hallucinate: You summon a second Shaco that deals less damage and recieves more than the original. It lasts 18 seconds,and when it explodes it deals AoE damage.

You can use this to get out of team fights, to destroy turrets, to avoid delayed ultis like Karthus one, and also to avoid skillshots like Dark Binding... but my main rule of using this is: When you don't know what to do but you know you need a little bonus to survive or kill someone... just press R.

This won't take much time.


Just 2 basic tips:

-Lvl 1: Jack In The Box
-Lvl 2: Two-Shiv Poison
-Lvl 3: Deceive
-Lvl 4: Jack In The Box

(You can take Deceive at lvl 2 to gank mid)

And then:

Hallucinate > Two-Shiv Poison > Deceive > Jack In The Box


Why do I max Deceive before Jack In The Box?

I do this because level 5 Deceive is MUCH more useful than level 1, and Jack In The Box long stun is not needed until late game.

Smite: Jungler must-have.

Ignite: I use this to finish off people when Two-Shiv Poison is not enough or you want more burst damage.

Other viable spells:

Flash: You may need this when your Deceive is on CD.

Exhaust: You have enough slows but maybe you want more...

Jungling is the best role for Shaco.

He is fast and he can gank when the enemy thinks that you aren't able yet.

I have two different routes, depending on the situation, but I'm used to follow the first one:


1- Go to Wraiths and at 0:43-0:45 put a Jack In The Box where the boss Wraith spawns.

Go to the Red buff and put 3 Jack In The Box where the boss spawns always they are not on CD.

Then run to the Wraiths, wait in bushes until they attack your Jack, and kill the big one.

Run to the Red buff and place the last Jack In The Box as the monster spawns. Wait in bushes until they attack your jacks and then kill all of them.
Pick Two-Shiv Poison

You shouldn't use any potion yet.

Run to the Blue buff and kill him using Smite and all your arsenal. You should use potions here.
Pick Deceive.

You are now available to gank.

2nd route is quite the same but going first for the boss Wolf and Blue, and then Red.

THE 3RD DARK MAGICAL SECRET ROUTE: This is a very annoying route for your enemy.
Follow the 1st route until you kill Red. Pick Deceive instead of Two-Shiv Poison. Then GANK MID QUICKLY. Come on!

GANKING: Go to a lane where your partner is not overextending (tell them not to do it).

Ping the victim.

It's better if you wait until all the enemy minion waves are in fight, so you can Deceive to the lane, place a Jack In The Box on the enemy's scape route and then attack him.

Use Two-Shiv Poison and Ignite only if it's necessary.

I CAN'T GANK ANYONE, WHAT DO I DO?: Counter-jungle. Go to the enemy jungle.

Do you see the enemy jungler in minimap? If you do, then clean his jungle.

If you don't, wait in one of his already spawned Buffs (He is going there) and place all Jack In The Box you can in bushes. Wait him and... PEEK-A-BOO!

When you are > level 6 and you have Wriggle's Lantern you can solo dragon by doing ulti and making the dragon attack it and not you.

Guard Dragon always until late game.

Jungle timing for newbies:
Baron: 1st 15 min, spawns each 7 minutes.
Dragon: 1st 3 min, spawns each 6 minutes.
Buffs: 1st 1:55 min, spawn each 5 minutes.
Camps: 1st 1:40 min, spawn each 1 minute.

Here you are.
Now your mates are asking you for buffs. Accept.

You can lane now and push, since Shaco is a very good pusher and can guard with his Jack In The Box.

Roam and help your team, and try to be present in skirmishes, where you should try to nuke the squishies with Q, autoattack, W, autoattack, E, autoattack. Try not to be focused.

LATE GAME:

At this point you should ward Baron instead of Dragon.

Be present in ALL the team fights.

Enter the last with your carries.

- Deceive into the fight, Autoattack their carry, Jack In The Box in the middle of them so you stun them, Two-Shiv Poison and try to kill the carry. If they are focusing you, Hallucinate and GTFO as quick as you can.

If they are not focusing you try to deal some more damage and then Hallucinate anyways.

In this chapter I'll talk about my strategies and tips on this type of matches.


At level one pick Jack In The Box so you can put some turrets in a bush to get first blood. Unfortunately there are clever enemies sometimes that don't fall in your trap...

Now try to be solo top.
Start last hitting minions and every time you have a Jack In The Box up put it in the edge of one bush, near the wall so minions don't trigger it, and where the enemy enters the bush so Jack In The Box triggers immediatly when he enters. This is your bush.

Some enemies just don't enter the bush, but some get bored of being harassed and try to hurt you. Enter your bush if this happens and nuke your enemy.

I don't think this will happen twice in a match with the same enemy in lane phase.


Once you are level 6 and you have Wriggle's Lantern, kill Dragon, guard it, and kill it every time it's up. Now you should push your lane and clean the jungle.

Ganking is pretty much like in 5v5, so just remember what I said before.

Stealing Dragon is VERY important.

You have guarded it, so enter with Deceive when it's low hp, kill it, and GTFO with Flash or casting Hallucinate. It's Ok if you steal it but you die.

Teamfights and that stuff are like in 5v5.

My first game after uploading the guide:

Overall Shaco is a fun champion and that is what matters for me.

Credits of the red dividers go to Jhoijhoi (and his awesome "Making a guide")
I'll be updating this with photos and videos if you guys leave me some possitive votes :)