Hey you little Shacoes xD
You want to become a good Shaco? Well all you need to do is listen to me and go for the ranked one that every good Shaco uses. This guide will show you how to:
1. jungle/counter jungle
2. Item builds
3. Mastery and Rune pages
4. Summoner spells
... and everything you need to know to start off with.
Play Video

The Riot Lore of Shaco

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.

So what is the moral of this lore?

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

Shaco's quotes

"How about a magic trick?"
"Why so serious?" TAUNT
"For my next trick I'll make you disapear!" JOKE
"Here we go!"
"Just a little bit closer"
"Look...behind you"
"March, march, march, march!"
"Now you see me, now you don't!"
"The joke's on you!"
"This will be fun"

- Greater Mark of Attack Damage Shaco has a slow clear time and low dmg and needs ad to do anything in a game.
- Greater Seal of Armor will help you early game in jungle, turret diving and escaping from ganks and are best for lower level defense.
- Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist will be best late in team fights where you will be focused a lot are great for survivability as Shaco is squishy and a valuable kill target.
- Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage As I said you need early and late game damage for faster jungler and bursting down adc.

Offense
- Summoner's Wrath 1/1: useful for your exhaust to increase their damage taken.
- Brute Force 1/3: For early game damage
- Butcher 2/2: You now have +5 damage to minions, which will improve your jungle time by tons.
- Alacrity 4/4: For you take take camps out faster with quicker attack speed even though I still think that AS for Shaco isn't so usefull.
- Weapon Expertise 1/1: Arpen will help you early game jungling and late game damage.
- Deadliness 4/4: Useless but you need it for Lethality .
- Lethality 1/1: Increases your Deceive damage early game super good.
- Vampirism 3/3: For early and late game jungling.
- Sunder 3/3: Increasing your late game player damage and early game jungle time.
- Executioner 1/1: For finishing of creeps and doing more damage to low players.

Defense
- Summoner's Resolve 1/1: Giving your smite +10 gold so it is amazing early game.
- Hardiness 3/3: Early game survivability in jungle and turret diving.
- Durability 4/4: Shaco is too squishy late game and a 100 health really does help tons.
- Veteran's Scars 1/1: Early and late game survivability.

Explanation:
Why not the utility tree? Runic Affinity is too useless for Shaco. You should 90% of the time you should give blue to your midder and you already have a passive slow instead of red and i think that survivability is better then buff durations. Since shaco is squishy you NEED survivability late game.

You might wonder why I take Hallucinate rank 2 at level 13. Well simply all it does is decreases the cooldown by 10 seconds and the detonate damage by barely anything. I really think that maxing out Deceive, for those ganks, is the best bet as your clone rarely every detonates and hits someone mid and early game.
Getting your Deceive at level 2. You should get it at level 2 when you want to kill blue and straight away for a super quick gank and get first blood. In this situation Exhaust is really useful because your support doesn't have much disables yet. But it you want to kill blue and go for double buff then just take your Two-Shiv Poison.

Purchase Order mix
So basically sometimes your purchase order can flip around depending on he situation and what you really need. I will go straight to it.

- Getting your Phage and straight a Guardian Angel. Sometimes there are very many teamfights for such things like Dragon and there are situations where you can just throw away sheen and burst but get survivability and Shaco has automatic burst mid game. So sometimes if their team is very bursty and focuses you always getting that Guardian Angel can only help.
- There are times where you don’t need The Brutalizer because their team doesn’t have many tanky champions but go forst burst. EX: Ashe, Xin Zhao, Talon, Alistar and Lee Sin. In these situations you really NEED that Thornmail so it is a good idea to never even buy The Brutalizer since there isn’t much armor to penetrate. You will usually want your thornmail late game so it should be your last item.
- Getting Madred's Razors and straight to Mobility Boots and then Wriggle's Lantern. This is about a 30% go for me. Often my team isn’t better then theirs and ganking very early can give a big advantage over skill. Shaco is one of those champions that is dependent on his rank 2 boots because it helps him get in position when he uses Deceive and counter jungling.

Summoner Spell choice



My choice:
- Exhaust Mainly for teamfights as you Deceive in and Exhaust their biggest damage (ad). Also during ganks when u want to slow them if they turret dive but also slowing them for securing the kill for your ad carry, ap carry or top.
- Smite For stealing buffs quickly, dragon and baron but also for faster jungle time.

Other choices:
- Ignite Although not as good as exhaust since you will not want the kills as shaco but feed your ap/ad carry and top because they do the damage with feed.

Bad choices:
- Ghost it is useless because if you know how to position your self you wont need to run fast and chasing players around the jungle is a bad move especially at a higher elo.
- Flash This is useless because as I said if u can position good and won't waste your Deceive you can just use that because it is more effective and pretty much the same thing.

Make sure to time your Two-Shiv Poison perfectly and not use it as your first spell but as last to secure the kill. You can decieve behind your target and place a box a bit behind him and just let physical damage do the job as if your Two-Shiv Poison is not on cooldown you have a passive slow but if you use it will slow them for 3 seconds but the 2 passives (minions chance to hit reduce and passive slow) won't work when you Two-Shiv Poison is on cooldown. Cast your clone as ward if expecting enemy players in a brush to make sure and deal extra damage. You can use Hallucinate to damage and explode late game to deal damage to all targets securing that you will get an assist and harass. Remember... dont get too cocky with shaco! Use Hallucinate while in your Deceive will still not unstealth you, so your Clone will pop up first making your enemy to attack the Clone first as you appear a second later.

+ Very strong early game + Teamfights can be hard + Early game burst + Early game cc/slow + Stealth Champion + Good at traps

SPACE

- Harder game - Relatively squishy - Boxes nerfed - Slow clear time - Often underlevel - Hard to master

Joungle route if you don't for straight for a gank after blue:
Play Video

At 0:12 I put a box in the brush at 30 seconds in game to see if anyone comes to invade... of course it is a better idea to place the box there at 45 seconds as I would do in a normal ranked game.
Order: Blue, wolves, wraiths and red.

What are good items on Shaco and why:
+ Wriggle's Lantern is a good bet because it gives you much faster clear time, damage, survivability and a ward, which you can use every 3 minutes once it runs out.
+ Mobility Boots is smart because it can be used while escaping; Deceive over the wall and once combat ends just sprint crazy fast until you are gone. It can also be used for ganks where you Deceive in and since you have 450 run speed you can position yourself very well.
+ The Brutalizer will give you insane jungle clear time, early and late game burst because (with runes) you will have about 40 arpen.
+ Trinity Force gives you all you want: Sustain, Damage, Run speed, ability power and sheen. The perfect item.
+ Guardian Angel you will be often focused a lot and guardian angel will resurrect you when you die and then you can just Deceive like boss.
+ Wit's End can be good if u are focused a lot but it is only good late game so get it at level 18 if the situation is that they have too much AP, also it can help you steal their creeps and jungle faster at level 18.

What are bad items on Shaco and why:
- Infinity Edge is useless compared to what else you need. Late game you don't want to Deceive into their ad carry and one hit them because you already do have pretty big damage since you are Shaco and your point is to Exhaust the ad carry and burst him down then possibly escape but really you want survivability more then burst.
- Bloodthirster is useless just about as Infinity Edge and you already have lifesteal from your Wriggle's Lantern.
- Berserker's Greaves is useless because Shaco has low damage from physical attacks (except with his clone and deceive) and depends on his Wriggle's Lantern to jungle faster so AS boots are basically useless.

Lee Sin, Skarner and Udyr - These champions have a lot of damage, CC, shields, stealth visibility and survivability and are crazy counter picks for shaco. Taking flash against shaco is the best bet.

Lee Sin
and why he is such a counter:
Not even talking about his damage he can see who when you Deceive because of the vision above your head. Generally he is the biggest counter for Shaco. He has live steal + spell vamp and an absorb to totally counter you. Don't go steal his buffs unless you are positive where he is and have his jungle warded. Lee Sin can 90% of the time beat you 1v1 and if he won't he can knock you back a thousand miles and escape like nothing happened. Remember... "One does not simply ward against Lee Sin himself."
Skarner
and why he is such a counter:
Skarner has a run speed spell+absorb in one. With his shield and high armor it will be impossible to take him down without boxes. He can also ult you and ping for the midder or top to come and take you down. He can heal using his E spell and is just impossible to solo 1v1.
Udyr
and why he is such a counter:
He is something like skarner only he has crazy absorbs, armor, run speed + stun. Early game you can't burst him down without boxes and exhaust.

Nocturne
and why he is such a counter:
Nocturne has high damage and absorbing spells. But also increased movement speed where he throws his Duskbringer but also if you Deceive he can follow the track of his Duskbringer and find where you ran but not many Nocturnes know that. Nocturne cannot gank super well until level 6 unless he finds your time in a bad position so gank very early and get your ad, ap and top the advantage of more feed. You can counter jungle against him but you should be careful of his damage. Stealing his red buff early game will be deny all his ganks early game so keep warding his red buff


Amumu, Malphite, Alistar, Master Yi just simply any champion without crazy shileds, stealth view and burst in one.

Amumu
and why is he easy to counter:
Amumu doesnt have any single target burst damage and cannot solo anything 1v1 because of his cooldowns. If you catch him with no tantrum or Q he will go down super fast because he will be super squishy untill he gets his Sunfire Aegis etc. He is very mana hungry and so you can often catch him with 10% mana or even 0%. Exhaust that Tantrum and it's GG bro.
Skarner
and why is he easy to counter:
Early game he has no damage and doesn't have any cc until level 4. Once he gets health and armor you can't but until then you can set up a trap at red and it will dominate him with exhaust giving you an easy first blood but of course on a higher elo the situation is that the Malphite is good and will know what to do even though there isn't much. He also is mana hungry like hell.
Alistar
and why he is easy to counter:
This guy doesn't have damage what so ever so you keep annoying him the whole game. If he catches you killing his red and he is smart he will just run away or ping for his midder to come help. At level 1 he wont have much armor or health but he is a good ganker so make sure you disable him a lot as he is mana hungry just like Amumu or Malphite.
Master Yi
and why he is easy to counter:
All you need to know is this; set up boxes and thats his life right there or just ult exhaust and its gg bro.
Fiddlesticks

and why he is easy to counter:
Generally against Fiddlesticks you want to take Ignite and use it when he does drain and more damage. He used to be impossible to counter but he was nerfed and cannot survive as much as before so just use your boxes to cancel his Bountiful Harvest with the fear or just ignite on it and it is easy also if uses Crowstorm just your box to fear him and interrupt his ultimate.
Rammus

Rammus had no damage or much survivability at low level so steal his red and ambush him, if you are lucky u can get his blue buff from killing him and Rammus is pretty dependant on red before he gets his taunt at level 4 you can take the advantage and gank and get kills for your team before he does. Late game you do no stand a chance against him.
Xin Zhao

I find Xin Zhao relatively easy to counter especially when you Exhaust his Three Talon Strike he cannot do anything and early game you can just JiTB trap him and he cannot do anything but feed. Xin is a strong ganker so counter jungling him all the time will lower his farm and gank time so he will be under level without feed and farm so he will be completely destroyed and will not be able to pull of any ganks and fail the rest of the game.

Did you just buy your 1700 RP? Do you want to buy a skin for Shaco but not sure which one? Well I'm here give you tip!
Really my opinion is that the best skin is:
Workshop shaco: http://www.lolking.net/models/?champion=35&skin=4

But this skin isn't availible anymore right? So what i would bet on is:
Asylum shaco: http://www.lolking.net/models/?champion=35&skin=5

A very original skin and rare that I really like is:
Nutcracko: http://www.lolking.net/models/?champion=35&skin=3

How about Royal and Mad Hatter shaco?
I personally don't like these skins because they have been here for a while and are very old and unoriginal.

Are there any other skins coming for shaco sometime soon? I have no idea :/

So overall I recommend Asylum because it is the only really good one still availible. Will the other ones be still availible? I have no idea :/

The map below shows where enemy wards are often placed, how to avoid them and finally where you should ward as a jungler.

Vision Ward

When should you buy a Vision Ward and where to place it. You always want to have MAXIMUM ONE vision ward. Usually you will want to place it at dragon (to make sure there are no Sight Wards there and that you can kill dragon in peace. Then you ward bot or top lane where i showed you on the map to get rid of their wards and gank without have to coming from behind to wall giving you better positioning.

Sight Ward
Sight Ward
When should you buy a Sight Ward and where to place. You should buy it the second time you recall and go ward for you top lane as your top shouldn't go back for a while.

Why did you make this guide?
I made this guide because I often see Shacoes on 2k elo with a bad build and summoner spells and they could seriously improve or even in normal games where i see a Shaco who can't do anything right and I just shook my head and decided to help out my fellow summoners :)

What is your summoner name and where do you play?
I don't give out this information because for the reason of getting spammed so I am sorry :/

How long do you play Shaco?
Almost my first character played hundreds of games with him. Maybe 2-3 years.

What do you think of AP shaco? I heard it is OP.
AP shaco really used to be able to solo a player with just 3 boxes in a matter of 3 seconds, which Riot found unfair and gave shaco a nerf in damage. His boxes now deal way less damage and the damage is just not worth and good as AD.

How often do you update your guide?
About every 2-3 days sometimes everyday for about 3 hours if I have time.

How can I improve myself as shaco?
I really think you shouldn't stay on normal games. You either wanna play draft picks or ranked right away because you will not improve anything in normal games as I learned that the hard way: I wanted to improve as shaco and after about 2-3 months on normal games I thought I was good... thought. Came to rankeds and I really sucked.