Shaco Build Guide by DeathByPoison

Introduction

Hello everyone i'm Samordorak and this is my Shaco build. Shaco is a champion that we all know and love! Well some of us, others just flat out hate him. Why? Because he's one of the hardest hitting AP characters there is! Not possible you say? Well try this build out for yourself and you will see :). I'm sure we've all had that moment; the moment where you see a champion while browsing through the champions page or shop and you said to yourself "I HAVE to have him/her" Well for me, Shaco was that champion. Since i practically started, i have been playing Shaco, and he's extremely versatile. He can be played AP, AD, or Hybrid; my personal favorite being AP because it's just so darn fun!

History

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.

Pros/Cons

Pros
- Hard hitter
- Has a 3.5 sec stealth
- Has a fear with his W
- Has a duplication ability which can confuse people
- He's a Demon Jester :D
- Great ganker!

Cons
- Vulnerable to CC
- REALLY squishy
- Will more than likely die without Flash or Deceive off Cooldown
- As AP shaco you are practically useless without cooldowns (CDR helps resolve this issue)
- One of the harder characters to master

Runes

As for the runes I choose it's pretty simple. Magic penetration marks are a must in my opinion, makes your damage so much harder. You can switch them for AP per level or flat AP but you will lose out on the magic penetration. As for Seals, I take Cooldown reduction. The more you have, the less amount of time you have to wait for your abilities, And since you aren't much of a physical dps person at this point, you need your abilities for damage. And as for Glyphs i take AP per level, well that's just me. You can switch them for just flat AP if you wish. And as for Quintessences, i like flat AP. As you can see all of his runes are to better help his damage. I've seen some people take Mana regeneration runes due to his mana problems that he may have, but i feel it isn't necessary, you can grab blue (if you have no jungler) and with the mastery build i have provided you shouldn't have any.

Masteries

Well with the new masteries (which i like) I went 20/0/10, grabbing AP dmg in offense and then the mana regen in utility. This is great for an ap shaco :D

Summoner Spells

This is probably one of my all time favorite spells on so many champions. It's like a second deceive (without the stealth) and you can use it to get away in the nick of time. It's an all around good spell for shaco.

This is also another one of my preferred summoner spells on shaco. This is a great finisher, adds an extra dots and helps you take down those with healing or regeneration effects (ex. , )

Other viable summoner spells:
If you are still having mana problems even with what i have given you then this is a good one to have.
This is if you are still getting the hang of shaco. I Personally don't like it on him but oh well you can use it and its nice when you really need a heal.
This is also another good summoner spell you can take on him. Exhaust someone right before they enter a Jack in the Box nest or just plainly to annoy those champions that have the potential to run in and slice through you like butter.
Good for getting away or catching up, always nice on alot of champions, it speaks for itself.
This is a so-so spell. It's nice to get to an area when you need to and if you have a Jack in the box set up in a spot you can get to it but in my opinion you can fill its slot with something so much more useful.
As far as slows go you can deceive to safety. This is really nice with stuns, binds and taunts which can really mess you over.
Great spell that they added, gives awesome amount of AP and attack speed which is ok lol but it's really good!

DO NOT TAKE THESE:

You are not a tank or support.
AGAIN you are not a tank or support.....
9 minute cooldown, it's a waste, need i say more?
Sure.... If you are going to Jungle. But you aren't so no thank you!

Items

I start with this, gives a nice amount of health , ap and mana regen (again helping the mana issues!)

Kage's Lucky Pick After Doran's, i grab this, gives a nice amount of AP for it's price and you gain 5 gold per 10 seconds. (Pays for itself after about 26 minutes it pays itself off.... i did the math)

I like these for the simple fact of it's magic penetration! You can take boots of mobility or swiftness but i don't usually like those because you miss out on the magic pen.

Grab this if your game is looking good. It's pretty awesome with the stacks and gives you growing AP which is really good and gets you to hit hard early-mid game. Again only grab this if you are doing well and aren't predicting alot of deaths. Stacks can be a pain to bring back up sadly. Also, since you will be disabling the enemy team with your boxes you will get a bunch of assists giving you one stack of it :).

I absolutely love this item on AP shaco and i can't imagine myself playing AP shaco without it. It also gives mana per 5 seconds which helps towards his mana issue AND gives CDR. I can promise you this: With Deathfire's and Two-Shiv poison you WILL two shot squishies and even those dps like Tryndamere or Master Yi. It's almost unfair :)

Is there anything to say really? 130 AP and 30% AP increase, what more could you want :D

You don't have to follow my exact building order. I get sheen/Lich bane at the end just because late game it might happen where you already used your DFG(Deathfire grasp) and Two shiv and your enemy my get away with like 200 hp or something of the sort and you are like DAMMIT..... Well just deceive in and with your AP and lich bane you will finish them off :)

Never a bad item, gives AP and magic pen (Woot more magic pen!)
Not a bad item, Gives AP and health for a bit more survivabilty.

Ehh.... This will more than likely solve your mana problems (if you are still having any which you shouldn't) but it won't charge up as fast as it would on another caster like Cassiopeia or Veigar who can spam abilities and such. The AP bonus from the stat is nice though.

It's a very nice item. Though it goes against what i said about the aura, it really does add to your damage and gives some MR.

This item is sort of a .... Not sure how to explain it. It's great on Hybrid shaco but for AP not so much. It gives a nice amount of AP and spell vamp which can heal you through your two shiv poison but gives AD and Life steal at the same time which is useless for an AP shaco.

Defensive Item's

This gives more HP, more mana (for those of you still having mana problems) and a spell shield every 45 seconds, AND MR.

I love this item on so many characters, and shaco is one of them. It really helps keep your mejai stacks alive and if you are fast enough with your fingers you can deceive RIGHT after you revive, letting you get away.

For the record i never use this item on ap shaco, but a friend o mine asked me to put it on here because he says that this item is great! Gives mana, CDR, an aura (personally aura's are for tanks and support :/) AND armor. I've never tried it and i dare not to but please if you think it really helps let me know. Don't downvote for this one item i dare not choose it but again i'm doing a friend a favor.

Core Items

That is what my main builds normally end up looking like. His item build can and will be situational depending on whether you need extra MR or armor or even magic pen for that matter. But the 100% ABSOLUTELY MUST HAVES on AP shaco (His CORE core build) are:



The last two items you play with you need. Mejai's can be a core core item, but remember you may not have an amazing game all the time.

Skill Sequence

This will be my favorite part to explain because i love all of shaco's abilities!

Deceive - Shaco stealths himself instantly and teleports to target location. His next attack is guaranteed to critically strike.
Shaco teleports nearby and becomes stealthed for 3.5 seconds.

His next basic attack within the next 6 seconds will critically strike, dealing 140/160/180/220/240% damage (normal critical strikes deal 200/200/200/200/200% damage).
Cost
90/80/70/60/50 Mana
Range: 25000

This an AMAZING ability. It's like having another flash. You can use this to juke people, jump over walls and such. It's funny, i've used this then flash after and i have stolen baron from some people XD. But yeah, you can use this to get in and out of fights or dangerous situation. This ability is AMAZING for ganking as well. It allows you to deceive in and run in more than half way through the lane to appear out of nowhere and gank a lane. Now do be careful when using it. You can use it and get yourself into unwanted spots so care for enemies. As far as juking someone goes it's simple: Most of the time people expect you to deceive in same direction you were running or near your turrets or something. Play with them and go in the complete opposite direction. For example, say you are being chased through the river into top or bottom lane by more than one person. continue running forward and then run into the brush. After that deceive back towards the river, the enemies will more than likely think that you deceived into the brush next to it or towards your turret. :)

Jack In The Box - Shaco creates an animated Jack-in-the-Box at target location, which will wait, stealthed, to Fear nearby units and attack them when some come nearby.
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.

Its attacks deal 35/55/75/95/115 (+0.2) magic damage and it lasts for 90 seconds while stealthed or 5 seconds while firing.
Cost
50/55/60/65/70 Mana
Range
425

This another awesome ability! This can be used in so many ways, it's like a free ward! I grab this ability FIRST. Why? Well simple: You can stack them for first blood! Alright so maybe you will face a team who is smart and wont run into the brush first thing when they see an enemy shaco. BUT you have nothing to lose, Deceive is more of an AD thing due to the extra dmg and two shiv does like NO damage at rank one so Jack in the box is the way to go! I have gotten double kills with those who run into the brush foolishly. As soon as they run in, they are feared and helplessly run around feared while the boxes devour their hp bars. I just ignite and auto attack. Usually one dies if not both but it's fun to play with. This ability is also AMAZING to throw out in the middle of a team fight; mind you it fears for 1.5 (max rank) seconds. You throw one of these down and their entire team is disabled for 1.5 seconds giving your team time to retaliate or cast an ultimate without being interrupted or something of the sort. oh speaking of which, this ability is also awesome because you can use it to interrupt someone in the middle of their ultimate with proper placing of course. Speaking of which, i was unable to get an image loaded for box placing but it's fairly simple: In brushes, spots where people usually HAVE to walk through to get to a lane, near golem, lizard, dragon and baron. REMEMBER: THESE BOXES ACT AS WARDS SO ITS VERY USEFUL FOR YOU AND YOUR TEAM! Oh and did i forget to mention, place one down and your teammate can teleport to it :) One last thing; people complain that this ability is op because well it is i'm not going to lie to you. If you build nests you can lure people to them. The 1.5 second fear is enough for the boxes to bring them down. Mind you at max rank each box does 115 damage per second for 5 seconds (that's with NO AP) so give or take the fact that you can stack about 5 of them, MAYBE 6 (with enough cdr, this is due to the fact that they only lasts 90 seconds) that's 575 damage per second..... for 5 seconds...... (not including any MR and the AP you have). It gets to the point where you can literally kill a person with one or two of them and a two shiv poison. I've seen squishies die to two or three of them stacked on each other, and i'm not even there :) oh which reminds me, stack them nicely on each other if you are going to stack them. Why? Simply because if you have one further out than the other a person might activate the most forward one but the others wont rendering the nest useless. Also, you can set them up so they fire from all directions. I made a circle nest before with an opening so when i was being chased by a tryn, they begin to fire and destroyed him :)

Two-Shiv Poison - Shaco's Shivs passively poison targets on hit, slowing them and applying a miss chance to minions. He can throw his Shivs to deal damage and poison the target.
Passive: Shaco's basic attacks poison his target, reducing their Movement Speed. If the target is a minion, it reduces their chance to hit by 20/22.5/25/27.5/30% for 2 seconds.

Active: Deals 40/80/120/160/200 (+) (+1) magic damage to target enemy, and poisons them for 3 seconds. Upon activating this ability the passive is removed until Two-Shiv Poison becomes available again.
Cost
50/55/60/65/70 Mana
Range
625

This is another amazing ability :D It is great for harassing, slowing and killing. On top of that it's passive gives you a slow on your enemy with auto attacks! Like is stated earlier this ability has a 1 to 1 AP ratio and this WITH deathfire grasp gives you the capability to two shot people.... and by two shot i mean yes two buttons and they die :). Also Two shiv has a relatively short cooldown and with CDR runes etc that you have it will go down even lower allowing you to spam it alot faster. It's a great harrassment tool. When using this in combo with DFG use DFG first since it does damaged based on the current hp of your target. If i'm not mistaken i belive this has a 1 to 1 attack damage ratio as well so this adds to your damage since shaco already has a base attack damage set! :D So 200 damage plus your AP you can get it to do near or even over 1k damage (not including targets MR of course) and remember that DFG does 30% of the targets current HP in magic dmg + 3.5% for very 100 AP you have. Now This is a very important note i need to make: THIS IS NOT A KILL STEALING TOOL I'll admit it, i've used this myself to take kills and i'm ashamed of it, and i've seen others do it too. It's extremely easy to take kills with it, but don't. Remember even though you are an assassin you need to help your team mates. You can use it to kill those who are running away from a team fight and there isn't someone behind them who you know will kill them. Also use this to slow those who are chasing your team mates. Remember you have the ability to slow and fear and stealth for a bit so use that to help your team. You will gain stacks on mejai's from the assists and i promise you you will get kills later in the game with your two shotting combo :)

Hallucinate - Shaco creates an illusion of himself near him, which can attack nearby enemies. (Deals half damage to turrets.) Upon death, it explodes, dealing damage to nearby enemies.
Shaco vanishes briefly and reappears with a clone that lasts up to 18 seconds. The clone deals 75% of Shaco's damage and receives 50/50/50% increased damage.

On death, the clone detonates, dealing 300/450/600 (+1) magic damage to nearby enemies.
Cost
100/100/100 Mana
Range
500

This ability........ it's absolutely hilarious. Another ability with a 1 to 1 AP ratio. This ability can and will confuse your opponents because within a recent patch they've made it so that your copy has your items as well. The only thing is that if you have a buff your copy won't have that buff. The detonation has the a base damage of 600..... that's alot plus a 1 to 1 AP ratio, with only 400 AP it can do 1k dmg (not including MR) I've gotten double and even triple kills with this one ability. You can use it to tank turrets for a short time and it helps to take down turrets as well. You send this in to a team fight , make them think it's you and they will all take a nasty amount of damage. It's also quite awesome when you die, it stays alive being uncontrollable but it will explode after it takes it's damage or it's duration is done. I have gotten "kills from the grave" with this :) And last but not least my FAVORITE thing about this ability: It can be used to avoid ultimates such as that of Lux or Karthus. You have to use it with precision and hit R at the EXACT moment when their ults are about to hit you. This will negate the effect of the ultimate. Now as to whether or not you can use it to avoid Caitlyn's ult, i'm not sure (If someone reading this has tried it and can do it please confirm) otherwise you can use it while she's targeting u and move your clone in front of the bullet, He WILL take the damage making him an awesome shield :)

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

Eh this is his passive, It's only good for AD or hybrid really. So it's kind of useless on him.

The Grand Finale

And well i leave you with these final words! Again i love shaco and i love playing him, I hope you enjoy this guide. Remember PLEASE try this guide out before you vote. Vote ups would be appreciated, your comments are always welcomed. I have videos of my shaco games that i'm currently in the process of getting up onto youtube. Once i do so, i will post links on here so you can get an idea on how i play shaco :D Shaco isn't an easy champion to play but he's real fun and is worth it. I might add to this guide an AD and hybrid build because those are also fun shaco builds! Good luck and enjoy my fellow summoners!