THIS GUIDE IS STILL WORKED ON

Ohai. Welcome to my Shaco "guide". Shaco was my first "real" champion that i unlocked and i still enjoy playing him. I've seen alot of different Shaco builds so i just wanted to give mine a shot. This is just my vision of how you COULD be playing him. Absolutly NOT how you SHOULD be playing him. This is just a different playstyle :). This is not a "super" guide with screens 'n videos...and stuff. Just a written guide about the clown.

This guide will sort of explain how Shaco can be played as an AD assassin. He is a tricky champion to play, but he's tons of fun and the risks you take can pay off. Fooling your opponents is what this clown does best. My prefered playstyle for Shaco is aggresive and overextensive (suicidal). Yelling warcrys to your monitor actually increases the chance your ganks succeed.

Pros

- Can deal a nice amount of damage
- Can attack/kill from all angles, you never know when to expect him
- Can pick off near death champs (Don't get too greedy though!)
- With the right runes, a hell of a jungler (level 2 ganks are guarenteed kills)
- Hallucinate can bring some confusion to the battlefield + can deal tons of damage.
- Rips towers quite fast.
- When playing smart, hard to catch
- Has alot ganking potential
- He's a sadistic, homicidal clown? >^^,

Cons

- Squishy
- Can't simply engage in 1v1 like Yi, Olaf, Udyr, etc. Has to use the element of suprise
- Can be kinda hard to play

Masteries
Obviously, i put 21 points on offence. I think i don't have to explain that. Increased crit damage, attack speed and so on. The other 9 points are spend in Utility. The experience boost is nice overal. I'd rather stick with Good Hands instead of Perservence. It's only 4% of the amount you already have. Which is quite less.

For my 3v3 setup, i put 9 points into defence, to make Shaco a bit more tanky. There are less players to focus in 3v3 and being focused is the one thing you don't want as Shaco.

Runes
5v5 Runes: This setup is based to give you a somewhat higher attack speed. While jungling, your boxes are doing some (most) of the tanking work. So with improved attack speed, you should be able to kill some creeps without taking too much damage. And because of that, you can pick boots instead of the classic 1 armor and 5 health pots.

3v3 Runes: More tankyness. You find yourself more often perma-ganking and 1v1ing here. Plus the increased chance of you being instantly bursted down in teamfights. These runes kinda fix the problem.

Shaco has a few spells that actually work for him. But even fewer that maximize his potential.

RECOMMENDED


Exhaust & Ignite are my two favorites. Appear, nuke, ignite and exhaust if they run or struggle a bit >:3

It also works a bunch against those annoying Mundo & Sion ulti's. Exhaust helps a bunch in teamfights and ignite is a good finisher. But it's all up to you what you pick.

Flash - You can really **** some **** up with this. Deceive in, Flash out. Can't go wrong with flash

Smite - Your all in a days spell for jungling. Works surprisingly well on 3v3 (for dragon control and such)


RUNNER-UPS



Ghost - It makes you catch up with champions, helps escaping and you arrive quicker in teamfights. Only CC ruins it. And Exhaust/Ignite is more efficient for Shaco. You're a killer, not a runner.

Cleanse - Not a bad skill. I always use this spell on Kassadin. It's just not my taste for Shaco because his Deceive CD is too high to make Cleanse really effective.


JUST DON'T


Heal - Not that bad, but there are way better spells for him. Heal is more for the inexperienced player.

Teleport - This spell always works. But imo sucks on Shaco.

Clarity - You're doing something wrong. Badly. I know Shaco has a high mana consumption early on but it's not that bad.

Revive - This spell requirs you to die. Dying is bad. Just saying.

Rally - DO NOT WANT.

Skill Sequence
As stated before, Shaco requirs some skill to be played smoothly. We need to take full advantage from his skills & abilities. So here is a list with skills, how i use them and how i plan them:

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

I just can't urge you enough to use this ability wisely. You can land another free hit in the back after the first deceive. That results in some big damage and an advantage when starting a fight. It's 20% bonus AD. Early game your auto-attacks can deal around 100~120 damage already. Just keep this skill in mind while attacking.

Deceive - Shaco instantly stealths for 3.5 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 physical damage.

This is Shaco's signature skill. It deals alot of damage, you can chase people down with it, blink over walls. This skill has many uses and makes Shaco lethal. I always maximize this skill as soon as possible since the damage increases and the mana consumption drops. I'll explain later how we can abuse this skill.

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.

I take this skill on level 3 to ward off area's, fear enemies while engaging or to delay my enemies while i'm escaping. I only take this skill on level 1 untill i maximized Two-shiv poison & Deceive.

Two-shiv poison - Passive: Shaco's 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.

Shaco's ranged ability. It slows & deals a nice amount of damage. Very usefull for both attacking and escaping. Together with Deceive, this skill is also maximized asap.


Hallucinate - Shaco creates an illusion of himself nearby, which deals 75% of Shaco's damage and receives 150/150/150% increased damage. (Deals half damage to turrets.) On death, the illusion deals 300/450/600 (+1) magic damage to nearby enemies.

This skill was what made me buy Shaco. This little copy of you is good for escaping, tower ripping, killing champions, baiting champions and even harassing champions (not adviced, but it's fun to watch how people run away from your clone).

Here i will be explaining my motivation for certain items and give certain item paths. These are examples of what you could buy in certain situations.

Before we begin, do not rely on certain item paths. If the game starts, you don't know what you're gonna buy yet. People keep relying on the same build every game. That is not how you get your character to work in every situation. Same rule applys for Shaco. If you get nuked to death everytime by a caster, protect yourself against it! Don't blindly go for the build that worked against a carry team.

I've seen many different Shaco playstyles. Some good, some bad and some just horrible. Here is my item setup:

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THE CORE:


Boots of Mobility:

Alot Shaco players still take Beserk. Grevers. It's a waste imo. Shaco doesn't really need the AS from the beserkers. Mobility boots makes him catch up with runners and are the perfect boots for escaping.

OPTIONAL: MERCURY'S THREADS

It makes him less affected by CC, but they aren't what i'm looking for. If you want to be mobile and help your team as soon as possible, go for the 5 boots. Timing is essential.

If the CC really is too much to take, go for Mercury's threads.


Wriggles Lantern:

Attack damage, Armor, Lifesteal, Bonus damage on minions and free wards. It gives pretty much everything you need for Shaco. Less squishy, more damage and lifesteal.

BRUTALIZER -> GHOSTBLADE (end game)
At this part, you can also take a brutalizer. The early game damage is nice, gives you even more armor pen & it gives you CDR. Just like Wriggles, it's quite a boost early game. Later on, you can build it into a Ghostblade, which gives you insane nuke & backdoor power.
Trinity Force:

From the first day i had Shaco, i bought this items. Works fantastic. It makes Shaco less squishy, more damage, faster, higher attack speed and a 150% damage bonus on Deceive. It also applys a slow on the enemy.

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STARTER OPTIONS



Boots of speed - Makes you faster early game and ensures saftey might you want to start somewhat safer. Leaves enough gold for 3 potions. Hardcore Shacos, start with nikes. Uber ganks, nuff said.

Long sword - The more offensive option. I'm never picking Doran's because Long Sword can be build into a Lantern. This way you get your items faster. Leaves enough gold for 1 potion

Health Potion - Always handy to pick. You never know how hard your opponents will haras. Besides, 1 minion = 1 potion (kind of). Makes your laning time longer


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SHACO VS. AP



- The Hexdrinker can block heavy AP nuke damage and shields you from next incomming damage.
Also comes with a nice portion AD. A must-have against casters

- Banshees Veil will block incomming CC or/and 1 spell. Also gives HP and Magic resist. Great item

-Infinity Edge always works against squishys. Alot of AD and increased crits. 'Nuff said.

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SHACO VS. TANKS



-Last Whisper gives 40 AD and 40% armor pen, exactly what you need.

-The Black Cleaver increases your AD with 55 and breaks off armor.

-Madreds Bloodrazor is one of the old favorites on Shaco. I personally dislike the item on Shaco. It costs alot of money and you're focused alot once you have it. If you're certain you can stay a long time in the field without dieing, give it your best shot. But i always end up with hit-and-run. I'd rather leave this item to Warwick or another DPS. Shaco isn't a pure auto-attacker imo.

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With this i'm just giving a few item routes and possibilities which work against certain champion types. Just find a path that suits you. I will be updating this later on.

LANE SUMMARY (3v3)

First of all: Who are your opponents? Who are in your team? Reflect the options and pick what seems best. In most chases people go solo because they think they're pro and can handle everything. Newsflash: That is not how this game is working. Champ 1 > Champ 2 and Champ 3 > Champ 2. It's the way things go.

Might you die and your opponent doesn't leave you a chance, switch lanes! Kind of dumb if you keep dying the same way over and over and over again, eh?

STRATEGIES & TACTICS

Shaco is an assassin that can pop out from wherever he wants. Use that to your advantage.

- You can hide in the bushes in the jungle you to make your opponents think you're "MIA". Once your lane starts pushing, send 'ehm packing.

- You can teleport over walls. Use this to quickly gank someone or to simply escape and be uncatchable.

- Your clone can help you escaping too. Let's say you're near the enemy base bot. You're permaslowed and Deceive on it's own won't work/bring you far enough. Pop your clone if you have it ready. While in stealth, send your clone top for example (into the jungle). Your opponents might think the clone just followed you, while he didn't. Worked alot of times for me :).

- The trick "send your clone in first" is getting old. Suprise your opponents with something new. Try to keep hidden who the real Shaco is. There are alot of tricks and methods to do this, but imma not giving away how ;P. You have to find that one out for yourself.

- Pop a few JitB's constantly around the map. They ward of small areas. Pop some in the brushes to make sure you see your enemies comming. Also very handy for escaping. Run to your JitB and it fears your opponent for a small time. Its not much, but it's enough time to get the hell out.

- If you try to deceive, only deceive within the circle of range. Not somewhere out of it. Do not give your opponents a clue where you might went. If there is no other option (say you need to blink over a wall) then just go for it. But try to give the idea you just disappeared.

Combine these stratgies to suprise your opponents. Simple 1v1 dueling doesn't work very well with Shaco (only when heavily fed). Suprise them!