Shaco is supposed to be an AD assassin, mainly played in the jungle to abuse his early game and to use his stealth, mobility and slipperiness to pick off out of positioned enemies. Shaco is an extremely fun champ to play top, but is obviously not meant to be in that position. Obviously he isn’t the best splitpusher such as Trundle or Tryndamere, but Shaco’s playstyle is the reason why some people still play Shaco top lane, including myself. His unique laning phase makes Shaco a very fun champion to play, but why should you play him in your ranked games? Shaco is a very strong champion, he has the ability to disengage really well, and can protect himself from behind with his Jack In The Box to stall time for him to run. He can take down towers well with his ultimate Hallucinate. His strong power early game and roaming potential is extremely good, so what stops Shaco from being a top laner?

PROS + Good splitpusher + Good at roaming to help mid or bot + Punishes greedy players very well, and is part of his playstyle + Very slippery and can almost never die in lane if played correctly + Fun champ to play as + Has snowball potential

CONS - Squishy and can overestimate his ability - Must be calm and pay full attention or you will get caught out and die easily - Hard to redeem yourself from a bad early game - Bad positioning especially without abilities, can be punished - Has trouble with revealing champs and Oracle Lens - You have to get used to being flamed unless you get a penta in the first 5 minutes

PASSIVE ABILITY

Backstab (Passive): Strong spike of damage gives Shaco the ability to assassinate enemies, and helps with his farming. This passive gives Shaco a critical hit when he auto attacks from the back, and can backstab again after a few seconds. This helps Shaco assassinate his opponents better and can scale with Infinity Edge.

Q

Deceieve (Q): This ability is basically a Flash and can turn you invisible for a few seconds. It take 0.125 seconds before turning invisible, and while invisible, you can do 40% AD and 30% AP of additional damage. You will not get out of your invisibility if you use your Jack In The Box or your ultimate Hallucinate.

W

Jack in the Box (W): Jack In The Box is similar to Teemo's mushrooms. It denies area from your laner and can be used to do additional damage in a duel. This ability fears enemies when close, and will do AP damage. That's why some people build full AP on Shaco to maximize the Jack In The Box damage. Get this to lvl 3 for early damage and then try to max out your Deceive next so you can stay invisible longer.

E

Two Shiv Poison (W): This ability is mainly used as an executioner, it scales up when the enemy has lower health. This is really strong at getting CS when you're losing lane or playing passive. DO NOT use this as poke early game. It’s really pointless because it scales better with lower health enemies, and takes lots of mana to use. I max this out last so it takes less mana to use during laning phase.

R

Hallucinate (W): Oh wow, Shaco’s low, better flash and finish him off. Oh wait, PSYCHE, it’s his clone. Shaco’s ultimate Hallucinate creates a clone of himself that takes more damage and does less damage than his real self, but can be controlled by holding alt. This can help with assassinating people, bait people into boxes, melt through towers, get objectives such as drag and baron, and to face check bushes. When his clone dies, it drops 3 tinier boxes on the ground, but if one dies, all of them die. This ultimate also lets you dodge almost all abilities in the game. This includes Zed’s ult, auto attacks and tower shots.

SUMMONER SPELLS - Teleport: Basically a must take when playing Shaco top. Helps with his mobility and control around the map, and can give a huge advantage over the other top laner. Ghost: Not used on Shaco, good for champs like Singed or Hecarim, but not good for Shaco because it doesn't fit well with his kit. Smite: Used when playing Shaco jungle. With the new scuttle changes, taking Smite on Shaco top lane, is still bad. There is no point in taking Smite just to get the jungle item, because Shaco is one of those champions that doesn’t finish his jungle item most of the time. Flash: A very popular summoner spell in League of Legends, not that great for Shaco. His kit doesn’t need Flash because of his Deceive that makes Shaco already mobile and easy to escape. This makes Flash unnecessary for Shaco, when he needs that extra dueling potential of Ignite to get kills. If you're getting used to Shaco or trying him out for the first time, it is alright to take Flash, but if you are going to play Shaco a lot, you need to start using other summoner spells besides this. Ignite: By far the best summoner spell for Shaco overall. Extra damage, almost always get this summoner spell. Exhaust: Overall, I like this summoner spell because it can be used to engage or disengage. For Shaco on the other hand, there is almost no point in it. In fights you will see that exhaust has no potential in duels as Shaco because the main point of Shaco’s duels is to bait your opponents into boxes. Exhaust just makes it harder to do this.

Get W first, before minions spawn, place Jack In The Box around your lane. Place 2 near river and place the rest in the bushes in lane. Check bushes in case of a cheeky laner trying to get the pick on you early before you have your Deceive to get out of bad situations. If the laner is in the bush, run to one of your Jack In The Box placed in the river, then place one behind them, so when they trigger the box, they trigger the second one you just placed. This will trigger your Electrocute and will secure an easy kill.

WARNING: Care mid, because many games I have tried 1v1ing my laner, and the enemy mid laner comes up and gets the first blood on me. Mistakes like this cause you to lose the lane entirely, and can cause you to lose the game from it. You don't need to worry about the jungler, because the top laner wouldn’t be going aggressive on you like that if he was at the top side jungle.

Getting that out of the way, try to get your Deceive second, this helps you to go aggressive early or to escape when the jungler ganks you early. You can choose to get your Jack In The Box to lvl 2 or get your Two-Shiv Poison if you're against an aggressive laner so you can get CS from far away. Your Two-Shiv Poison uses a lot of mana, so be careful when you use it. Getting your Jack In The Box to lvl 3 is good for early damage in lane. Jack In The Box are used in many ways such as protection from the jungler, pushing/splitting lane minions and to use to engage on your laner. Max out your Deceive first so you can stay invisible longer, meaning able to run and survive when you’re getting chased.

Mid game, you’re going to be split pushing lanes and roaming. Shaco’s roaming ability is strong, and you can get back to lane with your Teleport ready. Shaco is strong at split pushing with his slippery kit in order to escape situations with his Deceive. His Jack In The Box are used to stall time when he’s getting flanked to escape. Hallucinate creates a clone, and take does damage to towers really well. Shaco’s roaming potential is used in ganking and teamfights. His assassin like playstyle is able to take down the ADC, and if you don’t use your Deceive to initiate a fight, you can escape easily if you’re about to die. Shaco’s ultimate Hallucinate is used to kill a champion faster, take objectives faster (dragons/baron), disengage fights and to use as a distraction so your team can engage.

In late game you have the choice to either split push, or fight with your team. As I said before, Shaco is strong at split pushing and can escape if he’s getting in a 1v5 fight. You can almost carry if you’re fed enough, and depending on what you're building on Shaco, depends on your playstyle in teamfights.

In teamfights, if you're building assassin items, try and see a squishy in an off position such as the ADC, and punish them. Taking out the ADC late game can be essential in winning a teamfight. Do not engage if they are all grouped up together, unless you're building tank and your team is with you. If this is the case, try and get in the fight, and Hallucinate and auto attack the squishy like ADC. This will put pressure on you, and will get confused on which Shaco to kill. This helps your team to engage and could possibly win the teamfight. If you get too low, you can disengage with your Deceive.

Through my experience, Electrocute is the best rune by far on Shaco in the jungle and top lane. It is the strongest for it's early damage, and it's unexpected spike of damage. I've tried plenty of runes on Shaco such as Grasp of the Undying, Press the Attack, and Dark Harvest, but Electrocute is the best. It's extremely easy to proc this with Shaco, and can help proc the enemies Flash in the first 2 minutes if played correctly.

Ahhh, the best part of Shaco. Most people don't know that Shaco is a mental champ. You try to read the enemies mind, and predict their next move. Sometimes using these tricks, some people (rarely though) know these tricks and counter them, Shaco has a lot of counterplay. But aside that, I will list a few tricks mainly based around Shaco top.

Basics:
Shaco's common play style is to place 3 boxes, in the shape of a triangle quite spaced out near the river. This way, you can get CS without worrying too much about ganks, and if the enemy top laner goes aggro on you, you can run back to the boxes for safety, and if they go all in, they die and it's basically a free kill. If they bought sweeper, a good way to avoid getting caught and looking like a complete dummy, you can space out your boxes a bit. If they catch all your boxes, this doesn't mean they are fully useless, they still do damage, and if you can get the laner to get in the middle of it, they can do some good damage to secure a kill. This strategy can sometimes get you a double kill if the jungler ganks you, because they will rush in, trigger the boxes 1 at a time, and slowly take damage without noticing. Care that minions can trigger the boxes, make sure minion aggro isn't on you.

Slightly Advanced
Placing boxes in the bushes near lane is good against melee champs. Placing boxes in the bush and hiding there makes it look like your hiding from the enemy. The normal thing that they would do is to run up to you, ward and try to demolish you. Of course that's not going to happen, because your Shaco. If they trigger the first box, place another one behind them, if they keep rushing you they will trigger more, eventually they will keep taking damage until they die. Simple as that.
Another trick is to juke with your Q. When walking in a straight direction, you can Q to another direction, making the enemy think you Q'd away to your tower, but in reality you actually juked them, and ran away through river and to safety.
You can use your ultimate to juke as well. You can get your real Shaco self to auto attack the enemy, and get your clone to run away, fooling the enemy to think that the clone is the real you running away from the fight. Be careful because if the clone gets too far away from you, it will teleport back to you and can cause a very awkward fight. This technique is only useful to wait for you Q to come back up so you can escape. In lower elo the enemy will probably just kill you anyway, even when they see your clone running away. Be careful of that.
Something important about Shaco's kit, is that his ult can almost dodge any ability in League of Legends. His ult makes him exit the game for 1 second, and comes back with a clone. In this 1 second when Shaco is out of the game, he dodges every ability in the game, besides effects like ignite and such. Abilities like Zed's ult can be countered with Shaco's ult, and Lux's ult when your rooted and need to dodge her ult. Remember, like Shaco's E, there is an animation that needs to be performed before he ults. It takes time to master it, but after you do, it can be extremely over powered.

Advanced: After mastering these essential techniques, you can try the more advanced techniques. The first one I want to go over is by far the funniest thing to do as Shaco. Using your ult to trick the enemy. What I would do is hide in a bush, send my clone out at low health to bait the enemy in killing me. They would rush it, and trigger traps all over, taking huge amounts of damage, and when the clone dies, you can Q in and get the Duskblade proc to insta kill the enemy. That is the most satisfying thing to do. Careful because the clone takes 2 times more damage than you would, so don't let it die so quickly.
Already I have gone over the box box trick where they trigger an already placed box, and you place another box behind them to get a double CC effect. You can sometimes get it to triple if they get feared into a second pre-placed box, or even 4 times if the clone dies as well. This can get the enemy triggered, and sometimes EXTREMELY triggered at the fact you can perma CC them for that long just by yourself.
Another trick is to dive enemies under tower correctly. If the enemy is backing under tower, place a box in front of it, then Q, AA and ult. Get the clone to start autoing the enemy and run out of the turret range. If the enemy tries to kill your clone, it will explode killing him, and it will eventually die if you get out of the turret range because the turret will attack it, getting an easy kill.
One more trick, this is very situational, but can get you out of the stickiest of situations, and can get your team freaking out and calling you the best Shaco. When you Q, there is a delay of 0.125 seconds, and in this time, you can back or TP. Right after you use your Q, press B or TP to a tower or something, you will stay invisible why you back or TP. With baron buff, you can back even faster and survive while your in a fight. Careful for sweepers, then the enemy team will find you backing and will interrupt you midway. This is a very hard trick to do, and takes practice.

Fairly simple, you can oneshot the melee minions if they get hit by the turret twice, and the ranged minions if they get hit by the turret once. Items like Tiamat or Proto help farming and clearing waves easier. Use your ult to clear waves if you don't have these items, because when the clone dies, it deals AOE damage, and drops 3 mini boxes. Boxes also help in pushing waves, at lvl 1, placing boxes in the wave help you to clear the wave and to get lvl 2 quicker.
When taking towers, your ult helps a lot in taking it down. Get your clone to attack the tower. Boxes also do damage to the tower, but gets focused by the tower. If the tower it taking out a cannon minion which takes a long time, place a box down to get some bonus damage. If you do any damage to a champion, such as Tiamat, boxes, clone, and clone explosion, the tower will start attacking you. Be aware of that. Shaco's kit is so good at split pushing, he's so slippery, he can escape situations very easily with his Q, ult and W fears.

Hopefully you learn something new about Shaco and enjoyed reading this guide. This is my first guide and I tried to be as detailed as possible. I hope you will try out Shaco in the top lane instead of the jungle. He's very fun and interesting to play. Remember if you have anything to say, comment it below and I would gladly take any feedback.

Have fun!