Hello everyone! This is my build of Shaco, The Demon Jester. I've played Shaco for about a year now and I've learned how to play him correctly. There are many builds on Shaco, it differs from AP to AD/AS. but as ap isnt viable in ranked, we will focus on a good ad/as build. But whatever you play, you should ALWAYS jungle! If Shaco isn't jungling, he will get raped at the lane and can't do anything, and that will make him useless at the late stages of the game.

So, how do I really play Shaco then?
Well I will show you my way to play him, which i think is the most effective!

I would really appreciate any comments and thumbs ups, and that you try the build before rating!

I will try to keep this guide updated as much as possible.

Last updated 30 June, 2011.

So, to begin with... what summoner spells is the best for Shaco? Most people use Ghost/Smite on Shaco, which is a good choice. But I feel that a good Shaco doesn't need Ghost as you should never get yourself into danger, or go and push a lane without wards. That's why I choose Ignite in combination of Smite.

Here I will show you some viable combinations for Shaco and the purpose of them:

A very good combination for First blood and the extra burst or healing reduction.

Good when solopushing and to escape, tho you should't need to use Ghost when solopushing as of Jack In The Box and wards.

If you wish to teleport to your boxes, providing better ganks.

I just use standard 21/0/9 masteries for excellent damage output aswell as Utility mastery for longer buff duration.

I use atk speed, arp, armor and health runes to provide better surivival aswell as faster jungling.

Greater Mark of Desolationx9 x9 x9 x2 x1

There are some various options for Shaco to go with. some people prefer to level Deceive over shiv, but that isn't any good anymore in my opinion. Crit Shaco was very good for many patches ago, but at the moment i feel that AD or AD/AS shaco is the best Shaco atm. Therefore, leveling Box at lvl 1 for jungling and then maxing out Shiv with a point in deceive at early game is the best.

you could also go for the "Reginald way" and max Jitb first for longer fear and excellent damage output when stacking the boxes up, making counterjungling easier

here i will show some tips n tricks aswell as common mistakes with shaco.

ganking midlane:

the red line is the "fog of war", where the enemy begins to see you if he/she is just normally farming/harassing mid. you should deceive before or at this line to make them not see you. but remember, they can still see your smoke if they pay attention!

as i think there isnt any build you should go all the time against every time, i've decided to post top prio items, core items aswell as situational items.

CORE ITEMS:


best shaco items (top prio):



So, these are the best items for shaco. but you cant just pick 5 of these items + boots against every team. i will show you what i recommend against different setups:

Tank-heavy team (Tank-Offtank) or (Tank-Offtank-Offtank):


Mage-heavy team (at least 2 mages):


Psychical damage-heavy team (at least 2 psychical damage assassins/fighers):


This is just counters, you should always get damage items aswell (duh..obviously). as you can see, wit's end is a very good item and fits into the most enemy lineups.

I just use a standard route, starting at small golems, and then picking red. if you somehow arent able to do red cause of popping of boxes/harassing, go to blue and get a teammate to help.

here is the full guide on the route:
Set 2 boxes @ small golems, pull them to the boxes and make them aggro ur boxes.
Set 3 boxes @ red, optionally in the bush.

Then, with this done, you should follow this order; wraiths (big one first), wolves (big one first) then blue. if your blue is stolen by the enemy jungler, go and GANK or recall and buy boots (350g).

quick note: counterjungling can be very hard, if you're new to Shaco, avoid counterjungling and concentrate on ganks and jungling instead.

counterjungling with shaco is very effective if you know how to do it. you should know where your enemy jungler is to counterjungle.
for an example if you face a rammus to counterjungle, you should know that when you're done with red, he is probably done with Blue or has begun with wolves. then, you can go for your wraiths and wolves, and by that time he is probably at red. then you can go ahead and go to his jungle, place a jitb through the wall and STEAL the red or kill rammus. if you are able to, you can also do both.

---

Counterjungling: Buy wards when you recall to see if your enemy jungler is at any of the buffs. here is some examples of placing:

---

Difficulty to counterjungle:
(these champions is what i think PERSONALLY) Just some examples (NOT all junglers):

Easy: Master Yi, Tryndamere, Fiddlesticks
Average: Rammus, Warwick, Xin Zhao, Shaco
Hard: Nunu & Willump, Amumu

again, these are just some common junglers. i will probably add more later on.

latest update was 7 July, 2011.

update note: did some major changes. added chapters, pics etc.

second update of 7 july: fixed images correctly.