Hello summoners! I am a high platinum jungle main.Here is my lolking page... My goal in this guide is to teach you the basic ups and downs of the Demon Jester and maybe you'll learn something about jungling in general!

Shaco is an absolute terror in the world of solo queue. He has the capability to knock his opponents off their feet early and let his carries easily begin to walk on them and not allow a single breath.

Shaco is one of those champions that can outplay in most situations and leave the enemy team scratching their heads as to where he went.

His jungle clear is very fast level one due to stacking boxes, but with the season 4 changes which don't allow you to get level 3 off of both buffs, he is a bit late to level 3.
(oh and no, I don't play Shaco as an invader :))

Pros

can snowball the early game beyond recovery
can split push well if grouping or little jungle skirmishes aren't working too well
good damage
crazy good ganks
good dragon control
ability to outplay if controlled correctly
hard to catch / chases people easily
yyyyy soooo seriousssssssss

Cons

squishy squish squish (before items)
not the best team fighter (detail further on)
taking one of his first or second buffs can hurt his early presence immensely
bad jungle clear
bad survivability

In my honest opinion the strongest point of Shaco is he could be anywhere. Whenever there is a Shaco in the game most people like to hug towers, play safe and farm, or die. The sheer thought of knowing he could be ganking you at this very minute discourages people from trying to make as many plays in lane in fear of Shaco always being there. there is no escape

Shaco can start with either buff level 1 and be unaffected. After you purchase your dorans blade make sure you get out to the camp you are starting at quickly so you can begin to stack your Jack In The Box between the 0:58-1:00 mark. You might be thinking, "But Shorty, the boxes last one minute and the buff spawns at 1:55 so why not stack them at 0:55!?" Glad you asked. You want all of your boxes to be alive and shooting the buff to kill it before they run out of time themselves.

After successfully killing your first buff (don't forget to Smite it with the 40 seconds cd!!) head over to your wraith camp then your other buff. By now you will have all three of your abilities and should be looking to get first blood or burn a flash.

Most of the time mid is easily gankable in the early stages of the game but I prefer to warn my top laner I won't be there level 3 and head bottom because it is quite unexpected to see an early gank bot. Use your Red Trinket if you have to clear a ward bottom (usually when on purple side your tri bush will be perma warded). Q over the nearest wall and go hard! (how to gank later on).

On the next round of buffs I do not recommend giving your mid laner blue because your clear time kinda (it does) sucks unless you place only 1 box per camp which is do able if you have, say, Swain in mid and is getting pushed/bullied hard (even then I keep blue sometines huehuehue).

Once you have your red you are at your strongest in the early game. If an enemy laner has burned flash or enemy adc has popped barrier or cleanse HEAD TO THAT LANE!! 99/100 times you will pick up an easy kill. You need these early kills and assists to get rolling or it will be hard to catch up.

Early game is your biggest opportunity to snowball the game so make plays my Shacos!

By now hopefully the enemy team is sitting there like is it safe to come out of tower yet QQ. During the mid game your job is to A) buy a pink ward or b) use your red trinket to clear dragon and take it solo with your ult (how to do this later).

You also should be buying a ward for protection and killing any straggling outer turrets. (Use your ult and place a Jack In The Box by the tower to kill it quickly) Be careful when splitting away (particularly to top) as once the enemy team sees the jungler top they will 9/10 times go for dragon.

In the early stages of the mid game you want to keep farming the jungle and pushing towers with your laners, but as the mid game goes on, you should begin to group or try to catch people out in their jungle since you should have your Randuin's Omen by now and are quite strong.

Typically with this build you can actually team fight in the late game! (how to team fight later). In an average game teams will be dancing around baron and trying to pick fights or siege towers fast (all of which Shaco does well!)

In the late game continue to farm the jungle but by now it is best if you give your buffs to your teammates as you are not a hard carry late game (using this build).

You should also be looking to pick someone off that might be extended a bit too far for his own good pushing out a lane or stopping it from pushing. Most champions you can 1v1 without a sweat with a well placed box to fear them and a well timed ult. Advanced tactic!! Your ult will make you untargetable for a short time which you can use to your advantage. When dueling time your ult with with abilities like a Jax Counter Strike (dodge the stun) or a Vayne Condemn to turn the tides of the fight highly in your favor. When done correctly dodging the correct spell can win you most every trade. *Ace! "OMG KARTHUS PRESS R BEFORE YOU COMPLETELY DIE TO KILL THE SHACO THAT LIVED WITH 3 DAMN HEALTH" Hallucinate huehuehuheuheuuehuheuheu*

If it carries on to 60+ minutes just split push and try to take those open inhibitors (hopefully they are open at 60 minutes O.O)

With Mobility Boots you can use Deceive from quite a good distance away (or even just use it from near your lane tower and walk into the lane like an invisible boss).

As you near the opponent ping who you are going to be focusing in bot lane so your allies follow. Once coming out of invisibility place your Jack In The Box where you think the enemy is going to run, or even place it where you don't want them to go so they won't go there or they will be feared if they do.

Keep auto attacking them, you will keep with them due to the passive slow. Wait to throw your Two-Shiv Poison until they use their escape like Flash or Body Slam then throw it and stick right to them. Throw Ignite on them when you go in if you know their flash is down and it's a guaranteed kill or ignite them when they think they are going to live with 2 hp to cheese them.

Shaco excels in 2v2s and 3v3s with his clone and single target burst so feel free to mess around with the enemy jungler when you see them about to gank a lane.

Typically your job in a team fight is to dive a carry when safe and draw attention from your carry to yourself as you have your ult and q to escape. A lot of top laners are focused around diving or peeling so drawing a Jax or Tryndamere off your carry means you are doing your job.

When playing against a heavy engage team such as Malphite top and Nautilus jungle who focus on diving, you should dive their carries to disrupt them from damaging your carries while they are cc'd to hell and back. Doing this correctly will turn the fight in your favor 9/10 times because once champions like these said above use their kit, they don't do much.

sit in a corner and cryQQ

When being heavily countered buy some wards for your jungle and skip one of the two offensive items at the beginning of the build (which one you skip is personal preference) and go straight into building tanky so you can hope for the best in terms of being useful. You know the saying - don't build damage when behind. That stays the same in jungle too!!

Vi is one mean cop you want to avoid getting near in the jungle. If she invades you you more than likely won't be able to 1v1 her. Her Relentless Force will kill your boxes before they can even fear her. It gets even worse. Vi can build full tank and still out damage you due to her w passive, shield passive, and high base damages.

Lee Sin If you are playing vs a lee sin make sure you are careful when roaming around. If he catches you you are more than likely dead. His q and e give vision so you can't stealth and run your squishy butt away, nor can you 1v1 him until you get some items.

Aatrox The king dueler. Don't let him catch your scent in his jungle or you will wish you hadn't joined queue that night.

Most other junglers won't come near you and you can 1v1 quite easily if they do. Ignite will shut down a Volibear that thinks he can kill you so don't worry too much about him.

Ever wanted to steal baron like a boss? Now's your chance!
When playing on the purple team you can stand on the outside of the baron wall right next to it with Shaco facing south and ult. When done correctly you will appear inside the baron pit with your clone outside it where you were once standing. Time your smite, and Deceive back out to safety and when you win that game receive those Honorable Opponents with style!

Soloing Dragon in the early levels should be done with you tanking the dragon until you are half health with your clone attacking from the back side, and then swapping so your clone is tanking and you are hitting from behind to proc Backstab. Doing this is essential so your clone doesn't die too fast or, well, so that you don't die. Put down a Jack In The Box on cooldown, Smite and go buy a ward with the free gold you got! jk get more items for yourself who cares about team.

Something new Shaco players do wrong is using their Hallucinate at the very beginning of the fight. Doing this is only acceptable in certain situations like a 3v5. You should be diving the carry and once the enemy team comes to peel you off, use your ult then to dodge a stun and q away leaving your clone to eat some aoe and die dealing some nice damage while you are invisible waiting for their move. Usually you want to hop right back onto the adc as most tanks have cc abilities on a low cooldown which may force a team diver like Talon or Riven to focus you letting your carries free cast.

When in a sticky situation you can use your Hallucinate and immediately after your Deceive. The puff from your q will be covered up from the puff from your ult. But make sure you run in one way and tell your clone to run the other way. When invisibly the clone will follow you default so send it away for a sneaky getaway!!

No reason. Spam him for freelo.

But really though if you want to win vs Shaco pick Vi or Lee Sin in my honest opinion and take his second round of buffs. That is one of his strongest parts of the game so take that away and he's in trouble. He can't come back from a bad early game by just using hard cc like Jarvan IV Nautilus or Sejuani.

Thank you very much if you've stuck through and read to the entire end! This took me a few hours and is my first guide so I would appreciate all feedback! My Summoner Name is 11shorty11 I am on the NA server add me if you want to play a game sometime! :)

Now get out there and gain some elo!