Hello and welcome to my first guide here on Mobafire, featuring Shaco, who is one of my best champions for sure, and probably my favourite to play. Unlike most people, I am actually a STRONG believer that Shaco is better in lane then in the jungle, because yes he is an amazing ganker, but who says you need to be the jungler to gank? I also find that he is simply out-classed in the jungle by some other junglers, especially Lee Sin and Nocturne. Hopefully by the end of this guide, and after trying it for yourself, you will also realize just how devastating Shaco can be in lane.

• Deceive is an incredibly useful ability for both offense and defense, one of the most multi-purpose abilities in the game
• Great Ganker
• Most likely has the best escaping mechanisms of any champion
• Potential for extreme burst damage
• Extremely fun to play

• Will get focusued, however if played correctly it shouldn't matter too much
• Can become utterly useless if SEVERELY under-fed, this goes for all champions, but Shaco is especially affected
• Ultimate is a bit hard to control in a team fight, and can be tricky to use as an offensive tool
• Enemies will frequently surrender at 20

Greater Mark of Desolation x 9
Greater Seal of Armor x 9
Greater Glyph of Magic Resist x 9
Greater Quintessence of Desolation x 3

Pretty Standard AD Rune build, not too much to explain here, other than I personally like the Armor Penetration over the Attack Damage runes as I find Shaco's early game damage is better with the armor penetration, but it is really up to you and either choice works.

25-0-5 Set up, which is slightly unusual but I would say its the best Mastery choice for Shaco. I take full points in: Brute Force , Summoner's Wrath , Alacrity , Weapon Expertise , Deadliness , Vampirism , Sunder , and Executioner , with the extra four points of Sorcery also to help with Shaco's fairly long cooldowns. I then ignore the defense tree, because with Shaco your defense is killing the enemy champion faster then he can kill you, and place my last five points in Utility. I take all points in Expanded Mind , which is an absolute must for Shaco, as he is quite mana hungry early game, this allows for some harrassment with Two-Shiv Poison without running out of mana before you can even buy Boots. I then have to take Summoner's Insight so that I can unlock Meditation , which is where I put my final mastery point to give some extra mana regen.

As I said before, Shaco's defense is killing your oppenent long before he kills you, which with this build you will mostly be successful in doing. I admit this is a rather expensive build, so your really going to need those last-hits, also some early kills are crucial to your late game success.

I guess what I'm trying to say here is: GET BERSERKER'S GREAVES!!!, you aren't jungling, so you definitaly don't want Mobility Boots, Ninja Tabi is a sort of okay choice I guess if your against a high AD damage team, but they're definitaly not your first choice, or even your second. I suppose if your being heavily CC'd with a variety of stuns, slows, and traps, then getting Mercury's Treads wouldn't be too terrible of an idea, however they are the most expensive boots in the game and all in all Berserker's Greaves are your best bet.

Backstab - A really great passive, the extra 20% damage is very helpful, and paired with a Deceive will give you some great damage at level 1 if you attack from behind. It also actually is activated by ALL abilities, meaning if you throw your Two-Shiv Poison from behind or put your clone from your ultimate behind an enemy, they will also dish out 20% bonus damage.

Deceive - It is the signature ability for an OP Shaco, woops I meant AD, what a coincidential mistake that was, anyways, it is what makes the Dirty Clown...well, dirty. It will give your next auto attack huge bonus damage all game, especially when paired with the passive, it will guarantee your escape from almost ANY situation, it will get you over walls, it will let you close the gap between you and a low health retreating enemy, and numerous other possiblities. In short, its awesome.

Jack In The Box - Have to say its definitaly your least important skill, I would recommend always maxing it very last, with one point at level 4 or 5 just so you can have it ready. If your not going AP, in other words if you want to win the game, then its not gonna do very much, if any, damage. It is somewhat useful for the fear and free sixty second ward, but it is very easily destroyed and really not overly important. Moving on.

Two-Shiv Poison - I glorified Deceive a lot, because it deserves to be, but this ability is also VERY nice. The passive is just perfect for an assassin like Shaco, as the slow will prevent enemies from escaping, also the ranged active does quite a bit of damage and inflicts a slow on a distant enemy, not gonna lie, if used correctly, your team may hate you for this ability, as it is an incredibly good killstealing method. But the Dirty Clown answers to nobody, and killsteals all he wants, so they will have to deal with it. Furthermore, its great to hit an enemy with the ranged active to slow them and set up an easy kill with Deceive.

Hallucinate - I find this to be a great ultimate for Shaco, but it is a bit tricky to use properly, and its also easy to lose track of in a chaotic team fight. One great use for it is to activate it when pushing a tower, this will inflict almost twice as much damage on the tower and allow you to take it out quickly and escape before the enemy shows up. Its also very helpful in a 1v1 that you might otherwise lose, as again you will deal out nearly twice as much Physical Damage, plus the magic damage it will deal once killed. It can be used in a sticky situation, and with Shaco if you don't find yourself in a lot of those, your not playing him properly, but anyways in a tough spot you can pop it to confuse the enemy, and allow for that half second it takes for them to figure out which one you are, and that will make or break your escape.

With Shaco I like to step away from the traditonal maxing of one skill by level 9 and the next by 13, and the last by 18, to make full use of his great abilities. I start off with Deceive which is an excellent way to grab First Blood in your lane, at level 2 I take Two-Shiv Poison, grabbing one point of Jack In The Box at level 4 or 5. As always, get Hallucinate at levels 6, 11, and 16. For what to max first, I alternate between q-e-q-e, until theyre both at full rank, pausing to upgrade your Ultimate along the way. Some people like to max Deceive by level 9, and although this is okay, I find that leveling it alongside Two-Shiv Poison is what works best.

I take Flash because paired with your Deceive it will give you the ability to travel a long distance in a very short time. Ignite in my opinion is the best summoner spell in the game, without it I would often have at least one or two less kills a game, I would say it an absolute must for Shaco, or any champion really. The only other options that would work would be to swap out Flash for a Heal, I used to do it but in higher levels I realized that flash is just a better ability, however some people really like it and it is a viable option. You COULD also swap Flash for Ghost but I really don't think this is good for Shaco, as I prefer an instant blink that can get you over terrain to a simple increase in movement speed. One final thing is to get Exhaust as one of your two choices, but typically you want the support to get that for you, but if nobody on your team has one its not a bad idea at all.

With Shaco, you actually typically want to go bottom lane, but NOT paired with a ranged AD Carry (ie. Ezreal, Vayne, Graves, etc.). You are not a support, and they will demand all of the farm and kills, giving you no gold and messing your build up over for the whole game. In order to make this work, you may have to give the standard format a bit of a shake-up, but nothing too crazy, like you may want to consider acting as the carry for your team so your not fighting tooth and nail with your team's AD carry for kills and last hits.


Volibear - I have a friend who plays him quite well, and when we both go bottom with me as Shaco, we don't lose our lane much, if ever. His throw back + an exhaust has earned us an endless amount of first bloods, throwing enemies back to you will give you great oppurtunities for kills, all in all a great partner for a laning Shaco.

Blitzcrank - Also a great choice, his very long ranged pull will set you up for a lot of kills.

Shen - With Shaco, you don't want to lane with a squishy support, but supports who can take some damage for you are always welcome, and Shen is no exception.

Taric - His Imbue is a great healing ability to give you sustain, he can take a lot of damage for you, and he has a fairly long ranged stun, whats not to like?

Alistar - Knockup, a heal, and can take damage, another good lane partner for Shaco

Basically anyone who can take damage, doesn't need to much CS, and has at least one good disable that can set you up with kills is a good lane partner, if you play smart and farm lots you should have no problem winning your lane, or at least holding it out.

Shaco is probably the most elusive and versatile champion in the game, and if built right he is capable of some ridiculous damage. There is a reason why Shaco is a very common ban in solo/duo queue ranked games. Apart from that, he is an incredibly fun champion to play, and I highly recommend him for both new and experienced players.

I would like to thank jhoijhoi, for her incredibly helpful guide on how to make a guide; (not gonna lie, this looked terrible before I read her guide :P) and if this guide helped you at all do feel free to comment a thanks or vote it up :D, and if you have any suggestions or constructive criticism go ahead and comment that also!