Shaco Build Guide by TheBasicNerd

Introduction, Why play Shaco Top?

Hello, I am TheBasicNerd and I prefer to play Shaco top over other champions such as lee sin, or jax, or Tryndamere because its satisfying to be able to set up a box trap for when someone is coming to gank you or swiftly Deceiving in to pick up that kill that you normally would not be able to on any other champion. He's also very usable to counter jungle the enemy team. Usually in all chat if you're going well it will be something along the lines of -
IthinkIGood(Ahri): OMG This shaco I wish he would stop taking my blues so I could get them!
Bronze5Smurf(Lee Sin): Maybe you should ward and you would know.
- When this happens you usually see the enemy team fall apart and then you know that you're about to get that free win.
One of my go to top laners.

Items

Pros / Cons

Pros:
Strong pushing
Hard to catch with ult/q
Easy to farm with
Doesn't often need to buy wards as you can use boxes
Not often banned or picked.
Cons:
Easily beaten by strong auto attack carries.
Can be stopped from pushing by ganks.
Doesn't have the strongest early.

Summoner Spells

I usually like to run Teleport and Exhaust as just a casual backdoor set, as you can use the Exhaust to nerf an ad champions damage, and tp to get back to that lane as fast as possible.
If going for a more, I want the 'Double' flash combo. Then run Flash/Exhaust, or you can run Flash/Ignite if you would like to play more offensively against your opposition

Runes

For more damage I like to run:

Greater Marks of Attack Damage x 9

Greater Seal of Armor x 9

Greater Glyph of Magic Resist x 9

Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage x 3

Greater Marks of Attack Damage x 9

Greater Seal of Armor x 9

Greater Glyph of Magic Resist x 4

Greater Glyph of Attack Damage x 5

Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage x 3

Masteries

The Masteries I run is 21/9/0 picking up all of the attack damage points in offence, apart from the difference where I like to put 3 points into CDR rather than putting them into the attack speed. The reason I like this is because, CDR is CDR and its very helpful when you are playing Shaco, it could be that .5 seconds that saves from death when you need that deceive up. The reason I like to spec offensively is because, when playing Shaco you need to be able to drop towers as fast as possible, and also need to be able to kill the champions. One downside to this is that you can die a lot faster and have to play more carefully when having early game encounters.

Shaco Gameplay.

Usually when i'm playing shaco top, I usually like to start off by farming as much as I can so that if i'm versing someone who has high auto attack damage (Tryndamere, Master Yi) or Champions like Kennen and Jax, I like to get about 80 farm go back buy a few items and then call for the jungler to come up and then we both go in and kill them. Usually by about the 20 minute mark, if you're going offensive shaco you should have your Infinity Edge, Trinity Force and or Statikk Shiv so you are usually able to drop down the towers fairly quickly with a box, and your clone. But when running the offensive build I like to shunt (Quick push) the lanes so that I am able to go and help out my team in the teamfights. If you are using the offensive Shaco build, your damage output is intense and you are usually able to juke around, and get to their carry and 1-2 hit them depending on how far you are into your build. By roughly 35-40 minutes (if its gone this long) you should have all your items, and possibly a blade of the ruined king you can quickly pick off a baron and end the game after that.

Ultimate Tricks.

When you hit level 6, these are some of the things you're going to need to know how to do with Hallucinate:

Damage:
The easiest thing to do with your clone is give yourself extra damage (+75% to be precise). You can use it to kill enemies, dragons, towers or even baron.
Difficulty: very easy

Dodging projectiles:
When you use Hallucinate, you are hidden/removed from the game for 0.5s before creating the clone of himself. That means, within this 0.5 seconds you are able to dodge anything, it could be a Karthus Ultimate, a turret shot, or even that last tick of ignite.
Difficulty: medium to hard (depending on projectile)

Deceive jukes:
Because the clone just follows shaco or attacks when shaco attacks just after being casted, you are able to juke with your decieve, have the clone follow you and then you decieve and send your clone in the opposite direction that you decieved (Using Alt + Right Click) and then most of the time the enemies will follow the clone hoping to find an unstealthed shaco up ahead.
Difficulty: easy to medium

Peeling:
Because the clone has the same passives as you (excluding OP passives like Guardian Angel and jungle buffs), You can use the clones auto attacks to help peel for you by using the Two-Shiv Poison passive.
Difficulty: easy

Impersonating Shaco:
You can make the clone impersonate Shaco and Shaco impersonate the clone once you grow adept at controlling the clone. The easiest situation is when you're 1v1 against an enemy champion. Attack move with your clone instead of yourself so that the enemy is more likely to focus the clone than to focus you. Another situation is when you're being chased down by a group of enemies without your deceive cooldown. Run away with your clone while making Shaco attack and slow enemy champions. Once your deceive cooldown is up, deceive away. There are other ways to trick the enemy, so be creative and try things out. Also keep in mind that you can't fool the enemy while you have jungle buffs or health potions running because they completely give you away.
You can make the clone impersonate yourself, and you to impersonate the clone when you have grown adept at controlling the clone. The easiest situation is when you are 1v1 against the enemy top laner (or anyone else). Attack move with your clone instead of yourself so the enemy is more likely to attack your clone, rather than you. Another situation is when you're being chased the the enemy team without your deceive off of cooldown. Run away with your clone whilst making Shaco attack the enemy to slow them, once deceive is back up, deceive away.
Difficulty: medium to hard

There are many other ways to trick the enemy. So be creative and try some things out, but always remember that when you have a health potion up or a jungle buff, they will completely give you away to the enemy.

'The Box Of Destiny'

Knowing how to box the bush is very important, If you know that an opponent is about to enter the bush, don't immediately drop your box while he is still miles away, let him get closer time the box so that the enemy gets feared right on top of the box, let him walk right into danger and not keep him/her at the edge of it.

Double Boxing:
This is one of the greatest ways to box the brush. Using this you can have the enemy fear stacked with a minimum amount of boxes and it can result in easy kills. Rather than me typing out 50003113 words for you to read on how to do it, let me show you with Perfects' Amazing Shaco video. In case you don't know who Perfects is, he is a very good Diamond EU Shaco player.

Box stacking:
Box stacking in general is something that I like to do, but a lot of the time it can waste your time as the enemy may never enter the brush. Even worse is that you only get one fear off and the only perk to it is damage. If you really want to nest your boxes spread them out so you get a fear proc from each one.