Most would say that death isn't funny. It isn't, unless you're Shaco - then it's hysterical. He is Valoran's first fully functioning homicidal comic; he jests until someone dies, and then he laughs. The figure that has come to be known as the Demon Jester is an enigma. No one fully agrees from whence he came, and Shaco never offers any details on his own. A popular belief is that Shaco is not of Runeterra - that he is a thing summoned from a dark and twisted world. Still others believe that he is the demonic manifestation of humanity's dark urges and therefore cannot be reasoned with. The most plausible belief is that Shaco is an assassin for hire, left to his own lunatic devices until his services are needed. Shaco certainly has proven himself to be a cunning individual, evading authorities at every turn who might seek him for questioning for some horrendous, law-breaking atrocity. While such scuttlebutt might reassure the native inhabitants of Valoran, it seems unimaginable that such a malfeasant figure is allowed to remain at large.

Whatever the truth of his history might be, Shaco has joined the League of Legends for reasons only he knows. He is a terrifying figure, typically shunned by both his fellow champions and the media at large. Only the summoners in the Institute of War know why such a creature was allowed into the League, but most Runeterrans suspect it to be a means that allows the power that be to keep an eye on the ever-elusive Shaco. Unsurprisingly, this champion is popular in places where madness can openly reign, such as among the power-hungry summoners of Zaun and Noxus.

Whatever you do, don't tell him you missed the punch line.

Hello everyone, and thankyou so much for checking out my guide. This is my first guide here on MobaFire, and you checking it out makes me very happy. I believe that this guide is one of the more in-depth and detailed guides on Shaco here on MobaFire, and I have put a lot of effort into making it as easy to underatand as possible with meaningful, relevant content.

I've been playing League of Legends since early Season 2. Ever since I started playing LoL, I ALWAYS loved Shaco. I never really felt the same comfort on any other champion as I do with the demon jester. Shaco has a very unique kit and is SO much fun to play, being extremely rewarding when done correctly. While I never took league very seriously and only played ranked occasionally, I climbed from Unranked to high Platinum in a VERY short time, playing the one and only Shaco.

'But why should I trust you?' Well this is a screenshot of my promotion games for Platinum 1. Not the craziest stats ever, but just goes to show Shaco's carry potential.



In Season 5, I had over 600 games on Shaco and believe I know the ins and outs of the champion. So please at least read through my guide and give me some feedback. It would mean so much!

Shaco is an insanely fun champion to main. Although he can only play jungle (debatable), he excels greatly at it when played correctly. During this guide, I hope to give you tips and tricks to become a Shaco god, and carry your way to and through high Elo. Shaco's kit gives him a unique play style and opens a huge window of outplay potential with his abilities. If done correctly, Shaco can either insta-gib a squishy ADC or mage before they even have chance to cry for their mothers, OR be one of the most suitable and down right annoying split pushers to play against.

I MEAN, JUST LOOK AT THIS. Credit: Gary1q2

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PROS

- Amazing assassin with high damage and mobility
- Very fun kit
- Can instantly go invisible using Deceive
- Can dodge ANY ability with Hallucinate
- Very good split pusher with Ravenous Hydra or Titanic Hydra
- Makes the enemy team want to rip their hair out
- Is a clown

CONS

- Squishy even if very far ahead
- Unique playstyle can take a while to learn
- Even your teammates hate you for picking him
- Can be very mana hungry if you don't regulate your spell usage
- Extremely vulnerable to CC
- No escape once Deceive is on cooldown
- Can be heavily countered by Vision Ward

Smite - Smite is a MUST HAVE summoner spell for junglers. NO exceptions. It allows you to clear your jungle, secure buffs such as dragon and baron, and offers various utilities from the jungle items added in Season 5. These include the true damage slow from Stalker's Blade, the amazing vision control from Tracker's Knife, and the true damage burn/damage reduction debuff from Skirmisher's Sabre. There is no reason to jungle without smite and you're wrong if you think otherwise.

Ignite - For the second summoner spell for Shaco, I take ignite. It allows you to secure kills through the game, and gives you the advantage when dueling the enemy jungling in their jungle. The grevious wounds debuff it inflicts greatly increases your kill potential on champions such as Swain and Volibear. Just seeing that you have ignite when loading into the game makes your enemies tremble in their boots.

Exhaust - Alternatively, if your team already has 2 or more ignites, or you feel you just don't need ignite, Exhaust can be very useful. However, with the point and click slow from Stalker's Blade, I believe that the slow that exhaust offers isn't necessary. Saying this, Exhaust can still come in handy when versing highly mobile AD/AP burst champions such as Fizz, Zed, or Yasuo. Applying Exhaust at the right time COMPLETELY negates their damage and will come in handy more times than you would think.

Flash - Whilst not completely un-viable, it is extremely unnecessary for Shaco. His Q ( Deceive) is a FREE flash every 9 seconds that lets you go invisible. Although Flash may come in handy in a few situations, Ignite or Exhaust are much more appropriate, and having Flash is just overkill.

Overall, I do prefer Ignite, but Exhaust is a viable alternative.

PASSIVE - BACKSTAB

Shaco deals 20% bonus damage when striking a unit from behind with his basic attacks or abilities.
This passive allows Shaco to add a bit of extra kick to his auto attacks. Shaco's Two-Shiv Poison, Jack In The Boxes, and his Hallucinate clone all work with this passive. Use this to your advantage. When assassinating an enemy, try to proc this passive, because if you don't and they get away with 20hp, you'll be smacking your head on the desk wishing you had. This passive also applies to minions, jungle creeps, and objectives such as dragon and baron, so make the most of the free damage!

Q - DECEIVE

ACTIVE: Shaco instantly blinks to a target nearby location and enters stealth for up to 3.5 seconds. Dealing damage will break stealth early. His next basic attack within 6 seconds is guaranteed to critically strike for modified base critical damage.
This is the ability that makes Shaco such an annoying little *****. It gives him huge mobility and allows him to Deceive his enemies ;) Use this ability to get behind the enemy when ganking, escaping from a potential threat, or simply to jump over a wall to save time. The guaranteed critical strike after exiting stealth is what makes Shaco a deadly assassin. The crit also works with Infinity Edge, so make the most of that!

W - JACK IN THE BOX

ACTIVE: Shaco summons a box at the target location that stealths after a 2 second delay and lasts for up to 60 seconds. When an enemy comes within 300 units, the box springs open: causing surrounding enemies to turn and flee in fear while it attacks nearby enemies for up to 5 seconds.
These little guys are a huge part of what makes Shaco so fun to play. They have SO many uses it's ridiculous. To name a few; place one of these bad boys behind an enemy after using Deceive when ganking. In the early game, this almost GUARENTEES that they will Flash to escape, otherwise they will get feared and die to you. Remember, burning an enemy Flash counts as a successful gank. Jack In The Box can also be used as free wards, to scout for the enemy team or give vision on objectives. The possibilities are endless, and the more you play Shaco, the better you will become at utilizing them.

E - TWO-SHIV POISON

PASSIVE: Shaco's basic attacks poison his targets on-hit, slowing them for 2 seconds and giving minions and monsters a chance to miss their basic attacks.
ACTIVE: Shaco throws a dagger at a target enemy dealing magic damage and applying his slowing poison to them for 3 seconds. The passive is deactivated during the cooldown.
This ability is where a lot of Shaco's burst comes from. It's active is a low cooldown, target nuke. Apart from basic attacks, it's Shaco's primary damage tool. Use it to finish off enemy champions during a gank in combination with Ignite to shatter their dreams of escaping you. The PASSIVE for this ability makes Shaco's auto attacks slow his targets movement speed. DO YOU KNOW HOW OP THIS IS? It's an inbuilt crest of cinders, or more commonly known as 'Red Buff', minus the damage over time True damage. This allows you to completely cripple your targets movement speed in early game ganks, and set up an easy Jack In The Box behind them for easy kills. The other part of this passive allows Shaco to slow the attack speed of jungle camps. This, combined with Jack In The Box makes taking jungle camps a breeze!

R - HALLUCIATE

ACTIVE: Shaco vanishes for 0.5 seconds, then creates a clone of himself that will last for up to 18 seconds.
The clone deals 75% of Shaco's damage and receives 50% extra damage. This clone deals 50% damage to towers and inhibitors. At the end of its duration or when dying the clone will explode, dealing magic damage to enemies within 250-range
This is Shaco's signature ability. There are THOUSANDS of possible uses, which I will explain in more depth later in the guide in the 'How To Use Hallucinate' section.

Shaco is known for both his fast clear speed in the early game through the use of his Jack In The Boxes, and the ability to be in pretty much in every lane. You want to aim for your enemies to ALWAYS think you're around. I believe that most of the pressure you apply as Shaco comes from the enemy just being paranoid of where you are. Shaco excels greatly at early game. This is where you aim to strike fear into your opponents heart and make them scared to be in their own jungle. Lurk in the shadows, stalk your prey, and claim victory before 10 minutes. Below, these videos will explain the different ways you can start your jungle as Shaco.

VIDEO 1: NORMAL JUNGLE CLEAR

Although this is from Season 5, the jungle clear remains the same, however the jungle camps just spawn at 1:40 this season. This method is just a very normal Shaco jungle clear. Using his Jack In The Boxes to tank the jungle creeps and still be very healthy after he's taken both of his buffs, ready to start ganking! Note: I take a bit more damage from the jungle than I usually would, as it's a bot match and I don't have teammates to give me an early leash. Even still, I leave the jungle with a lot of health, showing how good Shaco is in his jungle.

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VIDEO 2: AGGRESSIVE BLUE INVADE (Pretty much a free kill)

This strategy is one that I use in nearly every game that I play. Firstly, start on your red buff, saving smite. Finish it as quickly as possibly and head straight to the enemy blue. As the enemy starts on gromp/toad most of the time, by the time you get there, they will be roughly halfway through getting their Blue buff, depending on how long it took you to take your red. The enemy jungle will NOT have Smite up and you DO. This is a free blue steal and/or kill on the enemy jungler. This is a VERY EASY strategy to put the enemy jungler behind and get you well ahead early game. Watch below

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EARLY DRAGON CONTROL/TAKE

Not many people know that Shaco is one of the few champions that can kill dragon by himself at 3 minutes! After obtaining your double buffs, return to base and pick up your jungle item whether it be Stalker's Blade or Tracker's Knife (I prefer Stalker's Blade for the potential Chilling Smite). Grab a Vision Ward if you have the gold to spare. Now head to dragon, place your Vision Ward down to check for any enemy Stealth Wards. If the coast is clear, attack dragon, using your Jack In The Boxes to tank aggression from the dragon, allowing you to get into as many Backstab's as possible for the bonus damage.
BEWARE: This strategy can be VERY risky. If the enemy jungler happens to come along, you're pretty much screwed and may give them a free dragon. I only advise doing this if you're confident as to where the enemy jungler will be. Make sure to keep an eye on enemy laners and ask your team to call if they're missing from their lane.

In this chapter, I will explain when to build specific situational items on Shaco, and how they benefit him and that particular scenario.

Youmuu's Ghostblade

- A very VERY viable item on Shaco if you are ahead early game and want to snowball yourself quickly. This replaces Statikk Shiv in the core build. The recent buff to this item gives it a huge AD boost and cooldown reduction. The active allows you to move really fast for 6 seconds. You also gain 40% attack speed for this time, allowing great assassination/dueling potential.

Ravenous Hydra

- The reason I build Titanic Hydra over Ravenous Hydra is basically the +450 health it gives you. This bonus health will keep you alive A LOT more than you may think. Although it gives you slightly less AD damage, the bonus health and health regeneration is just too good. It still gives amazing split pusher power from the passive, and the active is very strong for assassinating weak targets. However, if I feel I am going to be split pushing for the majority of the game. Or I'm just confident in my survivability and just want more up front damage, I will build this item instead of Titanic Hydra.

Maw of Malmortius

- This is my go to item on Shaco for when I need some resist against magic damage, but still want some extra AD on the side. The recent buff to this item made it VERY strong against burst champions. It gives you bonus armour penetration and makes it impossible for huge AP burst champions such as LeBlanc and Annie to kill you in one combo.

Dead Man's Plate

- This new item added in at the start of S6 is unbelievable on AD assassins that need extra survivablity against AD damage, and it's offers an amazing movement speed boost from the momentum stacks. When at 100 stacks, your next attack on an enemy will slow them and deal a bit of extra burst. Amazing! On my Shaco, you will be able to kill an enemy squishy before the 1 second slow even fully decays!

The Black Cleaver

- After the recent patch, Black Cleaver is a RIDICULOUSLY strong item on AD assassins. It's one of the only heavy AD items that offers a good amount of cooldown reduction, and the armour shred is very good on Shaco. Also offers a health boost which is always lovely. Get this item when the enemy team has a lot of armour. As the passive on this item reduces the target's armour on each attack, that also reduces it for your allies attacks. So even if you can't kill the tank by yourself, it allows you to shred their stats and you can take them down as a team.

Frozen Heart

- This item gives a HUGE boost in armour. Great when versing full AD comps. As stated previously, Shaco can be quite mana hungry if you spam his abilities. Frozen Heart fixes this issue as well as giving you 20% Cooldown Reduction, which is huge for one item. I will build this item when I'm versing a heavy AD comp with a few champions who rely heavily on attack speed ( Yasuo, Vayne, Aatrox, Kalista, and Caitlyn for example).

Randuin's Omen

- Very similarly to Dead Man's Plate, this is a great item for tankiness against AD damage. You can substitute this item in instead of it if you feel you don't need the bonus slow that Dead Man's Plate offers. This item gives you a huge boost in survivability against AD champions. When used in combination with Frozen Heart, you become an invincible, invisible super clown. Using the active of Randuin's Omen after Deceiveing into a target to slow them greatly, or use it to escape a sticky situation.

Banshee's Veil

- Basically the Magic Resist version of Randuin's Omen, it gives a a nice amount of health, magic resist, and a spell blocking shield which stops those nasty enemy CC pick abilties such as Blitzcrank's Rocket Grab and Thresh's Death Sentence.

Guardian's Angel

- Pick this item up if you feel you're being targeted a lot by the enemy team, i.e the enemy team is just waiting for you to appear to kill their ADC or APC. If they all target you and you die, the passive will pop, allowing your team to come into the fight while they're disracted. It also gives you some nice armour and magic resist. It allows you to play a bit more freely and allows Shaco to jump into a teamfight without the worry of getting insta-gibbed. A very useful item on Shaco.

Last Whisper

- This item builds into both Mortal Reminder or Lord Dominik's Regards. The reason I haven't suggested getting either of these items in my build is that either Youmuu's Ghostblade or Black Cleaver both give sufficient armour penetration on their own. The only time I would build one of the two Last Whisper item's is if the enemy is VERY heavily stacking armour, but in most cases your job is to either split push, or solely kill important squishy enemies, meaning you don't need much armour penetration. I would pick up Mortal Reminder ALWAYS if the enemy team has a Soraka.

Ionian Boots of Lucidity are my most recommended boots for Shaco. I have spent many games trying different boots, and they seem to be the most useful. However, below I have described the different options and their benefits.

1 Berserker's Greaves - These are the boots a lot of Shaco players opt for. However the attack speed bonus is quite unnecessary (we have statikk shiv already). Your job is to assassinate priority squishy targets with burst, rather than sustaining damage, making the attack steroid not very useful.

2. Mobility Boots - If you get a few kills very early on in the game, these boots are a great way to keep your lead extended as they allow you to run from gank and switch between lanes very quickly. Use your best judgement to see whether these boots are the best fit for the game.

3. Boots of Swiftness - The recent buff and price reduction to these boots makes them an excellent choice. If the enemy relies on multiple slows to make plays, pick up these boots to drastically reduce the effectiveness of said slows. Plus, they give the bonus +20 movement speed more than other boots.

4. Ninja Tabi - Pretty simple really. If the enemy is very AD heavy and you need early survivability, pick up these. The passive works wonders against Auto Attack reliant champions, i.e Yasuo, Master Yi, and any ADC.

5. Mercury's Treads - Opposite to Ninja Tabi, these boots are perfect for when versing a very strong AP champions, who rely on crowd control and burst to get kills. Examples include Annie, LeBlanc, Diana, Twisted Fate etc.

The new jungle items are all viable on Shaco. I'll briefly explain each one here, listed in order of most useful to least (in my opinion).

1. Stalker's Blade - Warrior - The true damage slow that this item offers is very viable on Shaco. The point and click slow/true damage burst that this item offers is phenomenal. Use it in conjunction with Two-Shiv Poison to absolutely cripple the enemy's movement speed. Arguably the most viable jungle item to use on Shaco.

2. Skirmisher's Sabre - Warrior - This item is only BARELY in second place. The on-click smite debuff is just amazing when duelling an enemy. It burns them for true damage, gives you vision of them if they run into a brush, AND makes them deal 20% less damage to you. If you feel you don't need the slow from Stalker's Blade, definitely pick up this bad boy.

3. Tracker's Knife - The reason this item is 3rd on this list is because although it is viable, and IS VERY viable on other junglers such as Lee Sin and Nunu & Willump, Shaco can much better utilize the on-click smites from either of the two previous jungle items. Additionally, Shaco uses his Jack In The Boxes as wards anyway!

Overall, I prefer Stalker's Blade for the slow, but Skirmisher's Sabre is substitutable if you feel it's necessary.

The reason why Shaco is such a good jungler, is his ability to gank with such ease. Deceive is one of the most OP abilties in the game for pulling off easy ganks. The easiest ganking strategy in terms of ability usage is to Deceive in lane behind the enemy champion, place a Jack In The Box to block off their escape path, then stab them in the back to proc your Backstab passive, then throw a Two-Shiv Poison in their face. This combo, combined with your teammates follow up will result in a kill, or at the very least, a burned Flash.
Below, I'll show you a few images of common Deceive paths that Shacos use to gank. The blue line indicates the path of the Deceive, and the red marker indicates roughly where you will end up.

Mid Lane

Top Lane

Bottom Lane

I don't want to sound cheesy, but I'll just go ahead and say it. Hallucinate is the spell that will seperate the good Shaco players from the bad. There are countless ways to use Hallucinate, but I'll mention a few common ones below. If you panic and use this ability too soon, you will end up face palming as you die.

Once Hallucinate is activated, for 0.5 seconds, Shaco disappears. He does not exist on the map. Meaning that timing this perfectly, you can dodge any enemy ability, commonly Caitlyn's Ace in the Hole, Vi's Cease and Desist, or probably the hardest to dodge of all, Karthus's Requiem.

Another use for Hallucinate is when assassinating an enemy who also possess' high burst damage, e.g Annie or Riven, or any fed ADC for that matter, press R and confuse the absolute sh*t out of them. Use Hallucinate to either dodge a part of their combo with the most burst, or make them burn their whole combo on your clone, whilst you pick up an easy kill on them. I've got an example of using Hallucinate very well below.

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Jack In The Box is the ability that makes players hate Shaco so much (well, Deceive is up there too). Proper use of this ability can really make your gameplay a lot smoother and they have so much utility. Aside from putting one behind the enemy laner when ganking, here is a small list of the ways you can use Jack In The Box to take control of the game.

1. Give vision of objectives

2. Protect yourself when taking/stealing buffs

3. Tanking jungle camps

Thanks to Deceive, Shaco is a very good champion to steal dragons with. You can do this by simply jumping into the dragon pit whilst the enemy team is doing it, and smite the dragon before the enemy jungler does. This is risky however, as if you die and don't steal the dragon, it's a pathetic death and pretty damn embarrassing!

Below is a short video of me smite stealing dragon, using a Jack In The Box and Hallucinate perfectly to get out alive! Enjoy.

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1 - When a Jack In The Box is placed, it remains visible for 2 seconds. For this time, it can be used to block enemy abilties such as skillshots like Ahri's Charm, Thresh's Death Sentence and Blitzcrank's Rocket Grab. Knowing this sneaky tip will save your life many times!

2 - The puff of smoke that appears when Shaco uses Deceive can be see through the fog of war by enemy players. So be careful when ganking as the enemy may see you use your Deceive even if they have no direct vision.

3 - If you're being engaged on by the enemy and there seems little chance of escape (e.g Deceive is on cooldown) and your Hallucinate is available for use, try this trick - Press R then immediately press S to stop the actual shaco (you) from moving. Then, keep pressing R to make your clone run away, whilst you stand still. This will give the illusion that your fake clone is the real one trying to escape, and make the enemy chase it. Then once you think you can get out, either run or Deceive away. Thanks to the recent changes to Shaco, his clone now possess' the buff animations, so now unless the enemy is lucky, there is no way to distinguish which Shaco is the fake one. This trick does work a lot more than you would think, especially in lower ELOs.

4 - Although Two-Shiv Poison is used for burst damage during a gank, remember that your auto attacks slow enemy movement, so save your Two-Shiv Poison for when they are out of auto attack range when ganking or chasing. This ensures you keep the enemy slowed for the longest possibe time.

5 - When trying to escape an enemy with Deceive, try to stand still if possible first using the s key. This is because if you're running in a direction and Deceive backwards (for example) without stopping first, your player model may turn around before you Deceive giving them an indication of where you went, which is not good.
However if you Deceive whilst standing still, your enemy wont know which direction you went.

6 - If using Deceive to simply hop a wall, using the Recall button (b) will cancel the invisibility, making the spell return from cooldown faster. This is because the cooldown for Deceive only starts once Shaco exits invisibility.

That sums up my Shaco guide. I appreciate all who have checked it out, especially those that have read this far. This guide took a LONG time to write so any feedback, votes, or comments would be appreciated so so much!

I love Shaco and will continue to edit and add to this guide for the foreseeable future. Thankyou again and good luck out there on Summoner's Rift!