Shaco Build Guide by CrazedSeal

Introduction

Welcome Shaco Players. This is an AP Shaco build. The reason why this build is focused on AP is because 3/4 of his abilities scale of Ability Power. By Following this Guide you will be able to do massive damage to enemies with your Two-Shiv, Jack in the Boxes, and Hallucinate. All will be explained throughout the Guide.

Runes

The Greater Mark of Insight allows you to get some quick and easy Magic Penetration early game to do some extra damage without the use of Sorcerer's Shoes. It is a nice way to to deal with the starting game magic resistance.
Greater Seal of Replenishment The Greater Seal of Replenishment will give some nice extra mana regeneration throughout the game. With the combined use of Doran's Ring you can get some nice mana regeneration going early game to allow you to place as many boxes, and do as many two-shiv's as you want.
The Greater Glyph of insight combined with the Greater Mark's of Insight allow you as I said before to get some nice easy magic penetration early game allowing you to do deal more damage and getting more of a chance to get a kill or an assist.
The Greater Quintessence of Insight is essentially a big Mark of Insight, it gives you more magic penetration, and I don't think I have to repeat what it does a third time.

Other Runes:
There may be other runes that you may use, but you can decide on that since your the player.

Masteries and Summoner Spells

Masteries

Your masteries are simple and easy. Your points go into the places that seem mage-like like archmage's savvy and Sorcery. Don't forget to put a point into the ignite masterie so you deal a little more damage to your target. Then the rest of your points go over to Utility Tree to allow you to get more mana, experience gain, gold, ect...

Summoner Spells

Flash is possibly the best summoner spell in the game, due to the fact you can use it to escape over a wall, charge in and tower dive and flash out. It has multiple uses both offensive and defensive. And when used properly you can do some crazy stuff that can catch your enemy off guard. The Use on shaco is that when an enemy is running away and your decieve is on cooldown you can flash up to them and give them a nice two-shiv to their faces. Combined with decieve its a deadly combo. Flash in, two shiv, decieve out! And maybe drop a clone in their face!
Ignite is a great summoner spell for shaco, if you shove a two shiv in their face and their on low heath, put them on FIRE! This is great for finishing off your enemies. And theres only a few things in the game that can stop it like heal, a health potion, ext. So beware when using it. But when they do that ignite cuts the healing in half, maybe allowing giving you enough damage to finish them off with a two-shiv or a clone!.

Other Nice Summoner Spells for Shaco

Good for slowing people down allowing you place a Jack in the box further down their walking path, also nice for cuttin their damage down, and allowing you get some nice hits on them.
This is either good for catching up to someone, or getting away, the good thing about it is that you can get further with it than flash, but it is easily countered by slows/exhaust. It allows you to walk through units so you don't get blocked by minions when chasing someone

Skill Sequence

I don't take decieve to level four due to the fact I only use it to catch up to people, or get away from them. It doesn't deal solid damage for an AP shaco because it only allows a critical stike. But essentially its a built in flash as you can jump over walls and up cliffs.
This is a very nice tool, you can stack multiple of these inside a bush and when an enemy goes inside.... SUPRISE! At start game these are good for getting first blood if the enemy is dumb enough to check the bush and you have about 4 stacked each gonna deal a nice 35 damage each shot. 35 x 4 x 3 = Around 300 damage??? Plus a nice fear so you can go up their face and stab them.
This is a high damaging ability. It scales both from AD and AP (Attack Damage / Ability Power) so thats where the Hextech Gunblade comes in. It does magic damage and also slows the enemy which helps stopping them escaping from you! This is good when they enter your bush full of JitB's and they get feared. You can two-shiv them, slowing them to allow you Jack in the boxes to get more shots, and chuck one down in there running path. Fearing them allowing you to possibly to get one more two-shiv.
Your ultimate, a very signature move (until monkey king comes out...) of shaco's. Good for distracting the enemy or even killing the enemy. Send him into his death and some nice nasty blades pop out and hurt everything around him, except for allies and towers! Though the problem is that it's easy to tell who's who. Your clone doesn't have inventory and isn't very smart (it's hard though if your dumb as your clone). People have many responses to the clone, attack it and stand still, run away and attack it, just run away, or run around the tower kiting it. You should start off with hallucinating to get its full effect.

Items

Doran's ring is a great starting item for shaco, it gives 100 Health, some nice mana regeneration and some early ability power. This is possibly the best starting item for shaco. Getting two will help you early game because they stack nicely. The 100 Health it gives you increases your duribility allowing you to stay in the lane longer have a less chance of dying.
Sorcerer's shoes are a casters MUST get item. The 20 Magic Penetration stacks with your runes making a nice and deadly combo. They give Tier 2 Speed which is nice for getting around. When going AP shaco, do not get Boots of Mobility! They are only needed for AD shacos.
A Hextech Gunblade is a great item for shaco, it gives spell vamp, lifesteal, ability power, damage and a nice slowly spell. They increases the time in your lane by a nice amount. The 300 Damage and 50% slow goes well with your two-shiv and JitB's and your clone.
Perhaps the most well known caster item in the game, it gives a massive amount of ability power, and the 30% bonus increases it more! This makes your two-shiv really hurt the enemy! Though, it does cost a lot but its definetly worth it.
You may be thinking it's a waste getting it late game, but trust me... It will boost shaco's survivability majorly. It also gives some nice mana and ability power on the side. You may want to rush the item if you want, nothing is stopping you.
Lichbane Well.... A very nice item, gives some ability power, some magic resist, some mana, and of course its nice passive. Hitting someone with a nice two shiv then hitting them with a lich bane.... God that's gonna be hell for the target. It's a nice item for champions like shaco.
Why would I need a void staff.. I already got 38 Magic Penetration!
Well, that magic penetration won't last when they start getting items like a banshee's veil or a force of nature. It also gives some nice ability power on the side making all your two-shiv's do some nice damage.

Pros / Cons

The Pro's and Con's of an AP shaco.

Pros:
-Allows you to dish out some nice damage
-Easy to escape hostile situations.
-An easy first blood time.
-Some nice survivability.
-Awesome tower diving.
-An epic Suicide bomber partner ( C L O N E )
Cons:
-May get targeted
-Easy to be countered.
-No way to push lanes.
-JitB become useless if enemie's become smarter.

Farming

A nice farming technique for an AP shaco is to drop a nice amount of JitB's in the middle of the lane when a nice minion wave is coming. You can use two-shiv to last hit if you want. Using you clone also is a nice way to destroy a minion wave in one go.

Other than that an AP shaco has no way to farm minions properly. For shaco, getting blue/red is very easy. Make a nice stack of JitB's a small distance from the target. When you have about 5 JitB's two shiv the big golem/lizard so it will go to you over near your JitB's. The golem/lizard will be feared and take massive damage from you Jack in the boxes.

Nice Strategies.

1. You can use Jack in the Boxe's as wards for key points such as the bush.

2. You can use Jack in the Boxes' as a way to stop enemies from escaping.

3. Usually go after the DPS! Eg, Ryze, Ashe, ect.

4. Watch out for WARDS! This can mess your assassination up really bad.

5. Send your clone in after highly wounded, slowed targets.

6. Stack a good amount of JitB's in a bush and lure them in.

7. Use Deceive to escape sticky situations from enemies.

8. Before going in, make sure you have enough mana!

End

I hope this guide helps you on you way to defeat your enemies.

Heres my records: