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League of Legends (LoL) Question: What is the right way to play shaco- gank or counterjungle?

Posted in Champions | Tags: Shaco 5,753

  • Lord of Xenos

    What is the right way to play shaco- gank or counterjungle?

    So I find Shaco to be an incredibly fun champs, maybe even my possible main. However, my win rate with him is quite low, maybe 1 every 3 games. I've alternating between primarily ganking (camping) and counterjungling, but it doesn't seem to help. So I ask the community- what am I (or my team?) doing wrong? I currently do not play ranked, because I hate the toxicity in it and because I'm a little on the toxic side myself.

    My games start out pretty well. I normally start red and if I'm feeling cheeky, I try to steal the enemy's blue while they're doing it. After that, I clear my camps and try to gank mid whenever I can. At the level 3-5 mark, I am either ganking or counter-jungling.
    -If I'm ganking, I clear all the camps on one side of the map, then check if I can gank any lane. I determine a lane is gankable if my laner isn't extended and the enemy laner is less than 60% hp. If not I clear the other side of the jungle, then look for ganking opportunities.
    -If I'm counterjungling, I probably started out trying to steal the enemy blue. I then move into the enemy jungle and steal their camps when I know they're on the other side of the map. Or, I try to predict when they'll be clearing a buff and fight them while they're in the middle of doing so, with help from wards. I can guess when they are clearing the buff 70% of the time, with the exception of mobile junglers like lee and reksai. If I'm against strong/fast clear junglers, I focus on ganking and farming the jungle.
    - Once I hit 6, I try to solo dragon when I know their jungler is on the other side of the map and their adc/support is preoccupied bot.
    - This is where I stagnate. People start grouping and skirmishing and as the game progresses I feel less useful. I manage to get the next dragon or two, thanks to the timer, but my team inevitably starts losing skirmishes/teamfights if they didn't win their lane hard. At this point I normally had a hydra, tier 1 boots, and trailblazer (unenchanted) at this time. In teamfights I try to q next to their carry and kill them, but get focused down a lot. Enemy team usually gets a lead and my team loses the game (quickly or slowly, depending on how bad they lost the skirmishes).

    So, is it my fault as jungler for not doing my job (whatever it is)? Or is it my team's fault for not taking advantage of the enemy jungler's behindness early game? Shaco is fun and all, but I'm not feeling the carry potential from him. I just want to increase my winrate ^^ Thanks for reading.
  • Answers (2)

    3
    HiFromBuddha (82) | May 17, 2015 7:26am
    Entirely match-up dependent.

    Shaco is adept at both counterjungling and ganking, and you simply take action based on match-ups or opportunities. You should not constantly be following a binary path every game like you are describing right now.

    If you see a top lane Hecarim run TP/Smite, then go for an early cheese gank on him by starting red/blue depending on which side of the map you are on. If the enemy is playing someone with piss poor clear speed like Warwick, look to deny his side of the jungle and take it for yourself. Warwick cannot chase a Shaco early game.

    The reason why you're feeling underwhelming as Shaco towards the late game is because Shaco naturally scales down in usefulness as the game goes on. The aim of Shaco is to try and create a far enough lead early to disallow the enemy to even make it to late game. Shaco has above average objective control which is completely nullified if the enemy is at a point where they can easily deal with what you are doing.
    0
    sirell (400) | May 20, 2015 8:17am
    During late-game, Shaco is very adept at splitpushing and this can create immense pressure if the enemy struggles to clear waves or is more team-fight oriented. Itemization for this can come with Statikk Shiv or Ravenous Hydra (or even both, if you're feeling it.

    His other more minor role during the late game is to assassinate an enemy carry (usually Marksman) and go at least 1 for 1, but to make sure you remove a more critical component of their team compared to losing only yourself. This is often better done during the chaos of a teamfight, rather than prior to initiation. Timing is key.
    0
    CrazeChimp (6) | May 20, 2015 7:28am
    In addition to what HiFromBuddha said:
    Since he is not ideal for teamfights mid-late game, you should try to work on splitpushing (which is something Shaco does really well). There are guides for how to splitpush with him so I'm not gonna try and explain it here. :-)
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