Welcome to the League of Legends Champion Spotlight featuring Shaco, the Demon Jester.
Shaco is a melee assassin, adept at quickly darting around combat, disrupting his enemies with crowd control effects, and sowing confusion around a battle.
Shaco makes for an excellent jungler and has a number of different builds, as I’ll demonstrate in this video.
Shaco’s passive is Backstab. All of Shaco’s basic attacks deal bonus damage when striking a target from behind.
Deceive causes Shaco to blink forward, turning invisible for a short time.
If Shaco lands a basic attack a few seconds after using Deceive, it will automatically deal a critical strike for bonus damage.
Deceive is the most important ability for attack damage Shaco, but the least important when focusing on Ability Power.
Jack in the Box places an immobile box on the ground which lasts for a while.
After a short time it turns invisible. Any enemy that walks near an invisible Jack in the Box causes it to wake up, fearing nearby enemies, attacking them, and then quickly dying.
Always take Jack in the Box at level 1, maxing it after Deceive for AD Shaco, or first for AP Shaco.
Two-Shiv Poison passively causes Shaco’s basic attacks to slow enemies. Minions that Shaco attacks also have a chance to miss their attacks while slowed.
Shaco may activate Two-Shiv Poison to directly damage and slow target enemy, but this disables his passive slow until it cools back down.
Always take Two-Shiv Poison at level 3 and max it after Jack in the Box.
Hallucinate is Shaco’s Ultimate. Upon casting Hallucinate, Shaco creates a clone of himself, dodging all attacks and abilities aimed at him in the process.
The Hallucinate clone deals damage just as Shaco would with one added benefit: When the clone dies, it explodes, dealing significant damage to nearby enemies.
I play Shaco as an attack-damage focused jungler on Summoner’s Rift.
Taking a point in Jack in the Box while buying Cloth Armor and five Health Potions, I rush across the map to set up Jack in the Boxes for my jungle route.
Remember that Boxes have a fairly long lifespan in stealth, so set up a bunch of them in preparation for jungle spawns.
Stay tuned for the end of the video for the full jungle pattern.
Shaco also excels at stealing the enemy’s buffs. Many junglers start by killing the Ancient Golem, which respawns five minutes after it’s killed.
Typically this means it will respawn at about seven minutes into the game.
As a result, I plant a Jack in the Box and pull the golem over. I Deceive behind to trigger Backstab and keep attacking.
Note that I move in between attacks in an attempt to trigger more Backstab bonuses.
Sure enough, the enemy Shaco shows up just as I finish killing it. I Deceive away immediately and then drop a Jack in the Box in the path he’ll take to follow me.
As I make my escape, Shyvana comes down from top lane to pick me off.
I continue to run as far away from her as possible, making sure to jump over the wall when Deceive comes off of cooldown.
She follows me so I try to hide underneath my turret, again dropping a Jack in the Box to block her chase.
The enemy Shaco finally makes his way in so I toss a Shiv at him, he gets feared by my Jack in the Box, and Jax picks up the kill.
Now Shyvana tries to return for the kill, so I Deceive to dodge Flame Breath and then toss in another Shiv when I know she’s going down.
Thanks to Shaco’s elusiveness, I steal their golem and draw two enemy champions into their deaths.
Upon buying Madred’s Razors and reaching level 6, you can easily solo the dragon.
To do this, first use Hallucinate. Attack the dragon with yourself and pull your clone behind to start gaining Backstab bonus damage.
Once the dragon is about halfway dead, Deceive in place.
The invisibility will cause the dragon to switch to your Hallucinate clone continue attacking it and then use Smite to grab the kill.
Shaco has a ton of ganking potential throughout the midgame because he’s so slippery.
I see Graves fighting near the top lane so I Deceive over the wall and lay a trap in the brush.
He Flashes away, saving him from the fear of Jack in the Box, but I keep chasing.
Boots of Mobility kick in and I catch up with Deceive and a critical strike in his back for the kill.
Before retreating back up, I stop and send my Hallucinate clone in toward the turret first so it tanks all the damage.
In Dominion, Shaco has a much different playstyle. I rush a Deathfire Grasp and try to hunt for smaller fights.
As Gangplank interrupts my capture, I shoot out Jack in the Box, Deathfire Grasp, and Two-Shiv Poison immediately.
I then Deceive in for a Backstab and then run as I can’t win a basic attack fight.
As Two-Shiv Poison comes back from cooldown, I turn back in and take him with a cast and a few basic attacks.
Shaco also defends points extremely well. Here I sit in the brush near the Health Relic and spam Jack in the Boxes.
As Graves comes in to capture, I use Hallucinate and run it at him.
He attacks it, not realizing it’s only the clone as I keep myself hidden in the brush.
Seeing him low, I run at him, Deceive, and chase in as I take him down with a Two-Shiv Poison throw.
Shaco’s elusiveness makes him a huge menace to assaulting champions.
I Deceive in and tag Graves with Deathfire Grasp and Two-Shiv Poison, taking him down almost immediately.
Then Jax heads for me, so I pop Hallucinate and focus him with the clone while I try to escape.
Seeing Malzahar try to capture, I Deceive over to him and take him out with just a Deceive crit and a throw of Two-Shiv Poison.
Another fight happens over the Quarry. As always I’m very flighty, planting a Jack in the Box to cover my retreat and harassing Malzahar with Two-Shiv Poison.
I then take down Malzahar with Deathfire Grasp and turn to Graves, using both summoner spells to survive him until I drop him with Two-Shiv Poison and Ignite.
I head back to the capture point to help Sion kill Jax.
I try to land Two-Shiv Poison, but as he enters the brush, I Deceive away out of fear for Jax’s damage output, killing him with Two-Shiv Poison from max range.
Because I play Shaco in two completely different ways in Classic and Dominion, let’s go over my setup side-by-side.
In Classic I take armor penetration marks, armor seals, cooldown reduction glyphs, and attack damage quintessences.
This setup is aimed solely at giving me massive early game damage.
In Dominion I take magic penetration marks, ability power per level seals, ability power per level glyphs, and flat ability power quintessences.
This setup is just aimed at dealing massive late game damage with Two-Shiv Poison, Jack in the Box, and Hallucinate.
My masteries are 21/0/9 in every build, making sure to take magic penetration in offense for AP Shaco.
When jungling I take Smite and Ignite, while Exhaust and Ignite work great in Dominion.
In Classic, I open with a Cloth Armor and five Health Potions.
I rush Wriggle’s Lantern and grab Boots of Mobility so that I can clear the jungle quickly and keep ganking.
From here I assess my situation. If I’m doing well, I’ll grab Infinity Edge and work toward Trinity Force.
If I’m not doing well, I’ll grab Phage and consider Hexdrinker for more durability.
Eventually I round out my build by grabbing Guardian Angel and Banshee’s Veil in addition to the earlier offensive items.
In Dominion I open with Kage’s Lucky Pick and Boots of Speed, upgrading to Sorcerer’s Shoes and Deathfire Grasp.
I continue to add damage to my build with Rabadon’s Deathcap, Hextech Gunblade, and Morello’s Evil Tome.
My final item is Guardian Angel, which will often let me escape after death with Deceive and Jack in the Box.
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