Spells and Shaco

: Offensive jungle

This is what I and most other people run on Shaco in general. Shaco is infamous for not needing a flash, so I make it easier for me to get kills and get into the game with a bang. I'm not going to sit here and say this is the only way to run Shaco Spell wise, but it's definitely what I'd recommend for newer players to help them secure kills.

: Split-push scumbag :)

Shaco is very good at split pushing. He can get to a lane, get a few towers, and get back once the enemy lets their guard down with teleport. Personally, I think ignite makes it easier to fight his opponents when they come to stop him (AND THEY ALWAYS DO). On the rare occasions they don't stop you, you can take their towers, inhibs, jungle, dragons, do your taxes, hit the gym, grab some dinner, because they're obviously not looking at their maps.

: Stayin' alive, stayin' alive

Taking flash on Shaco is usually seen as sub-par by people who have no idea what Shaco does. For those who are adept at the clown, ignite isn't as vital for picking off victims since you know how to manage boxes to do the job. Notice that Shaco is extremely easy to kill, and getting caught out by a pink, or enemy assassins means you die, simple as that. Now, if you're confident in your ability with Shaco, then take flash for the safety. Nothing is more discouraging than an 11/0 Shaco escaping after he doesn't have his blink.

: Counter the counters

First picking Shaco in draft? Going up against a Lee Sin? Wondering how am I going to fight this monk who ironically reveals an invisible champion while blind? then take exhaust! Yes exhaust is the answer to almost everything annoying about playing against Lee in the jungle. All jokes aside, Lee and other Shaco counters are a problem. Early game,I'im pretty sure Nasus could out duel the mad clown

A clown's set of skills:

Gentlemen, I know you may be expecting Warlord's because of the normal crit build on Shaco, but I had a bit of an epiphany while on surrender at 20 looking through the PBE changes. There I saw the next overpowered strategy, guarantee. That little mastery that no one payed attention too is getting a buff, even though it's already a hidden gem for assassins who can dependably get in, but not get out. I speak of course, about Stormraider's Surge. The proposed buff is to give Stormraider's 75% slow immunity. This is absolutely monstrous, and I find it hilarious when I see people hopping from warlord's bandwagon to fervor bandwagon, to grasp of the undying bandwagon, and to the current OP with thunderlord's. This is going to be huge, so lets just prepare ahead of time, and it works for both AP and AD.

Using your Shaq-fu:

  Passive: Backstab

Backstab gives Shaco a 20% damage increase when attacking from the back. What qualifies as the back, however, is about as constant as TF2's backstabs. The good thing is that it's very easy for Shaco to get to someone's back with his infamous blink. Crits do increase damage with backstab, which also increases your heal with Warlord's Bloodlust. Backstab is the one reason league rule #3 exists. Just like you should never chase singed, NEVER RUN FROM SHACO. Running from Shaco is how you get killed by him, you can't escape him, your best bet is to fight because during the mid game, unless he's fed or you're behind, you'll probably win.

  Q: Deceive

Deceive is, in my humble opinion, the best spell in the game. It's a blink and stealth that gives a guaranteed crit. Use it defensively, offensively, or even to piss off the enemy team, it rolls how ever you want. Shaco's Q is what lets him do what he does so well, he's incredibly hard to catch or escape. The obvious application of this spell is to get at least one proc of backstab, and at that point you have enough damage to make them run or win the fight. Of course you can use it to blink over walls, or do what Shaco is famous for, invade the enemy jungle. One important thing to note is that  the crit on deceive is that at the first 3 ranks it deals less damage than a normal crit, the normal amount at rank 4, and 20% more at rank 5. The only other thing ranking it up does is decrease the mana cost, no real reason to max it first. 

  W: Jack in the Box

How does one begin to describe how useful this spell is. Not only does it give vision, but it also provides Shaco's only form of hard CC and decent magic damage at high ranks and early levels. Jack in the Box is one of the most infuriating spells for the enemy to deal with, but its soooooo fun to pull off plays with them. Put them down on your way into an invade to cover your escape to the dismay of the enemy jungler as they watch you walk away while they can't move to stop you. Or, put one down before you start your assault out of stealth, by the time they react, the box will have them feared, leaving them to you and your clone's mercy. For AP Shaco, these things are an automatic go home button. They run into a couple of these while they chunk the poor fool down to half HP.

(also, AP Shaco should max this second instead of Q.

Here we come to Shaco's E, his throwing knife. Shaco throws a shiv at a target, slowing and dealing magic damage to them. I'm describing this spell is that you wouldn't really know by just the name alone. A shiv is a knife, yes, and you do hold two of them, and they may be poisoned, but how are you supposed to know you can throw them? Regardless, E is one of his most useful spells. Being able to slow your enemies is vital for being able to chase them down without deceive, and the passive slow while off cooldown is incredibly useful. The magic damage on this is also insane, scaling at 100% AP AND 100% AD. No matter how you build, your Shivs will compliment it. In the jungle, the passive slows, and decreases the monster's attack speed by up to 30%, helping the red menace stay alive in the jungle longer.

  R: Hallucinate

Shaco's ultimate, oh hallucinate, where do I even begin. Hallucinate makes Shaco untargetable for a short moment and then spawns a clone of Shaco that copies his MS, AS, deals 75% damage, and receives an extra 50% damage. Using this clone properly can make you an untouchable god on the rift, this is the sole reason that Shaco's damage output can get to astronomical levels. The ability to have the highest DPS in the game is no joke(......er) adn the clone's auto's scale off AD, just like yours. If the clone gets killed, or lasts for 18 seconds, it will explode dealing a base 300, 450, or 600 magic damage, but that's not the best part of the explosion. This clone's final farewell scales with 100% of your AP, making upwards of 1000+ damage explosions. One shiv, one clone, one box, and they won't survive. Even if not going AP, Shaco's clone gives an already slippery Champion the ability to play mind games. Here's a scenario, you're chasing a Shaco; you've finally managed to catch him out after he blew his Q and he's as good as dead. He stops and ults, one Shaco starts running, the other starts attacking in place. Since this is a Shaco guide you might say its a trick, but in game 9/10 times you go after the one running away, only to see it explode in a flurry of knives and the one that you left alone has killed the one person who stayed behind and got away. This kind of thing is common fold for a decent Shaco, but the best Shaco's (so no not me) are masters of something called clone shuffling. The gist of it is that you send your clone away while you run towards a bush, your clone can only go so far before it teleports back to you, you duck into a bush and stealth as your clone teleports to the bush. They don't see the clone tele, so they think it must be you. What you do after that is up to you. Look up shaclone or sivHD for some examples.   

All right, all right enough stalling. I owe you readers an explanation for why I never said outright which enchantment to take. It's time for the first installment of....

Warrior         Vs.       Devourer

Warrior:

As the enchantment most people grab on Shaco, Warrior has more notoriety to it's name when talking about the red-clad killer. I will give warrior credit in that it's much friendlier to Shaco's mid game, giving him early burst damage with a decent amount of armor pen and AD. To be fair, burst is one of Shaco's strongest strategies. Q in, kill the squishies, lay down a box for escape, and Q away to the dismay of the person currently seeing the game in gray-scale. The downside is that warrior is outscaled in the long run, and Shaco isn't in his prime in the early to mid game, he's probably one of the weakest early game champions ever (this is debatable, but in my experience). Despite this, warrior is a great option if you want to be relevant earlier than the devourer.

Devourer:

Devourer is the enchantment that most people look at me building and decide to report me, even if I go 11/2/6. I truly don't understand why it's frowned upon with Shaco, and I'm prepared to defend my logic with fact, and possibly a shotgun. Shaco has the possibility of having the SINGLE MOST DPS in the the game. My thought process is that why not go with the late game Shaco and get sated devourer, which needs no introduction here. Just imagine you have a clone out, and someone gets feared by a box near you and yourself. Now imagine that you have a sated devourer, what you do is you invis out of the bush and sic your clone on them, they fight and you pop up behind them, they panic and both of you are beating them down with sated enhanced attacks. The damage per second is reaches insane amounts and they either flash or try and run, neither of which works 100%. The problem is that until you get sated, you're not very threatening, unless you get ahead with other items.

Other Options:

Yes, yes indeed. It's time we dive once more head first into the other builds for Shaco, none of which I really recommend this time :). Just keep an open mind and take comfort in the fact that I always support things with fact. (at least fact that's relevant at time of writing *cough* preseason *cough*)

AP Shaco:

Shaco has surprising scaling on all but one of his spells, which has led to AP Shaco being fairly common and accepted. The premise is to whittle people down with two-shiv and use boxes to kite people down to nothing. Your clone usually has enough damage on explosion to kill any low targets, leading in hilarious triple kills and a baron steal all at the same time (yes, it happened to me once, no I was not recording cause idk how, yes I was the Shaco). You can take this mid or jungle, but if you take it mid, grab a doran's ring for a start.

Full build:

: Alas, its so close to being an AP blue build, but no cigar (sorry graves). This build should provide the damage needed to burst down opponents or make them regret face-checking a bush. 3 or 4 boxes all attacking one person means they die, I don't care how fast they try and react, they can't move while these boxes gun them down. If they start building MR then void staff and boots will make sure they still feel the pain. If things get hairy, pop your Zhonya's and wait for Q's cooldown.

Other options:

: You want more burst? Get ludens. You want more sustained damage? Get Liandry's. You need to stay alive and stick to your victims easier? Get Iceborn, and finally, you want to heal off your insane burst? Grab hextech. You want to have some extra cash to buy groceries and pay the water bill? Stop buying RP.

Burst down Shaco:

I know that the normal build on Shaco is made to burst down quickly too, but this is made to maximize the amount of damage you can do in one or two attacks versus a sustained chunkfest from you and your clone on a feared target. I'm not going to say I came up with this build and I'm sure someone else has done it, but I have yet to see someone take these items.

Full Build:

: This is what will give you the insane amount of burst to kill squishies, and get out with stormraider's. The amount of AD you end up with is staggering, while you have plenty of lifesteal if you HAVE to get in a slap fight with your clone and boxes. Duskblade with your empowered hit on Q on a backstab with sheen means you are going to chunk the target right off the bat making that and sheen the two items I rush immediately after my jungler item

Other options: