Hello! I'm Eagz, some of you may know me as Coach Eagz, and welcome to my Shaco guide. I am a multi-season Challenger Shaco player from the infamous Oceanic region and have beaten the likes of Sheiden, IWDominate, MikeYeung, and many more.

I play and stream full time so come and say hello! Just be careful because Shaco might be taking over the mental...

I used to be Rank 1 Shaco in the world and plan on making a big push for Challenger on NA or KR, so make sure you don't miss the climb, should be fun kappa.

I will teach you how I play both AD and AP Shaco in this guide so do not worry 😈

I put so much effort into this guide so I'd just like to take a second to quickly post my links here, so feel free to check them out in your own time 😊

Eagz Stream

Eagz Discord

1000+ Coaching Sessions

Challenger Coaching with Eagz

Now that's out of the way...this is how my opponent's feel when they play against Shaco and me 😎

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Below is me reviewing the carry I had vs Sheiden (Rank 1 1700LP NA) on 180 ping.

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PASSIVE: Backstab

￭ Shaco deals more damage with his auto attacks when attacking an enemy (jungle camp, champion, minion) from behind
￭ You should always have your passive in mind when playing Shaco; Backstabbing as much as possible enhances your damage output and as a result, your clear speed and kills

Tip: Your passive procs on both your auto attack out of your Deceive and your Two-Shiv Poison...so attack everything from behind!

Q: Deceive

￭ Shaco becomes invisible and blinks in the target direction (like a Flash)

￭ Shaco's next auto attack deals bonus physical damage, and if it's a Backstab (from behind) it will critically strike

￭ Shaco will break invisibility when auto attacking or using Two-Shiv Poison. Using Jack In The Box or Hallucinate does not break the invisibility. If you place a Jack In The Box while in Deceive, enemy champions will see the Jack In The Box unless it is placed in fog/out of vision, or until it is fully stealthed

Tip: Because your Deceive's auto attack deals physical damage, it means less when playing AP Shaco...so your Deceive when playing AD Shaco is used to get in position to Backstab your opponents, and when playing AP Shaco is used to get in position to Jack In The Box and annoy your opponents (you can of course still Backstab out of your Deceive playing AP Shaco, and you will have to in the early game to secure kills).

W: Jack In The Box

￭ Shaco places a box at the target location that becomes stealthed after 2 seconds. The box lasts for 40 seconds before dying

￭ If an enemy walks into the box's radius, that enemy and all surrounding enemies are feared and slowed, and will initially face away from the box after getting feared (allowing you to Backstab them!)

￭ Shaco's Jack In The Box deals magic damage and scales off of AP (making it more important when playing AP Shaco!)

Tip 1: Your Jack In The Box before it is stealthed can be used to block single-target skillshots (like Cocoon, Sonic Wave, Charm)

Tip 2: You can place your Jack In The Box on blast cones and they will fly in the air like a champion would

E: Two-Shiv Poison

￭ Shaco throws a dagger at an enemy that deals magic damage, but scales off both AD and AP

￭ If the target is below 30% HP, the damage is increased by 50%

￭ The target is also slowed

￭ The dagger deals more damage when hitting an enemy in the back

Tip: Your Two-Shiv Poison will not go through if the enemy champion goes in fog mid-fight, so you probably want to Two-Shiv Poison champions just before they run into brushes/posture to flash over terrain.

R: Hallucinate

￭ Shaco disappears and reappears after 0.5 seconds in the target direction, or in other words where your cursor is...the clone will appear in the opposite direction

￭ You can control the clone by using your R key, or by using Left Alt + Right Click (you have to use this to attack inhibitors)

￭ Your clone dies when it either runs out of HP, or when 18 seconds passes

￭ Upon dying or expiring the clone will explode dealing magic damage to nearby enemies and simultaenously summon 3 boxes that fear nearby enemies instantly for 1 second

￭ If the clone is too far away from Shaco it will instantly reattach

Tip: When your clone is at least half a screen away you can push it away from yourself and reattach it when you go over terrain or when you try to nuke an enemy

AD Shaco is about burst damage and one-shotting squishy enemy champions.

Your early game ganking is strong because of your quick damage output with Hail of Blades and Ignite.

When you have a lead you can snowball out of control because you can start nuking enemy champions with an item or two.

Please remember that your Backstab is everything when killing enemy champions.

Also, please remember that you want to be saving your Two-Shiv Poison until the enemy champion is lower than 30% HP.

And finally, please remember that you want to be using your Hallucinate to either help you nuke an enemy out of stealth, or to dodge the abilities the enemy champions will throw at you after you kill their teammate.

I have linked an AD Shaco montage below to showcase this playstyle in action.

AD Shaco's setup revolves around three details (in order of importance)...

￭ Damage
￭ Ability Haste
￭ Attack Speed

When you play AD Shaco you are Backstabing enemies to death. Therefore, it is essential to have a good amount of damage.

Ability Haste is important otherwise you are just a glass cannon...you will be trading your life for one enemy champion over and over. Even with Crit Shaco you need ability haste otherwise you are just Kamikaze Shaco; there's a difference.

You don't need any Attack Speed on Shaco apart from the Attack Speed shard in your minor runes UNLESS you're going the AD Shaco build I recommend. This build has a lot attack speed because it's to combat the tankier enemy champions so you don't have to dip out of fights as much.

But Eagz, how do I know which AD build to go?

This is a great question.

Most, if not every game, the enemy mid laner and ADC will be one-shottable...so let's go with that.

Now, if the enemy jungler is also very squishy (eg. Evelynn) then Lethality Shaco or Crit Shaco is king. I just prefer Lethality Shaco because the build is cheaper and I don't notice a difference in terms of damage.

But, if the enemy jungler is tanky (eg. Lee Sin) then AD Shaco with Attack Speed is king.


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AP Shaco is about ability haste and kiting enemy champions into Jack In The Boxes.

Your early game is fairly weak because Dark Harvest doesn't do anything unless the enemy champion is already very low HP. Therefore, your Ignite will be needed a lot of the time to secure early kills.

As the game progresses and your ability haste and AP increases, you start to become AP Shaco. The best way for me to show you how to play AP Shaco is to show you it in action so I've linked a montage of mine below.

AP Shaco's setup revolves around two details (in order of importance)...

￭ Ability Haste
￭ Damage

When you play AP Shaco you want to use your abilities as many times as possible.

You want to Deceive multiple times to dodge skillshots and reposition to Jack In The Box...you want to place boxes around the objective you want to do before the enemy champions get there...you want to come out of stealth and Two-Shiv Poison an enemy champion to lure them into a box...once again, the montage I've linked down below should help you see the power of AP Shaco.

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Ignite: means you can actually get kills in the early game

Smite: tough choice but useful as a jungler

Flash is not required because you have so much survivability in your kit and will miss kills in the early and therefore snowballs.

Be a chad.

There are two rune pages that actually make sense to me. Both pages run the [[Domination

Hail of Blades

By far the best keystone because of the insta burst damage. If you can land 3 backstab auto attacks in quick succession at any point in the game, you will come close to always getting a kill.

Tip: Lots of Shaco players with their Hail of Blades auto attacks just right click on their opponent and that's it. The best Shaco players will move inbetween each auto attack. Get in a practice tool, put a target dummy down somewhere, and practice auto attacking and then moving...auto attacking and then moving...auto attacking and then moving. Mastering this allows you to deal more damage because you are staying parallel/connected to the enemy champion.

Sudden Impact

AD Shaco is about burst damage.

Eyeball Collection

Very easy to stack. Zombie Ward is great with Umbral Glaive but Umbral Glaive is now 300G more expensive. Ghost Poro is an option but I never buy wards as Shaco, I spend that bank on damage.

Relentless Hunter

The movement speed just feels so important on AD Shaco. Games are faster paced and because your Deceive's invisibility is nowhere near as long as it used to be (used to be up to 5 seconds, is now 2.5-3.5 seconds) the extra movement speed to catch squishy enemy champions is crucial.

Treasure Hunter is also an option but some games I find myself wishing I had Relentless Hunter.

Now for the pages...

1. Cosmic Shaco



Magical Footwear is a great rune for Shaco because we want our items as soon as possible. Saving 300G accelerates our powerspikes and gives us max snowballing potential. You can just sit on the free boots you get until later in a game.

Cosmic Insight is also nutty because it gives us more Smites and Ignites.

For minor runes...

Attack Speed / Adaptive / Flat HP (because early game)

2. Precision Shaco



Alacrity gives us the attack speed we need because we are not running an attack speed shard! We are running double adaptive!

Coup de Grace for execute and early kills.

For minor runes...

Adaptive / Adaptive / Flat HP

I use this page and this page only at the moment...




Dark Harvest

For AP Shaco it's the only choice that makes sense. It works really well with our Two-Shiv Poison so that late game no-one is safe from a flying shank.

Cheap Shot

Lots of our damage, especially from Two-Shiv Poison, will come when enemy champions are feared from our Jack In The Box or Hallucinate. It's even useful for any CC your teammates might bring to the party. Damage isn't as important as it is for AD Shaco, so we can give Sudden Impact a miss.

Eyeball Collection

Easier to stack than Ghost Poro and I ain't buying wards.

Treasure Hunter

More gold from kills = quicker scaling. You can run Ultimate Hunter but it's just overkill imo.

Transcendence

Haste. Haste. Haste.

Gathering Storm

Lets me become Final Boss AP Shaco.

For minor runes...

Attack Speed / Adaptive / Scaling HP

So the 3 builds I use at the moment correlate with the rune page I'm running...

1. Lethality Shaco



Starting Items

Gustwalker Hatchling because I like to catch enemies out when they are afk'ing through the jungle, and it's also useful to attack enemies farming waves because the movement speed propels you out of brushes towards them.

I never take a Health Potion because I like saving 50 gold for my first major item - Shaco without a lead and items is as useful as aids.

Note that I start with these items in every game, regardless of AD/AP.

First Back

Serrated Dirk which is 1000G (if you have 300G leftover of course you can buy Boots, or if you have 350G you can buy another Long Sword).

Because Serrated Dirk is 100G cheaper now, it's just the best early game buy and great to snowball with, especially if you can buy at least one more Long Sword.

Core Items

Youmuu's Ghostblade: This item feels amazing when you get it because of the extra damage in it in Season 14. You don't get any haste but you don't need haste when you're snowballing at this stage of a game. Enemy champions won't be grouping just yet and you can isolate laners/enemy jungler with ease.

Boots of Swiftness: I also love these boots because they are cheap (like Youmuu's Ghostblade), and the extra movement speed feels so nice to me especially after they nerfed Shaco's movement speed.

Voltaic Cyclosword: The damage feels nuts, and the slow when you auto attack an enemy means you will 100% get in at least one more auto attack (hopefully another backstab) and gg.

4th and 5th

Serylda's Grudge: Get this first if the enemy team already has armor. Serylda's Grudge is great because it now scales with lethality - so the more lethality you have, the more armor penetration you have 😎

Opportunity: Get this if the enemy team has zero armor. The movement speed and the extra damage on the passive help you one-shot any squishy on the Rift.

Note that your first 5 items are always the same...just depends on whether you get Serylda's Grudge first or Opportunity.

6th Item

Guardian Angel: Build if the enemy team is nuking you too quick/often.

Edge of Night: Build if enemy team has lots of skillshots.

Serpent's Fang: Build if enemy team has lots of shields.

Axiom Arc: Build if you're just a chad.

2. AD Shaco



First Back

Tiamat: Great for clearing camps, just be a little care if you're fighting enemy champions because it doesn't do as much as Serrated Dirk early - focus is to use this on Grubs.

Early Build

Tiamat: Sit on this, do not upgrade.

Berserker's Greaves: Buy these after Tiamat.

The Brutalizer: Buy this after Berserker's Greaves (builds into Voltaic Cyclosword).

Core Items

Voltaic Cyclosword: The damage feels nuts, and the slow when you auto attack an enemy means you will 100% get in at least one more auto attack (hopefully another backstab) and gg.

Berserker's Greaves: Attack speed is more important than movement speed (Swifties) or cooldown (Lucidity Boots).

Trinity Force: The extra AD and movement speed in Trinity Force make it viable, and it feels nuts. Back in Season 8 this item was cracked because it allowed you to still one-shot squishies from the Sheen and AD, but also let you duel tankier foes. Same deal in Season 14.

Tiamat into Profane Hydra: Upgrade Tiamat into Profane Hydra. The lethality, AD and haste are too good, and the active is super useful for bursting down squishies after you backstab them.

3. Crit Shaco

First Back

Serrated Dirk: Without this you will tickle the enemy champions. This keeps us relevant until we get our big Crit items.

Core Items

Youmuu's Ghostblade: Keeps us as relevant as possible until Crit. Being 2700G it makes it a great early powerspike and buys us time.

Boots of Swiftness: Movement speed because one-shot Shaco (like the Lethality build).

Essence Reaver: Being a cheap crit item (2900G) this spikes us quickly enough to be a threat with Youmuu's Ghostblade. You will feel the damage with these two items.

4th, 5th and 6th Items

The Collector: I would buy this in practically every Crit game because it's cheaper than Infinity Edge and the damage is still huge.

Lord Dominik's Regards: If enemy squishies have armor, get this.

Guardian Angel: If you feel too glass cannon.

Infinity Edge: I would only buy this if I was insanely fed after Core Items.

First Back

Haunting Guise (1300G): Without this I feel weak as anything on AP Shaco in early game. So my first back I will back on 1300G no matter what. You will still be able to get to Grubs in time if you greed your respawning first quadrant do not worry.

Core Items

Liandry's Torment: The AP, HP and burn damage that procs on all abilities (particularly your Jack In The Box) is very nice because it helps with clearing too.

Ionian Boots of Lucidity: You get 0 Haste from Liandry's Torment now, so these are a must.

Cosmic Drive: I think this is essential because of the lack of Haste you have in Season 14. You can build Luden's Companion but the passive feels so useless on Shaco and I never feel the need for mana.

4th, 5th and 6th Items

Imperial Mandate: Yes, this is real. I think AP Shaco is so bad you have to play support AP Shaco to enable your teammates. It's actually quite nice though, no cap.

Morellonomicon: If the enemy team has lots of healing. Very cheap now as well (2200G) and gives Haste!

Horizon Focus: If you want damage but aren't super fed (2700G).

Shadowflame: If you want damage and are fed (3200G).

Zhonya's Hourglass: If you need the active to survive dive comps/heavy AD.

Banshee's Veil: If you are against lots of skillshots.

NOTE: it does not matter if you are playing AD or AP Shaco, the clears are the same for both!

For each of these clears, put a Jack In The Box down in the positions shown below as soon as possible out of base. In lots of games the enemy team will invade your Red Buff/Raptors and this box discourages them from doing so.





If the enemy team is invading and triggers your box, immediately run to Wolves and set up your next two boxes on Wolves starting at 00:50, and the next box outside Gromp (shown below for both sides).






If they do not invade your Red Buff/Raptors, place your next two boxes on your Red Buff starting at 00:50, and the next box over the wall at Krugs (shown below for both sides).






These are your two clears!

Red Buff > Krugs > Raptors

Wolves > Gromp > Blue

It may seem like I'm trying to get you to start at Red Buff every game but you don't have to. In some games I like to start at Wolves:

￭ Knowing I will get invaded on my Red Buff/Raptors by a strong Level 1 team and/or,
￭ Knowing I want to path towards the other side of the map because I have a strong top/bot lane

The reason I like doing Red Buff first instead of Raptors is because it puts my Krugs on a 4:10 respawn timer, whereas if I start at Raptors then they respawn at 4:00 which comes around very quickly and they are sometimes hard to defend. I want to have time to recall after I get kills/clear my initial camps.

But you might be like, why do you not start at Blue Buff then when you do the Wolves start clear? That's because Wolves are a lot harder to take for the enemy jungler. They are deeper into my jungle/closer to my nexus than Raptors, so it takes a little less time to run there out of base and you can catch the enemy jungler trying to steal them.

Now, how do you actually clear these camps as quickly as possible?

￭ BACKSTAB! ( Backstab every single camp as much as possible...for the multiple monster camps you want to be attacking the big one like big Krug, Murk Wolf, big Raptor/Chicken)
￭ Fadeaway Jack In The Box at Krugs for the Red Buff > Krugs > Raptors clear (when you have damaged the big Krug to 100 HP or less, and the medium Krug to 40% HP or less, put a box down leading towards Raptors and the box will finish off all the Krugs, this saves a lot of time)

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I always hit Level 3 before making any plays. I don't do any Level 2 invades or anything like that because they are generally very risky...if the enemy team is smart they will ward and cover your invade, and then you just vertical jungle. Clearing until you're Level 3 also gives the enemy jungler time to hit Level 3 but this is when their wards will expire and you can catch them by surprise on their second quadrant.

Here are 19 mechanics I use on Shaco regularly.

1. Backstabbing

BACKSTAB EVERYTHING. It's that simple. Clearing camps, killing enemy champions, if you do not get behind them you should play a different champion.

Tip: you don't actually have to be directly behind an enemy to Backstab them, you can still Backstab them as long as you're behind the center of their character model

The first video below shows you an Emerald student of mine who was auto attacking as soon as possible when ganking. What they should be doing is running behind the enemy champions ( Xayah in this case) before auto attacking.

The second video below shows me taking that extra bit of time to sniff the back of my enemy... Shaco will be happy with you for doing this.

The third video below shows the same thing...shank them from behind at all costs.

The fourth video shows you another little mistake you can make...you don't want to come out of stealth BEFORE backstabbing, you want to be backstabbing WHILE you come out of stealth!

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2. Not Q'ing

You probably think I've lost the plot, but holding your Deceive when you are ganking is the most under-used mechanic. If you don't have to use Deceive to gank a lane because they are already so far pushed up/already fighting, then hold it for their escape (like a Flash, dash etc)!

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3. Q to Dodge

When you are not Level 6 and when you are not using your Deceive to Backstab an enemy, you can use it to dodge important skillshots.

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4. Q Redirection

One of the deadliest weapons in a Shaco's arsenal is Deceiveing in the direction you are not facing. This is very useful when escaping sticky situations, or looking to kill enemy champions who might be thinking you're trying to run away!

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5. W Blocking

Blocking skillshots with Jack In The Box is an important mechanic, and it's all about anticipation. Because your Jack In The Box has a little cast time you can't react instantly, so you have to see it coming.

For example, when I am dueling this Lee Sin I know he is going to look to Q me before I hit the blast cone so he can jump to me afterwards. So I instinctively place a Jack In The Box between us, and I continue to march march march.

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6. Gank Boxing

Where you place your Jack In The Box when you gank is huge. You want to place your Jack In The Box towards your opponent's safety (their tower) to force them to walk around your Jack In The Box which takes longer, and means you and potentially your teammate(s) can deal more damage.

If you are ganking bot/top lane from behind, you have brushes you can place your Jack In The Box in and unless they have those brushes behind them warded (unlikely), you can get easy kills (shown below).

HOWEVER, if the enemy champions are fighting to the death against your teammates, boxing their safety is pointless because they have no intention of running to their safety...their safety is killing your teammates, so box just behind them or even ahead of them if they are chasing your allies (no matter how much you want your teammates to die xd).

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7. W for Vision

Because your Jack In The Box reveals a small area around it when it is placed, you can use your Jack In The Box to keep vision of enemies so you can Two-Shiv Poison them (shown below), or just to scout them.

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8. W to Ambush

When an enemy champion is pathing towards you or might path towards you, all you have to do is place a Jack In The Box in the brush you're in as close to them as possible without the Jack In The Box being seen (so in the furthest point of the brush).

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9. Q and E'ing

Sounds simple but it has to be second nature. Buffering your Two-Shiv Poison as soon as you Deceive is so important for securing kills.

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10. E to Execute

HOLD YOUR Two-Shiv Poison! It deals more damage the lower someone is.

The only times you can use your Two-Shiv Poison early are...

￭ if you know the fight will last long enough for you to Two-Shiv Poison again (shown below)
￭ if there is space between you and your enemy (the slow helps you gap close)

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11. R to Bait Damage

Using your Hallucinate to bait damage and buy yourself time to reposition (especially when you're AP Shaco) can be fight-winning. All you do is Hallucinate while you are in your Deceive's stealth.

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12. R to Reattach

When there is a lot of distance between the real Shaco and his clone, you can push the clone away so it returns to the Shac.

You can do this to try to assassinate enemy champions but you have to time it perfectly and it's very unreliable because the enemy champions will be moving (most of the time). Therefore it's much better to Hallucinate out of your Deceive to one-shot someone.

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13. Q and R to Nuke

Coming out of your Deceive's stealth with your clone auto attacking at the same time is double trouble for the opponent! This is the max damage combo and you should be using this when you need your clone's damage to nuke someone.

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14. R to Dodge

That's all it is. Using your Hallucinate to dodge skillshots/AoE is very important when you are fighting. Make sure you know what abilities you need to look out for!
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15. R to Juke

When you want to make the enemy think your clone is the real Shaco, simply right click the enemy champion so the real Shaco looks like the clone, and quickly click in the other direction so your clone instantly moves away - this will make them think the real Shaco is trying to run off!

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16. R to Pit Jump

You can R jump over Dragon and Baron pit as shown below, and you can also R over small walls around the map.

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17. Q'ing out of R

Sometimes you will be in a pickle...and to get out of that pickle you have to Hallucinate and then Deceive just like I do in the clip below, pre rare though.

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18. Holding Ignite

Just like Holding E, you want to hold your Ignite as well. If you use this too early (when it will not finish off the enemy champion) then they will Flash away and survive. You want to use this so even if they do Flash they still die.

Below is an example of an early Ignite.

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This is the end of the guide and it's time for Shaco and I to Deceive out of here!

We thank you for staying with us for this long and hope you are more in touch with your inner Demon Jester 😈

Much love,

Eagz