AD SHACO GUIDES
My Shaco Guide
Here's my AD Shaco guide – I'll keep updating it over time.
AD Shaco Build
The rune page and item build I run on AD Shaco.
Runes
Domination
Hail of Blades
Hail of Blades is the bread-and-butter keystone for AD Shaco – it's the only real option. There's currently no alternative that comes close to how powerful it is on this build.
Sudden Impact
A really solid rune – the best pick in this row. Free true damage every time I Q is great value.
Sixth Sense
I highly value the information this gives you in the early game. Knowing where the enemy has warded can save you a lot of time (e.g. not wasting a gank), or straight-up save your life when invading. It becomes less necessary once you have Umbral Glaive, but it's still great for the early game.
Relentless Hunter
A solid option for Shaco – it increases your gap-closing range.
Treasure Hunter
Another great option – free gold means a better snowball, which means a harder stomp. I swap between Relentless Hunter and Treasure Hunter a lot.
Legend: Alacrity
Really nice attack speed. Shaco is an auto-attack based champ, so this is great and feels great – especially since I don't upgrade boots anymore (no more Berserker's Greaves).
Cut Down
Goated rune. It gives you nice damage at all stages of the game. Shaco's main damage is the first Q backstab, so amplifying that is great – and it scales surprisingly well.
I sometimes go Inspiration instead of Precision – also very viable.
Magical Footwear
Great option – it saves you 300 gold and gives you 420 gold worth of boots. That's money you can invest into damage and your power spikes.
Cosmic Insight
Always good for junglers – having a lower Smite cooldown can win you crucial Smite fights in the jungle.
Approach Velocity
Another great option. It's always procced with our E and with our auto-attacks. Having a permanent 15% movement speed is great to catch up to people, especially early game.
Attack Speed
Adaptive Force (AD)
Flat HP
Summoner Spells
Smite
Ignite
Flash
Ignite Shaco's most common spell – gives you more kill pressure, especially early. Helps you win 1v1s and secure kills. Not much to say, just a solid choice.
Flash This one is slept on by most Shaco mains. Flash is a really strong spell in general and works great on Shaco – it helps you gap close, can save your life, and is very versatile. It scales better than Ignite. I swap between Ignite and Flash a lot.
I believe you can pick either spell into any comp, but if I had to give a reason for when to go which: Ignite is great for early skirmishes and fights – e.g. if you want to invade, or if you're playing against champions that plan on fighting you early (Lee Sin, Sylas, etc.). It's obviously also great if the enemy has healing (Rengar, Hecarim). I pick Flash when I don't expect much early fighting, or the enemy picked long-range champions where the gap close is nice. That said, I do think you can pick either spell in any scenario.
Ability Max Order
You can put 1–5 points in W (however you prefer). Then max E, and then Q – and obviously put points in R whenever you can.
I currently mostly put 4 points into W, then max E, then Q – but I think there's justified reasoning to put anywhere between 1 and 5 points into it. The issue with our E is that it only gives 25 damage per level-up, and it's magic damage, so it scales like dogwater. I currently prefer the bigger impact of investing into W, since it increases our clear speed. Then again, E is our only damage ability, and 25 damage is 25 damage (47.5 if it executes), so it's really up to you. Try it out a bit and see what works best for you!
Item Build
The core path I go on almost every game, and where it opens up.
Pick a 3rd item to see your 4th item options.
Serpent's Fang
+
Playing against shields? Buy this situationally – either right before or right after Voltaic Cyclosword.
Umbral Glaive The most damage you can get for a first-item power spike. It's really cheap at 2800g, gives you the most damage, and has the best build path (you can buy 4 Long Swords). On top of all that, you get the vision passive, which tells you if you're standing in enemy vision for the rest of the game. Goated.
Voltaic Cyclosword Voltaic is the king of damage items. It only does one thing, and that's deal damage – I almost always go it 2nd. Nothing much to say about this one.
Youmuu's Ghostblade Great if you're snowballing and ahead of the curve – another lethality item when you're ahead keeps that snowball rolling. Also helps if you need the extra gap close, opens up interesting gank angles, and is sometimes a must against long-range comps. My go-to 3rd item.
Profane Hydra Just like Youmuu's, great if you're already snowballing. Cheap, and the active does insane damage. I tend to go Profane 3rd if I don't need the movement speed from Youmuu's.
Lord Dominik's Regards If you're in a position to go LDR 3rd, you're usually either behind, or the enemy already bought armor and has a lot of HP. Go LDR 3rd if you need armor pen early.
Most Common Build Currently
Boots
I currently only buy tier 1 boots and sit on them for the entire game until I can sell them for Phantom Dancer. I usually buy them after Umbral Glaive, or during my Umbral Glaive purchase depending on my gold – e.g. I have Serrated Dirk and Caulfield's Warhammer and 300g left over in my bank account.
I think it's not bad to upgrade your boots if you want to, though – I'd do it after you finish your first item at least. Viable boots imo are:
Boots of Swiftness More movement speed for better gap-closing, and they're cheap. The slow resist also makes you more slippery.
Plated Steelcaps (Tabis) Great if you're up against threats like Rengar that can easily kill you. I'd really only buy these if I'm ahead, though.
Mercury's Treads Same idea as Tabis – good into heavy AP/CC comps. I'd buy these if I'm ahead.
Berserker's Greaves Unfortunately I think these are a little bit overpriced, but the attack speed feels so good on Shaco.
Ionian Boots of Lucidity Really cheap, and the ability haste is decent too. My least-bought boots, but they should be fine.
What to Ban?
The toughest and most annoying matchups I run into on AD Shaco.
In general, a matchup becomes genuinely bad for Shaco when the enemy has one of three things: true sight that reveals you through your invisibility, the ability to bully and invade you in the jungle before you can fight back, or the ability to reliably kill you and apply their damage while you can't do the same to them (e.g. Qiyana, Talon).
Talon is just really hard to deal with – he's everywhere on the map, clears fast, and on top of that is hard to kill or catch. It's also really hard to dodge Talon's combo damage, even with Shaco's R. His invisibility stops your auto-attacks, which is all your damage.
Any champion with true sight counters Shaco to a certain degree, but Rengar takes it to the next level. He doesn't just have true sight on his R – he also has it on his E, which he can double-cast. His ultimate is the true bane of my existence, though. If the Rengar player is smart, he can just cast his R and prevent you from engaging for god knows how long. It's really annoying to deal with his R and pretty hard to dodge his damage. I often adapt my build against Rengar to be more tanky (Tabis, Trinity Force, etc.).
Similar to Rengar, Rek'Sai can just stay burrowed and see your engage coming – really annoying in teamfights. You also can't really kill her (unless you're ahead), since she usually builds Tabis into you plus bruiser items.
Graves is really annoying because he can just bully you in your own jungle. He has a lot of armor, so you can't kill him, but he can kill you. He one-shots your boxes, too.
Hecarim just heals all your damage back with his W, and he doesn't even need to see you to kill you. Your Q doesn't help much against him either – he always knows where you are because he spams Q and W.
This guy can just kill you, and you can't kill him. He also provides excellent peel for his teammates. Just an annoying champion overall.
A really frustrating champion – her near-permanent invisibility makes it hard to land auto-attacks on her. She can kill you consistently, and her damage is hard to dodge.
If piloted by a good player, this champ might be the hardest one to deal with. She can straight-up invade you whenever she wants, and her true sight on Q plus her traps make her really hard to deal with. Luckily, there aren't many good Nidalee players on this planet.