How to Shaco the inSec Way
Riot·8/19/2014, 9:03:08 PM·0 votes·39,628 views
The most common place for Shaco in competitive League of Legends is as a joke hover in champion select to rile up the crowd. In that role, he’s an A Tier pick, bested only by the S Class: Heimerdinger and Teemo. Few professional players are daring enough to actually lock in the Demon Jester, and Choi “inSec” Inseok of StarHorn Royal Club has done so at least five times in his career. Most recently, inSec played Shaco in SHRC’s final match of the LoL Pro League regular season in a composition full of high mobility champions with assassination potential.
InSec’s Shaco didn’t have the greatest impact on the game, but he and his team showed onlookers how to have a good time. If you are going to play Shaco in your own games, take a (rune) page from inSec’s book.
Uzi and Zero laughing before inSec snags Shaco. It’s worth noting that iG had banned two of inSec’s usual picks.
Corn picked up Braum for Zero. Both Uzi and Cola got their hands on champions that they have been known to favor heavily in the past: Vayne and Jax. With a selection of champions it seemed everyone on the team loved to play, SHRC had landed themselves an assassin-based high mobility composition adept at chasing down and demolishing single targets. All planned.
While the entire composition may not have been premeditated, inSec had at least prepared a rune page for Shaco. The LPL camera man was kind enough to hover over inSec’s statistics at the start of the match to show the audience that he came with 578 health, 68 attack damage, 73% attack speed, 6% dual penetration, 32 armor, and a total of 32 starting ability power. Through trial and error, we’ve taken the liberty of reproducing these statistics in a set of runes and masteries that are likely extremely close to what he used in the match.
Who needs the Defensive tree when you have Jack in the Boxes to tank for you?
InSec’s Shaco is all about dishing out the pain without touching the front lines in the early game, for which a jack in the box-centric build is perfect. Crank up the Ability Power to maximize early game burst, but don’t neglect the attack damage masteries in Offense for the occasional close-quarters assassinations that dominate late game play. And just because it’s unwise to enter the rift naked, a few armor seals never hurt anyone.
If your lanes seem content to push to enemy tower, take advantage of the map pressure they are exerting by dipping into the enemy jungle. Since Cola often had the lane shoved up top, Shaco could sneak in to steal iG’s red buff without fear of Do roaming to stop him without his knowledge.
It didn’t hurt that Uzi and Zero kept wards on their lane—wards that gave sight of illuSion in the bottom river, unable to defend his red buff.
As a counter-jungling Shaco, your Jack in the Boxes can tank creeps to keep you healthy. A few Jack in the Boxes posted at jungle entrances serve as scouts. Then, your Deceive will allow you to escape at a moment’s notice. Though inSec didn’t set up an early Jack in the Box trap for illuSion by planting them in the brush and waiting for him to appear, that’s a solid option to consider in solo queue. If you should go this route, a Feral Flare will serve as a good pickup since you’ll be farming quite a bit.
Dedicated Preparation
When watching the team during champion select for the StarHorn Royal Club game against Invictus Gaming, it’s likely that the team agreed to end their regular season run with a game full of some their favorite champions. After the Kassadin first pick, inSec snagged Shaco in Round Two. InSec hovered over Zed for a moment, but soon Uzi and Zero began laughing on stage. Immediately after, inSec switched his selection to Shaco, teased the audience, then locked it in.
MAKE EARLY GAME COUNT
InSec’s Shaco did not have the greatest impact on the ultimate StarHorn Royal Club victory, a game that included a 3v5 pentakill from Uzi’s Vayne and corn on a reasonably fed Kassadin. During the game, inSec exhibited the proper instincts a Shaco player needs to snowball the game, but his execution was very hit-or-miss. Thus, we look to his technique, and not necessarily his results. Shaco looks to punish over-extending opponents, which means he works well with teammates who struggle to clear waves in the early game. If a champion doesn’t have the tools to kill minions quickly, they’ll often find themselves pushed under their own towers by the opposition, creating perfect gank opportunities for Shaco. Vayne, with her single target abilities, and Kassadin, who dreads venturing forth before level six, are great complements to Shaco for this reason. For the most part, however, illuSion’s smart counter-ganks resulted in situations where inSec traded kills one-for-one. Considering Kassadin’s potential to serve as a jackhammer across the map in the late game, this worked into SHRC’s favor, but that won’t always be the case. It’s hard for Shaco to gank targets pushed under their own towers, as he brings no hard crowd control to lock them in place. Since this build also brings very little in terms of resistances, it’s hard for Shaco to dive towers, especially if he uses his Deceive to circumvent wards and find his way safely into the lane. When inSec went to gank iG’s substitute top laner, Do, he came away empty handed after Gragas Body Slammed to safety.
If your lanes seem content to push to enemy tower, take advantage of the map pressure they are exerting by dipping into the enemy jungle. Since Cola often had the lane shoved up top, Shaco could sneak in to steal iG’s red buff without fear of Do roaming to stop him without his knowledge.
THE SHACO “TEAMFIGHT”
As one might expect, Shaco’s late game presence isn’t as strong as his potential impact on laning phase. His lack of tank stats make it more difficult for him to get up close and personal in a 5v5, and his ideal scenario is a single target he can ambush with Jack in the Boxes and hunt down with Two-Shiv Poison and Backstab. Against Invictus Gaming, however, inSec chose to stick with the team. In one dragon fight, he initiated with a bait, followed by a Hallucinate that got him to safety. One of his Jack in the Boxes was immediately destroyed, but as inSec danced around on the sidelines, others previously planted in the area were activated. This created a crowd control effect and allowed inSec to secure a kill onto illuSion without being in range to be taken down. Towards the end of the engagement, Shaco’s weaknesses were exposed; as soon as he physically entered the fray, Zzitai’s Fizz obliterated his health bar. When playing Shaco, it’s best to let your Jack in the Boxes and your teammates do the dirty work. If you watch this video closely, you’ll notice that this was clearly Shaco’s pentakill. InSec also stayed with his teammates in the late game because of the chase potential SHRC’s champions had in a group. With gap closers from Jax and Kassadin, passives that aid in the chase on both Vayne and Shaco, and long range slows and stuns from Braum, SHRC’s hodgepodge composition was designed to pursue the opposition. SHRC acted like an efficient pack of wolves in chasing down and destroying the enemy. As soon as one member of the team got a hold of one member of iG, the rest of SHRC piled on until the entire enemy squad met their doom. This style of play definitely worked better than it would otherwise because SHRC found a lead in the early game. Since most of the team was full of high damage dealers with low defensive stats, SHRC’s relentless playstyle could have been easily punished without a lead. Picking just one of Vayne, Kassadin, or Shaco is inherently risky; picking all three is full HAM. After repeatedly herding Invictus Gaming to their doom, inSec’s team deceived its way to the enemy nexus to close out their regular season with massive smiles on their faces. In order to properly understand what it is to Shaco the inSec way, we leave you with his final item build and the full VOD of the game to peruse.