Oracle's Alteration Should Not Activate Boxes.
Hello, Pink Ward here, long time AP Shaco main living in mid to high diamond for the past couple of seasons. I come here today to talk about AP Shaco and the difficulties the playstyle has faced due to AD Shaco being too strong. AD Shaco is by far the best way to play Shaco. Whether it be Jungle, Full AD Assassin, Duskblade, Yomuus, one shots or Duskblade Trinity Bruiser, it is definitely the best way to play Shaco. This playstyle has very little counterplay, as Shaco's stealth is one of the more infuriating things about playing against the champion. Yet, the champion doesn't have much damage built into his kit. AD Shaco gets most of his damage through the items he snowballs into. And in the longterm of games, Shaco's W is fairly weak and maxed last. It's fairly worthless to AD Shaco players outside of jungle camps or an after thought. This is where my playstyle I've created comes into play.
As an AP Shaco main, I have always tried my best to think ahead and using my game knowledge I've obtained over years of playing, I'm able to predict what my opponents will do. Setting up boxes to try and get the best outcome out of situations. Yet, Shaco's boxes have one huge weakness. A FREE item that lasts 10 seconds, able to be bought by everyone on a team, Oracle's Alteration (Along with Control Wards effect.) How red trinket works against Shaco's traps are completely different from other traps in the game. Against Jhin, Teemo and Nidalee, when the red trinket effect is hovered over the traps, they become visible, reducing their vision and become attackable. Someone MUST attack them to kill them, or they will go back to being invisible once the Trinket/Control Ward effect wears off. It is different with Shaco's boxes. It activates the boxes and leaves them to die after the 5 seconds of lifespan they have after being activated. Take this clip vs Zed for example. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Xfo6MUG9jQ
In the clip you see Zed pop Oracles Alteration. He's being greedy, so he's running into all the boxes, tanking the damage from them. But any sane person would see the boxes and just walk away. Now take notice of the two boxes at the bottom, they do nothing. They get activated and die after 5 seconds. Those 2 boxes are effectively 30 seconds of the game taken away from Shaco. Red trinket completely reduces this playstyle to irrelevancy. Some great examples of Red trinket if it countered other abilities in the game would be if those two boxes were Teemo shrooms instead, what if they instantly explode when hovered by the red trinket, would that be fair? Or while chasing Singed, if activating red trinket would get rid of his poison trail as you chased him down. It would make these champions completely useless.
Some of you will say that Shaco's "playstyle" is AD Assassin, jump in and one shot. And yes, you are correct, but that's because Riot has nurtured Shaco into that. Every little thing they've done to Shaco has taken away from the box playstyle and pushed him towards an On Hit Assassin. They added on hit damage to backstab, on hit damage to Deceive (Shaco's Q), Changed E from Magic damage to Physical damage. This is the toxic playstyle that everyone hates to play against. Why would you want to argue for more players to play this playstyle? AP Shaco was a unique and intricate way to play Shaco because your playstyle would evolve depending on what your opponent would do or how they would play. And it was always easily counterable, don't chase shaco into his boxes, then he won't have the damage to kill you. But now, with anyone able to /purchase/ a free item, it just devolves the playstyle into nothing.
Riot's explanation of why this is how Red trinkets works is due to melees needing counterplay to Shaco boxes. Yet, there are countless melees in the game that can one shot boxes at level 9, usually the time an enemy will be buying a red trinket. Red trinket makes the Shaco matchup a complete joke because now boxes lose their fear effect and can be one shot. Any meta champion makes a joke out of Shaco boxes once scanned. Here are a couple of examples, Renekton One shots boxes with furried Q, Irelia can Q hops to any visible boxes once her Q is lvl 5, killing each box in one shot. Jax's counterstrike dodges box autos, then stuns them. Aatrox out ranges and one shot's boxes before level 9 due to mass amounts of aoe. Viktor is a ranged champion, so boxes don't effect him much anyway. My point is there are many ways to counter Shaco boxes that don't just make them a worthless ability. Without red trinket, I have a chance to fight back against other champions. The box fear is a main factor of the AP Shaco playstyle, but without it, you're forced to play AP Shaco as an inferior AP on hit Assassin.
My suggestion would to make red trinket have the same effect on boxes that pink wards used to have on them. Give vision of the boxes for Ranged champions to clear, or for lower IQ players to run into. Adding to this, in lane, minions aggro boxes as if they were minions to attack. So if they are revealed, minions will walk into them and activate the boxes. Many of you will probably complain, not wanting a "buff" to AD shaco, but this wouldn't be a buff to AD Shaco. Very few, if any, AD Shaco players will gain any benefit from a change to red trinket. Wrapping this up, this playstyle is supposed to counter stupidity and greediness. Red trinket is just a cheat sheet for the IQ test that are Shaco boxes.
Thank you for your time reading. Much love.
