@Riot Still Plans to Update Shaco?

Introduction/Preface

Read the conclusion at the bottom for a TL;DR overview of my points

I read in the assassin update post, is a prime candidate for updates, and I think I can speak for all Shaco mains when I say that this is a cause for great concern. I'd like to lend a voice to a few concerns that I suspect most Shaco mains would share. Firstly, Shaco is fairly unique in that most of his skills are iconic, and as such are difficult to change without compromising his identity. Secondly, derived from his unique skills is a well-defined play style that many Shaco enthusiasts enjoy, which may be altered if his skills are changed dramatically. Finally, from the given justification for assassin updates on Riot's assassin update thread, Shaco does not qualify for a large scale update, and only small alterations should be made, if any at all.

Constructing A Clown: The Identity of Shaco

One of the biggest concerns of any long standing Shaco main is that what made us fall in love with the champion is lost. Unlike most champions, when one thinks of Shaco, they don't think of one or two iconic skills. His entire kit defines him, with one minor exception.

1. Invisible blinking from Q? Iconic to Shaco.
2. Invisible box traps? Iconic to Shaco.
3. Creating a clone with his ultimate that he can control? Iconic to Shaco.
4. Flanking and backstabbing with burst damage? What could possibly represent Shaco better?

This leaves his E (Two-Shiv Poison) but even this is constrained. If Riot wanted to change his E into something else, they would have to realize that despite it being his least iconic skill, he maxes it first. Whatever replaces it has to likewise entice Shaco into maxing it first, or it will be a nerf. There is little in the way of room for change without removing or altering core aspects of his kit.

This is a multifaceted issue, because if one dramatically changed his iconic skills, they would be compromising his current play patterns, which neither cause issues in terms of game health nor design. The scope of his changes, then, must both remain minor and confined.

Is Change Even Necessary? Not only is Shaco a poor choice for an update because few skills can actually be changed, he is a poor choice because change is utterly unnecessary. As previously stated, he is neither overpowered nor underpowered, nor is he unhealthy in terms of play style. Riot's criteria for his inclusion on the potential update list perplexes me because he fits none of them. Their criteria is as follows:

1. The assassin's play style must be healthy
2. The assassin's play pattern must be somewhat telegraphed, or otherwise offer counterplay to the opponents
3. The assassin must be able to meaningfully contribute to the team's victory

In response to the first point, Shaco's play pattern is certainly healthy. While yes, his Q is powerful, he must opt to use it offensively or defensively. He cannot do both. Meaning, if he uses it as a gapcloser to assassinate someone, he has little in the way of escaping. If he chooses to use it as an escaping mechanism, reaching a target to kill them becomes more challenging. Furthermore, his stealth can be revealed, which renders peeling Shaco off of his target a relatively straightforward endeavor.

In respond to the second point, there is both an audio que and a puff of smoke (visible even if you didn't have vision of Shaco) whenever he uses Deceive, which gives his opponents the opportunity to use their stealth revealing mechanics and telegraphs his attempt of an assassination, both for ganks and teamfighting. Unlike a champion like Rengar, he doesn't fly across the map after his "warning" and there is ample time to react to him. Furthermore, he doesn't have on-demand, point and click CC, meaning that he does not have the health issue many assassins have of CCing a target then bursting them down before the CC wears off, a la Rengar/LeBlanc/Pre-nerf Kassadin/Pre-nerf Talon.

To the final point, I would suggest that not only can his strong early game presence sway a game, he can also split push late game for objectives and is quite adept at securing/stealing creature objectives such as Dragon/Baron. On top of this, he can pull off picks, and can assassinate in team fights if the need presents itself. He is more than capable of carrying, and short of that, still contributes to his team meaningfully.

In Conclusion Shaco's changes must be minor in both scope and magnitude to preserve his identity, and they would accomplish very little because change isn't particularly necessary. Therefore, Shaco is a poor candidate for a major update during the assassin patch.