@Shaco mains: Let's try and make the best of a bad situation

Alright, so we all know Shaco's traditional AD build was nerfed fairly hard with the recent changes. All I've seen/heard from other Shaco players (and some non-Shaco players) is that Shaco is now gutted trash. And while I'm not one to jump to reckless conclusions on the first day, I do admit that he feels a hell of a lot weaker now, especially early game where he previously shined. Riot apparently wanted to cut down on his very powerful early game advantage, and in doing so they've forced Shaco players to live up to the reality: Shaco as we know him is dead.

So what can we do about this? Aside from crying on the forums I mean (because we've already done that, and Riot probably gets it by now). I think we should take this opportunity to adapt to Shaco's new style, which I believe is just as strong in the right hands as old Shaco was. This power shift away form the early game could be an opportunity for more exotic Shaco builds and strategies to come to the fore, and I'd like to gather the opinions of other Shaco mains on what you've found to be most effective, whether it be in item builds, jungle clearing, ganking, whatever.

Some things I've noticed while playing the new Shaco:

First/early clear Remains relatively unchanged in terms of speed. In fact I'd go so far as to say that, if you're running the right runes/masteries, it's a bit faster now. What I've been doing is starting on blue buff, placing 3 boxes there, and a 4th box near gromp. Because gromp (and krugs) now spawn 15 seconds later than buff camps, the best course of action now is to start on a buff, smite it, and haul ass over to the other camp before your box dies.

Where ever you start, red or blue, 15 seconds is plenty of time to finish the buff. The small camp will take more time now, yes, but overall I'd say it's a healthier, safer clear. Gromp takes about 3 hits to kill a box now, as opposed to 2 hits before. Krugs take a lot more time, but give more gold overall and the small splits do relatively minimal damage. I usually focus the small krug first while the box tanks the large one, which leaves me with around 95% HP afterwards; very similar to pre-6.22 Shaco's clear.

One thing of note now is that it's basically impossible to clear the chicken camp now before your completed jungle item or similar powerspike. They simply do too much damage and take far too long, even with a box to tank. It's best just to ignore the camp completely and focus on other camps. Murkwolves are still easy to take, and if I start red buff, I always go red > krugs > wolves > blue > gromp/scuttle depending.

This clear takes approximately 3 minutes, assuming you make good use of Backstab. Old Shaco could get away with a 2:45 clear at times, but 10-15 seconds doesn't really make much difference considering other junglers will be struggling a lot more than Shaco, who still has boxes to tank for him.

Runes/Masteries The way I see it, cooldown reduction has become a very VERY important stat for Shaco now. Q now grants a 2.5 second reduction after a successful attack, effectively making the base cooldown increase meaningless. However, once you start to rack up CDR, the power of that cooldown refund becomes apparent. Mid-late game, your Q is basically on a 5 second cooldown, stealths you for 4.5 seconds, and does respectable damage.

Because of this focus on the mid-game, I now take scaling CDR blues for 15% CDR at level 18. When combined with CDR from items such as Lich Bane, Black Cleaver, etc. you hit that CDR cap very easily. Otherwise, runes are basically unchanged for me, though I'm still experimenting. I'd say it's still worth taking some AD reds and attack speed quints if you're going AP Shaco, because early game your auto attacks are still going to be your main form of clearing. WIth Shaco's early game being weaker, he needs the extra AD/attack speed to survive in the jungle so he can transition better into mid-game.

With runes, I run a standard 12/18 page as before, but I now take Sorcery over Fury, Fresh Blood over Feast, and Double-Edged Sword from the Ferocity tree. Combined with Assassin and Merciless from the Cunning tree, you're looking at around 15% extra damage to all targets (less if they're above 40% HP, but still quite a lot of free damage).

I've also been loving the new Greenfather's Gift mastery. While Dangerous Game has saved my ass many times before, the bonus damage from moving in and out of brush makes clearing even easier, since it's based off the target's current HP. A good strategy now when you're taking your buff camps is to walk in and out of the brush between auto attacks to constantly reapply the extra % damage. The buff lasts a while too, so when ganking you can often add a bit of extra burst if you run from a brush into lane.

Ability Leveling This one will be short and sweet: basically, max Q now if you're planning on ganking, otherwise max E. Shaco is no longer about constant ganks/invades, and a slightly higher emphasis on farming is required to reach his new powerspike. While a high-ganking style is still possible, remember that your have to be more conservative with your Q. Sometimes it might be worthwhile to save it completely and just walk into lane like any other jungler.

Obviously this varies greatly depending on the situation, but it essentially comes down to how often you want to gank or invade. Because E's % damage scales with Shaco's level rather than points in the ability, maxing E second isn't too bad because of its amazing scalings with AD and AP.

Item Builds While this area is still under heavy experimentation, I've been having a lot of success with the following build: . This is your core now. After this it's situational, but this build offers a ton of burst on both Q and E while providing a huge amount of movement speed.

This extra MS is crucial now that Shaco's stealth doesn't last as long early, but it also helps late-game when you're trying to run away. At max rank, your stealth lasts for 4.5 seconds; Mobi Boots kick in after 5 seconds of not taking damage. Therefore, even if you Q while under assault from multiple enemies, as long as you're not destealthed, Mobi Boots will allow you to run to safety even after your stealth is over. Not only that, but early Mobi Boots let you gank much easier even with a low duration stealth due to the massive extra movespeed helping you get in position.

I have yet to try a regular AD Shaco build, so anyone experimenting with that should feel free to post results here!

Conclusions While I do believe Shaco was nerfed overall, I'm also finding that I don't hate the rework as much as I thought I would. At the end of the day, I still love playing the clown, and I will be with him through thick and thin. Motion, of necessity, involves a change in perspective. What may seem like a step backwards might just be the catalyst to a massive leap forwards. Here's hoping that these Shaco changes are the gateway to bigger and better things.