Counters to Shaco?

Velasan·Dec 3, 2014·1 votes·596 views

So, I don't play shaco and am not that familiar with his abilities. I went to look it up on the wiki and got that you can't turn your back on him or he does extra damage.

However, it doesn't say much more than that besides that he falls off late game. How do you counter shaco and what champions are good counter picks?

I was playing a maokai and had a severe jg invasion problem against a shaco where he would just blink through walls and kill me whenever I was low from killing jungle monsters. I spent the whole game warding my own jungle everywhere and then his allies started coming with him preventing me from being able to get into lanes to gank anyone. I know he's beatable I just don't know how to do it... yet.

4 Comments

ChexMexDec 3, 20142 votes

the best way to counter shaco is to pay attention early, if he thrives early he will thrive late

as a jungler like lee or nunu who auto buys sightstone, just ward for your laners (1 in each lane is enough) and tell them to play semi safe shaco can only be in 1 lane at a time shaco invis has long cooldown relative to his tankiness shaco only has one reliable cc ability shaco has to choose between ad or ap shaco ad is easily kitable shaco ap is fluctuating burst shaco does not fit well in comps shaco players generally are inexperienced shaco players generally do not take flash so it is easy to capitalize on mistakes shaco players fail to realize the importance of dragon , if he ganks top go dragon

SiachiDec 3, 20141 votes

Late Game is a good counter, since he practically doesn't have a teamfight.

But on a more serious note, I've always considered Shaco the premier counter jungler: His shtick is kind of "I don't get a late game, but I can damn well starve them enough that they don't get one either."

I don't know if it's still a thing or not, but there used to be a meme of "Your Shaco Feeds, Their Shaco is Korean and has 8 kills before you finish your first buff"; a good Shaco is pretty scary, and even now I have a habit of overreacting when I see the other team has a Shaco.

So I guess what I'm trying to say, I personally wouldn't blame you for having a tough time against a Shaco that knows what he's doing.

I honestly can't help you much; I consider myself a bad jungler, and have a tough time against counterjungling myself (Like, you take one camp from me, suddenly I've died 12 times. All at once), so I should probably just leave the discussion to people who actually know what their doing.

I would wager to say that having a jungler who is good in duels might help out; Lee Sin comes to mind, especially with all his reveals, and if you can't take him on, you can ward jump to safety.

EDIT: I guess it's worth mentioning you can see his smoke effect from Decieve from the fog of war, so keeping watch for that could help you track him down.

Actually, just having the 'jump over wall on demand' ability seems like it'd be useful against a Shaco if he only engages by Decieving over the wall. However, just because Shaco's that kind of champion, a sufficiently prepared Shaco might have just sent in his clone to invade you and freak you out, and the Real Shaco would be right over the wall where you'll escape to. But that's probably not something you'd see in your average game, Shaco still has probably the best potential to play mind games with his opponent.

That reminds me, I should look up a video of good Shaco outplays/mindgames/whatever-you-want-to-call-it.

DrCyanideDec 3, 20141 votes

Kill him at his first buff.

Shaco's, for better or worse, have it in their head that they can solo anything level 1 with enough boxes. Each box, when placed, leaves a puff of smoke that can be seen through the fog of war. Watch for that, and you'll know where he's starting. Wait a little bit after mobs spawn, and kill him.

Proceed to eat his jungle (and him) alive.

OneSlickPhonyDec 3, 20141 votes

Wards.

I shit you not, wards are easily his biggest counter in the early game. If a Shaco can't gank, he's going to be completely useless. All you need to do is ward and play safe (Stay somewhat close to tower, only a fed Shaco will be able to tower dive you early.)

If you're jungling against him, I suggest playing a champion with a bullshit, stupidly broken, overloaded kit such as Lee Sin as the other guy said. Warding your buffs and and counter-ganking help a lot also.

Another good strategy is to have a CC-heavy team composition ("Just CC pink ward the him spears the dodge interrupt the ult!") because if a Shaco Q's in at the wrong time, he can be severely punished for it because he's squishy as hell and out of an escape.