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Most amount of burst damage on Shaco? (sorcerer's boots question)

CaptainMogan8008··3 votes·3,076 views

Hey All,

Shaco I am a Shaco main who has spent a lot of time tweaking my builds for different situations. Many of my build paths are based on Chinese Jester's Shaco guide, but I like to take different inputs from ALL Shaco players and fit them into my own builds. I think my builds comprise of 3 different styles (excluding AP Shaco, these builds are mainly for Jungle Shaco) Bruiser, Split Push, and Assassin.

Bruiser item 3153 item 3160 item 3102 item 3143 BOTRK, a few tank items, and Feral Flare. I usually find myself doing this build when I know that my team needs a tank, and I am able to spend the time in the jungle getting FF stacks. Yes I know, Shaco is not meant to be AFK farming in the jungle, but in certain situations I find this build to be useful.

Split Push item 3074 item 3172 item 3087 item 3006 Hydra, Statik, Zephyr and Zerk Greaves. This is when my team needs someone to split and take pressure off the map. Push the wave, taking towers, that sorta stuff.

Now here's the meat of my question.

I mainly play a lot of Assassin Shaco, which is just me going for the most amount of damage possible to take out either the ADC or the mid laner (in terms of late game team fighting). My early game with Shaco is pretty good, which lets me do a pretty simple build:

item 3031 > item 3074 > item 3142 > item 3078 IE (BF Sword) > Hydra (pickaxe) > Ghostblade (Brutalizer) > Trinity force. I find that these 4 offensive items, coupled with a defensive item (GA or Banshees) gives me the most amount of instantaneous burst damage. I usually completely SKIP a jungle item, because with this style I am just counter jungling and ganking, and I think that it is a waste of gold to spend it on a jungle item.

After a lot of testing, I find that my final build is IE, Hydra, Ghostblade, Trinity Force, GA, and drumroll item 3020 Sorcerer's Boots!item 3020

AND I HAVE NO IDEA WHY!

Why is it that with this combination of items, it just feels like I can burst a target faster with SB than with Zerkers? Is crit damage affected by magic penetration? I have absolutely no idea why this works out the best, and I would love for someone to help me. Thank you!

TL;DR

What items provide the most amount of burst damage for Shaco? I usually play IE, Hydra, Ghostblade, Trinity, and sorcerer's boots and I feel like that allows me (with my Deceive crit) to have the most amount of burst on a target. Why do sorcerer's boots work so well? Is crit affected by the magic pen?

9 Comments

Big Sexy Himself3 votes

Fairly sure it's because the damage you get from AD on your E ability is magic damage. Not only that, but your boxes and item 3087 are also magic damage. In the scenario which you run item 3020 , you are getting more burst and damage than if you just went item 3006 / item 3117 because you actually incorperate magic damage in a large amount of your kit / item choices.

CaptainMogan80081 votes

When I build sorcerer's boots I don't build statik shiv, and with Trinity/my runes I usually end up with about 60 AP at full build. That doesn't seem like it would make much of a difference? Or is that really what the sorcerer's boots are doing?

Big Sexy Himself1 votes

Even without static shiv, your AD is going to still add to your E ability's damage. Not only that, but typically when you are building AD, the enemy team typically isn't thinking of getting MR, which is what will mainly affect your extra burst from your E ability.

A Retarded Clown1 votes

my split push shaco build ->

Hydra Shiv Sheen IE boots LW - Tri

If they have a GA it just one shots them. If they don't their dead. If two carries stand next to each other justthe aoe takes half of their hp and your clone can do the other half.

One thing I love doing is Stealthing then releasing clone on one carry then bursting the other one who thinks they are safe.

12tales3 votes

Sorc boots are the only boots in the game that offer burst oriented damage, so literally every champion that deals any magic damage will maximize burst by picking up sorc boots. Whether or not that's worth giving up the increased deceive range offered by mobos or the better sustained damage output offered by zerk greaves is debatable. I personally doubt it.

I usually completely SKIP a jungle item, because with this style I am just counter jungling and ganking, and I think that it is a waste of gold to spend it on a jungle item.

I don't like this. To me, the best part about Shaco is the insane pressure he puts on neutral objectives. If you hit 30 minutes against a Shaco, you've got to shell out for a ward on Baron permanently, because if that goes dark for more than 20 seconds, Shaco eats it. Kills are nice, but global gold is what wins games, and passing up on a jungle item puts a huge damper on your team's ability to force fights or take advantage of kills.

Maximum burst damage on (AD) Shaco would be something like Lizard/Triforce/Shiv/BotRK/IE/Sorc Boots. That build isn't necessarily practical, tho - unless you can straight up one shot the enemy's best duelist, you're going to have a tough time actually splitpushing (also elder lizard is bad).

Also - crit damage is only magic damage if the thing critting is magic. For example, magic pen affects Shiv crits, but not auto attack crits.

CaptainMogan80081 votes

I can appreciate that point, I just don't feel a real noticeable difference when it comes to neutral camps. Maybe the way I described it was bad, with this build I'm not just running around looking for kills. Of course objectives are just that, main objectives that I look for, but a jungle item really doesn't seem to make that much of an impact to me because I don't really find myself needing to solo dragon/baron to that extent (if that makes sense). Usually we are doing dragon? Its a team effort. If I'm fed enough, especially with these items, a jungle item doesn't seem to make a difference.

12tales1 votes

I mean, a 0 stack Feral Flare on Shaco gives you around the same damage output to dragon/baron as two BotRKs on another champion. Even if it's a team effort, the increased speed can be really impactful. It turns situations where you're not sure if you can baron before the enemy jungler arrives into safe barons. It turns dragon for mid turret trades into free dragons. It lets you avoid a collapse that could end in a lost teamfight.

Also, you don't have to actually solo baron to make use of being able to. Imagine a team with Jax top, Shaco jungle and Zed mid - if the enemy team ever lost vision control of baron, they'd have so much pressure to get it back. Even if you're sitting in a brush with a pink ward waiting to get a pick, the fact that you could be three manning baron at any time lets you control the enemy team and force them to face check you.

If you don't have a jungle item, they can be a lot more relaxed about the whole thing. They've got extra time to group up and position and get vision because it takes you 5-10 seconds longer to actually kill baron.

CaptainMogan80081 votes

Yea that makes a lot of sense. Thanks for your input!

Also, with the burst build you suggested, is it important to still consider armor pen? I usually go with Ghostblade because it provides a lot of stats that are useful for Shaco. I know its all situational, but its still hard for me to prioritize one item over another if I'm thinking of an optimal build.

12tales1 votes

A lot of Shaco's burst damage is coming from the Statikk Shiv proc and Two-Shiv Poison, which is magic damage. If you care about sustained damage, then yeah, Ghostblade and LW are both great buys. My build is more of a theoretical 'how much damage can you do in .5 seconds' sort of thing, moreso than something it'd actually be prudent to build.

But yeah, in a more sustained damage oriented build, armor pen is quite useful. Especially if you're building Triforce over Shiv.

Regarding armor pen, keep in mind - even though it's not intuitive, flat armor pen is a function of health, not armor. Percentile armor pen is a function of both health and armor.

This is because the formula for effective health is basically Health multiplied by Armor (or magic resist). Since Ghostblade removes 20 of your enemy's armor, it reduces your enemy's effective health by Health times 20 Armor - Ghostblade will always give you the same value against a 2000 health enemy, whether they've got 50 or 300 armor.

So, when you're considering whether to buy Ghostblade or LW, look at how the enemy is itemizing - if you're trying to fight a Rammus with Thornmail and Frozen Heart, Ghostblade isn't going to do that much for you. If you're against a Mundo with Sunfire and Warmog's, Ghostblade is going to be insanely useful. If you're splitpushing against a glass cannon Master Yi, it might be better to go for items like Triforce, Shiv or Hydra that give you static damage values, because there's not much armor to penetrate.

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