Dear Shaco Mains

I've seen a lot of posts over my long time on the boards claiming this-or-that is op/broken and this-or-that is trash and needs a major buff. Because I'm a part time theorycrafter, played a ton of games vs both ad and ap shaco, played with shaco (ad, ap, tank) on my team, and have a strong macro understanding far exceeding my rank I will give you a few ideas to digest about your champion.

1. Shaco is not weak. He's only weak IF you play him incorrectly by trying to fulfill a role your champ isn't designed for. Which begs the question, just what is shaco's role? Shaco's role is to be an early game snowballer. Camp a lane and tilt them into useless oblivion. Counter-jungle and/or kill the enemy jungler at their camps to starve them out and put them way behind. Be in seemingly every lane at once - forcing enemies to base early and miss out on cs and gold. Blow their summoners so when your teammates hit 6, they have an easy kill. This is shaco's early game purpose. Not to be a spoiled brat and just farm till level 6 without ever ganking. You shouldn't have high farm - unless focused exclusively on counter-jungling and killing the enemy jungler. Even if that is your primary focus, you should still be ganking lanes early too.

2. Because essentially you are like elise - needing to snowball your TEAM early. But why? Why can't you sit back and farm like kha or rengar and still be a mid/late game carry burst assassin?

3. Well you can be a burst assassin mid/late game. But you need several things for that. See you are too squishy to go in like a kha or rengar. Instead, you rely on stealth and trickery. You need the right team comp with a frontline that can engage FOR you. Then you need to flank and use stealth to ambush a carry and burst them AFTER the other team has used all their burst and cc to stop your frontline's engage. Only then can you survive the damage that will be thrown at you and be able to assassinate an enemy carry. If your damage relies on your boxes due to your build, you are asking to be irrelevant mid/late game in teamfights - those things die in like 2 hits. No different from heimer turrets or zyra plants - if the enemy team focuses them, you will deal no damage besides aa's. It's for this very reason you are entirely dependent on your team being able to engage or absorb an engage 4v5 until you can sneak up to a carry without being chain cc'd and deleted. This is why it is oh so important you use the early game to snowball your laners; not just look after yourself.

4. While there are some champs shaco can duel mid/late, there's also plenty he can't. That doesn't make him weak.

5. Shaco can be used effectively in some scenarios as a splitpusher too thanks to his great escape tools if collapsed upon by several enemies. Doing this though requires warding, skill, and a team that can hold the enemy's attention despite being 4v5. It is not always okay to do even if you can hold up your end of the bargain; if your team can't stall 4v5 or keep the enemy's attention on them... do something different.

6. If your team doesn't have a frontline and top and support have already picked, you are making the game infinitely more difficult for your team by picking shaco jg. If they picked squishier carries/supports, then it's up to you to pick a tankier frontline champ or to be the one who made your team commit to 5 squishy carries who need to snowball or get blown away. It's not your team's fault. It's not tanks or tanky bruisers being too strong. It's 5 squishies failing to capitalize on their advantages and snowball early before the enemy team can get the resistances to survive your burst and the cc to lock you in place long enough for their carries to pop such squishy champs as shaco or jayce or zyra or sona. It has nothing to do with shaco being weak or strong. It's simply a well-rounded comp outscaling 5 squishy carries and engaging the fight properly.