Hybrid Shaco and the Minor Update
I have been an avid Shaco main for six years. While I was not given access to the PBE, I've been following along closely to the changes to the only character that is keeping me playing League of Legends. I was in the top 10 best Shaco players in all of NA at one time according to LoLSkill until I had a run of bad games and fell to Diamond 5. I've made multiple Shaco video guides and, while I am not as well-known as Shaclone or Pink Ward, they have been very well-received with some of them reaching 43.6k views with 505 likes and 23 dislikes, so I feel like I'm doing something right here. That said, I have a discussion topic for you, Gameplay.
How do you feel about Shaco's AP ratio on his Q? Generally speaking, Shaco deals around the same amount of physical and magical damage over the course of a fight. I'm going to be heavily looking in to a hybrid Shaco build using Echoes and Gunblade along with Shiv and Duskblade (or Infinity Edge, depending on which works out better) and perhaps a Lich Bane to accrue the most powerful hybrid burst-damage he can do. With three items that can be used immediately to deal damage paired with the current mastery changes adding bonus % damage from all these other factors (first hit, being in a bush, 8.5 flat lethality, etc.) I feel that hybrid may be a good way to go in terms of granting Shaco the burst damage necessary to kill targets without having them escape. While yes, he does have two AD ratios, he has four AP ratios. The combination of strong auto-attacks with hefty AP-oriented burst (and sustained damage in the case of JiTB) feels incredibly strong on paper. I've been playing around with it a little bit here and there since they released information about the changes and I feel confident that it will also translate well in-game. Whether or not it is stronger than pure AD or pure AP is yet to be seen, but I definitely think it'll give either of those two builds a run for their money.
The biggest problem to face would be the lack of penetration the build gathers, but it shouldn't be too much of a worry. Since you're aiming for burst damage, taking Sorc shoes is a really solid choice (Gunblade, Echoes, Lich Bane, Statikk, and Two-Shiv all deal magical damage). While you still won't have a ton of pen, even with taking hybrid pen runes, you're also a hybrid-damage character. If they build plenty of armour, you're still chunking them through magical damage and if they build plenty of MR, you're still chunking them through physical damage. If this proves to be a problem, I'll look to sub out Lich Bane for Abyssal Scepter.
Thoughts?
