@ShacoMains, Rather than getting upset about damage nerfs, how about we ask for more counterplay?

I keep advocating that Shaco's puff of smoke should be larger, more vibrant, better animated, and that his evil laugh upon disappearing should be audible in a huge range.

I commonly get the criticism from Shaco mains that "this would make Shaco unplayable" and "this would destroy Shaco's ability to gank".

Lets think about it for more than five seconds. Has Riot not already harmed Shaco's ganking ability? Is his invis duration not only shorter (until you get 4 points in Q), but his damage lower overall as well? If it was more obvious that Shaco was coming for you, then he could afford to be more powerful, yes? If the problem is that Shaco can burst you from invisibility, let us ask Riot to make it more explicit that that you're being ganked by him, so that you can have 1s+ to react or mentally prepare yourself for the clown. And if Shaco's unique tells were played up, then it means him successfully ganking is a demonstration of skill, yes? Despite being 'weaker' because of his tells, a successful gank means he outsmarted and outplayed his enemies, correct?

Look at Rengar. Rengar has a unique audio cue SFX, a unique warning indicator, and can be seen if he's not careful with his positioning. That's three tell-tale signs. Is having Shaco have a visible and audible clue that he's ganking going to make him totally impotent? He's still invisible. He can still sneak up on people. All those fools livestreaming and voice-chatting with friends and listening to music are actively handicapping themselves against such tell-tale signs. Even when that isn't the case, he's still invisible! He can come from any direction. It also pushes Shaco to gank from unexpected angles, so as to 'hide' the puff of smoke. And the audible evil laugh? Well, I should think that anyone who hears it would automatically go into panic mode. Imagine the paranoia of hearing that Shaco's around only for him not to jump on you. What's he planning? What's up to? Where is he? Playing up his unique tell-tale signs gives him a way to mind-game his enemies. And, most importantly, it gives his opponents a split-second more time to react... which was the point of the assassin updates in the first place, yeah?

I can't foresee Riot making Shaco any less unfun to play against by merely moving his numbers around. The issue is (and always has been) with invisibility and how it is presented in the game.

(As a side note, it blows my mind that and , two of the most notoriously problematic champs in League's history (because of their invisibility) don't have unique audio clues that alert players to their presence. Go figure.)

And no, I don't think having access to an item that lets you counter Shaco's invis is the same thing as Shaco's invis having good innate counterplay. Just because you could QSS the point-and-click stun that old Taric / old Sion had doesn't mean that the point-and-click stun had good counterplay.

But I'd love to hear other Shaco mains tell me why I'm wrong.