NIDALEE BUILD GUIDE

 

Introduction

Pros:

• Very strong laning phase vs most melee champions

• Highly mobile, can apply insane pressure top lane and still get away

• Very hard to flat out counterpick

• Very strong mid game if you're not behind. Wins pretty much every matchup by level 11.

• Even if you're behind, you can still always splitpush

Cons:

• Can be vulnerable pre 6 to strong ganks and/or tough lane matchups

• She gets outscaled by a lot of top laners making her vulnerable to the classic "win lane, lose game"

• Her sustain is very mana hungry

• One of the only champions that completely lacks cc, other tops have better teamfight presence (somewhat fixed by Iceborn Gauntlet)

 

Summoner Spells

Flash is great for being able to stay safe in early lane because of the relatively short distance to tower and instant reaction time to avoid skillshots/cc's. It will always be standard because of the ability to go through impassable terrain that's even longer than the actual range of the spell.

Unless you severely outplay your opponent, you need ignite for kill potential in lane. Not much else to be said. Take it if you want to kill your lane. Leave it if you don't.

Exhaust & Flash

Flash is great for being able to stay safe in early lane because of the relatively short distance to tower and instant reaction time to avoid skillshots/cc's. It will always be standard because of the ability to go through impassable terrain that's even longer than the actual range of the spell.


In lane, exhaust can help you survive all-ins but flash is far better for offensive potential. exhaust mostly shines in teamfights where you can exhaust a high damage target diving your backline like Rengar, Tryndamere.

Flash & Barrier

Flash  is great for being able to stay safe in early lane because of the relatively short distance to tower and instant reaction time to avoid skillshots/cc's. It will always be standard because of the ability to go through impassable terrain that's even longer than the actual range of the spell.

Barrier can be great in any build to survive hard lanes. This is especially effective vs executes like Darius. Pantheon.

By taking barier you give up pretty much all kill potential and are expecting to not lose lane the best you can and make it to midgame. This is basically the definition of top lane AP nid.

However when playing AD nid it's more of taking the secure win without the snowball potential. This means more passively pushing people out of lane over time and taking towers, not snowballing off of kills.

 

ZIGGS BUILD GUIDE

Introduction

Spamhappy little guy that dishes out harsh poke and harass, and has one of the coolest ults in the game! Incredible AOE waveclearing and teamfight potential, especially in small spots and places on the map. Ziggs is a very good champion and can dish out horrendous turmoil and chaos for your enemies. Incredibly adorable too, if you like that kind of thing. :D

Pros:

• Consistent Damage

• Amazing Waveclear

• Wtf burst if you land everything correctly.

• Long range ult nuke(literally) that can kill enemies from afar, or steal baron/dragon if timed right.

• Constant poke that in my opinion rivals the old AP kog'maw

Cons:

• Runs out of mana easily

• Not so reliable escape

• Can lose a lot of damage in teamfights if you miss his skills

• Lacks heavy CC outside of I guess a stun from the knockback of his satchel

• Easy to dodge ult if not point blank.

 

Summoner Spells

Flash Great for escaping or repositioning for throwing more bombs to blow peoples faces off. What its regularly used for on almost everyone.

Ignite Self explanatory for most ap mages, that little extra burst to kill your opponents, or to reduce healing of certain champs, like Swain/etc.

Only other summoner spell I would even think of considering is Teleport, on the rare cases you find that Ignite wouldn't be of use or you could live without it.

Teleport to protect turrets or to gank/cleanup other lanes from wards in bushes, great way to have control around the map if you know how/when to use it properly.

 

SONA BUILD GUIDE

 

Guide Introduction

In this guide I will discuss a Support Item / Aura babysitter supportive role for bottom lane. Your job is to buy the majority of the wards and get map control with Vision Ward and Oracle's elixir, feed all/most of the minions to your lane partner, try to zone out the enemy from getting last hits and exp, and try to support your team in any way possible.

This type of build won't net you many kills since you don't have great damage. Support Sonna is not a DPS carry. You rely on your teammates to protect you and do the killing while you buff them. However, even though you don't do much damage in the late game, your early game damage is pretty good. If you can afford to be aggressive in lane, you've pretty much won that lane.

Your ideal score would be 0 kills, 0 deaths, and a lot of assists. Taking kills from your carries is not preferred. But sometimes, you have no choice - kill them immediately or risk your carry of dying. You shouldn't be killed as much because you'll be behind the back row in most team fights, and wards should be safe to place if you use Clairvoyance . However, do not hesitate for a moment to sacrifice yourself to save an ally. Your death means less to the enemy team than your carry's death.


During team fights, your biggest contribution will be your ult, Crescendo. Knowing when and where to use it is crucial. Typically, you will want to trap as many people as possible, but there are exceptions. You may want to save it for an assassin that jumps onto your carries. You may want to save it to stun the enemy jungler to prevent him from using Smite on Baron Nashor so your team can steal it. You may want to save it for Fiddlesticks that's charging his ult or Katarina, etc. You may want to save it for the enemy Jax behind your team even though the rest of the enemy team is in front of you. It all really depends on what your team needs. Do not be afraid to use Flash to get into position quicker.

 

Summoner Spells

Flash

Flash is the ultimate "get away from me" / positioning ability. A great defense spell. If they dive onto you, you just Flash out of the way while your team focuses on that person.

Flash can also be used offensively to chase people down after a winning team fight, or a surprise Flash into ult for an easy kill. Or you can tower dive and Flash out of tower range before the tower kills you.

Don't be afraid to do Flash, Crescendo in team fights if you have to. That 0.5 second delay could cost the team fight. It is better to stun your opponents before they get a chance to use their skills. This way their spells aren't already ticking off of cooldowns while they're stunned. Flash can give you the positional advantage to do this.

You can also do Song of Celerity, Flash, Power Chord to chase and slow.

Exhaust

A lot of supports are starting to carry these summoners spells now to assist their carry to win bottom lane, and help in team fights later on in the game. Don't be afraid to use this at level 1 when invading to secure a kill. Slow them so it takes longer for them to walk to a wall and Flash over.

Clairvoyance

Less and less support get this due lane aggression, and the fact that most of the time Clairvoyance doesn't have that much of an impact in major team fights. And people are learning to buy and use wards. But it can still be used. Use it to scout for level 1 ganks. Use it to follow the enemy jungler around. Use it in team fights or ganks so they can't bush juke. Use it to safely place wards. Use it to protect someone pushing a tower. Use it to scout Baron when they killed your Baron ward. Use it for Nocturne's ult. You should always use Clairvoyance at 0:09 into the game between the enemy summoner platform stairs and the enemy nexus to scout their direction and starting items.

MASTER YI BUILD GUIDE

 

Introduction

Pro's

• One of the fastest characters in the game (base move speed).

• Some of the best steroids in the game.

• Slow immunity (think red buff, ashe Q, frozen mallet, tryndamere slow, etc)

• Gap closer that also grants Yi temporary invincibility (he's untargettable during alpha strike)

• Some of the highest and most under-rated lane sustain.

• Snowballs incredibly well and can fill a hybrid melee carry/assassin role at the same time.

Con's

• Naturally squishy.

• No utility that benefits the team whatsoever.

• Long cooldowns by default. Thankfully this is fixed with the way Yi's ultimate functions.

• Not getting a kill in a team fight early enough can mean losing all your steroids for the rest of the fight.

• Mana hungry if you spam your abilities early on.

• Item dependant

• A bit all-in.

 

Early Game/Laning Phase

During lane phase master yi is looking mostly for passive farm unless the enemy slips up. Your main ability to trade comes from combining alpha strike + double strike proc on an enemy and activating wuju style for extended trades.

When you land around 40-50% hp you'll want to back off and meditate to regain some health. Try not to be too overly aggressive when meditate is on cooldown though because it is your main lifeline if you get into a sticky situation.

You lack an emergency escape outside of summonerspells until level 6, so try to keep that in mind when extending in lane. Once you're level 6 you have both greater all in potential as well as the ability to disengage better, especially against slow based top lanes like Lee Sin or Nasus.

 

Runes

attack damage10.80

armor12.69

magic resist12.06

Life Steal %4.00%

Attack Speed Marks (9): Some flat attack damage is good to help with early trades and farming and it goes well with the lifesteal quints. Also more AD makes Yi's wuju passive bonus stronger.

Flat Armor Seals (9): Master Yi will need flat armor seals, as do nearly all top lane champions, in order to compete and hold his own in the lane as well as aid his survival later in the game.

Magic Resist Glyphs (9): Flat MR glyphs to reduce the amount of magic damage you take in general but especially early game. If you're against a lane that does no magic damage, or are jungling, swap these out for MR per level.

Lifesteal Quintessences (2) : These allow Yi to sustain himself a little bit during the lane phase while he farms up and aid in his in-fight sustain later on after you've built some damage.

Attack Damage Quintessences (1) : Again, extra AD is good for his Q, E and Farming.

TEEMO BUILD GUIDE

 

Summoner Sets

Ignite - My preffered offensive summoner spell that allows you to out damage top laners with ease, naturally works in conjunction with your DoTs and is a great anti heal tool. The improved Ignite also is perfect for hybrid builds

Flash - Even after the slight nerf it is still an amazing tool to utilize, due to its versatile nature it can be used offensively or defensively to alter the outcome of fights

Exhaust - I only pick exhaust when my foe at top lane naturally counters me (such as ones listed in an upcoming section) as sometimes Blinding Dart isn't enough to shut down some characters

Ghost - Since you have Move Quick, Ghost seems a bit of an overkill, a worthy alternate to Flash within dominion, but thats about it

Teleport - Solo top, will always be a farming lane, where both champions try to kill the towers without getting themselves owned. Teleport allows you to contribute to global objectives and punish enemies that are in poor positions. You also can use Teleport on mushrooms which makes it a tasty choice on Teemo

 

Starting Build(s)

With the alterations of costs on several items, starting items are now much more versatile and allow you to switch'n'swap what you purchase depending what your lane rival and enemy jungler champions are, vs a majority of characters, Dorans Blade a Health Potion will work just fine, but sometimes Boots are required to match your opponents movespeed and outrun any ganking attempts, characters such as Shyvana or Udyr are good examples of junglers (or even laners) that going boots first is a good option.

Sadly due to the ever increasing popularity of stealth junglers, starting with a pink ward cuts of one path of enemy Evelyns or Shacos can approach you from, however boots usually can be a better choice.

The only real trinket option for top laners early on is the physical ward, however once you reach the mid / late game and have a garden full of shrooms, then switch your trinket for the sweeper to help clear out wards when controlling baron or ambushing targets

WARWICK BUILD GUIDE

 

Introduction

Intro

In this guide i try to explore two things, 1 ease in playing, 2 adapting to variable change.

Playing the game for fun is well and good, but when your on edge with 1 hit point to go before your die on your first rounds in the jungle, life can get a bit hectic i try to simplify everything.
Luckily Warwick is one of the strongest junglers when it comes to surviving jungle monsters.

Thinking outside the box and planning on your, your team mates and your enemys actions is what makes league of legends such a great game, pulling out some random move that wrecks the opponent is why were all here. Sadly most of the planning side comes from experience, however i will try to shed some light on the general thought process and hopefully help you to think the same!

Starting

Warwick needs to invade, be it wraiths or more, his initial jungle is quite slow and this just helps him keep up.

if the jungler starts red, u can also steal there blue buff.
Step 1 - Buy your items and run for their wraith bush and ward it.
Step 2 - take wraiths (leave 1 wraith and if you have time take there red, (giving redbuff to top and mid is an excellent way of making up for warwicks late ganks.
Note:- Vs Leesin/mundos blue can be taken the same way, tho riskier if your blue side as the adc or support usually still scouts it, use your ward in the bush that sees golem, hope u dont get seen.

After this, run to wolves, blue, wraiths, wolves, red, golems wraith, so-on.

NOTE:- Some junglers' are fast with the new smiteless leash, some junglers can realise you stole their red, run to your blue and jack it faster then you can take down wolves, pay attention to your ward!!
If they see that you have taken there jungle and run straight for your red, (your ward will see this)
Just rally your lanes and get first blood :).

Besides this, Jungle as hard and as fast as you can, keep watch of over extended lames or close 1v1s u could jump on.
(before level 6 look for sure things, or only gank with red, wasting time at this level will result in really bad delays in your power at 6)

Once your 6 start ganking with ult.
(When their is 20-15 seconds left on the cooldown start maping out your next gank)
"if you fail to plan, you plan to fail" MyGeoTeacher. (i failed lol)

Team Fights.

If you can engage with ult, that's great, watch out for CC tho.
(Rare occasions: Use your ult as a flash. I was on the wrong side of a wall, i ulted a person with a banshess vale just to get to the other side, some calls are right for the wrong reasons)

If not try to run at the adc or ap, Q constantly to keep up health and Ult later after the CC is gone.

The Perfect Ult would be Q W R Q, getting the first Q off, allows you to do some damage, W allows team mates to inflict as much damage as they can, and finishing with a Q can usually get you a kill :D!

If your at really low health, sit in the back line spaming W and Q.
Just like critplank if you know what i mean. (his is Q E tho)

Objectives

Dragon:- Around 7-8 mins you should be on your first back, picking up madreds razor and boots a pink ward and a couple of potions. Pink dragon and gank bot, with help from them you should easily be able to take down dragon.

Baron Nashor:- after your core items, baron becomes easy to tank, however your going to want your team there for damage and safety.
The right time for baron comes with experience, after a strong ace, or after they push your base for too long, if they back as your team comes up, its an excellent time to take that desperate baron to win the game.
(if you want to rush Barron early get some armor and life steal even just a chain vest can make a whole lot of difference)

 

VEIGAR BUILD GUIDE

 

Introduction

Veigar is one of the best and strongest AP characters in League of Legends.. I mean Veigar IS the best and strongest AP character. That is, if you know how to play him efficiently enough. Veigar can be lethal in the hands of a proficient Veigar player. In this guide i will show you a different way of playing Veigar than most people, and it is a veritably dynamic style of play. I've played Veigar for about a year and a half now and i can say that i understand and have the logic behind Veigar. The mindset of a pro Veig player. I will update this when new AP champs come out or when they change Veig.

 

Summoner Spells

Ignite is mostly used early game, (laning phase) to burst down the enemy. Late game, not as useful.

Flash is just OP. Used to flash in and stun an entire team, escape, juke. All that other stuff 

 

Pros & Cons

Pros

• One of the best nukers in the game.(Highest Dmg output)

• Area of effect stun, crowd control

• Can farm AP which scales into skills

• An anti mage ult

• Deadly late game

• An excellent ganker

• Wide range of defensive items and STILL have a lot of AP due to his Q farm

Cons

• Low sustain early game

• One of the squishiest AP champion

• Weak early game

• Low mana pool

• Often targeted in team fights

• Not very defensive

• Magic resist counters Veig

• Misplacement of stun will probably result in death late game

• Extremely easy to dodge W (small area of effect) (huge damage)

Throughout this guide, i will show you how to "fix" or adjust his cons. Meaning i will inform you what to do to erase his cons.

 

Early Game

Early game Veigar sucks. There is 3 things that define him in lane.
1. Veigar has to last hit minions with his Q to build up that permanent AP so that he may end the mortals lives later on in the game. This hogs up the cooldown on his main damage spell in lane and makes him extremely mana hungry.
2. Veigar is a weak trader, his combo costs a lot of mana and is heavily dependant on his AP which he won't have much of in lane.
3. Veigar is really easy to gank for, his stun is pretty long range and is very easy to land making Veigar a great mid for his junglers.

These 3 points are what make Veigar the lane bitch he is. Due to his trading being sub-par and the importance of his Q farming, trading with the enemy champion should be a last resort and his laning should be focused on just last hitting. Obviously you don't want the enemy to realize how terrified you are of them so you do need to play a sort of mind game that shows you are willing to fight(when you really ain't). Most plays made against your enemy should be with the aide of your jungler since you can just plop your stun down and the jungler will do most of the work.

Your first back you will want to get your hands on or  depending on your match up.

 

Mid Game

Midgame is pretty much the same thing as early with the added complications of dragon, and skirmishes and such. Things Veigar would prefer to avoid in favour of farming, obviously that isn't a choice since this is a team game and not a Veigar game. Once you have a DFG you can seriously threaten enemy champions, with the aid of any of your team you can take out someone relatively easily with the combo. You won't need help against enemy AP's who don't itemize specifically against you and just build AP glass cannon.

 

Late Game

When it comes to doing Baron or laying a siege on a tower your job as Veigar will be to attack the tower(duh.) but more importantly zone/look for opportunities. Your stun trigger finger should be itching at all times looking to  someone for harass, or full combo if it is a squishy that gets caught by it. Try not to be too reckless though since Veigar is easy to catch out himself especially by junglers like Vi, that is where an Hourglass would come in handy if you instantly pop that if they jump on you potentially baiting out enemy cooldowns.

Don't be afraid to flash engage for your team should you need too, Veigars  pretty much 0 counterplay except for an extremely fast reaction flash to get out so you can almost be certain if you have flash up late game as Veigar you can get a kill/engage.

KASSADIN BUILD GUIDE

Kassadin is a melee AP caster, a very strong roamer and assassin due to his ability to blink very often. He is a sort of anti-caster with Void Stone and Null Sphere, which is why he goes middle lane - to lane against other casters. With his high mobility, ganks will naturally happen while laning. Your aim as Kassadin is to be able to disrupt the enemy team - especially the AP and AD carries - with your high burst and long silence/slow. He has recently seen a surge of competitive play because of his strong roaming and snowball potential.

He also looks cool and is the only Void-related champion that isn't trying to destroy the world. In lore, he is the leader of a group called The Preservers of Valoran, warriors that have devoted their lives to stopping the Void invasion.

I'm writing this guide because a lot of people in solo queue ask how I decide what to do in certain matchups and team fights, and more importantly why on earth I build so much health. (Translated version: warmogs kass troll pls report) I believe that Kassadin can be effective both as a squishy all-in assassin and as a tanky disruptive anti-mage.

 

Skill Order

Generally you want to max Force Pulse over Null Sphere first because of the higher base damage, the fact that it's AoE, and the stronger slow.

Level 2
In either of the skill builds, you need to decide between Force Pulse or Nether Blade at level 2.

Nether Blade

• Enables you to last hit caster minions at tower (Very important)

• Insane mana regeneration (An extra 50 mana per wave)

Force Pulse

• Easier to escape and enable jungler ganks

• More burst damage

I take Force Pulse at level 2 if my opponent has started with less potions or otherwise has less health sustain than I do OR when I know there are going to be early jungle ganks. If the enemy laner is pushing against me, I stick with Nether Blade as it allows for easier last hitting under tower.

 

Mid Game

Make sure the enemy wraiths bush stays warded, this is a very important ward for both the jungler and mid laner as wraiths are a large source of income for the jungler; they will be there often.

Coordinate ganks and objectives with your team. If you team won't group, ask nicely in chat. Communicate timers with your team. Red/Blue spawn 5 minutes after death, Dragon spawns 6 minutes after, and Baron Nashor spawns 7 minutes after. To make recording timers a bit easier, you can turn chat timestamps on by pressing Escape -> More Options -> Show Timestamps. Keep harassing and pressuring the enemy laner while you're waiting for your team to group - this should be a bit easier now that you have Riftwalk.

Priority list for mid-game objectives: Baron Nashor > Middle Inner Turret > Dragon > Middle Outer Turret > Top/Bot Inner Turret > Bot Outer Turret > Top Outer Turret > Buffs

Middle towers are extremely important due to the vision and defense they provide. Without a middle tower to fall back on, the entire jungle - and by proxy the entire map - becomes considerably more dangerous for that team.

Dragon is marked by the large skull in the bottom river, and grants its slayer 190 global gold. His attacks slow the attack speed of whoever they hit and deal true damage over time, so be mindful of your health. Move out of melee range if you get low on HP - he attacks whoever is closest to him. Remember to stop DPS at ~1000 HP - this makes it easy for your jungler to secure the Dragon kill with Smite. Never attempt Dragon without your jungler when the enemy team is present.

Make sure your team keeps Dragon warded and consider invading the enemy jungle to steal their buffs. If you see the enemy mid laner and jungler are going top, consider gathering your team and taking Dragon - your team will win a 4v2. A common move to pull off mid-game is to gank a member of the enemy team - so they are at a disadvantage - then immediately head to Dragon. If you're going to gank bottom lane, here's how I would recommend doing so.

 

FIDDLESTICKS BUILD GUIDE

 

Introduction

This is a jungle fiddlesticks guide. I will assume that the reader has a fair level of knowledge about the game. Thus my terminology may not be intelligible to a reader who lacks a fair bit of experience with this game. If this applies to you, I suggest that you play more League of Legends before attempting to read this guide.

If you can master fiddle, you will have a lot of control over your games. He is a strong jungler(although he is mana dependent) with great dragon control and unbelievably strong ganks after level 6. With his ultimate he is incredibly strong in team fights and without it he still brings a lot of utility to his team. Fiddle also has great control of baron nash. Once you have a deathcap, a blue buff, and ~ level 12, you can grab an ally and 2-man nash really effectively. He brings a lot to a team.

Fiddle is a really difficult champion to learn. He is fairly easy to master mechanically, but a great deal of decision making skill goes into playing him. You have to learn to make a lot of decisions very quickly. It takes awhile to develop an intuition about how to play him, but the result is extremely rewarding.

Hello friends, I am Entheomancer. I reached a top elo of 2240 elo season one using fiddle(and nocturne). In season two I reached a top elo of 2278 playing jungle. I haven't done too much in season 3 other than reaching diamond 5 on a smurf, but I recently got a request to update this guide while ingame as fiddle. Moreover I noticed that the other featured fiddle guide differs greatly from my own playstyle. So here is my method of playing fiddle.

Are you afraid?

 

Masteries

Take 21 offense, it's really good for closing kills when you gank. The 21 utility approach allows for more ganking, and thus more opportunities to push towers, but I've found that I close the kill much less frequently using 21 utility; and that pisses me off.

For the 9 points in utility, obviously you take the buff duration mastery for your blue buffs. I also get 2 in the activated item cd because your hourglass cooldown is extremely important, even when you don't have your ult.

 

Runes

Reds - Mpen is standard for casters. It will make you scale a lot better with AP.

Yellows - Need armor for the jungle!

Blues - Cdr blues are far and away the best choice for fiddle. I think flat cdr is a better choice than scaling because they help a lot with early buffs/dragons and allow you to gank more frequently with your ultimate. Alternatives are: flat AP, scaling AP, scaling cdr.

Quints - Flat AP quints give you a good early game balance in conjunction with cdr blues. They are really good at boosting your damage for early ganks. There are a lot of Alternatives for quints, since quints are versatile. To list a few: Move speed(if you feel like being really cute), Magic pen, health, % exp gain.

 

Summoner Spells

Smite
Flash

Explanation:
Smite: Every jungler should take smite, even if you do not need it to clear the jungle. You need it for buff control and dragon/baron control.

Flash: Flash is essential for escaping certain situations and re-positioning your ultimate. Sometimes you can use it offensively in conjunction with your basic abilities(ie. flash then fear/drain), but mostly you want to try to save it for your ultimate or for escaping.

SHACO BUILD GUIDE

 

Introduction

Before we start, every Shaco player should have a specific MINDSET. Having a mindset while playing League of Legends is very important, because - one - you want to be focused when playing ranked games in order to get the best results, and - two - you want to implement your own personality into your gameplay in order to create a comfort zone while playing a specific champion and its role. While playing Shaco your mindset should be as follows: “Aggressive assassin (not cocky but aggressive), that wants to outsmart his opponents fast, burst, and kill. Don’t be scared even if your play would let you die - big risk, big reward.” Everyone learns from their mistakes, and that’s what will improve you to be a better player.

Pros

+Dude i can go invisible :)

+Fast early game ganks
+Assassin early game to spoon feed every lane kills
+Great split push
+Jack in the box
+Able to dodge any skill with Hallucinate ( ult )


Cons

-Squishy
-Bad survivalbility
-Bad jungle clear
-Easy to fall behind
-A small poof when you deceive
-Hard to catch up if behind

Shaco is one of the most complicated champions to master, but at the same time really one of the easiest champions to play. Let’s start with why Shaco is easy to play. As you start at level 1 your Jack in the Boxes (JitB) do all the work for you and kill the first buff that you are aiming for (blue or red) smiteless. All you have to do is stacking boxed on the buff’s spawn location. JitB last for 60 seconds, so you could place one box at 0:40 or earlier at any of your jungle entrances to scout, and start stacking boxes at your buff at 0:56 to have 4 boxes on spawn. You can do with less if you are willing to take one or two hits when your boxes disappear and aggro switches to you, or simply have your teammates help you and take no damage at all. In the latter case you can move on to your second buff immediately, because your teammates’ damage can lower the buff’s HP and your boxes last hit and take the buff for you. Once you have cleared either red or blue buff you proceed to your second buff and clear it without losing much HP, since you still have smite up and your JitB tanks and damages the jungle creeps.


First gank determines your game flow

This is the first moment you decide which lane to gank or counter gank – the decision is up to you. DO NOT GO TO LANES THAT SAY “OMG HELP HELP HELP”. Read the map and look for the best option possible to succeed in your first gank. This is key to playing Shaco. You can’t clear your jungle as fast as most other junglers, so ganks are very crucial and it’s the only way you can keep up/compete with your opponent jungler in levels and map presence. Choose the lane that is being pushed up to your tower the most. Usually opponent players in such lanes play aggressively and overextend. This is the lane you should gank at lvl 3 with double buffs. Once you succeed in getting first blood, which most of the time will be top or mid, you will have gold, exp, and momentum for more actions.


Challenge

The CHALLENGING PART of this champion starts at level 1. Starting at either buffs - red or blue - the potential of you being invaded is 50%. Everyone knows Shaco has bad early game when your team does NOT defend you correctly. Having insight into your opponents’ movement is crucial. Your support should place wards at level 1 that would inform you whether you are being invaded or not. If you don’t have that insight and get invaded at level 1, happen to lose your buff, or even die, it would get very hard for you to catch up due to Shaco being a slow jungler. If situations like this occur, do not panic. Go and do your other buff that is still available and use smite to secure it – you will hit level 2. Clear wolves and wraiths to reach level 3, and then force a gank. Forcing the gank is very important, because as previously mentioned ganks are the key to Shaco’s victory. Once you spot an aggressive lane, rush to it, gank, and make sure you get the kill in order to catch up on experience and gold that you lost due to the early invade. Tada! – you caught up :)


Complex late game

Playing late game is also a big mess if you are new to Shaco. Do you split push or team fight? If you get fed early game, if you’re higher level than your opponent, if you have more items than anyone in the game, then go team fight and simply dominate everyone. However, if this isn’t the case and you aren’t fed, but rather have equivalent farm to everyone, then you should split push and take objectives while your teammates distract them in other lanes. So your team’s setup should be 1-3-1 or 0-4-1. (1 top 3 mid 1 bot, or 0 top 4 mid 1 bot) You as Shaco should be one of the solo pushers.