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.

 

NASUS BUILD GUIDE

 

 

Introduction

This guide focuses on surviving the laning phase of the game with quickness and health regeneration while passively farming. Nasus can and will turn into a Hyper-Carry if you succeed in doing this. Therefore, it’s important to itemize accordingly. This guide will give you the tools by maximizing your CDR without sacrificing tank.

For those not familiar with Nasus: He can best be described as a top lane Off-Tank. The unique part of the Keeper is that he does not scale with attack damage or ability power much at all, but rather farm. Even when built full tank a heavily farmed Nasus will kill and put out more damage than anyone. We could even consider him somewhat of an Assassin. This is because if you are able to locate someone alone on the map, they are as good as dead with little chance of getting away due to Wither and built-in CDR. Needless to say, Nasus is a top notch 1v1 champion. If you are a person that has patience, hope, and a thing for being an unkillable wrecking dog: You need to play Unkillable Nasus!

Summoner Spells

Primary Set

This pair of skills give Nasus a safe early game, and unrivaled kill potential in team fights. If you remove a champions main weakness he becomes strong, and that is what these two do for Nasus.

Teleport & Ghost
This set is an old favorite of Nasus players and for good reason. This is because it synergizes with the type of game Nasus wants to have. There is nothing more important to Nasus than farm, and these summoners give him the opportunity to attain it in several ways. Have you taken too much damage to keep laning? Go ahead to base and teleport back in time to catch the minion wave at your tower. Does your team want to do an early dragon? Nasus' ultimate is one of the best abilities to do dragon with, and teleport makes it possible and still get back to your lane. Remember, Nasus has a weak early game but that doesn't mean he can't help get kills. If you notice bottom lane is pushed with your teams ward behind them, go ahead and teleport gank down and get a double kill. Lastly, this ability allows Nasus to split push the entire game, allowing Siphoning Strike to become overwhelmingly strong. So as you can see, this set has it's uses. However, you won't be quite as mobile as the first set, and taking it against certain junglers can be a gamble. In particular Jarvin and others with gap closers.

 

When to pick Nasus?

I feel Nasus has more laning options than others do, but there's no question that he should be picked with discretion. This is because Nasus has a fragile early game and it can be exploited if you aren't careful. If you aren't sure how a lane against a champion may go, keep these things in mind.

Generally speaking, Nasus prefers a few things in his lane enemies:

1. Melee (To be in range of his attacks/ultimate and have no ranged harass)
2. Mana (Limits the amount of harass that can be given to Nasus)
3. Auto Attacks (Nasus is a direct counter to AA champions with )

It's my opinion that Nasus should always be selected if you have a favorable lane matchup to farm in no matter the team compositions. This is because a farmed Nasus can rip through and shut down any enemy ADC in team fights. This is significant because that is the source of most of a team's damage. Almost every team has to have an ADC, and nothing is more frustrating for them than to sit there not putting out damage.

Having said that, it does help when both teams contain certain team compositions that can help reduce the effect of Nasus main weakness. The important words here are : Crowd Control. Nasus needs all the crowd control and initiation he can get from his team, and the least amount from the enemy team. This is because Nasus can be kited hard in team fights if no one can be locked down. If at all possible, having champions like Amumu in Nasus' team will greatly enhance his ability to kill.

When these things come togethor, you'll notice Nasus has "god-like" games because his ability kit is made for carrying late. Simply put, Nasus is THE counter to all attack damage carries and high HP bruisers.

LEONA BUILD GUIDE

 

 

Introduction

I picked up Leona at around September 2012 when I got really bored of playing Blitzcrank. After playing around 300+ games with her, I fell in love with her aggressive playstyle, and really like how she could remain incredibly effective throughout all stages of the game. Not only is she a fantastic support champion, but she also transitions pretty well into a tank/bodyguard with her toolkit. Overall, if you are looking for a very aggressive, reliable support champion, then Leona is perfect for you!

In this guide, I am going to discuss how to play Leona as a support champion on Summoner's Rift. If there is enough interest, I can write about how to play her in Dominion.

I apologize in advance for the crappy video demonstrations. I use a Mac and don't have LoLrecorder, so I had to scrape what I could find from streamed games.


Pros:

• High CC with Shield of Daybreak + Solar Flare.

• Free tankiness with Eclipse.

• High damage output with Sunlight.

• Great initiation with Zenith Blade + Solar Flare

• Highest base mana regen in the entire game

•  Very good pairing with almost every ADC in the game

Cons:

• Melee, so you're going to get poked

• If you miss your Zenith Blade, you're a sitting duck in lane and you're going to get poked

• Once you go in, you have to commit since you have 0 disengage. And if you got poked, you're not going to have too much hp.

• Because you can't proc your own Sunlight, Leona can't be played in others roles effectively except for support (and barely scraping by jungle)

•  Loses 1 damage to people with sunglasses :(

 

Summoner Spells

Exhaust
This is definitely the best offensive summoner spell for you. Exhaust is 100% necessary to lock down a high priority enemy, and you're one of the best users for exhaust because you can get close to this target with Zenith Blade. Definitely have this around if they have hyper carries (Vayne, Kog'Maw) or if they have assassins (Zed, Kha'Zix)



Flash
Flash is still one of the best summoners in the game. It can be your get-out-of-jail-free card if the enemy jungler comes to gank, or it could be your holla-holla-first blood-dolla card. If you are laning against an annoying map-finder girl like Ezreal, then use this offensively with Shield of Daybreak. This will make it a lot easier to land a follow-up Zenith Blade after the enemy tries to flash/dash away.



Ignite
Ignite is a lot worse than exhaust in teamfights since it's more effective to slow/reduce AS on the enemy ADC as opposed to doing a bit more damage. But if you 100% want to crush your lane because you want to snowball or play aggressive (like with Draven), then this is definitely a good option.

 

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)

 

LEE SIN BUILD GUIDE

 

Introduction

Lee Sin is an extremely aggressive early game jungler. His movement speed slow, high early game damage and two gap closers make for an extremely scary early game hero. While he clears camps fairly quickly, Lee Sin's main strength lies in his ability to gank extremely well and counter jungle.

What is important to note about Lee Sin is that since he is forced to build tanky, his damage falls off vastly lategame. To make up for this, you need to snowball your lanes. This is one of the reasons I play more Jungle Lee over top lane. While he can definitely carry, he cannot 1v5. You want to abuse your early game dominance to put all your lanes ahead.

 

Summoner Spells

Flash
Smite

Explanation:
The reason I choose Flash over Exhaust is because while Exhaust is really strong early game for ganks, its use lategame is not as strong as Flash. Flash allows you to make big plays and allows you to be really ballsy. That said, Exhaust is definitely a strong option. Think of it like 6 pooling in SC2. You might pull off that early aggression and win but if you don't capitalize, your lategame economy will suck ass. And you don't want to be a cheeser, right? All jokes aside, it's just preference.

 

Early Game

Pick a jungle path and start looking around the map for ganks. If you ever watch my stream you'll see that I constantly look at all 3 lanes to see if any action is going down. This lets me see if the lanes blew any summoners. If a lane blows  then I know for certain that I can gank that lane with ease. It's also good to look for summoners such as ,  and . You won't always see all the action so make sure to ask your lanes if any summoners are blown when you try to gank.

Another important part of ganking is knowing where  are. Generally, in the first 4 minutes of the game the only lane that will have wards will be bot lane. Since supports usually start off with 2 or 3 wards they will ward early. Top lane and mid lane is usually wardless (check their inventory, if they started with 1 potion then they probably warded before they got to lane.) Later on, when solos start to shop and buy wards then keep an eye out for when they leave to ward. Just like knowing if any summoners are blown, knowing where wards are saves you from wasting time sitting in a lane brush that they have vision of.

You can bypass wards by either using  on a ward that is over a wall or you can  onto a jungle creep. If you're purple side and you want to gank and overextended bot that have river, tri-brush and the lane warded then you can enter their Jungle and  a Golem to get across. Or if you know that tri-brush is warded but not river and you're in their jungle then you can  dragon and gank bot before they even expect you to be there. When playing  make sure to be creative!

If you get in position to gank you usually want to  onto a minion that the enemy was close to and then double tap  and try to get autoattacks off. Tag them with  when you are sure to land it and if their flash is up then wait a little before you activate the second part of . If it's down you can activate it fast and just keep slowing with red buff autoattacks. There's so many variables when it comes to ganking that I can't tell you the perfect way to pull off a gank but I'm sure after some games you'll figure it out.

Watch here as I tag  with  and wait for his .

TRISTANA BUILD GUIDE

 

Introduction

Tristana is one of the scariest champions to deal with late game. She is also incredibly strong in the early game; specifically at level 2 and 6. However she hits a mid game weak point, where she doesn't have enough items to scale with her 90% steroids, and not enough AP to scale with her nukes.

Tristana should be played very aggressively early game, passively mid game, and cautiously end game.

 

Masteries

21/9/0

Skip meditation since she needs that extra HP/Armor for all-ins at level 2.

 

Runes

Runepage is designed for early game dominance, very much like masteries.

Flat ARP Marks - Best in Slot
Flat Armor Seals - BiS
Flat MR Glyphs - BiS
Flat AD Quints - Can be changed with Flat HP or Flat ARP. I've personally had the best success with Flat AD.


Tip: Armor Seals and MR Glyphs are very cheap, and incredibly versatile. If you're starting to build up runpages, I recommend picking those up ASAP.

 

Skill Order

Buster Shot whenever you can.

Early on rotate between Explosive shot and Rocket jump for burst dmg.

Then max Explosive shot and leave Rocket Jump at level 2. Once you get your BOTRK, Rapid Fire offers a lot of damage from your autos, so max second.

 

Early Game

Try and convince your team into an aggressive support like Taric or Alistar. Then be very agressive with your early level 2 from Explosive shot. Farm to the best of your ability, it's tricky with Explosive shot, but a strong Tristana player can last hit near perfectly.

Tip: Red pot is also very strong for Tristana, it's essentially a cheap Doran's Blade!

 

Mid Game

FARM FARM FARM FARM FARM!

Trist's mid-game is horrid. Rocket Jump and Buster Shot's damage become sub-par, Rapid Fire still hasn't scaled up yet.

Even if you've had a successful early game, you cannot get too cocky during Tristana's mid game. Realize how strong you are, and farm to the best of your ability. Try and avoid fights especially if you've had a stagnant early game.

 

Late Game

This is when Tristana becomes a beast, you should be able to solo just about anyone at this point. Your range and damage combined can shred even the tankiest of champions. Don't forget to farm just because you have 4-5 items. Having a QSS before an end game fight may win you the game.

 

Team Fights

Positioning - being able to maximize your damage without dieing.

That is ALL you need to do in fights. It's very hard to teach how to position, but it all comes with your general knowledge of the game; where all champions on the map are, what items do they have, how much hp/mana do they have, what level are they... etc

Tip: Checking up on TAB often will drastically increase your team fight positioning.

 

Final Comments

Tristana's early game is fantastic, make sure to take advantage of this early game, because you will need it when you enter Tristana's mid game. Realize when you're becoming weak and try and avoid fights while farming into your end game build. Once you get to end game, all you need to do is focus on positioning and you should take the game easily.

ASHE BUILD GUIDE

 

Introduction

Ashe is a high utility/defensive AD carry. Volley punishes aggression in lane, it is also an incredibly strong kiting tool with Frost Shot. Hawkshot can prolong games by gaining crucial vision on Dragon and Baron, it also gives vision to set up for Enchanted Crystal Arrow, which is simply one of the best initiation in the game.

 

Counters

I think Ashe is just a fantastic late-game champion that pretty much counters nearly all melee Champions. The problem is making it into late-game (being able to farm safely).

Kog'Maw: Harasses you insanely hard in the laning phase, really difficult to deal with even by farming at tower.

Olaf: Charges at you.

Irelia: Charges at you.

Urgot: Has insane amounts of killing potential against you in the laning phase, very difficult to farm against.

 

Skill Order

Enchanted Crystal Arrow whenever.

Volley first to have it on a 4sec CD at lv9 (insanely strong for dragon poke)

Frost Shots next so you can kite easier.

Hawkshot last for vision and map control.

Even though it might be intuitive for most Ashe players to max Hawkshot second so you can farm into late game easier... Frost Shots is a crucial kiting tool that is too good to pass up, since Ashe is so weak during the mid-game, if you don't level it up, you'll likely lose too much before hitting late-game.

 

Early Game

Try and force something with your level 1 burst, either invade or camp a brush, or simply secure double golemn advantage.

Play aggressively if you can during the early levels, but realize when Volley's damage falls off and go into farm mode.

Once you hit 6, it's very easy to set up ganks for your jungler, be patient and communicate.

 

Mid Game

Most AD's are stronger than you at this point, so be careful when fighting for Dragon's.

Splitpush sidelanes with Shiv, and then force pressure mid with arrow. Repeat this until you can get a safe kill, or continue farming into late-game.

 

Late Game

This is when Ashe becomes a monster, because a good Arrow will simply end the game. Gain ground with Hawkshot and completely focus on landing good Arrows. If you still need your last couple of items such as Mercurial Scimitar or LW... Hawkshot's extra gold will make it that much easier to get them. Don't be afraid of late-game, since Ashe is one of the strongest late-game AD's, 35% AoE perma slow is simply too much for most melees to handle.

 

Team Fights

KITE! You wan't to be able to move in between auto attacks and Volleys. Make sure you land Volleys on the crucial melee champions you want to be able to kite.

In most scenarios you want to already be at an advantage before engaging into a full blown teamfight, since you have the option of initiating whenever with Arrow.

Hawkshot is also very good for team fighting, having vision will allow you to kill enemies that are trying to avoid being hit in by sitting in brushs.

 

Final Comments

Ashe is a defensive AD thats very strong late-game AD, but is also incredibly strong at level 1. Her early-mid game is extremely weak due to Volley scaling, but her ability to initate is unrivaled. Being able to land solid Arrows is simply very rewarding, which makes Ashe incredibly fun to play.

 

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.