Talk:Shaco/@comment-3148699-20131007213348

I've been having great success and above all tons of fun with AP Shaco playing on mid lately in Gold->Plat elo. While he's an one trick pony and will of course fall off in the late game, it's probably the most fun champion I've ever played on mid and you can make tons of plays.

My masteries are 21/0/9, magic pen reds, armor yellows and blue can be either flat magic resist or scaling ap or even CDR since AP Shaco relies on his E and W to deal damage. For items, I started with Dorans and a blue and red pot. First major items should be Morellonomicon and DFG. After that I build Rabadons and then I go according to what the enemy team comp is. For heavy AD/AP you go Zhonyas and Void Staff if they stack MR. Lich Bane to finish of my build. Good items include Liandrys (doen't proc from W but it may help the team against high health enemies) and or rare occasions Abyssal although I'd rather have something else.

AP Shaco is great to cheese opponents in the mid lane since most players have no idea how to counter him (a simple pink ward/oracle will screw him over or cause him to spent money to clear wards). My playstyle includes placing tons of boxes constantly on key points in the mid lane. Depending on your pushing power, freezing capabilities of your opponent, you can create death fields with W. I usually try to place boxes behind in the lane, usually gets people offguard when they try to gank you, especially junglers.

AP Shaco however has some major drawbacks. He has atrocious farm, I'm happy if I can keep within a 10-20 CS margin against a decent player, your completely exposed after your Q+E combo relying only on Flash and R to escape and opponents with a Silence (Garen, Kassadin, Malzahar) will completely dominate him. Lee Sins are also some issue but not that much if you play your W correctly. AP Shaco will fall off completely late game, relying only on the occasional carry assassination attempt or your team carrying you. I've lost lots of game with a high KDA score just because I couldn't do anything else besides assassinate a person and then back out. However if you snowball the early and mid game, the collapsed morale of the enemy team which is a common characteristic of gold/plat players will give you an early victory assuming your team works with the shear terror and global taunt you will cause.

Try also to do a sort of psychological warfare against your opponents, spam laugh and taunt, bait them into a W when you're ahead. People are easily distressed in ranked and even though this blade cuts both ways you can abuse this to your favour much with AP Shaco, which people consider a troll and reportable build (I've gotten tons of reports even though I carried games).

Overall AP Shaco requires some skill to learn his tricks and plays but once you do find out how he works he can be a real pain in the ass for your opponents and at the same time lots of fun for you.