League of Legends: Shaco is busted, but there’s an easy way to fix him

By Josh Tyler | Oct 11, 2019

League of Legends. Photo Courtesy of Riot Games. /

After the buffs in League of Legends Patch 9.20, Shaco is running amok in the jungle. Luckily, there’s an easy way to fix him.

If you’re an ADC main, I would strongly advise that you not play League of Legends right now. After getting some major buffs in Patch 9.20, Shaco is ridiculously strong, rocking a 53.7% win rate (3rd best among junglers) and 7.9% pick rate (6th among junglers). For reference, in 9.19 Shaco’s win rate was 50.3% with a 1.7% pick rate. So how is his win rate up over 3% despite his pick rate more than quadrupling?

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Well, in Patch 9.20, Shaco’s W – Jack in the Box received two massive buffs. First, his boxes now attack all enemies in an AoE around them, based on ability power. Second, they got a 2 second Fear added to all non-champions, but with their flee speed being less against non-champions than champions.

This meant that the Demon Jester could, with a leash he previously did not need before, drop four boxes before his camps spawn (three on Raptors, one on Krugs) and be able to clear those three camps at around 2:15. That means that he could gank whatever lane is near his red side at about 2:20 to 2:30 at Level 3, whereas his top laner would still be Level 2 and his ADC and support would both be Level 1.

Ganking this early on a snowball champion like Shaco, who can initiate the gank without set-up thanks to his Q – Deceive, is massive and is the major reason why Shaco has one of the highest win rates of any champion in the game. Riot has already stated that they will likely need to nerf back Shaco in Patch 9.21, but there is a simple change that Riot could make, right now, that frankly I’m shocked hasn’t already been in his kit from the start.

Put his boxes on a charge system. That’s it, no other immediate changes needed, just change how his Jack in the Box works so that Shaco can only hold a certain amount of boxes at one time.

This would provide the best of both worlds for Shaco players, who would still get to place two or three boxes early with another coming, but delay his ability to immediately hit Level 3 and gank, instead forcing him to either recharge his boxes to clear another camp or gank at Level 2. However, it would also give good players an advantage later in skirmishes, because they’ll be able to drop multiple boxes in quick succession around fights.

The idea is “borrowed” from the only other mechanic in League of Legends similar to Shaco’s boxes – Teemo’s Shrooms. It makes sense to give Shaco a charge system for his boxes like Teemo’s mushrooms have, especially considering that Teemo gets his shrooms through his ultimate ability whereas Shaco gets them at Level 1.

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For now, though, we’ll just have to wait and see if Riot can nerf the Demon Jester back into the box, or if the joke’s on you AD Carries. Until then, it’s probably best to stick to normals or ban Shaco.

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