In Teamfight Tactics season 3, there are many champions that are absurdly strong, making them quite popular among players. However, there are also champions so weak that no one plays them, and then there’s Shaco, who activates 4 Assassins and can be quite frustrating for players. This makes learning how to effectively use Shaco and counter him essential in the current meta.
First, let’s analyze Shaco’s strengths:
When it comes to items, Shaco’s strength lies in two key items: Bloodthirster and Infinity Edge. Each time he uses his ability, Shaco jumps straight to his target and delivers a powerful critical hit, taking down his prey while healing himself fully.
Regarding traits, Shaco gains a lot of attack speed from Assassins, which naturally means that the more basic attacks he makes, the higher the chance for critical hits, dealing even more damage. As for the Shadow trait, while Assassin champions leap to the backline of the enemy formation, only Karma and Lux remain isolated and easily taken down. If either of these champions is defeated, Shaco will gain a significant damage boost.
With these factors, combined with his ability to sneak into the backline and stealthily eliminate squishy targets, Shaco officially becomes the most frustrating champion in Teamfight Tactics season 3.
Now that we understand the source of Shaco’s power, here are some ways to counter him:
Countering with Champions
We can use Kassadin with his area-wide ability to completely stop Shaco’s basic attack potential. If Kassadin isn’t available, Graves is also a decent option since his ability causes the enemy to miss all basic attacks for 4 seconds (a downside is that Graves targets the enemy with the highest attack speed, not specifically Shaco). Alternatively, you can use Shen, a champion whose ability creates a zone around himself, allowing him and allies within it to dodge all enemy basic attacks. Finally, there’s Lulu, who can disable enemies, causing the target to lose their ability to basic attack and use abilities.
With these champions, no matter how strong Shaco hits, if he can’t land attacks or misses, it will be meaningless.
Countering with Items
To counter Shaco’s powerful critical damage, the only item you need is Thornmail – an item that blocks all additional damage from critical hits. With Thornmail, Shaco essentially turns into a… regular monster, doing very little in fights. All you need to do is position your team wisely so that Shaco targets the champion with Thornmail.
To limit Shaco’s ability to heal fully with just one hit, you can combine items with Grievous Wounds effects like Morello’s Evil Tome or Red Buff. These two items may not completely stop his healing but will help mitigate Shaco’s lifesteal when he has Bloodthirster.
Similar to Kassadin’s ability, you can also combine Blade of the Ruined King to gain a 25% chance to disable the enemy for 3 seconds, limiting Shaco’s basic attack strength.
Lastly, there’s the item Stormrazor, which can root opponents for the first 5 seconds of combat. Although this item isn’t as effective as the previous ones, with clever usage, it can still counter Shaco or other carry champions.