Riot Plans to Buff Shaco in League of Legends
In the current assassin-focused meta of League of Legends, Shaco, one of the premier AD assassins, is noticeably absent. However, Riot has announced plans to change that in Patch 8.6, according to the latest PBE update.
Weaknesses Holding Shaco Back
Shaco’s lack of play is due to some clear-cut weaknesses that prevent him from keeping up with champions like Kha’Zix and Evelynn. One major issue is that Shaco needs to max his Two-Shiv Poison ability to deal significant burst damage. This means he can’t put early points into his invisibility-granting ability, Deceive, hampering his ganking power until the mid-game.
Furthermore, even when Deceive does scale up to a longer duration of 4.5 seconds, it becomes less crucial to his gameplay. Shaco needs early ganking power to match Evelynn and Kha’Zix, both of whom have stronger early ganks and scale better than he does.
Riot’s Buff Plans
To address these issues, Riot is changing Shaco’s Deceive ability to grant a flat three seconds of invisibility at all ranks. Although the duration will be lower at maximum rank, the cooldown is also being significantly reduced, resulting in an overall large buff. The cooldown at rank five will be 10 seconds, down from 14.
Additionally, since Shaco’s early power will be improved, the slowing potency on his E ability will be decreased, but only at lower levels.
Riot’s Good Move
Riot’s planned changes to Shaco are a positive move. These adjustments focus on improving Shaco where he needs it most while balancing it with small nerfs to other aspects of his kit. If these changes pass through the PBE and make it into Patch 8.6, they should be implemented in two weeks.
League of Legends, Shaco, AD assassins, Patch 8.6, PBE update, weaknesses, ganking power, Deceive ability, buff, cooldown, slowing potency, balance.