Balancing changes for Shaco on the way in League of Legends Patch 8.6

Huge buff on the way for Shaco with upcoming patch 8.6, according to the latest PBE update.

There are some clear-cut weaknesses that the clown is burdened with that prevent him from keeping up with Kha’Zix and Evelynn. For starters, he has to max his Two-Shiv Poison ability to deal any real burst damage. Unfortunately, with his kit in its current state, that means he can’t put any early points into his invisibility-granting Deceive. Without any points, Deceive only allows Shaco to remain invisible for 1.5 seconds, hamstringing his ganking power until he reaches the mid-game.

To help him out, Riot is changing his Deceive to grant him a flat three seconds of invisibility at all ranks. Even though its duration will be lower than it is now at max rank with 4.5 seconds, the cooldown is also being massively lowered at max rank to compensate, so overall, this is a very large buff. Its cooldown at rank five will be 10 seconds, down from 14.

Since Shaco early power is so much better, he no longer needs quite as much slowing potency on his E

Overall, this is a very good move on Riot’s part. These changes, should they actually make it through the PBE and into Patch 8.6, should arrive in two weeks from now.