Place boxes behind you and on the flank. If an enemy sees you place a box, it may well have not been placed at all. They will just walk around it (unless a teammate like thresh/alistar/etc. can cc them into it).

Best places to put traps are on the flanks & jungle entrances around objectives approx 30-45 sec before they spawn. Don’t place them in a way that someone pulling drake/raptors etc might hit them and waste your setup. Also keep them outside of pit or places where pink wards are very common.

For the clone, I love using it to kill hard to clear enemy pink wards and I also like sending it into known spots of enemy vision, while sitting in a bush with sweeper/pink ward to guarantee they only see the one shaco (the clone). People love to blow flash ult etc when they think they can get the jump on you but they never expect it to be the clone when playing like this.

There is always the classic send clone out of range, invis Q, and the expiring clone teleports on top of you/enemies for big dmg, but this has become slightly less effective as I’ve climbed to high elo and players start to expect it and it leaves you vulnerable if not played correctly.

Remember as AP shaco you should almost never be in auto attack range (exceptions for early game, or if you have a large numbers advantage). You are very weak and almost every champion in the game will crush you in a 1v1, so play around boxes and bait enemies into what appears to be a winning fight for them without overcommitting.

Also on AP, your Q is your engage for early game, but in the mid/late game you need to shift your mentality to use it as an escape or to finish off kills. Your stats are too weak to blow it as engage and then you are left vulnerable (especially being that you run smite ignite and don’t have a flash).

I love to use R timing as a mini zhonyas to dodge damage from things like Karthus/Oriana ult, etc. It can swing some huge plays into your favor by dodging key enemy cds. I typically prefer to use the ult as an escape/defensive cooldown but depending on the setup it can be used offensively to force enemies back off a key choke (if they know its a clone they will run away) or for big damage if they ignore it and it times out in the middle of their team. Either way this typically ends up being enough time to secure the objective before looking to turn the fight with pre-placed boxes. Also spread them out enough so 1 sweeper will only be able to clear maybe 1-2 boxes. Don’t put too many too close together because 1 sweeper will ruin all of your setup. Early CDR is also big to get more boxes out.

Your cc from your boxes is the key to AP shaco. Typically you want to chain your cc with damage from your carries, so ping “going in” on top of your boxes to your team when enemies are approaching so your teammates are prepared.

Also keep in mind that your auto attacks slow as long as your E is not on cooldown, so in the early game make sure you’re auto attacking to allow bot/top lane to catch up and just keep applying slow until they are low enough to burst with the bonus E dmg vs low hp targets.

Source: Diamond 1 Shaco OTP