I've been thinking a lot about the two main AD Shaco builds recently, and I'm honestly starting to question whether the Lethality Crit build is actually the one I prefer.
The build is usually:
Umbral Glaive → Voltaic Cyclosword → (Ghostblade / Serpent's Fang / Profane Hydra) → LDR → IE
My biggest issue with this build is that your first and second item spikes are absolutely insane, but after that, it feels like your progression slows down dramatically.
Your third item is usually a utility purchase rather than a true damage spike, and your fourth item is often just LDR. Until you finally reach LDR + IE, it feels like you're sitting in this awkward mid-game where you're not getting any particularly meaningful power spikes. It almost feels like the build is front-loaded, you're incredibly strong early, but if you haven't converted that into a significant lead by around 15 minutes, your damage starts to feel a bit mediocre compared to where everyone else is scaling.
On the other hand, the full Crit build feels almost like the opposite.
Ghostblade → Collector → IE → LDR → situational
Ghostblade isn't an incredible first-item spike, and Ghostblade + Collector still doesn't feel nearly as explosive as Umbral + Voltaic. But once you hit Ghostblade + Collector + IE, the build really comes online, and from there every completed item feels meaningful. LDR is another huge spike, and your last item only pushes your damage even further. It feels like you're constantly getting stronger instead of having one huge spike followed by a lull.
Because of that, I'm honestly starting to wonder if the full Crit build is just... better.
The thing that makes me question myself is that the Lethality Crit build seems to consistently perform better statistically, especially in higher elo, so clearly I'm missing something.
For the experienced Shaco players here:
What do you build, and why?
What makes you choose Lethality Crit over full Crit (or vice versa), and what do you think I'm overlooking?