If your are a jungler, and do a lot of Solo q or even team games then skarner is probably the jungler you are wanting to pick. The reasons to this is because right now, he is probably the strongest Soloq champion for the jungle in the game. For a jungler to be excellent they need to have a few things; Good clear time, Good ganks post and pre 6, tanky, dps etc. Skarner fulfills all of these roles as well as being cc heavy and the ability to initiate on the enemy adc, while your team can take the initiative and focus him down leaving them with no damage. He is an excellent 1v1 champion aswell, meaning counter junglers such as shyvana wont be able to farm him unless he is ganked. His ability to gank pre 6 is good, but once he hits 6 it is almost guaranteed to be a kill. You can use the same item build for top lane, however most of the strategies need not apply. The item build all compliments his skills while making him extremely sticky, tanky, and slippery. Just remember this IS my first guide.

The reason I take this rune page setup is pretty obvious. The ad quints and marks allow for insane clear times, the armour seals are self explanatory and the mr per level glyphs are more advisable over flat mr glyphs because you should NOT be taking any magic damage early game. You could exchange the marks for arpen or the quints for ms, but that is your best bet.

Crystal Slash: Deals damage in a small aoe. Deals physical damage. When it hits an enemy a stack is gained, while this stack is held it deals extra damage and slows.
Crystalline exoskeleton: Shields yourself and adds an attack speed/move speed buff while the shield is up.
Fracture: Line nuke, enemies hit are marked. If marked enemies are damaged by skarner he is healed.
Impale: Flash > Grab > Pull > Win

Check above for the masteries. I run the masteries OR I run these ones:Its really your choice. I prefer the original ones to the ones immediately above but its all down to what your aiming for.

The reasoning behind the items is for stackin' up that gp with your gp10's, aswell as the shenn for the insane stupid amount of damage skarner can do with his q procs. The Triforce is an ideal item for skarner, and so is the FoN. Get a champion that scales hard with movespeed, extra damage base on abilities, slows, health, attack speed, mana; yeah you get the point. If you get fed (Which you probably will) The triforce is the nail in the coffin if you get it early. It allows you to dominate everyone and everything by just spamming your skills. The randuins is mainly for the slow/onhit slow incase someone gets a mallet. The reason you get a mallet on top of your triforce is really just for the hp, damage and guaranteed stickiness. It is low priority and you can get either ga or FoN before it, really no big deal. You can also rock a shureylas for the "oh, you thought you were getting away." If you get those exact items, once you get your hands on a full build you will have ~250 arm, ~230 mr, 3.5k health, ~200 damage, ~1.2 as, ~450 ms. And alot of hp regen but (20 p/s)

Reasoning behind this skill order is early points in your qwe for the easy sustain, then maxing q first for the permaslow and w second for the shields and steroid. Your e doesn't do much except heal you at times, it should not be dealing any damage unless you are ap, which is just dumb.

Arguably the best summoner spell in the game. Allows for increased movement and the opportunity to flash on top of the enemy carry and drag him into the team while you laugh. His ultimate is easily one of the best initiates in the game, hell, even one of the best ultimates.
Self explanatory unless you are going solotop, which is also viable considering he is extremely hard to gank and can easily 1v2. Did I mention he can also get upwards of 300 dps by level 8. Exchange this for ignite if going top.

> > > This is where it branches off a little. Only experience junglers should attempt to counter the enemy at his wraiths/red; either wraiths size 55 or . Go for either depending on how fast the enemy jungler is, or, if they are a bad 1v1 champion just head to wraiths/red bush and ambush them. Once you are done in their jungle, go and take > to be sure that he doesn't take yours. From their just gank, take buffs when they appear, and generally ruin the laning phase. Counter jungling is ALWAYS a good idea because he is an excellent 1v1 champion.

Pro's
> Very good solo queue champion
> Excellent cc
> Great 1v1 champion
> Fast clear times
> Only really needs 3 items to dominate
> Easy to get fed with and carry
> Arguably op skillset
> Scales hard with items
> Great ganks
> Great initiate
> Knockbacks as you ult. If someone knocks you back exactly as you ult them you drag them with you.
> **** ton of dps
Con's
> Pre move speed kiting. A skarner without triforce/tier 2 boots can get kited easily.
> Somewhat hard to get used to the playstyle.
> Very risk and reward champion
> Very squishy early game
> Somewhat reliant on blue buff early game.
> Unless he is fed all he really is is a walking bag of cc.

Skarner works best with a smart team. He is a beast solo q and even better in organised play. Just ping, flash onto the enemy, ult their carry, pull him into your team and they WILL get the gist of, oh lets murder him before he does damage. He relies on teamwork to an extent however he can just farm the whole game and hypercarry late game anway. Once you get the knack of working with the team you can easily carry through the various elos by helping the team. He is by no means a 1 pick absolute champion, but is very close to it.

> Flash ult someone
> Permaslow
> Infinite regen
> Very potent steroid
> basically the ability to be hitting someone 3 times a second at level 8
> Scales arguably the hardest with a trinity force in the game.

In conclusion skarner is basically your best friend in solo queue. If you can learn to dominate and get his playstyle down then it is likely you will carry most games. HE IS TOP TIER FOR A REASON PEOPLE. Everything in this guide is aimed at improvising and building onto his already extremely strong skillset and whole game dominance. He excels at disrupting the laning phase and especially, tower diving. He can 1v1 basically anyone late game, unless he is chain cced. He can easily 1v2 at level 8 if he is not starved and the enemies are starved/meh in lane. By far one of the best junglers in the game at the moment. Thanks for reading the guide.