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Spells:
Flash
Exhaust
Ability Order
Threads of Vibration (PASSIVE)
Skarner Passive Ability
Introduction
THIS IS A IN DEPTH GUIDE
So don't go and complain about the extensive amounts of text.
Skarner is a melee Champion that is strong at Consistency, Damage, and Crowd Controling. People believe he is UnderPowered (as complained in the LoL Forums) but I will prove he is not. In fact he can hold many roles in a team; Physical Damage Dealer, Magical Damage Dealer, Tank, and even Support.
BASE STATS:
LEVEL 1
LEVEL 1
Health: 440
Mana: 205
Health Per 5 sec: 7.5
Mana Per 5 sec: 6.45
Armor: 19
Magic Resist: 30
Movement: 320
Mana: 205
Health Per 5 sec: 7.5
Mana Per 5 sec: 6.45
Armor: 19
Magic Resist: 30
Movement: 320
LEVEL 18
Health: 2168
Mana: 925
Health Per 5 sec: 22.8
Mana Per 5 Sec: 14.55
Armor: 87.4
Magic Resist: 52.5
Damage: 129.7
Ability Power: 0
Movement: 320
Health: 2168
Mana: 925
Health Per 5 sec: 22.8
Mana Per 5 Sec: 14.55
Armor: 87.4
Magic Resist: 52.5
Damage: 129.7
Ability Power: 0
Movement: 320
LEVEL 18 WITH CORE ITEMS
Health: 2996
Mana: 925
Health Per 5 sec: 22.8
Mana Per 5 Sec: 22.05
Armor: 100
Magic Resist: 96
Damage: 129
Ability Power: 80
Movement: 410
Health: 2996
Mana: 925
Health Per 5 sec: 22.8
Mana Per 5 Sec: 22.05
Armor: 100
Magic Resist: 96
Damage: 129
Ability Power: 80
Movement: 410
His stats are Great tagged along with his abilities. His Movespeed hasn't even reached it's potential without


Skarner's abilities are energize,
Shattered Earth,
Seismic Bastion,
Ixtal's Impact, and
Impale.
EnergizeEnergize - (Innate): Using autoattacks against champions lowers the cooldowns of Skarner's abilities by 1 second and by 0.5 seconds when used against a non-champion target.
Energize allows you to constantly spam your spells faster and more consistently for the endless torture of slows you throw out. Works really well with Skarner's amazing base attack speed and Attack Speed buff from
Seismic Bastion
Crystal Slash - (Active): Skarner lashes out with his claws, dealing physical damage to all nearby enemies and charging himself with Crystal Energy for 5 seconds.
If he casts Crystal Slash again while empowered by Crystal Energy, the ability deals bonus magic damage and slows all targets hit for 2 seconds.
Cost: 22 / 24 / 26 / 28 / 30 mana
Physical Damage: 20 / 35 / 50 / 65 / 80 (+0.8 per bonus attack damage)
Magic Damage: 20 / 32 / 44 / 56 / 68 (+0.4 per ability power)
Slow: 25 / 30 / 35 / 40 / 45 %
This is your Bread And Butter skill. Stacks with
Rylai's Crystal Scepter's slow and deals a nice amount of damage no matter which build you choose;w/ some attack damage or w/ some ability power. Extremely spammable if Skarner is consistently auto-attacking champions to dish out as much damage as possible before in danger of death.
Crystalline Exoskeleton - (Active): Skarner receives a shield for up to 6 seconds. While the shield is still active his movement speed and attack speed are boosted.
Shield Strength: 70 / 115 / 160 / 205 / 250 (+0.6 per ability power)
Attack Speed Boost: 30 / 35 / 40 / 45 / 50 %
Movement Speed Boost: 15 / 17 / 19 / 21 / 23 %
In my opinion, this skill should be nerfed. Every 100 AP you have, the shield gains 60 strength. If you have a lot of armor/magic reduction and a bit of ap, Skarner can be buffed for the whole duration until it breaks itself. Well that's just the effects while it's still on, the shield itself is a amazing sustainability tool, Extra block strength + Speed.
Fracture - (Active): Skarner summons a blast of crystalline energy in a line which deals magic damage to enemies struck and marks them for 6 seconds. Any further damage dealt to marked targets by Skarner will consume the mark to heal himself. Subsequent marks consumed will heal for 50% of the last.
Cost: 50 / 55 / 60 / 65 / 70 mana
Magic Damage: 80 / 120 / 160 / 200 / 240 (+0.7 per ability power)
Heal: 30 / 45 / 60 / 75 / 90 (+0.3 per ability power)
Fracture helps with the laning phase although it won't help too much against CC and/or Ranged opponents, it will heal for quite a bit just by leaving it at level 2. I prefer getting it to level 2 simply because of the heal. Harassing your opponents while still marking minions is what should be done. Heal + Damage dealt needed.
Impale - (Active): Skarner suppresses an enemy champion for 1.5 seconds and deals magic damage to it. During this time, Skarner can move freely and will drag his victim around with him. When the effect ends, Skarner's target will be dealt the same amount of magic damage again.
Cooldown: 110 / 100 / 90 seconds
Cost: 100 / 125 / 150 mana
Magic Damage: 100 / 150 / 200 (+0.5 per ability power)
Impale is one of the best ganking moves along with
Rocket Grab. BEACUSE it kinda counts as a suppression, Summmoner Spell
Cleanse will not clear them from your grasp.
Quicksilver Sash, however, will remove the crystallization but will still endure the damage. Dragging your victim to the tower and then using
Exhaust will ensure some hard hits on them.
Using Fracture before actually attending the fight allows you to stay high on HP even after taking initial damage from the ranged characters. Spamming Crystal Slash until someone low begins to turn back and run is a great set up for a free kill using Impale.
NOTE* Remember to Spam
Shattered Earth. Try to always have exoskeleton on.
This is pretty Self-Explanatory. Walk in, Impale as you slow-lock him. Fracture is used after ult because you want to be more mobile for Impale's short range of 340. While Impale is active, Skarner is unable to auto-attack nor cast Fracture. Summoner Spell Flash is also Unable to be casted.




EnergizeEnergize - (Innate): Using autoattacks against champions lowers the cooldowns of Skarner's abilities by 1 second and by 0.5 seconds when used against a non-champion target.
Energize allows you to constantly spam your spells faster and more consistently for the endless torture of slows you throw out. Works really well with Skarner's amazing base attack speed and Attack Speed buff from


If he casts Crystal Slash again while empowered by Crystal Energy, the ability deals bonus magic damage and slows all targets hit for 2 seconds.
Cost: 22 / 24 / 26 / 28 / 30 mana
Physical Damage: 20 / 35 / 50 / 65 / 80 (+0.8 per bonus attack damage)
Magic Damage: 20 / 32 / 44 / 56 / 68 (+0.4 per ability power)
Slow: 25 / 30 / 35 / 40 / 45 %
This is your Bread And Butter skill. Stacks with


Shield Strength: 70 / 115 / 160 / 205 / 250 (+0.6 per ability power)
Attack Speed Boost: 30 / 35 / 40 / 45 / 50 %
Movement Speed Boost: 15 / 17 / 19 / 21 / 23 %
In my opinion, this skill should be nerfed. Every 100 AP you have, the shield gains 60 strength. If you have a lot of armor/magic reduction and a bit of ap, Skarner can be buffed for the whole duration until it breaks itself. Well that's just the effects while it's still on, the shield itself is a amazing sustainability tool, Extra block strength + Speed.

Cost: 50 / 55 / 60 / 65 / 70 mana
Magic Damage: 80 / 120 / 160 / 200 / 240 (+0.7 per ability power)
Heal: 30 / 45 / 60 / 75 / 90 (+0.3 per ability power)
Fracture helps with the laning phase although it won't help too much against CC and/or Ranged opponents, it will heal for quite a bit just by leaving it at level 2. I prefer getting it to level 2 simply because of the heal. Harassing your opponents while still marking minions is what should be done. Heal + Damage dealt needed.

Cooldown: 110 / 100 / 90 seconds
Cost: 100 / 125 / 150 mana
Magic Damage: 100 / 150 / 200 (+0.5 per ability power)
Impale is one of the best ganking moves along with




Using Fracture before actually attending the fight allows you to stay high on HP even after taking initial damage from the ranged characters. Spamming Crystal Slash until someone low begins to turn back and run is a great set up for a free kill using Impale.
NOTE* Remember to Spam

This is pretty Self-Explanatory. Walk in, Impale as you slow-lock him. Fracture is used after ult because you want to be more mobile for Impale's short range of 340. While Impale is active, Skarner is unable to auto-attack nor cast Fracture. Summoner Spell Flash is also Unable to be casted.
1 VS 1
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
Since it's a 1v1 there's no point in wasting precious Exoskeleton time trying to get to the target. Lead with Fracture after using Crystal Slash on a nearby minion/monster so once you arrive at your target, your next crystal slash is a slow. Exoskeleton while near your target and walk beside before auto-attacking, or just straight up hit them if they're willing to fight. Finsih with Impale>Crystal Slash>Fracture when opponent and/or you are low.
NOTE* You won't be able to 1 VS 1 every single champion, fight if you're certain you're able to survive their damage output.








Since it's a 1v1 there's no point in wasting precious Exoskeleton time trying to get to the target. Lead with Fracture after using Crystal Slash on a nearby minion/monster so once you arrive at your target, your next crystal slash is a slow. Exoskeleton while near your target and walk beside before auto-attacking, or just straight up hit them if they're willing to fight. Finsih with Impale>Crystal Slash>Fracture when opponent and/or you are low.
NOTE* You won't be able to 1 VS 1 every single champion, fight if you're certain you're able to survive their damage output.
Recommended
Flash is one of my favourites. Saves you from Large ganks, helps you gank, allows you to get close to consistently use
.
Exhaust works really well with Skarner's abilities. Right after impale into a tower, exhaust. They're crippled with the extra slow from your
Shattered Earth.
Others
Ghost. Very useful for ganks due to consistent speed compared to flash's one time instant blink type spell.
Smite. Jungling is a great way to play Skarner if needed. He can easily charge through the jungle although not as well as many others. Once red is acquired, Ganking Slightly out of place enemies will be a breeze.




Others


For Skarner, I go 1/19/10 with
Cripple in Offense and
Good Hands
,
Awareness
, and
Utility Mastery
in Utility. For Defense, I take
Resistance
->
Strength of Spirit
,
Hardiness
->
Harden Skin
,
Veteran's Scars
, And
Ardor
.
Cripple for Exhaust, Self-Explanatory. Very useful.
Good Hands
because it's a lot more useful and effective than
Perseverence
, Trust.
Awareness
For the faster level up since you're not going to build as much mana as you can to get
Expanded Mind
.
Utility Mastery
because Skarner will need Golem Buff's mana regen to be able to spam other skills other than
Shattered Earth all day.
Resistance
->
Strength of Spirit
for the extra Magic Reduction and the tiny boost in regen early on.
Hardiness
->
Harden Skin
helps block some early on Physical harass, which is great because
Ashe might just attack you first.
Veteran's Scars
's extra health boost is actually one of my favorite mastery buffs. Seems to scare enemies early game.
Ardor
-> Might as well take some extra damage/attack speed if 3 points won't get the magic pen in Offense. Helps a ton.
























For Skarner, I get Magic Penetration Marks, Flat Armor Seals, Flat Magic Reduction Glyphs, and Flat Health Quintessences.
Greater Mark Of Insight x9
Greater Seal Of Resilience x9
Greater Glyph Of Warding x9
Greater Quintessence of Fortitude x3
These are the most common Tank Runes and they work perfectly for Skarner. Although he plays more of a Tanky DPS role, he requires to be up and in their face for his abilities to be effective, other wise it's useless to pick him. Skarner is fairly Squishy early on so I tend to pick Flat runes over Per Level growth runes.
This is, of course, just my preferable Rune Page. You can change whatever you feel most comfortable with. In fact, if you find better runes, leave a comment!
For jungling, these runes would obviously be different. I would go Armor Pen over Magic Pen and possibly Cooldowns Or Mana Regen Over Magic Resist.




These are the most common Tank Runes and they work perfectly for Skarner. Although he plays more of a Tanky DPS role, he requires to be up and in their face for his abilities to be effective, other wise it's useless to pick him. Skarner is fairly Squishy early on so I tend to pick Flat runes over Per Level growth runes.
This is, of course, just my preferable Rune Page. You can change whatever you feel most comfortable with. In fact, if you find better runes, leave a comment!
For jungling, these runes would obviously be different. I would go Armor Pen over Magic Pen and possibly Cooldowns Or Mana Regen Over Magic Resist.
Core Items
![]() With this baby, you can basically spam ![]() |
![]() With the speed boost of Crystalline Exoskeleton and Boots of Swiftness, Skarner will be running laps easily. There's no doubt this has helped me gank and successfully got me a for-sure ![]() |
![]() Extra health for sustainability, Gold per 10 sec, and builds into ![]() |
![]() Rylai's Slow proc stacks with your ![]() |

Luxury Items:
Recommended Luxury Items

With the extra amount of damage, you're auto attacks become useful in hits, you gain life steal with every damage you deal. And there's a bonus active you can fire to slow enemies down if you're not already doing so with


Builds off Heart so it's not such a mission to farm after. It's great for extra slow, armor and health. It's a great item against team with



Guardian Angel works great when setting up a gank for your team with

Other Luxury Items:

This Item Is affordable as well as give extra damage. But why i like Sunfire Cape is because it Consumes


Banshee's veil is also a great defense against magic damage burst teams. With a banshee's veil, it'll probably take them long enough to CC for you to be able to get melee range with Skarner's 450+ movespeed. By then it'll already be too late for your opponent.

Atma's Impaler is kinda of a cerry on top of all that HP you gain from runes/masteries/items because of the damage. Plus it's really funny to see you crit with your stinger. With 3000 hp, Skarner gains around 60 bonus Attack Damage from Atmas.

Great Item for Skarner If your team lacks on the Magic damage side. Helps reduce Magic Damage Reduction, especially when you're always in the center of their team. The Bonus Magic Reduction is amazing just because you're supposed to be built tanky and to top it off, extra Ability Power!

Just a GIANT boost to your Ability Power.

TriForce is a pretty good item, but IMO it's not the best for Skarner. If you want to get this, you might wanna slip in one of the tree items inb4 Rylais.
Against 2 Ranged
Either ask for a lane switch, or lane with a ranged partner and play safely. Laning with someone with a stun or jump type move will help a lot. If you have a uncooperative team, either surrender @ 20 or tower hug and deny everything. All in all, have a cooperative team or go to elo hell like i might of have...
Against 1 Melee 1 Ranged
With your lane partner, harass with all the ranged moves you have. This includes your
Ixtal's Impact. When you take damage try to let them push and use Fracture>
Shattered Earth Combo to heal it off. Not too difficult, easy to snag 1 or 2 kills with a teammate that has some CC.
Against 2 Melee
You have most potential to farm here. Use Fracture when you can to get last hits AND harass at the same time. Killing won't be too hard if you have
Blitzcrank or
Pantheon or someone similar with you. They set you up for Skarner's Slow Lock.
NOTE* Always check for your opponent's summoner spells. Not suggested to tower dive when they have exhaust or flash.
Either ask for a lane switch, or lane with a ranged partner and play safely. Laning with someone with a stun or jump type move will help a lot. If you have a uncooperative team, either surrender @ 20 or tower hug and deny everything. All in all, have a cooperative team or go to elo hell like i might of have...
Against 1 Melee 1 Ranged
With your lane partner, harass with all the ranged moves you have. This includes your


Against 2 Melee
You have most potential to farm here. Use Fracture when you can to get last hits AND harass at the same time. Killing won't be too hard if you have


NOTE* Always check for your opponent's summoner spells. Not suggested to tower dive when they have exhaust or flash.
August 21, 11
-Started Guide
-Added Skarner, the champion
-Added "Skarner" Section
-Added Introduction
August 22, 11
-Added details on Items
-Added details on Spells
August 23, 11
-Added Skill Sequence to "Skills"
-Added Conclusion
August 24, 11
-Added Summoner Spells
-Added Pros/Cons
August 25, 11
-Added Masteries
-Added Runes
-PUBLISHED!
-Started Guide
-Added Skarner, the champion
-Added "Skarner" Section
-Added Introduction
August 22, 11
-Added details on Items
-Added details on Spells
August 23, 11
-Added Skill Sequence to "Skills"
-Added Conclusion
August 24, 11
-Added Summoner Spells
-Added Pros/Cons
August 25, 11
-Added Masteries
-Added Runes
-PUBLISHED!
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