Welcome to my Skarner jungle guide, I've found Skarner to be extremely strong in the new jungle in terms of farming and ganking as well as being resistant to being countered so I decided to make a guide on him. First thing I'd like to point out is that jungle Skarner is significantly different than lane Skarner in that instead of building raw damage like the lane one does, we're forced into building defensive items and team effect items as junglers tend to get less farm at almost all stages of the game compared to the solos and is often the first one to die if they don't build defensive items.

That said, this guide will hopefully show how I build jungle Skarner and hopefully will teach you a thing or two about Skarner for you to use in those dreaded solo queue games that we love punishing ourselves with.

These are the same masteries I now run on Udyr as I find it gives Skarner a huge defensive bonus to further his durability all game. While some other junglers require 21 or something similar in offense, Skarner can clear the jungle fairly fast (3:40 or less is normal) while maintaining a superior late game mastery build as Jungle Skarner tends to be the tank/initiator/peeler mid to late game.

I chose those certain masteries in the defensive tree as I found some of the other ones either lacking or not giving us stats we could use later game. I chose 3 in resistance rather than hardiness as it's likely I'll be dying to AP damage rather than AD for most of the game until late game where that 6 armor wouldn't matter against a fed AD carry.

The 9 points in utility are to solve Skarner's mana problems early game while making sure he never really has to worry not having blue buff past early game. I find using just a few points in this tree allows him to focus on other issues such as his durability.

Like the masteries, these runes are the same ones I currently run on Udyr. The attack speed marks are to make use of Skarner's passive more often as armor/magic penetration wouldn't be as helpful compared to being able to lower Skarner's cooldowns constantly which in turn increase his damage output. The seals and glyphs are fairly standard, I need armor early to be healthy to farm/gank constantly early game while the MR per levels are around so I can tank even more magic damage mid-late game where it may become an issue. The quints are so Skarner travels around at a nice pace between camps or when he goes to gank. The quints could be replaced with attack speed or whatever else you want but I currently like having movespeed in the slot.

Explanation:


I prefer Flash to other summoner spells due to the fact I can flash ult someone who strays close without warning. Other summoner spells I feel won't allow you to do this as you require the surprise in order to pull it off and ghost takes an extra second or two to reach the target meaning they've likely already flashed/jumped away.

Passive: Energize

Basic attacks lower the cooldowns of Skarner's abilities by 1 second against champions and 0.5 seconds against non-champions.

Explanation:


It is very important to use this passive effectively as it can easily secure a kill and make you far more useful in fights. Chasing a champion with the combination of auto attacking with this passive and pressing Q is a huge part of Skarner and cannot be stressed enough. To use this skill effectively, constantly try to position yourself close to the target after each hit (while casting your spells of course) so theres less time where your champion is running after and more time where you're getting extra Qs in. There should be a instance of doing this in the video where I chase down a Chogath mid lane by constantly moving in front of him while auto attacking him and pressing Q.



Q: Crystal Slash

Skarner lashes out with his claws, dealing 25/40/55/70/85 (+30% of attack damage) 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, he deals 24/36/48/60/72 (+40% of ability power) bonus magic damage and slows all targets hit by 25 / 30 / 35 / 40 / 45% for 2 seconds.

Cooldown 3.5 seconds

Cost 15 mana

Range 350

Explanation:


A extremely damaging skill despite it's seemingly low values, the fact that this skill could technically be up every 2 or less seconds depending on what Skarner is autoattacking is what makes this skill so great. The slow is massive when applied as often Skarner will be able to apply a 2nd slow by the time the first one ends. This skill should be spammed constantly at jungle camps and when attacking champions due to it's extremely small mana cost and it's utility/damage. Hitting multiple targets with this slow is highly useful to a team as it allows the backlines to move further away from divers and such. Also note that this skill doesn't apply that much damage or the slow when it isn't charged, I often try to pass a minion wave during a gank with Skarner to force this to go off and charge it up so when I do reach the enemy champion, it will be slowing them.



W: Crystalline Exoskeleton

Skarner receives a shield of 70 / 115 / 160 / 205 / 250 (+60% of ability power) for up to 6 seconds. While the shield persists his 15 / 17 / 19 / 21 / 23% movement speed and 30 / 35 / 40 / 45 / 50% attack speed are increased.

Cooldown 14 seconds

Cost 60 mana

Explanation:


A strong opener skill which also has the drawback of being just a shield if it's broken quickly. This spell is very useful to get in close to an enemy or to chase a enemy down who isn't fighting back. Defensively this spell allows Skarner to crush enemy melee bruisers early-mid game due to the fact not only will Skarner outrun his opponents, he'll be slowing them with Q. When his opponents do catch up to do a melee hit, they'll likely be completely blocked by this skill as well as the chance to not break it in one blow. While the movespeed and attackspeed do die off if the shield dies, this skill is still very valuable as a tank tool as it's similar to Turtle stance in the damage it mitigates.



E: Fracture

Skarner summons a blast of crystalline energy which deals 80 / 120 / 160 / 200 / 240 (+70% of ability power) damage to enemies struck and marks them for 6 seconds. Any further damage dealt to marked targets by Skarner will allow him to consume the mark to heal himself for 30 / 45 / 60 / 75 / 90 (+30% of ability power). Subsequent marks consumed will heal for 50% of the last.

Cooldown 10 seconds

Cost 50 / 55 / 60 / 65 / 70 mana

Range 600

Explanation:


While I hear this skill is useful in laning, it's effects are fairly weak unless leveled as we don't even need a single level of it early as it often drains mana and simply doesn't do much without maxing it. That said, I sometimes get a single level of this early instead of another point into W if I ever need that extra 80 damage to kill someone midfight.



R: Impale

Skarner suppresses an enemy champion for 1.75 seconds and deals 100 / 150 / 200 (+50% of ability power) magic damage to it. During this time, Skarner can move freely and will drag his helpless victim around with him. When the effect ends, Skarner's target will be dealt 100 / 150 / 200 (+50% per ability power) additional damage.

Cooldown 110 / 100 / 90 seconds

Cost 100 / 125 / 150 mana

Range 100

Explanation:


Skarner's trademark move, this ability allows for some sick plays if cast at a time when the enemy champion has flashed or used a jump move as this spell has a short casttime which means that flashing when Skarner casts it will drag them towards skarner even if they've already gotten to their destination via flash. This also has the drawback of being dodgeable by things like Vlad pool despite hearing the sound effects. The biggest threat to this skill pulling a squishy in will likely be Banshee's as Skarner has low range on everything which means it'll be difficult to break the shield before they run. I tend to use this as an initiation move when combined with Shurelias, his W and maybe even a flash as it allows Skarner to quickly drag the squishy backlines to the front.

Q-W-Q-W-Q-R-Q-W-Q-W-R-W-E-E-E-R-E-E

The reasoning for the skill build the way it is: Q is maxed early due to it's extremely high sustain damage and strong slowing effect, it allows Skarner to be extremely strong early game against melees as well as allowing him to farm neutral camps quickly. The reason for maxing W so soon is that the shield is worthless if it's too weak to block anything as it'd likely instantly die to AOEs if not leveled. Having a higher level of it gives higher stat bonuses and gives it a better chance o living for more than a few seconds in a fight/chase/escape. E is maxed last since we don't really care/need it much for jungle Skarner.

I start with regrowth as I eventually turn it into a philosopher stone, I've found that Skarner doesn't really need that Wriggles and can afford to take the late game route of double gold items which will give him a lead on a Wriggles user should they be even in CS/objectives as Skarner.

I try to farm and not buy back until I have enough for both boots and Philsopher's Stone but if I find myself at base prior to that I get boots so I can move between the camps/lanes faster to farm/gank more often. After that I just finish both my gold items as most enemy jungles at that point in the game won't beat Skarner even if Skarner goes gold items.

I often get sheen if I want a extra damage boost early on as Sheen can greatly help killing dragon/champions/towers as it'll constantly be active due to the number of low cooldown spells Skarner has.

Mid game after you've gotten the early items, you'll be forced to choose on defensive items according to the enemy team's champions. I often go primarily armor if the jungle/top/bot ranged are AD as I figure I can just ultimate the AP carry so nothing else can kill me. In other cases such as facing double AP or a hybrid champion, I prefer mercury treads with Aegis of the Legion as it'll help my team and myself counteract the different damage types the enemy has.

I often finish Shurelya's at this point in time to perform the sneak Skarner ultimates. I also start finishing my other defensive items, depending on what I'm dying to, often it'll be Randuins or Force of Nature with a Warmogs if I somehow still have money laying around. Triforce to end with if I somehow still have gold just flying at me constantly.

All the credit and the build is a copy from http://solomid.net/guides.php?g=13232, posted by TheOddOne