Skarner Build Guide by bitpik

Skarner- Ranked Offtank

Hello everyone, my name is bitpik, and this is my first build on mobafire so far. For my first build ever i picked a champion i think we all know and love, Skarner. Ever since i brought this amazing champion he has been my main in the league of legends.

Ever since i started playing league of legends i loved offtanks. I started playing Jarvan IV , Garen and my first goal was to buy every single AD offtank in the game. So when i saw that a new offtank, Skarner was coming to the league i found him very intresting and couldn't wait to play him. Sadly, my internet dropped as he was released and i couldn't play him for a day or so. Then when my internet finally worked, i disconnected my first game with him the first five minutes and ended 0-1-0. Then i had to wait another couple of days because now my computer stopped working.

Then finally, i got to play him and it was a blast. I ended my first game 13-1-4, and my second 25-5-17, carrying my whole team. So by hearing this story, i hope you can tell i have some experience with him even though he's such a new champion. As i was so used to playing other offtanks, i knew just what items that worked on him. And to be honest, i have only changed two items from when i played him the first time.

These were my first two games, and i have played several ranked games with skarner since.

Most other Skarner players i've seen so far have totally failed with him. That is why i am here to help you, and let you know the basics of this champion as well as giving you a reasonable build for him.
READ THIS:

This is NOT a jungle build, and please don't downvote my guide because you think i play skarner wrong, we all play a champion in different ways. And we have nothing to complain about if it's actually working out for us, and before you give any downvotes, PLEASE try the build first.
Thank you.


If you check my profile i have 6won games and 2 losses, and 7.9 KD/A ratio with Skarner from 1600 ELO

Why not

I will start making another guide for a champion as soon as this reaches 1 000 000 views, in other words a million. The guide will be for another unregular solo top bruiser who i feel needs more attention as a toplaner.

Pros/Cons

aaaae

Pros + Ultimate can keep AP/AD carry from doing damage + You can kill AP/AD carries fast but painfully! + BIG amount of CC especially with this build + Champion who can jungle + Badass looking + Insanely fun to play

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Cons - Weak early game - Impale is bad if not used correctly - Needs tankyness, or he's pretty much useless - Needs top lane(if your not jungling ofcourse) - Needs a big amount of farm due to cost of core items - Has biggest trollface in history on classic skin

Even though Skarner trollface i am still happy that he actually looks original now. And if it's that big of a problem for you. Be happy, there are skins! ;)

Masteries

Since the masteries changed offense has been extremely powerful on many champions. My new build has 21 points in offense mostly because of Executioner which helps you kill squishes so much easier. Other things very helpful in offense are Summoner's Wrath , Weapon Expertise , Sunder and Weapon Expertise 's brother Arcane Knowledge .
Brute Force is also quite good but he's a **** and keeps bragging about his muscles whenever you see him. Offense and defense masteries sometimes hang out with each other so they are a good combination.




Defense is also really strong and Juggernaut is probably one of the best masteries in the game but only for some champions. I would definitely take defense 21 or maybe even 30 points in defense against heavy AoE comps. Everything about defense is in this tree. Resistances, health, initiating and CC reduction.

Useful masteries for Skarner in this tree are mainly Hardiness , Resistance , Veteran's Scars and Juggernaut . The rest of the stuff id say are mostly counterpicks. Yes, im using masteries as counter picks in the defense tree. Thats because for example Indomitable and Evasion only work against certain enemies but very well against some. AoE dmg decrease and a fixed damage reduction is very good against DoT AoE's(Damage over time Area of effects) like Singed's Poison Trail but they aren't very helpful against single target spells with a fixed damage like Fling. What im saying is that DoT's will get more reduced damage from Indomitable than Fling, Requiem and all the other spells with direct damage.

Irelia is extremely powerful with this because she already has 75% CC reduction and you can pretty much carry any team if you get into late game with her. Skarner on the other hand isn't like irelia. He hates balance and prefers crystals just like Taric.

If you have 5000 max health Juggernaut will give you 150hp and 3AD from Atma's Impaler which isn't noticeable in any way, shape or form. What this mastery really is for is the 10% disable reduction which is insanely good but not on its own. A two seconds stun will instead last for 1.8seconds. With mercury treads alone a two second stun will last for 1.3 seconds, together with Juggernaut this is 1.1 seconds. To me this isn't big difference and i would only take this against a team with ALOT of CC. Utility mastery kinda got nerfed on the mastery change and doesn't provide much for Skarner. I wouldn't take this no matter what. But if you want it, the useful masteries here are Good Hands , Summoner's Insight , Swiftness , Runic Affinity , Awareness , Perseverence and Mastermind . Utility masteries smell.

A bit more damage that most certainly helps. Actually almost as much damage dealing as Executioner . Only bad thing with this mastery is that it doesn't look very nice.

SP_CE

Gives three health for every 100 auto attack damage you do. You will do about 100 auto attack damage for every other minion you last hit. You regen far more than this.men din jäkla fjant

These masteries give you alot of some starting health which helps alot early game, and then extra health with every time you level. I always take these against teams that aren't countered by Indomitable or Evasion . klasisk bas sås med riktigt mycket tacos som smakar skit.

SP_CE

Great against AoE comps and against Damage over time spells like Poison Trail as every tick will have -2 reduced damage. Evasion 's damage reduction might not sound very big but it can save you sometimes because your max health is quite decent, -30damage for every 1000health you have.

This mastery is friendly and doesn't like to fight other masteries. But he loves to talk about himself from a players perspective. Pretty good mastery actually if your an attack speed or mage champion. Skarner kind of benefits from this on top lane but mostly just when your enemy teleports/walks to mid or bot lane. But then again, it is more important to help your team if dragon has spawned than taking a turret.

I think this is enough detail about masteries for you, lets move onto runes.

Runes

Here you can see which runes i use and why i use them, i will also mention other runes that are viable.


-I use nine greater mark of Desolation: Really, i can only imagine these and Greater Mark of Magic Penetration being usefull for skarner. AD runes would be an option if Trinity force/sheen multiplied your FULL AD. If you read it's description now Trinity Force only multiplies you'r BASE AD. Which is the Attack Damage you have without runes, items or mastery's. Its the AD you have at level 1 and the AD that increases when you levels. I still pick greater mark of desolation because the Trinity Force passive is still a BIG deal.
Trinity Force is the item which allows you to build tanky, but still damage dealing..


-I use nine Greater Seal of Armor because Skarner only has 18 armor by level 1. These also keep you from being first blooded.
And when your solotop without these your face will go from :) to >:( in a split second as soon as you see Garen or Irelia on the loading screen. GET THESE, i dont care what you think about them, they are one of the cheapest runes in the game and they are used for jungling.
Simply:Why would you NOT get these?


-I use nine Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist: These runes will give you that late game advantage i spoke about. By the way, Skarner already has 30 in base MR at level 1!. And by solotop'ing you will be leveling quicker so its worth having them "per level" in most cases.
Flat MR runes, Greater Glyph of Magic Resist also work but wont be as viable because Skarner already has a decent amount of MR at level 1.

Skarner has a magic resist of: 30(and an extra 1.25 per level.)
As you see. Its highly early game focused. The growth is small which means you need extra magic resist far more in endgame than in early game.


-I use three Greater Quintessence of Health. These are in my opinion the strongest runes. The bonus health greatly empowers your early game in a way you cant imagine. It has keepen me from being first blood many times and in a level 1 fight the bonus health it gives is just surreal.

So these are the runes i use, but these work aswell: Marks Greater Mark of Magic Penetration You will do about 30% magic damage and 70% physical damage with this build. Taking armor pen is far better but these work if you don't have them. Seals Greater seal of vitality this was a hard one, they work but there is no reason to take these instead of the ones listed. Greater Seal of Health these work better than the per level ones, though taking these AND Greater Quintessence of Health might be overdoing it. Greater Seal of Scaling Mana Regeneration Takes away all of your mana problems endgame. Not really needed though as your max mana is big. Greater seal of replenishment are good to boost your early game until you get Philosopher's Stone. I had four of these in the main build until Skarners Crystal Slash got buffed(its mana cost was reduced by far). Glyphs Greater Glyph of Magic Resist Skarner already has alot of base mr at level one and you will level faster solo top, these work for sure but Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist are better in my opinion. Greater Glyph of Scaling Mana Regeneration Some people use these on glyphs. And theres no problem with it except seal's give more, compare Greater seal of replenishment to Greater glyph of replenishment Quintessences Greater quintessence of Desolation They work for marks, so why wouldn't they work for quints? Greater Quintessence of Magic Penetration same as Greater Mark of Magic Penetration Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed I used to have one of these in my main build. I really like these on alot of champions and while 1.5% might not sound alot, without boots or anything your base movement speed is 320. 1.5% of 320 is 5 movement speed, which means that 3 runes that together give 4.5% of your base movement speed is 15. It makes quite a big difference especially against champions like Singed, who need to catch up to you.

Summoner spells

This is strong if you are being heavily harassed in a lane, or if you need to teleport to a dragonfight. Tell your support to always have a ward with him if a teamfight breaks out when you're not close, as you can teleport to wards aswell.

SPACE

Ghost is in my opinion the best summoner spell for Skarner it can save you, catch up to enemy champions or sometimes used for basic mobility over the map. I prefer this over flash.SPACE BALLS IS GREAT MOVIE ffffffaaa gig gg g g g gFFFFF

Even though all the nerfs its still the best summoner spell in the game. You can Flash> Impale combo if you feel a hunger for blood and your teammates are nearby. Just be sure to use your Crystalline Exoskeleton so that you can catch them straight away.

SPACE

Got buffed and now its the best spell to take against some team comps that are really CC heavy. Skarner can flee/chase easily if he isn't stunned or slowed and since it removes Exhaust and Ignite you will work more as an initiator, to make them waste spells on you.

Exhaust can catch someone or save you when being chased by a few amount of people. But because you have Impale, Ghost is far more viable on Skarner as you will always be able to catch them and keep them to you anyway.

SPACE

Pretty self-explanatory. It does a big amount of damage early game and later on its used to decrease someones healing received. Its always nice to have this on your team if your competing against a Swain or Dr. Mundo.

• Clairvoyance is a really good summoner spell, but make your support get it instead because having two spells is vital.
• Revive If you want hyper speed with a 540sec cooldown that doesn't help you in any way unless your trolling hard then be my guest!
• Heal this definitely has its uses but again its vital having two summoner spells. Let your jungler or support take this instead.
• Promote If you want a big useless minion every like ~200sec that doesn't help you in any way unless your an idiot then be my guest!
• Smite is an absolute must if your jungling, this isn't a jungling guide and you really shouldn't take this in top lane.
• Surge is probably the best spell here and could be used but it just isn't good enough to be in the upper grades.
• Clarity Take teleport instead if you want mana or something that matters lategame.

Ability use and sequence

Energize Is an excellent passive, and the only reason that you would push. How to use this passive to your advantage might still be hard in some cases. Obviously, you cant keep auto-attacking the enemies minons just to get your ultimate up. If your opponent has a brain (facepalm if he doesn't) he will let you push to his turret. Good job, now you cant even autoattack the melee minion's, and if you try doing so, You will get ganked by their jungler.
I will explain this in the Laning phase section, down bellow.

Lets not get off-topic, Energize is the reason you can spam that Crystal Slash, and lets you do finishing blows with Crystalline Exoskeleton and Fracture. This passive is one of the main reason's we level Crystalline Exoskeleton second, and Crystal Slash first.

Crystal Slash is what makes Skarner what he is. With this you can pretty much permaslow their entire team during a teamfight. This ability, because you are spamming it, also works increadibly well with Sheen, Lich Bane and Trinity Force, And because this is the ability you'll use the most, its what i level up first of all. There are some things to remember while using this ability. One is that only the second Crystal Slash that hits will slow the enemy, there is a timer over your hotbar which shows that you have crystall energy, and when it disappears. Keep in mind that by hitting it again you will reset the whole timer. Before setting up a gank with your jungler, you might want to Crystal Slash a minion to start slowing on first hit.

Crystalline Exoskeleton is Skarner's OP ability, this is really just TO strong during laning phase. You can outline any squishy champion with this ability at solotop. This is the reason i didn't rate teleport higher in the Summoner spell part of the. With this ability you simply wont need more mobility than you already have. I level this second because, like Phreak said, i want to keep the shield as much alive as possible. The movement speed buff is also worth the cost of loosing a bit of the Fracture spell. The Attack speed, for your Trinity Force proc and for your Energize passive. This is also a great tool for chasing and escaping, It works well with your Impale and helps ALOT when your going for the flash+ulti combo.

Fracture Isn't a great spell but not a bad either, i would only upgrade this once though. It regen's a bit of health combined with your Crystal Slash on caster minions, and is a good pushing tool. Fracture is also a good ability for chasing with Rylai's Crystal Scepter, if even your Crystalline Exoskeleton cant catch up to them. In higher level's this is more useful though, because it actually works incredibly well for healing in teamfights. This is just endgame though, you wont need to level it any further than to 1. One level on it is still needed to empower your laning phase. For those cases where philosopher stone just isn't enough.

Impale is the best spell ever :). You will level this up when you can. This is excellent for chasing, ganking, slaying a guy who tried to turret dive you and best of all, to irritate your friends ^^. I will go into BIG detail with this spell later on, it's really not much to say here. You know how it works and what it's used for (or do you?).


Summary:

• 1st priority: Impale (R)
• 2nd priority: Crystal Slash (Q)
• 3rd priority: Crystalline Exoskeleton (W)
• Last priority: Fracture (E)

Items

This is the build listed at the top of the screen, and i normally wouldn't change it. But you want options! right?


This is the items i use. A Regrowth Pendant and a Health Potion. This will help your laning phase against most champions, And Regrowth Pendant will be made into a Philosopher's Stone which is almost a must.

This is another viable starting item, it consists of a Boots of Speed and three Health Potion's. It would be suitable to take these if you know there is going to be a level 1 fight in the jungle. If you take these, you might want to switch out your
Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed for some other viable rune, check the rune section if you cant make up your mind!

Doran's Shield gives both survivability and regen, nothing bad about this item.


When you've brought this item you will be able to kill your squishy opponent at solotop as soon as he overextends. However if he is not squishy (example: Jarvan IV or Mordekaiser) this item will still help you with farming and harrasing. If the
Jarvan IV is at half health and still trying to farm minions close to your turret you should go for the killing blow.(check laning phase section!)
You will have to choose one of these boots, in most cases you will get Mercury's Treads, these give you magic resist, and best of all, tenacity.
Berserker's Greaves is used if they lack alot of damage dealing(magic) and CC(crowd control). Not a very good item and rarely helps you.
Ninja Tabi is only a viable pick if their team is full of AD carry's (example: Tryndamere, Ashe and Tristana). Which means that these won't have any use in ranked, except for ELO hell.
Philosopher's Stone is your key to winning laning phase against every champion, and regen is incredibly useful versus some hard opponents such as: Mordekaiser. With this your mana problems will be minimal, and the best thing with it is that it pays back what you brought it for. If you've used it for 13 minutes and 25 seconds, it has payed back everything you brought it for, but we will use this item until there are no inventory slots left which means, if you farm well. That you will have it for 35-40minutes. If your laning phase is being stomped on, it will take 40-50minutes. This item gives 30gold every minute.

Presuming that you brought this first of all, at about 5-8minutes. This has given you almost three times it's cost back. But endgame regen really doesn't matter that much, so were selling it.

Even though the power of this item, im not calling it a must. As there are other regen items that are also useful
As you are getting Banshees veil later on, this is a useful item to have. Not in the very good because of its price.
If you plan on getting this, use it where Philosopher's Stone would normally be.

You will want to grab sheen, one of the three boots i listed, and one of the regen items before the 15minute mark.


Trinity Force is hands down, the best item for Skarner. It is very expensive, it's actually the most expensive item in the game. But that doesn't matter, every item it build's from is good by itself! This gives you every single useful stat for Skarner AND two very useful passives!
I ALWAYS get this item, it doesnt matter which AD offtank i play, and i have every single one in the game!

There are some things to keep in mind when buying this:

• Because of its price, you will need alot of farm.
• This gives an OMGWTFBBQFACEROLL effect.
• The passive which increases your next attacks damage by 150% only multiplies your BASE ad. So getting lots of AD doesn't help your damage output by that much.

And that's about it.
You have two AoE's, Crystal Slash and Fracture. One of them is long range, which makes you even better at chasing. I think you all know this spell is Fracture. The other one Crystal Slash is better at slowing entire teams.

This item gives survivability and slows enemies and it does it far better than Randuin's Omen.

This gives more base stats than Rylai's Crystal Scepter but has no slowing effect. I would still consider this a very useful item for Skarner.
When this is fully capped it gives 130 more max hp, 725 extra max mana and the same amount of ability power compared to Rylai's Crystal Scepter. I would definitely take this instead of rylai's if i was going for Manamune.
It happens that i use this when i get a couple of early/midgame kills. It boost's your damage by quite a bit but doesn't give any max health.

So during mid game you should buy Trinity Force and one of the good items.




There are loads of item's to pick for this slot and here's a list of all of them, from good to bad:

A fully stacked Guinsoo's Rageblade gives: 35 attack damage, 95 ability power and 32% attack speed, this is incredibly good for it's price.

This is insane for Skarner, It gives you damage, attack speed and best of all, magic resist! If you take this you probably won't need any magic resist item later on. This was switched to the main build while i wrote this ^^. I use it for the main build because its important getting defense as soon as possible, then you can have a Guinsoo's Rageblade as last item if you want to( Wit's End works as both 4th and MR item, so you won't get to buy any last item if you pick Guinsoo's Rageblade here).

Gives you damage and solves mana problems. Its okay if you are new to the game. But when you get better you should be able to handle mana problems without it.

Really not that great. It's like Wit's End without tankyness

Far to expensive! We want to build our tankyness as soon as possible, except your really fed you won't have gold for this

This is a bit expensive, and it simply wont do it for you, if you want attack speed, then take Wit's End. Oh, so your thinking of getting extra movement? Do you REALLY need that?

The active doesn't work well on Skarner. You will sell your Philosopher's Stone for tankyness later anyway. Let your support get this instead, you simply haven't got enough item slots for it.

Take Manamune instead! Manamune gives alot more damage because AP doesn't matter in this build. Extra AD is alot more powerful than attack speed and CDR on Skarner because his skills already have a low cooldown! And its not like you'll have enough attack speed to use Impale more than once in a teamfight anyway.

The reason this item has to be cheap, is because we want to start building some defence as soon as possible.




There is a point in the game where Skarner just has to have some defensive items to work well. It doesn't matter how fed you are. My second game i was at 14-1-12 then i died four times in a row because of my squishyness, all of a sudden! That point is now, and if you go for another dps item here you will end up dead.

Here, you will pick one of the Armour and one of the Magic resist items during this stage of the game! How you build them, i don't care because there are so many different ways that it would take forever to explain them all. Simply, if their Malzahar is fed you will want to take the MR item before the armor one. You are required to use your brain on this one but i hope its ok.


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ARMOUR

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MAGIC RESIST

• Guardian Angel is good against heavy burst team's. It synergizes with Wit's End.
  
• Atma's Impaler synergizes with Banshee's Veil and a last item which gives health.
  
• Thornmail is great endgame versus those scary AD carries. Is amazing versus Master Yi and Tryndamere. You might want to go for a magic resist item, that gives some health.
  
• Frozen Heart is a great item against AD carries, Synergizes with Manamune.
  
• Sunfire Cape if you like it, this can be used against most setups.
  
• Madred's Bloodrazor is great versus champs with alot of max hp. Cho'Gath and Vladimir are two examples.

• Wit's End Synergizes with Guardian Angel
  
• Force of Nature Doesn't really fit in with the others, if you have alot of max hp and Atma's Impaler you will want to go for Banshee's Veil instead. But if you like it, be my guest!
  
• Banshee's Veil is the only MR item listed that gives health, use it with Atma's Impaler if you have it, or you could pick it for it's amazing passive.
  
• Quicksilver Sash as mentioned with Cleanse, Skarner can flee/chase if he isn't stunned. So this is a viable pick for him but getting Cleanse and Quicksilver Sash in the same game might be overdoing it slightly.

Here you can pick whatever you want, i choose Hextech Gunblade for the main build because it feels good having something great to save up for. Feel free to change it!

Simplified list of items

This list was added, so that it would be easier to find the items that you wanted. Simply keep this page up, and alt+tab the game. This makes it easier to find the item's you want.

NOTE: dont buy 2 Wit's End, just because it appears twice!
Wit's End works as both MR and 4th item, so then you can take a last item. If you take one of the other 4th items you can't get a last item, but you can get a magic resist item with it.

Gameplay: Laning phase Part 1: Basic Farming

In this section i will go through how to lane with Skarner in high detail.
What you will learn here:
-How to farm well.
-How to slay your enemy(or enemies).
-How to gank.
-How to control your lane.

Last hitting without using abilities can be a pain in the ***. Especially as Skarner has a low damaging auto-attack.

If you are new to the game it might be hard the first weeks, and you'll maybe feel that its annoying practicing it, but its worth it. You cant use all of your spells on minions whenever they appear, because then you will push to their turret. One thing to remember is that the closer you are to their turrets, the bigger the chance is that you die if someone ganks you. But last hitting is hard to do and requires some practice.
Another thing to remember, is that the ONLY time you should push a lane, is when you know that no ones nearby, or in ganking position. There are some things you could do to further prevent yourself from being ganked.

Ask your teammates to tell if someone is missing from their lane.
Buy some Sight Ward's and place them in locations around your lane, where your enemies would be likely to run if they were about to gank you.

This is all pretty basic, but farming is very basic in itself.

When you want to push as Skarner. Use Fracture on the caster minions and kill them as fast as possible, then last hit the melee minions that are low on health, and then the others. By doing this you are pushing and farming well at the same time, you might miss one melee minion, but you still got 5 of them.

Dont go back if you'r opponent is pushing the turret without having someone to hold it for you, letting the turret take free hits is unnecessary ESPECIALLY when your against two people solotop. There are some exceptions, for example if your health is low.

The next part will be in a different chapter, because its gigantic.

Killing your lane opponent

In this section i will explain how to kill your lane opponent and harassing.
Down below you can also read guides for facing specific champions.

These are easy to kill if you catch them with your Crystalline Exoskeleton.

Opponents in this section:
Vladimir Pantheon Mordekaiser Caitlyn Akali and other similar champions.

When you face these, you should always stay in brush at top, wait until they use their ability, example: Vladimir's Transfusion then RUSH for them. The lower you get them the better, as you will kill them later on. With some champions, such as Caitlyn you wont even need to wait for their first ability, as soon as they come a bit close you do the same as with the others, RUSH. They cant do anything but run, and they hate it. Now you got your enemy a bit low. Keep on punishing them for coming close to you and just farm from now on, the lower you keep them the better. If they recall then dont be sad! Your denying them XP and gold this way, now push but be cautious. If you stay hitting their turret for to long you might get ganked.

IMPORTANT: You cant just run into Akali's stealth field and expect to harass her more than she will to you. Its the art of faking attacks. If you do it right they will waste a spell somewhere, and if they are out of spells you can harass them again.

I know you all are wondering:
"HEY you cant just run in and rape them like nothing and expect them to run all the time!"
I see why your thinking this, and this is why i always buy a regen item! You will regen faster than they do which means you kill them long term.

Go back and buy Philosopher's Stone as soon as possible.
You will also need Sheen to kill them

When you turn level 6 you will start to move more and more passive, by doing this your opponent will want to take bigger risks. He will come closer, then when he comes TO close you will go for the killing blow(assuming hes half health or less).

When you assault you opponent with Crystalline Exoskeleton, and he makes a run for it just to soon. Use a Crystal Slash onto a minion to start the slowing effect right when you reach your prey. The most important thing now, is to time your ultimate right. Dont just run at him and ulti. Spam your autoattack's and Crystal Slash. The time you use your Impale comes when he isn't next to his turret, but close to his turret. He will have flash if hes in the squishy section, if he manages to flash into turret range uve lost him in most cases, because it takes time to catch up now your Crystalline Exoskeleton timed out. You will use your Impale before he can flash into turret range. Then he will be at about the middle of the lane after you've pulled him. He will now flash close but not into turret range.
Sadly, he still cant escape because of the massive slow you make with Crystal Slash

If this goes as planned, you earned yourself a kill. ^^

These are hard to kill, but by playing good you can still make them food.

Opponents in this section:
Jarvan IV Xin Zhao Irelia and other similar champions.

These are hard to kill, but laning against them is still easy. Though some of them, such as Xin Zhao and Irelia will try to kill you, you will want to use this for your own advantage and play defensively. Remember that: When Xin Zhao's Three Talon Strike is over, you will have an advantage on him. His Three Talon Strike has a cooldown of 10-15seconds while your Crystal Slash has cooldown of 1-2seconds.

Tanky Dps rely on their abilities. It is important to have knowledge of them as some spells have shorter cooldown's than others. But if their abilities are on cooldown, you will have a chance to harass, and if they are low and overextended, kill them.

You simply cant kill these unless they make a big mistake or you gank them with your jungler.

Opponents in this section:
Warwick Olaf Dr. Mundo Udyr and other similar champions.

You will want to just farm versus these, and hope that your health regen recovers their harass. Most of these will push their lane, Olaf and Udyr are two examples of pushers. Let them push, and gank them as much as possible with your jungler.




As soon as Vladimir becomes level 7-9 he will start to heal up everything you throw against him. Early game though, he heals only a little.
The only thing a Vladimir wants to do early game is to farm. As soon as he uses his Transfusion which is his Q ability, you should attack him. This abilty has a 2second cooldown in endgame, but a 9second cooldown at level 1, use this to your advantage (by attacking). Most Vladimir players take Ghost instead of Flash, use your Impale when he is slowed by Crystal Slash, and his sanguine pool is gone.


When facing Karthus you will want to go in an unpredictable movement. This will cause him to miss his Q, Lay Waste. If he still hits you, start walking as you were drunk. If he misses alot of Lay Waste's he will start to farm with it instead. Now he's pushing and you can gank, or kill him by yourself. Follow the killing guide above.
Karthus is very weak against Skarner. When you assault with your Crystalline Exoskeleton he simply cant do anything. Be sure to use your Impale just before he flashes into turret range.


It is hard to win over a good Xin Zhao, and you should play defensively from the beginning. If you manage to get Xin Zhao low, then REMEMBER his passive, Challenge. If you get him low, then you should zone him and force him to go back, without pushing. If he gets a single minion to hit on he will gain a big amount of his health back. Careful when zoning though, you might get ganked while doing it.
Xin Zhao doesn't have any real escape mechanism, and relies on his summoner's when running, this makes him an easy kill if he overextends to much.

So since his nerf Mordekaiser is one of the weakest solo top champions. You should harass him early, where it costs him health to build up his shield and as soon as the shield goes out you should run at him again. Don't stand in your minions because then he will harass AND gain a shield with only one spell. My friend who plays Mordekaiser says that he is useless solo top now and will have to go mid as AP carry. Not much to say here because he's Mordekaiser. yeah.

Well morde es back! The shield buff gave him more Hue which made him very very hue. He is still weak early on but when he gets spellvamp and especially level 6 he will win fights against you 1v1.


Akali has spellvamp and lifesteal from the start because of Twin Disciplineswhich means that if you loose a fight and your forced to go back, she will heal most of the damage you did to her. Akali excels in making smaller bursts frequently, she does a huge amount of damage if your not careful. One thing: NEVER walk into her Twilight Shroud if your both at alot of health, she will force you out from it in no time by spamming all of her spells at you. The only time you should even be near it is when shes running away with low health. Akali's ultimate, Shadow Dance gives her an ability to jump on you. This doesn't cost energy, it costs one Shadow Essence. This stacks up to three times and she gains it by assisting, killing and also by time. If you click her you can see bellow her health how many stacks she has. She needs atleast two stacks to take you from full health if you dont screw up.

If your getting zoned by Akali's Twilight Shroud there are some things you can do.

• Harass her when it is gone, you will need a higher level of Crystalline Exoskeleton to do this without loosing more health than her.
• Buy a Vision Ward and place it where she normally stealths, now you can gank/attack her even when she's stealth. Dont buy an Oracle's Elixir because its far to expensive.

Recommended runes:

Marks: Greater mark of Desolation
Seals: Greater Seal of Armor or Greater seal of Vitality or Greater Seal of Health or Greater seal of Vigor or Greater Seal of Magic Resist
Glyphs: Greater Glyph of Magic Resist or Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist
Quintessences: Greater Quintessence of Health or Greater quintessence of Vigor or Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed


While AD Sion is strong late game and weak early on, AP Sion is the opposite. This guy is very hard to lane against if he knows what he's doing. Sion's burst consists off a 1.5 seconds stun Cryptic Gaze followed by a damaging shield Death's Caress and they both have an incredible 1:1 AP ratio. It takes 3 seconds on his shield for the explosion to go off, while the stun only wears for 1.5 seconds. This means that Sion needs to charge his shield a second or so before he lays the stun on you so that you just don't run away before the shield explodes. If you see him popping it without reason you should keep out of range for his stun. But if your at half health he can Flash> Cryptic Gaze> Death's Caress> Ignite you which for the most part means you'll end up dead.

It is great getting Mercury's Treads against AP Sion as the Cryptic Gaze duration+damage will be lower. Sion is a great turret pusher because of Cannibalism.
An AP Sion will almost always go midlane, where he can gank from far more effectively

A good Karma always gets fed for ONE reason, and that is because everyone underestimates her. Its true that she's weaker than other AP carry's on burst but she's got a handful of tricks to rape you in lane.

Rule number one is to no matter how low she is, and her spells are up you shouldn't turret dive her. The number one Karma build on this site encourages you to stay at the turret with almost no health at all. You might wonder why and i hope you get it by seeing these spells: Heavenly Wave and Soul Shield. These two in combination heals her for about 20% of her hp, damage you and gives her a shield THIS putting you into a big disadvantage.

Remember that Karma isn't underpowered because her laning is bad because it actually isn't. Its because she doesn't fit into the current metagame.

Teamfights

Your role in a teamfight, as explained earlier, is to CC the **** out of them, and maybe get a kill or two from Trinity Force passive.

When a teamfight starts, dont just run in and Crystal Slash them alone. You will want to follow your tank into the teamfight, you dont have any good initiation abilities so you cant run in by yourself, or you'll be dead in a sec. You will go straight for their AD carries/AP carries in the back and pull them out of the teamfight, and keep attacking them with your abilities. You will pretty much kill them while they try to run in again. When that carry has died you will run into their team and start attacking the biggest threat(preferably a squishy). Spamming your spells as much as possible all around you, this will permaslow their entire team because of Rylai's Crystal Scepter.

If this goes as planned, and your teammates don't suck, you will have won the teamfight by now.

1st priority: Channeling AP carry (for example when Malzahar uses Nether Grasp, or when Fiddlesticks charges his Crowstorm).

2nd priority: Melee AD carry, if you find a melee AD carry, such as Master Yi hitting your carries, you want to drag him away. Then your carries are out of danger, and you can kill him together quickly.

3rd priority: Ranged AD carry (for example Vayne) pull him from the teamfight and kill him.

4th priority: AP carry (for example Annie). Do the same as with AD carry.

5th priority: Any offtank (for example Rumble and Jarvan IV.

6th priority: Support (for example Soraka). Nidalee and Lux count as AP carry's.

Last priority: The tank (for example Alistar or Rammus).

Thanks to

xPhanttas

For helping with spelling.

JhoiJhoi

For making her amazing "How to make a guide" guide!
link:
http://www.mobafire.com/league-of-legends/build/making-a-guide-101506

MasterNinjaSky

for being pro(she's a friend please don't troll me for this xD)

This is now one of the highest Skarner builds on mobafire.

Thank you everyone, for everything!

Changelog

First change: Changed Perseverence into Good Hands

Some people complained about the item section being a bit messy, i went it through now in hope to solve grammar issues and making it more simple. I also added some space between the different items in hope to make it less shaky/wonky/messy.

Since my guide reached 87% again i feel motivated to make it even better! :) Going to add a dominion guide into this guide but its hard to do this without it getting to messy. But when ive figured a way around it i will start making it!

Skarner will only get buffed until the tournament players stop building him as AP carry ;P.

The recent buff for Skarner made his mana less starved. So Philosopher's Stone will from now on cover alot of mana usage.