Skarner Build Guide by Satyr123

Introduction

Hello and this is my very first guide I made in mobafire.

This guide is basically how I like to play Skarner, I play him two separate ways depending on how the game progresses. One is a AD Skarner which would allow you to chase down squishies and utterly destroy them without them having a chance to run away. The other is an offtank build for Skarner allowing you to stand in team fights and engage more often because the extra HP, armor, and magic resist. The only difference is the last three items.

Unique Skills

This build is more a way how to chase down opponents and gaining your team an early victory. This is so with a very powerful build with massive consistent movement speed so that you can chase down champions with ease. The other builds with probably suggest a Shurelya's Reverie to get the bonus 40% movement speed, but that is for those who engage and hope for them to die quickly. This build is more of a consistent damage build where you are the one devastating their team and making them wonder who should they aim first. This is my build and this is the way how I feel how he should be played, like and AD Mordekaiser except with cc.

Skill Description

Passive:

Energize
Description: (Innate): Using autoattacks against champions lowers the cooldowns of Skarner's abilities by 1 second and by 0.5 seconds when used against non-champion units. Autoattacks on towers won't reduce cooldowns at all.

Tip: It is best to always autoattack them and use Crystal Slash. This way you can spam Crystal Slash and all of your spells will come up faster.

Q:

Crystal Slash
Description:(Active): Skarner lashes out, dealing physical damage to all enemies in a small area around him. He charges himself with Crystal Energy for 5 seconds if a unit is struck.

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.

Cooldown: 3.5 seconds
Radius of AoE: 350

Leveling Up:
Cost: 20 / 22 / 24 / 26 / 28 mana
Physical Damage: 25 / 40 / 55 / 70 / 85 (+0.8 per bonus attack damage)
Magic Damage: 24 / 36 / 48 / 60 / 72 (+0.4 per ability power)
Slow: 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40 %

Tip: Use this when you have no blue buff when jungling (saves mana). Use it then attack enemy champion repeat to lock them down. Make sure you spam this spell to jungle or on the enemy.

W:

Crystalline Exoskeleton
Description:(Active): Skarner receives a shield for up to 6 seconds. While the shield is still active his movement speed and attack speed are boosted.

Cost: 60 mana
Cooldown: 14 seconds

Leveling Up:
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 %


Tip: Use this when you have blue buff to move faster to other jungle camps. This is good for a gank because of the movement speed it gives.

E:

Fracture
Description:(Active): Skarner summons a blast of crystalline energy in a line which deals magic damage to enemies struck and marks them for 6 seconds. If any marked targets receive further damage from Skarner, or if they die when struck by Fracture, Skarner will consume the mark to heal himself. Subsequent marks consumed and unit kills will heal for 50% of the last.

Cooldown: 10 seconds
Range: 600
Missile Speed: 1800

Leveling Up:
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 %

Tip: Use this when you need healing in your jungling. In teamfights use this as much as possible.

R:

Impale
Description:(Active): Skarner suppresses an enemy champion for 1.75 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.

Range: 350

Leveling Up:
Cooldown: 130 / 120 / 110 seconds
Cost: 100 / 125 / 150 mana
Magic Damage: 100 / 150 / 200 (+0.5 per ability power)

Tip: Use this to engage and start a teamfight. When you use Impale you can only use Crystal Slash and Crystalline Exoskeleton. CC doesn't break the Impale but you won't be able to drag them to your team. Remember now their are some champions that can get out of it with Cleanse or Quicksilver Sash. The champions you should not use it on is, Gankplank, Olaf, and Alistar.

Skill Sequence

What I like to do when I jungle with Skarner is max out my Crystal Slash by level 9, my, Crystalline Exoskeleton by level 13, and my Fracture last. Why I like to max out Crystal Slash first is because its cheap on mana cost and slows down the enemy champion when chasing him. I max Crystalline Exoskeleton second because of its shield and movement speed buff. Fracture is maxed last because I only use it to heal myself when jungling, or in team fights. This is so that it is easier to gank enemy champions early game which will give you and your team the upper hand. How you would like to use your spells correctly is run up to them with Crystalline Exoskeleton use Crystal Slash, then start spamming Crystal Slash and use Fracture to heal myself. When they are running away I use Impale to bring them back to me to do more damage. Remember DO NOT use Impale on Gangplank, Olaf, or Alistar. They will just use a spell to get out of it which will make a waste of Impale.

Masteries

I go with 21/9/0 for the basic AD damage mastery points plus specializing in important jungle utilities. There are several other ways to spec him but this is how I feel that most complements him throughout the game as a hard hitting damage dealer. If you feel you are not very aggressive, then I suggest 0/21/9 for maximum jungle utilities with movement speed with a boost of mana.

Items

I start out with a cloth armor with 5 health pots for a quick jungle, the classic jungle starting items. I usually like to buy my Madred's Razors to Boots of Speed to Wriggle's Lantern to mercury trends. This will help easy ganks early game and a fast dragon at level 8. After I buy my boots and wriggles, I start building Trinity Force, starting off with Sheen, to Zeal, finally Phage. These 3 items is the core of the build because it is to capture enemies within your grasp and trinity synergies very well with Crystal Slash, and the last three is optional depending on how the game runs. If the game is running smoothly, I suggest buying two Phantom Dancers and a Frozen Mallet. If your team is having a problem with engaging or doesn't have a viable tank, I suggest going offtank with Warmong's Armor and Atma's Impaler and a Force of Nature. This way you can still do damage while being able to stay alive throughout the fight. If it goes on long enough, sell Wriggle's Lantern for a Hextech Gunblade for even more lifesteal, spellvamp and plus a ranged slow.

Runes

Summoner Spells

Pros / Cons

Team Work

In team fights, you should be the one engaging with impale. Though this build does not synergize with that very much, you should try to play like a tanky assassin of some sort coming from bushes (come in first) and grabbing the carry. Take the element of surprise into you hands. During the team fights, if the carry does not die, make sure he does, however, don't go try hard and chase him into his fountain and die like a complete moron. Instead, decide whether you can kill him within the first few seconds or not. If the answer is no, then jump back into the team fight and finish off the rest of the team. Without the help of their precious carry, they should be easy to pick off one by one.

Jungling

I prefer to start at wolves to blue to wraiths to red to mini golems to wraiths to wolves. There are many other options of course, but I feel this allows you to have the freedom to be able to gank lanes that are being pushed. When you are jungling and they decide to gank and steal your blue, do not panic. Most often their jungler is with them and will take your blue. The most efficient way to balance this is to steal their blue and counter jungle often. Make sure your jungle isn't countered and gank often. Make sure you do not use Crystalline Exoskeleton and Fracture much since those will make you blue depended when you are jungling. Just spam Crystal Slash, it saves mana and you can give your blue to mid when he needs it. Soon you will realize that you are ahead of their jungler and will probably overpower the enemy team with ease during early - mid game. However, this way has the risk of being killed in the enemy jungle and you must have a large sense of map awareness to figure out where and when is the best time to take a camp. If you don't want this to happen, the best way is to have your jungle guarded. If your team does not co-operate, call them all noobs and blame them for failing the jungle, but only if you can't come back from the counter jungle.
This is the Jungle Map (Sorry I can't find my way of jungling with the numbers on.)
1) Wolves
2) Blue
3) Wraith
4) Red
5) Golem
6) Wraith (Or gank top, mid, or bot)
7) Wolves
8) Gank top, mid, or bot (Or go back)

Counter Jungling

When you are counter jungling there are some risks to it. The best way to counter jungle is to find out where their jungler is at. The best way to do this is if a support (if you have one) always Clairvoyance the jungling seeing if it is taking or he's there. If he is their try to counter jungle the other part of the jungle that he is not in. If you don't have a support or Clairvoyance isn't up is to check in the mini map if he is ganking. To counter jungle you also need to know when their jungling is gonna counter jungle you or not. The best way to stop him from the counter jungle is to remember the spawn times of the camps. If you remember the time it takes the camps to spawn you can stop the counter jungling easy.

Respawns

Wolf, Wraith, and Golem

Spawn: 1:40
Respawn: 1:00

Blue and Red Buff

Spawn: 1:54
Respawn: 5:00

Dragon

Spawn: 2:30
Respawn: 6:00

Baron Nashor

Spawn: 15:00
Respawn: 7:00

Summary

All in all, this build is to allow you to be able to chase enemies and kill them. Even though this build is a bit expensive to finish, but the game will usually end before you can get your 5th item. If it does not end during that time it will mean that it is an even game or they (or you) are defending and not letting you (or them) win. Of course you can change the item set up any way you like but this is how I feel is the way to go as Skarner. Other than that, its just you dominating the game all the way through. Any feedback is welcome and I hope that this guide is of use to you and thank you for your time. If you did good with this build can you tell me how I can put up your score on this guide so I can put it on if you want. If you think I need to improve this guide please comment on what I need then vote. Thank You :).