Skarner General Guide by Abtul

Introduction

HELLO! My name's Abtul but you can call me Abby. I've been playing LoL for almost 2 years, and been playing skarner for quite some time (bought him like 3 weeks after his release)
Why would you play skarner? He's a CRYSTAL SCORPION! Why would'nt you play him? And if the look is not enough then let me tell you: He's one of the fastest and most effective junglers atm. And yeah you might think that he can't gank until lvl 6. But NO THAT'S NOT TRUE! He ganks just great at lvl 4. And with his jungle clearing speed he'll be lvl 4 in NO time!
Sooo how do you play skarner? Well that's what i'm trying to teach you in this guide. So keep reading!

Pros / Cons

s

Pros :) + Very beefy + Can handle most champs 1n1 + Has great Crowd Control with his ULT! + One of the fastest junglers ingame atm! + Almost 100% killchance if ganking @ lvl 6.

SPAAAAAAAAACE

Cons :( - Really blue buff dependant early game. - Ganking can be hard before lvl 6. - Has no "real" ranged spells.

Runes

I went with Attack Speed marks Greater Mark of Attack Speed - Because of his passive

Armor Seals Greater Seal of Armor - Pretty much a must for jungling

Magic Resist Glyphs Greater Glyph of Magic Resist - Because we're going to play a tanky skarner (Calm down not 100% tank trust me he'll do enough damage!)

26 HP quints Greater Quintessence of Health - Making the jungling much easier with the 78 extra HP at lvl 1 plus making him quite tanky @ low lvls

Masteries

Went with a 9-21-0 Getting 2 in Brute Force so i could have 2 in Butcher then 4% Attack speed so i could have the 10% ARP which is just too good to not get. Then i went into the defensive tree.
I left Resistance out because i benefit more from 6 armor than i do from 6 magic resist at low lvls.
I left out Vigor IMO this is only used for people who have to stay for long in their lane as possible, like top laners. So i've let this out as we're not solo laning top.
Siege Commander We're jungling so normally we're not the ones pushing turrets. This might be good in some cases but i've let it out as i'll be ganking more lanes instead of staying in one lane and pushing the turret.
Enlightenment CDR is not really needed on skarner as his passive is kind off a build in CDR.
Mercenary Aight. This means that you'll get an extra minion kill per kill/assist. That sounds great Abby why didn't you pick that one up? Well with this awesome builds everyone will be surrendering at 20:00 so it won't be worth it! ;)

Summoner Spells

Smite is basically a must have if you're playing Skarner as a jungler. And that's what we will!



Flash has recently been nerfed which means it's not that much of a must have anymore. But I've still chosen to pick it up as the flash will in a lot of situations make sure you'll just get in distance to ult the target.
But Abby what about ghost? With ghost you'll be able to catch up on ur opponent too? Yeah you're right. And ghost is actually viable but it's just not as good as flash is. With flash EVEN though it's nerfed you're able to flash over walls to escape or flash over a wall to get that last hit on your target. Also this makes you able to flash+smite steal baron which is actually a great thing if you actually manage to do it
(Warning this probably won't work 9 out of 10 times, but give it a try anyways! Your team will love you as a god if you actually manage to do it. Also you'll feel like a boss yourself if you do it! (: )




You can switch any of these 4 out with flash if you prefer them.
Ghost is nice paired with Crystalline Exoskeleton
Exhaust You can pick this is no one else in your team has it, as the other team probably will have some devastating AD carry like Vayne, Graves, Tryndamere and so on.
Ignite Some people prefer this though in my opinion this spell is only for carried (Mostly AP carries) to finish off their target. Although if you're playing draft and the other team has a healer or maybe a mundo and no one else in your team has picked this then it might be pretty viable to counter the heal.
Teleport I'm a huge fan of this spell. If flash got taken out of the game i would definitely prefer this spell. It's great for split pushing as you will always be able to get to the teamfight as long as someone has a ward (Which your support should always carry one of) Also if your whole team is bot pushing to the inhibitor and suddenly master yi shows up in top lane trying to split push YOUR inhibitor you can tele there and defend it!




Heal Well this spell has just gotten a buff. So i guess you could pick it up if you mean you can't live without it. Though it doesn't scale hugely well into late game so i'd definitely prefer one of the viable summoner spells over this
Cleanse This spell is also alright though you'll be quite tanky which means you mostly won't be preferred as the stunned/exhausted target over the squishy carry on your team. So i'd definitely take one of the viable summoner spells over this unless you simply cannot live with being stunned.
Clairvoyance IMO this spell is a must have. So if you're playing a game and your support forgets to pick up this spell or if your support simply refuses to pick up this spell then i'd say pick it if you think your team really needs it that bad!




Clarity Well you might be mana starved early game but that's what you've gotten the blue buff for
Promote no, just no! You're in the jungle jungling as a JUNGLER! You're not gonna stay in 1 lane which means this is just not viable!
Surge Mehh it might be a great boost but tbh it's not worth a summoner spell!
Revive With this build and this guide you'll instantly be made invincible! You'll never die so you won't need this! :D
Garrison This is not a guide for dominion. I don't play dominion my self so i have no idea if this spell is good or not for dominion!
Rally Fortify Well, well, well. You two are not in the game anymore. What are you doing here? Get out!