HEROOOOOOOOOOOO!

Welcome to my first guide. This guide will be a guide on jungling as skarner. Skarner, in my opinion, is of the top three junglers in the game currently, and part of a 'god-mode' tier if you will. Skarner has an amazing clear time, and even better post-6 ganks if you manage to make good use of your ulti. His ganks pre-6 are not too bad either. His q does have a slow, although I feel this is overlooked by many people, but just imagine a giant rock scorpion running at you with a red buff.

Nobody special, just a 1300-1400 elo player x.x

When I first started playing I used mobafire guides, but slowly learned out that they were not the best out there, but I hope to make a nice guide for skarner that anyone can follow. Since a little while back, all I have been doing is jungling in LoL, and skarner is one of my current favorite junglers.

Skarner, is a hybrid tanky-dps champ. I preffer to play him as a tank or offtank. He is an excellent initiator with his ult, and can soak up tons of damage if built as a tank. He deals both physical and magic damage, although following my build you will be dealing more physical than magic damage.

Pros:

• Good base stats
• Very nice kit, which is at the same time very simple
• Good damage
• Very good sustain if played as solo top
• Capable of AOE permaslow, which boosts his ganking potential making him a very potent ganker
• A great ultimate that makes him one of the deadliest gankers at 6
• Scales very well into late game
• Has an inpecible jungle clear, and can take on almost anyone 1v1
• Big, badass crystal scorpion with a good story and awesome voice actor

Cons

• His w is not a sufficient gap closer even though it gives a big move speed bonus
• Is prone to some mana problems early game, but not so much now. You should be fine with just 1 or 2 blues before giving them away, but that always depends on your mid/top lane, or possibly bot lane
• Although he has an excellent slow, and amazing ult he is not the greatest ganker pre 6, or when ulti is on cd
• Weak levels 1-3 in the jungle. This is generally the case for most junglers, though.
  
  Thinking of more cons is difficult, as skarner at the moment is an insane jungler, and is a very good 1v1 champ. He is much, much better now than what he is perceived as by some people, and also much better than when he was released.

After the fizz patch, the mastery tree had a huge rework. I've found that a x/21/x build is what works best. The defence tree synergies quite well with skarner, and has some very good points in it that you can benefit from. Some of these points include the Bladed Armor mastery, and even the scaling HP is also really nice because of his high base HP and high HP increase per level.

Red Greater Mark of Desolation
8 Attack Speed, 1 Armor Penetration (14%). These help out quite a bit. Attack Speed helps out Skarner quite a bit due to his passive. One Armor Penetration mark to bump up his Armor Pen a bit to help in the jungle.
Yellow
Armor (13). Mandatory for extra durability in the jungle.
Blue
Choice. I prefer Attack Speed blues. (5.76% Scaling Magic Resist is always nice, those would be my choice.
Quintessences Greater Quintessence of Desolation
Armor Penetration (10, brought up to a total of 12 with the one Armor Penetration red). Helps out a lot, letting us deal almost true damage to most of the camps with both auto attacks and the physical damamge portion of .

Flash simply because it is amazing on skarner. It suits my play style very well, but can also be exchanged for Ghost, but I would not recommend this. A Flash Impale can make an amazing play, or can even make an insane initiation. It is also used for running away as you can Flash out and use your Seismic Bastion. The reason i don't recommend Ghost is because you already gives you so much ms, it's not as needed as Flash.

Smite should be obvious to you. You need it for jungling. well, you don't NEED it to clear, but you MUST take it. You should always be practicing you Smite timing, so that you can keep your buffs, dragons, and barons safe, and even steal the other team's. Simply put, even if you can get through the jungle with no and believe that having something such as Ignite or Exhaust will be better, I am sorry to say but you are wrong, and must take Smite :(

This is rather basic. Take your Shattered Earth(Q) at level one and max it first. Take your Ixtal's Impact(E) at level 2 and max it last. Your Seismic Bastion(W) you will take at level 4 and max second. You will want to be taking Impale(R) whenever you can, at level 6,11, and 16.

is maxed out first as it is your main source of damage, and is what makes Skarner clear the jungle fast, as well as make his ganks good because of the slow.
second so you can close the gap faster, as well as giving you some good absorption because of the shield and a nice attack speed boost.
is maxed last, but two points are put in it early game to make the heal a bit more noticable. It doesn't make a huge difference, but I've found it to help me.

Obviously, put a point in whenever it's available at Levels 6, 11 and 16.

energize Passive: Energize

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

Explanation:

Very strong passive, but at the same time it is somewhat counter productive as it can make you run out of mana faster (not as much since the Shattered Earth mana cost change, though.) This passive is one of the aspects os skarner that gives him a ridiculous jungle clear, as it will allow you to spam your Shattered Earth constantly and clear fast. The more attack speed Skarner has, the better this passive is, but you shouldn't itemize entirely for attack speed.



Q: Crystal Slash

Skarner lashes out with his claws, dealing 25/40/55/70/85 (+80% of bonus 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:


If you were to look at the stats on this skill you might think that it is useless, but it is actually Skarner's main source of damage.It has a very small cd which stacks with your passive, energize. In adition to this, this ability has a very good ad scale, and deals a god chunk of bonus magic damage after multiple uses. Mentioned above in the passive explanation, this skill is one of the reasons he is such a fast jungler, and a great farmer. At Rank 5 when it's empowered, this ability clears creeps quite fast. The slowing part of this skill is also very strong, you can basically permaslow a target in teamfights. When ganking and if possible, I advise running near the enemy creeps and hitting them with this skill once, so you can get the empowered buff so your initial Q on the enemy champion will deal the bonus magic damage and slow.



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:


Good shield with a substantial attack speed and movement speed buff. The attack speed benefits Skarner's passive well, and the movement speed lets Skarner close the gap faster on his prey, and makes him a good roamer. Not much to say here, although it is a nice shield to have up, and gives some good move speed and attack speed. The attack speeds has good synergy with energize and the move speed will allow you to roam the map faster/close a gap between your enemies sooner.



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. 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 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:


This skill gives skarner some nice harass and farming capability, with a decent range. It gives you a very good burst heal to use in team fights, and also early game in the jungle you can spam it because you will have blue buff. Recently it was changed to heal you when the target with the mark on t died, as it was very frustrating to get a kill with fracture and not receive and hp form the mark.



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:


This skill makes skarner what he is. Basically it is a mobile Infinite Duress without the initial blink, but this can be countermanded by a combo.If you use this properly, it can make or break your game. Properly ulting can set up great plays for your team. Simply put, this is skarner's best skill, and this is what makes him an insane ganker post-6. It is a very good idea to ult the AP carry in a team fight, as they are the squishiest, and have the least mobility.
If they don't have Flash... well, like Skarner would say: "You'll never escape!"
Proper use of this ultimate will win you teamfights, and games, especially in combination with Flash.
There are a lot of uses to this ability, such as:

• Firstly, dragging an enemy into your team.
• Dragging a dangerous enemy away from your team. (For example, a or wanting to ult your team. Just make sure you don't ult Morgana when her Black Shield is up.)
• Simply using it for the suppression to lock down a target.
• Saving allies by ulting a target away from them.
• Interrupting channeled abilities.
• Like mentioned above, .

Another thing to note is that if you are lucky and ult just as a target Flashes, they will still end up getting impaled, so they end up making a fool of their self and end up getting dragged to their doom.
If you're close enough as well, you can pull enemies though walls with this.

I do a fairly standard Full clear starting at Blue, making use of the life steal i get off of Vampiric Scepter

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmPPUDDd0MU
Stonewall's video on Jungle Skarner.

• Start at blue with a point in Shattered Earth and you Vampiric Scepter. Have your team guard your jungle, and get a good leash from your mid laner and top laner/bot laners. Skarner doesn't absolutely need a leash, but it helps a ton, and you should always get a leash from your team.
• You will level up to 2 after clearing blue. Put a point in Ixtal's Impact and head to wolves and kill them. (With blue buff, make sure to be using Ixtal's Impact often)
• Make your way over to wraiths and clear them out. You will level up to 3, put another point in Shattered Earth (If your health is good after wraiths, you can instead put a point in Seismic Bastion and try to pressure mid.)
• Normally after wraiths, you would head to red, but it's better to instead go kill the golems for Skarner. Kill the golems, then go back to base.
• Once you are back at base, buy Boots. You shouldn't need to buy any potions (in most games I find with a good pull on blue I only need to use one potion for the first route through.)
• Make your way over to red and kill it. You will hit level 4, put a point in Seismic Bastion.

Alternatively you can get a full clear done using or using a or lastly even a (only done this once or twice though). Honestly, most of the time I just go wolves (w/ help) blue (with help) wraiths, red, golems, wraiths, wolves, then gank or buy.

At this point, you have a few options:

• You can attempt a gank (people say that Skarner's pre-6 ganks aren't good, but a speedy scorpion with Seismic Bastion and red buff running at ya... you're probably gonna die or have your Flash forced.)
• You can invade as long as your health permits and you know the enemy jungler. Skarner is actually quite a capable invader due to his speed and how he clears camps fast, he can easily steal the enemy's wraiths and potentially their buffs. He can also fight most other junglers well, and their escape will be difficult because of the slow from Shattered Earth+ red buff if you have it, you are quite scary.
• If none of those options seem to be available/easy to do, you can continue to farm the jungle and make your way onto 6, where you become a deadly ganker. After you get red, your wolves should be up, with wraiths spawning soon.
  
  You can donate your blue and red to your teammates, but there are a few factors to that:
  • First off, do you want to? Simple, obvious factor.
  • Second, do you need it/benefit from it more? Most APs mid benefit very well from blue, such as Kassadin/ Swain/ Anivia/ Brand/ Cassiopeia/ Morganato name a few. Not every carry really needs red, as the slow is more potent on melee champions, but it still helps.
  • And thirdly, are you confident enough in them and do you trust them? This I find to be the most important factor. You don't want to give blue buff to your mid laner, only to have him feed it 20 seconds later. It may seem a bit rude not to give it to them, but knowing the people in this game, and solo queue, sometimes it's for the better.
  
  And remember, you want to aim always Smite to kill. It is very important to remember that, as not doing so can make you lose dragons, Baron, and to a bit of a lesser extent, the buff.
  
  Along with that, it is a good idea to keep track of the spawn timers. The spawn timers are as following:
  • Small camps: 1 minute and 40 seconds
  • Blue and red buff: 5 minutes
  • Dragon: 6 minutes
  • Baron: 7 minutes
    
    I advise typing in the chat the next time they will spawn. Also, a little tip: Most junglers starting at blue will usually have it respawn for the first time at around 7:00/7:10~. Just something I felt like noting if you are going to invade.

• : // The reason we start with this is because it gives you great jungle sustain with the life steal, given the mastery/jungle changes we can get through it all with just this single item. Alternatively you can buy Regrowth Pendant+ Health Potion for an early philosopher's stone which gives some nice G/10, and can even be built into a Shurelya's Battlesong which can be used for a nice initiation. Lastly, even a standard Cloth Armor Health Potion opening works, which I would advise if you are under summoner level 30 and don't have all the masteries, or a full rune set.
  
• : // Very standard, we get these before our madred's razor just for the extra move speed.
  
• : // This is quite obvious for a jungler. The passive on it makes anyone's jungle speed drop immensely, the free sight ward is great to ward dragon/ baron. Also, if you hadn't realized it is built straight from our Vampiric Scepter or our Cloth Armor.
  
• : // This is fairly easy to explain. Mercury's Treads if they have lots of CC, Ninja Tabi if they have lots of auto-attackers, Mobility Boots simply because you will be moving around the map a lot, and Berserker's Greaves because the attack speed benefits our passive by giving us CDR, but is not prioritized.
  
• : // These are just cheap items that give us extra health and mana, and we use them to build into our Phage and our Sheen which later makes our Trinity Force.
  
• : // Sheen first is a must honestly.He makes great use of the proc because of his high base AD and his passive + spammability of Shattered Earth. Even with just Sheen, Skarner is a great tower pusher as he can get constant Sheen procs. The stats on Phage are ok for skarner. It gives damage on your Shattered Earth and some extra hp along with a slow proc, but nothin too special. I do get this second because my Ruby Crystal builds into it, but getting a Zeal second will suffice. But jsut remember, always Sheen first!
  
• : // You should have Trinity Force on Skarner every game. It is the best item for him. He benefits well from every stat. Skarner benefits form EVERY stats you can get from this item, which makes it amazing for him. The calculations we will not go into, as they are very large and I simply don't have the time, but please know he makes good use of all of them.
  
  
• // Health regen, MS, and MR is always good on any champ. Skarner has lots of synergy with Force of Nature, as he benefits from magic resist (who doesnt if vs magic damage) health regeneration is good on almost anyone and will allow you to stay out of your base for longer, and the movement speed form it is just very good to have on him, as it works well with his . Be advised, do not build this item if there almost no magic damage on the enemy team.
  
• : // This item is quite self explanatory. Health is amazing on any tank and bruiser. The reason we want so much health is because is works well with the Atma's Impaler we will build next, and because Seismic Bastion absorbs quite a bit of damage.
• : // This is a good final item because skarner has rather high health stats, and with the Warmog's Armor we just bought, we will gain lots of ad out of this. The item gives us a bit of crit chance which can be overlooked, and it also gives us some more armor for tanking.
  

These will just be some basic builds that can work well on skarner, and I suggest giving them a try.
Standard AD:
AD Tanky-DPS Option 1:
AD Tanky-DPS Option 2(Same build, different order):
Hybrid:
Tanky-DPS Hybrid:

Hextech Gunblade: Although it was nerfed recently, it is still a good item on skarner. Gives you good sustainability in teamfights, AD and AP that benefits all your abilities, and a nice active. Expensive, but worth it.
Wit's End: I actualy really enjoy this item for skarner. I play lots of Udyr and build this on him every game (pretty standard imo). It is cheap,gives you good attack speed which translates into CDR with energize which will allow more Shattered Earth, and it also gives some good magic resist for it's price. The magic damage form it should never be forgotten on top of that, as it is roughly equivalent to a B. F. Sword in magic damage each hit.
Guinsoo's Rageblade: I have only tried this item once or twice on skarner, but I do imagine it working very well. It gives you some more AD, AP, and Attack Speed. Rageblade offers a lot of damage, but it offers no defense or sustain, so buyer beware. However, if you're having a very good game this can capitalize on it. With the spammability of his Q and the fact it slows you can get stacks fast.
Bloodthirster: Haven't tested this one out yet, but I have seen it been done and imagine it could work just like above. It's a tough decision, but it may be a better idea now that Hextech Gunblade is not as good as before, and the lifesteal will give you some decent healing, but the AD on it does scale well with . The downside is not being able to heal as much form abilities, or that you won't gain any attack speed from your energize, but this is all up to you.
Deathfire Grasp: While not the most impressive item on Skarner is does have uses and they are exactly as it says, burst damage. This is actually a very strong item and because it's build out of GP/5 if you plan to buy this get a Kage's Lucky Pick early. I suggest this only against health stackers (singed, mundo).
Youmuu's Ghostblade: A very strong item on any physical carry. The active is especially amazing on Skarner for catching people with the slow on Shattered Earth and also Impale. Great for backdooring and farming, and even baron/dragon. A solid item and a brutalizer early is a very strong item solo top, although I am unsure how well it is for a jungle skarner, because I have only built it once or twice.
Atma's Impaler: Very nice item. The more beefier you get, the better this item is. Also gives you a nice amount of armor and some crit chance. It's generally advised to try and have 3000 HP so you get 60 AD from this item.

Mejai's Soulstealer:+20 ability power. Unique: Your champion gains 8 ability power per stack, receiving 2 stacks for a kill or 1 stack for an assist. This effect can stack 20 times; you lose a third of your stacks if you die. At 20 stacks, your champion gains 15% cooldown reduction.
If you are raping faces it might not be such a bad item to get. But seriously, how can it be a MOBAfire guide without rushing one of these?
Sword of the Occult:+10 attack damage. Unique: Your champion gains +5 damage per stack, receiving 2 stacks for a kill or 1 stack for an assist. This effect can stack 20 times; you lose a third of your stacks if you die. At 20 stacks, your champion gains +15% movement speed.
Once again, if you are raping tits it could be a good pickup. But seriously, if you don't put this in your MOBAfire guide, you are a communist.
Leviathan:+180 health. Unique: Your champion gains 32 health per stack, receiving 2 stacks for a kill and 1 stack for an assist. This effect can stack 20 times; you lose a third of your stacks if you die. At 20 stacks, your champion takes 15% less damage. "OMG BRO, WITH MY GUIDE UR GANNA RAPE EVERYWAN! BUILD THIS EVARY GAME SO YOU CAN GET UR STECKS UPP!"

Skarner is very potent in teamfights.

• Pumps out damage constantly with Shattered Earth and good autoattack bursts with Trinity Force
• He can stick to a target well thanks to the slow from Shattered Earth.
• Can absorb well with Seismic Bastion and his overall nice base stats, and of course with tank items.
• Decent sustain via Ixtal's Impact.
• And a great game changing ult if used properly.

Most of the time in teamfights, you are going to rush in there, Impaletheir most important target, and drag them into your team. If the target doesn't have Flash up/gets CCed after the ultimate ends, they are dead. Sometimes you may need to save your ultimate to peel off a target from one of your squishies, or use it to interrupt a channeled ult.

Skarner also makes a good initiator, since he can soak well and has a shield with a speed boost. Doing a good is very sudden and effective, and can win you games.

I am sorry, but i have no videos of me playing skarner, or replays at the moment. If I find any or get a good game (pref 1300 elo ranked games :DDDDDDDDD) i will try to upload them.

And that concludes my guide on Jungle Skarner. I hope you enjoyed reading this guide and make good use of it. Skarner is a very fun character in my opinion. I like the character himself and I enjoy playing him, never mind the sh*t he gets sometimes (which is less now since the buffs), and I'm sure he'll start to pick up a lot more in popularity.

If you liked this guide, please leave a like, as I greatly appreciate any and all I receive. If you want to as well, leave a comment, let me know what you think of the guide, or possibly point out an error I may have overlooked.

Thanks for reading my first ever MOBAfire guide, and my first ever LoL guide, I hope you can do what i said above and let me know where I can improve, and where I messed up.