Hellow there fellow Skarner enjoyers.

Im Crystal Lobster. EUNE/EUW player. Skarner OTP since he came out, pretty much always playing Toplane.
Decided to make this guide as some people were asking about the build I enjoy a lot.
Created the build back when old Skarner was still around and many many people enjoyed it, so decided to update it for new Skarner too as it works very very well, not to mention how fun it is !

To simply put it the whole idea is to play around Shield Bash rune.
Whole build revolves around shields.
It is meant to be played on top but mid is also possible. As im not a jungle player I cant speak for that but i heard a lot of positive feedback on it form jungle players.

I wrote more details related to Runes/Items at the start of the guide in notes.

Two and the main items to make the setup work are Iceborn Gauntlet and Fimbulwinter.
The synergy between the 2 items is very very good. IBG zone will activate the Fimbulwinter passive a lot. Many people dont even think/know about that interaction.
As for the rest of the items they are supporting rest of the idea.
For such a Tanky build it deals a lot of damage to the point where a lot of times you will outdamage most players in the game.
Example end game build.

Example games.

The whole setup is very flexible and up for own interpretation.

Addational note: Ghost is just my own personal preference. Feel free to try out flash !

Laning phase

Laning phase into most matchups stayes the same but at the same time can vary a lot depending on specific champion.

At first your biggest problem might be managing mana. Try to avoid spamming abilities in early game unless you can proc presence of mind which helps a lot to regain some.
With Tear start your mana issue will fix themself fairly quickly but if you started Dorans shield try to head back asap to buy tear.

Poking/trading can be done in multiple ways. Most basic and common one is stacking Grasp proc on minion and than going in on enemy preferably with Q activated and W ready for extra damage from Shield Bash. Depending on the champion you can eithier follow up with extra E into a wall to gain even more from the trade or save it for escaping if you feel like situation might get sticky.

Another way to poke is simply throwing rock at enemy constantly, slowing down with W first can pretty much guaranteed you hit the rock. Remember that you dont have to hit the actual champion, you can throw the rock at minions near enemy and the AoE will do the rest. But keep in mind that doing so might end up in breaking the wave not in your favor.

3rd way that is stronger than some people might think is just simply "pretending to farm". What i mean by that is you simply attack minions near the enemy with Q active and his the enemy with just the AoE proc to activate your passive. While at first might not seem like a lot, the damage can add up while also preassuring the enemy into backing off so you cant refresh the passive on them.

On my first back i always try to get at least one full component be it eithier Sheen, chainmail or in some cases Bramble Vest.

The fun start when you hit level 6 and gain your ultimate. With that you true annoying laning phase starts. Perfectly you want enemy laner to push in into your tower allowing you to control the wave, freeze and straight up baiting them into dying under tower by using your ultimate into E or the other way around.
Play Video Play Video After Iceborn you can 1v1 a lot of champions but you need to know your own power and you will achive that by simply playing the champion and testing, no other way around it.

Past laning phase

Past laning phase you will be looking to help your team as much as possible, roam around the map or preassure one of the lanes.
Skarner is great at looking for and locking in single picks that happened to be alone. Catching someone can be sometimes crucial to winning the game.
Skarner excells at helping your team secure objectives dragons, grubs or baron. You can keep the pits safe by just existing and denying and attempt to come in by smartly using your E and R.

In a lot of situation your presence alone is enough to scare the enemy off.
Ultimate usage is also very important and in a lot of cases you moving the targets is crucial to winning fights, you can eithier perfectly line up enemies for your teammates and save enemies by accident pulling them from your teammates skills.
Play Video

Late game

This is the worst and best phase for Skarner. While still a very solid pick for lategame a lot of champions will outscale you. But do not worry, Shield bash build scale very very well into lategame. A lot of times enemy team wont have enough damage to kill you but still you will need to look out to not die like a dumbass. In late game one very good ultimate can easily win the game. Focusing on looking for picking out single champions is a also a great strategy.

Look for big fights with you teammates Skarner is very great at seting up fights for your team.

Alternatively you play as safeguard protecting your carries from any potential danger protecting them with E and R. That way saved me a lot of games especially when im behind and need to rely on teammates. Play Video

Tips n Tricks

If you have autoattack on Skarner will try to attack the closest person to him during R making it look like random movement, for playing Skarner i would recommend turning it off.

When attempting to engage with E consider casting Q first allowing you for better spaced combos and reaction.

Skarner Q cooldown start on activation. Meaning well spaced Q auto attacks can result in no cooldown on next Q. Very useful in laning phase. Same thing can be achieved by using E.

R can be used thru walls, can be used for some really sneaky ultimates especially in dragon/baron pits.


Q can activate sheen twice. First on cast and second time on Q2 (Throw). Not much usage but its good to know.

If you are holding Q and use R, Q2(throw) will be used along side it without addational output resulting in faster combos if u need the extra damage fast.

E can interact with player generated terrain like Anivia W or Taliyah R. Some obscure interactions include Azir R.

Q AoE damage also includes damaging towers.

Ghost wont increase movement speed during E making it worth using ghost after E rather than before.

While the guide might not be in-depth or not very good (I aint good at creating stuff like this :P) hopefully it helps some players here and there or at least help them take direction in playing Skarner. You can find me playing Skarner on Twitch. You can also find me very active on Skarner Mains Discord. Feel free to hit me up with question tips or point out my misstakes.

Hopefully this help some of you. Good luck and have fun !