Welcome to my first build. I have seen a lot of people loving the aoe spam of crystal slash. This skill is good but highly overrated at this point in my eyes. I have built him several ways but as he is now this seems to be the most effective which can be used to solo lane or lane with a partner and stay in the lane as long as possible. At end game you will be able to take some damage as well as deal it out. This build is NOT to tank and NOT to be the main damage dealer. You will get some kills but your main job is to run behind the tank and chase down those with low health. You are perfect for this because of your run speed, slow and ranged attack.

I took Greater Mark of Might for the straight damage for early to late game. This will make your auto attacks hit a little harder and makes a big difference throughout the game.
Greater Seal of Defense and Greater Glyph of Warding at to keep you alive in the lane for longer especially early game. These are essential if you are going to be solo lane. If you are going with a partner you can always switch these out for mana regen and straight mana since we all know he has mana issues early game. The Quints I took all run speed, this will help you get back into the lane faster after going back and also chasing down other champions which is your job.

Other runes you can look into are for health and mana. These can also add to survivability.

His passive is not to be underestimated. Its also happens to be what makes him so mana instensive early on. In a nutshell whenever you auto attack it lowers to cool down on all abilities by .5 seconds on creeps and 1 second on champions. This is why you get some attack speed and exoskeleton works so well. Early game you need to be very careful about spamming skills cause you will run out of mana fast. Try to concentrate on last hitting instead of steady harassment.

Crystalline exoskeleton is your bread and butter. Not only does it let you take more damage and can make a champion waste skills but also adds to attack speed and run speed. This cannot be underestimated. You can get last kills easier while not worrying about harassment for a second or two. Also lets you harass back by running in after a fracture and hitting crystal slash to heal any damage taken through the shield. This is why I max this first.

Facture is whats going to keep you in the lane longer and the reason this is maxed second, also does a good amount of damage. It is a mid ranged attack that marks anything hit. If you hit those marks once, you will be healed for a small amount. Combined with the one rank in crystal slash, all you so is get around several creeps, fracture and hit crystal slash. Even at 1 rank it can still heal you for a decent amount. If you are afraid of taking damage, you can also pop exoskel and chug a potion first.

Crystal Slash, this skill doesn't do much damage early game and you can get its benefit without maxing it, which is why its not maxed till late game. This skill does aoe damage and marks targets and if you hit one of the mobs targeted it causes your next crystal slash to slow the target and take extra damage. What does this mean for you? Can be used in two big ways. First, when laning, you can catch a champion out of position by hitting this, hit a mob to energize and immediately pop the exoskeletion, chase down, hit crystal slash again to slow. Might not kill them but will usually force them to waste a summoner spell or head back because they took a lot of damage. Late game you will be using this to slow down damaged summoners for the kill. Combined with exoskeleton and his passive, you will be slowing and doing a massive amount of burst damage.

Finally the coupe de grace. His ultimate is sick. Basically it supresses an enemy and allows you to drag them wherever you want for several seconds. Not only this but it does initial damage and even more damage after they are released. The main thing with this skill is the ability to drag. You should be grabbing squishies and pulling them to your team or into tower range when their health is down enough. This is also why exoskel is so important to max, you can run down a champ grab and pull back to team allowing for that kill.

Masteries are mainly a preference but I do prefer to put a few in damage midigation for lane sustain and the rest in utilities.

For a solo lane or a sustainer I always go with flash and teleport. The reasoning for flash is the jump over walls, catch up to enemies or to escape from them. Long cooldown but allows you to flash over areas you wouldn't normally be able to run through. Teleport I love to have map control. You can run down for a quick gank or teleport to a tower in trouble. NEVER use it to return to a lane. You have exoskel to give you a run speed boost to get there faster, use it.

Now to the items. I like my laners with strong survivability and sustained damage. To this effect I start out with the Sapphire crystal due to his early game problems with mana. Grab 3 health pots so you can stay in the lane. Try to stay in the lane till you can afford the basic boots and the Cata Protfor the nice passive on level up.

Now we are moving into the mid game, this is where we start to beef up the damage and survivability a bit. I go for the Merc Treads due to the resist and then go into a RoA. The reasoning for this is cause not only does it add AP but also adds a lot of HP and Mana which he needs both of to survive well. Sheen in my opinion is a must for Skarner. It adds some much needed mana/ap and extra damage after using a skill which you do a lot of.

By now we should be moving into the end game sequence. You should already be doing a good amount of damage but might be taking a bit of it yourself, this is where we really beef up the survivability. Wits End is a highly under rated items and fits Skarner perfectly. It increases attack speed, which reduces cooldowns for Skarner, and adds magic resist and little bit of extra damage to your auto attacks, which you use A LOT. Once I get that done then I take a look at the other team, are they heavy AP AD or balanced? If heavy AD I go with Frozen Heart which adds mana and armor and heavy AP go Force of Nature which boosts your run even harder while adding magic resist and health regen. Once you get that, start building your Trinity Force building Zeal first for the extra attack speed to reduce your cooldowns even more. By this time you should be wrecking face and causes rage quits.

To recap, you are NOT the main damage dealer or tank but you ARE a little of both with very strong survivability. Always aim for the squishies first and never impale a tank into the group unless he is the last one. Also watch for large aoe ulties, you CAN break the channels with impale. Also this is obviously a new character so as I play him more and more I will be tweaking the guide. Also please do not rate unless you try it first, TY!.