Skarner Build Guide by thatsnotmypirate

Video Guide

New Video will be made soon for the rework. But a lot of stuff still holds true.

Why Skarner S4 vs S3?

In season 3. Support style junglers rained supreme. So junglers that didn't fill this category fell to the wayside. This season has changed that and not everyone has figured it out just yet, but I drove into the champion roaster to see what old junglers can do in this new jungle, and I found skarner.

So why is he now a viable jungler?
In season 3 he had some big problems. First, he wasn't good at supplying a support type role. This made his jungle speed very slow because he was forced to build a tanky AD build. This isn't how he was meant to be build and fights his jungling speed.. My Build is a off tank dps build.

So how is it different in season 4?
Now with the new changes to the jungle and items, this has open the door for carry style junglers to have a better chance. Now all jungler items give mana back. This change is so nice on skarners jungle. You don't really have to worry about running out of mana before ganks anymore. The slow on Q is now gone which makes me very sad. But I build an early Frozen to make up for this lose.

Skarner was already power as a slower, but on top of Twin Shadows making you faster and give you another slow and mr, you become tankyer and harder to run from. At end game with Hex Gun, not only is it a powerful damage spell because of your ap, but another strong slow to get in range for your Q.

Pros / Cons

Pros

+ Easy Jungler even for noobs + Very hard to get away from. + Fast MS is amazing for ganks + Attacks reduce all cooldowns + Stun is great cc and can win games + Very Strong ganks at all levels + Great damage and duelist. + Perma slow all game + Very good counter jungler. + A Flash Eater

His passive reduces his cooldowns so after ganking and using your ult. He can go into the jungle to quickly refresh his ult and go back in for ganks. Once he has landed a slow, he is very hard to get off of you. As long as you attack then Crystal Slash, even with flash they won't be going anywhere fast. Because of the cooldown on your ult. It's hard for players to know if you have it a lot of the time, forcing players to flashs if you come near them even if its on cooldown. But eating flashes gives your team the upper hand!

Cons

- Needs first blue. - Have to be good at positioning - Only 1 Short ranged attack - Doesn't work with every team - CC and flash can stop your perma slow - W has long cooldown if not attacking.

Knowing your team is the key to knowing when to use him. He shouldn't be the tank role on the team, make sure there is another rank like nasus or cho on your team. He has 1 ranged attack with low damage at early ranks, but he makes up for this with his speed. Also his build makes up for the lack of ranged attacks with active items. Crystalline Exoskeleton is your best get away but if its on cooldown and you haven't been attacking, it may take a while to come up. Sometimes its best to fight till its off cooldown and Flash and pop Crystalline Exoskeleton

Summoners Spells

Flash This spell is pretty important on Skarner. He can flash in and grab important targets like an out of position ADC and turn the game.

Smite Season 4 Smite is different then S3. It has a lot short cooldown but its damage is also lower at early levels. But over all it's an upgrade, the short cooldown makes it less important to save and you can use it more freely.

Runes

Greater Mark of Attack Speed - These are very important. This attack speed is pretty much all you will need the whole game. Your Crystalline Exoskeleton gives you great attack speed with these runes. Enough to keep cooldowns low and fast jungling speeds.

Greater Seal of Armor - This is for jungling. Pretty basic for junglers, this may change before I know riot is wanting to change runes pretty soon. But for now you can't really go wrong with this, helps keep your HP high enough for that first gank.

Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist - You don't really need magic resist early game but late game this is great. You only get one magic resist item with this build unless they are AP heavy. This makes it so you can get just one magic resist item and still have enough to be pretty tanky late game.

Quintessences
Now I am putting Quins a part from the rest because there is more then one way to go. This is mostly based on what you like and to fit your play style. I am putting them in order to what I think is most effective to least effective.

Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed - This is what I use. The 4.5% on top of the 1.5% from masteries makes you pretty fast. His MS is what makes his ganks so strong so I think it's best to boost this as much as you can on him. End build, using Crystalline Exoskeleton gives you a whopping 520 MS with boots passive on.

Greater Quintessence of Ability Power - This makes you jungling and ganks stronger without giving up much vs the MS quins. Your Crystal Slash when empowered will do tons of damage early game. If you are sneaky and don't feel you need MS as much, then this is a great option. Your armor, damage, heals are strong at level one and makes jungling a lot easy. I recommend these if you are new to jungling.

Greater Quintessence of Attack Speed - Faster attack speed means faster cooldowns and jungling. The only problem with this is that because you can use Q more early levels, you turn to burn a lot more mana so if you lose blue buff you got to watch your mana a bit more.

Greater Quintessence of Life Steal or Greater Quintessence of Spell Vamp - Now both work but better in different ways. Life steal is great for early jungling level 1-6. Keeps your life maxed out pretty well so again this will make jungling a lot easier, also even without blue you can jungle pretty well. Now spell vamp is good levels 6+, better for the rest of the game. You can heal fast on minion waves and jungle mobs, but I feel both these runes aren't the best on him, pick these if you are new to jungling or need a little help.

Skills

Energize - Each basic attack reduces Skarner's ability cooldowns by 0.5 seconds. The effect is doubled when attacking enemy champions. Attacking structures will not trigger Energize.


Your passive is strong. This makes jungler Skarner very strong, he can go into the jungle and refresh his Impale and come right back out to range again. This is also why he is a really good jungle, in the lane you can't auto attack all day and refresh Impale in peace. It is also good cause it makes him spam Crystal Slash his main damage, slow, and strongest jungling tool.

Crystal Slash - ACTIVE: Skarner deals physical damage to all enemies within range. If he hits any enemies, using Crystal Slash again within 5 seconds deals bonus magic damage and slows all enemies hit for 2 seconds.
PHYSICAL DAMAGE: 25 / 40 / 55 / 70 / 85 (+ 80% bonus AD)
BONUS MAGIC DAMAGE: 24 / 36 / 48 / 60 / 72 (+ 40% AP)
SLOW: 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40%

On your first gang it is important when ganking to use Crystal Slash on minons as you pass by them to charge it. Lane an auto attack to apply your red on a champion and then Crystal Slash should be ready to apply the charged slow. This is your main damage tool, and jungling tool. Best to learn the timing on auto attacks and this skills to max your damage and slow output. Also auto attack after a slash to being it up again faster. This skill also doesn't stop Skarner meaning you can cast it while still moving. So always want to kite on top of your enemies.

Crystalline Exoskeleton - ACTIVE: Skarner gains a shield that absorbs a certain amount of damage. The shield dissipates after 6 seconds if not already destroyed. While the shield is active, Skarner gains increased movement speed and attack speed.
SHIELD: 70 / 115 / 160 / 205 / 250 (+ 60% AP)
ATTACK SPEED: 30 / 35 / 40 / 45 / 50%
MOVEMENT SPEED: 15 / 17 / 19 / 21 / 23%

This is your main ganking tool. This skill works really well with Crystal Slash. The movement speed buff is great for when coming in for a gank and as long as you are attacking its cooldown will be low. It also buffs your attack speed by a lot which is why you don't need to buy much attack speed at all. It is also your only get away tool so you do have to be smart about this skill. But when dueling this is great because as long as you attack it comes right back up and you can spawm your armor and heal all day.

Fracture - ACTIVE: Skarner deals magic damage to all enemies in a line and marks them for 6 seconds.
If Skarner damages a marked target (consuming the mark) or Fracture kills an enemy, Skarner heals himself. Each heal after the first heals half of the previous trigger until Fracture is used again.

MAGIC DAMAGE: 80 / 120 / 160 / 200 / 240 (+ 70% AP)
HEAL: 30 / 45 / 60 / 75 / 90 (+ 30% AP)
MAX HEAL: 60 / 90 / 120 / 150 / 180 (+ 60% AP)
MISSILE WIDTH: 120
MISSILE SPEED: 1800

This skill is awesome for early jungling. It is also good when dueling because its cooldown is so short. Late game it turns into a pretty powerful nuke with 70% AP ratio. If you get Rylai's Crystal Scepter it can turn into a ranged slow helping you get into range again to slow with Crystal Slash. I like ages because it gives more hp and its your main health item.

Impale - ACTIVE: Skarner suppresses a target enemy champion for 1.75 seconds, dealing magic damage to the targeted champion. For the duration, Skarner can move freely and will drag his victim around with him. At the end of the suppression, the target takes the same damage again.
MAGIC DAMAGE: 100 / 150 / 200 (+ 50% AP)
TOTAL DAMAGE: 200 / 300 / 400 (+ 100% AP)

This is what makes you an amazing ganker. This is a game changing ult end game. Flashing in and grabbing high value targets can win you the game. Its cooldown is pretty low, even more so when you take your passive into account. Most of the time if you gank a lane and land this skill, most of the time its always a kill. It is a very very very strong skill.

The Jungle

In the jungle you want to start a blue buff. Early game you are still mana dependent. If you can get a strong smiteless from your team, you can use smite on Epic wrath before moving to wolves. You can skip it and go right to wolves if you want. Then wrathes to red buff. You should have E by the time you reach red. Open up with E and make sure to land it on all three mobs. Bring up your shield and crystal slash, also make sure to lane an auto attack then slash to make output. After red, you can even go for the small golems or gank a lane. I tend to gank right after red. Find the lane that has been pushed the most and make sure you let the players know.

Remember if possible land Crystal slash on minions before you get to them if any are passing by. Even with flash they should be slowed enough to pick up a kill.

at level 5+ you will be fast and strong enough to quickly counter jungle with smite, but if you don't feel safe doing this yet just stick to your jungle and ganks.

Now for your first item. You can even get Boots of Mobility which makes early game ganks very very strong, or Spirit of the Spectral Wraith which gives you fast and safe jungling and strong damage for ganks. Wraith is the safe pick, boots is risky because you will have to use it to ensure you are getting off good ganks. If the other team is pushing hard, then boots is your best bet.

Know Your Team

As I said. He doesn't belong on every time, as with every champion. Knowing when to pick him and building a strong team for him is key.

He isn't a tank, but he can be built like one. That is how he was build in season 3. But I feel this is a waste because he doesn't do this role well and is outclasses by other tank junglers. So make sure there is a tank type character on the team or at least 2 other off tanks.

So if you have a Taric/Leona bot lane, and top lane you have a J4/Nasus/Rene/Malp/Shen/Wuk/Xin/Jax, or any other off tank top lane you will be more then fine.

But lets says you have a Nami bot, and a Zed/Talon/kayle/temmo/ or any other none tank top. Then you may not want to be a Skarner. You are off tanky, but you aren't a tank. So make sure you keep the team in mind. If they need a tank style jungle. Udyr, Amumu, Malp, Xin, Nat, fit this role better then you.