Hey there summoners, this is my first in what I hope to be a good line of good jungle quides for junglers I enjoy using and would love to see more of you use.

Alright, now most of you may be wondering about the rune set up, to which I will be explaining as such.

Seals:

The reason you get full Armor seals is because, from what I have seen, Seals have the best Armor Bonus in all of the ruins that you can have 9 of(plus they are 205 IP so really cheap). The reason for them on Skarner is to stop the Buffs and Neutral Monsters from turning you from Earth Demon Scorpion, into "Help four of my legs are gone and they are trying to break my stinger!!" Granted with leashes and pots you really shouldn't end up like that but, being prepared and all that.

Marks:

Reason for Attack Speed marks is due to the fact, once again, highest value for the 9 of the them you can get. They are around 400 IP but it's very worth for the big bonus early on. The reason for this is for Crystal Slash Spam. See Attack Speed and Skarner's Passive make a wonderfully annoying combo for the enemy. Hit an enemy champion three times, and your ult has been reduced by three seconds. Keep 'em slowed with Crystal Slash and keep giving them the pinch(or sting if you got Atma's) and you can have your ult up for nearly every team fight. Not to mention just for jungling and minion clearing your Cooldowns should clear up right quick, these Marks just add some extra help to getting things back on track.

Glyphs:

Don't think I need to say why but I will say the price, again, 205 per Magic Resist Glyph. This may be viewed as not needed, or just plain unnecessary, but consider this, unless the enemy team is trying to break the meta, it's fairly safe someone on that team is gonna have AP or might be mixed. This bonus provides good ganking on them even if you are getting kited. What might be a killing spell might just leave you with enough health to get away.

Due to the Preseason changes, I've had to update both this and a bit of the item build. Good luck out there with the changes summoners!Defense
Mmk, now with the updated masteries, and tested by me on the PBE before the release. These defense masteries do change up the style a bit. Going for a lot of health, Armor, and MR for the mastery build in defense. Reducing the slows by 10% should also help when causing people who have slows or slowing items. Extra health to keep you alive while chasing. Armor and MR to keep the damage to a low. And with the 4 points in Tenacious, it encourages ganks since you gain a little extra per ally.

Utility
I personally love the changes here and here's why:
A nice extra movement speed off the bat, so some of the time to get into the jungle gets cut.

With the new items, this helps with coming up with some annoying/epic plays. I personally enjoy this with the Blue Trinket since what seems like a good hiding spot, becomes the target area for pain.

More effective potions, nuff said.

This is more for my need to have smite up always and it really does help. If i recall, when I have this mastery, smite comes up every 36 seconds which means faster jungle clear and more chances to steal buffs.

The last one in here I'm not gonna put it because it's more for personal flavor, having the buffs an extra 30 seconds can help remove some of the fear of losing the buff when it'll be needed most. Granted more risk when you gank but if you and your teammates are on point, it can make some great plays.

Alrighty, after some advice I received, I've thought about reevaluating how the early game jungle should be played. For example. You CAN gank before you hit Six, but for the best and optimal outcome of ganking, you should wait until six. With the Masteries and Runes you have, you can last in the jungle for certain and with these items you should be able to do several clearings before your first back. Not to mention if you do gank before six, those pots can save your life. However, you may also notice a ward there, that is for if you back and you have the gold for it. Seriously, buy a ward, it can save a life.
Alright, after you've hit six, the ganks have begun to snowball your team (or saved your team to keep everyone at equal levels) and assuming your jungle farming has gone off without harsh counter jungling, you should have amassed enough gold for at least the first three(minus the enchantment on the boots if need be.) These items will help you and they are good for ensuring sustain, escapes, and kills/assists.
The Late Game This is assuming you have enough time between ganks and . Jokes aside, these items are my recommended and they can provide some fun combos(since you already have four item slots taken up).

Good for getting off that extra damage and hurts quite a bit when proced with Iceborn. It's very useful for getting off that extra damage you might need, and the magic resist and attack speed is always a good bonus. Comboed with Frozen Mallet it can provide even more dread when you get off an auto attack. Comboed with Atma's Impaler you get a balance between magic damage, physical damage, and defense stats.

Very useful for your 5th item if since you should have a good amount of bonus health. The added benefit of crit chance, however small, is still very useful with striking with Iceborn Gauntlet and it's Spellblade. Comboed with Wit's End, again, perfect for the mixed damage front, and causing the enemy to build differently if they want to counter you. Comboed with Frozen Mallet it gives a better damage scaling thanks to mallet's health benefit, no to mention the slow caused from mallet provides you with close range strikes getting off more often and more chances for a crit strike.

This is for more annoying the enemy team then anything else. Reading 'Slowed for days~' by your allies or the enemy is always funny. As your 5th item it means you get even more slows out without destroying your Mana. Comboed with Wit's End as I've said, good mixed damage, good chance to inflict more pain with slows. Comboed with Atma's Impaler, once again, as stated in the other column, it's good for the bonus you get from having Atma. It's basically increasing the amount of AD you get while having more health to boot.

Good for when you've gotten close enough yet the target still isn't in melee range. The extra armor and health can keep you chasing, and if the enemy tries to kite you, they are going to be in for a rude surprise.


Another good item for getting in close, granted it'll be only you but if an ally is near-by then Impale, activate, and suddenly it's a 2v1. Not to mention the extra attack speed means you can get your ult back faster, might even be fast enough for a double Impale.


This is more for extra tankyness against a mixed team, not the most recommended but it might give you that second chance at ulting the enemy into a situation that they don't want to be part of, other then that, use this at your own risk.

UPDATE:
Due to the new items and trinkets added, I must add to this section.


I personally enjoy this item since a second of vision is sometimes all you need. It's normally part of my build and was for my testing on the PBE.


This is recommended as well since let's face it, there are little excuses not to ward now. Good for when you are making your sweeps and if your lanes can hold, good for making roaming a scary experince since you don't know if that area was just warded after it was cleared.

-Edit-
You might have noticed I removed an item from the Situational Items. The new Tailsmon will force you to pick between your jungle item and movement speed for a short second. Personally, stick with the golem's fist. It gives more incentive to clear jungle often and the tenacity can give you that second you need to escape.

This is quite a bit of a change from the norm, however, after some thought, I felt this new way was much better. In the next chapter I'll explain the spells and why they are set up like this.

A very useful and spammable spell by the earth crystal scorpion. Maxing it out first is a good step in assuring yourself a good gank throughout the entire match, hounding your opponent with it assures you that even if the gank wasn't a kill, it was still successful (poped flash, popped barrier, forced them to back, etc.)

A very important skill when it comes to ganking. Now granted, if you lose the shield, you lose the bonuses as well, but if you max it out second, you can get the most benefit from it. Not just that, but it and Crystal Slash are one of the spells you can cast after your ult. So you can ult and W to get them further away within a short amount of time coupled with some of the items mentioned, it can cause deadly results.

Important for your jungle farming and at the same time, not as important, for the early levels, you just put a single point in it early to assure more healing for the early jungle. Considering the scaling is only for Ap, and this is for a tanky build,not recommended to be maxed early and since it can't be used during your ult, not the best move(waste a second casting it and then ulting could lead to fail ganks and a bigger gap to close.)

This one isn't in the columns because I wanted to it to have more reading space. Now, Impale causes the use of Skarner's tail, so he can't cast his E while it's active. To list it's full effect
So two times the damage and that's not to mention you can W to get greater field coverage before it's over, and you can Q spam as much as you want while it's active. However it's limited casting range puts you at great risk which is why you build tanky. it's a very powerful spell (by which I mean it's effect, the damage output is nice but the suppress is the powerful part)and can cause the enemy carry, hiding all the way in the back, to come front and center to be beated to blood mess.

Mmk, from my time with Skarner, I can safely say, I know a good few of theses. However I don't know everything so level with me, k?
Pros:

- Good with Slows
- Constant Spell & Auto Attack Damage
- Good for Ganking when Lane is Pushed
- Good for getting in Close

Cons:

x Can be kited out of Exoskeleton
x Skills have a short range
x Can be hard countered by a fed ranged
x He Misses his Kind

This is how I normally jungle, granted if you have a timer you can predict these things better, but most importantly, Skarner is best used for ganks at level six. Farm as best you can so you can gank as best you can. If your teammates really need help before you hit six, advise them to play passive, ward more, and just try to hold off an wait.

This is the route you should take as Skarner for the first round and every time when your buffs are up.

• 
  
  This is first, and reason why is because you'll be level 2 by the end of it, and to clear the early game jungle you'll need the Q spam.
  
• 
  
  Wolves are next on the list, with your newly acquired blue buff, that will last 3min thanks to your masteries, these should be a piece of cake, and if you had a good leash, a potion shouldn't be wasted.
  
• Wraithes
  
  You hunt the wraiths next. If you had a smooth jungling experience( no invades, ganks, etc.)you'll hit level 3 and have all your skills -clap clap clap- so the next item on the list should be fairly easy
  
• 
  
  This will be the very next item on your list. If you still have your smite, or it's off cooldown(all depends on your teammates and the leash)you should use this now. In later levels you should be able to take both buffs no problem so smite will be to make sure it becomes your buff and not a sneak thief's. With both buffs cirlcing you, you can gank or you can use this time to finish the jungle cycle with other golems(no bullet for them nyeh) and repeat this(minus the whole buff part.
  
• 
  
  This is only if you have both buffs and more then just your trusty machete and boots. Best gone after with allies as well. Later in game you should be able to solo the beast with Q,W,E spam and finish it off with smite. This is not advised if Bot lane enemy turret still stands or if enemies have been missing.

I am not a pro, I am not a high ranked player, I do not work for Riot, I do not spend days and nights researching information. I have tried this stuff myself if anything or tried to. This will not always win your games, it doesn't assure you that you won't be the target of blame when things go wrong. If you aren't comfortable with this, practice with it. Learn the champion, the mechanics, and once you feel like you are confident in your skills and this build, then take it to Normals, or Ranked. I hope this guide has helped, and if it has gotten you a win, that counts as a success in my book.

EDIT:
I've made changes to accommodate the changes for the preseason. Nothing big but I changed the masteries and I removed an item from the list.