Skarner is my favorite champion for a number of reasons so when I heard a lot of talk about whether or not he's a "worthless" champion I was inspired to write this guide. I'm going to show not only those interested in Skarner - but also his critics - that he is an awesome asset to any team due to his survivability, his strong harassment potential, and shed some light on exactly what makes him a frustrating champion to find yourself up against.

To those who say he's not a jungler, I'll be explaining a great deal about how to play a viable jungler build, but also discussing some 3v3 and how to implement yourself well in team fights. This is primarily a jungling build and I will be addressing everything as though it were meant for a jungler first. But don't stop reading if you just want general information. Its there.

For runes I want to emphasize the importance of survivability when it comes to Skarner. Not only are you going to find yourself in the thick of it most of the time, but you WANT to be. Contrary to what you would expect from many champions, you don't always want to play it safe as Skarner. In fact, his ganking abilities derive from his ability to chase and slow his enemies effectively. If you're sitting on the outside of the fray using "Fracture" you're not doing anybody any favors, and you're going to find yourself out of mana pretty quick.

Instead we want to be in their face, and for that we're going to need Greater Seals of Resilience and Greater Glyphs of Warding Now, not only are you a pain in the *** to kill, but as a result of ignoring you in favor of squishier targets, your opponents are actually hurting themselves in the long term if they need to run away. Nothing escapes Skarner.

I choose Greater Marks of Desolation Greater Mark of Desolation because Armor Pen would be a pain in the *** to receive from most other sources. A few of the Quintessences you may consider are Attack Speed, Attack Damage, or Swiftness. However - while all of these may look good on paper - in reality, if you're closely following my guide they are NOT worth taking. You'll receive more than enough of these from other sources. Instead I would strongly advise you to focus on Armor Pen to really maximize its capability.

Lastly, if you're thinking to yourself, "Skarner's strength comes from CD reductions, maybe I should maximize those..." Don't waste your time. Your passive lends itself well to this, and you will just be wasting your runes.

In the beginning I threw out any preconceived notions on how to play Skarner and decided to try out maximizing all three masteries. See, I thought as a jungler the utility tree would lend itself well to Skarner. It does NOT. You'll find yourself dying pretty quick in a team fight and your team will be cursing you. So then I thought because I mostly play Skarner as a damage dealer maybe the offense tree would help boost my damage capability. It did, and yet I found myself dying even in 1v1 situations. That's why I like to play Skarner as a mostly defense mastery champion. He's suddenly a lot harder to kill, and you're still doing a lot of damage.

Don't expect to be the mvp for your team every game as Skarner. Likely you won't be. Your assists and kills will likely be close to even, but if you're playing him correctly your deaths should be close to 0. Stay at the front line of battle, but know when to retreat. If you see an opportunity to take a death for the greater good of killing the enemy team, do so. Don't be afraid of dying with Skarner if you've slowed their entire team on their retreat. This can easily lead to a victory.

At the end of this build you may decide its not for you. Maybe you'll try it out and its not making sense to you. That's fine. However, if you read any other build and it does not contain Wit's End, then you are 100% wasting your time. This one item is the key to what most are missing with Skarner. Its the reason they feel like they aren't doing ANYTHING. With this you'll be attacking VERY quickly, and as a result your abilities will almost never be on CD. People will be very scared of you when they can't escape and they'll start thinking in a much more defensive manner, which lends itself well to your team winning.

Madred's Razor is an important second item because its going to boost your damage capability against minions by quite a bit. However, after you get Wit's End, feel free to sell it back. Further boost your attack speed with Berserker Greaves and take Sheen. There's a reason this is on your recommended list. The next item is going to depend a lot on if you're playing a 3v3 or a 5v5. If you're playing Skarner as a jungler (which I highly recommend for a 5v5) then you should constantly have the blue buff, and you won't be hurting for mana. In this case you can choose to either take The Black Cleaver or Tiamat as your next item. Either one is awesome for Skarner. However, in a 3v3 you're going to want to get Manamune. This is important so remember it.

If you're fighting a heavy magic oriented team, and you find Wit's End just isn't giving you the staying power you need, go for Force of Nature next. Remember: We want to frustrate the enemy team into not attacking us. If the other team doesn't have much magic, its better to go for Trinity Force at this point. Either Guinsoo's Rageblade or Hextech Gunblade make for a nice last item. I would lean more towards Guinsoo's Rageblade personally if you don't have much gold.

Our first priority is maximizing Crystalline Exoskeleton . It boosts your attack speed (lowering your CDs), it raises your damage intake (remember: staying power is important) and gives you the ability to very effectively chase. Next we're going to maximize Crystal Slash to slow down our enemies, and then Impale , and finally Fracture . You don't need to follow my skill sequence exactly, just remember to follow that order and you'll be fine.

When fighting as a team with Skarner, spam "Q" or Crystal Slash for the uninitiated, use Fracture whenever its not on CD, and keep your Exoskeleton up. Most importantly: Impale has a long cooldown normally, so I recommend you either use it to pull a retreating enemy back into your allies, or as a method for suppressing an enemy champion, such as a nuke.

Your main focus as Skarner should be to harass the enemy team. They'll be forced to attack you, and as long as your team is paying attention, you'll do fine. Better yet, if they don't attack you, they'll be in for a surprise when they try to escape.