Hi! I'm XxRokasxX and this is my first build on Mobafire so please just bare with me, I bought Skarner not long after I started playing League of Legends (about a year ago) and I've always liked him but only recently have I started playing him frequently. This jungle Skarner build focuses on health and sustainability, as well as some damage, cooldown reduction, and attack speed. I would love to hear about how well you do with this build and any suggestions you might have to make this build better. Also, I have no experience with scripting and adding banners, etc. so sorry if this guide feels bland or bores you. This build is a work in progress and will be expanded at a later date.

I chose these runes for a couple of reasons, including:

Survivability: because Skarner has no real escape mechanism having movement speed quints, armor seals, and scaling mr glyphs give Skarner the boost he needs to escape from dangerous situations.

Jungling: Since you should be getting hunters machete first the attack speed marks allow you to take better advantage of its passives, the movement speed quints allow you to navigate the jungle and position for ganks faster as well as allowing you to clear the jungle faster and gain more levels by minimizing downtime from walking.

Ganking/Holding lane for allies: Since you are jungling your job is to gank when your teammate is vulnerable or when your opponents are pushing lane, you should also hold lane if your ally is not present in lane for whatever reason so having armor seals and scaling mr glyphs will allow you to hold lane for longer periods of time and possibly get a few kills while you're at it.

I chose 0/21/9 masteries because since this build focuses on getting Skarner to that off-tank, spammy, crystalline scorpion that we all know and love. Taking these masteries will help out Skarners early game a lot by giving him that jump in health that he needs early game and the protection he needs to allow him to gank successfully later in the game. The 9 points I spent in Utility allow Skarner to hold onto his buffs 20% longer, lower the cooldowns on Smite and Ghost by 10%, grant him 2% increased movement speed when out of combat allowing him to traverse the jungle faster, lower the cast time for recall by 1 second which will slightly lower the downtime when waiting for recall as well as help you port out of some sticky situations (I cant count how many times I've ported away the second an enemy walked into my bush), and increase his mana regeneration by 1 every 5 seconds (this may not seem like much but when moving from jungle camp to jungle camp it can help you out quite a lot.

Since this a jungle Skarner build I chose items that will allow me to stay in the jungle longer and allow me to take down jungle camps quickly while taking as little damage as possible. My choices and reasoning behind them are as follow:

Hunters Machete: Grabbing a hunters machete and 4 pots to start out will help you take down those jungle camps more efficiently at a low level allowing you to build items quickly. This will also build into Spirit Stone as soon as you have the gold for it.

Spirit Stone: This item will build from the Hunters Machete that you bought at the start. It doubles the passive damage bonus from Hunters Machete as well as 14 health regeneration and 7 mana regeneration. This item will build into Spirit of the Lizard Elder or Spirit of the Ancient Golem later in the game.

Berserkers Greaves: These will allow you to take advantage of Skarners passive cooldown reduction on basic attack. These can be substituted for Mercury's Treads if facing a lot of AP or CC.

Sheen: This item is essential for Skarner because it works so well with his Q. Later on in the game this builds into Trinity Force which will give Skarner everything from AD, AP, HP, and Mana to Attack Speed, Movement Speed, and some very beneficial passives.

Catalyst The Protector: Catalyst The Protector offers many benefits for Skarner, It gives Health, Mana, and a nifty little passive that restores 150 health and 200 mana over 8 seconds upon leveling up- very useful on a spammy champion like Skarner. Plus this will eventually build into Banshee's Veil late game.

Phage: Gives Skarner health, attack damage, and a passive that gives basic attacks a 25% chance to slow an enemy on basic attack by 30% for 2 seconds. This will build into Trinity Force along with your Sheen.

Trinity Force: Gives AD, AP, Health, Mana, Attack Speed, Movement Speed, Critical Strike Chance, and the passives from Phage and Sheen.

Spirit of the Lizard Elder: Gives Skarner attack damage, cooldown reduction, health regeneration, mana regeneration, increases the passive damage increase towards neutral monsters from 20% on Spirit Stone to 25%, and provides a passive that burns the enemy on basic attack and non-periodic spell damage. Can be substituted with Spirit of the Ancient Golem.

Randuin's Omen: Gives a good amount of health as well as armor as well as a passive that slows enemy attack speed by 20% when hit by a basic attack and slows theire movement speed by 10 for 1.5 seconds making it easier to survive when faced with an opponent that is building AD and/or Attack Speed. Randuin's Omen also has an active that slows enemy movement speed by 35% for 2 seconds + 1 second for every 100 armor and magic resistance that you have within 500 range.

Banshee's Veil: Gives a nice amount of health, magic resistance, mana, and a passive that gives you a shield that blocks an enemy spell and refreshes if you have not taken any champion damage for 25 seconds. This is a great item and can ruin an opponents day if they keep wasting their best ability whenever they try to engage you.

Warmog's Armor: Probably my favorite item in the game since I main Volibear as a tank, but this item can do wonders for Skarner especially when you are going for a Tank/Off-Tank role. An item that gives 1000 health, and a (sadly)unique passive that restores 1.5% of your maximum health every 5 seconds? Sounds good to me! This item can really help Skarner out by allowing him to narrowly escape death because of the huge boost in health regeneration that this item provides as well as take more damage without putting Skarner in immediate danger of getting killed. Build this item earlier if you desire, you should know that a build is never fixed and should change and adapt depending on what the team compositions are of both your opposing team as well as your own team.

Boot Enchantment: I usually take Alacrity on my boots for the purpose of roaming through the jungle faster and escaping from danger but there is no problem with getting Distortion instead.

Remember, don't build what you want, build what you and your team needs! (to a reasonable extent)

Well, Ill try to keep this Chapter short for convenience sake.

Passive- Energize: Basically what Skarners passive does is that it lowers the cooldowns of Skarners abilities on each basic attack, This is very useful as it lets you spam like crazy if your opponent decides to stay in meelee range.

Q- Crystal Slash: This ability is what lends Skarner his spammy reputation max this first for more damage. With a 3.5 second cooldown that is shortened by your passive and a mana cost of just 20/22/24/26/28 this move is Skarners primary damage source along with just flat-out basic attacks. When Skarner uses Crystal Slash it empowers him with Crystal Energy for 5 seconds, if he casts Crystal Slash while empowered by Crystal Energy Crystal Slash will slow the opponent by 20/25/30/35/40% for 2 seconds.

W- Crystalline Exoskeleton: Gives Skarner a shield that absorbs 70/115/160/205/250 damage, while the shield is active it increases Skarners attack speed by 15/17/19/21/23% and his attack speed is increased by 30/35/40/45/50% max this second.

E- Fracture: This is Skarners little heal, Fracture deals 80/120/160/200/240 magic damage to all enemies struck and places a mark on them for 6 seconds, any further damage death to marked enemies will heal Skarner for 30/45/60/75/90 health (any subsequent marks consumed will heal for 50% of the last) This is very useful as it can allow you to stay in the jungle for a longer time. Get a point in this early but max it last. I like to use this ability to initiate jungle camps when i'm not at full health, when using this ability make sure to hit as much of the monsters in the camp as possible (this applies to creeps when holding lane as well).

R- Impale: Skarners Ult, this ability is hilarious if your opponents don't have a lot of experience playing against Skarner. Impale does 100/150/200 magic damage when it hits, it then suppresses the enemy and allow Skarner to drag the opponent around at will for 1.75 seconds after which the enemy is released and dealt the same amount of damage as Impale did when it hit. Put a point in Impale whenever possible. High movement speed really brings out the full potential of this ability.

Well... this isn't exactly "short" but honestly I could have made it longer so keep that in mind before saying that this is too long ^.^

Edit:My spell order looks funky on the site but my reasoning behind that is that when I play, my skill point allocation varies a lot depending on what is going on in-game. Do not try to follow the skill sequence I have given up here in every game you play because just like your item build, your skill point allocation should also change with what you and your team needs at a particular time.

There are three summoner spells that I would say are acceptable to use for a jungle Skarner build: Smite, Ghost, and Flash. Smite being a guaranteed pick, you are left with the choice of taking either Ghost or Flash. My preferred choice is Ghost but I will explain the benefits and downsides of all three.

Smite: Smite should be taken no matter what if you are jungling Skarner. With the Summoners Resolve you get a bonus 10 gold whenever you use Smite. Smite will allow you to take down jungle creeps faster (Mainly the big buff monsters) allowing you to collect those buffs when you need them. The downside to Smite is that it can't be used on enemy champions which can be a problem if you are forced to lane for extended periods of time due to an AFK/Disconnected teammate.

Ghost: Ghost is a great summoner spell to take on Skarner because you can activate it while you have an enemy suppressed with your Impale. When used in conjunction with Crystalline Exoskeleton Ghost allows for a large movement speed boost be it Impaling an enemy and then dragging them towards your team, running away or running towards an enemy champion/team fight. The downside to Ghost is that it takes time to put distance between you and your opponent when running away unlike Flash which does it instantly, Flash is also a better summoner spell when it comes to juking.

Flash: Flash is a great summoner spell that can be used to quickly flash out of combat/into combat, through walls, and can aid in juking. The downside to Flash is that you cannot activate it while suppressing an enemy with Impale.