Hi, and welcome to my Skarner, The Crystal Vanguard guide.

First of, English isn't my native language, so there might be some spelling errors now and then. Also, i would appreciate it if you wouldn't downvote this because you think it wont work, but just try it.

So, why a Skarner guide?
I wrote this guide because I wasn't satisfied with the Skarner guides that are allready here. I find Skarner to be a very good champion, maybe even on the op side. But you have to know what you are doing. Hence this guide.

By the way, this is my first guide, so be nice (:

Read the guide, and enjoy Skarner the way he is meant.

I choose for standard armor penetration marks, flat armour seals, cool down reduction glyphs and flat armour quintessences.

If i play Skarner, i always dominate my lane, just because Skarner is very tanky at the start, with a decent amount of damage, and a slow. The runes will help with this, armour penetration for the damage, flat armour quints and seals for the tankyness and cooldown reduction to spam your slow.

With masteries a normal defense/attack will do.

First of, grab Boots of Speed and health pots. This will make you a really annoying force for the enemy champions in the lane, as you can run towards them, damage them and be out again before they can do a thing. This works especially well with Crystalline Exoskeleton, which gives you bonus movement speed. The health pots will make you be able to stay in lane A LOT longer.

By the time you used all your pots, you should have enough to grab a Sheen on your first recall. Sheen really shines with your Q ability, which has a cool down of under 2.5 seconds. If you have enough money, try to also get the Null-Magic Mantle.

Next time you recall, you should be able to buy the Mercury Threads. More armour + reduced crowd control + more speed = win. You should be able to dominate your lane by now.

After you finish your Trinity Force, you will have to choose. Is the enemy team doing well, or do they have a lot of crowd control? Go for Banshees Veil. Is your team doing ok, and don't you need the survivability, then go for the Hextech Gunblade. This will really boost your damage output.

After this, it's kinda up to you to decide what item to buy next. I would recommend building a tank item. What item would depend on the enemy team. Is their dps carry doing well? Buy Thornmail. Is their mage really shining? Buy a Force of Nature.

I have found this to be the most stable item sequence for Skarner.

Right, the skills.

Energize
Your passive is REALLY good. Every time you hit a minion your ability cool downs are reduced by 0.5 seconds, and every time you hit an champion the cool downs are reduced by 1 second! This is what makes skarner really able to spam his skills.

Crystal Slash
Your Q is a damage+slow spell. It does damage to units around Skarner. The first time this hits, Skarner will get charged up with energy. When Skarner does this spell again before his energy is worn off, the spell will also slow surrounding units.

This is a great tool for chasing a enemy. If a enemy champion runs, just chase him and spam your Q.


Crystalline Exoskeleton
This is your W skill. Another great tool for chasing an enemy. It gives a shield which absorbs any kind of damage, and increases your movement speed and attack speed. So while you are slowing the enemy, you can also boost your own speed!

Fracture
Your third skill is fracture. It is a nice skill, but just not worth leveling before the rest. Fracture is a skillshot, which will mark every target it hits. If you then hit that unit again, it will heal you. This skill is meant to be used with Crystal Slash. You hit several minions with fracture, then stand in the middle of them and use Crystal Slash to get the max heal.
However, this skill is very mana expensive, so i find it not worthy to level at the start as you will just be wasting your mana. If you are low on health use a health pot.

Impale
Your ulti is amazing. Timed right, this will kill the champion you target every time. The idea is that you grab an enemy with your tail, and can drag him/her around for a amount of time. This deals damage when it hits, and when it releases the target. Just use this when your team is behind you. Drag him to the rest, and kill him 5 vs 1. This will leave the rest of their team with 1 less, and you should be able to win the upcomming teamfight.


So just to be clear, we have a champion here with a AoE slow, shield, bonus speed, heal, and a ability to drag your opponent helpless across the field. Sounds good? It is. Skarner is a truly unique offtank.

Ignite and flash, basic summoner spells.
Flash can really help you to get in range for your ulti, and ignite can just be that little bit to finish it.

If played well, Skarner can really be a pain in the *** for the enemy team and can change the game.

Please try it, and let me know what you think.