
Skarner Top - Challenger Guide
By Merthos1123 | Updated on February 22, 2021x

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Runes: Skarner (Grasp)
1
2
3
4

Resolve





Inspiration






+10% Attack Speed
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+6 Armor
Spells:
1
2
Flash Ignite

Flash

Ignite
Items
Ability Order EQW

Crystal Spires
Skarner Passive Ability
Champion Build Guide

Hey, my name is Merthos and I main







![]() ![]() "We are one. We cannot be shattered." - Skarner |
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SKARNER ABILITIES
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Summoner Spells





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SKARNER COMBOS





Short Trade
This combo allows
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Five Seconds of CC
This combo allows
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Impale Turn
This mechanic is very important to increase the range on
Skarner's
Impale by turning your character model at the end of the duration.


Crystal Slash Autos
This combo allows
Skarner to
Crystal Slash while auto attacking increasing dps dramatically. Use this in conjunction with other combos to get the most out of
Skarner's kit.



SKARNER RUNES
After extensively testing for a long time with runes reforged. I think I can finally come up with what runes are the best for top lane












These are the four main keystones that ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
These are the main secondary runes that you should be using for resolve. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
These are the main secondary runes you should be using for inspiration. ![]() ![]() ![]() |
SKARNER ITEMS
During the preseason the items changed drastically introducing new items called mythics which only one can be built. After extensive testing I have found that









Starting Items

Doran's Shield should always be started on
Skarner as it gives him sustain in lane. This makes
Skarner last longer in lane gaining more gold and experience.



Health Potion should be always started with
Doran's Shield as it offers even more sustain. This lets
Skarner use the health pot defensively or offensively, when fighting or retreating from enemy champions.



Sheen should be always built after your first back, as
Sheen items are incredibly effective with
Skarner's
Crystal Slash proccing it constantly.



Mythic Choices

Divine Sunderer is a great mythic for
Skarner, because it gives him a maximum health sheen proc. This proc can be used with
Fracture to deal massive single target damage to all opponents and heal
Skarner. This item is great for bruiser
Skarner as it gives him health and attack damage.





Turbo Chemtank is a amazing mythic for
Skarner, because it gives him a active that gives him a insane speed boost towards enemy champions. allowing
Skarner to get
Impale off easily. This item is great for
Skarner as it gives him health and resists.





Trinity Force is a amazing alternative for
Divine Sunderer, because it gives him a sheen proc that does more damage early. This item is great for
Skarner as it gives him stronger 1v1 potential.


Legendary Choices

Sterak's gage gives
Skarner burst reduction through a shield when hit by large amounts of damage. This is important for
Skarner because he needs to frontline and without a strong defense he could easily die.



Randuin's Omen gives
Skarner armor and an active that slows reducing damage dealt by physical attacks and critical strikes. This is important for
Skarner as it gives him a strong defense against marksmen.



Thornmail grants
Skarner grevious wounds which decreases the amount of healing enemy champions. This is important on
Skarner, because one of his weaknesses is fighting sustained champions as they can outlast him.



Dead Man's plate gives
Skarner mobility and armor, as well as access to a passive called momentum that builds up to 100 to unleash a magic damage empowered auto attack. This is important for
Skarner because of his low mobility and damage without items.



Spirit visage on
Skarner gives him increased magic resist and increases
Crystalline Exoskeleton's power. This is important on
Skarner as he is frontline champion, and having more shield and health can make him survive a lot longer.




Force of Nature grants
Skarner mobility and magic resist, and increased speed when getting hit by magic damage. This is important for
Skarner as one of his weaknesses is low mobility and magic damage due to burst.



Abyssal Mask grants
Skarner increased damage on immobilized targets, health, and magic resist. This is important on
Skarner since both
Fracture and
Impale are immobilizes.




Boots

Plated Steelcaps should be built on
Skarner against compositions that use physical damage and auto attacks in their kits.


Mercury's Treads should be built on
Skarner against compositions that use magic damage and crowd control in their kits.

Top Lane
I play
Skarner in the top lane because I have more games in the role. I believe it can be just as good as jungle
Skarner, because
Skarner's kit is incredibly strong and versatile in a lot of different situations. Making him a great pick in almost every single game.



Champion Bans
For
Skarner top I would always recommend banning champions that make you unable to lane for example, for me in high elo, I usually ban
Elise because her tower diving presence can be incredibly dangerous early, and usually shuts you out of the game for a long time. When I get secondary jungle another great option is to ban
Olaf because he is one of the only champions that can directly counter your ultimate. These bans are just examples, but I would highly recommend them as these give me the most trouble in the laning phase or when jungling.



QSS
This item is what counters
Skarner and it is called
Quicksilver Sash when built this allows enemy champions to cancel out your ultimate leaving it useless. Fear not as this does not mean
Skarner is completely useless, to get around this problem there is a combo that utilizes
Impale and
Fracture stun to still get a use out of
Impale. To pull off this combo you need to first land
Fracture without proccing the stun. Then
Flash or walk in to
Impale, and as soon as they use qss for
Impale, stun them with the Crystal Venom mark left on them by
Fracture.











Wave Management
Wave management is very important on top
Skarner, because wave management can decide if you win or lose the early game due to jungler prescence. For
Skarner the most important wave state is resetting the lane by pushing all the minions into the enemy tower, and managing a slow push to give
Skarner pressure in lane due to the minions stacking. For early game when you trade on
Skarner you should automatically begin to slow push. This allows you to get towards the goal of resetting the lane. After the laning phase is over you want to start to push the lane constantly to roam, or split push depending on how your team is doing. If your team is behind then trying to roam after pushing might be a solid option. If your team is ahead then trying to split push, and putting pressure in the side lane is also another option. This does not mean that you can't roam when ahead, its just a way of thinking about what would be more beneficial for your team, roaming or splitting.




Early Laning Phase
In the early laning on
Skarner, you should try your best to cs and land
Fracture short trades. The
Fracture short trades allow
Skarner to get towards his goal of resetting the lane by creating a slow push. By short trading your lane opponent, their minions will die faster due to them gaining aggro on you. This allows you slowly build up a minion advantage to push the lane into the enemy tower resetting the wave. This allows the enemy minions to push back into your tower to repeat this process over again.




Teamfights and Objectives
This is where
Skarner shines and can use his insane crowd control to benefit his team. Before a team fight breaks out is where
Skarner can be incredibly effective. You should always look if you can
Flash or walk in to
Impale or
Fracture to stun priority targets like carries or junglers. This can instantly turn the fight into a 4v5 gaining a huge advantage for your team, often times outright guaranteeing the objective. For river objectives such as baron or dragon,
Skarner is incredibly strong as he has access to
Crystal Spires.







Conclusion
Thank you for taking time to read my in-depth
Skarner guide and hope you learn more about this amazing champion. In order to make this guide code examples from jhoijhoi's Making a Guide were used, and I greatly appreciate this resource. For anyone looking to create a guide on mobafire should use the excellent examples in that guide.

If you would like to see more
Skarner gameplay follow me on Twitch or Youtube If you have any questions drop by my twitch stream or discord server, and I will be glad to answer them.


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Skarner Top - Challenger Guide
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