Good evening, this is my first guide, so bare with the no doubt awful formatting and such. But, constructive criticism is greatly appreciated. However, this is not intended to be a full blown guide. If you're looking for scrutinizing detail on Skarner, please look else where. There are many other good guides that AS Skarner can be applied to.

The first thing you'll notice is that this guide is focused on AS Skarner. I have no tested an extensive amount of games on this build, but it gives me just as much wins as any other build I play.

First things first.

AS Skarner starts off very slow. We grab Wriggle's early on because it provides life steal and the bonus damage on minions to help you jungle.
Yes, that's right, AS Skarner can jungle, and fairly well too. Because he hits so rapidly, Wriggle's procs very often and this is why I do no use smite. It may be helpful, and many will argue that it works wonders on Baron/Dragon etc etc, but we do not jungle to, well, jungle.

On to business.
AS Skarner is more of an assassin, if you will, than a normal build. Skarner's passive provides us with .5/1 (minion/champion) cooldown reduction on each hit. This is the reason why we stack AS. The idea of AS Skarner is to get your Impale off CD as fast as you can.

And I stress this so, AS Skarner is NOT A CARRY. He never was, he never will be. You support, you assassinate, you run.

i. Jungling, the Preperations

If a lane doesn't mind having a temporary partner to start off, please do go lane with them. Once you have enough money for a Madred's, then grab it and go off to start jungling. This is the best strategy because you start off pretty slow if you jump straight into the jungle without Smite. Also, breaking off from the lane ensures that your lane partner gets as much gold and XP as he/she can, as well as you.

As soon as you grab Madred's, the gears start turning.

ii. Jungling, nomming on them creep camps

The first thing you want to do, if you can, is take the Blue Buff off the Golem. This will help your Q and W spam up, more AS from W, more damage. In addition, keeping your W shield up as much as you can provides you with a decent speed buff. After that, proceed with a rotation somewhere like:
Wolves>Wraiths>Baby Golems>Wolves> etc etc.

(For a more in depth jungling guide, please look else where, there's many great ones and I'm not going to waste our time to repeat them.)

Now that you have grabbed your ultimate, Impale, the fun can begin.

Here's some tips before we start.

You want to have good map awareness - and focus on the people who don't have such good awareness.

Start by getting a good feel for your run speed, both with and without your shield up.

Look for anyone over extending. These make for very easy prey

Don't be afraid to hit warded lanes. If you're fast enough, you still can catch them.

While crossing over lanes, be sure that enemy minions don't have sight of you. Minions spawn in symmetrical patterns, look where yours are, then estimate the position of the enemies. Look both ways before crossing!


Once you have a good target, here's the idea of engaging. Engage as quick as you can, toss an impale on the weakest target, drag them back into your team or turret, and beat down on them! Congratulations, you've just secured yourself a kill.

Now, run back into the jungle, hit those creeps, and repeat 30 seconds from now, now that your impale is off CD.

AS Skarner, I can not stress this enough, is not a carry. Sure some of the ending items give him a boost in damage, but that's end game.

End Game:
The idea is to get the team to forfeit before end game, because you will become one of the weakest champs on the field. HOWEVER, this does not mean you are useless, it just means you have to be extra careful while running into a team fight and picking out your target.

After thoughts:
When I first created my AS Skarner I played what I like to call, Solo Skarner. I'd drag my foes into my turrets and get myself a kill. However, I realized that I'm missing out on a lot.

I would get built much quicker than anyone else, but the more I'm built, the sooner I'm useless. The idea of AS Skarner is more to feed your team, not just yourself. This way you're helping your teammates get built, increasing the chance for a forfeit, or in the event that end game does happen, your team is there first.

Q has a slowing component to it, which is very very very useful! I can not stress it enough! However, the spell has to be cast a second time before it can actually induce slow. If you're rushing into a fight, blow off a Q on some nearby minions before actually reaching the champ. This way, next time you'll slow them.

IGNITE! While Impaled I always throw my ignite on the target. Why? More often than not I find that upon breaking out, the foe panics and tosses a heal or some sort of immunity spell on themselves.

Impaled != Immune! ATTACK WHILE THEY'RE IMPALED! Do AS Skarner a favor, attack the foe that's frozen. Although you can not auto attack impaled targets, spells still do full damage on them. Just be careful not to waste a CC, it'll just be.. A waste.

Sheen Bug
After impale procs sheen, sometimes you can auto attack your frozen target. Do not count on this happening though! And, if it does happen, don't let it go to waste! Make sure your Q and W are on CD, if you do manage to hit them, that's more time cut off your CDs.

Mash them Keys!
Here's what you need to do, except you need to keep mashing them! At end game when fighting you need to be mashing Q and W the whole time otherwise you're going to be missing out on damage AND on your shield's up time. And not to forget about the slow!

Obviously this guide is no where near being as good as the other guides in both content and formatting, but I just wanted to share my guide. I don't see many Skarners in game and I would really like to see my favorite champ played more often. This build is very fun and I'd like to see others have as much fun with it as I do!
April 9 | Fixed grammar, replaced Lich Bane with Gunblade, redid glyphs for real. Mash buttons tip.
April 8 | Added in end game items, threw in **** glyphs.