I'm "Im Not Gay" I play on the EUW server. I used to be a Trundle one-trick and got into platinum 4 in season 7. In the Preseason and season 8 I started to pick up Skarner and I'm having a lot of success with him right now. That's why I decided to make this build.

Long before people searched in Shurima, Skarner was busy with his biggest adventure, to find the perfect crystal for him. The young creature named Skarner was looking many years for that 1 perfect crystal, as he was afraid of dying cause of the weakness it brings being without a big Crystal. Day and night he has been looking for it and then after a long time he gave up. But the moment when he gave up he felt some magic under the ground, he digged down until the warmth of the earth shred his shell. He heard a voice deep in his head and he wouldn’t give up till he found that crystal his voice was talking about. Then after a few days he found it and it was the biggest crystal he had ever seen. He slept with the crystal for many years because the crystal gives him a lot of power. Skarner feared the humans because they were a danger to him and the sand creatures. Unfortunately there were robbers trying to steal Skarner his Crystal, but fortunately Skarner woke up as the only sand creature of his tribe. A lot of sand creatures already got their crystals taken away as they didn't have much chance to survive without. Skarner protected the crystal and started to fight the robbers. He killed a few of them as the rest fled away. Skarner tried to wake up the other sand creatures but many died and the rest didn’t wake up. Many weeks later Skarner had the choice to protect the still sleeping but living sand creatures or go on with his journey he tried to defend the sand creatures from the humans but he couldn’t anymore as he stopped doing so. Skarner tried to look for the stones as he tried to track them. Skarner was lonely and felt alone. He occasionally heard a lost crystal calling to him, that gave him a feeling that of joy and anguish in equal measure. He focuses his sorrow into unshakable determination, and refuses to rest until he has recovered every last life stone.

Skarner overall is a pretty solid pick for almost every Team Comp. He has a fast clear speed, a solid gank potential, very hard CC and just great Damage. In my opinion, it's one of the best champions to one-trick.

Pros + Very Tanky + Great CC (so great ganks) + Very Fast + Great Damage output for a tank + Map Control with your Crystals + Great clears Skarner is a great Jungler. He has very good gankability because of his Ixtal's Impact + Impale. He also has a very good damage output with his Shattered Earth. The Damage is very nice for quick clearing speed, but his clearing speed gets even better. His Passive makes it that if he stands in the Aura surrounding a Crystal (captured by your team) he gets a massive attack speed and movement speed boost!

Cons - Kiteable - Relies on follow up - Not the best for a comeback - Long cd ult - Hard cc keeps him from engaging - Unpopular :c If Skarner cannot engage in team fights his potential to carry drops by a lot. Then you have to rely on your team to make an engage and you have to try to defend your backline from incoming threats, such as an incoming Zed or Nocturne. Just make sure you protect the backline well with your Ixtal's Impact and Impale and you will still be able to soft-carry the game to a win.

SUMMONER SPELLS - SMITE: If you go Jungle you need smite. Duh. FLASH: I prefer Flash over Ghost because if you have Flash you can easily grab a target just by Flashing onto him. While with Ghost you have to run in and then you can get stunned or other forms of Crowd Control. GHOST: Ghost is a viable option tho. It works perfectly with your Rune just to get some extra Damage while you are Ghosted. Its your personal preference really.

Keystone Aftershock: In my Opinion this is the best choice for Skarner. The Armor and Magic Resist Buff makes you immortal while you drag away the Enemy with your Impale and right after that, you do a nice little bit of Damage which is helpful for every 1 v 1 scenario. Demolish Demolish: Great turret push potential. Helps out a lot for getting the first turret in the game after you have successfully ganked a lane. Chrysalis Chrysalis: Its just a great choice overal. It makes you stay healthier in the jungle in early game and it will make you deal slightly more damage as the game continues. unflinching Unflinching: This rune makes you a lot less vulnerable to CC its very useful for when you are going to gank without your Summoners up. Try to use your in fights for when you really need the 15% extra Tenacity. Celerity Celerity: The 3% movement speed is very nice to just get that little bit of speed needed to stun an opponent with Ixtal's Impact or just to come in range for your Impale. The extra Damage is also very helpfull because you get extra movement speed from your Crystal Spires which will make your early clear better. The Ultimate Hat The Ultimate Hat: This Rune will let you ult way more often then you normally would. This will be very useful when you are in late game.

Keystone Predator: This is also a very good option for Skarner. It really helps out on your ganking potential. If you are confident that you are tanky enough and just want to snowball early and help lanes a lot, this might be the better Rune Page for you. Cheap Shot Cheap Shot: After you use your Impale or Ixtal's Impact you will gain a bit of extra Damage. This will just allow you to get better dualing potential especially early. I think the heal of Taste of Blood is just too little and has a way to high cooldown to have a good effect on Skarner in the game and Sudden Impact just doesn’t do anything worthwhile for Skarner at all. Zombie Ward Zombie Ward: Vision is overall a big job for the Jungler overal. Being able to clear wards and put your Zombie Ward there, will just make the game way easier for you and your teammates. Relentless Hunter Relentless Hunter: This rune will make you even faster from mid to late game. It’s just the best option of the 3 choices. You won’t profit a lot from Lifesteal or Active Item CDR. Celerity Celerity: The 3% movement speed is very nice to just get that little bit of speed needed to stun an opponent with Ixtal's Impact or just to come in range for your Impale. The extra Damage is also very helpfull because you get extra movement speed from your Crystal Spires which will make your early clear better. The Ultimate Hat The Ultimate Hat: This Rune will let you ult way more often then you normally would. This will be very useful when you are in late game.

TRINITY FORCE

VS

ICEBORN GAUNTLET

In my opinion Trinity Force is the best option for Skarner. Every stat it gives can help Skarner a lot. I also think Skarner has enough stick potential, so he doesn't need the Iceborn active. In the end the Damage and stats Trinity Force gives is worth more then the value of the Iceborn Gauntlet.

The only reason when I would consider Iceborn Gauntlet is when the whole team goes bad and they are going an AD-Heavy Comp. At that point, I will just go full armor and make sure we at least have a Tank on the team.

By now you guys should all know that the first 3 items for skarner in the jungle are: and The rest of the item choices are down below.

Armor

Magic Resist

Remaining items

Red side Route:
1: Blue (+ leash) 2: Gromp (Don't forget to lure him into your Crystal Area) 3: Wolves 4: Razorbeaks (CHICKENS!) 5: Red 6: Krugs 7: Crystal + back to base
Blue side Route:
1: Red (+ leash) 2: Krugs 3: Razorbeaks (CHICKENS!) 4: Wolves 5: Blue 6: Gromp (Don't forget to lure him into your Crystal Area) 7: Crystal + back to base

Of course, ALWAYS try to go for a gank whenever you see someone who is easily gankable, but that is game dependent.

After you have done these 7 steps you have enough gold to buy + ( for Predator). Then you are level 4 and can solo drake. Make good use of it, people often don't expect it. Then try to get level 6 asap and start ganking A LOT. That way you can carry the game very hard.

In the Images beneath you can see how you should gank with Skarner, if you are on the Blue team, look at the Left picture, if you are on the Red team, look at the Right picture. The colors represent the safety of the gank. I'll sort them out from Bad to Good in the list underneath the image. The only one I won't put on the list is all the black lines. You should never take on of those lines.


Red: For this ganking path you really need coordination, vision and you need to be very sure you will win this. You will dive the enemies under the turret. If you have enough damage you will be able to burst them down and flee safely but if something goes wrong there is a high chance the enemies will be able to kill you.
Yellow: This is a little more high risk but also higher reward. You will most likely find the enemy between you and your ally. This means your gank will have a higher chance of succeeding but if the enemy Jungler also comes then they could turn on you.
Green: A very safe way of ganking. Often even when you make a bad decision and they are turning the fight to their advantage you can still leave without consequences.
Blue: The safest and most often best way of ganking. Most of the time you are using blast cone to get the gank started.


To summarize:
If you want the easiest gank go for the Blue line. If you want a low risk gank go for the Green line. If you are sure the enemy Jungler isn't close or you know that you are able to 2 v 2 them go for the Yellow line. If you are ahead and want to force a fight, even tho I still don't recommend doing it, take the Red line.

For Team Fighting you can have one of these 2 Roles: Protecting the ADC/Mid Laner: If you have a fed ADC or Mid Laner who is able to carry Team Fights just protect them as good as you can. You can use your Ixtal's Impact and Impale to pull assassins away from them and just soak up a lot of damage with your Seismic Bastion Attacking their backline: If you don't have a very good ADC or Midlaner or they are just not capable of carrying, or they have a very fed enemy who is carrying them, just go into their backline with and pull them towards your team using Impale and you will most likely be able to carry the Teamfight afterwards.

A Special Thanks to Psiguard for giving me a lot of tips for my guide, I really learned a lot from all his tips and I think he played a big part in making this guide as good as it is now.
With all of his help, let's try to get the highest rated Skarner build! I know we can do this!