Hey There, Drag Hyphen here and I want to indroduce you to my Jungle Skarner Guide. "Skarner? I don't know a Champ called Skarner...". Ye...well...Skarner is not popular at the moment. I didn't know he were before he got reworked, but i kinda like him how he is and I don't quite understand why nobody plays him. He isn't one of the beast jungler (Kha'Zix, Xin, Lee), but he is still fun (at least for me). I like his ult espacially...I mean, who doesn't like to have a Suppress? D: He is solid though out the Game too, so no really week early game, neither he falls off later.

There is nothing special about this Guide, so I want to keep it short and just explain what needs to be explained.

Also, this is No very detailed Guide. It contains No basics about "How to Jungle" or "How to Gank" or something like that.

So without further ado, here is my small Guide on "How to suppress an enemy and draw him into your team for an easy kill" aka "How to play Jungle Skarner (the way I do)".

I don't know what I should say here, because you see what you get with this champ by reading through his Abilities. Anyway, here they are:

Pros

+ Nice AOE damage with Crystal Slash
+ MS buff and Shield with Crystalline Exoskeleton
+ Strong Slow with Fracture
+ Very good ganks after LVL 6 thanks to his Ult, which is a Suppress (it's an almost garanteed kill)
+ Solid through out the Game (no really week early or fall-off late Game)
+ Quite good fighter/duelist (1v1)

Cons

- No instant gap closer.
- Fracture quite easy to dodge because of it's low travel speed.
- His ganks pre LVL 6 are just OK.

It's a default AD Jungle Rune page for Jungle Chanps that benefit from AS a lot (Vi, Xin, ,Noc,...).

21 in Offense for clear speed and gank damage (obviously).

9 in Defense because you are meele and don't want to just get blown up instantly, not even early in game.

It's a deafault AD Jungle Mastery page. I use it for all AD Jungler I play (Lee, Vi, Xin,...).

Because of the AS Quint buff I use them instead of AS Marks. This way you get 14% AS instead of 15%, but also 9 AD instead of 7. It's not much of a difference, but if you have the runes to change it up, it is better this way.

Early Game

Early, before lvl 6 if possible, you want to pick up Mobility Boots. ...why Mobility Boots? It's quite obvious, because you got no instant gap closer, so you always have to run up to your oppenent, so you can use any of your damaging abilities. Besides, you cannot rely on Ixtal's Impact to slow the enemy, cause it's quite easy to dodge.

I firstly pick up Spirit of the Elder Lizard as my Jungle Item, because you become a strong fighter/duelist early in the Game. Overall it provides good clear speed and damage for the rest of the Game.

Mid Game

My 2nd big Item depends on how the early game was: Did I die? Did I get my Buffs? Was I even able to get 1 or 2 kills or assists? If your ealry game went well (no deaths, good farm, a few assists (kills)) I most likely choose to go for Trinity Force.

Trinity Force is really good on Skarner, espacially because you can proc the Spellblade passive almost all the time by spamming your Q Shattered Earth.

If your early game went badly, you go for defensive Items after Spirit of the Elder Lizard

Defensive Itemization

1st Def Item

Generally you want Randuin's Omen no matter what. You Gonna be tanking a lot later in the game and it's the best chioce, if the enemies have at least one AD champ besides their ADC or the enemy's ADC and Support has won their lane.

2nd Def Item

If the enemies have one AP Caster you want to get Banshee's Veil after Randuin's ( Spirit Visage works as well, but Banshee's Veil is slightly better, because of the "Spellshield").

3rd Def Item

Your next item depends on what exactly the enemy's team comp is.

2 APs (e.g. Mid and Top) or 3 APs (Mid, Top and Jungle):

You can buy Spirit Visage now. It depends on what their 2 Champs are, but if they got 3 APs it's most likely a good choice.

3 or 4 ADs:

Thornmail is now your "must-have". And if everybody on the enemy's team but Support is AD you skip Banshee's Veil ( Spirit Visage) and go for Sunfire Aegis or Warmog's Armor.

If the enemy's have quite the same amount of AP and AD damage:

It very much depends on the enemyies' champs and what they have built now.

Enemies' have good %-Health damage -> Thornmail or Sunfire Aegis
Enemies' have almost no %-Health damage -> Warmog's Armor or Sunfire Aegis

If no Trinity Force/ Last Def Item

It Should be one of the already mentioned Items above. Look at the enemies team comp for a last time and choose what you may need and didn't buy yet.

I don't think it needs any explanation.

Max Q first for increased damage -> increased clear speed.

2nd W because of the increased Shield and MS.

Last E.

Even though it's a pretty important the whole game, I'll just keep everything as short as possible. (if you have additional questions after reading just leave a comment, as said before)

Always Buy Wards

Wards are important all game long. If you place them correctly you gonna get an adventage.

- You can warn your teammates against ganks and roams, so they know when they have to play defensive and when they can go offensive.
- You can counter gank the enemy Jungler for potential kills for you and your ganked lane, because the enemies didn't expect you.
- You can counter jungle while the enemy jungler is sitting on or passing by ward on the other site of the map.
- You can call your lanes to help you, if you see the enemy jungler going for one of his buffs and steal it or even kill the enemy jungler.
- You can call your bot and mid for a free uncontested dragon if the enemy jungler was spotted by a ward in the top lane.
- ...

There is so much you can do just by having vision on the map, so be smart and buy some wards ;)

Besides wards, there is another kind of vision control provided by your trinket. The Sweeping Lens is very good if you look for wards the enemies have placed.

For example:
You saw the enemy jungler Top, because he passed one of your wards. You go to the dragon pit and use your Sweeping Lens and you see there is no ward by the enemies. You now know the enemies won't know immediatly if you call help for dragon and most likely the dragon is yours by the time they think of it.

Pink Wards

These are best as defensive wards in case you are a jungler.
Place them either...

- Near your buffs to protect them
- In or at the river to see enemy movement
- In the baron/dragon pit to sweep out enemy wards, so the enemies gonna have a hard time stealing the baron/dragon.

So that's it, my Guide on how to jungle with Skarner. He is a solid champ through out the game and quite fun if you like to eliminate a enemy by pulling him into your team and fight 1v1s.

Don't hesitate to ask what ever you want to know (prefer questions about this guide :p).
Thanks for reading.
Hav'fun
Drag

What should I tell? I'm currently Platinum V but I'm playing Normals more often, cause Ranked Games aren't always as fun as they could be...Normals are neither, but it's way less frustrating if you lose a Normal, because of an AFK or a Flamer or whatever then it is if it's a Ranked Game.

So, nothing to say here.