10-12-2012: Added chapter 'Skarner: When to pick him', small tweaks to existing chapters. Added some videos.

9-12-2012: Added a detailed description of tower diving in chapter 'Teamfights'. Added chapter 'Skill Order' including an explanation

6-12-2012: Added Thoughts on Individual Items to chapter 'Item Build'.

5-12-2012: Guide Created.

Hello everybody. My name is FlyingBroccoli, a gold rated player on the EU West server. Skarner was a special kind of bug for me with whom I fell in love right when I first played him. His amazing CC, tankiness and peel wins games and is something I only recently began to fully appreciate. He's my most played champion in both normal and ranked games and my main jungler.

Skarner works amazingly both offensively as defensively. You will be one of the few champions that can actually successfully peel that fed Jax or Irelia off your carry and make sure they stay alive. Also, Skarner is simply monstrous against bruisers without gap closers, such as Udyr. Your Crystal Slash (Q) will pretty much prevent them from doing anything meaningful in a teamfight.

He excels in the new jungle as well, keeping his fast clear times. His level 6 ganking tools are still incredibly strong, even with the recent nerf to his ultimate. Once an enemy is caught in your Crystal Slash, there is no escape.

If you have any comments I would love to hear them. I will continue to test Skarner in the Season 3 jungle so you might expect some changes in this guide once I've tested every plausible item. Until then, I hope you find this guide useful.

FlyingBroccoli

Skarner is a good overall pick that fits most if not all team compositions. He is also resilient to counterjungling, which makes him an excellent first or second pick in Draft Mode. By playing a tanky CC machine with damage, you will be able to make plays and dictate fights. By forcing your team onto objectives, you can carry the game really well and snowball your lanes to victory. This ability to make plays makes Skarner very much able to carry games from the jungle. Also, he's still very relevant late game as well.

Pros:

• Very powerful CC with his Crystal Slash slow
• Game changing ultimate that can almost single handedly win you teamfights
• Great mobility around the map with a long-duration speed boost
• Can be built very tanky while still dishing out a decent amount of damage
• Good clear times
• Resilient to counterjungling
• Strong in all phases of the game, especially midgame.
• He's a frickin' bug from outer space!!

Cons:

• Easily kited by enemies with great mobility and a stun/slow
• Doesn't gank pre-6 very well.
• Rather Blue buff reliant before his Philosopher Stone
• Not very strong in teamfights before his Shurelya's Reverie
• No Battlecast skin (YET!)

For those of you who are interested, I recorded a whole game and did some live commentary on it. I know that my voice is a bit awkward most of the time, and I apologize for that because English is not my native language and the quality of the microphone is kind of bad. Nevertheless, I hope you find it insightful. vI might redo it in the future with better equipment and some monologue practice, so the quality will be better.

Also, I'm sorry for all the 'Alright, so'. It's something I need to stop myself from saying in English

Greater Mark of Attack Speed: I take nine of those, just like in the old jungle. It still helps your clear speed tremendously, because of the lowered cooldown on your Crystal Slash. Also, killing the camps fast is important in the new jungle because you want to avoid as much damage as possible.

Greater Seal of Armor: You simply need the armor to survive in the new jungle. Flat armor is the only reliable choice right now.

Greater Glyph of Magic Resist x3

Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist x6: The glyphs is where I differ from many other junglers. I take a little bit of flat magic resist to make sure I don't get destroyed by AP champions at the start of the game. Especially early, when abilities comparatively deal a lot of damage and most of it is usually magic, the flat resist comes in very handy to prevent a gank turning into a kill for the enemy. Also, it helps just a little bit on the wraiths.

However, flat resistances fall off once you reach the midgame. To ensure a steady amount of magic resistance, I take 6 scaling resistance runes to keep up the tankiness.

Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed: I love Movement Speed. I take it on my AP Carries, Junglers and some top laners and supports as well. But on Skarner, it truly shines. Skarner's big weakness is people's movement speed being faster than him which enables them to run out of his Crystal Slash's range. Running Movement Speed runes effectively nulifies this problem. Also, it makes your pre-6 ganks a lot stronger. There is no real substitute for these.

With the Season 3 changes, I spec 2/15/13 as for now. The two points in Butcher in the offensive tree are good to speed up your clear times by just a bit, because all your autoattacks will land on the strong creep in the jungle camps and the rest will naturally die because of your Crystal Slash anyway.

In the defensive tree, I take the reduced minion damage masteries and three points in flat armor, which is invaluable to survive the jungle. Bladed Armor is nice for extra clear speed and Durability and Veteran's Scars are good for some early game tankiness. Furthermore, I skip Relentless but get Tenacious. 15% reduced crowd control is simply huge for 3 points. I do skip Relentless because there are some more useful masteries in the Utility tree down the line.

In the Utility Tree, I get Wanderer and Summoner's Insight because they're the only viable choices for Skarner in tier 1. Then we get two points in Artificer which is actually really good for Skarner because you rely so much on your Shurelya's Reverie, and two more points in Mastermind to reduce Flash cooldown which allows you to make dem big plays. Last but not least we get four points in Greed for extra gold income and Runic Affinity for extra buff duration.

Each basic attack reduces Skarner's ability cooldowns by 0.5 seconds. The effect is doubled when attacking enemy Champions. Attacking turrets will not trigger Energize.

This passive will actually prove its worth more in the new jungle than in the old one. Since the rewards for the jungle camps increased (slightly), you will be farming a bit more during the midgame whenever you can. You will be ganking a bit less, but because you are autoattacking the jungle creeps your ultimate actually charges a bit faster! This means that even though you gank less, you will have stronger individual ganks because your ultimate is almost always up.




Skarner damages all enemies within range. If he hits any enemies, using Crystal Slash again within 5 seconds deals bonus magic damage and slows all enemies hit for 2 seconds.

This is Skarner's bread and butter skill. This alone allows him to clear camps quickly, slow enemies permanently and deal a significant amount of damage as well. The mana cost is reasonably low as well. You will max this first because it is your main damage tool and you will spam it whenever you get the chance.

Always make sure to use this skill before you autoattack a jungle camp. This way, you will already lose half a second of Crystal Slash's cooldown on the first autoattack.



Skarner gains a shield that absorbs a certain amount of damage. The shield dissipates after 6 seconds if not already destroyed. While the shield is active, Skarner gains increased movement speed and attack speed.

This skill was nerfed recently, increasing the cooldown. It didn't affect his ganking at all, but it does mean that you can't use it twice during strong camps such as the small golems. However, the nerf didn't impact your clear speed too much. You will want to use this a small distance before the jungle camp so that you get increased movement speed running towards it and still fully expend the shield for maximum attack speed and survivability. This is something you will have to learn by experience. It costs a lot of mana so try not to spam it too much.



ACTIVE: Skarner damages all enemies in a line and marks them for 6 seconds.
If Skarner damages a marked target (consuming the mark) or Fracture kills an enemy, Skarner heals himself. Each heal after the first heals half of the previous trigger until Fracture is used again.

This skill is still pretty damn useless. The sustain it gives you is marginal, the damage is low and you won't be able to spam it without your blue buff, which you will give to your mid laner most of the time. Early game, you're better off putting an extra point in your Crystal Slash because the creeps will die faster, preventing more damage than this skill would ever heal. Late game it can be nice for tagging assists easily. In teamfights, only use this skill if you can hit at least three enemies with it and they are putting some heavy damage on you. Most of the time though, it's not worth it because using it slows you down.



Skarner suppresses target enemy champion for 1.75 seconds, damaging the target. For the duration, Skarner can move freely and will drag his victim around with him. At the end of the duration, the target takes the same damage again.

This skill is absolutely amazing! It is, in my opinion, the strongest defensive ultimate in the game and has some jaw-dropping offensive uses as well. With impale, you will effectively nulify the teamfight presence of that fed Diana, Jax, Irelia or whatever thing decides to jump on your carry. I can't stress how strong this is as a peeling tool. This is all because it is a suppression skill, which is not affected by tenacity. Without a suppression breaker, you will always grab your foe for the full duration.

Furthermore, if they don't have a strong diving team but rather a defensive line-up, you can win teamfights for your team by flash-grabbing the AD or AP Carry.

When you grab somebody and want to drag them, always make sure you turn around just before the suppression ends. This way, they will drag behind you and will be farther away from their original position. You're required to have good knowledge of the skill duration to perform this.

> > >

This is the skill which you will max first because it's your main damage and CC skill. It is used to clear camps, slow enemies and push lanes. You benefit greatly from upgrading this skill because it both increases the damage and the slow amount. 40% reduced movement speed at rank 5 is very strong in midgame teamfights where it is a perfect anti-kiting skill.

: We max this skill second. Its use in the jungle is very limited because the shield is broken so early in the new jungle, but this is very good for ganking lanes because of the increased movement speed. You need at least two ranks in this at level 6 to be able to get in Impale range. Also, the Attack Speed increase helps you to keep Crystal Slash's slow onto your targets.

Since Fracture is 'meh' at its best, we don't take points in this until the other skills are maxed. The sustain it offers pales in comparison to the faster clear times by maxing Crystal Slash. It also doesn't increase your gank potential either. Quite the contrary, will never use this in ganks because it only slows you down.

Get a rank in Impale every time you can. It reduces the cooldown and damage dealt quite a bit which can make the difference between a kill and a getaway.

There's really only two spells which you will take every time.

The best:

You just take this spell. Especially in the new jungle you need it for survival and clear speed, and it's important to secure objectives as Dragon and Baron.

Flash is still invaluable for Skarner, despite the nerfs to its cooldown. Running flash allows you to clutch grab those high priority targets in teamfights, or get right in the middle of their bruiser line to slow them all down and peel for your carries.

This is also okay:

Although I would not recommend it, Ghost can be useful in certain situations, for instance when you have very fast enemy bruisers for which you need extra movement speed to keep them slowed, or when they have little CC to stop you from running into their team and grabbing the carry. Still, I believe Flash is usually better.

What? Exhaust on Skarner? I almost never run it but it can be useful in two ways: During ganking, it allows you to slow them for that initial amount that is enough to get into Crystal Slash range to keep them permaslowed. Furthermore it is an extra peeling tool to keep your carries alive. I would only recommend taking this if you are determined to fulfill the peeling role because you're not likely to ever get close to their carries without Flash or Ghost.

OR

The choice between these two starting items depends on two different factors:

• Does the enemy have tons of CC and do I build ?
• Will I be counterjungled early?

Machete is generally the safer choice for jungling. It gives you good clear speed and keeps you healthy throughout the jungle. So if you get counterjungled, it's usually the best choice. Also, if they have a weak jungler but a lot of CC (For instance, Amumu) it can also be a good idea to grab Machete. It also allows you to counterjungle a bit better yourself.

is a proper starting build when you don't expect them to invade your jungle and you only want to farm. It allows you to build a quick Philosopher stone and Shurelyas, which will make you scarier early in the game with Shurelyas + Ultimate, but it is riskier than Machete and you will be low health at the end of your jungle clear.

(Strong enemy AP Carry or tons of CC) (Tons of physical damage) (For a strong ganking presence)

Usually I build Mercury Threads. Reduced CC duration means it's much harder for the enemy to prevent you from getting your slow off. Tabi is a good choice against melee heavy teams or strong melee junglers such as Lee Sin. Mobility is something which I rarely build, and I wouldn't recommend it most of the time because you will be ganking even less due to the new jungle. Still, it has some uses.

Boot enchant: Alacrity (+15 movement speed)

You need to be able to get into the face of your enemies. This is simply the best way to achieve that because it also works IN COMBAT, which is amazing for Skarner.

AND OR

You will always buy Shurelyas Reverie because it simply has amazing synergy with your Impale. However, building Aegis of the Legion or Sheen depends a lot on how the game goes. Most often you will build Aegis of the Legion because the tankiness you get allows you to tower dive with Shurelyas which is huge in midgame. Also it benefits your team very well for Dragon fights. Sheen is a good item if you stomp your enemies or need the extra damage to carry your team.



If you started Machete, and the enemy team is CC heavy, then this can be a decent item to build. It gives you extra tankiness and tenacity which is good for Skarner.



Core: Boots of Choice + + +

This is pretty straightforward. You need the boots for extra mobility to stay in range of your victims. The Runic Bulwark gives you tankiness and greatly benefits your team. Also it enables your support to build other aura items since he will already be starved for gold.

The Frozen Fist is a new item in Season 3, and it works wonders with Skarner. In the past, I would get a Wit's End to get more Crystal Slashes off and keep the slow applied. However, every time the Sheen procs you will create a slowing field, which makes the attack speed less relevant for Skarner. The armor is also pretty nice.





This build involves staying near your carry and preventing their melee bruisers from destroying him/her. This is best suited with strong hypercarries such as Vayne or Kog'Maw who need the protection in order to win teamfights. The Zeke's Herald also helps their damage output even more, and the Randuin's Omen is an excellent slow/attack speed decrease to reduce the damage output of strong divers like Irelia and Jax.



If you are ahead and can afford to go by with a little less tankiness, or if your team lacks damage, then building a Gunblade or Wit's End can be a good choice. Also, the Gunblade's active effect allows you to land your Impale on carries more easily because the range is longer than the rest of your abilities.



I would only recommend building Frozen Heart if you really, really need the attack speed reduction against their enemy carry. You already have a lot of armor from Frozen Fist and potentially Randuin's Omen, and Last Whisper nulifies most of your armor anyway. It only works against enemy carries that rely heavily on attack speed such as Vayne and Kog'Maw. Most of the time I would not recommend building this, especially since the mana is kind of wasted on you since you already get some from Frozen Fist and it's enough.



This usually isn't the case, because most AP carries are strong midgame and fall off and your health items deal with their burst just fine, but sometimes it isn't enough. For instance when you are facing Karthus or Vladimir, some extra magic resist can save your life and thus, your team's. Wit's End gives you 20 magic resist which isn't much, but the passive gives you a bit more and it also greatly helps your offensive and CC abilities. It just synergizes incredibly well with Skarner's kit. Mercurial Scimitar is a magic resist item that's very good at making you able to grab the enemy carry. With Shurelyas and Mercurial Scimitar, it's nigh impossible for their AD/AP Carry to avoid your grab, but it does diminish your peeling abilities. is very useful to build instead of Mercurial Scimitar if you want to play more defensive.


So I've listed Frozen Fist as a core item in this build and left Wit's End out. This is because Frozen Fist is generally the way to go on Skarner now. The armor and extra slow are very strong to keep you alive and snare their team. However, there will be instances where you are better off skipping Frozen Fist entirely and get a Wit's End instead. An instance of this would be a highly mobile, fed AP Carry such as Ahri or Kennen. If you are not likely to get your Frozen Fist slow off and you need some extra protection from magic-based attacks, Wit's End is still a very strong choice for jungle Skarner.



This item works okay on Skarner. However, since you rush your Aegis of the Legion you're already able to tank a bunch of tower shots. Also, the mana it gives you is wasted because you already get so much from Iceborn Gauntlet. Hence, I would not build this as there are better options.

The passive effect on this item is actually pretty nice on Skarner. However, I do not build this because of the cost and the stats it provides. The health is nice, but Skarner's AP scaling on Crystal Slash is pretty weak (0.4) so the AP is a bit wasted. Also, if you would get this item it'd be pretty late in the game, when the flat magic penetration falls off against the high amount of magic resist most enemies have.

This item works, but it pretty much forces you to build Frozen Fist and Frozen Heart to make full use of its active effect. Also, it requires you to build a Tear of the Goddess early in the game which massively delays building your Shurelyas Reverie, making your early mid game presence very weak. Therefore, I would maybe only build this item if the lanes didn't need the jungle pressure early on.

This item actually works on Skarner. The Attack Speed is good, and the movement speed is also very useful for ganking lanes. While you chase with your Crystalline Exoskeleton and Shurelyas Reverie, you proc the effect quite a lot. However, it doesn't give defensive stats and the critical strike chance is wasted on Skarner. Wit's End is usually better, but if the enemy has no magic damage and you want better ganking presence in mid game, this item does its job.

So. Many people have been building Trinity Force on Skarner. I used to do it myself as well, just out of habit. The Sheen effect from Trinity Force is pretty nice. However, this item is inferior because it has so many wasted stats on it and it costs an insane amount of gold which you can put to much better use. The Trinity Force has an on-hit phage proc which isn't of any use to Skarner because if you reach melee range you permaslow them with your Crystal Slash anyway. The attack speed from Zeal is nice and so is the movement speed, but the critical strike chance is wasted. Also, the item has health but there are better choices for that. So, although the item works fine on Skarner, I don't recommend building it because there are just so many better options. If you want extra slows and damage get a Wit's End. If you want health get a Runic Bulwark or Randuins Omen.

The only scenario where I'd build this item is if you face a strong, lategame double AP composition, for instance with a Vladimir top lane. With the removal of Force of Nature as a strong anti-AP item for Skarner, you rely more on building health to counter strong AP damage. That's when Warmog's Armor can come in handy in conjunction with other anti-AP items such as Wit's End. Don't build this versus strong AD champions. AD Carries are designed to shred through your hp anyway and Randuin's Omen is a much better choice versus them, also giving health (albeit less) and a great passive and active that shuts down the AD Carry.

I see this item mentioned in several guides as a defensive choice for Skarner. You will just keep slowing them all day because it makes you impossible to reliably kill. That is the exact problem with this item. You don't want the enemy to ignore you and go for high priority targets. Quite the contrary, you want them to blow all their cooldowns on you so your own carries can destroy the enemy team in relative safety. The aura by GA is the clearest invitation to not attack you in this game.

Maybe you could consider this item if you get a balls-to-the-wall, full offensive Wit's End/Hextech Gunblade/Triforce build, but in 99% of the games this item is damaging to your team. Especially since the nerf.

In Season 3, neutral monsters will no longer follow the person who initially attacked it but rather fight the closest target. With this change, it is no longer possible to have your buffs leashed. This means that you'll either take a lot of damage and potentially die, or have your laners help out with the killing of the buff. For this reason, the jungle routes I use are different between the two starting sides. This has to do with the buff being in proximity to your bottom lane. By fighting the buff near the bottom lane first, you have a potential three people - mid lane, AD carry and support - to help you kill the buff. This way, the buff will die faster and it will even allow you a smiteless leash if necessary. Also, because the buff dies faster, your laners will lose fewer XP and farm by helping you out.

Purple Side:

You will start at the Wolves and Blue Buff most of the time. Acquire some help from your midlaner and bot lane on the first two camps. You can smite the Blue golem because you want Smite to be up again for your Red Buff. Do Wolves after Wraiths instead of Small Golems. This is because Skarner's AoE damage is good, but his single target damage isn't, and the Golems will take longer to kill and deal more damage than the wolves do. After wolves you can proceed to Red Buff and gank mid or top lane.

Sometimes you could opt to go to Small Golems instead of Wolves before Red Buff. You can do this when you expect a level 3 gank top (See the Blue Route for more details on this) and you want to countergank. It can also be helpful to do if your top lane is struggling or he wants you to hold lane for him.



Note that in this clear I do Small Golems instead of Wolves. This is because I wanted to be around to potentially gank top if the opportunity arose (which it didn't).

Blue Side:

Make sure you get some help on wraiths and a smiteless pull on Red Buff. It's very important that you keep your Smite available for the Blue Buff. It is important to do Wolves and Blue Buff straight after Red Buff, because you only have a limited amount of mana to clear camps without Blue. By doing this, you will hit level 3 after Blue Buff. This allows you to gank top lane (which is the only lane you can gank well pre-6) or counterjungle the enemy Red Buff (If they have a weak jungler)

You can also start Blue Buff at Blue Side if you only want to farm your jungle and won't gank after the first clear. However, you will take more damage and won't be able to intervene in top lane until much later.

Skarner excels in the mid and late game teamfights. Early game, he is a bit limited by his lack of mobility and tankiness, but that's solved once he gets a few items (Most notably, Shurelya's) to mend these problems.

You will most likely want to focus on farming your own jungle and gank with Impale only. It's simply very hard to gank an enemy without it, so it's usually not worth the time. However, Skarner does excel in counterganking. This requires you to know jungle patterns from the enemy jungler and a bit of experience in what would be his best course of action. If you can manage it, try to be at a lane at the same time as the enemy jungler and countergank them. They will usually use all their gap closers to get close to your laner which makes it very easy for you to get your Crystal Slash slow off. Skarner's AoE damage is nothing to be laughed at early game, and you win most straight up 2v2 engages if your laner can dodge skillshots properly.



This is where you can start carrying your team properly. You should have your Shurelya's Reverie and Aegis of the Legion by now, so this is when you can start to gank enemies and chase them even under their tower. Your ultimate secures kills for your carries and gets them fed, and your Crystal Slash keeps them safe from enemy bruisers.

When attempting to towerdive a lane you need to take into account the following things:

• Are my team members even or winning the lane? Are they healthy and do they have mana to help me take down the enemies?
• Did the enemy expend vital snares/stuns earlier? (i.e. Morgana Q, Lux Q, Taric stun)
• Is my own health high enough? Do I have flash at the ready?

Ideally, you only towerdive bottom lane in midgame when all of these things are applicable. Depending on how much you are ahead, you can go by ignoring one or multiple of these factors and still perform a successful gank.

With the new sightstone, it's very hard to catch the enemy botlane in their lane. Usually there is a ward at Dragon, lane and tribush. If your support can afford it, ask him to get a pink ward into the tribush (river gank) or lane brush (lane gank). In Solo Queue however, this is usually not done.

That doesn't mean you can't gank, but be prepared for them to see you and having to go very deep to even catch the carry. If your team has purple side, you have it a little easier. Approach the enemy botlane through their own jungle (past the back end of the dragon). Most Solo Queue supports don't ward the wraith entrance of their jungle and mid laners usually ward the top sidebrush so you should remain unseen.

Run straight through the tribush; the enemy botlane has spotted you by now. Luckily you have your Crystalline Exoskeleton and Shurelya's Reverie to catch their carry. If you can grab the enemy botlane outside of tower range (unlikely with good awareness from the enemy team) that would be perfect, but usually you have to engage under the tower to Impale their AD Carry. If the enemy botlane has a stun available, try to refrain from using Shurelya's until they have used it. you can net almost guaranteed kills this way. Also, don't hesitate to grab the (squishy) support instead if the carry is completely out of reach.

If your botlane needs time to push the tower or has to wait for cooldowns, you can opt to take the long route around the Small Golems and ward their Red Buff in the meanwhile. Coming up from their golems is the best way to gank because this is blind spot of the tribush ward. However, this method takes up a lot of time and is usually not recommended.

Towerdiving top is a little more difficult, but still very doable. It only works if there is no ward at the baron pit (blue side) or tribush (purple side) so make sure your top laner keeps track of wards if you want to attempt it. Be mindful that you don't present the enemy top laner with a free escape by gap closing towards you (i.e. Lee Sin Q, Irelia Q). As you are tanky, you want to get the initial tower aggro so your top laner can stay under tower for as long as possible and do a lot of damage. If the enemy top laner runs past the tower, follow him there and kill him. If he stays under it, grab him to your side to prevent him from kiting your top laner under the turret.



Mid lane is extremely risky to towerdive in midgame and thus I would almost never recommend it. Mid generally have high burst AP champions with good Crowd Control, who can easily kill you if they manage to hit their CC on you under the tower. Also, you are very prone to counterganks by the enemy jungler due to the proximity of the mid lane to most jungle camps.

Right now you have decided to build a certain path. Maybe you'll try to jump their hypercarry with Shurelyas and Flash to ensure they die early in the fight. Or perhaps you will defend your own carry against that scary Diana that had gotten so fed midgame. It's very hard for a guide to explain teamfighting, and most of it comes from experience, but there are a few general rules for Skarner: If your carry is strong, keep him safe. Keep the bruisers slowed with your Crystal Slash and peel the divers with your ultimate. You are tanky so they will generally not want to focus you. If you can bait them in using important abilities on you, DO SO. If Blitzcrank decides to grab you into their team then that's a godsend because you can now slow them all and grab their carry. Use this to your advantage and exploit mistakes made by the enemy, and you can decide teamfights in your favor.

I hope this guide has helped you to play Skarner, who is still the most fun and rewarding champion in the game in my opinion. Skarner is one of those champions that is easy to learn, but requires a lot of experience to master his teamfighting presence properly. If you learn to play him well you can carry yourself easily in solo queue. If you have any questions or comments about this guide, feel free to post below or contact me ingame under FlyingBroccoli.

Also, pretend you're playing with the Battlecast Skarner skin for 100% extra effectiveness. Come on Riot, you know we want it! At least I do. Does that count? Please?

Have fun and make sure they see you impalin'!