Abilities: (Innate): Using autoattacks against champions lowers the cooldowns of Skarner's abilities by 1 second and by 0.5 seconds when used against a non-champion target.
(Active): Skarner lashes out dealing physical damage to all enemies in a small area around him. He charges himself with Crystal Energy for 5 seconds if a unit is struck.
If he casts Crystal Slash again while empowered by Crystal Energy, the ability deals bonus magic damage and slows all targets hit for 2 seconds.
(Active): Skarner summons a blast of crystalline energy in a line which deals magic damage to enemies struck and marks them for 6 seconds. Any further damage dealt to marked targets by Skarner will consume the mark to heal himself. Subsequent marks consumed will heal for 50% of the last.
(Active): Skarner suppresses an enemy champion for 1.75 seconds and deals magic damage to it. During this time, Skarner can move freely and will drag his victim around with him. When the effect ends, Skarner's target will be dealt the same amount of magic damage again.
Quints: 3 * Movement Speed/Attack Speed/Armor Penetration
Marks: 9 * Attack Speed/Armor Penetration
Seals: 9 * Flat Armor
Glyphs: 9 * Attack Speed/Magic Resistance
Skill Order: QWQWQR, R > Q > W > E
Item Build:
Start with Boots and 3 Health Potions for early ganking, or Regrowth for sustain. Philosopher's Stone is Skarner's go to sustain tool. Kindlegem is a good follow up to Philosopher's Stone for a Shurelya's rush. Wriggle's isn't that great of an alternative unless you're abusively counter-jungling someone.
Shurelya's Reverie is widely considered to be Skarner's core item. Other good items include Wit's End, Trinity Force, Frozen Heart, Randuin's Omen, and Banshee's Veil.
Playstyle:
Skarner is a jungler/tanky DPS. As a jungler Skarner's early ganks are decent but not fantastic, though the slow from his Q will nearly guarantee kills on overextended opponents. Once he has his ultimate his ganks become godlike. He can farm the jungle very rapidly with relative ease, hold his own against duelists, and take dragon/buff camps very quickly even with just one damage item.
Skarner can act as an initiator throughout the game, but this becomes more difficult and dangerous as the game progresses. In a team fight his role is to either hang around your carries and wreck any assassins/melee going after them, or to pull a priority target into your team's kill zone.
Essential Skills:
Ganking:
Ganking in the new jungle is costly, and it's no longer enough to just blow the enemy summoner spells and rest well in the knowledge that life will be easier for that lane. Your goal should be either to get a kill every gank, or set up a follow up gank that will undoubtedly get a kill.
Thankfully Skarner has ridiculously powerful ganks after level-6 due to Crystal Prison. Remember that Crystal Prison can be used to negate enemy escape moves. With good reflexes/luck/prediction you can negate a number of gap creation moves (such as Tristana's jump). Simple movement speed increases (like Ghost) are extremely easy to deal with.
Animation Canceling:
Know and understand this concept as it applies to LoL. This skill is the difference between Skarner's Q being a deadly permanent slow that your enemies can't escape from, and Skarner constantly trailing behind his enemies unable to spam Q because they're always barely in range.
Crystal Prison:
Use this ability carefully. You can initiate teamfights by flashing onto opponents and dragging them to your team, but you put yourself in great danger by doing so. More often than not it's better to wait for a team fight to start and then use this to disable/draw away a critical opponent.
Remember to reverse direction immediately before the effect ends. This will cause your target to flip to the other side of you, adding a little extra distance and placing you in an advantageous position. If Q is primed for slowing, save hitting it for just before the ability ends as well.
Also, be extremely mindful of displacement abilities. A good ult can turn bad if the enemy moves you in the wrong direction.
Team Composition Awareness:
Skarner does not need blue buff but can use it to great effect. This makes him a good complement to champions who do not need blue buff at all, such as Kennen or Vladimir.
While Skarner can initiate, it isn't reliable once the late-game arrives. Make sure your team has another method of initiation, such as Ashe arrow.
Beware champions with built-in spell shields or cleanses, such as Sivir, Olaf, and Gangplank. They can easily invalidate your ultimate if you aren't careful, dramatically decreasing your usefulness.
9/10/2012: Minor revisions, added links to guides by Scip and Skarnold Trump. 2/2/2012: Sejuani Patch changes added. 10/19/2011: Graves Patch changes added. 9/20/2011: Initial Version
For jungle I recommend not taking any points in E and situationally maxing W first. Makes your ganks much stronger and your postwriggle jungle far far better. I personally don't like Gunblade on Skarner. Guinsoo's Rageblade is 1k gold cheaper and gives you attackspeed instead of vamp which I find generally more helpful. Matter of preference, both are good. Recommended tanky items on Skarner (in no particular order): Wit's End, Guardian Angel, Randuin's Omen, Frozen Brain, Spirit Visage
My runes and masteries are dedicated to GOING FAST. 1/14/15, 1/12/17, or 0/9/21, obviously moving points around for summoner spells etc. Attackspeed reds, Dodge yellows, Flat CDR blues, Movespeed quints The quints can be swapped for attackspeed, cdr, dodge, or whatever you fancy, but I like to vroom vroom all over the map.
oh and just for the record the telecleanse glitch has been fixed. Sad.
On September 20 2011 19:22 clickrush wrote: I like your build. But skarner is either very hard to play or very bad. What is your opinion on this matter?
I don't think he's very bad. He's not stellar Nocturne/Lee Sin level, but his ganks are no joke either before or after level 6.
I also don't think he's very hard to play (not easy perhaps), but he is very hard to build. He doesn't fit common itemization paradigms so most players have no idea what to do with him.
On September 20 2011 21:57 Tooplark wrote: For jungle I recommend not taking any points in E and situationally maxing W first. Makes your ganks much stronger and your postwriggle jungle far far better. I personally don't like Gunblade on Skarner. Guinsoo's Rageblade is 1k gold cheaper and gives you attackspeed instead of vamp which I find generally more helpful. Matter of preference, both are good. Recommended tanky items on Skarner (in no particular order): Wit's End, Guardian Angel, Randuin's Omen, Frozen Brain, Spirit Visage
My runes and masteries are dedicated to GOING FAST. 1/14/15, 1/12/17, or 0/9/21, obviously moving points around for summoner spells etc. Attackspeed reds, Dodge yellows, Flat CDR blues, Movespeed quints The quints can be swapped for attackspeed, cdr, dodge, or whatever you fancy, but I like to vroom vroom all over the map.
oh and just for the record the telecleanse glitch has been fixed. Sad.
I don't know if I'd max W first, but there's definitely a case to be made for getting at least a second point early on. I take a point in E at level 2 because I've found it to be more helpful at that point than W, but both work.
I like Gunblade because it adds survivability and comes with a very useful active as Skarner doesn't have a gap closer. It works well with the "I have a lot more effective health than you might think" style of play.
I don't like most CDR items on Skarner because I think he has a strong case for hogging blue buff, which basically means you don't need CDR items. If you do really need to build CDR (because your team is stealing your blue buff, the bastards) then Frozen Heart is a good choice.
Random tangent: Skarner can clear the entire wolves camp before blue spawns (barely). You can clock in under 3:30 for a full clear this way without a leash. With a leash I imagine it would not only be faster, but with a strong enough leash you might even have enough health to gank the nearby lanes.
The biggest problem with Skarner's ganks is that he needs to get next to them and STAY next to them long enough to land 2 Qs before he can slow them (sometimes you can get the first one on the creeps but the point still stands). As such, CC from your laner makes ganking much much easier. Your ganks are devastating if you can get and stay close.
On September 21 2011 00:08 Tooplark wrote: The biggest problem with Skarner's ganks is that he needs to get next to them and STAY next to them long enough to land 2 Qs before he can slow them (sometimes you can get the first one on the creeps but the point still stands). As such, CC from your laner makes ganking much much easier. Your ganks are devastating if you can get and stay close.
it's always possible to charge up the first Q in the bush before you start the gank. that way when you get in range the Q will slow them right off the bat.
also, in case anybody is thinking of trying, they fixed the tele glitch last night. When you cleanse, it cleanses the entire ulti now lol
On September 21 2011 00:08 Tooplark wrote: The biggest problem with Skarner's ganks is that he needs to get next to them and STAY next to them long enough to land 2 Qs before he can slow them (sometimes you can get the first one on the creeps but the point still stands). As such, CC from your laner makes ganking much much easier. Your ganks are devastating if you can get and stay close.
it's always possible to charge up the first Q in the bush before you start the gank. that way when you get in range the Q will slow them right off the bat.
also, in case anybody is thinking of trying, they fixed the tele glitch last night. When you cleanse, it cleanses the entire ulti now lol
I would like to ask whats wrong with scarner that nobody plays him. Even when he was free i didnt saw him. I might buy with my next 6300ip but i need to know if there is anything bad on him that nobody wants to play him
On September 21 2011 16:53 Hexagecz wrote: I would like to ask whats wrong with scarner that nobody plays him. Even when he was free i didnt saw him. I might buy with my next 6300ip but i need to know if there is anything bad on him that nobody wants to play him
He is just not viable for any serious play. He is hella fun but just as equally useless, way to gimmicky. Save your IP for something better.
On September 21 2011 16:53 Hexagecz wrote: I would like to ask whats wrong with scarner that nobody plays him. Even when he was free i didnt saw him. I might buy with my next 6300ip but i need to know if there is anything bad on him that nobody wants to play him
He is just not viable for any serious play. He is hella fun but just as equally useless, way to gimmicky. Save your IP for something better.
Watched Shushei dominate some team in the Go4lol yesterday with Skarner, and has re-awoken my thoughts about it. He seems pretty gimmicky and not as strong as a pick as other champs, but...
He doesn't comfortably fit any preexisting role. He does a lot of useful things though, especially in small fights or spread out ones. He has huge mobility, pushes fast, farms well, scales well, peels decently, can pick off people who are out of position, has a decent jungle and a mediocre lane. The buffs actually really helped him, at least the Q damage, because now he actually hurts before he finishes Sheen.
also: sheen, triforce totally overrated on Skarner Rageblade is pretty much #1 item. Sextech Funblade not my cup of tea. Use flat CDR blues and 0/12/18 (nimbleness/SoS) for 10% CDR. Blue buff = nearly maxed, bluebuff & bluepot = maxed, and if you can't hold blue buff it's pretty easy to get 30% cdr for cheap (SV Glacial nice defensive combo for 3k gold). Problem with rushing Rageblade is no mana pool, so you run OOM all the time.
On September 21 2011 22:10 rigwarl wrote: No jungler should ever be hogging blue, your AP solo lane is not only probably a better candidate, but they will be higher level.
Olaf, Skarner, and a few other junglers make a strong case for having blue simply because they suddenly do so much more damage with it. A lot of casters don't even really need blue. Also, solo lane Skarner should definitely get blue buff over something like Annie, Morgana, etc.
On September 21 2011 22:10 rigwarl wrote: No jungler should ever be hogging blue, your AP solo lane is not only probably a better candidate, but they will be higher level.
that statement is so bold. what if your ap is energy based or really doesnt need blue as much for other reasons?
On September 21 2011 22:10 rigwarl wrote: No jungler should ever be hogging blue, your AP solo lane is not only probably a better candidate, but they will be higher level.
that statement is so bold. what if your ap is energy based or really doesnt need blue as much for other reasons?
On the game I was referencing earlier, fnatic ran skarner top, lee sin in the jungle and akali in mid, so theres that I guess.
On September 21 2011 22:09 Tooplark wrote: He doesn't comfortably fit any preexisting role. He does a lot of useful things though, especially in small fights or spread out ones. He has huge mobility, pushes fast, farms well, scales well, peels decently, can pick off people who are out of position, has a decent jungle and a mediocre lane. The buffs actually really helped him, at least the Q damage, because now he actually hurts before he finishes Sheen.
also: sheen, triforce totally overrated on Skarner Rageblade is pretty much #1 item. Sextech Funblade not my cup of tea. Use flat CDR blues and 0/12/18 (nimbleness/SoS) for 10% CDR. Blue buff = nearly maxed, bluebuff & bluepot = maxed, and if you can't hold blue buff it's pretty easy to get 30% cdr for cheap (SV Glacial nice defensive combo for 3k gold). Problem with rushing Rageblade is no mana pool, so you run OOM all the time.
Rushing Trinity Force is overrated, but a quick Sheen (after Wriggle's) is a pretty good investment. It helps deal with those early game mana issues and the damage is significant. Combined with Wriggle's you can annihilate any jungle camp, including buff camps, in a matter of seconds. I abuse that power and stake out the opposing jungler's buff camps, especially blue. If you're good at tracking kill/respawn times it can get pretty ridiculous.
You don't need both CDR glyphs and 18 in utility. Either + Blue + Elixir is 40% CDR.
I should play around with Rageblade next time I play him, but Wriggle's+Sheen+"Your Jungle is Mine" is too fun.
On September 21 2011 23:58 rigwarl wrote: I didn't say anything about Skarner not being good with blue, I just said the jungler because he will be lower level.
Lower level doesn't really matter unless you're really, really far behind. What matters is what each champion brings to the team with blue buff (which is affected, but not wholly dictated, by levels). In Skarner's case his damage, jungling speed, counter-jungling, ganking potential and buff/dragon control increase significantly.
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