Skill usage Edit

• Skarner excels at chasing down difficult targets with his unique, utility-based kit, while providing sustainability in both damage and health. These skills are best used as a jungler for effective ganks.
•  Energize is a powerful passive effect that allows Skarner to reduce the cooldown of all his abilities simply by auto-attacking enemies.
  • This passive synergizes strongly with attack speed items such as Wit's End. The faster Skarner can attack, the faster his abilities will become available again.
  • Don't be afraid to clear jungle camps at a slower pace by foregoing the use of  Crystal Slash for  Crystalline Exoskeleton in order to make use of  Energize to reduce the cooldown of Skarner's  Impale, his ultimate ability.
• Skarner's  Crystal Slash is his most useful ability. It provides a constant source of hybrid damage and strong slow, all in a powerful area of effect delivery around him.
  • In order for  Crystal Slash to apply its bonus magic damage and slow effect, it must first be 'charged' by striking an enemy unit, then used again within five seconds.
    • When ganking, charge  Crystal Slash off an enemy minion while on your way to enemy targets to have the slow available immediately.
  •  Crystal Slash is Skarner's bread and butter when jungling. Simply cast it whenever available to quickly clear minion camps between objectives and ganks.
  • The purchase of a Sheen is a powerful item thanks to the ability to repeatedly proc its active effect with  Crystal Slash.
•  Crystalline Exoskeleton provides Skarner with a shield, allowing him to soak up more damage in all situations, and giving him increased mobility and melee DPS while it holds.
  • Activate  Crystalline Exoskeleton when ganking to quickly close the gap towards your targets.
    • Be cautious not to cast it too early - if the effect runs out before you reach your target, they may be easily able to escape.
  • Using  Crystalline Exoskeleton during fights in melee range will give Skarner a noticeable advantage over his enemy should they be fighting back.
  •  Crystalline Exoskeleton has great synergy with  Energize. By auto-attacking faster, Skarner can reduce his cooldowns even quicker than without.
  • Keep in mind that Skarner's movement and attack speed bonuses will only persist for as long as the shield remains. If the shield is broken before the duration ends, the bonuses will still be lost.
    • For these reasons, use the additional mobility the shield provides to avoid skill shots or spells that may break the shield.
•  Fracture is Skarner's only true ranged ability, striking with an area of effect, and applying a debuff against targets hit that will heal Skarner after receiving more damage from him.
  • The healing debuff can be activated through any damage means that come from Skarner. This includes passive item effects ( Sunfire Cape), active item effects ( Deathfire Grasp) abilities ( Crystal Slash), and simple auto-attacks.
  • Casting  Fracture into a quick strike of  Crystal Slash is a popular and effective means to give Skarner a quick burst of health and sustain during a fight.
  •  Fracture will heal if the spell itself kills the target. It will not, however, heal you if a target marked by a  Fracture debuff is killed before it is activated.
• Skarner's  Impale is his trademark ability, suppressing an enemy target while allowing Skarner to freely move them around.
  •  Impale has unmatched utility when ganking, engaging, disengaging, or saving targets.
    • Using  Impale during a gank will allow you to pull your victim further away from their turret, giving your friendly laner more time to engage them, and yourself more space to slow and damage them over.
    • Casting Flash or using Shurelya's Reverie into an  Impale is a powerful way to grab key enemy targets and pull them into your team for a quick kill during team fights.
    • When falling back, grabbing strong enemy initiators such as Amumu or Galio early and pulling them further away from your team will put them out of position and make their strong ultimates ineffective, saving them from a hard engagement.
    • Skarner can easily pull away dangerous targets from a friendly carry using  Impale, then slowing them with  Crystal Slash.
  • During  Impale, you will be unable to cast  Fracture or Flash.  Crystal Slash,  Crystalline Exoskeleton, and other Summoner Spells will still remain available.
    • Remember to cast  Crystal Slash before and after using  Impale to apply a slow effect immediately upon it ending, ensuring your victim cannot quickly or easily escape afterwards.
    • Using  Crystalline Exoskeleton will allow you to pull your victim further back than otherwise.
    •  Impale drags the opponent directly behind Skarner. You can turn around just before its duration ends to flip the enemy to the other side of his character model, getting that little bit more distance before the enemy is released.
  •  Impale is uniquely powerful compared to other suppression spells such as Warwick's  Infinite Duress and Malzahar's  Nether Grasp, in that it cannot be canceled by outside sources such as stuns and silences, as it has no channel time.
    • It can still, however, be broken by the purchase and use of a Quicksilver Sash by the victim.
• Be wary not to spam all of your spells as soon as available, or you will risk putting yourself out of mana quickly and before you need it most.
  • Save the casts of  Crystal Slash for when the slow effect ends against a target to reapply it efficiently. When clearing minions, cast it once every five seconds to maintain its bonus magic damage.
  • Avoid using  Crystalline Exoskeleton when not receiving damage. Activating it when an enemy turns to fight you will give you an immediate advantage in damage and tankiness.

Build usage Edit

• Getting an item that grants attack speed will help his  Energize passive reduce cooldowns faster.
  • Skarner's short cooldowns and great scaling with attack speed, attack damage, and ability power make him a perfect candidate for taking advantage of the cost effectiveness of Guinsoo's Rageblade.
  • Any of the on-hit effect items like Malady or Wit's End are good choices for attack speed items for Skarner.
• A Trinity Force is an exceptionally strong item for Skarner, Sheen gives his ablities more damage and gives him more mana, Zeal increases his already strong chasing power by giving movement speed and the attack speed works well with his passive, Phage gives more chasing power, damage and provides some extra health.
  • The Sheen effect can be procced almost every single time due to his  Energize passive reducing the cooldowns of his skills and the ability to spam  Crystal Slash.
  • Skarner has the highest attack damage at level 18 and a short cooldown on his  Crystal Slash and cooldown reduction with his  Energize passive, making him probably the best champion to make use of Trinity Force's passive.
• Although innately a hybrid champion, Skarner has more abilites that scale with ability power and pretty high ability power ratios when compared to attack damage ratios. Items that grant ability power might be more useful. Also there are more ability power items that give him what he needs and synergize with Skarner's unique kit than attack damage items.
  • Building Nashor's Tooth on Skarner gives him many useful stats. Its combination of large cooldown reduction and attack speed bonuses to proc his  Energize passive gives him incredible ability to spam his skills. The ability power is useful due to his decent AP ratios.
  • Consider buying an early Chalice of Harmony if you find Skarner's mana regeneration to be problematic. Because of its unique combination of stats, Athene's Unholy Grail is a not a bad but situational and late game item choice for him. Skarner has decent ability power ratios, can benefit from magic resistance, and cooldown reduction with his  Energize passive can help keep his abilities constantly available.
  • Lich Bane may be a better item than Trinity Force in builds with high amounts of ability power.
  • Liandry's Torment not only gives useful stats, but its passive will heal skarner immediately when using  fracture, and it synergizes with his low cooldown aoe spells.
• The Hextech Gunblade is a good item as it gives a lot of survivablility that Skarner needs in spell vamp and life steal and more attack damage and ability power for his abilities.
• Getting a Manamune will help with mana problems, but does not grant much late game utility.
  • However, consider getting Tear or this if you plan on spending a lot of time activating abilities (constantly jungling past lvl ~9). Combining Muramana with attack speed items tends to increase his overall damage more so than buying straight attack damage items (for example, infinity edge).
• Getting a Philosopher's Stone early will help to sustain mana and health.
  • It can be built into Shurelya's Reverie which helps with initiating fights, catching enemies, or escaping.
  • Building  Eleisa's Miracle will allow you to keep the regeneration while not taking a item slot after leveling your character 3 times. 
  • Alternatively, building  Spirit Stone later into  Spirit of the Ancient Golem provides a good amount of health, health regeneration and allows you to purchase Boots of Swiftness without having to abandon Tenacity.
• As Skarner needs to be very close to his target to do damage, any build should look upon survivability items with either health, armor or magic resistance. Guardian Angel and Aegis of the Legion are good cheap choices.
  • If one is looking for magic resistance and ability power for Skarner, Abyssal Scepter is a good pick.
  • A Sunfire Cape can be bought to inflict extra damage with  Impale, as well as trigger the heal from  Fracture.
• Randuin's Omen is a strong item if the enemy is kiting you, as it slows their movement speed if they attack you.
  • Randuin's Omen doesn't grant Skarner anything offensively while Hextech Gunblade and Bilgewater Cutlass also have great slowing effects that are actives.

Jungling Edit

• Starting items:   Hunter's Machete, 5x Health Potion OR  Cloth Armor, 5x Health Potion
• Skill progression:  Crystal Slash >  Crystalline Exoskeleton >  Crystal Slash >  Crystalline Exoskeleton >  Crystal Slash >  Impale
• Jungling order: Wolves → Blue Golem (Smite) → Wraiths → Golems → Red Lizard (Smite) → Wraiths (lv 4) → Gank

Recommended builds Edit

Summoner's Rift recommended items
Starting		5
Essential
Offensive
Defensive
Consumables

The Proving Grounds recommended items
Starting			5
Essential
Offensive
Defensive
Consumables

The Crystal Scar recommended items
Starting		2	2
Essential
Offensive
Defensive
Consumables

The Twisted Treeline recommended items
Starting
Essential
Offensive
Defensive
Consumables

Countering Edit

• Skarner's ability cooldowns are very short because of his  Energize. Take care when engaging him when you think his spells are on cooldown.
  • This also makes immobilizing effects much more devastating as it ruins his CD reduction.
• Skarner's  Crystalline Exoskeleton movement speed boost will persist only if the shield is unbroken, destroying his shield will make the movement speed boost disappear.
• Buy a Quicksilver Sash to end the suppression from Skarner's  Impale. Champions such as Alistar, Olaf, and Gangplank also counter his ultimate.
• Be careful when turret diving a low health Skarner. He can use his  Impale and drag you around the turret.
• Some champions with a knockback ability (e.g. Singed's  Fling or Alistar's  Headbutt) can help an ally that is dragged by Skarner's  Impale. Use this to make sure Skarner doesn't drag them too far.

Champion spotlight Edit