Hello There Summoner, I'm MiniBlue, also known as - MiniBlue4444 #EUW - on summoner's rift, I made a guide for this champion long time ago, and since the new season is coming, it's time to make a new guide after playing the preseason and proving the new items, runes and other things are the best for Shurima's giant crystal scorpion
Quick summary of both of his keys runes, spells and items that we will buy him.
Quick Skarner Tank Jungle Build
Summoner Spells
Starting Items
Best Overall Build
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Introduction to the guide
A T T E N T I O N:
The following guide that you will see below is made by a person who does NOT play ranked and who doesn't play the game 24 hours everygame (I'm a Casual Enjoyer), and it is possible that it does not explain some things well (sometimes I am bad at explaining things, sorry, at least I do my best :( ).
- Guide created by the summoner MiniBlue4444 #EUW -
Why this champion and not another?
When I started playing this game, they advised me to look at the other lanes and champions, since I couldn't always play the same lane and the same champion, so looking to see what else the game offered, I discovered
Skarner
(Also because they told me that there is a scorpion in the game, and I love scorpions xD) so look at what it was like, his abilities, etc; and I found it very interesting, especially his definitive called
Impale
, since it seems to me a very useful ultimate and no champion has a similar ability.
It took me a long time to understand the character and the jungle (There are hardly any guides for
Skarner
, since hardly anyone plays with it) and once I found the knowledge on my own and with the little I found on social networks, I already knew how to play and be a decent "main" with it.
About the season 12 guide...
As I said at the beginning, I made a guide of
Skarner
in the previous season (both in Spanish and English), which had some popularity, especially the English version, which appeared in recommended.
Number of views of the Spanish version (Actually).
Number of views of the English version (Actually), that one appeared on the main web page as soon as it had 112 views.
Okey, enough entretainment and unnecessary information, you are only here for the guide, so go down a little more and the show will begin.
Pros and Cons of the champion
Pros:
+ Good jungle cleaning
+ Hybrid damage (Physical and magical at the same time)
+ Constant area damage (AOE)
+ One of the best ultimates to hunt the most dangerous enemy
+ His passive gives you a lot of advantage in fights (even going badly in the game)
+ His passive are like "wards", both ally and enemy activation (more on that later)
+ High versatility of Runes and Builds for any situation (Both aggressive and defensive)
+ CC machine with 2 skills (more than 3 seconds if you do it right)
+ Fearsome champion if you earn a lot of gold in Early game
+ He barely has cooldowns on his abilities (CD)
+ You can always be useful thanks to your ult, called
Impale
Cons:
- Without his passive he loses a lot of potential
- It can be easy to invade your jungle
- If it has a bad Early Game, it can be difficult to make a comeback
- It does NOT have any jumps
- Many champions counter it, especially Early champions (Examples:
Olaf
,
Vi
...)
- If you hook up with
Impale
the wrong enemy, you can screw it up, and a lot
- There is an object that makes a very hard Counter (
Quicksilver Sash
)
- Horrible damage scaling being Fighter (Bruiser)
- Depends a bit on the allied team to win
Beside that, he is a champion that if you know how to move and how to attack, you can be very useful with your skills and completely destroy a teamfight thanks to your kit.
Passive and abilities
Passive
Q
W
E
R
As soon as the game starts, 6 giant crystals will appear in the summoner's rift; 1 on each red area, blue area and the river, this passive works as a terrain capture, not only
Skarner
can activate those crystals, both allies and enemys can activate it.
The player (or several) must be placed on top of the crystal to activate it, once activated, that player (or several) who have activated that crystal will obtain 15 gold.
If an ally (or
Skarner
activates the crystal), it will rise, granting vision for 1 second, while the crystal is activated,
Skarner
will gain attack/movement speed and mana regeneration in that zone. In addition, if in you team has
Skarner
when you activate his passive, it will cast a glow that can reveal enemy champions and
Control Ward
enemies (Invisible Units cannot be reveal) for 1 second. If an enemy stands on top of a floating crystal, it will knock it to the ground, negating his passive.
It should be noted that if once a crystal is activated, it will have an invincibility time, where the opposing team will not be able to capture that crystal during that time.
Ubication of
Crystal Spires
.
Example of how works
Crystal Spires
.
Passive:
Skarner
's basics attacks reduce the cooldown of
Crystal Slash
at 0.25 seconds, the effect is quadrupled (1 second) against enemy champions.
Active:
Skarner
slams Wildly (Yes, this is said in the description of the champion in game) dealing physical damage plus a percentage of maximum health of nearby enemies; upon hitting at least 1 enemy unit, this ability is empowered, causing the nexts
Crystal Slash
deal hybrid damage plus a percentage of nearby enemies' max health.
If you don't use empowered
Crystal Slash
over a period of time, it returns to dealing physical damage only.
It should be noted that you will use this ability a lot, since it is an ability with hardly any cooldown.
Skarner
generates a shield based on his maximum health plus a percentage of magic damage for 6 seconds, while that shield is casted,
Skarner
gains bonus movement speed.
While
Crystalline Exoskeleton
is activated, the cooldown of this ability will be running, that means you do not have to wait for your shield to run out before the cooldown of the ability begins.
Passive: Exploding the marks of
Fracture
or using
Impale
, will reduce the cooldown of
Fracture
.
Active:
Skarner
throws a crystal needle, dealing magic damage to anything passed through by this ability, as well as slowingeach enemy unit hit by this ability for 2.5 seconds. If you hit someone with
Fracture
, it will be marked for 5 seconds, if
Skarner
hits the marked enemy with a basic attack, it will explode the mark, dealing bonus magic damage and stunning the enemy for 1.25 seconds.
By exploiting the mark of
Fracture
, we will obtain the bonus of
Crystal Spires
for a few seconds (This bonus is only obtained if we are out of the passive)
(I will always remember that before
Fracture
when it hit an enemy unit, it was slowing down the needle of
Fracture
, to the point that you couldn't even hit an enemy champion if you threw it across and hitting the minions, because of how slow it was, and thank god that doesn't happen anymore)
Skarner
impales an enemy champion, applying suppression for 1.25 seconds, while this ability lasts, it will deal hybrid damage to the trapped champion with
Impale
.
While
Impale
It's applying suppression to the enemy champion, it can move freely dragging the victim.
Summoner Spells
Spells
You must pick
Smite
, because you will be the jungle, and it will accompany with
Flash
to have both escape and start combat. You can also change it to
Ghost
if you want.
Runas
In this section of the guide, the runes with which we will play with the champion will be shown, it should be noted that here the rune combinations which is the one which best suits will appear, it does not mean that you must play with those rune sets, They can be adapted to you play style.
Standard Rune (Phase Rush)
Standard
Aggressive
Endurance
Control
Generally, we will always opt
Phase Rush
, since it is one of the best runes for
Skarner
, because it gives us the ability to move with a good speed when starting a fight, while we will combine them with more movement speed, remember
Skarner
It's like a car with legs (it does NOT have any jumps), we must arrive as quickly as possible when they least expect it in combat.
The secondary runes are varied a lot as the patches arrives, now it's combined with the runes page of
Inspiration
, to have greater access to what we require the most, which in this case, will be
Magical Footwear
, to have free boots at minute 12 (If we kill and/or assist, they will be less waiting time), when that minute arrives, they will appear in the inventory
Slightly Magical Footwear
, and will be combined with
Cosmic Insight
, to have less cooldown on the summoner spells and items that we have in the inventory.
Even with that rune set, I will leave the variables of the secondary runes that I recommend.
Finally, the 3 spheres we will put one in
Attack Speed
, the second in
Adaptive Force
, and the last one depending on what they have on the enemy team; If there is a lot of physical damage (AD), we will choose
Armor
, but if there is a lot of magic damage (AP), we will choose
Magic Resist
.
(We can also select 2 of the same type of resistance if we see it necessary)
Predator Rune
Standard
Control
Aggressive
Endurance
If the previous combination of runes is not interesting, we can choose the rune of
Predator
, with this rune we can have a lot of presence in the ganks with the first purchase, since the first purchase will be
Boots
, and thus we can use the rune and have a great speed of movement.
The runes that we will accompany
Predator
they will be hunter, the best option in the first rune is the rune
Cheap Shot
, since once we stun the enemy with the mark of
Fracture
and/or
Impale
we will activate the rune, and any type of our own damage will inflict extra damage.
We will select the second rune depending on what we require:
+ the rune of
Eyeball Collection
we will use it if we want to have a little extra damage if we kill or assist in deaths of enemy champions (Maximum of 10 kills)
+ we will opt for
Zombie Ward
if we will use
Oracle Lens
if we want to invade and gank a lot and know if there is
Stealth Ward
placed by our enemies, since once we break an enemy ward, a ward of our own will appear to grant us vision
+ In case of playing safely, we will choose the rune
Ghost Poro
, this rune will activate when your
Stealth Ward
breaks naturally, a phantom Poro will appear, this Poro will grant vision and will disappear after a while or when an enemy approaches its range, and if this Poro reveals an enemy, it will grant us additional adaptive damage (This rune will not be activate if an enemy breaks a ward that has not expired its time), and this poro can reveal invisible champions like
Evelynn
.
And for finish the rune, we will select based on what suits us best, in this case I recommend the rune of
Ultimate Hunter
this rune will reduce the cooldown of the ultimate for each kill and/or assist a single champion*, in this case
Impale
.
*Unique champion, we will refer to the fact that we have killed and/or assisted each enemy 1 time (Top/Jungle/Mid/ADC/Support, it is useless for us to kill, for example, 2 times at the Top and 3 times the Mid for example, must be 1 of each enemy.)
Of secondary runes we will put the rune of
Sorcery
, and we will select all movement speed, to have a better speed with
Predator
and perform ganks at even higher speed.
I will also leave the variables of the secondary runes that I recommend, and we will do the same with the 3 spheres.
Conqueror Rune
Standard
Tenacity
Hunter
Aggressive
This combination of runes is more focused on looking for fights, and since it hardly
Skarner
has cooldown on its abilities, it is a rune that accumulates the charges of
Conqueror
at high speed, and get extra damage as quickly as possible; These types of runes would be recommended a full AD Caster
Skarner
to further enhance the characteristics that it gives us
Conqueror
(Objects will be discussed later)
The first rune will be
Triumph
, since if we kill and/or assist, we will obtain a small healing and grant additional 20 gold
In the second rune we will choose
Legend: Alacrity
or
Legend: Tenacity
depending on the enemy CC.
The third rune we will choose between
Coup de Grace
or
Last Stand
this is already to which is you play style.
We will accompany this rune with movement/attack speed or sustain, since fights will be all the time and generate a high amount of prolonged damage
I will also leave the variables of the secondary runes that I recommend, and we will do the same with the 3 spheres.
Aftershock Rune
Standard
Speedy
Control
Scaling
This rune combination is rarely seen, because are better options for
Skarner
, but you can still take advantage of this combination as the rune of
Aftershock
it will activate with the mark of
Fracture
and with
Impale
to gain resistances until the rune explodes dealing additional damage.
We'll accompany this rune with resistances and/or shield improvement, or if that is the case, we will opt for extra movement speed.
I will also leave the variables of the secondary runes that I recommend, and we will do the same with the 3 spheres.
Skill Path
Skill Path
Skarner
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In the game we must maximize first
Crystal Slash
, since it is our main ability and that we will be using all the time, both cleaning camps and fighting in a fight. Once we reach level 10, we will start to maximize
Crystalline Exoskeleton
to have sustain in the fights, or we will maximize before
Fracture
If we want to be more aggressive.
We will put the levels on
Impale
at the respective levels: 6, 11, and 16
Build for Skarner
Next, I will show what objects we will buy with the champion, both his key equipment and other objects that we can vary in our Build. Obviously the order of the objects that we will buy can vary depending on what happens in the game, this must be taken into account, since there will be times when we cannot follow the same pattern of objects. Also you can change the order of the objects and which items for the Build to your style of play.
What to keep in mind that what we need with
Skarner
It will be these characteristics:
- Important:
+ Movement Speed
+ Armor / Magic Resist
- Additional features
+ HP / Mana
+ Ability Haste (CD)
- Optional
+ Attack Damage (AD)
+ On-Hit
As you can see here, we will opt for items that give us tanky stats, since it is the build that will give the best results, we can also opt for items that give us attack damage (AD) if what we want is to look for duel fights. But before...
Which Companion will we use?
After the changes in the jungle, the "Jungle Knives" have disappeared, and now we have Poké-... I mean, Jungle Companions, each one has certain atributes while we are in the jungle and when we fight, and we will choustwalkerose the one indicated for the game, each one has a different style of play.
Mosstomper
Scorchclaw
Gustwalker
Mosstomper grants a shield after killing a monster camp or if you are out of combat. This shield will remain indefinitely. You also gain tenacity and slow resistance while the shield is active and for 3 seconds after it breaks.
Scorchclaw will acumulate stacks over time or defeat giant monsters. At maximum stacks, the next time you deal damage to an enemy champion, it will slow all nearby enemies (decaying over 2 seconds) and deal burning damage equal to a percentage of the target's max health as true damage to the primary target for 4 sec.
Gustwalker grants bonus movement speed when entering bush, decaying over 2 seconds after exiting thebush. This increases movement speed even more for 2 seconds after defeating a giant monster.
Generally, we will choose in most of the games
Gustwalker Hatchling
, since the additional movement speed it grant for
Skarner
can help you a lot and we will move through the rift at high speeds.
In case of going defensive,
Mosstomper Seedling
It's the best option, since the shield that grants more tenacity will have good resistance, especially if we see that they have a lot of burst or large amounts of CC.
If we want to go very aggressive against the enemy,
Scorchclaw Pup
It will give us a good advantage when fighting them and easily hunt down the biggest threats.
Once the Companion is selected, it is time to buy the items for the game
Build for the Champion
Standard
AD
Core Items (Standard)
The mythic that best goes for
Skarner
it's
Iceborn Gauntlet
, this object grants life, armor and abilitiy haste (even against magic damage we can get some benefit from its passive), this object will grant us an empowered basic attack every time we use an ability, creating an icy zone that slows everyone that's on that zone, and the enemy being hit by this object will be slowed even more, and you will receive less damage from this enemy. The mythical passive of this object will grant us life, tenacity and resistance to slowdowns.
Once the mythic item is purchased, the second item will be
Dead Man's Plate
, it will give us life, armor and movement speed. The passive of this object is that we will have extra movement speed the more we run through the rift, gaining stacks of movement, once the maximum stacks are reached, the next basic attack will be empowered, dealing additional magic damage and slowing it down.
Of third object, it will be
Force of Nature
, granting us even more movement speed, life and magic resistance. The passive of this object makes that when receiving magic damage we gain stacks (we will gain more if we are immobilized), when reaching the maximum stacks, we will obtain additional movement speed and magic resistance. (in case they have more magical damage than physical, we will buy ourselves before
Force of Nature
).
The best boots it can be
Ionian Boots of Lucidity
, to have both our abilities and summoner spells as fast as possible.
Core Items (AD)
If we want to build him as a fighter (Also know as Bruiser), the most optimal mythic item will be
Divine Sunderer
, giving us damage, life and ability haste, and thanks to its passive we will do extra damage based on the maximum life of the enemy with the next basic after using an ability, if we hit an enemy champion, we will receive a small healing. The mythical passive will grant us hybrid penetration (Physical and magical) for each legendary item completed.
As a second item we will choose
Sterak's Gage
, granting life and additional physical damage (the extra damage that this object gives us will be based on our base damage), and the passive of the item will give us great survivability, since having low HP, we will cast a big shield based on of your maximum life.
To complete this combination of damage, we will make
Black Cleaver
, granting life, physical damage and abilitiy haste, we will activate the item passive easily, since every time we hit an enemy champion (Both basic attacks and abilities), you reduce their armor and obtain additional movement speed.
The boots will be the same as the standard Build, in order to further increase the damage we can cause in a fight.
Jungle Clear
With the new season, now the jungle is not so difficult to understand, since it now tells us which camps we have to make in order, but they do not explain why, in this guide the route recommended by the game will be explained (it is not bad, is the most appropriate for the champion) and the one that I recommend to start with
Skarner
.
Recomended
Beginner
This jungle route is the one that you have the most benefit with
Skarner
, since we will start in the camp of Red Brambleback (Red) with
Crystal Slash
, once defeated, we will use
Fracture
against the Golems (Krugs) and then for the Birds (raptors), with that you will be level 3, and we will run quickly towards the wolves thanks to the movement speed of
Crystalline Exoskeleton
, and after them we will go for the Blue Sentinel (Blue) and we will finish with the Frog (Gromp), after that, we will go to the river to defeat the Crab (Rift Scuttler). To finish we will do these 2 options:
1. We will go to gank a lane if we see it necessary
2. We will place a
Stealth Ward
(If we have one available) and we will go to the base to buy and prepare for the first dragon if we see it as necessary.
Jungle path from the blue side; The areas where
Skarner
's hand with
Smite
is where we will use it most of the time at the beginning of the game. (Cosmic Edition)
The route will be the same as the one recommended by the game, but in this case we will not made the Golems (Krugs), this route is to reach the Crab (Rift Scuttler) as quickly as possible.
Jungle path from the blue side; The areas where
Skarner
's hand with
Smite
is where we will use it most of the time at the beginning of the game (Cosmic Edition)
Skarner Combo
To be honest,
Skarner
doesn't have any complex combo, but, there is one combo in particular that's some comlexity, and also s a good combo to start a Team Fight or ambushes:
Super Combo
How I made this combo?
This combo is the most complex that the champion has, first we will start with
Crystalline Exoskeleton
to move with speed and mitigate some damage when we arrive, next we will use
Flash
with
Fracture
to make a surprise attack, and before exploding the mark, we will use
Impale
, while dragging the enemy, we will use
Crystal Slash
to load it, once
Impale
is done, we'll blow up the mark of
Fracture
with a basic attack and we will finish the combo with an empowered
Crystal Slash
.
Once the combo is done, if we have reached more objectives with
Fracture
, try to chase them once the mark with which you have hooked the enemy with
Impale
and run (or use
Flash
if you haven't used it for the combo) to exploit the marks to apply more utility to the fight.
Combo Summary: W +
Flash
+ E + R + Q + Basic Attack + Q
Note: In case you have purchased
Turbo Chemtank
and/or you are playing with
Predator
we will use before that item/rune combined with
Crystalline Exoskeleton
to have more speed.
Some Tips for Skarner
· Try to get to Level 6 as soon as possible.
· Against small golems (Krugs), once you use
Crystal Slash
against them, the Jungle Companion will finish them off, so you lose less time against them.
· I recommend not unlocking just start the game
Crystal Slash
, because if you are going to invade the enemy jungle with you team, or they are going to invade you, we will put
Fracture
, so we can give a possible Frist Blood as soon as the game begins.
· Once you get levet 3, you can level up again
Crystal Slash
before you unlock
Crystalline Exoskeleton
, you will have a better jungle clear, but you will have less sustain in here
· At the beginning you must be careful when you go to gank, since at the beginning of the game you are a little bit squishy and a little bit slow too.
· If you'll use
Predator
, I recommend you activate it as close as possible to the enemy, because of the visible mark of
Predator
when you activate the rune, you can make the enemy run away.
· You can take the first dragon from level 4 alone, but it will take a long time (At least 30 seconds or more).
Taking the first dragon at Level 4 (Items used: Sheen)
· You can make double camp with the Red Brambleback (Red) and the Birds (Raptors), but only if the elemental rift is from the fire dragon.
· Remember to have an eye whenever you can on the map, especially in
Crystal Spires
, since we can see if an enemy is going to capture the crystal if we have activated it.
· Try to conserve
Impale
when it starts to fighting objectives (Herald, Dragon and Baron) because if they ambush you, you use it against the enemy Jungle and so they don't steal the objective easily.
· You can throw
Smite
while dragging someone with
Impale
.
· You can use
Impale
through the dragon wall and the herald/baron wall too.
- You must be attached to the wall and the enemy must be attached on the other side of the wall for make it work correctly.
Example of the "specials" interactiosn of Impale
If you are in a fight and
Crystal Spires
is activate and you are here, attack without fear, you have a great advantage (even going bad in the game, but I recommend that if your allies are next to you)
· If the enemy carry has bought
Quicksilver Sash
, you can look for another objective (For example: a utility support, like
Soraka
,
Janna
,
Taric
)
- It should be noted that if there are more CC in our team and they go for the carry, look closely in case this enemy used
Quicksilver Sash
, since once spent it will cost him to escape.
· In case of playing
Skarner
in lane, if the allied jungler comes to gank, you will be a great help because of the amount of CC you have.
The End
Well, the trip was a little bit long, don't you think? xD
And with this the champion's guide would be finished, I know this guide is a bit long, but I wanted to make it very clear how the character works, abilities, etc.
I hope you're interested in playing more than one game with this champion before they rework him, and that you have fun with him even though he's not that complex. :D
Thank you very much for reading my guide and getting here, have a good day, be with the people you love the most, eat all the vegetables and eat 3 dairy products, don't forget to be polite with others and enjoy life as much as possible. Blessings to all.
And remember the words of the great Brackern: We are one. We cannot be shattered.
Small demonstration in Game
As a "gift" for getting here, I will leave a gameplay of mine on how we should play with
Skarner
(Normal Draft), Maybe I'm not the best player, but hey, a little demonstration of how to play the champion never hurt anyone, right?.
Now seriously, that's all, I leave this place, and we will see you, with the Crystal Vanguard, and the last brackerns.
- Guide created by the summoner MiniBlue4444 #EUW -
Impale
Olaf
Vi
Fracture
Evelynn
Crystal Slash
Crystalline Exoskeleton
Crystal Spires
Soraka
Janna
Taric