Skarner is actually a zombie.

Axerum·2/19/2015, 4:12:27 PM·2 votes·910 views

Because he's dead! Ok, jokes aside, how am I supposed to play him now? Some time ago I posted about him and got some advice... but he still feels weaker than before. I wish I could understand how his rework does its job. What is he right now? A full tank? Max CDR Full Tank? His stinger gives him a short ranged pick-em-off for 2 seconds but after that he's easily ignored. And when going bruiser his damage really lacks. Riven can get tankier and deal almost twice the damage.

"I MISS MY KIND."

5 Comments

L7xLoTek2/19/2015, 5:09:58 PM2 votes

I'm really struggling myself, which is sad, because I love playing Skarner :/

One of the things I've noted is that he has something of a soft cap on the Q CDR (vs champs) once you hit something in the vein of 1.5 attack speed with 20% CDR or something; basically once you reach 1 Q per second. Not sure what to do, he kinda needs everything (INCLUDING mana and mana regen) and gets very little for the investment. Damagewise I guess investing in on-hit stuff works best, since he doesn't really scale that good with... well, anything ( item 3710 either item 3025 or item 3078 and item 3091 if you can stay alive. Though since Devourer got nerfed, less sure on that, and while the damage from is great (you do have one of the highest base damages in the game) you kinda need the slow from )

I'm currently running flat mana regen yellows and mana regen per level blues with 0/17/13 masteries just so I don't need to separately invest in mana regen, but I'm not sure if it really is worth it in the end.

Seriously, I'm all open for suggestions here too.

Seth Lightheart2/19/2015, 4:58:46 PM1 votes

item 3025 or item 3078

They will never ignore you again my friend.

Ch0c0lateJesus2/19/2015, 5:08:23 PM1 votes

item 3025 Is a must have for him, it turns him back into the old perma-slowing skarner.

He's been worse off than he is now, but he has always required decent teamwork to make the most of his abilities. His kill potential is very low by himself, but if your team knows how to react fast enough, he can make game changing picks.

Lumus Avatar2/19/2015, 5:31:45 PM1 votes

I find you can get away with playing him AD or AP as long as you have a tank item or two to actually survive your engage.

Skarner will always be an AP bruiser for me, so I build him differently from other players. His new passive supports high AD which is why many players run Trinity Force and this is a good idea if you want high damage output.

For me, Skarner is a team-reliant, heavy engager who zips past front line, grabs the back line and pulls them to his allies. So my build is different from what people like since I build high AP.

Why do I build high AP? Skarner's shield (Crystalline Exoskeleton), upon which his speed relies, has an 80% AP scaling ratio. Having 200 AP gives you a 160 HP shield and speed to bust through to the squishies. Throw down Fracture, which also scales off AP, and slam them with a Crystal Slash to get a minimum of 2 stacks of Crystal Venom on the target.

Now you hit them with your ult. They take an extra 400 damage from the venom stacks (200 at the beginning and end of the suppression) and now you can use that speed and shield to safely drag them to your laner(s). This works exceptionally well when engaging from the river. There is nothing more rewarding than grabbing the enemy carry and 'introducing' them to your turret.

I like the Blasting Smite from the Ranger Trailblazer. Skarner already has excellent clear time once he hits level 3, but blasting smite just makes the jungle that much safer for him (first clear is still a bitch). I take Q,W,E at 1,2,3 in that order. Having E in the jungle give you an initiating stack of venom from a distance so you can get your stun off quicker and prevent some nasty damage. It's a toss up after that - I level Q and W together but you can put your second rank in your favorite one first - I prefer the shield. you might prefer the damage.

Depending on enemy composition I prefer the tank items Sunfire Cape and Spirit Visage. You really do need at least one tank item now that you cannot reduce the cooldown on Crystalline Exoskeleton by attacking.

Besides the jungle item, which is up to personal playstyle preference, my build will often look like this: I am by no means recommending this build. This is my build which caters to my playstyle. item 3174 item 3252 item 3100 item 3115 item 3065 / item 3068

I also run hybrid runes which grant Armor (seals), Magic Resistance (Glyphs), AD (Marks), and AP (Marks), and Cooldown per level (Quintessences). This gives me early beefiness against both AD and AP, and allows me to dish out significantly more damage at level 1 with Q. I can get my shield up very quickly at 18.

Teridax682/19/2015, 10:08:45 PM1 votes

I'd say Skarner is a bruiser loaded with crowd control. I'd recommend the following build for him, in order of purchase: item 3718 + item 3111 / item 3047 + item 3025 + item 3110 / item 3143 + item 3065 / item 3102 + item 3083 / item 3190 (there are more variations, but these are the items you'll usually be picking). Frozen Fist, Devourer and Skirmisher's Saber's active will give you surprisingly strong DPS and constant crowd control, and your later items will make you extremely resilient. The downside to this is that you'll be fairly squishy up until the mid game, and will have trouble ganking people if you miss your E (Skarner has all the crowd control he needs to gank well, though, so he doesn't need item 3706 , and his clears end up being so quick and painless that item 3713 falls off fast). With this build you can splitpush pretty well, but you're going to be especially valuable in teamfights, where using your ult (and running to your team immediately) will often secure you a kill. Don't ult for damage, and don't ult alone unless you're sure it's going to kill your target. While this build will make you pretty good one-on-one, you'll be a lot more effective with your team around, as hard focus will eat right through your shield before you'll get to reactivate it.

For runes, go for straight attack speed quints and marks, flat armor runes and scaling MR glyphs, and take 0 / 21 / 9 masteries so that you can get tankier and roam better. The overall combination of attack speed and CDR you'll get from your build will let you stun enemies relatively quickly, have a constant movement speed bonus and refresh your shield as often as you'd like. If you get invaded by a lone jungler, unless they're LeeSin or Fiddlesticks you'll usually be able to out-duel them even early on, since your DPS ramps up to pretty large amounts and will eventually outdo their burst.

Maybe I've just been lucky so far, but I've been pretty successful with Skarner. He's designed to go balls deep, slow down priority targets and pin them down for your team. He's a great peeler, and a summoner 4 + ult can provide fantastic initiation if timed right. He synergizes well with movement speed enhancers and shields (so Janna and Lulu ), and complements burst comps pretty well.