Black Cleaver and Skarner

GamerGoodies·May 12, 2015·1 votes·1,247 views

Is the new item known as the a good choice for skarner? I can see it work well if Skarner is in support but will it be a good choice on build in general? Just a curious question to ask the community.

13 Comments

Z StatisticMay 12, 20153 votes

uh, isn't like 80% of his damage magic?

GamerGoodiesMay 13, 20151 votes

It is but he's mostly tanky too, mind you the armor shred can work with other champs too. So imagine shredding the armor and gives an adc more damage input.

ProfDrDeathMay 13, 20151 votes

A fairly great deal of his damage is magic, Fracture and Impale. Additionally, his passive's damage component is also magic damage.

However, his (spammable) Q deals physical and magic damage, and he autoattacks quite regularily.

I guess that, in the end, it is not strictly bad. A situational luxury item if you are a rather tanky part of your team and you want to help your team's damage dealers out.

Variks the LoyalMay 13, 20151 votes

His Q is physical and he constantly AAs to reduce his Q's cooldown. Since Q is physical, he can also spread the shred to multiple people in a teamfight.

I haven't gotten the chance to try it, but I imagine it and Iceborn Gauntlet would be a good, tanky replacement for Triforce.

Sightless66May 13, 20151 votes

Closer to half.

thePandevMay 12, 20152 votes

Yes.

First off, the movement speed on rage is really useful for Skarner since you can stick onto any target with Q slow + AAs.

The general stats are pretty much core on Skarner as well.

Lastly with his spammable Q you shred armor very very quickly, so yeah I think it's really good on him.

GamerGoodiesMay 13, 20151 votes

Alright thanks so much. I should ask about luden's echo too but I kinda already know how well it fairs with added movement speed and crowd control

GaleWinUnleashedMay 12, 20151 votes

Odds are Skarner will not be the only champion with physical damage, in which case it will likely be a very good purchase for him. Quite aside from the armor shred, all of the other stats are excellent for Skarner.

Jungle Lux GodMay 13, 20151 votes

Short answer: yes.

Long answer: yes, but there are likely better options.

While Skarner's damage is primarily magic damage, his primary damage source (Crystal Slash) deals physical damage in addition to magic damage. Factor in auto attacks, and you can get maximum stacks on a target very quickly. Add in the Phage passive, health, cooldown reduction, and attack damage, and it looks like a really good item for Skarner.

However, you have to weigh it against other damage items that Skarner could be getting. Trinity Force is a staple in bruiser Skarner builds, and is one of the few, if not the only, damage item that Skarner currently considers. And look at what it gives: Phage passive, Sheen Passive, AD, health, attack speed, movement speed, and a bunch of other stats that Skarner doesn't care too much about. The Sheen passive in particular may not be worth replacing because of its synergy with Skarner's kit. Skarner gets tons of damage from the item alone, and has a similar effect to Black Cleaver in terms of the rest of the item.

Which is better? Actually, it might be worth looking at running both items not simultaneously, but situationally. Run Black Cleaver against tanky comps or on a heavy AD comp, and run Trinity Force against squishy comps. Cleaver has its merits, but is definitely not a core item to be building.

Very Hard EngageMay 13, 20151 votes

im not sure if his Q procs on hit effects or not. if it does you do have the potential to armor shred on their whole team which could be extremely useful to your adc.

but on the flip side, i dont think any actual ad items are effective on skarner, i think hes better off going with a triforce(for better single target squishy killer damage output) and full tank so he can actually make it to their back line to ult someone.

JustMyBassCannonMay 13, 20151 votes

{quoted}

im not sure if his Q procs on hit effects or not.

Black Cleaver's shred and Rage passives proc on "physical damage" instead of basic attacks.

And Skarner's Q always deals physical damage.

So yeah, it works.

Sightless66May 13, 20152 votes

His Q does not proc on-hit effects, but Black Cleaver is not an on-hit effect. Black Cleaver applies on any instance of physical damage (hence why assassins and bruisers like it more than autoattacking carries). His Q does do half the damage as physical, so it will apply Black Cleaver.