Crazy Skarner Jungle Path Idea (Early Blue for Mid?)

Twit32·Aug 24, 2015·1 votes·1,058 views

So I've never actually posted on these forums, and I'm not sure if this has been explored by anyone else as of yet, but after some preliminary testing, this strategy seems to have some plausibility. With the new Skarner changes in the most recent patch, Skarner has access to frankly ridiculous clear speed and mana regen capabilites when in his control zones, which got me thinking: "Does the new Skarner really need his first blue buff?"

Now, the general consensus right now seems to be that Skarner is very strong with these changes, so maybe he doesn't need the help with viability, but I began to toy with the idea of giving away the first blue buff. The proposed jungle path is as follows:

Krugs with a leash from bot (on blue side) or top (on purple side) laner(s) (side note: smite this camp for the stun buff)
Red Buff
River Crab (red buff and krug smite should make this quick and easy within the control zone, if you have it)
Raptors
Wolves
Blue Buff see below
Gromp

Blue Buff giveaway notes: When you get to the blue buff camp, call over your mid laner (you should probably either know them or have discussed this prior to now), as they come over, kill the small creeps at the blue buff so that you get full experience for them, and the gold regardless of whether your mid laner could accidentally steal them with an AoE skill. then, take down the blue buff together as you would if you were giving second or any later blue, and proceed to gromp.

Assuming that you get a river crab and the small creeps at blue, you should still hit level 4 by the end of the clear, and probably even be at health and mana to gank if you want to. You miss out on the gold of the ancient golem (you still end up at about the same gold as if you were to clear the whole jungle without getting river crab), but your mid laner gets a strong early advantage in a burst of mana regen and CDR that likely comes in before getting those stats from items is an option. This could be an unexpected and possibly crucial advantage for your mid laner, and could snowball into future dominance if played correctly.

Obviously, this strategy has some limitations. While it gives an advantage to the mid lane, Skarner loses out on blue buff and some gold, and whether that is worth it is a judgement call. it also takes longer than a normal clear could be, and is susceptible to counter-jungling. However, I put forth this idea to you all to judge as you see fit. I'm sure it could use some more testing, but once I had at least confirmed the possibility of it, I wanted to get the word out. I would highly appreciate hearing what you all think on the matter.

4 Comments

Variks the LoyalAug 24, 20152 votes

I'm wary of it because junglers already get less exp and gold.

That's the importance of the first blue buff. If it weren't for that, then non-mana junglers would've been donating their first blue a long time ago.

Twit32Aug 24, 20151 votes

A good point. If resourceless junglers haven't been doing it, why would Skarner be any different? I think the real only differences I can see would be that he has a faster early clear speed than resourceless junglers (at least to my knowledge), and with proper control of the river control point, he may be the fastest and safest champion to take an early river crab. Thanks for bringing that up though, a good thing to keep in mind.

BrotherAug 25, 20152 votes

Even with fast clear time. There are spawn timers for jungle creep, you would have to invade enemy jungle and take camps or their buff to compensate. That is time that could be used to gank.

Twit32Aug 25, 20151 votes

Is the current iteration of skarner not strong enough to gank after this clear? I would argue that with the changes to his stun, he has the tools to go immediately to ganking at level 4, which this clear path gets him to. In my experience, after a full clear and subsequent gank attempt and/or back for items, the jungle camps on the side one started on will already be respawning. The jungle timers are longer than they used to be, but I have never found them to be restrictive unless one is trying to level and gear up purely through farming.

tl;dr: Spending that time ganking is exactly what I am implying.

After a clear, Skarner has plenty of health and mana, even without blue, to gank and apply early pressure, then back to grab some item pieces, before returning to the jungle as the camps respawn, and I don't think that losing out on 75 gold (65 of which could be argued is made up by immediately taking river crab) would hurt him as much as an early blue and 60 gold could help the mid laner. Some may disagree (hence why I put this idea forth for critique), but I think it warrants consideration.