Hello! Welcome to ElderVen's first guide on Mobafire. Lately I've been really into Skarner and Jax, but today we're going to talk about Skarner. Skarner is a tanky-DPS jungler. We'll be exploring some of the ways to make his ganks effective and successful. I hope you guys enjoy! Don't Downvote me for nothing, leave a comment! I really love Skarner, and I hope you will too! :)

Pros

• Strong early ganks and good chasing power
• Easy, spammable DPS
• Tanky
• Is a Scorpion
• Oh and did I mention Scorpion?

Cons

• Doesn't do Burst Damage
• Has to be really close to work
• No gap closers

For Skarner, I go with Greater Glyphs of Warding because, as you will not be encountering and sort of "magic damage creeps" but you will be encountering some counter-ganks, and during ganking many magic damage champions that may try to fight you off. These are very conditional glyphs, and reliant on you ganking in the early levels. I go with [icon-Greater Seal of Resilience]Greater Seals of Resilience because the armor helps protect you in the jungle and enables you to start without that cloth armor some junglers go for, making you clear camps faster and be on your way to ganking. Then I get Greater Marks of Alacrity because, as Skarner's Crystalline Exoskeleton does add attack speed, the amount is insignificant in the early levels, and Skarner needs some way of clearing creep camps without his Q. I go with Greater Quints of Swiftness to get that extra early movement speed for faster clears and faster ganks!

I won't go into this too far, but these are basic Jungler Masteries. You gain a minion Thornmail, extend buff durations, and gain the ability to withstand more than anyone without these masteries. Also, movement speed. Yes, movement speed. Lastly, Summoner's Resolve gives you 10 Gold extra, every time you use Smite. On anything. Even if you don't kill it. Yay.

This item is very useful (although not necessarily needed) for ganking. The Sheen adds your base damage to each attack after using an ability. And trust me, your Q WILL be spammed. Your W too, we can't leave that out.

This is useful for catching up to the enemy, and running away. You'll be playing the role of Support Tank. So yah, this is good. The first part you obtain; the Philosopher's StonePhilosopher's Stone, helps you keep up on money, so save it until you NEED Shurelya's.

This can shut down the enemy's AD Carries, and greatly negate damage against your team, if you can get in the middle of the fight.

This item will give you a large amount of much needed health regeneration because you want to be able to stay in the fight, or at least re-engage a fight your enemy may have disengaged. Also, magic resists is Sexy for a tank. Trust me.

AoE Shield for your team. Absorbs damage. Good stuff. The Heart of Gold that you get first does the same thing as the Philosopher's StonePhilosopher's Stone, so save it until you need the Locket too.

Energize Skarner's Passives is one of my favourite passives in the game. The cooldown reduction every time you hit a minion makes infinite spam in Jungle. And 1 second reduced cooldowns when you hit a champion make using your ult seem like nothing because it come right back up!

Very useful. Read the tooltip. The best thing I like about this ability is the slow. As long as you used the ability a few seconds before, and it hits the enemy, it slows them. This, combined with the ability below, enables you to chase, auto attack, and possibly catch up for an Impale on your target.

This is AMAZING for getting between Jungle Camps. Also, if you have Shurelya's active and you use this, combined with Mobility boots, check your speed. It's fun. The Attack speed and Move speed buff from this help so much.

Honestly, this is a useless ability. The health you get back from it is so insignificant. Sure, use it if you want, but really it's not worth using obsessively.

This ult, in my opinion, is the most overpowered ultimate ability in the game. You can drag your enemy back into turret range. You can completely shut down the enemy carry and drag him/her into your front lines. You can also still hit your enemy while dragging them, meaning you can use your Q to slow BEFORE they get out of the ultimate. I love this ability, and I hope you will too!

Easy Escape mechanism, easy initiation mechanism, you know the drift. Flash, Ultimate, Shurelya's and drag them back to win! Flash can get you out of many bad situations, such as an unexpected team fight that you know you're going to lose, of perhaps you're being chase by someone with Madred's Razors. You can flash over almost any wall in the game and use your Crystalline Exoskeleton for a speed boost or your Shurelya's to put some much needed space between you and the enemy.

No brainer guys! Always grab Smite for easy Junling, unless you really, really don't want this to work out...Smite enables you to kill monsters that may be getting the best of you, and also helps if you want to counter-jungle so you can get in and out quick and steal their buffs! Another thing to do with it is hard, but happens. If the enemy team is doing dragon, you can run in and Smite Steal it away at just the right health! It's fun and awesome for you to do.

Another Viable Option...
Use this in place of Flash, if you like. It helps for catching up to use your ultimate, but Shurelya's Reverie takes care of that for you.

Skarner is a Tanky-DPS Jungler. My goal with this guide's early game is to get you fast and easy kills with Skarner's built-in chase-ability. Skarner should be played solely as a Tank late game, leaning on the Armor, Magic Resist, and health you build into all game from you successful ganks and jungle clears. You should be the one to initiate a fight, often by using your ult to shut down a carry with you team and jumping in. Some items in here could be swapped; true, and perhaps some runes, but I hope you enjoy this play-style; it works great for me! Thanks for reading and don't forget to upvote! :)