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Recommended Items
Spells:
Flash
Smite
Items
Ability Order
Threads of Vibration (PASSIVE)
Skarner Passive Ability
Intro
Here I'm going to talk about good ways to itemize
Skarner. He gets very close to the enemy team and forms part of your front line, his ultimate would be completely inapplicable if he was built squishier, the rest of the enemy team would nuke you in a second. So the juggernaut enchantment along with the armor and magic resist items are absolutely essential, I also take
Mercury's Treads and the
Tenacious
mastery. I do this because being part of the front line means you'll get hit by a lot of cc. Don't get me wrong, his damage is less than disappointing, and if you get an offensive item as your 6th (I usually get the
Wit's End) you can deal an impressive amount of damage. Now, for an important decision, trinity force or gauntlet? I almost always go for the gauntlet, though the sheen does slightly less damage, you still get an AoE slow, great armor, great mana and the 10% cooldown reduction that fits exactly to the 40% in the final build. However, I would recommend taking a
Frozen Mallet as your 6th item if you did take
Trinity Force.
Another important thing to note, is that in the example full build vs AP I gave up top, you only receive 30% cooldown reduction, if you wish to change your masteries to bring that up to 40. I usually go for the first build (or something close) as the frozen heart gets you 20% cool down reduction, and great armor, Really I tend to itemize more for armor than magic resist, as fed mages also struggle to get through large amounts of health, so the magic resist that you do have from
Mercury's Treads and
Banshee's Veil along with an excess of 3000 HP is easily enough, and you can more itemize against the enemy adc/fed jungler/top.






Another important thing to note, is that in the example full build vs AP I gave up top, you only receive 30% cooldown reduction, if you wish to change your masteries to bring that up to 40. I usually go for the first build (or something close) as the frozen heart gets you 20% cool down reduction, and great armor, Really I tend to itemize more for armor than magic resist, as fed mages also struggle to get through large amounts of health, so the magic resist that you do have from


As a skarner, I always start at gromp and then move to blue and then wolves, as returning to base gets you just about enough for your chilling smite, which has now been nerfed in patch 5.4, big shame. After that I would recommend going to red and then ganking a lane (whichever is closer) if all lanes seem to be doing ok, I would try to continue farm or to sneak in a dragon early (you can solo dragon by level 3).
My build path is pretty standard, I get the chilling smite at the first back, and my next 2 items are usually a kindlegem and boots, I build into the juggernaut enchantment and then buy my mercury treads, then farm/gank up to enough gold for a sheen, which I then max into a gauntlet. From there, based on the situation, decide if I should get my frozen heart, or banshee's veil first. I then build the remaining item, and finish off with an offensive item, which is usually a wits end.
My build path is pretty standard, I get the chilling smite at the first back, and my next 2 items are usually a kindlegem and boots, I build into the juggernaut enchantment and then buy my mercury treads, then farm/gank up to enough gold for a sheen, which I then max into a gauntlet. From there, based on the situation, decide if I should get my frozen heart, or banshee's veil first. I then build the remaining item, and finish off with an offensive item, which is usually a wits end.
Pros
- Great chaser due to his W
Seismic Bastion
- Good clear times
- Relevant for most of the game
- Very tanky when full build
- Amazing duelist due to Q
Shattered Earth
- Ult the carry - win the teamfight
- Sticks to his target like glue
- AoE damage with Q
Shattered Earth
- Great fun to play!
Cons
- No dash or immediate gap closer
- Pre-6 ganks are nothing special
- Not an insane amount of damage
- Great chaser due to his W

- Good clear times
- Relevant for most of the game
- Very tanky when full build
- Amazing duelist due to Q

- Ult the carry - win the teamfight
- Sticks to his target like glue
- AoE damage with Q

- Great fun to play!
Cons
- No dash or immediate gap closer
- Pre-6 ganks are nothing special
- Not an insane amount of damage
As for runes, I like to have a good amount of ad as skarner does a lot of auto attacking. But alternatives to this rune page include attack speed quints, scaling magic resist glyphs and scaling health seals.
I go for a defensive mastery page for a good balance. You have great survivability with so much tenacity and the additional armor and magic resist is quite nice.
I go for a defensive mastery page for a good balance. You have great survivability with so much tenacity and the additional armor and magic resist is quite nice.
You have to be aware of champions who excel at keeping their distance, especially if you do not have your ultimate up. A good
Kalista will kill you, because no matter how much movement speed you have, you won't get close. Other champions who are difficult to chase include riven and vayne. The low cooldown on vayne's dash when maxed means it would cost you a little more to get to her. However neither of these 3 champions will deal much damage if you went with my initial armor based build, and it is likely you can escape if you need to.

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