Talk:Skarner/@comment-3148699-20121103000617

I started maining jungle a couple of weeks ago and Skarner is by far my favorite jungler of all due to his amazing clear times, counter jungling, ganks, off tank during team fights. Even after the "nerfs" he's been strong as hell. I have climbed from 1400 to 1650 with him and I think he's one of the most underrated champions out there.

Masteries: 0/21/9

Spells: Flash+Smite

Runes: 9x attack speed reds (for your passive), 9x armor yellows, 9 mr/lvl blues, 3x MS quints (better chasing/initiation/magical dragging ride).

Start with boots+3 pots. Go wolves, blue, wraiths, wolves, red, base and gank. Alternate path is Blue, Wolves, Wraiths, Red and gank. You'll be low at health at this point so it's kinda risky (unless you get great help during blue), but you can still force a flash from your opponents.

Then get HoG or philo, then philo or HoG (always both, doesn't matter the order). Mercs, Aegis of the Legion and then see what the enemy has as the most threatening damage dealer. If AD, go Sunfire + Randuins, if AP go Force of Nature. Upgrade philo to Shurelia early on if possible. Your final build you should be sitting at ~4K HP, 250+ armor and 170+ mr. For the last item, you could sell Aegis for Trinity Force or Warmogs or Frozen Mallet (I hardly think it matters).

Level Q>W>R>E (in fact don't even bother with E up until level 13, however feel free to get only 1 rank at level 4).

Watch out for people with QSS, always do a spin around yourself when impale ends (to gain some extra ground covered), don't be afraid to flash in so you can keep your Q slow up since if they will have NO ESCAPE! Your role should be initiator/off-tank. In teamfights your role is to peel the enemy bruisers and tanks and impale either the AP or the AD carry, whichever has a bad position or is exposed. You can even use Flash, then Impale followed by activation of Shurelia and your E and do a spin around yourself, that way you can gain incredible distance between the enemy team and your impaled target.

No-no items: Wriggles (you don't need it, you have very fast clear times without it, other items like Randuin's/Sunfire/FoN are more essential). Trinity Force (only as a luxury last item, your damage and slow are already great from your Q+W combo, don't rash it). Rylais/Gunblade (again it's NOT your job to be a damage dealer, focusing offtank is better, you're still a threat to the enemy with your defensive items so building these is bad.)

Optional items: Frozen heart (if your support has both Aegis and Shurelias, you could replace your aegis for this provided they have threatening AD champions), Wit's End (I don't recommend it but it can fit well with Skarner in some situations).