Talk:Skarner/Strategy/@comment-5117630-20140119233442

Recently, as a top lane Skarner, I found either starting Cloth and 5 or Doran's Shield +1 Pot to be the best, then rushing Trinity.

Every stat on Trinity Force benefits Skarner in one way or another except the crit chance, which is just icing on the cake. He gains tankiness, mana, AD and AP, attack speed for his passive, movement speed, and two passives that synergize incredibly well with him. Since his Q is hybrid, and since you SHOULD be weaving auto attacks in between your Q's, it's really the only damage item you need.

Then, just build standatd tank. Sunfire, Visage, Randuin's, all the good stuff. Move the order around to match who's fed and the enemy comp and whatnot. Make sure to have either Merc Treads, or if against a heavy autoattacking top, Ninja Tabi.

With all those items, your 6th will really depend. When I think, Skarner does not auto attack (or need to) as much as people think, and since trinity already gives enough auto attack, I tend to stay away from those. If you built merc treads, grabbing something like rageblade will do wonders, but otherwise build something with tenacity to make up for the loss of the merc treads.

Runes should be standard AD bruiser top, with the exception of I replace one AD Quint with a MS Quint.

For masteries, I use 4/23/3. CDR in offense, MS in utility, and the rest in defense, making sure to grab all CC reduction, damage reduction, and healing masteries (since skarner can get harassed outa lane without some sustain like that). Also make sure to grab Oppression, which was practically made for Skarner since your opponent will usually be CC'd with all that Q'ing.