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Skarner
the Primordial Sovereign

Skarner

Passive · Threads of Vibration

Skarner's attacks and abilities apply Quaking; at 3 stacks the target takes max-health magic damage over time.

DamageDurabilityMagicDifficultyMobilityCC
Champion profile (Riot)
  • Damage7
  • Durability8
  • Magic5
  • Difficulty5
  • Mobility8
  • CC8
Counters by laneEach lane has counters + tips
Top
Primary

How to play as Skarner

  • Cast Ixtal's Impact along walls — the terrain slam stuns for 1.5 seconds
  • Activate Shattered Earth before engaging — the third hit slams and slows
  • Time Impale on two or three stacked enemies and drag them into your team
  • Seismic Bastion gives a shield plus a slow wave — use it mid-trade, not before
  • Build Stridebreaker or Gargoyle Stoneplate as needed — dive tank first
  • Quaking stacks (passive) apply from all abilities — spread them across targets

How to beat Skarner

  • Bait out Ixtal's Impact — without the charge he has no way to reach you
  • Don't hug walls — his stun only lands if he slams you into terrain
  • Buy Quicksilver Sash or Mercurial Scimitar to break Impale's suppression
  • Dueling junglers like Vi and Viego make his life miserable — keep spacing
  • Deep-ward his jungle — charge ganks come from far away
  • Focus him with CC during his ult — he grabs three but is exposed himself
Jungle
Primary

How to play as Skarner

  • Cast Ixtal's Impact along walls — the terrain slam stuns for 1.5 seconds
  • Activate Shattered Earth before engaging — the third hit slams and slows
  • Time Impale on two or three stacked enemies and drag them into your team
  • Seismic Bastion gives a shield plus a slow wave — use it mid-trade, not before
  • Build Stridebreaker or Gargoyle Stoneplate as needed — dive tank first
  • Quaking stacks (passive) apply from all abilities — spread them across targets

How to beat Skarner

  • Bait out Ixtal's Impact — without the charge he has no way to reach you
  • Don't hug walls — his stun only lands if he slams you into terrain
  • Buy Quicksilver Sash or Mercurial Scimitar to break Impale's suppression
  • Dueling junglers like Vi and Viego make his life miserable — keep spacing
  • Deep-ward his jungle — charge ganks come from far away
  • Focus him with CC during his ult — he grabs three but is exposed himself
Mid

How to play as Skarner

Mid: shove wave fast and roam to side lanes.

How to beat Skarner

Mid: watch for roams and save Flash for the next gank.

Strong against

No data yet

Weak against

No data yet

ADC

How to play as Skarner

ADC: kite the frontline, hit the closest tank then the carries.

How to beat Skarner

ADC: stay behind minions and focus the enemy ADC in fights.

Strong against

No data yet

Weak against

No data yet

Support

How to play as Skarner

Support: keep vision + peel for ADC, build Locket of the Iron Solari + Knight's Vow.

How to beat Skarner

Support: dodge hooks/engages, buy Mikael's into heavy CC.

Strong against

No data yet

Weak against

No data yet

Abilities

Threads of Vibration

Passive

Innate: Skarner's basic attack on-hit, Shattered Earth, Upheaval, and Impale apply a stack of Quaking to enemies hit for 4 seconds, refreshing on subsequent applications and stacking up to 3 times. Enemies afflicted with 3 stacks take magic damage equal to % of their maximum health over the duration, capped at 100 to 450 for 15% against monster.

Cooldown|targeting = Passive

Shattered Earth

Q

Active: Skarner rips a boulder from the ground, empowering up to three of his next basic attack within 5 seconds of each other. These attacks gain bonus attack speed, and deal bonus physical damage to the target and surrounding enemies, including structures.

The final attack slams the boulder, dealing an additional 11% of each target's maximum health physical damage and slow afflicted enemies by 45% for 1 second. The additional damage is capped against monster and is not applied against structures.

After 0.5 seconds of the cast, Skarner gains the ability to use Upheaval during Shattered Earth.

Numbers (latest)
Third attack / throw max Health percentage damage
10%
Slow
45%
Cooldown6.8Range|effect radius= 300

Seismic Bastion

W

Active: Skarner slams his claws into the ground, shield himself equal to 10% of his maximum health for 2.5 seconds and releasing a shockwave that quickly expands in a radius around him to deal magic damage to enemies hit and slow them by 25% for 1 second.

Skarner can move during Seismic Bastion's cast time.

Numbers (latest)
Slow
25%
Cooldown
8/7/6/5s
Shield ratio based on Health
10%
Cooldown9 to 6 4

Ixtal's Impact

E

Active: Skarner charges forward in the direction of the cursor for up to 2.75 seconds, during which he gains slow-immune, becomes ghosted, ignores terrain collision, and has unobstructed vision of the surrounding 650 units. He automatically navigates his movement along the way and is able to steer himself with a slow turn rate that increases over time, resetting upon changing direction. Ixtal's Impact can be recast after 1 second, and does so automatically after the duration.

Skarner begins the charge at a static amount of 150 movement speed that increases by 100 every 0.25, up to 950 total movement speed by the end of the duration. If Skarner collides with an enemy champion or large monster, he grabs them with his claws for the time of the remaining charge, attached them to himself, suppression them, true sight them, increasing the charge's turn rate to the maximum, and gaining 300 bonus movement speed, with a minimum total of 650 and a maximum total of 1150. If a target has been grabbed before the first 1.75 seconds of the charge, the remaining duration is set to 1 second, and set to 0.5 seconds otherwise. The charge does not ramp up in speed while a target is grabbed.

If Skarner's attached target collides with terrain, the charge ends, detaching them from him, dealing physical damage, stun them for 1.5 seconds, and reducing Ixtal's Impact's cooldown by 35%.

Numbers (latest)
Cooldown
18/16/14/12s
Cooldown20 to 14 4

Impale

Ultimate

Active: Skarner winds up his stingers over the cast time, then lashes them forward in an isosceles trapezoid in the target direction, dealing magic damage to enemies hit and impaling up to 3 of the closest enemy champions within the area to suppression them for 1.5 seconds. While suppressed, the targets are true sight and attached to Skarner. If he successfully impales at least one enemy champion, Skarner gains 40% bonus movement speed for the same duration.

If Impale is cast during Shattered Earth, Skarner automatically casts Upheaval in the direction of Impale's cast. Skarner is unable to basic attack, cast Shattered Earth or Ixtal's Impact, or use Flash during Impale. While the targets are impaled, they are attached to Skarner 300 units in front of him. Targets are placed 200 units in the same direction at the end of the effect.

Cooldown80 to 60 3Range-50 – 625
Balance history2 patches
7.2a3 changes
  • Seismic Bastion · Cooldown: 9/8/7/6s8/7/6/5s
  • Seismic Bastion · Shield ratio based on Health: 8%10%
  • Ixtal's Impact · Cooldown: 20/18/16/14s18/16/14/12s
7.1h6 changes
  • Base Stats · Attack Damage per level: 3.54
  • Base Stats · Health per level: 120128
  • Base Stats · Health Regen: 69
  • Shattered Earth / Upheaval · Third attack / throw max Health percentage damage: 9%10%
  • Shattered Earth / Upheaval · Slow: 40%45%
  • Seismic Bastion · Slow: 20%25%