Guide · Jungle

Skarner Guide

the Primordial Sovereign

Tank

Fighter

Tier S Jungle

Skarner, the Primordial Sovereign, is a tank and fighter champion of medium difficulty. Across our 294 analysed ranked games, Skarner is mostly played in the Jungle (86% of its games), and more rarely as Support (14%), with a 49.4% win rate in that role: tier S among Jungle champions (#4 of 48, ranked by win rate). Skarner's damage is mostly physical (64%): armor is the best defensive answer against this champion. Win rate stays steady whatever the game length (47.1% to 50.0%): a reliable pick in every phase of the game.

Updated Oct 10 2026 · Patch 26.21

Average KDA

5.2 / 4.7 / 10.4

ratio 3.3

Damage / min

652

CS / min

6.4

Gold / min

415

Kill participation

55%

Vision / min

0.95

Averages measured over 253 Jungle games played with Skarner, from our ranked Solo/Duo data collection.

How to play and combo preview

Written guide · based on the official ability texts

Skarner is a tectonic jungler-tank: his attacks, Shattered Earth, Upheaval and Impale apply stacks of Threads of Vibration, and at max stacks the enemies take magic damage based on their max health. Seismic Bastion gives a shield and slows, Ixtal's Impact slams into a wall, and Impale suppresses then drags enemies.

The trade

Q AA AA

When: An enemy is within range.

Shattered Earth empowers your attacks, Upheaval throws the boulder, Seismic Bastion gives you a shield and slows with a shockwave.

The slam

Q AA AA

When: An enemy is near a wall.

Ixtal's Impact charges through obstacles; if it hits a champion, it slams them into the next wall, dealing damage and stunning them.

See all 3 Skarner combos: key order, when to cast them, cooldowns →

Laning phase

Pull up a boulder with Shattered Earth to empower your attacks, then throw it with Upheaval. Stack Threads of Vibration to trigger the max-health damage.

Common mistakes

Dragging the enemies toward their allies.
Forgetting Threads of Vibration: it is your source of max-health damage.
Casting Ixtal's Impact with no wall.

Riot's official tips for playing Skarner

Basic attacks apply Quaking. Stick to your target and re-apply it for maximum damage.
Capturing Crystal Spires before attempting neutral objectives or team fights around them improves Skarner's performance in said fights dramatically.
Impale is extremely powerful when you use it to position an enemy so your allies can attack them.

Build, runes and summoner spells

The most-played core build is Unending Despair, Spirit Visage, and Heartsteel (25 games, 56.0% win rate).

Unending Despair

Spirit Visage

Heartsteel

25 games · 56.0%

16 games · 68.8%

14 games · 64.3%

Skill order

Max order : Q > W > E57.9% · 38 games

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15
Q	●			●	●		●		●
W		●						●		●		●	●
E			●											●	●
R						●					●

The order shows which abilities reach rank 5 first; the grid shows the most-played level-up sequence with that order (measured over 44 games).

Starting items

Scorchclaw Pup66.7% · 15 games

First completed items, in order

Heartsteel

Unending Despair

19 games · 63.2%

Laning phase (averages)

At 10 min: 3901 gold, 65 CS, 3797 XP. At 15 min: 6013 gold, 98 CS, 6400 XP.

Summoner spells

Flash + Smite49.0% · 251 games

Most-played runes

Grasp of the Undying + Inspiration

49.2% · 201 games

Primary tree · Resolve

Shield Bash100%

Conditioning95%

Overgrowth92%

Secondary tree · Inspiration

Magical Footwear100%

Approach Velocity80%

Shards

Ability haste83%

Health scaling94%

Health scaling80%

For each row, the most picked rune among the games played with this page (share of games in brackets).

Which items to build against the enemy team?

We sort every game by the enemy team's damage. These are Skarner's completed items and their win rate in each situation; "▲" marks an item that does at least 3 points better than its usual win rate.

Mostly magic-damage enemy team35.8% · 67 games

At least 50% of their damage is magic

Heartsteel 37.2% ▼

Unending Despair 40.0% ▼

Protoplasm Harness 41.7%

Spirit Visage 54.5%

No item clearly stands out in this situation: the usual build remains the reference.

Mostly physical-damage enemy team54.9% · 71 games

Less than 35% of their damage is magic

Heartsteel 54.2%

Unending Despair 62.5% ▲

Randuin's Omen 56.2%

Protoplasm Harness 60.0%

Spirit Visage 50.0%

The item that stands out most is Unending Despair: 62.5% win rate, +6 points versus its usual win rate.

Balanced enemy team53.9% · 115 games

Mixed physical and magic damage

Heartsteel 61.9% ▲

Unending Despair 60.0% ▲

Protoplasm Harness 42.9% ▼

Spirit Visage 63.0% ▲

Randuin's Omen 44.4%

Bandlepipes 31.2%

The item that stands out most is Heartsteel: 61.9% win rate, +9 points versus its usual win rate.

Counters and matchups

How to play against Skarner

Ixtal's Impact can be stopped by any stun, root, or knock-up. Save a key cooldown if he's coming for a gank!
Impale can be dodged. Use Flash or another ability to get out of reach.
Skarner's sustained damage can eventually take you down. Be careful not to ignore him.

Riot's official tips.

Win rates measured over direct same-role duels; only matchups with more than 15 games are listed.

Skarner Jungle: what our games say

Laning phase against the Jungle average

Measure	Skarner	Jungle average	Gap
Gold at 10 min	3901	4023	−122
CS at 10 min	65	69	−4
XP at 10 min	3797	3898	−101
Gold at 15 min	6013	6322	−309
CS at 15 min	98	106	−8
XP at 15 min	6400	6602	−202

Measured over 44 Skarner games with a timeline; the average covers 69 champions played Jungle in our ranked games.

Win rate by game length

short under 25 min47.1 %87 games

medium-length 25 to 35 min50.0 %140 games

Best result: medium-length (25 to 35 min). Only groups of at least 30 games are shown. A gap of several points shows the phase where the champion is the most reliable.

Skarner in another role

Role	Games	Win rate	CS/min	Gold/min	Most-built items
Support	41	63.4 %	1.2	328

Roles where we have at least 40 Skarner games.

Abilities

PassiveThreads of Vibration

Skarner's Attacks, Shattered Earth, Upheaval, and Impale, apply Quaking. At max stacks of Quaking, enemies take max Health magic damage over its duration.

QShattered Earth / Upheaval

Skarner rips a boulder from the earth that empowers his attacks and can be thrown as a powerful projectile.

WSeismic Bastion

Skarner gains a shield and creates an earthquake whose shockwave damages and slows foes.

EIxtal's Impact

Skarner charges forward and passes through terrain. If he collides with a champion or large monster, he'll slam them into the next wall he hits to damage and stun them.

RImpale

Skarner's tails lash forward to suppress enemy champions. Once suppressed, the victims will be dragged along by Skarner as he moves around.