Skarner solo top

[Deleted]

Heyo dudes and dudettes!

I'm a huge fan of solo topping (it's the only thing I'd do if I could help it but sometimes you gotta do other things.. sadly), however I really dislike jungling. Looking at Skarner's kit he seems to have really nice lane sustain, and yeah he's a bit aoe heavy but ofcourse you don't use them when surrounded by 23508235 creeps if you don't want to push. I read a few people who play him a lot say his mana isn't a huge issue (plus you shouldn't be spamming skills anyway when solo top) and a philo stone fixes any mana problems he might have.

Be open minded and please tell me what you think: is he any way viable solo top? Doesn't have to be a top tier pick (if he was he'd see a lot more play) but even on par with something like Nasus would be enough

Thanks!

[Reluctant]

He isn't a very strong pick but not totaly unviable. It can work he is yust alot stronger in the jungle where his aoe helps alot unlike in lane where it can push the lane.
The mana isue is fine aslong as you don't spam.

[Migey]

Why?

What possible benefit does Skarner bring to a team in the top lane that another champion won't bring better?

Top lane is generally either the snowball lane or the tank lane. Skarner is not the most effective tank (he's not bad but not the best) and is an awful snowball champion.

[Pfeff]

I've dominated him top several times with a few different champs. He has good sustain, but that's about it. He can't kill a laner on his own and just gets pushed to the tower like crazy. If you're good at farming with the tower hitting them then you should be ok, plus if your jungler is decent he will see easy ganks, but that's pretty much all he brings. It's good to shut down a top like Darius, but Skarner himself won't get very fed

[Deleted]

how would he get pushed to the tower like crazy? saw some footage of some guy from TSM play him solo top in a ranked 5v5 and he seemed to be able to trade fairly well with the enemy tryndamere (also not a great pick though..) and his damage didn't seem terrible. plus he seemed to have pretty sweet harass when there's almost no minions alive just poke the enemy with a few Q's quickly (cause of the super low cd)

[ddsad2212]

Pro's play it jungle thus it will be called "unviable"(by people who don't understand the meaning) and call you a troll for picking it.

Anyway, the reason he is not picked top is partly due to his mana cost (or was at any rate), it just meant you could not use the shield over and over and thus you would be weaker in lanes. His sustain is good, but again mana cost tend to hurt. Also he is a bit like shen, with no ulti it hurts him in top lane trades and unlike shen he has no escape out side of a slow and move speed buff.

Apart from that, he is a good trader, strong in 1v1, very good at setting up jungle ganks even before 6 and after 6 it can nearly be a sure kill. But I don't think the large amount of farm in the lane comarped to the jungle really helps him, his damage is not great and he is a decent tank. I suppose with his perma slow you can play him the same as olaf and just hunt the adc in team fights.

Really he has most the tools needed to top, the only problem I see is his mana and If I am not mistaken, thats not as much a problem as it used to be. Also a quick tip if anyone says a champion is unviable, they more then likely have no idea what they are on about.

[Migey]

No champion is unviable?

Try Teemo jungle.

Or Sona top.

Or Akali support.

[Duilliath]

No champion is unviable?

Try Teemo jungle.

Or Sona top.

Or Akali support.

Learn the difference between 'champion' and 'role', please.

[Deleted]

thanks for some good responses since i never play ranked anyway, i'll just see if i can get a spot on him at top and see how it goes. philo stone should work wonders with the mana atleast! and an early sheen means you a large enough mana pool to use abilities a few more times.

[Axethor]

Most of the issues with Skarner top is he doesn't really need the farm and many more champs can perform that role better. With farm he can become really scary, really fast, but I would still consider it wasted potential. Why secure one lane when you can secure them all from the jungle?

[Pandragon]

Skarner is one of those champions where everyone says "He's better here, don't lay him anywhere else." Then people change their opinions if a pro does well somewhere else.

Anyways, other champions should be top instead. The only reason I see doing it that way is if you need a specific team comp with Skarner, and a top laner who can jungle, but the top laner you have would make great ganks against the enemy lanes. So you have Skarner go top for his usefulness later, and the top champ go jungle for his good ganks.

[meteo]

He has good sustain but sadly that's about it. If he trades, he'll push and most likely even lose the trade against the standard top laners. Additionally he won't score a kill all by himself. He relies on his jungler/midlane to gank although he can gank mid himself against someone without an escape.

An other problem I see are his mana costs. I doubt he can sustain himself without using a lot of mana and once he's oom, he's nearly useless (he needs a TON of mana to kill someone and farm without being forced to back).

[nbm02ss]

Top farm is better for someone who can utilize it (Skarner usually just relies on GP10 items), but if it's solo q and you're confident in your ability...why not?

[Hateful]

Skarner is one of those champions where everyone says "He's better here, don't lay him anywhere else." Then people change their opinions if a pro does well somewhere else.

Anyways, other champions should be top instead. The only reason I see doing it that way is if you need a specific team comp with Skarner, and a top laner who can jungle, but the top laner you have would make great ganks against the enemy lanes. So you have Skarner go top for his usefulness later, and the top champ go jungle for his good ganks.

But Skarner HAS good ganks, so why would you bother having Skarner top as opposed to a 'real' top laner? Jungling also gives him access to the Blue buff, and he has mana issues early game, when many top laners are strong.

The reason people don't play Skarner top lane is not because he's bad at it, it's because there are people who are better at it than him. It's the same with ANY role. You CAN play AP Karma mid lane, and win against people, but if you can pull that off why wouldn't you just play a mid champion who is better than her in the first place?

[Deleted]

The reason people don't play Skarner top lane is not because he's bad at it, it's because there are people who are better at it than him. It's the same with ANY role.

as i said, i'm not looking for a top tier pick (cause if he was other people would be doing it) but if he were about as viable as garen or nasus, that's fine for me as i don't play ranked anyway.

and the reason other people are giving that "he should be jungling" is a bit of a weak one tbh :i if the jungler isn't planning on playing skarner anyway, it's not like we're losing out cause i'm selfish and want to play skarner. plus as far as i read his damage isn't bad in the least, and can actually outtrade people on top lane (and with smart play you don't HAVE to push your lane, q range isn't especially big)

thanks for all the comments!

[FoShizzleMyGrizzle]

No, just no. Skarner belongs in the J U N G L E. Nuff said
btw, thats like topping nautilus, he cant kill a laner solo.

[Deleted]

he can harass them out of the lane and if they get greedy you can kill them pretty good with your ult though! and "no just no" means nothing without argumentation

[Duilliath]

You had reasons. However, you weren't looking for reasons why Skarner wouldn't be a good pick. You were looking for validation in taking him top. That's entirely different.

It's quite simple: he does better in the jungle. As such, it'd be a waste to put him top lane. Conversely, if you want to play top lane, there's better candidates, making it a bit silly not to take them.

[Kazzyku]

The point in playing top lane is to farm. That's why champions like Riven can jungle, but are so much better top because the farm really pulls them ahead.

Skarner does not need much in terms of items to be effective. That's why the current meta has a jungler that gives up his buffs and often his wraiths/golems; and a support that doesn't take CS from the ADC. The idea is to have three people farmed to nuts, so it's good to play jungle champions with some form of snare or CC that need little in terms of farm to do well (see: Maokai, Naut, Amumu, etc).

Basically, the farm from Skarner top wouldn't be put to good use because he doesn't scale with items as well as many traditional top lane champions. It's not a matter of "WAT DA PROS DO HURPADURP" it's a matter of "look at his abilities and see that they don't scale well with items."

And as far as lane-sustain, any decent jungle Skarner doesn't even put points into his E until level 13 because it's so mediocre. So, if you need it for laning, it's still going to be mediocre.

But you say you don't play ranked, so why even ask in the first place? Normals are for having fun and goofing off, play what you want top. When I play normals I don't go in expecting people to follow the meta; I even play me a good support Singed/Katarina now and then. Are you still going to confuse/anger people with your top lane choice? Probably. Maybe you can prove them wrong by doing well.

[Deleted]

A Skarner can't kill a target solo?

oO

Oo

O.O

Put a Sheen on him, Philo for sustain + FH/Cloak on him depending on enemy laner with a Wits End, and you have scary right there. I've played him a little top, and it has been lots of fun. His early game is lacking though due to mana, but if you're lucky enough to be against a heavy armor laner you'll have more than enough mana with your sheen + FH & Philo for the sustain.

Noone can escape your Q spam (movement speed quints + 9/21/0 build for tankiness and more ms).

But I think people tend to think of a bruiser to be a little tanky with massive amounts of damage - Skarner is the other way around, whereas the more tankier he gets, the more damage he pulls off. He's a niche, sure, and others might perform better than him, but he can still do just fine up there in my opinion - if you want to try something new