Skaarf - from "Under Powered" to Over Powered by RjSingh

Skaarf - from "Under Powered" to Over Powered

By: RjSingh
Last Updated: Sep 6, 2015
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Skaarf

Build: The Wrath Of Skaarf

Ability Path

Fan the Flames
Heroic Perk
Spitfire
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
Goop
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
Dragon Breath
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12

Item Choices

Starting Items

Crystal Bit
Halcyon Potion
Halcyon Potion

Early Game, (Broken Myth or Eve)

Broken Myth
Eve of Harvest
Sprint Boots
Oakheart
Halcyon Potion
Halcyon Potion

Mid-Game, (Both Broken Myth, and Eve) (Dragon Heart Or Reflex Block) (Kinetic Shield or Coat of Plates)

Broken Myth
Eve of Harvest
Dragonheart
Reflex Block
Kinetic Shield
Coat of Plates
Travel Boots
Halcyon Potion
Halcyon Potion

Late Game, (Double Eve or Shatterglass) (Aegis or Metal Jacket)

Broken Myth
Eve of Harvest
Eve of Harvest
Shatterglass
Crucible
Aegis
Metal Jacket
Journey Boots
Crystal Infusion
Weapon Infusion

Considerable Items

Aegis
Clockwork
Frostburn
Aftershock

Threat Meter

Threat
Low
High
Show all
Threat Hero Notes
1
   No Threat
2
   No Threat
3
   No Threat
4
   No Threat
5
 Skaarf A Skaarf V Skaarf is likely to happen, if you do come across him avoid him in early game as if you come out on top in a fight you'll be on low health and could simply be ganked. So you rather farm as your skaarf does have pretty pricey items. If in late game you come across him go for him as he is 99.9% the damage dealer and you should focus on him, not their tank.
5
 Celeste If you block, or miss her stun you'll be fine in a 1v1 or teamfight, however her ult can take half your health so you want to dodge that,and try to not take any harass from her helios, just try to poke back with spitfire
6
 Glaive For Glaive you want to keep your distance as his afterburn is basically a free kill. Stay to the top side of the lane and then he will have to come to you giving you a spilt second to react. Once you see him activate his afterburn wait when his stun arrives and activate your reflex block or crucible and simply walk away or try get a quick kill.
6
 Catherine Catherine is the tank, no need to focus her, but if you have to kill her you can obviously do it, but try not use your abilities as they will bounce off her shield, just stick to that heroic perk and you'll get through the shield and hopefully be fine.
7
 Ringo Ringo is somewhat strong early game, miss a spit fire on him he will decimate half your health if used properly, so dont take that risk and only use it in lane or whenever he attacks you. And when it comes to late harass him hard with spitfire even use flares to get some free damage.
7
 Joule Block her stun with reflex, just out of the range from her thunder strike and spit fire her down and NEVER line up for her ult if she's CP
8
 Taka Taka is practically designed to murder skaarf. He can burst you down easily and get away with his kaku and considering you wont be able to get enough auto-attacks in to kill him he's the biggest nightmare of your life. You Should always fight him WITH teamates, However if you feel you could withstand his burst and kill him go ahead for that ace, but if he's teamates are still alive there is no need to take that risk.
8
 Koshka Like taka, she is your living nightmare. You can use the same principles but I would recommend using reflex block it for her ultimate. The main difference from the taka situation is she can catch up fast, so I would recommend using boots to gain distance and then spitfire her down.
8
 Krul Early game, he's a free kill, but late he's a monster, he will normally have shiversteel so just slow him down when he uses it, using goop then once you have your distance just spitfire him in a 1v1 or potentially a teamfight, but dont take that risk and just fight him with teamates, a double eve will definitely be helpful.
9
   No Threat
10
   No Threat

Introduction Top


Hi, there!

I've been away for some time, and now i have returned, it's been a months since I've updated this guide, and boy oh boy I have a lot of updating to do! This is a detailed guide giving insight on the tiny little flamethrower, Skaarf including his abilities, his heroic perk, some game strategies and what to build. Also I just wanted to clarify that these are one of many ways to to build Skaarf, as I recommend to always try and alter, differentiate this build and try out new builds but if you want to stick with this, cool. So anyway, I hope you enjoy it and find it very useful.

Thanks!

A closer look at Skaarf Top

Analysis of Skaarf



STATS LEVEL 1-12
HEALTH 632-1372 ARMOR 20-86
ENERGY 200-488 SHIELD 20-86
WEAPON 74-149 RANGE 5.5
ATK SPEED 100% MOVE SPEED 3.3

So here's the analysis.

Right off, we can see that skaarf has really low base health compared to all other heroes. So essentially we are dealing with a very vulnerable high damage target, who has no natural escape, you could kinda count goop as one if you use it efficiently, but for the most part you get the point. And I will mention this now this is why we get Sprint Boots so early. Now what should we do about this vulnerability? Well we can buy defense and get lifesteal! Since he has SO much damage we can use some of that damage to stay alive in a fight, which is why we go double Eve of Harvest. If you are finishing a game, or think you need more damage, go ahead and get something else instead, of that second eve, Or you can use Crystal Infusion. If you have the gold get a Shatterglass that combined with the amplifying power of Broken Myth is OP as F###. But you may be thinking right now, or not why don't we go shatterglass over broken myth, well it's because my friends statistically broken myth is BETTER than shatterglass 80% of the time, speaking for all heroes of course. Now, I will not sugarcoat that his lifesteal, as effective as it is cannot simply withstand all the damage within a teamfight, and pretty much we need this for all heroes is defense. When we get something like metal jacket health with that as well, we can stop the damage but there is usually other damage we can get bursted by, this is why we need health, hence [[crucible for the block as well. But if we just got Aegis and metal jacket we would only have 200+ health, which is simply not enough. Just so you know you build armour when there's weapon power and aegis when there's crystal power.
So that's a closer look at skaarf and explaining the main build, and a brief overview of some "considerable items."

I would like to mention that I build crystal because he is a mage. For those who don't know what a "mage" is, it is a character who uses their skill set as their primary source of power and are also very dependent on their abilities. So evidently, his best and full potential lies within in crystal.

Considerable Items Top

Matches never go planned - it's unpredictable.

Use these items as alernatives, situational or just add it to your personal build. Beside's you dont always want to go with the same build it's kinda boring. So here we go! We use a Aegis for protection against crystal, for a Reflex Block AND 200+ health. Clockwork to spam your abilities if you feel you need them. Frostburn to slow a fleeing enemy to burn them to death - it's pathetic early game due to the recent patch but I recommend it late game as a 6th item. Aftershock can be used to finish off a game using it's power to harass with Spitfire for devastating harass, or when the enemy is far too tanky. Crystal Infusion and Weapon Infusion should be used late game as they changed according to your level, they should be used for a burst of power or to finsh a game.

Skill Set Top

Skill Set.


Skaarf is a mage so his skill set is very important to understand. Let's start of with his heroic perk - fan the flames.

 Fan the Flames
Slot: Heroic Perk

Skaarf's abilities burn targets and his basic attacks deal bonus crystal damage to burning targets.
  • Burn: 12-34 (level 1-12) (+15% crystal power) damage per second for 4s.
  • Basic attacks: 2.5% of the target's max health as crystal damage.
  • Deals reduced damage to Mythic Creatures and structures.

Details:

Damage: 1.5% of max health
Duration: 3 seconds
Damage Increase: 1.5% of max health per attack (up to 6%)


Skaarf has one of the most important passives, this is the reason he is the strongest hero early game because once you have it burning at 6% of max health at lvl 1 they're most likely dead. Now, if you get Goop first, I don't know what you're doing in life O.o, late game it may not be so effective because it's the initial burst or burn from goop or spitfire, but when you are dealing with tanky or fleeing opponents you will see it to come in to play more. You can experiment using the burn with Alternating Current which I highly recommend doing and see how that works out for you.

 Spitfire
Slot: A

Skaarf spits a fireball that collides with the first hero, structure or boss monster it hits.
  • The fireball damages & passes through smaller minions.
  • Each time it passes through a unit, its damage is reduced to 85% of before.
  • Deals 50% less damage damage to minions.


Spitfire does a huge chunk of burst if you take the overdrive,(which I suggest doing first) which grants 325 base crystal damage. I suggest using this for harass, pushing or to just chunk off people's health as usually you should be doing 400 damage when you have Broken Myth

 Goop
Slot: B

Skaarf hurls a goop onto the target location. Enemies walking through the sticky substance are slowed. Any of Skaarf's flames will ignite the puddle, dealing burst damage and burning enemies over time.
  • A flaming puddle does not slow enemies as much as a goop puddle.
  • Deals half damage to minions and Mythic Creatures.


This should be used as a harass, defensive, or as a crowd control tool. It provides a slow to do all these things. You should only ablaze it for the damage or to Fan the Flames to get that last hit because the slow is significantly slower once ablazed. To ablaze it simply use Spitfire and aim at it. To use this effectively as a defensive manoeuvre you should place it underneath yourself because of the short delay to place it. If they are burning up it may as well not be worth your time as they will ablaze it once they have made contact, so you rather try killing them.

 Dragon Breath
Slot: C

Skaarf inhales for 1.5s, then exhales a huge cone of flames for 3s. Skaarf may move freely while spewing fire.
  • Skaarf gains a quick burst of move speed when exhaling.
  • While inhaling or exhaling, enemies moving against the current are slowed while allies moving with it are sped up.
  • Deals 50% damage to non-heroes.


As of 1.4.0 skaarf's ult can't devastate people as it used to, and if you rely on that for our damage or take it's overdrive, your most likely going to lose. Really you need to focus on his perk and other 2 abilities, I would barely ever use this but I take 1 point at lvl 6 just in case I have any use of it's 0.3 movement speed buff, but would channel it before you have to chase which you probably can tell if you need to.

General Stratergy Top

You are strong early game, but these days people don't invade because farm comes so early. So there are a few things you can do,

You can outfarm the enemy laner and possibly score a kill,
Steal the enemy junglers closest 2 camps to the jungle shop,
Farm in lane and once your junglers have finished a round invade with them then and pick up some items

Now mid-game nothing too big happens other than gold mine, if you know the enemy doesn't have vision on the gold mine or they are at the back of jungle or not paying attention take it. If you happen to get a ace you can take the gold mine yourself, or push potentially 2 turrets for 600+ gold for your entire team.
Late game, you have to play very cautiously, make sure you are always travelling in a 3 man squad and behind your teamates not facechecking, and use the white ping on yourself so your teamates know to peel or protect you. And if you circle the kraken and constantly use your abilities you can probably take him 1v1.


You probably already know what to do with your abilities, like just spitfire and goop them, but here's a trick you can use spitfire and if you use goop quick enough to place it before it lands you can light it up in quick succession ;D.

Thanks for reading this guide hope it helps,
comment underneath if you want know more and some help,
tell me if I can improve change this in anyway,
please upvote this to tell me that you want more guides and I would appreciate the support,
and tell me if you would like to see another character guide!

And if you would like to play with me I'm on the EU server IGN: RjSingh and I'm POA gold about to be VG


Updates Top

1.1 - fixed some gramatical errors and changed some wording
1.2 - added situational items and a weapon build
2.0 Huge Update! Completely revamped the entire page with lots more coding, better wording, more threats, and a sophisticated structure!
2.1 - returned from the dead now I'm updated everything!

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