Hello, I am LuluXiu, the current laner player for Phoenix Reign and this is a guide for how I play Skaarf successfully in both ranked and competitive matches. Skaarf is a long range mage that excels at dealing poke damage, taking objectives, and generally burning everything in his path.
I hope you enjoy!
-Lulu
Skaarf’s heroic perk is an important part of his kit, and allows him to do immense damage to extremely tanky units, objectives, and the Kraken. Skaarf’s abilities burn targets, and basic attacks refresh the burn and deal percent health damage that scales with total crystal power. Critical strikes increases the damage by 2x, but Skaarf isn’t very likely to crit. Remember to continue basic attacking in team fights and in the laning phase, as it is an excellent source of damage, but be careful not to get out of position.
When activated, Skaarf fires a flaming projectile in the target direction that burns enemies on contact and does a substantial amount of damage. This is Skaarf’s main damage source and poke, so it is imperative to land these as much as possible. The projectile can pass through minions, but the damage is reduced for each target it passes through and explodes if contacting a hero or structure. If trying to poke in lane, you can fire through minions, but for maximum damage you should fire around the minions as to avoid the damage reduction.
Due to the projectiles colliding with enemy heroes, positioning in team fights is extremely crucial for landing Spitfires. Oftentimes, the support will try and block incoming spitfires so you will have to position yourself around them in order to get a direct shot at the enemy carry. Spitfire has an extremely long range, so you should be trying to output damage from as far away as possible in order to stay safe.
Upgrade Priority:
Spitfire is Skaarf’s main ability and source of damage, and should be treated as such. Upgrade Spitfire at every available opportunity, and take the overdrive at level 8. Each upgrade of Spitfire greatly increases the damage and the speed of the projectile. The increased speed makes it far easier to land Spitfires, so upgrading it ASAP is extremely important.
Apart from a Frostburn item, Goop is Skaarf’s main form of crowd control, but it is also a major source of damage. When activated, Skaarf lays down a goop puddle at the target location that slows massively. If a Spitfire passes through the Goop (or Dragon’s Breath), the Goop puddle will be ignited, dealing a burst of damage in addition to damage over time to enemies remaining on the goop puddle. The total amount of slow is reduced once ignited, but it is still significant enough to do a great deal of damage.
Goop is incredible to use in choke points and on objectives. With a fairly wide area, Goop is great at zoning enemies in choke points and can be used similar to how Celeste uses her Core Collapse for both CC and as an escape. In the laning phase, I would recommend not using Goop to farm as it is fairly bad at killing lane minions until the mid-late game and costs a lot of energy.
Upgrade Priority:
Upgrading Goop is actually very strong and viable in certain scenarios. If the enemy has a lot of CC or are fairly immobile, I would recommend taking the overdrive on Goop (After Spitfire of course). Upgrading Goop reduces the cooldown and greatly increases the total damage and duration of the Goop puddle.
Skaarf’s Dragon’s Breath is an extremely strong AOE damage source that also provides a lot of CC and gives Skaarf increased defensive stats for the duration. When activates, Skaarf inhales for 1.5 seconds, slowing fleeing enemies and giving a speed boost to allies, and then exhales a massive breath of fire for three seconds in a large cone in front of him. Skaarf can move while breathing out, but cannot use any other abilities.
When using Dragon’s Breath, be careful of enemy crowd control and be prepared to use Reflex Block to avoid getting stunned out of it. Also, since it does lock you in place while channeling, be careful about where you use it as it might leave you vulnerable. Dragon’s Breath is a great late game tool against enemies with a lot of shield as it has a large amount of natural shield pierce along with the shield pierce coming with your Broken Myth. Only use Dragon’s Breath after you have built up Broken Myth stacks and you have greater that 1/4 health remaining for maximum effect.
Roam Heroes to Pair With Skaarf:
Phinn- Phinn is an excellent pair with Skaarf, as his immense crowd control can help keep Skaarf safe and set up for big combo plays. His Forced Accord can be used to bring enemies onto a Goop puddle, or to peel sticky melee characters off.
Catherine- Similar to Phinn, Catherine’s CC helps set up for combo plays and keep Skaarf safe. Her endless stuns make landing Spitfires a breeze.
Ardan- Ardan is a useful pair mostly for the separation of Gauntlet and extra mobility provided by Vanguard. The speed boost helps Skaarf move around fights in get in a better position to land key Spitfires.
Jungle Heroes to Pair With Skaarf:
Any jungler that is relatively tanky and has a lot of CC is very good to pair with Skaarf. As a general rule, it is usually best to have both a weapon and a crystal carry on your team, so a weapon jungler would be a better fit to pair with Skaarf’s mage build path.
Lance- A jungle WP Lance is an excellent hero to play with a Skaarf. Lance has tons of CC to both protect Skaarf and set up plays, and has a strong early game to make up for one of Skaarf’s weaker stages of the game.
Glaive- Similar to Lance, Glaive is a frontline bruiser who can do a lot of damage in the front while Skaarf stays in the back of the fight. And, he can hold his own in the early game, helping Skaarf to scale.
Taka- Taka isn’t always the BEST option to pair with Skaarf, but it does take away a counter pick and Taka’s strong early game is very helpful for helping Skaarf scale. If playing with a Taka, try to make sure the Taka does not dive too deep in team fights, or it could risk putting you in a bad position.
Like most mages, Skaarf is most strong in the late game so it is best to play it safe and farm up in the early game. Skaarf is one of the hardest heroes in the game to CS with until you really get used to it. For best success, use as little of your abilities as possible and focus on basic attacking the minions. Without any burning or DOT, it will make last hitting much easier. However, it is important to not let the minions get too close to turret so use abilities to push the wave back if necessary. Skaarf isn’t terrible in the early game, so if you need to rotate to help out your jungle, you can do so but be careful as Skaarf is very vulnerable and squishy early on.
Skaarf begins to hit a power spike once he gets his Broken Myth and Eve of Harvest or Frostburn. At 2 items, Skaarf will be doing a ton of damage and will pretty much begin to carry the game. In the mid game, you should take advantage of Skaarf’s excellent objective damage and look to take gold mines and at least the first turret. If you are behind, focus on farming until you can get 3 items and some defense. At that point, you should be able to do enough damage to carry team fights by yourself.
The late game is easily skaarf’s strongest stage of the game. In team fights, you should be trying to kite around, dealing damage from a safe distance while building Broken Myth stacks. Once you have fully stacked Broken Myth, look to start dealing some serious damage with your abilities. If possible, use Goop to either peel for yourself or to land on multiple enemies for a maximum amount of damage. Additionally, once fully stacked and in a safe position, you can use Dragon’s breath to deal devastating AOE damage to the entire enemy team. If used correctly, this will completely melt the enemy and can completely turn around a team fight. The biggest thing, though, is using your range to poke out enemies and keep a safe distance from melee enemies. Skaarf is pretty squishy, so he’ll rely on good positioning, lifesteal and fountains from the support in order to stay alive.
-Make sure you remember to basic attack throughout team fights, especially in the late game. This is a lot of extra damage that some people forget to utilize. Do not, however, put yourself in a bad position in order to
basic attack, but instead basic attack if an enemy comes into range.
-Most people believe that upgrading Goop is useless and that not using Dragon’s Breath in team fights is bad, but that is simply not the case most of the time. In some scenarios, you can do much more damage by maxing Goop and choosing not to use Dragon’s Breath during teamfights.
-If trying to escape, you can use goop and not light it on fire for a bigger slow and a longer duration of the puddle.
Thank you for reading! I hope you found it useful. Send any questions you may have to
@LuluXiuuu on Twitter,
Team Phoenix or comment below.
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