Kayn vs Skarner Counter Pick

Both champions ignore walls, so this becomes a contest over who uses terrain better. Shadow Step lets Kayn walk through it whenever he likes; Ixtal’s Impact sends Skarner charging through it and slams any champion or large monster he collides with into the next wall. One is a permanent movement tool, the other a cooldown, and over 403 games on patch 16.13.1 Kayn finishes at 54.1%.

Skarner’s payoff is Impale, a suppression that drags its victims along as he moves, which is the hardest possible answer to an assassin who must stand beside his target. Threads of Vibration applies Quaking through his attacks and abilities and, at maximum stacks, deals magic damage based on maximum health, so his mixed output is partly unaffected by the 114.5 armour Kayn reaches at level 18. Skarner is the tankier of the pair, climbing to 2,500 health and 109.5 armour from 630 and 33, though he opens 25 health behind. What Kayn keeps is initiative: 68 attack damage at level one against 63, 340 move speed against 335, and Umbral Trespass to begin a fight from inside the target rather than through Seismic Bastion, which shields Skarner while its shockwave damages and slows. The difficulty scale reads 5 for him against 8 for Kayn, so the harder champion holds the better record, and with 32 magic resist on both sides the magic portion of Quaking is at least partly answered by their shared starting stats.