Hero Strategy: Skar

Hero skar — "**Skar**, the Shadow of Death" ---- Necro Ravager from Nocturna.

With all 4 variants unlocked at Crogenitor Level 35, Skar, the Shadow of Death is a very anticipated Hero for many, and for good reason. His Squad Ability will guarantee Critical Strikes, allowing for serious damage output if the target is struck from the back and significant healing

General Information

Skar is Necro Genetic, and is a Ravager. As such, he is faster than most Sentinels and Tempests, has high DPS, but lower defenses. He is based around striking fast and doing it with precision. At the same time, as a Necrogenesis character, his Variant Abilities can make each version of Skar play very differently from the others.

Skar is mostly loved for his Squad Ability, Shadow Cloak. Three of the five Plasma characters, Lumin, Char, and Zrin, all benefit, more than others, from Skar's Shadow Cloak. The Plasma Variant ability Flame Surge is simply, for lack of a better word, epic, when given a 100% Crit chance. Zrin's Plasma Column is devastating, as every tick of his DPS Squad Ability will crit, almost literally melting enemies' health away. Lumin can silently manuever into the middle of a group, then bring down the heavens with his Thunderstorm. Char, on the other hand, has a DoT Squad Ability, called Fiery Eruption. It will deal impressive upfront damage, and can take out any survivors of the initial assault with its DoT.

Prior to his recent nerf, Skar was almost always paired with Tork, because of his Sporogenesis. Used to heal regardless of whether or not debuffs were present, and a Shadow Cloaked AoE HoT was a sight for sore eyes at the end of a horde pit. Nowadays, on the Bio side, Skar's Squad Ability is regulated back to buffing Virulent Vines Periodic Disease damage. Sage's Strangling Briars are a great combo with Shadow Cloak, as it will slow down enemies trapped inside, forcing them to take several more ticks of Critical DPS. In addition, Tree of Life benefits from Crit Healing also.

Official Hero Spotlight

"Watch Skar, the Shadow of Death, in action and get an overview of his special abilities and upgrades." — DarksporeGame

Base Stats & Unlock Levels

NOTE: The following stats include Skar's non-modified primary stats: Green represents the highest stats; Red represents the lowest.

Variant	Alpha	Beta	Gamma	Delta
Crogen. Unlock LvL	35	35	35	35
Health	255	280	275	260
Power	116	112	111	117
Strength	11	16	15	12
Dexterity	23	22	24	21
Mind	16	12	11	17
Dodge Rating	288	282	294	276
Resist Rating	146	122	116	152
Critical Rating	192	188	196	184

Abilities

Each variant's different stats are separated by a Forward Slash (/), starting with the Alpha Variant's and ending with the Delta Variant's.

- Basic Attack: Dual Strike

 Range: 3 meters

 Cooldown: 0.4 seconds

 Cast Type: Instant

"Attacks once with each hand in quick succession, dealing 3-6 physical damage twice."

Skar is the only hero in the game with such an ability, excluding Orion's basic attack combo. This allows for him to quickly cut down enemies, one by one. Additional Attack Speed will allow him to deal damage even faster, while these multiple hits will benefit from Health Leech and Power Leech. Each attack in a sense deals double damage, since they're two different attacks at (almost) the same time.

- Unique Ability: Shadow Sting

 Range: 4 meters

 Cooldown: 3 seconds

 Cast Type: Instant

 Power Cost: 9

"A devastating melee attack that deals 21-32 / 20-31 / 22-33 / 20-30 physical damage and exposes a key weakness. For the next 6 seconds, physical attacks on that same target will deal increased damage equal to 50% of the damage this attack dealt."

Shadow Sting is best used on larger enemies with more health than an average Minion. Excellent for dispatching high priority enemies, in both Solo and Co-op. Darkspore Operatives will die a little faster, and Bosses will take more Physical Damage from all players, making him useful in Co-op when paired with other player's physical damage dealing heroes, such as Sentinels, like Zrin or Savage, or a fellow Melee Ravager like Viper or Vex. Also some Tempests like SRS-42 deal physical damage as well.

- Squad Ability: Shadow Cloak

 Range: N/A

 Cooldown: 15 seconds

 Cast Type: Instant

 Power Cost: 16

"Becomes invisible for 6 seconds. for the first second Skar is immune to damage, but after that taking damage will break the invisibility. Attacking while invisible will cause an automatic critical hit and will also break the effect."

This ability is the main selling point of Skar. Working with nearly every Hero in the game, Shadow Cloak can dramatically increase the effectivness of DoTs, DPS', as well as Healing abiliies. A nice example is pairing it with Meditron, as when using Meditron Alpha or Beta, you can use Shadow Cloak and then their squad ability. If you have enough catalysts then and it's big badda boom. Also, if anyone in your squad is injured, Shadow Cloak then Reconstruct can heal A LOT.

An other great use of Shadow Cloak is to pair it up with the Cyber Variant Ablility Charged Strike. This combo, as stated in Skar's Hero Spotlight, can kill even Lieutenants in one hit.

To learn more about Skar's Squad Ability Modifiers go to "Squad Ability Modifiers" heading below.

Modifiers

In the recent Patch 5.3.0.125, Skar got two squad ability modifiers:

Skar's Shadow Cloak: Fears nearby enemies. (Skrae's Afflix)

Skar's Shadow Cloak: Removes most recent debuff. (Haijsh's Afflix)

- Passive: Opportunism

"Skar deals 25% more damage with direct damage abilities when he attacks from behind his target."

A mixed bag. On the one hand, with the ability to turn invisible, getting behind a target can be easy.

On the other hand, this is not a good thing to do during the heat of battle, with projectiles flying around, which may hit you. It is better to start a battle this way than to finish it. A critical Shadow Sting with a 10% boost will quickly cripple most Lieutenants, Elites and even Destructors. This works very well when attacking Shielded Grenadiers because most of the time they are damaged from behind.

On the third hand, not every Darkspore has a recognizable front. Botanical Tunnelers, Laser Tanks , and Mutation Agents, for example have radial symmetry for the most part. Whether they do have a front or not is unknown, however, it has been shown that Laser Tanks only shoot their lasers in a cone (not always, but mostly), and if their target leaves the cone, they must remove all lasers before re-attacking.

Variants

- Alpha: Lifeforce Siphon

 Range: 10 meters

 Cooldown: 12 seconds

 Cast Type: Channeled

 Power Cost: 22

"Channeled health drain that steals 105 health from a single target over 6 seconds. While channeling, Skar is shielded and takes 50% less damage from all sources."

Skar Alpha is specialized for taking down single high-priority targets, such as Lieutenants, Elites, Captains, and Destructors. With +Cooldown Reduction and +Power Leech, he can maintain a steady stream of Shadow Stings and Shadow Cloak-enhanced Lifeforce Siphons. This Variant Ability can keep him alive, and will also reduce damage received. With + Periodic Damage, the amount of damage dealt, and therefore the amount of Health Skar recovers, is increased. Also with +Channeling Speed he can drain health faster.

This variant receives trouble in the form of the Reflective affix. While that will have no effect on his main form of damage (Shadow Sting & Dual Strike), it will prevent Lifeforce Siphon from being used effectively, in extension cutting down on his survivability, despite the ability's tooltip not mentioning what kind of damage is dealt. Ghostly and Spiky affixes are even more crippling, but are that way for every variant of Skar, so it would be best to switch him out regardless of which one you are playing.

- Beta: Soul Link

 Range: N/A

 Cooldown: 24 seconds

 Cast Type: Instant

 Power Cost: 18

"Damage taken by Skar is shared among the rest of the squad for 12 seconds. Healing is also shared but only after Skar is at full health. While Soul Link is active, Skar will gain the passive abilities of the other squad members."

Soul Link is a fascinating ability, which requires one to build his/her entire squad around the Hero with said ability in order to make it really worth while.

Skar with Soul Link is much more durable than the usual Skar, though only while the Link is active. What one really needs to keep in mind, though, is the Passives and Squad Abilities of his Squad Mates. Even in Overdrive, when all heroes have access to their squad-mates passives, the Damage Share is still (or not more) helpful.

ATTENTION!: ALWAYS USE +DUAL LEECH AND +COOLDOWN REDUCTION!

(This can't be stressed enough.)

Skar Beta (or any Necro hero with Soul Link) also has an upper-hand in PvP, since this means they can still access other squad-mates passives despite no Overdrive.

This is a list of possible combos of different heroes with Skar Beta:

Tork - While his Sporogenesis has taken a hit, his Passive, Rampant Growth, has not. All periodic effects are increased by 25%. Excellent with heroes with periodic squad abilities, like Zrin or Meditron.
Arborus - With increased survivability, comes the opportunity to abuse his Arboreal Might enrage. Increased damage, is a boon for any Hero, but it's much better for Skar, because his Basic Attack hits twice. This means Arboreal Might will DOUBLE Skar's Basic Attack damage. Skar also can easily recharge its duration, because most enemies will die VERY fast. Arborus' passive, Thorn Bark further increases survivability, as it returns some of the damage dealt to him.
Viper -Toxicity is a monster on any Ravager, and Skar is NO EXCEPTION. Pairing well with other AoE Squad Abilities, Skar can poison enemies from afar, and finish them off when they draw near. The damage from Thornado is appreciated too.
Arakna - Theoretically, her passive, Soul Collector, would be a boon here. However, this would make maintaining Soul Link even more crucial. But combined with Skar's Shadow Cloak, it can be a very effective offensive. While cloaked with all 5 'Souls', then using Essence Volley, you can deal large portions of Critical Damage, increasing the amount that is healed, but that amount is doubled because it will become a Critical Heal. Also more effective if it was used from behind. The problem with putting Arakna in the squad is that it is foolish to put heroes of the same Genesis Type in the same squad.
Lumin - With his excellent Passive, Charged Field, paired with the naturally high Critical Rating of a Ravager, Skar could have a supportive role for his allies in Co-op, greatly increasing teammate's (and his own) Critical Rating. When paired up with Blitz, its effectiveness is increased greatly.
Zrin - Hardened Mantle gives a buff to his survivability, but mainly one would choose Zrin so they could abuse the Plasma Column + Shadow Cloak combo, maybe with a bit of Rampant Growth added for good measure. Since Hardened Mantle is basically an Armored Affix, it will also help Soul link because it shares damage with squad-mates, so this would help all of them.
Blitz - The advantages of Deadly Precision on Skar are, simply put, terrifying. With a way to guarantee Crits, any attack can suddenly skyrocket in damage dealt. Plasma Wreath will also provide additional survivability and damage.
Orion - As if reducing the amount of time it takes for Cooldowns to reset wasn't good enough, Chronostabilizer will increase Skar's Movement and Attack Speed as long as he stays above 75% HP. With Soul Link, this is much easier.
Magnos - The naturally high Dodge Rating of a Ravager will be proved useful, as Resonance will use that to increase Physical Damage. Since most of Skar's attacks deal that, it is an excellent addition to his arsenal, while Kinetic Wave can give him space, whenever he is overwhelmed, so he can retreat under a Shadow Cloak. With Blitz's Squad Ability or Maldri's Passive this is also more effective.
Maldri - Though his Probability Assault is far from reliable, a 100% increase in Dodge is welcomed on any Hero, especially Ravagers, who could become immune to physical attacks.
Vex - With an excellent teleporting Squad ability in the form of Chrono-Blink, Vex's Passive will let Skar provide an support role to his teammates, much like Lumin and his Passive. Even in Solo-play, the Attack Speed bonus is helpful.
Goliath - Goliath's Arc Weld in itself is pretty devastating, especially if it's enhanced by a Shadow Cloak. Target Reticle, on the other hand, isn't as reliable, because you never know which enemy will be scanned. This would be best used if you pick-off the smaller enemies first, then Target Reticle could only affect the larger or more dangerous enemy. With Shadow Cloak, 'Target Reticle becomes much more useful, since he can use it to sneak up behind an opponent and hit it with a Shadow Sting. The damage will be incredible, since Shadow Sting is already a powerful attack, and it will have a huge damage boost and a guarantee to Crit.
Revenant - Theoretically, Revenant could be a good choice during a fight. Grasping Dead isn't very effective for this Necro Tempest, however for Skar, it may be a great advantage. Terrifying Curse would also be good, if enhanced with Shadow Cloak, as it can interrupt the more dangerous enemies and keep them at bay, while Skar can devote himself to slashing the enemies to bloody shreds.
Krel - Although it requires good timing, his Concussive Sequence can be used to Stun an enemy, then unleash attacks with no resistance or retaliation.
Andromeda - Unless Skar has a squad-mate with projectile squad abilities, like Arakna or Krel, Skar doesn't benefit from Gravitic Field at all, since all of his attacks are Melee. However, in Co-op it can be used as a support ability, since it's an aura. So although Skar most likely won't benefit from it, allies with projectiles would appreciate it.
SRS-42 - Targeting Computer could be helpful, though it has a major flaw, when using it with Skar. He has to remain still in order to boost his damage. This will NOT be any help at all, since Skar is forced to dodge attacks and projectiles, so he doesn't have any time to stop and attack for more than a few seconds. This would be better in PvP, when there are fewer attackers.
Savage - Bestial Mastery is in essence a great ability for low-armor characters like Skar. Savage Ally is a very good boost to this Ravager, when working with Savage's Passive, as the pet will inflict Physical Vulnerability for each strike, making Skar's gameplay easier. In addition, if Skar dies, his pet will revive him (as long as the pet itself is alive.)
Sage - Dendrones are an excellent boost to Skar's damage output, while Strangling Briars, when combined with Shadow Cloak, are completely devastating. This Physical Vulnerability inflicted by Shadow Sting will also benefit both.
Jinx - Spirit Aura can be helpful, because it will restore a portion of Power when he kills an enemy. With Skar's Shadow Cloak, this is much easier. The main reason one would want to use Jinx, however, would be her Squad Ability, Curse of Weakness, which causes affected enemies to deal even less damage and recieve more of it, making this ability great for Skar.
Wraith - Helpful for heroes with lower health, like Ravagers, Desecrated Visage causes nearby enemies to deal less damage. Both in Solo-play and Co-Op, this can be used to a great advantage, as well as boost Skar's survivability.
Char - Although short lived, Concussive Orbit can effectively be used as an AoE Stun. This will help Skar to get behind them, helping his passive.
Titan - The Damage Absorption from Absorption Shield is very helpful, but Skar's Resist Rating is low, which means that the shield won't last long. This while active can greatly increase his Survivability.
Seraph-XS - Stealth Module, although having its uses, isn't very effective with Skar. Why? Because it will break the stealth of Shadow Cloak. If you truly wanted/needed to use it, it'd be best to either use Shadow Cloak very quickly, or not at all, at least while Soul Link is active.
Meditron - Meditron's Reconstruct will definitely increase Skar's survivability, while Sentry Drone will provide a steady stream of lasers. Nothing more, nor less. Better in PvP, since then the Drone would only focus on One or Two enemies, as opposed to a Horde.

- Gamma: Phantom Charge

 Range: 35 meters

 Cooldown: 8 seconds

 Cast Type: Instant

 Power Cost: 16

"Charges through enemies, causing 16-24 energy damage and suppressing them for 2 seconds."

Phantom Charge allows the user to cover large distances in the blink of an eye, making it a very useful skill in Co-op. Skar utilizes this best by landing slightly past his target, suppressing them, then dealing damage with Shadow Sting. Either of these two attacks can be supplemented by a Shadow Cloak. If dealing with a horde, this variant of Skar is simply perfect. Simply run away from the enemies, activate Shadow Cloak, maneuver into position and hit Phantom Charge.

Result: Almost certain bloodbath.

This Skar requires no special gear, only what one would have put on him to begin with. However, + Harmful Status Duration wouldn't hurt.

- Delta: Affliction Bolt

 Range: 80 meters

 Cooldown: 15 seconds

 Cast Type: Instant

 Power Cost: 27

"Summons a semi-intelligent necroplasm for 12 seconds which will inflict a curse upon each enemy it touches. Cursed enemies will take 33 energy damage over 8 seconds."

Affliction Bolt dramatically alters the way one plays as Skar. Suddenly, a Hero based on one-on-one melee combat is able to clear out a room with vast waves of energy damage. And all of this is thanks to his Squad Ablility.

Shadow Cloak + Affliction Bolt results in a DoT Curse, that Crits for each tick of damage, at for least 8 seconds. With the usual Dual Leech and Cooldown Reduction, Skar can deal with most of a Horde Pit by himself. However, he is less adept at dealing with Destructors than Skar Alpha, with the exception of Orcus and his Biosoids. Lieutenants and some Elites can, however, survive the Critted Affliction Bolt. And if one enemy with a Reflective Aura shows up, Skar will be forced to hunt him down and dispatch him, and hope he isn't also Ghostly, on the way.

Despite being so different from Skar Alpha, the same gear setup is used by both of them. Attack Speed, Dual Leech, and Cooldown Reduction. Skar Delta will also benefit from + Periodic Damage, and + Harmful Status Duration.

Recommended Stats

See Character Abilities & Stats For More Information

Equip like any other Ravager, focusing on Dexterity, Critical Rating and Dodge Rating. Power is appreciated, especially on Skar Delta, with his high rate of Ability usage.

NOTE: Not all of these stats are necessary, but are things to keep an eye out for. Also, these stats mainly apply to just Skar and his abilities, not any other squad abilities.

+xx% Damage for Necro Attacks

-xx% Damage from Necro Attacks Because of the Same Genesis Vulnerability

+xx% Cooldown Reduction All Abilities

+xx% Attack Speed Cap is 150% (2.5x)

+xx% Projectile Speed Skar Delta's 'Affliction Bolt' speed

+xx% Movement Speed

+xx% Channeling Speed Skar Alpha's 'Lifeforce Siphon'

+xx% Increased Range All Abilities that have Ranges

+xx% Power Leech

+xx% Health Leech

+xx Weapon Max Damage (and/or) +xx% Weapon Max Damage 'Dual Strike' Basic Attack

+xx Weapon Min Damage (and/or) +xx% Weapon Min Damage 'Dual Strike' Basic Attack

+xx Physical Damage (and/or) +xx% Physical Damage 'Dual Strike' & 'Shadow Sting'.

+xx Energy Damage (and/or) +xx% Energy Damage Skar Gamma's 'Phantom Charge'. Skar Delta's 'Affliction Bolt' curse

+xx% Periodic Damage Skar Alpha's 'Lifeforce Siphon', and Skar Delta's 'Affliction Bolt' curse

+xx% Pet Damage? Skar Delta's 'Affliction Bolt' curse?

+xx% Duration of Harmful Statuses Inflicted 'Shadow Sting' Physical Vulnerability. Skar Delta's 'Affliction Bolt' curse. Skar Gamma's 'Phantom Charge' supression.

+xx% Duartion of Helpful Statuses Applied 'Shadowcloak'. Skar Beta's 'Soul Link'.

Immune to being (debuff type) by Darkspore (fully optional but helpful)

Squad Ability Modifiers (optional but sometimes helpful)

Skar's Shadow Cloak: terrifies nearby enemies.

Skar's Shadow Cloak: Removes most recent debuff.

Any sorts of Boons from certain Loot (optional but helpful)