The sad state of Skarner...

I just want to point out how sad a state Skarner is in right now... His winrate and pickrate reflects that only the people who main this champion are the ones playing him, and it makes sense. why? Lets just take a look at Skarner compared to some other champions. In particular, Tanks with good cc chain. Im going to choose Sion and Nautilus for this comparison.

TLDR- Sion has VERY low base damage on ALL of his abilities. Top it off with terrible scaling as well, and you can see why hes in such rough shape. Too much of his "power budget" is in his passive, which is still non existent (mostly) in lane and completely deniable by the enemy team. Skarner needs a new passive and some buffs. And his E needs to be redistributed.

Just a quick Overview of Skarner's abilities (aside from passive, it doesn't actually do "damage")

Q: Base damage: NONE -----Scaling: 33-45% TOTAL AD (+33-45%AD and 30% AP when charged)

This ability is not much more than a glorified sheen proc since it lacks any kind of base damage. If you are playing Skarner optimally, you build so little AD on the champion that this damage, when charged, will probably not even hit 100dmg pre-mitigation. Yes, its spammable, but you will get easily bursted out before you have time to make that happen.

W: Base Shield Value: NONE ------Scaling: 10-14% Max HP plus 80% AP

Skarner is primarily played as a tank and this shield doesn't help all that much. Its on a fairly low cooldown, but the fact that his speed buff is tied to such a small shield is just terrible. The 80% AP scaling on this feels like an insult, because there is never a reason to build a ton of AP on Skarner... Unless you are trolling.

E: Base Damage: 40-140 ------Scaling: 20%AP ------Proc Damage: 30-110 ------Proc Scaling: NONE

This is why you max E first at the moment: Because burst damage is king. At MAX RANK level 9, this ability, assuming you can proc the stun, will deal a whopping 250 damage! Premitigated of course, but still. Only scaling it has is 20% AP... Good thing this skill is overloaded as heck: Reduced cooldown when stunning, Grants passive attack/move speed for the 1.25 seconds, assuming they dont have any tenacity. Ranged AoE, but the projectile slows as it passes through targets... cuz balance. This skill is still so weak you can't even reliably last hit with it in lane... 40 dmg? good luck. Still, this is the only DECENT damage in Skarner's kit.

R: Base Damage: 20/60/100 ----Scaling: 60% Total AD + 50%AP

Yes, this skill gets to displace a target and it deals its damage 2x if they don't use QSS to get out of it. But even with both procs- your damage is really friggin low. A whopping 200 (+120% AD)(+100%AP)

Lets compare some numbers with a few other tanks with good cc profiles:

Q: Nautilus- Base Damage: 80-240 -----------------Scaling: 75% AP

(This is Nautilus' hook, which has displacement and can also be used as general mobility if he hits a wall with it)

Sion- Base Damage: 20-100 (Minimum) to 60-300 (maximum) ---------------------Scaling: 45-75% AD (minimum) to 135-225% AD (maximum)

(mini-knock up and stun at best, a decent slow at worst. Total AD scaling btw, and Sion can get away with building a lot more of it than Skarner...)

W: (hey look, shields!) Nautilus- Base Shield Value: 60-100 ---------------- Scaling: 9-13% Max HP

Sion- Base Shield Value: 30-130 --------------- Scaling: 8-12% Max HP (+30% AP)

Not like you would build AP on Sion anyway, but eh... Oh, and both of their shields, grant DAMAGE with the if not broken condition. Skarner gets a RAMPING move speed buff that maxes out at 32% MS... Hope they are running through zones you control I guess?

E: Nautilus- Base Damage: 55-175, multiple hits deal 50% damage. --------------- Scaling: 30% AP

Hitting 2 waves is pretty easy, which would deal 83-263 (+45%AP) This ability also has a slow, and is AoE, but in a radial shape instead of a line.

Sion- Base Damage: 65-205 --------------- Scaling: 55% AP

Any wonder why Sion is the only real meta tank atm? This ability can also have massively increased range by "punting" a minion which doesn't reduce the damage taken, the slow, or remove the armor reduction effect.

R: Nautilus- Base Damage: 200-450 (primary target) 125-225 (secondary target/s) ------------ Scaling: 80%AP (primary) 40% AP (secondary)

Nautilus' ult is used from range, point and click, can affect multiple targets and ends with a knockup.

Sion- Base Damage: 150-450 (minimum) 400-1200 (Maximum) ------------- Scaling: 40% AD (minimum) 80% AD (maximum)

This ability makes Sion unstoppable, can be used to initiate or escape. Does damage to minions he passes through and if you are unlucky enough to get hit by him, it pulls, knocks up, and stuns you (and everyone else close to him) for a combined cc duration of about .75 to 1.75 based on distance he ran.

If Skarner is a tank, he is sorely lacking in any kind of meaningful damage, and lets not forget how Sion and Nautilus have passives that go with them anywhere on the map. His cc profile is not much (if at all) better than these two examples of Sion and Nautilus.

Can we finally revert Skarner and give back his base damage, scaling, and passive? Or just rework him again? He needs meaningful buffs, not QoL changes to his ball and chain passive. :(

"I miss my kind..."