@RiotRepertoir @Morello @Riot Skarner's new passive - an alternative idea

While I like the idea in theory, the current concept of how it would work--only giving control over for about ten seconds and being easily contestable--doesn't sit well with me personally. I like the idea of objective control, but with the way the passive is currently, it seems like a "win harder or lose harder" condition for Skarner. If his team can hold his crystal, Skarner probably doesn't need the buff to gain an advantage in combat. If his team can't hold the crystal, he's hosed out of his passive, which only hurts him more for being behind.

So I would propose a change: Make Skarner's passive work in a fashion similar to Azir's passive.

Rather than generating a turret on top of a dead turret, have Skarner's passive empower a ward, turning it into a Crystal Sentinel. The Crystal Sentinel would set the ward's life to one minute, have defensive stats that scaled off of Skarner, and would not have decaying health. The Crystal Sentinel's vision range would increase to Skarner's "buff radius" and grant True Sight if used on a purple ward. It would have an appropriate cooldown, probably around 3 minutes like Azir, and would buff Skarner while he's within its radius, just like the current crystal design does. With this, Skarner would have a lot more flexibility about using his passive, while at the same time still emphasizing objective control (as your team always has the most wards up when they're contesting objectives like Baron, Dragon or towers). This would also extend his objective control both to sieging and stopping sieges, without needing to just drop crystals all over Summoner's Rift for him to use. And because it has a cooldown and can be destroyed, it still fits into Riot's current "window of opportunity" design, and adds a level of decision making: should I use the Crystal Sentinel now, to force this turret down, or should I hang onto it in case they follow us to dragon and try to fight us there?

I think if you did something like this, and maybe added "bonus damage to neutral monsters and structures" to the buff zone, people would be a lot happier with you guys.

And nobody could take Skarner's rock away.