My stance on Skarner, and what can be possibily be done to make him feel better =)

Hello, and thank You for reading this, and i apologize for my English, as it's not my native language.

So, to begin with, i fell in love with skarner since the first game i did with him, in late 2013. That was because of the feel of being like "an unescapable predator that once reached the target, he sticked to him" (sounds familiar :p?), the thrill of chasing your target, and the reward for getting onto it and keep being sticked to it. And well, his ultimate: pulling targets to wherever it pleases me feels so good =P. Leaving behind his original state, and his first, not-so-good-rework, the time this fantasy was best delivered from skarner (without the balance problems that affected him previously) was with his second rework. Here's what it was like:

• Crystallizing Sting (passive): Skarner's abilities apply stacks of Crystal Venom to enemy champions and large monsters, stacking up to 3 times. Attacking an enemy with 3 stacks consumes them to deal 20 - 105 (based on level) bonus magic damage and stun the target for 0.5 / 0.75 / 1 seconds. After the stun, targets cannot receive Crystal Venom stacks for 6 seconds.
• Crystal Slash (Q): basic attacks reduce the cooldown by 0.5 seconds (doubled to 1 against champions) New Effect: Each hit grants 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7% bonus movement speed, stacking up to 3 time Physical damage reduced to 20 / 32 / 44 / 56 / 68 (+ 40% Bonus AD) from 25 / 40 / 55 / 70 / 85 (+ 80% Bonus AD) Magic damage reduced to 20 / 32 / 44 / 56 / 68 (+ 20% AP) from 24 / 36 / 48 / 60 / 72 (+ 40% AP)
• Impale (R): New Effect: Deals 50 / 75 / 100 bonus magic damage per Crystal Venom stack consumed at time of casting Cooldown reduced to 100 / 90 / 80 seconds from 130 / 120 / 100 (Pasted and edited from http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/Skarner, update 4.10 for the sake of simplicity)

So what's the deal here? Well:

• Skarner can chase and stick to his target in a more healthy manner: the permaslow on crystal slash allowed not only Skarner, but also the rest of his team, to stick to skar's target, making it more frustating; but with the rework, crystal slash only sped up skarner, and chasing a target became more of his own thing (i hope i made this point clear);
• the stack mechanic made chases and duels more intense. Back then, i could feel skarner excalate into his engagings (be it a duel or a chase): i felt rewarded for keeping close to my targets, or enduring the duel, as every crystal slash cast gave more movespeed and attackspeed, plus the stun from the passive. My point till now, is that back to his second rework, Skarner was actually fine, without needing heavy tuning: he was fun, he was healthy.

But the third rework happened. Now don't get me wrong: i want to make it clear the i respect the intent of RiotRepertoir to give Skarner more depht to his gameplay, and an identity gameplay-wise. But here's my stance on his last rework, which brakes down into two points:

• the spires (his new passive). This is because they pratically hold so much of Skarner's power certain, non-movaeable areas of the map, giving him massive amounts of stats while he stays on these. This was to make him the "premier objective-controller", and to give him something else to do outside of ulting people (by capping/defending them). There are actually some pros to this, these being:

• the said massive amounts of stats, which solve skarner's mana problems, and make him so powerful inside of them, which most of the times prevents enemy invades, and make his clear really good;
• the said strategic depht (which i always appreciate, since it spices up my skarner experience): now it actually matters where i start a fight, whatever path i choose to get from point A to point B, or more specifically, setting ambushes for whoever is going to take the spire, etc. just to name a few.
• but with all the due respect no, i don't feel the urge of finding something else to do when ult is in cooldown, or not that desperately, at least: during the previous rework, i was fine farming, or applying venom stacks to the enemies and stun them. Getting the spires still doesn't feel like a right alternative to me. And here are the cons:
• a big amuont of Skarner's power is stored in specific location of the map (as long as he stays on these), which appear to not be in the lanes (mid, top, bot). This leads to what for me is the two biggest problems of this rework: 1) i can't really find a reason to not to say that Skarner got bottlenecked into the jungle (as in, he lost his ability to lane properly). This is because 2) Skarner feels painfully slow outside of the spires. This may be mostly in the early-mid game, or at least till he gets enough items to roll. This weakness makes sense as long as he jungles, because i'm supposed to use the spires that were given to him. But in the lanes there aren't spires (for obvious reasons): so Skarner gets into a lane with around half of his power in the jungle (sustain, movespeed, as, which synergizes with his Q) (i hope i made this point clear =))
• team effort: this was recognized from Riot devs, but still...capping/defending a spire sometimes involves so much effort from by the entire team(s), to give something only skarner can benefit from, and to not make him a deadweight. Also i can't find a reason for skarner's spires to be visible from the minimap: it's basically like broadcasting "Hey guys, i'm here!" which is not very cool.

• Crystal Slash (Q) now is only bland dps, or sheen/BC procs, i've never leveled it before Fracture (E). It feels so empty, it has no flavor unless i byu a sheen/bc....or raw ad.
• Fracture (E) is actually beautiful. I know, the projectile slows down as it goes across more and more targets, but you'l get used to it. However, the passive: every enemy hit get's marked; by popping the mark you proc a stun, extra damage, and the crystal charge passive from the spires, for the stun duration (reposition!)! this ability became so fun, because of all the high moments it gives. i don't have nothing else to say about it =D;
• Crystal Exhoskeleton (W) has never been in a better state. Giving it %maxhp scaling was the best thing to do.
• Impale (R) also got really better, since it procs crystal charge (the same buff as the spire's one): as in, more movespeed for the duration of the suppression.

Let me clarify again: balance wise skarner isn't weak, nor overpowered. He's ok and does well in experienced hands. My problems with Skarner are more of a "feeling" problem:

1. he feels slow outside of his spires, and can't lane because of such dependancy from these;
2. Crystal slash is an empty skill by its own, by offering just dps.
   Skarner is in for a full VGU someday in the future, but here's a shorter term solution that i come up with: the bonuses from the spires get split between the spires, and by stacking hits with Crystal Slash, up to X times (e.g. 3 times), so that:

• Passive: bonuses from the spires got halved;
• Crystal Slash: each hit grants x ms/ x% as, stacking up to 3 times;

the two bonuses merge when as long as Skarner is in his spires, so that: new bonus values from spires + bonus values from stacking 3 Q hits = live bonus values from spires;

• Fracture: proccing the mark doesn't give as/ms anymore (moved to Q stacks);
• W and R unchanged. There shouldn't be any hard values in my suggestion, any value given is to make the idea clearer.

This:

• makes skarner smoother ouside of his spires, and maybe makes him able to lane again, without eliminating the dependancy between skarner and his spires;
• makes Crystal Slash a valuable alternative to Fracture (Q for faster clears, E for ganks).

Aaaaand...that might be it =). Thank You for making it to the end, don't hesistate to post Your opinion =)!