I know it has been used a lot recently (Xin, Sejuani and rengar)

Malicious Metal·Sep 19, 2017·107 votes·4,606 views

But Skarner could really use this type of 2-part spell.

Now, before you lynch me, yes, they seem clunky and not really seem to fit on these kits but Skarner would benefit greatly from this for two reasons:

He's extremely binary and could use some form of skill expression beyond hitting his E
He needs a VGU anyways so the spell wouldn't look out of place if you give him new animations to go with it

and 3) It would work really well given his Scorpion archetype

Just imagine something like this:

Skarner slashes a target area in front of him with his Claws before lashing out with his stinger in a line

It could be a damaging tool, utility or something in between with his stinger actually applying hard CC

It could really improve his otherwise unsatisfying gameplay and he could use something to make him more interesting anyways

95 Comments

RaiyzaSep 19, 201735 votes

Skarner needs more use of the stinger in general. Good idea in the right direction. +1

Malicious MetalSep 19, 201734 votes

Skarner "My stinger brings ugly death!"

MelledoneusSep 19, 201717 votes

Plushie Skarner : "My stinger brings cuddly death!"

Slice n Dice emSep 20, 20173 votes

My stinger brings all the boys to the yard Taric

FilDaFunkSep 19, 20172 votes

Would really work well with his character model, actually: strikes with claws then his stinger.

SweedishGunnerSep 20, 201710 votes

Now excuse me whilst I get all biological up in here, but Skarner actually more closely resembles something along the line of an Emperor Scorpion or Asian Forest Scorpion.

He has large claws and whilst he has a bulky tail the venom of those scorpions is rarther mild (like a bee sting) and they primarily hunt and kill prey using their claws to simply over power and crush prey items. These scorpions only really use their venom when they feel threatened or the prey item is large enough to warrant it.

So actually, in terms of his scorpion-likeness it makes sense that he rarely uses his tail and only on the most valuable targets oddly enough.

It Hertz When IPSep 20, 20175 votes

You must be a lot of fun at parties.

Memes aside, this is a fantasy game, so he could easily deviate from his biological cousin in favor of mimicking his fantasy creature origin. Kinda similar to how real foxes don't actually have nine tails Ahri or real cancer uses uncontrolled proliferation to kill you instead of wind sword bullshit Yasuo .

RaiyzaSep 20, 20171 votes

Dude.

[slayer-jinx-unamused]

xxxMadLionxxxSep 19, 201722 votes

maybe he can get a 3 part skill. 1 attack from each claw and 1 from the tail

AbibyamaSep 19, 20175 votes

How would that work?

I imagine it would fit better for a 3-AA modifier similar to Xin/Morde. For example the first auto he uses his right claw and the second he uses the left claw and the third is a devastating stinger attack

Malicious MetalSep 19, 201712 votes

3 hit passives and this new spell paradigm? Give him a knockup and mobility as well and I'm sold! :^)

WheatloafSep 19, 20176 votes

Actually, it's been a while since we got a multi-step ability a la Riven Q...

Chembaron YamadaSep 21, 20171 votes

Ornn R kinda is a multi step ability. First calling the ram, then ramming the ram to ram into others.

BeldoriSep 20, 20171 votes

Have the 3rd attack from the stinger cause a delayed stun, plays off the paralytic poison aspect

FullmetallicSep 23, 20171 votes

{quoted}

maybe he can get a 3 part skill. 1 attack from each claw and 1 from the tail

Yes this is good idea

chipndip1Sep 19, 201714 votes

Idk what you guys are talking about. This spell is a PERFECT fit for Sejuani. Other two...not so much, but for Sej, it's a match.

AbibyamaSep 19, 201714 votes

Xin W thrust part makes sense though

GesterrSep 19, 20173 votes

right, I'd even venture to say it feels the most appropriate on a spear user (or crystalline scorpion)

TerozuSep 19, 20175 votes

I think it feels appropiate on Skarner, Sej, Xin, just not Rengar.

UvecSep 19, 201719 votes

Also makes sense for Rengar 's swimming career.

morris1Sep 20, 20173 votes

https://i.redd.it/718xo8twqvwy.png

VoidzillaSep 19, 20178 votes

Out of all the Champions in the game, Skarner fits that recent skillshot paradigm perfectly. Wouldn't mind seeing it on his reworked kit, maybe something like:

"Skarner slashes with his claws, dealing physical damage (and maybe slowing or dealing increased damage to minions/small monsters) before lashing out with his stinger, dealing magic damage and stunning the first enemy hit."

This two-part ability not only incorporates all of Skarner's weapons, but can retain his hybrid-scaling damage. I love this idea!

BBQChicken AlertSep 19, 20175 votes

Rather than his stinger slashing in a straight line, why not give him a small AoE spell that can proc his E stun. Think of a smaller range Heimerdinger E, but a scorpion tail instead of a grenade.

EarthyMadnessSep 19, 20175 votes

Instead of Swipe-Stab, why not reverse it? Medium-range tail stab that pulls them in, rewarding your tricky skillshot with a heavy claw slash that deals increasing damage based on their missing health. It could be used as a ganking skill, pop in, skillshot through minion wave (though with lower range than, for example, Blitz pull [900], maybe like 550-600 range?), catch the half-health enemy, and just devastate them.

That way it's also a combo ender, you do your whole rotation and then use it as an Execute skill. It's a skillshot with a small-ish hitbox, so can be dodged if you expect it, and the tail-stab+pull wouldn't do that much damage alone so you can't just trade in lane, tail stab, pull them in, and then half-health them with just that one skill.

PredatoratorSep 20, 20171 votes

love this too :D

GelsominoKillerSep 19, 20174 votes

Agreed. It's an intresting suggestion. I have always thought that skarner needs more stinging in general.

On sejuani, it works very well.

On rengar is clunky as fuck.

On xin is pointless and borderline retarded.

On skarner I could see it fitting.

WoonStruckSep 19, 20179 votes

What else do you expect them to do with a spear?

They already have a charge. They already have poking...what else would you have made his W when his R is already a wide arc swing?

FDS DesperadoSep 19, 20173 votes

Bash them with the pole of the spear right in the mouth, disorienting the enemy and causing them to miss basic attacks for the next 2 seconds.

Hardstuck G4Sep 19, 20175 votes

I can see very clearly in my head Xin Zhao smacking the fuck out of a max size Cho'Gath

FDS DesperadoSep 19, 20175 votes

Makes about as much sense as knocking a full size Cho'Gath up with an auto attack, but I don't see anyone saying shit about that.

GelsominoKillerSep 20, 20172 votes

Xin is a champion that wants to stick to his target enough to land his knockup.

If you played him you'd realize that currently the part where he fails is very much this. He's often focused down and kited, and fails to deliver anything worth to his team in a regular basis. For those reasons he currently is built full ad as an assassin and not as an atkspeed diver. Pure instant upfront damage.

I expected his new spell to solve those problems, giving Xin more to do in a team fight than dive in and pray.

Instead this slash thrust paradigm ROOTS HIMSELF in place, ruining your chase and delaying your combo.

Let's analyze its usage cases:

You're not going to use it to apply a slow from range to close in, because if you can W you probably can E too. It can be useful to poke in toplane, though.
Its only use is then in close combat, but how I said you can't afford to delay your combo rooting yourself.
So its only use is to use it on knocked up enemies, but then landing the skillshot is completely trivial, and the spell becomes just "deal more damage if you manage to complete your combo", which xin has still trouble doing.

In this sense W change achieved nothing.

SalsonSep 19, 20173 votes

The only reason those spells seem clucky is because they aren't part of the original model.

On a new champ or a VGU they would look a lot better.

SdarsSep 19, 20173 votes

Ah yes, taking advantage of riot's obsession to try to channel it to something good. wp sir.

LankPantsSep 19, 20172 votes

Can we give him Sejuani's and give her back her old W/kit?

chipndip1Sep 19, 20176 votes

You want to nerf her into shit again?

Celestial Lion12Sep 19, 20172 votes

she was good cinderhulk broke her and then riot said lol fuck sejuani

chipndip1Sep 19, 20172 votes

...I don't get your point here.

Funkin DunkinSep 19, 20172 votes

Sejuani's old W was far better DPS team fight than her new one. Her new one is a single target tormenter. Her old W used to do upwards of 700~800 damage over 5 seconds and extremely spamable. She would have a huge late game improvement if this was reverted.

chipndip1Sep 19, 20172 votes

...this is literally why she was nerfed to shit...so they'd just nerf her to shit again.

LankPantsSep 20, 20172 votes

They're going to nerf her to shit anyway, new Sej is utter cancer. If she's going to be nerfed to shit you may as well bring back the better of the two designs and put her back as a more unique, less cancerous to play against champion.

LankPantsSep 19, 20171 votes

No, I want to make her not cancer again. Old Sej was a far better design than new Sej.

chipndip1Sep 20, 20172 votes

They nerfed her to shit because she WAS CANCER THE FIRST TIME.

CowseedSep 19, 20171 votes

LET THE CLAWS SLOW WHILE THE TAIL POISONS AND ATTACKS IN THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION!!

LostFr0stSep 20, 20171 votes

... that wouldn't make sense. That would just remove skill expression since it would remove counterplay via damage avoidance through good positioning from Skarner's opponents while denying good Skarners their full damage.

CowseedSep 20, 20172 votes

I... have a thing for weird mechanics [sg-lulu]

LostFr0stSep 20, 20173 votes

Nice save LUL.

RavoreSep 20, 20171 votes

I feel like skarner should have a playstyle based around his tail like how scorpions naturally do in real life.

Kowe The EwokSep 20, 20171 votes

This spell makes absolutely no sense on Xin. He's a champs that is good at chasing dashless enemies - but now he got a selfroot which actually stop him from chasing. His slow got nerfed as well. It just doesn't fit his kit or playstyle at all, not to mention that his new skill path worsens his jungle clear (mana consumption...).

I'm not sure whether it'ld help Skarner gameplay wise, but on Xin it's horrible.

PaffWasTakenSep 20, 20171 votes

To be honest, I would like to see more damage and less CC on skarner and that could be it

FlameHalbrdOkidoSep 24, 20171 votes

I feel like ur right

I also feel like they could have attatched the Dash to the long range part of W, having the Dash send him directly to a target but by Ws long part, and change the Dash from unit tartgeted to target direction.