PSA - A Skarner Main's Update

Hello, I'm a Skarner main with 270,000 mastery. My average rank with him is S and I had a 67.6% winrate last year. I don't play ranked much, mainly because my internet is provided by CenturyLink and I don't wish to ruin my team's chances of winning 33% of the time. When I did, I was placed in Silver 2 and easily got Silver 1 before the season ended (I believe that it was season 6).

Patch 8.11 has two major changes for Skarner, a nerf and a buff. Let's look at the nerf first. (these changes are being TESTED on the PBE and are subject to change) [Removed] +50% Base Attack Damage [New Effect] UNIQUE Passive - Giant Strength: Gain 50% of your Base Attack Damage as Bonus Attack Damage

This looks like a severe nerf to his Triforce procs, but remember that he IS gaining the SAME amount of attack damage. While his Sheen procs are definitely going to be losing a chunk of damage (roughly 33% by my math), getting this item will still be a sizable boost to Skarner's damage (Q does more damage as well as your normal autos). No ratios are amplified here; all of them are total percent AD ratios.

Here's the buff:

[New] Nimbus Cloak (Replacing Ultimate Hat in Sorcery) Effect: "Shortly after casting your Ultimate ability, gain a decaying movement speed increase that lasts for 3s and allows you to pass through units. Increase: 100 Movement Speed Cooldown: 60s, reduced by Cooldown Reduction"

Sorcery is Skarner's second-best primary tree (51.15% average winrate), with the best being Resolve (51.85% average winrate). It is the BEST secondary tree by a wide margin. These stats were taken by averaging the BEST rune in each tier for Skarner. Final point of order, Ultimate Hat was the WORST of his four best runes in Sorcery (keystone, Tiers 1, 2 and 3). With his build normally supplying at least 30% CDR, it was more of a "win more" rune. With Nimbus Cloak having immense synergy with Impale, there is a chance that Sorcery takes the number one spot from Resolve. With Phase Rush, Nimbus Cloak, Celerity, and Waterwalking in Sorcery and Conditioning + Unflinching in Resolve, we may see a shift towards players ditching Triforce and picking up the Iceborn Cleaver build with Righteous Glory. The build grants more teamfighting potential because of how easily it grants access to a good Impale target. With Black Cleaver, you are also shredding every champion near you (ie their frontline) with every Q (which with 40% CDR can be cast 3 times per second if you have someone to auto attack).

TL:DR: I believe that these changes are a buff overall. You gain access to Nimbus Cloak at level 6 whereas Sterak's Gauge is built in the mid/lategame. The build validates Iceborn Gauntlet builds because of the nerf to Triforce procs and could shift Skarner to a much more engage-oriented, tanky, teamfighting build. Triforce + Sterak's is still viable. Although Sheen procs will do less damage, his normal auto attacks (which happen more than every 1.5 seconds) are completely unchanged.