You guys are viewing Skarner all wrong.
Currently, people seem to think that Skarner can only jungle, and even then he's lackluster, due to the fact that he's his strongest in his Spires.
The purpose of a jungler is to gank (now that final flare is gone), is it not? Then Skarner would be spending any times not at his camps attacking/ganking lanes, would he not? Sure, there's Baron/Dragon, but you can easily get those bonuses as a laner assisting your jungler to kill said monsters. You're not getting bonus DPS on smite or anything bonusing for a jungler other than MS.
Literally, the only thing, THE ONLY THING, you need to do to get him into lanes is give him one of the following:
- Increased mana regen
- Proccing the Stun on his E returns mana
- Damage taken into his Shield (W) returns mana
From here, you can look at how he does in lane with one of those SMALL buffs. Trust me, you guys don't want him buffed/reworked much. As it currently stands, mana regen is simply N/A for Bruisers. You gonna build 
? Or maybe 
? Literally every other Mana Regen item is either Support, AP, or AP-Tank oriented.
His early game mana regen is what really gates him into jungling right now. Without Blue Buff or passing through a Spire, you're SCREWED in the Mana Department in any fights lasting longer than 15-30s.
SPIRES
Have you ever fought a Skarner under a Spire? It's ridiculous, do you honestly think he should have that level of power EVERYWHERE? Skarner isn't weak without the Spires, he's just STRONGER under the Spires. This is where you're all looking at it wrong. Don't base your judgements of Skarner's strength on his 20% of the time, base it on his 80%! This is where he needs buffs, akin to the mana regen buff listed above. Skarner is a Juggernaut under his Spires, and a Diver when he's outside of them. His Spire's don't need to go away, the BASE CHAMPION is where you need the changes! And even then, all you need is SMALL NUMBER ADJUSTMENTS.
If you still want to see Skarner bringing his Spire power to other locations in the map, my suggestion is as follows:
You remember Boot Enhancements? 
->
-> Picking an enhancement?
Just give Skarner an upgrade to his boots, turning them into an ACTIVE item, that allows him to Place a Crystal Spire. Upon being placed, Spires have an activation timer (Think 
's Health Kits) before they give Skarner his full bonuses, this makes it so Skarner cannot go from Diver->Juggernaut mid fight, and forces him to plan out where he will need them. Allow him to place 3 at max for starters, then see about changing this number based on player testing.
Treat his new Spires like 
's Tunnels, remaining invisible through Fog of War until seen by an opponent. If seen, they can be captured for gold (Like 's Tunnels), and give vision of the area until re-captured by Skarner's allies.
Thanks for reading. I can't claim to be a "Skarner Main" with how infrequently I play him, but I think we owe Skarner one last chance before slating him for any sorts of crazy changes, especially since his kit finally encourages the player to rank all of his skills.
Credit for the image @ beanbeancurd on Deviantart.
