Skarner VGU Concept - How about giving him a Fiora - like passive?

Predatorator··4 votes·704 views

So, i was watching this video where a scorpion got fed. You can see how the scorpion manipulates its prey with the pincers, to find a sweetspot to strike with its stinger and inject the venom.

This could be Skarner's new combat pattern. It would work quite like rift herald's sweetspots, but for skarner sweetspots spawn faster, and they are thinner.
Skarner has to strike those spots with his stinger, in order to poison it's enemy, so:

passive: to be defined; looking for something crystal, environment related; kind like the spire one, but the buff is time-windowed, gives only more ms and manaregen Q: a)first cast: skarner uses his powerful claws to block the target. second cast: skarner turns the target so that his sweetspot face him(skarner); b) skarner covers himself behind his arms, taking reduced damage (like braum's shield). The main idea is to make skarner to use his bulky arms in other was than just auto attack. W: gapcloser or sutain (Crystalline exhoskeleton again maybe?); E: active: skarner stings his target, dealing physical damage; passive: enemy champions near skarner spawn Sweetspots[name to be defined] around them. Hitting these sweetspots with E deals more impact damage, and also poisons the target, briefly slowing him, and dealing magic damage over time. R: Impale, as live (+ additional effects for hitting sweetspots??)

With this concept, skarner should feel more of a scorpion, while rising his mastery ceiling and keeping him fun, because hitting sweetspots will be always a different experience from one enemy to another. Encounters will be less stat checky, and more dynamic, because skarner will have to move around his enemy to hit the sweetspots, allowing the enemy to protect them by moving too. It makes him more diverse, as such a combat pattern is pretty unique, to me at least. It brings back the sticky predator fantasy: as long as he hits sweetspots, skarner will have a mean to stick to his enemy. It lessen the dependency from the spires: this kit doesn't require attack speed as live does, so removing that crazy amount of as from the spires frees some room from improvements, such as accessibility to their buffs. i wanted to keep ms and manaregen because they better help skarner to land Es on sweetspots and proc the passive. My point is that an ambient mechaninc can fit in skarner's kit, as scorpions are territorial creatures, and ambush their prey by taking advantage from the environment around them. But talking of the crystal spires, the could be so much more interesting: for example, they can give some time windowed strenght, or even the buffs can be changed, from something that only server skarner, to something that involves team utlity, so that skarner isn't usless when behind. It strenghtens the phage/ibg synergy skarner players are familiar with.

Let me know what what do you think in the comments =)

10 Comments

LostFr0st1 votes

While your reasoning is interesting, it won't work very well with Skarner's kit. I don't think reworking him for the sake of rework is a good idea either. The champ is easily kited (unike Fiora) so locking his true damage behind another minigame would be beyond frustrating.

p.s. Pretty sure people just want the rocks gone. I don't think they wan't a "new something special only for Skarner."

Predatorator2 votes

it's not for the sake of a rework - he actually has a vgu planned. what am i trying to achieve here is to give an idea of what an ideal skarner kit could be, with the time and resources today's vgus take.

LostFr0st1 votes

I think they're pretty close to the ideal right now. But no rocks. The new passive (the half with the ms and regen when he ccs an enemy) is really nice, but the rocks have to go. 100% gone; they tell the enemy team where you are immediately and you end up wasting time taking them while clearing.

If they get rid of the rocks and give back the ramping phage passive on his Q, then adjust bases stats accordingly, he'd probably sit nicely there.

Predatorator1 votes

Just to be clear, i'm here with you that pre jugg skarner was the best one (except for the shield scaling). They could just revert the rework, keeping the shield scaling off max hp, and he still would ne balanced (i made a post about some time ago, i'm gonna link that when i'll be on pc). But then it'd be more of a rek'sai/shyvana update, than a full vgu. Instead, here You got an exploration of a "what if we were to full rework skarner now?" =))

LostFr0st1 votes

I like the new passive though minus rocks.

As for the marks, the only reason it works on Fiora (and Talon/Akali to an extent) is because they have a dash to re-position. Since the Q above auto puts the mark the correct way, there's no back and forth gameplay for opponents with the mark and thus no reason for the mark at all really.

Marks are supposed to add a threat zone where if the opponent enters it they get punished.

ZadloBoze2010PL1 votes

looks very interesing, i'm curious how it would be useful in the game

Predatorator1 votes

Tricky question =p i wasn't really driven by in game utility while ideating this. However, skarner's ult already holds a good chunk of utility, reliability apart; landing multiple stings on the enemy sweetspots will slow them down alot; The Q holds utility on his own, not being definitive however; W could be an engaging tool, maybe still crystalline exhoskeleton, but more interesting.

Shahamut1 votes

I don't think a lot like what you are suggesting would be a good kit. Especially on Skarner.

They just need to revert to pre juggernaut, but keep the shield changes. I would also like it of they changed the passive proc from bonus damage to a heal. Keep bonus damage on using ult with stacks.

Predatorator1 votes

With You for what You said in The second paragraph. However i never really minded the bonus damage from a three stack ult, as the damage wasn't that relevant anyways. But!!! The point of The thread is to explore The possibility of a skarner vgu, since he's on the lista of planned vgus. Reverting and balancing from there is actually more of a rek'sai/shyvana rework =)

Shahamut1 votes

the main reason for keeping the bonus ult damage per stack is to give some level of skill expression and choice to Skarner players. Do I take the heal and stun? or do I just get the extra damage and start stacking again? whats more important right now?

Some VGU's actually kept a good portion of the champions kit. WW is a decent example, He got a targeted attack with heals Q, but they added the gap close to it. He kept the blood scent, but they added a fear/dmg reduction ability to it. His attack speed buff became part of his passive and activated when opponents are at low health. Kept the on hit healing, but only when below half hp. Ult is the same.

Not saying the same strategy would work for Skarner, obviously, but I still think reverting him to that playstyle in general, would be enough of a kit move anyway... (Maybe Poppy would have been a better example...?)

Honestly, I am scared that when they (if they) do a FULL VGU that his entire playstyle will change from a speedy scrappy scorpion into something else entirely. Even if the kit is good, I can't see it being anything like his current kit without it ending up being an overall fail on RIOT's end to make him what they want. They have currently resubclassed him as a Diver, something he is not, since he has no way to bypass the front lines of combat. If they rework him and give him some kind of gimmiky gap closer, I dont think he would be the same scorpion anymore... :(

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