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It's almost preseason

Shahamut·10/30/2019, 1:06:57 PM·14 votes·9,825 views

And for all we know, a Skarner Skarner VGU is quite a ways off. Its preseason though, can we please experiment with rebalancing his kit?

Example:

Spires:

  • no longer grants Skarner bonus MS/AS.
  • increase mana regen to 3% max mana per second.
  • now grants Skarner maximum stacks of Crystal Energy while within the radius of a spire controlled by Skarners team.

Q:

  • hitting targets with Crystal Slash grants Skarner a stack of Crystal Energy, stacking up to 3x. Each stack of Crystal energy boosts Skarner's Attack Speed by 8/11/14/17/20% and Movent Speed by 5/6/7/8/9%

As long as Skarner has at least one charge of Crystal Venom, it deals bonus magic damage.

Physical Damage: 20/30/40/50/60 (+20% total AD) Magic Damage: 20/30/40/50/60 (+25% AP)

W:

  • new shield Value: 40/80/120/160/200 (+8% Max HP)(+60%AP)

E:

  • No longer gives Skarner bonus stats for stunning (passive changes)
  • No longer reduces cooldown for disabling a target.

Some other QoL changes that would be nice:

Base MS: 335 >>> 345 Auto Attack Range: 125 >>> 150

Please help our scorpion while he waits for his eventual VGU. Its preseason!

17 Comments

Yosigi10/31/2019, 2:42:12 AM5 votes

Meant to just fix a spelling mistake, not delete. Oops. Here's what I posted:

Besides the spires, Skarner's kit is pretty good for the type of champion he is. The main issue is that most people, including the pros, have forgotten that he isn't an engage tank: he's an extended skirmisher. He's not designed to zoom in, steal the carry, and then be useless. He's meant to follow up on engage from a real tank in a team fight and use his ult to peel, and outside team fights he's meant to be one of the best duelists in the game. Riot has made the mistake of giving him so much cc that he can't be allowed to have decent damage numbers, or he becomes too strong. This leads to his current pro play style of being a Righteous Glory Predator ult bot.

The original Skarner, the champ I learned how to play League on, was a sticky bruiser. The perma slow on his Q was a bit cancerous, but that and his ult was all he had for cc so he had to get on top of you first to do anything. Skarner was part of the juggernaut rework of season 5, but he's never really been one. Other juggernauts (Darius, Illaoi, Volibear, etc.) don't need a full damage build to be able to win. Skarner, on the other hand, does not have their level of damage unless he devotes 3 items to doing damage, at which point he gets one-shotted by anyone with burst.

Skarner's not a tank. He's not a juggernaut. He's a skirmisher and duelist, and it's time Riot was reminded of that.

SennaFirstPick10/30/2019, 10:28:09 PM3 votes

its sad to say it but the current skarner and many of the older champions just can't keep up with the game. the only thing that would save him and many of the older OGs is a total overhaul of their kit. i'll admit that i have no idea how one would ever start with reworking skarner, but i know for certain that if they keep his current gameplay in mind, then he'll most likely never be a successfull rework.

even if they were to change his spires and give him something half decent, the main problem would be his outdated gameplay and its uneffectiveness in actually engaging a fight. as it is right now, skarner's engage is dictated by him either having predator or righteous glory or both even. it really sucks because i played the OG skarner and it was the most fun i had while playing old league. i eventually had to drop the champion off, seeing as there were and there are picks that do his job but faster,better and safer.

i am ashamed to say this as an oldtrox main, but the only thing that would save skarner is an aatrox-like rework

Caretaker Jack10/31/2019, 2:43:52 AM2 votes

I feel you on the skarner rework... Pretty much everyone who loves an ignored champion, atm, is in a looming state of gloom and intensified boredom.

I main bard who feels underwhelming compared to every meta support and hasn't gotten a skin in 3 years. I'm thinking about maiming a more rewarding champ till something changes or maybe just hopping off awhile... Id urge you to do the same, considering nothing will happen for a long time even if we all agree with your thoughts.

Shahamut10/30/2019, 6:18:26 PM2 votes

Thanks for the upvotes guys. Any comments? Thoughts? Concerns? Suggestions?

Tarcathos10/31/2019, 9:52:04 PM1 votes

Phew, oh boy. So, it has been a long time, but I actually had an idea for Skarner a LONG time ago that I think might really bring his kit into the modern era with fairly minimal changes to the kit.

So, there is a piece of the champion "landscape" that has been a part of the game for several years, but only recently started seeing some fiddling done to it: trinkets. We currently have three trinkets if you will plus we had ghost poros for a short while. The ghost poro's demonstrate that there is a way for Riot to utilize the trinket space for more specific effects. So, I give you my change:

Addition to Passive: Every 180 (modified by cooldown reduction) seconds, Skarner sheds some of his outer shell creating a Crystal Shard in his trinket slot. Skarner may place this crystal shard creating a temporary Crystal Spire. Temporary Crystal Spires last 10/15/20/25 (at lvl 1/6/11/16)seconds and may be attacked by enemies (have 1/1/2/3 health at lvl 1/6/11/16).

This little adjustment to Skarners kit would give him a little more control over the battlefield and allow him to pick the places to skirmish and provide a level of complexity and choice to some of the opponents decision making.

What do you folks think?

Ahris10/31/2019, 6:39:16 AM1 votes

Why does Skarner need a rework over Ahri? He got a HUGE rework in season 5:

https://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/news/game-updates/patch/patch-516-notes

Ahri has never received such a big change to her kit, and she needs changes more than skarner.

Rapterminator 0210/31/2019, 3:19:11 PM1 votes

the problem with Skarner is that he isn’t a jungler. Skarner is a toplane champion with a passive that shoves him into the jungle. They should make it so skarner can control where he puts the spires. He can place up to 6 by clicking on his passive and targeting an area. Then he can ult the crystals to move them, and if he ults a crystal, the ult duration is extended by Like 5 seconds and refunds like 90% of the cool down

Dingding12310/31/2019, 6:59:19 PM1 votes

Even just +10 MS would help so much. Same with some currently underwhelming marksmen.