@Riot Repertoire, what's the deal with the skarner update you said was coming a few months ago?

NextSkarnerNA·7/31/2016, 5:10:11 PM·33 votes·7,109 views

Is there any news on what's gonna happen to skarner? A few months ago you were saying that you were gonna make his spires have less mind share and update his stat profile to match that of a diver or vanguard. Were these changes scrapped or are they still in the works, and if so when can we expect to see these changes? I know a few months ago you said that it would be in the near future, is this still the case? Thank you!

58 Comments

RiotRiotRepertoir8/1/2016, 7:43:29 AM25 votes

Hi, thanks for the post! And sorry for going silent on the matter.

I have some stuff saved up and sitting locally on my machine. Maybe I can throw something up on the PBE following the worlds patch or something, but I don't want to disturb any of the end of season balance work going on.

Hopefully I can get a chance to get it out there as we approach the pre-season patch, but either way, I'll try and give an update as to where it's at even if we decide not to.

Sahn Uzal7/31/2016, 5:13:24 PM8 votes

Upvoted because his stinger brings ugly death.

Sightless667/31/2016, 5:46:58 PM4 votes

there may be some follow-up work we can do to clean up some of those issues, and we may try some small scope experimental stuff on the PBE to see how they feel.

Note the word "may". That was a very important word.

It's pretty likely that they just didn't find something good to implement. Skarner's design is kind of screwed in every which way right now. It's going to be hard to find any small change that would really improve things.

Kingnewgameplus7/31/2016, 8:06:10 PM3 votes

It's coming soon™.

MrWasjig8/1/2016, 8:33:37 AM1 votes

Is it not to late to make a joke about SoloQ?

Given what was said about NOT removing those bloody spires, I wouldn't hold out for anything good. So long as those spires exist Skarner will be heavily gated and his kit will have no room whatsoever for any meaningful changes.

WoonStruck7/31/2016, 9:52:22 PM1 votes

Considering the massive hate he retains for Skarner's passive, they're probably looking at how to re-do it, or whether or not they need to scrap it entirely.

I don't mind them using a lot of time on him. If they made a massive red post about it, its on the table, for better or worse. Its coming.

Hopefully they decide to scrap the passive. It does absolutely nothing for his role as a vanguard, and isn't effective in his role as a juggernaut; basically not effective for either of the roles Riot thought he might fill.

All it does is make his early jungle do-able without him being insanely strong, which they could accomplish by making his Q deal bonus damage to monsters.

ModAcademy Kayn7/31/2016, 10:30:46 PM1 votes

I probably would've saved this post for Monday, where Rioters are more likely to be on the boards. Not to say they don't show up on weekends, but there certainly is an increase of Red Posts during weekdays.

LostFr0st8/1/2016, 12:02:31 AM1 votes

Did his spires not already get removed in the "minimap icon cleanup" of the most recent patch (6.15)?

Edit: I know they still show for Skarner, but I have no way to check at this moment if they show for opponents or allies.