This is me attempting to make a a better Skarner rework that does what Xelnath says it needs

Let it not be said that Scarizard (or was it RiotScruffy? idk, too many reworks to keep track of :x) half-assed it. They did their damned best. In fact, by the a pure mechanical point of view, the Skarner rework was an astounding success. There's more counterplay in his kit, he has more levers, his appreciable power is something he has to work towards instead of get for free. That said, and Xelnath has come to this conclusion as well, the failure of the Skarner rework is that his identity is locked into a cc tank and his signature cc was NOT his ultimate but in fact his permaslow. Compounding the removal of the the permaslow, his skills were replaced with something that does not assert his identity very well. After some brainstorming and throwing caution to the wind of his powerlevel, I have attempted my own Skarner skillset with the following at the forefront of my mind:

• The permaslow needs to come back but not really; fool people into thinking about a permaslow when it's really not
• focus Skarner's transitional gamplay (i.e. post into teamfights) around his ult while making his basic spells powerful to use but something the enemy can deal with in his entry gameplay.
• Make sure that one can interact with Skarner. He's melee, and his ranged skills are skillshots, so this is much more straightforward than if he were a champion with ranged targeted cc and 550 AA range
• Keep all of his spells essentially the same. While I would like to make Skarner into the same theme with different spells, that would defeat the purpose of a rework since his skills are inherently core to his identity. Thus, unlike Karma where many of her spells were changed in functionality and purpose, my rework changes up the mechanics but keeps the functionality of his innate, Q, W, E, and R the same.

For format, I will first describe the spell and then What This Accomplishes (WTA) on a case by case basis in terms of progress on a rework. At the end, I give an abstract as to how it all fits together.

Innate: Does not reduce Skarner's cooldowns every time he attacks. Instead, it gives him 1 stack of attack speed up to 5 stacks. Rolling debuff lasts 7 seconds and is used as a resource in augmenting his basic abilities.

WTA: I like secondary resources, ok? They add a bit of dynamic to mana and keep some of the champion's powerlevel gated even late game and with cooldown reduction. Having his AS attached to a naturally levelling up innate instead of a spell means Skarner is a bit freer to choose rank ups without impacting his baseline dps. It also allows much more freedom in buff dependency so he isn't so gated by mana. It fulfills the same function as before; hit people to do more stuff.

Q: Is now a wide conal in front of Skarner. On smartcast, automatically casts the spell in front of him. Has a very small delay (0.25 seconds) Upon hitting a champion, Skarner speeds up for a duration that is roughly equal to the base cooldown. Consumes all stacks of innate. Each stack increases the duration of the haste and the damage of the spell. It is an aoe nuke at 5 stacks.

WTA: In my iterations dealing with Skarner, part of the reason his Q lacked counterplay is that it was basically a melee phage that cost mana. If you were in range, you were hit. By turning it into a conal and adjusting the width, Skarner's enemies can juke him by going through Skarner or by dodging the conal. The enemy now has two options that don't involve using spells in order to deal with Skarner's damage. This also allows Skarner's damage and/or haste buff on Q to be pretty high since he has to aim it or at least position himself.

There is definitely a potential usability issue when spamming Q. However, since you are not meant to use this spell for dps anymore and just for nuking and perma"slowing", we can reinforce that with higher damage and mana cost. The tradeoff is that it isn't used for dps but for execution or just plain burst. This is the only major hange I've made to functionality. Everything else does what it did before but maybe also more.

W: the most radical change in my opinion. W now has 2 parts. The passive is like Malphite's innate. Skarner gets a shield that regenerates over time after not taking damage for X seconds. The active portion is a bit more interesting. It is a self-purge that pops his remaining shield and consumes 5 stacks of his innate in order to deal aoe damage and confuse all units around him in a small radius. Confusion is what Voli's E does to minions. The damage and duration of the spell is directly proportional to his remaining shield. If his shield is popped already, he can deal minor damage and ministun everyone around him (0.01 second stun). He needs 5 stacks in order to cast this spell at all.

WTA: Tying damage and CC to his shield now promotes two things. First, build resistance tanky and avoid poke, and we can really make this spell REALLY powerful since there is a small window of opportunity to use this perfectly AND the enemy can impede his power by interacting with him. Second, that last bit: the enemy can now damage Skarner to directly make his peel a much weaker. IF they can attack him that is. I do not know how important keeping a haste on Skarner's W is as opposed to putting it on his Q and/or making E better. That said, even if it were nice, an small radius aoe cc spell fits nicely with the "cc tank" fantasy that many Skarner players like.

E: This is my favorite change and will probably get you all to stop raging at the previous one and instead go WAIT WAT. Skarner's E stops upon hitting an enemy champion. Then, it ricochets after a small delay aimed for the next nearby champion. If it hits that champion, it seeks another unaffected champion within a large radius and aims for that. Each time it bounces it gain speed. It is NOT targeted. It is a skillshot fired from the location of the previous target in the direction of the next closest one. The spell consumes all of Skarner's stacks and hits the number of targets equal to the number of stacks consumed (it can bounce once at 2 stacks, twice at 3, thrice at 4, and four times at 5. It can still be fired at 0 stacks.) E still slows. It does not bounce off of non-champion units.

WTA: E is completely unique. It has a clear time when to use it: when the enemy is bunched up. It is extremely rewarding when used correctly, and Skarner loses his early game tag skill if he messes up. Additionally, if he has 0 or 1 stack, someone can bodyblock the shot to save an ally. In the case of bounces, there is a delay between each bounce, and while it is harder each time to juke, it is certainly doable. It is iconic. It is memorable. It's something more than Lulu!'s Q. This is the spell I think will REALLY help the rework; it's fresh and awesome. Maybe a pain to balance, but really gives a cool identity to the guy comes out of nowhere and GETS YA.

There are two changes to Skarner's ultimate. First, he dashes forwards and become a projectile. Hitting a champion starts the Stinger process like Live. Second, upon kidnapping someone, he gains a stack of his innate for every 300 units he travels.

WTA: his ult now has a bit more counterplay in that you can bait his ult and juke it. Additionally, it shifts his focus from farming stacks on his innate to jumping it and grabbing someone, getting stacks that way. Plus, I believe in pretty much all cases, skillshot ultimates with more than one effect overall feel better because you can miss but still get some use or not feel useless because you're not in range (or feel obliged when you are.)

Overall, his early gameplay revolves around farming stacks and then ganking quickly or farming minions then nuking someone. Doing so poorly does little early on. Doing so well rewards Skarner with a ton of pressure. Post 6, he doesn't have as much time to farm stacks, thus you get them from initiating. Skarner is supposed to be ult reliant. If he weren't, he could potentially slow the entire team, THEN kidnap someone, then slow them again. Unless you farm stacks mid game continuously, you're not really going to get many bounces before initiating. Upon entering a Teamfight, his cc lockdown and damage capability is dependent on high uptime and attack speed. Thus, the enemy can kite him for more effectiveness than normal champions, and he synergizes with "Stay here" spells like Amumu ult, letting players fulfill their fantasy of a cc tank with permacc.

Except he's not. That's the beauty of it. His cc requires planning and careful interaction on both sides. It's not free when Skarner is just doing his thing that everyone else would also be doing. I would love some critical but not hostile feedback on my suggestion.

Thank you for your time, and see you on the fields of purple! Wait, justice!