A Skarner rework review
Aight time to give my feels on the new 
... I am not trying to bash on scruffy or the rework team in any way in this post.
I am not pleased, sorry to say. Of all the reworks this one missed the mark. I can still see and feel some aspects of the old Skarner but overall to much was given up. He has lost his cohesion and is a jumbled mess.
Pros:
-The new Q and its attack speed boosting is nice. A good shift for dueling potential over the old shield buff.
-New shield strength is nice and feels rewarding and useful.
-New E's range is great for bullying in lane.
-The return of the root to impale is a great feeling again.
Cons:
-The charged slash on Q no longer makes any sense, it was to make enemies aware that his next slash would deal extra damage and inevitably slow them. Now its just there and does not even tie into how the attack speed buff works. His old ability to take towers and split push is lost now that his attack speed boost has shifted to Q which requires him to hit an actual enemy unit to maintain the buff.
-The speed ramp up feels poorly implemented, I barely feel like my speed is increasing because of how slow it goes up. It still relies on the shield staying up, This worked before because of the instant buff to his speed and was a necessary gate so that opponents could remove the buff. Now you do not even feel a benefit at all and do not even gain an advantage in ganks as the shield is still just as easy to pop.
-Fracture is one of the only skills to receive a somewhat positive change out of this rework. It now has a much more positive identity compared to what it was, but that is about it. It is far to sluggish a missile for the slow it applies and does not even compare or make up for the sticking power he lost.
-Impale was buffed so it has no cons.
Ways to improve:
-Crystal slash: Give it an additional charge up stage with additional damage to better the interaction between the attack speed buff charge up. Or remove charged slash and simply make charged slash the normal crystal slash.
-Crystalline Exoskeleton: Increase the rate the move speed buff grows. Make it so that you always get the full move speed ramp up even if the shield gets popped. Then you only retain the move speed bonus as long as the shield remains. This at least insures that you are getting an actual move speed bonus for using W other than just getting a shield for damage mitigation.
-Fracture: This is where a great deal of attention needs to go. There is so much that can be done to retain the old way Skarner played in this ability while still keeping it from being toxic. The mark fracture applied is still around and this is where the opportunity lies.
Use that mark in a new way. implement an interaction between crystal slash and fracture marked targets that slows them even further for a very short duration like .75-1 second. Do not consume the mark though have it remain for 4-6 seconds (would require testing). The initial slow from fracture would have to remain fixed at 30% in order to balance this out. This interaction would bring back Skarners identity while at the same time remove the toxicity of the old crystal slash. It would require the skill of the players to make sure that they land fracture and give substantial counterplay for opponents. It could even go as far as charged crystal slash being what activates the mark and not any crystal slash.
Another iteration would be to consume the mark and apply a heavy slow that decays over 3 seconds upon activation by a crystal slash.
As it stands I feel that Skarner still needs a great deal of work. What this rework did do was give the doors and levers necessary to make Skarner fit in the current environment of the game which is a huge step forward.
I know that I am only one player in the community and the chances of being heard are slim due to my rank and the stereotypes that go along with it. I still feel I need to say something though and hope it gets some attention.
