Last time I checked Riot had posted that it is true that Skarner could use some work and they would change him a bit, while tweaking him through patches until he was ready. But then I checked again and Riot's recent discussion made it sound as if they were content with him now, "with his win rates just shy of 51%" and that they found a good build and niche for him as a "kidnapper". Honestly he still needs work (rework), and some tweaks from suggestions made.
We buffed him I believe two or three times after the release of the rework. I personally have had great Skarner games. He's definitely not a generalist; he's not a jungle pick you bring in every team, against every team, but that's fine, if not necessary for a game with 114+ champions.
He brings an incomparable bit of power (reliable long range displacement and lockdown) and clears the jungle super fast. Yes, losing his heal means he can't just run into the jungle and heal up to full, but Scruffy put a lot of math into the shield values, and the TL;DR is that you end up getting more actual in-fight sustain from the new shield.
As for permaslow, that just had to go. There was no way a kit with potential permaslow on it could ever be allowed to have sufficient power outside of the permaslow to even feel somewhat impactful. You always have to look at the full picture: sure we can have someone with the power to bring an ally back to zombie mode in the game (Yorick), but what does that mean for the rest of his kit? (The answer is also Yorick :( )
i like skarner a lot. What I would like to see is that on his Crystalline Exoskeleton (W) that movement speed be slightly increased or the amount of time it takes to ramp up to maximum decreased. Should only take 2 secs to reach max, instead of 3.
Other than that, i really like him right now.
Why do I get the impression that Riot just told us that Skarner is fine and they are done with him for the foreseeable future? Instead of addressing the real feedback and multitude of legitimate ideas of how to make his kit feel better without a permaslow, we are once again given the statement that the numbers are fine, his old kit is not coming back, and thats all that matters. I have participated and monitored the multitude of Skarner threads that have appeared since the rework and while all have their fair share of negativity, they also share a hefty amount of great ideas and concepts that have yet to garner a single riot response beyond a promise yet to be for-filled by Scruffy several patches ago.
Also this concept that I keep seeing creep up now and then of Skarner not being a good pick for all situations or teams really, really has me disappointed. Why on earth would a company say that about any portion of their product? Why would you rework a champion to be so niche specific that they should only be played in the most obscure of situations which would require an extreme amount of coordination in champion selection by your own admission? That is either dumb or a corporate bs excuse to try and move the public eye beyond the situation.
Sadly, the new free champ rotation week upon us will now feature Skarner and I see a few options that will emerge from this. More games will be played with Skarner across the board and these stats will be used to justify whatever talking point Riot wishes to showcase, despite the current outcry. Now this could also be a double edge sword as this free play could expose more folks to the shortcomings of the new Skarner and Riot would have even more unsatisfied gamers wondering what the heck is up with this particular champion.
Also as a last note, why has the feedback about Skarner now come from at least 4 different Rioters? Seems that just about the time any meaningful conversation happens in this regard, the Rioter goes silent and deep, never to reemerge, while a new Rioter has to start things from scratch and thus rehashing the same talking points from the public once more?
