Skarner Rework feedback!
Since the actual criticism isn't acknowledged in the official thread made for it... here goes.
So, yeah. Skarner rework. It's pretty bad, and not going anywhere at all. We know Scruffy just wants to help and make him viable and all that jazz, but we're all getting frustrated at his inability to listen to or understand our criticism. It's a miracle he even acknowledged the idea of Skarner's E slow marking an enemy and the slow being extended when the mark is detonated/activated via basic attack or Q. But even then, the community came to this solution/suggestion because, to us, it feels like Scruffy avoids actually engaging in a conversation with the people criticizing his rework.
I've enjoyed discussing reworks with Xelnath and Xypherous in the past, mainly because they were really active with their responses whenever they could be, and took everyone's opinions into account while being very constructive with their own thoughts. Scruffy feels like he picks the few positive comments out of the many negative ones and goes "Man this is some good feedback, Imma tune some small numbers". The community has desperately kind of "fallen down to his terms" and plays by his game now, trying to find a middle ground with him, even though said middle ground barely pleases anyone.
Now that that's out of the way... I have a few ideas for Skarner, myself.
First, I'll go to my ideas for his E. Basically, I've been thinking of a burrowing ability that has been suggested by a few in the thread. Initial idea is this:
"Burrow (E): Skarner burrows underground, becoming invisible to normal sight and moving underground for X seconds. Skarner can reactivate the ability to jump out back to the surface, slowing/slightly knocking back enemies caught in a small radius around Skarner."
Of course this is a completely raw idea and bound to change, but something like this would actually give Skarner something really cool besides his ultimate to go with. If being completely invisible is too much, you could add a small effect on top of him where the ground above him kind of "crackles" so observant players would notice him coming. He would be invisible to sight wards/stealth wards, but could be seen on the minimap with pink wards, and possibly highlight the outlines of his model when he's in true vision while burrowed.
The effect of Skarner digging himself up from underneath someone is also up for debate. A slight knockback could be neat, knocking the player away from Skarner's position, but if you feel like that's too much combined with his ult, it could be a strong or a long-duration slow, too. I personally feel like his E is really boring, and no amount of CC or numerical changes are gonna change that. Of course I might be alone on this, but I always felt like his E was the least fun ability to use: just felt like a boring, linear skillshot with nothing interesting to it.
If the burrow ability was implemented, however, I believe his W would need changes. So how about this: It would give Skarner a shield, and bonus armor/MR? I'm open for ideas.
His Q, at the moment, feels the most redundant, IMO. The attack speed is barely noticeable at early levels (and still kinda stale lategame), and it's unsatisfying to use. It honestly feels like I'm not doing anything when I'm mashing Q and fighting someone. It's not satisfying to use without the slow, I'm afraid. I honestly feel like Skarner isn't Skarner without his permaslow, which really saddens me because it strongly seems like it's not coming back (Still a little irked how there's many ranged and more reliable permaslows in the game, but somehow only Skarner's easily outplayed permaslow is considered 'toxic'). Please, you can even nerf the slow on early levels if that's what needs to be done to bring it back.
I also really, really don't mean to offend Scruffy, but his behavior towards community feedback so far has been frustrating at best, with only slight actual progress. Other Rioters in the champion and rework departments are more than welcome to post their thoughts on Skarner. I really want to find Skarner fun to play again, as he was my first jungler, and the first expensive champ I bought with IP and fell in love with.
