New Skarner : "The Scorpion is almost there" but... he lacks... - let's gather DATA

XuWarrior·Jun 18, 2014·2 votes·874 views

DMG at late game.

Im only gold/plat player. I know he should be now CC champion. He kinda is. But he rlly provides nothing beside that. Other Tanky CC champs have that "UMPH" dmg.

I came 3 times to late game as skarner. FULL BUILD. Maby my build was wrong but I went:

*Tank Jungler Item (was thinkin about SoTel MABY).

*Swiftness boots

*IceBornGauntlet

*SunFire

*BansheeV

at last item I was thinkin about something tanky or DMG (maby).

During Team Fights I was a lil bit confused.. Small form of CC , but dmg was not there at all. Any Ideas how to Build him now ? Let's Collect Data Feelin and Opinions

14 Comments

CaptainWednesdayJun 18, 20141 votes

If you have not heard yet, Skarner kit is getting a followup rework. You can read more about it here.

PredatoratorJun 18, 20141 votes

I may have read this wrong, or the one released today is the followup rework

CaptainWednesdayJun 18, 20141 votes

I had not realized Skarner's rework went live today. That is my bad.

Then to comment on your OP, yes Skarner's late game damage is great. What I've been thinking is a build like this:

Offensive Options:

Essence Reaver
Blade of the Ruined King
Ravenous Hydra

Defensive Options:

Sunfire Cape
Randuin's Omen
Banshee's Veil or Spirit Visage (If you built Life Steal)

Core Items:

Spirit of the Ancient Golem or Elder Lizard (Golem for tank, lizard for fighter as Q provides AoE burn)
Iceborn Gauntlet or Trinity force (if ahead)
Tier 2 Boots (Skarner can benefit from nearly every boot option so Ninja Tabi, Mercury Treads, Boots of Lucidity, Boots of Mobility, or Boots of Swiftness will work depending on your scenario)

PredatoratorJun 18, 20142 votes

Np. Good to know, i still need to try it! The build i've been thinking for Skarner V3 looks is:

Core: Essence Reaver Mercury Treads (for tenacity) Elder Lizard

Offensive:

Essence Reaver
Elder Lizard becomes BotRK

Defensive:

Frozen Heart
Spirit Visage Warmog

Overall, i think my build lacks the offense, but it's ok for tankiness. What i like of this build isI was considering Trinity over Warmog indeed, and over Ravenous, because i think Skarner benefits more from attack speed.

PredatoratorJun 18, 20141 votes

idk what happened with the "unordered list" command..i hope it's still clear

CaptainWednesdayJun 18, 20142 votes

I really like Essence Reaver on Skarner. It helps with his early game weak damage and mana issues throughout the game. Truth is you either have to go Merc Treads + Lizard or Ninja Tabi + Golem if you're going to expect to be able to duel or tank respectively.

I honestly prefer Iceborn Gauntlet over Frozen Heart if I do not get Trinity Force. The slow field Spellblade passive, the Armor, the CDR, the Mana, it all fits Skarner really well. Visage is good if you get Reaver, which is now core. Old Skarner used to benefit from AS more, but now he is more reliant on sticking to a target for maximum damage and Hydra helps provide high AA damage. Just a preference really, especially after the BotRK nerfs.

PredatoratorJun 18, 20141 votes

Yeah, Essence Reaver was really a blessing for Skarner! I used to build IBG on AP Skarner, but with the Q nerfs, you won't even notice the AP (which is a significant stat of this item), so actually you won't get a full benefit from it. So i rather rely on his new Q for stickiness and go with Frozen Heart, which gives good Armour, good Mana pool, good CdR, and the passive works on many situation. And it costs the same as IBG. However, the lack of Spellblade is relevant. I like your point about Hydra, and i might try it! Though BotRK passive got a nice buff

CaptainWednesdayJun 18, 20142 votes

As for BotRK, you're right, but the overall nerf to item and changes to Skarner make me steer clear of the item. Plus, Hyrda provides melee AoE damage along with Q AoE, allowing you to duel multiple targets at once. With the 6 second stun window closed, you can attack other targets with the Crescent passive on Hydra will still attacking your original target. Just some things to consider on Skarner.

And this is if you want to go 2 Life Steal items on Skarner as most bruisers typically only get 1.

Sgt SlapnutsJun 18, 20141 votes

He is talking about the rework...

Are you really thinking he's talking about 1st rework skarner? Because 1st rework skarner stuck to enemies JUST AS WELL as permaslow skarner, PROVIDED YOU LAND YOUR E

This rework has completely gutted my favorite character.

I could give 3 craps less if I get a SINGLE TARGET stun. Skarner has no teamfight potential anymore.

Scaling gone, cooldown reduction gone, damage on ult gone...

IDENTITY GONE

XuWarriorJun 18, 20141 votes

When you build him straight dmg like SotL + TriForce + defensive items , it's OK-ish but still he can't even compete with medium CC tank junglers

KhmeraJun 18, 20141 votes

Gonna have to keep an eye out for this didn't realize they traded his Cooldown Reduction Passive for that stun passive. Now the reason for lowering most of his CDR on his spells make sense. No more built in CDR. =/

CaptainWednesdayJun 18, 20141 votes

They reduced all of his abilities cooldowns and moved his passive to his Q.

His ultimate will deal ~700 magic damage at max rank with 3 stacks of Crystal Venom on one target.

Read the Patch Notes.

Earl EulrichJun 19, 20141 votes

Yea, I pretty much can´t understand why they gutted all his ap-scalings that hard. Building Ap leaves him less tanky anyway, so there is already a tradeof there - you can´t stick to a target and dmg it while not being alive. Also e and w suffered quite a bit from the loss of his old passive, old skarner had been very strong once you had cdr-cap,as both these skills went to very low cds while being infight (and hitting people) - having it only for the q doesn´t do much for skarner.

Now he can pretty much only deal as some kind of single-target-cc-bot, but there are way better options for the job. High dmg always had been part of his identity - I really miss it.

L7xLoTekJun 19, 20141 votes

Ok, I only have a couple of games (and some custom game research) behind me with this, but here's my current build: item 3209 item 3111 item 3025 item 3146 item 3065 item 3091 + defence item X, such as item 3068 or item 3143 . with 0/21/9 masteries (be sure to get the mana regen) and weirdling runes: Hybrid Penetration reds, Armor yellows, MReg/lvl blues and HPreg quints.

This is actually close to what I was using pre-re-rework (that's a mouthful), and it seems to work even better now. Powerwise, the full build with elixirs or double-buffs is enough to solo baron, though it'll put up a fight.