How can we really say that Rengar and Skarner are true to their fantasies post-rework?

Von Nicklesnout·4/6/2014, 3:59:59 AM·1 votes·396 views

Numbers on their abilities aside, at which point can it safely be said that Rengar and Skarner are being kept true to the archetypical fantasies they both represent? Rengar himself borrows heavily from influences like the movie Predator and subsequent spinoff franchises like Alien vs Predator due to his interactions with Kha'Zix as well as being modeled physically after one of the most well known predators on Earth: The Lion.

Skarner is a giant scorpion, which is also a well known predator and one of many many many venomous species of animals that uses it to disable prey and crush the life out of them with its claws/have freaky courting dances with others because that's how scorpions do. But the biggest issue is this: How exactly, after post-rework can we admit to them being true to the fantasy?

When you play Rengar, you expect to be a feared hunter who, true to his leonine nature stalks his prey with utmost care before pouncing onto them and taking them down. But that isn't so after his recent rework from RiotScruffy, rather, he rushes at prey from stealth and alerts to them of him being nearby via a very Metal Gear "!" symbol above their head before they get pounced and set upon. That in itself is probably one of the biggest mistakes ANY hunter could make: Alerting your prey of your presence. Lions in Africa as well as other big cats with the exception of the Cheetah take painstakingly slow approaches to their quarry and try their damnedest to avoid detection at all costs before they crash into their next meal. Being trained by a human hunter as well would make you think that Rengar would be able to remember the simple tools like that since even with our clever nature over the animal kingdom, we also have to go through painstaking steps to secure the kill.

But I digress; If Riot wants to make him more along the archetype of a valiant yet brutal lion-man who wades into battle (i.e. More along the lines of what the Britons signified the lion for, valiance and courage), then so be it. But don't advertise him as an Assassin before making him into a mediocre at best cross between that and Fighter/off-tank. It's rather depressing to see that Rengar went from an actual hunter into a bruiser who wades into the grand melee and spells rather than picking off a target and vanishing into the shadows.

Skarner, as mentioned earlier is of course, a scorpion. A predator who subdues prey by clamping onto it with its massive fore legs and stings it to subdue it with venom. He intiially started out as a predator who would subdue the prey by permanently slowing it with his Q, but that got changed to his third ability as a skill shot slow. Now, as much as that is good for the game's health on whatever levels, scorpions have never, never used their stingers as their primary weapons. The prey has to be immobilized with the claws first since they're not exactly the speediest animals on the planet.

While yes, he was built tanky and could easily chase you to death, that's essentially the game plan for any venomous creature. They don't kill you with immediate brutality like a lion would when it pounces and lunges for your throat, they apply their natural poison and allow it to do its work when the adrenaline you pump into your veins lets it run rampant through your body. But now, Skarner essentially is just a mediocre at best chaser who requires even MORE work to get into melee range and subdue his prey than before.

It's almost depressing at how Scruffy will make these threads trying to keep the community updated on the status of the champions he's reworking and disregards all community input until after the fact when he ships out the product and destroying the identity of the champions as well as the fantasy that was meant to be shown with them. People weren't attracted to Rengar initially because of his stupidly safe split pushing, they were attracted to him because there's literally nothing more intimidating than a bloody lion who jumps out of the bushes and proceeds to maul you to death.

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