[Champion Rework] Skarner, The Crystal Ancient

Shuyin178·7/27/2017, 3:09:48 PM·1 votes·273 views

Skarner is an awesome champion. He looks cool, his lore is solid, but his gameplay is something different. Skarner's basic gameplay is fine, but he needs something to give him a little extra, something to make him fun to play again. The Juggernaut rework made Skarner broken at release, but then he got nerfed into a state of, "Why would I play this?". I think Skarner is one of the coolest champions this game has, so it breaks my heart to see him in his current state. This concept iteration is aimed at keeping his base kit intact, while doing some major-minor work on his abilities. After the abilities will be context and information about the changes to Skarner's abilities.

**Brackern Surge (passive): ** Upon damaging a unit with an ability cast Skarner gains 1 stack of "Crystal Charge", stacking 4 times. At 4 stacks, your next basic ability cast becomes empowered with ancient energy, consuming all stacks and restoring 3% maximum mana. Champion kills grant 2 stacks of "Crystal Charge" and assists grant 1 stack.

Crystal Slash: Skarner gains 40 - 90 (based on level) bonus movement speed and 40 - 130% (based on level)% bonus attack speed for 4 seconds.

Crystalline Exoskeleton: Doubles shield HP Ratio and maximum charges the bonus movement speed while the shield holds.

Fracture: Missile speed is increased by 250. The first enemy champion or large monster struck is stunned for 1.25 seconds and all units struck are grounded for 2 seconds.

**Crystal Slash (Q): ** Effect Radius: 375 Cost: 10/12/14/16/18 mana Cooldown: 3.5/3.25/3/2.75/2.5 seconds ACTIVE: Skarner deals (30/34/38/42/46% AD) physical damage to all enemy units within range and empowering your next basic with "Crystalline Energy" for 4 seconds.

Crystalline Energy: Your next basic attack does damage in a small cone in front of Skarner, dealing Crystal Slash's damage again to your target and enemy units in the cone.

Basic attacks reduce Crystal Slash's cooldown by 0.25 seconds, if a unit is killed by Crystal Slash or the empowered basic attack the cooldown is lowered by 1 second.

Crystalline Exoskeleton (W): Cost: 65 Mana Cooldown: 14/13/12/11/10 seconds ACTIVE: Skarner shields himself for (8/10/12/14/16% maximum HP) (+80% AP) for up to 6 seconds, gaining (0/4/8/12/16%) bonus movement speed that increases by 16% over 3 seconds while the shield holds.

Fracture (E): Target Range: 1000 Collision Radius: 40 Speed: 1500 Cost: 60 mana Cooldown: 15/14/13/12/11 seconds ACTIVE: Skarner launches a blast of energy in the target direction, dealing 30/60/90/120/150 (+20% AP) magic damage to all enemies struck and slowing them for 2.5 seconds, marking them with "Crystal Venom" for 5 seconds.

Skarner's next basic attack against marked targets consumes "Crystal Venom", resetting the cooldown on Crystal Slash and stunning them for 1.25 seconds.

Impale (R) Target Range: 375 Cost: 100 mana Cooldown: 120/100/80 ACTIVE: Skarner rears his stinger and brings it down, rooting the target enemy for 0.25 seconds, dealing 25/70/115 (+50% AP) (+60% AD) magic damage, and suppressing them for 1.75 seconds. At the end of the duration, the target takes the same damage again.

If Skarner Impales a unit stunned by Fracture, suppression is increased to 2 seconds and Skarner gains (16/20/24/28/32)% bonus movement speed for 2 seconds. (bonus movement speed is based on Crystalline Exoskeleton's level)

For the duration, Skarner can move freely and drags his victim around with him but cannot basic attack or cast Fracture.

Notes and Ability Information:

Brackern Surge is a new passive that allows Skarner to channel the power of his ancient race, giving him different options when he attacks his prey. His Crystal Slash gains weaker versions of the old Crystal Spire buffs to help him along in his clears, Crystalline Exoskeleton gains a lot more tank stats with instant mobility, and Fracture gains some more reliability. However players can only use 1 of these at a time, and Skarner only gets stacks of "Crystal Charge" (which do NOT fall off) when he damages a unit, making landing Crystal Slash an important part of Skarner's pattern and encourages Skarner to get into the middle of the brawl as opposed to being just a suppress-bot. (Skarner only gains 1 stack of "Crystal Charge" per cast, NOT per unit hit) There would also be a stack indicator somewhere for the enemy team to keep track of how many he has (similar to Annie in a way).

Crystal Slash now allows Skarner to use his Crystal Slash's damage again sooner, at the cost of the AP ratio on the extra damage, and now allows Skarner to cast it faster during clears whenever he slays a unit with this ability.

Crystalline Exoskeleton is the exact same as before, except with lower health scaling shield early with stronger health scaling shield later.

Fracture is also the same except its damage is lower early and stronger later and now, instead of dealing bonus damage to stunned targets, it resets Crystal Slash, allowing for stronger damage output.

Impale just got some utility and synergy with Skarner's play pattern, giving him overall more movement speed through Crystalline Exoskeleton over the old Crystal Spire movement speed when used along side Fracture. (Note: The movement speed Skarner gains from Impale is counted as different values from Crystalline Exoskeleton, so they are able to stack movement speed)

Overall these changes will make Skarner more difficult to use, but also rewards players who manage to master him.