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Skarner Rework Ideas

Moakmeister·3/6/2016, 8:28:20 PM·7 votes·1,684 views

Riot has been reworking a ton of old or outdated champions recently. First it was the Juggernauts, then Poppy, then Shen, and Taric is coming soon. After the release of Aurelion Sol (that's an awesome name btw. Way better than Ao Shin), my guess is that more champions are going to be updated. Riot has been talking about Skarner a bit lately, saying that they regret reworking him as a Juggernaut, and I noticed that Skarner has had one of the highest amount of partial reworks of any champion in the game. I'm a Skarner main, but I've been playing him less and less lately. The reason for this is because the more I play and the more I learn about League of Legends, the more I come to realize that Skarner is one of the most poorly designed champions in the entire game.

Instead of a partial rework (Spires? seriously?) every single ability needs to be thrown out the window and start from fresh except for his ultimate. It's not because his ultimate is good; I'm going to suggest a change to the ult as well. But his abilities need to change. Badly. And no minigames! I'll try to make my ideas simple.

New Passive: Crystal Energy Skarner does not use mana; instead, he utilizes Crystal Energy. As Skarner engages in combat, his Crystal Energy begins building up from 0 to a maximum of 100. Autoattacks and spells both generate 5 Crystal Energy. For every 5 points of Crystal Energy Skarner has, he gains 1% lifesteal and spellvamp. Additionally, he gains 1 point of movement speed for each point of Crsytal Energy when casting Impale (R).

Q: Stone jaws Active: Skarner uses his pincers to crush a target enemy, crippling them and rooting them for 1.5 seconds. Skarner's claws are made of rock; the damage scales with his armor. I feel like this would be way better than Crystal Slash, a circle of sustained damage that is almost useless late game. At least now Skarner has a use for his claws. He is a scorpion, right? The reason this should root targets instead of stunning them is because of the buff to his ultimate I'm suggesting. Having a stun would make him absurdly powerful.

W: Crystalline Frenzy Active: Skarner gains attack speed and movement speed for six seconds. For every 4 points of Crystal Energy Skarner has, the movement speed buff and attack speed buff is increased by 1%.

E: Fracture Active: Skarner's next autoattack smacks his target so hard that his claw shatters, spraying out crystal shards in a cone and damaging enemies they hit. The damage scales with armor, but Skarner's armor decreases by 20% upon using this ability. Over the course of the cooldown, his armor regenerates, so building CDR would be a good idea. This ability does not proc on turrets. Another ability scaling with armor? Well, yeah, but this one reduces his armor when he uses it. Not sure what you'll make of it, it could still be a bit too strong.

R: Impale Passive: Skarner periodically readies Crystal Venom in his stinger. His next autoattack uses his stinger to slow a target for two seconds and deals bonus damage. The cooldown is ten seconds. Autoattacks reduce the cooldown of this ability by one second, but if Skarner uses the autoattack on the same target within ten seconds of the last one, the slow is only one second. They will still take the bonus damage. Half damage to turrets. Active: Skarner roots a target enemy for .25 seconds before bringing his stinger down on them for 1.75 seconds, suppressing them and encasing their body in crystal. Skarner can drag them around for the duration. Using this ability with his passive ready will increase its damage. When the duration ends, the crystal around the target shatters and scatters on the ground, damaging enemies that walk over the shards and boosting ally movement speed by 20%. See what I mean by his ult being buffed? I think this change would be awesome. That's why I didn't give Skarner a stun in any of his new abilities. It would've made him way too strong.

So those are my suggestions for a Skarner rework. If RiotRepertoir sees this, that would be fantastic. I've spoken to him in another forum post and he's a really chill dude. Let me know what you guys think. Peace.

23 Comments

Variks the Loyal3/6/2016, 8:34:00 PM1 votes

I think Skarner's Juggernaut rework was good, but not perfect. I like the idea of the spires, that a creature as ancient and magical as a Brackern can force the landscape to change. It's good, imo. But Riot isn't delivered well on the concept.

It all comes down to two things. 1, numbers. Unlike other Juggernauts, Skarner is severely lacking in the damage department. Being a jungler, Skarner can't afford damage items like the other Juggernauts, and Enchantment: Warrior doesn't justify a spot in his build. It's too unsafe, and Skarner has no sustain. Skarner used to build Spirit of the Elder Lizard, so it's not like he can't do damage, but he can't build items he needs to deal damage. So, either his damage needs to be buffed, or the items need to be changed so he can build them early (Warrior junglers are a dying breed, anyway. Most of them build Cinderhulk nowadays, unless they're an Assassin like Rengar).

Second, he has no sustain in fights. Darius and Illaoi have healing. Mordekaiser has shielding. Garen doesn't have infight sustain but he has his passive, to replenish him if he survives. Skarner has nothing like this. He needs some form of healing, or a new form of shielding, to sustain himself in fights, or he'll just be endlessly kited and killed.

Shahamut3/6/2016, 10:25:23 PM1 votes

The biggest problem with the Juggernaut Skarner rework is that Skarner is not, and has never been, a juggernaut. RIOT knows this in the back of their mind, which is why you saw constant DAMAGE nerfs to him as the patches followed. Juggernauts are supposed to be slow and tough, and deal tons of damage IF they can get a hold of you.

Skarner does not have that hard of a time getting on people. Compare him to Garen, Illoai, Darius, etc. Skarner has a ranged slow that procs a stun, is not single target, and also has a movement speed steroid. Skarner also isn't heavy damage bursty like other juggernauts. He has a low cd Q that adds for lots of sustained damage and sheen procs. Skarner is a fighter/brusier, secondary tank. He is a duelist.

If I were going to use the juggernaut rework as a base, I would have left his kit the way it was before (3 spell hits to proc the stun, ramping MS/AS on Q) and just added the spire as an affect to his ultimate, making his ult kind of like Riven's ult plus Trundle W. EX: Skarner summons a crystal spire that grants him additional attack/movement speed and mana regen within a certain range for 10 seconds. During this time, Skarner gains one cast of Impale.

That would have been a much more effective way to do it in my opinion. I don't think Skarner's kit needs reworked completely, but it would be cool to see some additional thematics. I don't know if they have any long lore for Skarner anymore, but if he still charges himself with Crystal Energy, why not give him a unique resource? Crystal Energy?

Passive: Crystal Energy- Skarner's resource is Crystal Energy. As Skarner engrosses himself in combat, he gathers Crystal Energy which fuels his ferocious tearing of limbs. Max 100 Crystal Energy. For every 2 crystal energy Skarner has, he gains 1% increased attack speed and movement speed. Skarner gains 1 point of crystal energy per auto attack on non-champions and 3 per auto attack on Champions. If Skarner is out of combat for more than 5 seconds, the energy will start to dissipate at a rate of 1 per second, accelerating to 2 per second after 10 seconds.

(Q) Crystal Slash: Skarner Lashes out at all targets around him dealing /25/30/35/40/45% AD physical damage. As long as Skarner has at least 1 point of Crystal Energy stored, this attack deals additional magic damage equal to the physical damage it deals. The cooldown of this ability is reduced by .5 seconds per auto attack (double vs champions) and gather's crystal energy for each enemy hit. (1 per non-champion, 3 per champion, does not function on structures)

(W) Crystal Exoskeleton: Skarner's armor is powered by his crystal energy and he can consume a portion of it to heal. Passive: Skarner gains 1% increased armor and magic resist for every 5 crystal energy he currently has. Active: Skarner consumes 1/2 of his current crystal energy and heals for 10/15/20/25/30+1 for every 2 energy consumed (+30%AP)

(E) Fracture: Skarner consumes 20 Crystal Energy to blast a beam that passes through targets, dealing magic damage equal to 80/120/160/200/240(+30% AP), slowing them by 35/45/55/65/75% for 2.5 seconds and filling their body with energy for 5 seconds. If Skarner manages to auto attack a target charged with energy, he stuns them for 1 second and recovers an additional 1/2/3/4/5 crystal energy.

(R) Crystal Stinger Passive: Every 5/4/3 strikes, Skarner uses his tail to inflict a poison on his target that deals 1/2/3% current health magic damage per second and slows their attack speed by 10/20/30% for 2 seconds. Multiple instances simply reset the duration. The tail attack does not generate Crystal Energy.

Active (Impale)- Skarner roots his target for .25 seconds before striking down with his tail, dealing 100% AD Physical damage plus 100/125/150(+50%AP) magic damage, suppressing the target for 1.75 seconds. While they are suppressed, Skarner rapidly gains Crystal Energy (10/20/30) and can drag his opponent around. At the end of the duration, they take 100/125/150(+50% AP) magic damage.

I just came up with this as I was typing so don't be too harsh :P

Arakadia3/6/2016, 10:54:38 PM1 votes

I really LOVE this rework idea. As a starter fan, I'd love sing him use his stinger more. Someone in the comments posted some good ideas so I'll pull what I like from them.

Passive: Crystal Energy- Skarner's resource is Crystal Energy. As Skarner engrosses himself in combat, he gathers Crystal Energy which fuels his ferocious tearing of limbs. Max 100 Crystal Energy. For every 2 crystal energy Skarner has, he gains 1% increased attack speed and movement speed. Skarner gains 1 point of crystal energy per auto attack on non-champions and 3 per auto attack on Champions. If Skarner is out of combat for more than 5 seconds, the energy will start to dissipate at a rate of 1 per second, accelerating to 2 per second after 10 seconds. Maybe if he has X crystal energy he his mana regen is buffed, I really like that he doesn't have mama problems.

Q: Stone jaws Active: Skarner uses his pincers to crush a target enemy, crippling them and rooting them for 1.5 seconds. Skarner's claws are made of rock; the damage scales with his armor. The cooldown of this ability is reduced by .5 seconds per auto attack (double vs champions) and gather's crystal energy for each enemy hit. (1 per non-champion, 3 per champion, does not function on structures)

W: (W) Crystal Exoskeleton: Skarner's armor is powered by his crystal energy and he can consume a portion of it to heal. Passive: Skarner gains 1% increased armor and magic resist for every 5 crystal energy he currently has. Active: Skarner consumes 1/2 of his current crystal energy and heals for 10/15/20/25/30+1 for every 2 energy consumed (+30%AP).

(I would like to keep Skarner as a fast moving champ, so maybe he keeps the extra movement speed before he consumes his crystal energy for 3-6 seconds. The problem is right now he has no gapcloser and getting your crystal energy to not run out before your tanks is very hard.)

(E) Fracture: Skarner consumes 20 Crystal Energy to blast a beam that passes through targets, dealing magic damage equal to 80/120/160/200/240(+30% AP), slowing them by 35/45/55/65/75% for 2.5 seconds and filling their body with energy for 5 seconds. If Skarner manages to auto attack a target charged with energy, he stuns them for 1 second and recovers an additional 1/2/3/4/5 crystal energy. Maybe basic attacking a charged target also deals small AoE damage to give him better clear.

(R) Crystal Stinger Passive: Every 5/4/3 strikes, Skarner uses his tail to inflict a poison on his target that deals 1/2/3% current health magic damage per second and slows their attack speed by 10/20/30% for 2 seconds. Multiple instances simply reset the duration. To add your passive, he readies his stinger, even if he hasn't attacked recently, after 14 seconds of no combat. This attack deals slight on hit bonus damage and slows movement speed. Numbers would change likely.

Active: Impale: Skarner roots a target enemy for .25 seconds before bringing his stinger down on them for 1.75 seconds, suppressing them and encasing their body in crystal. Skarner can drag them around for the duration. Using this ability with his passive ready will increase its damage. When the duration ends, the crystal around the target shatters and scatters on the ground, damaging enemies that walk over the shards and boosting ally movement speed by 20%.

corals3/7/2016, 7:39:39 AM1 votes

Thank you all for this discussion, I have played Skarner since release and love him and appreciate the new ideas for him. I agree the scorpion could use a little love. He is not exactly weak but a little unsatisfying at the moment. I have some ideas of my own and I will post some of them now. The rest I will bring when I have fleshed them out a bit.

First his innate. I am ok with the spires, they certainly are unique and a functional passive. I see them affect a couple team fights every game. They remain sort of flat though. My idea to make them more interesting and thematic is to change one of that stats. Instead of the spires granting Attack speed, I kind of want to see them grant Skarner's autos magic damage based on level. With the magic damage increasing the longer Skarner is on the spires with out expending the energy. His base attack speed can be increased a little to compensate.

Think of it like Thresh's autos. He gets the base damage for the on hit, but it increases up to a cap the longer he waits between attacks. The thematic tie in here being that skarner is storing energy from the spires. It would add some tension to seeing Skarner chase you down when he is on his spire, knowing that he is getting that charge.

My next idea is a little less formed, its for Fracture. It may require changes to his W. I think it would be cool if the projectile slowed down still, but lingered a bit longer, sort of like Ekko's Q. Then have Skarner gain his spire benefits while he is moving towards them. So he hits a champion, slowing them and he himself gains movement moving towards them. The next part of this is that champions in contact with the fracture (of his crystal spire, get it?) would have their movement abilities disabled. This would cause this skill to lose the mark part of it, which makes me kind of sad, but hey, there might be room for an additional mechanic here. Or maybe just give it a lower cool down. Thoughts?

WoonStruck3/7/2016, 8:07:25 AM1 votes

Remove passive. Buff his base attack speed and buff his W Movespeed again.

Give him territories he can control on his own terms.

Considering champion average locations are being tracked and recorded throughout games to graph on the map, Riot can use the same technology and apply it to him using 'AoE' bubbles similar to Nocturne's Q, or hexagons to cover the map in a better layout. Every cumulative interval (whatever value of time that's determined), the buff stack increases by 1 in that small area. These would obviously stack pretty slowly so that a good time investment would have to go into it to have stronger objective control, defensive, or offensive positions.

This makes Skarner interesting in that he can choose to either make plays, or create 'territory' in strategic positions throughout the game, and would have to stick to that plan throughout the game to make it potent. This also makes it so that Riot has a direct lever to his scaling throughout the game.

This also fits the 'myth' that scorpions are territorial. I know that's not optimal, but there's only so much you can worth with as far as scorpions go that hasn't already been looked into.

The best part about this over the current passive is that it doesn't keep his base stats artificially low since its a 'buff' that scales slowly throughout the game. The second best part is the lack of feast/famine nature. No matter what, you are stacking that buff somewhere, even if behind. It lets you set up defensive areas you might be able to use to turn things around. If you're ahead, you don't snowball out of control with them because you're either taking objectives (making little use of tactics with his passive), doing what you'd do with your passive if you were behind (including jungling), or setting them up in offensive positions, which will let you be more aggressive 'further up' the map, but rather minimal in effect since you likely can't spend much time there without serious risk. Finally, it doesn't give up his resilience to invades because he'll still have a decent amount stacked in his home jungle just for being a jungler, essentially.

Chase Me Daddy3/7/2016, 9:03:12 AM1 votes

Actually Skarner and Mordekaiser are back on the rework list (full VGU) because Riot realised they need more than a class update. Yeah they are nood really happy about Skarner not beeing a full Juggernaut. Just a tank with overall low mobility, he really has not enough sustained AOE damage and on-hit effects to be one. Now i have Skarner lvl 5 (actually the first jungler i ever played) and i enjoy him sadly just a bit. But he needs some more overall enjoyment (probably the reason why he and Aatrox are so unpopular, both feel like a lackluster sometimes). I can just say he is a good option and i play him jungle if we need a good tank in our team.

Really hope his VGU (which is sadly a long time off) will bring this overall enjoyment as a juggernaut/tank.

corals3/7/2016, 7:24:17 PM1 votes

As a Skarner main I would like to see the ult roughly remain a targeted grab/suppress. I would be ok if it lost some reliability for the sake of his balance.

I think one of the best skills in the game is Sion's Q. In terms of balance and satisfaction it really sticks out as a fun ability. So maybe Skarner should burrow some of what makes that ability so well designed. I was thinking of making Skarner channel for one second. If he completes the channel he lashes out his Stinger towards the cursor suppressing the first champions caught and leading to his ult. all champions in the area where the first champion is hit are stunned. Similar to Sion he would have a dramatically reduced cool down if he is CC'd during the channel.

Bârd3/9/2016, 8:17:44 PM1 votes

http://www.sneakermob.com/public/userfiles/2015/08/CL1xQF_WsAAiSHa.jpg

Xmas All Year1/2/2018, 9:21:46 AM1 votes

I see three major problems with this design:

  • Having spell vamp, you would expect skarner to have a low cooldown damaging ability, but he only has a CC, an auto reset and a buff.

  • I like his passive BUT I think his W is just an overbuff to it and a pretty non-interesting ability. There should be another ability that gives skarner a different kind of mobility aswell since otherwise he would be kited like an aatrox.

  • His scalings are armor, which is really weird for a juggernaut to have instead of AD. ** My thoughts on what Skarner needs:**

  • As a Juggernaut his kit should be (compared to other juggernauts):

  • A low-cd damaging ability that doesn't imply sustain (already got passive) (Darius' Q, Nasus' Q, Illaoi's Q, Udyr's whole kit)
  • A CC ability that that CAN imply mobility/tenacity (Trundle's E, Udyr's E, Volibear's Q, Darius' E)
  • A way of sustain, the passive you made does that good (Nasus' passive, Olaf's W, Trudnle's Passive, Darius' Q);
  • MAYBE a ranged ability that CAN imply CC (like Olaf's Q, Yorick's E, Mundo's Q, Illaoi's whole kit -xD-)
  • A mobility/tenacity ability that implies something else (Mundo's ult -heal-, Volibear's Q -CC-, Udyr's E -stun-, Shyvana's W -damage-)

So my design would rather be:

P: In combat stacks crystal energy up to 100, every 5 gets 1% lifesteal and spell vamp. (His sustain ability, really well thought by you)

Q: Hits the floor knocking up crystals in front of him. That deals physical damage to enemies and marks them with crystal dust. Scales with AD and has a Low CD. Crystal dust: for 1 second marked enemies leave a trail of crystal dust that give Skarner MS when walking through it (Same Q as now but cooler, would do more damage and be ranged like poppy's Q but in a circle and starting closer to him, plus gives him the mobility he needs. Let's keep his identity as much as possible.)

W: Passive: Skarner has 10% increased armor and MR but 10% decreased damage. Active: Skarner's next autoattack deals extra damage and shatters both of his claws, releasing all the power inside them, losing 20% armor and MR but gaining 20% extra AD for the next 3 seconds. If the enemy is marked with crystal dust, the autoattack will stun it. (I really liked the skarner shattering himself and losing armor idea)

E: Shoots a crystal projectile from his stinger, dealing a burst of physical damage and then physical damage over time, slowing the first enemy hit and marking it with crystal dust. If the target was already marked with crystal dust, it will be stunned. (His ranged and CC ability, again, keeping his identity as much as possible. The DoT is to make it worth it to buy BC)

R: Impales the target enemy. Same ability as now. It has a bigger range for enemies stunned by his E.