With a Skarner followup in the work, I thought I'd share some ideas I had for his kit.

I was a huge Skarner One-Trick-Pony in toplane last season. I hated the new rework because besides being unplayable in toplane, he now feels slow and awkward to me. I attempted to make a rework of how I would change Skarner a few months ago but never posted it. The wording isn't the best but I feel the point I'm trying to portray is there. Feel free to criticize or help change this. I apologise for the shitty formatting, I never post to reddit.

The Skarner I had in mind had his movement speed back and remained a bruiser that excelled in long fights while keeping his enemy team disruption, but making him less reliant on the spires and making the spire more benefical to the team.

Passive: Skarner's presence causes a number of Crystal Spires to appear at set points on the battlefield, which can be captured by champions who stand near them for 2 seconds. Once captured, Crystal Spires are owned until contested and the defending team can stand on the spire to prevent the opposing team from capturing it. Crystal Spires grant 30 Gold split among its captors upon being captured, or 15 Gold if only a single champion participated in its capture, and provide Sight icon sight around them for 1.5 seconds upon being captured, becoming impossible to recapture for 15 seconds. While within range of a Crystal Spire controlled by his team, Skarner's abilities gain bonus effects:

1. Healing with Q grants a small heal to other allied champions close to Skarner.
2. While Skarner is above 50% allied champions gain a speed boost when walking towards Skarner.
3. Skarner's W leaves a greater number of crystal shards on the ground.

Q: Skarner jabs quickly with his claws. Attacks in rapid succession reduce its cooldown my a small amount, ramping up each time. Every third attack heals Skarner for a certain amount.

This gives Skarner a way to play around with trying to remain above 50% health while also removing the crutch the old Q had when you had no attack speed.

**W: **Skarner has a tough outer shell of crystal armor. Skarner takes reduced damage and gains movement speed the more damage he takes. When skarner reachs 50% health his armor breaks, giving skarner a short speed boost but Skarner takes increased damage while he remains below 50% health. Activating this ability forfeits the damage reduction for a stronger speed boost based off what percentage above 50% Skarner is.

This removes the issue skarner had of dying before he got close enough to do anything.

**E: **Skarner sheds a layer of crystals, leaving shards behind him. Enemies who stand on the shards are slowed. If an enemy stand on 3, he is briefly stunned.

I think this is an amazing tool for Skarner because it can be used to cut off the enemy team when ganking or during teamfights and keeping the enemy away from objectives. It also stops the enemies from chasing you or from the enemy you just ulted from escaping.

R: Unchanged because this ability is what makes Skarner unique

TLDR:

  Passive = Spires with team bonuses.
  Q = Hec Q with heal.
  W = Take less damage, then take a lot. Gotta go fast.
  E = Ziggs E behind Skarner.
  R = The same.