Riot, I'm pouring my heart out for Skarner on this one.
Before you guys delve in, please, there is no TLDR because I feel like you need to read all the specifics as Skarner's fall from grace and roller-coaster balance changes are very detailed. If my post is poorly organized, I'm sry in advanced. I just got really nervous and sturred while writing it.
Enjoy.
If you guys might have seen, weeks I've been spamming the Gameplay section with reminders to revert Skarner. but I got to thinking, maybe thats not convincing enough. Maybe Rito just needs some direction because they don't know what to do with him.
Below is a rework I designed for Skarner, my favorite champ since I started playing him in Season 3. I played him religiously on my old account until S5. That's when their rework they gave him failed us miserably. Its THE worst rework in history, not Aatrox's. It has been a balancing nightmare for riot and they seem to want to do nothing at this point with him. Skarner was a Diver Fighter with exceptional dueling capabilities. Now? He is barely viable as tank.
He has the lowest winrate in the game at a miserable 43%. SURE 5 months ago he was pick or ban at pro play. BUT, there are specific reasons for it. Skarner did not particularly do anything impressive. The meta surrounding him was HEAVILY influenced by ADCs. The new runes and added movement speed available allowed for Skarner to do his only job flawlessly. His only role is that of an Ult Bot. You flash ult the adc and pull them into your team or, atleast, to the frontline of the enemy's. Now that the meta is no longer worshiping ADCs, Skarner has no REAL role as you can't just flash and grab anyone. Fighters from Top lane and the Jungle are out performing him entirely. Although he might be carrying (Enemy Fighter) you cant just flash ult and pull a garen, darius, or aatrox into the middle of your team.
The fundamentals of the ADC meta combined with new movement speed runes are what made Skarner strong but niche pick. he has sunk back down to the bottom of the barrel because that is no longer the case. he isn't just weak, he is abysmally bad. This meta goes to show that it was 100% the meta and not Skarner. It also goes to show that Skarner's kit is entirely flawed.
To touch back, Skarner was a Diving Fighter Duelist. He should keep that feel to him over the tank (not even juggernaut) playstyle he has now. To do this, the primary thing Riot would have to do is Revert Skarner entirely.
You can find Skarner's old abilities at the wiki page below:
Click on the "History" tab and scroll down. Select "2nd I", those are his second generation abilities and the desired kit I think he should be reverted to.
http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/Skarner#2nd%20I
Now that you can see all of his abilities, I want you to ask yourself something. Skarner has been a balancing nightmare from the start. Well, what does every kit have that is fundamentally the same each rework? His Ultimate. Lets acknowledge the elephant here. His Ult is fundamentally broken regardless of how viable or not he is.
How do we fix current Skarner? How do we make him a true Diver Fighter Duelist again? A champ that literally counters high mobility champs with dashes and etc?
We must revert his kit. BUT, we must get rid of the old Ultimate. He MUST have a new ultimate entirely in order to find balance.
The rest of his kit must be JUST like the "2nd I" kit from the page.
I have an INCREDIBLY ingenius ultimate idea.
it is almost the exact opposite of Skarner's current ult, but even MORE thematic.
Scorpions dont drag their prey around with their tails. They sting, wait for the prey to stop moving and then eat. It rarely kills people however or anything larger than its usual food.
Skarner's ult should be like that too. The ultimate should be a click and point Sting that does % Current Health Damage (so it cant execute people and champs). It would be a great opener to enforce his original duelist nature. You have to ult in. It would be add coherence to his kit. Infact, let me make the ability below like how Riot does:
"Skarner Stings a close target with a powerful strike. This strike causes x% Current Health Damage. Over the course of 5 seconds, the target is slowed by 20%. When the 5 seconds are up, the target is paralyzed in a crystal Suppress for 2 seconds."
This adds a better "crystal venom" theme to his kit. Instead of feeling cheesey, the victim can still walk towards their team before being suppressed which gives the ultimate teamfight counter play. You might wonder if it would be useless in teamfights?
OF COURSE NOT! You can still flash ult a caught out target as long as you have a hard engage team who can go in when the suppress goes off. Like a sivir or malphite or something.
Thats not all! Its a great teamfight tool too because you can ult their most fed person, knowing the crystal venom will do its work while proceeding to dive the backline.
I think this Skarner idea is genius stroke of God given intelligence. it would bring him back from the dead and Riot wouldn't have to have such a headache anymore.
I know a lot of people don't care about Skarner, but he means a lot to me. He just seems to be... like me. Hes "the last of his kind" and he sounds sometimes sad and sometimes empathetic towards the player. My favorite and most touching line of his, which is weird IK, but its "We think alike summoner.....". It gives me warm feelings whenever I hear it. Idk why. It just does.
If you made it this far, i thank you sincerely from the bottom of my heart. I just have one thing to ask of you. Although you might not love Skarner, nor most people for that matter, can you please help me plead Riot for these changes? Try to post this thread in as many places as you can were people will see it.
Riot, if you're reading this, please know, that my decline in fun for the game started with his rework. That is a great shame as League is and will be my favorite game, yet I will not enjoy it to it's fullest anymore. I'm begging you to please restore my hope and sense of enjoyment in League. That alone would be accomplished by making progress on Skarner.
Thank you all.
Sincerely, A Rare Exotic Skarner Main In It's Natural Habitat
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