Skarner Update Concept
Its no secret that Skarner has had issues, not only his identity as a Crystal scorpion, but with his role. Some of his kit seem to be at odds, and his theme was never truly achieved in my opinion. This rework sets out to solve a few gameplay issues with his kit, and give him a unique mechanic.
Passive: Brackern Vanguard (Note: Skarner's base health is low to compensate. Effective health unchanged)
Crystalline Exoskeleton: Skarner has an exoskeleton (persistent shield) equal to 35% of his maximum health. When Skarner is at maximum health, he regenerates the shield instead. Skarner takes 15%/20%/25% (1/6/11) less physical damage while he has a shield, doubled against monsters.
Crystal Shards: Skarner's presence causes crystal shards to appear at random locations and linger for up to 5 minutes. Skarner can collect the shards by standing near them for 2 seconds, or destroyed by enemy champions the same way, granting 5 gold. (Shards behave like Bard's Chimes, but only spawn one every 60 seconds. )
Collecting a shard grants Skarner 20% out of combat bonus movement speed, 30% bonus attack speed, and restores 1% maximum mana every second for 30 seconds, stacking 1/2/3 (lv's 1/6/11) times.
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Q: Crystal Assault | CD 6
Passive: Every third auto attack, Skarner strikes with his tail, dealing 50% bonus damage in a line. (100% vs monsters.)
Active: Skarner deals physical damage to all enemies in range, applying on-hit effects (at 50% value). If an enemy is hit, the next use of Crystal Assault within 6 seconds becomes empowered, dealing bonus magic damage and reducing its base cooldown by 1 second.
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W: Crystalline Generation | CD 15/14/13/12/11 | 80 mana.
Passive: Shields that expire on Skarner restore his exoskeleton for 60/70/80/90/100% of the remaining amount.
Active: Skarner gains a shield for 11/12/13/14/15% (+40% ap ) of his maximum health for up to 5 seconds.
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E: Fracture
Unchanged.
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R: Impale | Range 500 Skarner rears his stinger and brings it down, hitting enemies in a line, suppressing enemy champions hit, dealing physical damage, and being able to drag them for 1.75 seconds. Skarner cannot cast abilities while impaling an enemy.
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Notes
First, the passive.
Crystalline Exoskeleton: Skarner is a CRYSTAL scorpion, and I thought it would be neat to give him his own mechanic. While his total health would be unchanged due to the base health nerf, it would increase his durability against physical enemies, and give him sustain in the jungle. There are two reason I choose physical only. Counter play and theme. Skarner can now be countered more heavily against magic damage while excelling against a particular type of enemy, keeping his power budget in check. As for theme, Skarner is a Brackern, which in the lore, drove them underground because it was poisoning them in the rune wars.
Crystal shards. - Crystal spires on live servers, SUCK. They don't add to his gameplay, and serve to gatekeep his power, keeping him limited to select areas if he wants to be strong. Crystal shards act as a pseudo bard passive. They are much rarer than bards chimes. (chrimes spawn 2 every 50 seconds, while shards only spawn once every 60) so they act as a power boost at certain times, like if you want to gank, and help keep your high mana costs under control. They also stack latter, if you have them to spare. Only 5 will be on the map at any time, so use them sparingly and get the most out of them.
Q - Crystal Assault I made it a little less spam-y than Skarner's live Q, Crystal slash. Having it apply on hit effects seemed like an interesting way to update the ability and make him more interesting to itemize. The piercing tail attacks was a way to increase complexity in the jungle, and make it less brain dead just spamming Q every 2 seconds. It also lets you use his tail pre 6, which should be a thing (Fracture is a projectile) considering its a scorpions main feature.
W - Crystalline Generation Giving Skarner a way to regenerate his shield was an obvious move. It makes him more interesting, and allows you to outplay some enemies, such as using W after youve lost your shield to regain it just before getting hit with a jinx ult. Since Skarner is essentially made mostly of crystals, having shields simply regenerate his passive was an interesting mechanic we don't have in the game currently. This also opens up Skarner to be missing life, but have his exoskeleton up, a little like having Kled nearly dead, but Skarl saving his life.
E - Fracture I honestly went through a few renditions of Fracture, but skarner still needed a long range slow, and a way to stun and lock people down pre 6. So no change needed.
R - Impale Changing Skarner's ult to a skill shot does two things. It allows him to outplay his opponents more (go big brain), trying to grab multiple champions, or to miss completely. Not many people enjoy point and click suppression, so this helps separate it from Malzahars.
Feel free to leave feedback. :)