I had been kicking around an idea about Skarner having a passive like Bard's, where he finds namestones scattered across the map and becomes stronger/more confident as he recovers more of them.
Would this make sense lore-wise? At the very least I feel like it makes more sense than the capture points.
I would've figured if there was a mini-game system still in place for Skarner, it'd be about getting namestones back to your kin, so instead of having crystal spires instead you'd have actual sleeping Brackern that Skarner could awake who would guard areas of the jungle/river and help Skarner and his allies in contesting objectives or killing jungle creatures.
Or maybe not actually getting their namestones, but just waking them up; they retreat underground if they're brought below a certain threshold and will only pop back up if Skarner's in place to coerce them (or his allies).
Weeeell, lorewise I don't think there's a massive amount of lifestones circulating around.
Like, I would think the Nexus would be a lifestone.
Neat idea, though.
I had written up a rough version of it, but I forgot to link it in this thread for some reason.
what about:
https://68.media.tumblr.com/061c701859eab2b5f9c845b3b0dfa913/tumblr_o141ffMWYq1tlljfxo1_500.gif
Giving him 
's Passive?
Maybe a bard-like passive, but I think not randomly spawining would be good. Unlike a lot in the wanderer archtype, Skarner has a persistent and specific purpose. Maybe the same crystal spires and spawn points, but a location-agnostic buff? Something like TT altars, or 1 minute duration buff every time he visits a captured spire, or something else. The whole spires idea doesn't actually seem all that flawed, save that if it matters then he has to be weaker than the average champion whenever he's not under that effect.
In summary, I think making the acquisition location based, but the buff location agnostic has promise.
Disclaimer: I do not play Skarner. I am merely offering up my opinions based on what I have seen with other, similar champions, my experience with the game framework, my own use of logic, and other people's opinions given to me.
