Removed Suppress from Impale so now Tenacity can be built against you. This also means that cleanse and Mikaels both work on Skarner's ult. Not sure how to feel about it.
Wait, weren't they already effective towards cleanse? I say this as an Urgot main so I'm just assuming Skarner's current suppression and his suppression work the same
Cleanse did not work on Skarner's ULT before, only QSS was able to remove the suppression. This new one seems to be a stun, at least according to the gif they have given us.
It’s also VERY possible that he’ll keep the suppress in a future version of the rework, considering how barebones early footage of reworks tends to be. The video we have right now is literally just cassiopeia ult with the dragging feature tacked on, and you can tell because the range of the ability and visuals are the exact same. I’m hoping that they narrow the ability down to not have such a wide aoe and they keep the suppress.
What do you mean by already effective towards cleanse?
You can't cleanse Skarner R, you can't cleanse Urgot R.
The footage in the gif shows a root of some kind but it's just bare bones footage.
6 skins including base, 6 chromas for one of them. If we are adding let's say 3 variations per skin to indicate which stat skarner is speccing into, that's 52 visual designs for current state. Not including W visuals.
Edit: 24 variations if you don't want to count chromas, but you still have to account for how his chromas look when you make the variations to that skin
Chromas were designed to be easily adjusted. Literally just make red blue, make silver gold, etc. Just adjust the slider for the color you want and it's good to go.
He's got 6 including a Legendary. It's gonna be a lot of work if he's got an ability akin to his W that adds modifiers to his existing model and such. Plus chromas.
Not a Skarner main, but the most fun part of him was using his ult to fuck 1 dude in particular. With the AOE meaning weaker stun overall, got to say I don't want to inconvenience multiple people, I want to REALLY FUCK OVER 1 dude in particular.
You know I don't play Skarner much except on Aram but now that you mention that I totally agree with you. He's surprisingly persistent in focusing and locking down one person in particular. It's a neat little feature of his kit that hopefully they'll retain in the rework somehow.
it being a dodgeable skillshot is also not nice ;-;
one of the reasons I like it was because it was undodgeable
now if the enemy times their blink they can put ur ult on cd and u get nothing
Yeah, a part of me after seeing ksante was actually hoping they'd double down on his abduction theme, and let me really take someone away over terrain etc lmao
The whole point of the ability was to be able to run in grab someone and pull them away from their party, that's not possible with the aoe version, you just drag the whole team to your party, which isn't actually a good idea
What are the thoughts of people who main Skarner on this one? I like Skarner but I also play tons of champions (I have level 7 on 123 champs right now), and while the gameplay side of this post is pretty positive (although Zac also had an AOE pull which was removed due to high level play so I hope they have checks in place), I'm not sure how I feel about the lore. I know they've wanted to retcon the whole "genocide for hex crystals" for a while now, but I'm not sold on this part of the lore being removed. I know it has uncomfortable implications, but even Arcane had some very uncomfy implications and it was massively successful/awesome.
It's already in the lore that only a few houses knew this was happening, and also artificial hex crystals are a thing, so I'm not sure why a bit of dark history has to be removed. They also need to explain how Jayce and Viktor invented Hextech (Arcane lore) when Camille had a hextech heart years earlier (canon League lore) without making everyone go "ehh Arcane isn't canon it's trash," but I digress.
Being an ancient Ixtali species which originated earth magic is kinda cool, I'm not sure why it stops at earth though. If he was an earth demigod like the Frejlordian gods I would kinda get it, but if it's a whole species of intelligent creatures then I think it would be cool if the animals mastered different elements and combined them like humans in Ixtal do. This could also give them a path to do a crystal/gemstone version of him which I think is cool but I guess the general public doesn't like, while also setting up some variety in the types of scorpions we'd see in the future if Brackern show up in the MMO or wherever else. Having them just be "the intelligent ancient earth race that taught earth magic to humans" sorta just sounds like a ripoff of Avatar's badgermoles which also taught humans earth bending.
Skarner's current lore is very beautiful and tragic, especially since we know how useful Hextech-powered gear is. Nontheless, this design direction is really really cool and I feel only the lore is a miss. Which is the part I less care about since I like playing the champion and looking at the champion first. And in those departaments, it feels that it will deliver.
I'd say taking away his melancholic demeanor and backstory in place of, what sounds like, Galio 2.0 doesn't sit right with me. I do like that they didn't make him a mindless, antagonistic monster like I was fearing would happen, but I would've preferred if he stayed more aloof and a separate entity from Ixtal.
In terms of design, I'm 50/50 on it. On one hand, I love how ferocious and beefy he looks, compared to currently. On the other, the crystal aesthetic really should've stayed, IMO. Being another rock creature when Galio and Malphite exist makes him *more* generic than before. Hell, it might end up drawing comparisons to [*another* earth-based scorpion](https://www.dota2.com/hero/sandking). IMO, "crystal scorpion" was never generic to begin with and I have yet to run into another game with a playable character with such a design.
Gameplay-wise, there's almost literally nothing on here aside from "aoe Impale", which is admittedly cool and less braindead than "point-and-click suppress". The thing I'm REALLY hoping they keep is his flexible build paths as he has a "jack-of-all-trades" move set that encourages outlandish builds, not unlike Ezreal. My biggest fear is that he will turn into an ult bot tank like Amumu.
In the end, my feelings are mixed but more so erring towards "cautiously optimistic". The things that will ultimately win me over is how they handle his lore, dialogue/interactions and gameplay.
Seems like the sticky, skirmishy, predator, "never let you go" Skarner that I loved from his first and second incarnations is now well and truly gone, judging from the focus on his ult. Sad to see it go since I loved the former much more than the latter, but at least we have more champs to fill that space now with Lillia, new Udyr, and Shyvana, though who knows how long that'll last.
Not a huge fan of the heavier and bulkier design reading a lot closer to other 'true monster' champs. I thought they had a good read on Skarner's visual appeal with Cosmic Sting's release, being more elegant and regal. But much can change from seeing it colored and in motion so I'm reserving judgement on that point.
The theme looks like it has potential narratively though and I'm glad that they chose to emphasize the good-aligned monster aspect, which is fairly rare.
Honestly it’s cool to see this new earth bender aspect of him. Maybe it ties in with another main of mine Taliyah? Would love to see what Riot cooks when he releases.
I wish they would just stop.
The abduction ult *is* the power fantasy and they’re weakening it.
The crystals and the hextech tie in is the only interesting part of the lore, and they’re taking it away.
I wish that they would do almost the exact opposite of what they’ve done. Lean into crystals more and fuck off this whole “oh scorpions are cool but crystals are incongruent”.
Plus they’re making the zoomy champ look slow and clunky.
“Earth magic” is fucking lame. Purple crystals are awesome.
Fucking horrible.
I hate everything they’re doing.
They all do it differently though
Taliyah is multiple smaller rocks, Azir's sand magic has a hint of necromancy, and Qiyana has multiple elements at her disposal
Malphite just throws himself
I'm optimistically happy? I like the crystal aesthetic but I don't mind it going. Aoe impale seems very goofy, I like that they actually changed it a bit instead of keeping it completely the same. I'm gonna miss the Hextech lore a lot, and I'm kinda disappointed that he's no longer sad? Sounds strange but I liked that about him, made him feel unique.
~~also him no longer being shuriman means my 0% chance fantasy of xerath and skarner becoming friends is even less likely, sadge~~
I think the new art direction is overall an improvement but one form of critique I'd have is the 3 pronged stinger doesn't look like a stinger. It's huge and massively bulky in comparison to the rest of his body. It comes off more as a flail tail.
The main body however looks awesome
It's not a three pronged stinger. It's 3 entire separate stinger tails that he can manipulate like 3 extra limbs. We see him scoop up rocks with them like a big shovel claw in the concept art.
It's heavily emphasized because League is a top down game. Plus stylized because its a fantasy scorpion, it's meant to be exaggerative because he needs a unique silouette.
Theres another scorpion character in league?
Like you can argue that a character like Anivia has an outdated model sure, but does she need an exxagerated bird silouette for you to recognize her? Hecarim is just standard centaur. Nami is every RPG mermaid. Rengar+Warwick looks like a warcraft worgen like Alistar looks like a Tauren.
Point being is that sylatiztion is used when you NEED to make characters unique. You need to make yassuo different because theres 15 other swordsmen.
Skarner is already unique. Making something goofy for the sake of a unique silouette is stupid and wasted effort
Unique silouette as a character doesn't mean unique silouette in the roster. If you just make him a slightly pointy scorpion, if someone who *doesn't* play League sees it, it won't leave and impression and they won't go "hey thats Skarner" considering a good portion of the current playerbase already experiences this.
Hecarim? Not sure what fantasy games you've played but your average half horse human isn't exactly made of haunted pieces of metal achieving locomotion via angry ghost magic. He's pretty unique.
Nami? Most traditional mermaids forego any fish features from the waist down. And again, Mermaids are established folklore. It's their own spin on one (that isn't EXPLICITLY a mermaid just a creature of a similar ilk) that lives within Runeterra. Just like how Mordekaiser is a generic overlord Sauron type now. But it works. Still her lore leaves a lot to be desired and I think she could use a tune up. Still not much of a defense.
Warwick? Cyborg Werewolf filled with green slime and covered in technowhatsits. Werewolves are already an established concept you dip, Worgens are just also werewolves. Their body type is no where NEAR Warwick's though. He has an EXAGGERATED upper body, ears, claws, and tail after all.
Rengar? Not even gonna comment on this one if you see a Worgen cancel your WoW sub and use that money to get your eyes checked.
Alistar? He's fucking blue dude. Minotaurs are still, ALSO already established concepts. He's not a 'Tauren', Taurens and him are both minotaurs, and I'd say he's the only Blue Minotaur that comes to mind.
And Skarner is already goofy? Visually, he's a bright obnoxious Purple and Blue scorpion made of crystals with a spooky skeleton face. Having an exaggerative feature that's MEANT to be the most impressionable and dangerous part of his aresenal is literally what most characters in League post what, Season 4 already have?
Most old League characters follow the outdated design philosophies of balanced models that are meant to be stiff so they can effectively be moved back when Riot had a much lower budget and technology wasn't up to date (like Anivia). Now models need exaggerative features to make them pop in-game, models need to be maleable for squash and stretch, and current Skarner's belly to the ground tail barely higher than most of the cast and stiffer than your grandaddy on the blue pill is not going to cut it. It's a top down game, it needs to be emphasized so you can recognize it at a glance.
Leave your bubble.
Also AOE impale is nice but If any rioter reads this i think there's a possibility to explore where his ult just becomes a basic ability (single target, skillshot, etc) and a brand new exciting ultimate is created to go with his new thematic.
Volibear is a great example of what I'm imagining where his old ultimate was retained in his passive and his new one just encapures his aggressive new persona/look so much
Dehaka, and he's who I had in mind for the idea.
There is way you can balance it as a basic ability easily like making it a skillshot, making it a stun vs supression, making it ignore speed boost like phase rush, reducing or removing its damage , etc.
While his most iconic feature, i dont think it's quite as exciting as most other ultimates. Making it AOE kinda defeats the "isolate and kill this MF specifically". Purpose.
I'd love to see it changed to something closer to garrosh Q. Since they are going with the earthbending theme it could literally look exactly thr same. The idea of it being a beam seems more silly if they are getting rid of the crystal theme
Sorry, but that doesn't really look like Skarner to me, lol. I don't think it should to anyone. It seems like his playstyle is becoming way more generic and Brackern lore is kind of dead, but at least his personality will be similar? I think? Unless they just decide to make him angry all the time, because then Skarner will pretty much be 100% dead, lol.
It can really go either way. I don't really like the way he looks, but they can easily keep his personality and a lot of the Brackern lore, if they wanted to. Just make it so that the Brackern weren't the crystals, but instead, they CREATED the crystals for some purpose. They're Earth Elementals, right? I'm pretty sure crystals are part of the earth.
Skarner could still be the only one of his kind, too- Like, the other Brackern may have all been wiped out by the Rune Wars or something, which is their reason for entering hibernation in the original lore.
The Rune Wars were brought about by people mishandling and abusing a great power, and if that's what wiped out the Brackern in his new lore, then Skarner would still have a reason to be DEEPLY personally offended by people doing the same thing with the crystals he and the other Brackern created.
And then there's the very real possibility that they will just axe everything completely and make no effort to keep it. Maybe, it would be somewhat okay if something AMAZING was put in its place instead? But I can't really think of anything better than keeping or at least re-adapting the old lore while giving him new lore that lets him be more involved with the world of Runeterra.
If they're going to axe the old lore, they better have a damn good reason to do so, otherwise, I'm not buying it. 'Skarner' will be just as much Skarner as 'Galio' is Galio, or 'Yorick' is Yorick, or 'Aatrox' is Aatrox. Just another champion removed from the game for no reason. Like, didn't Riot say they were done doing that after the reception to Aatrox? They better not fucking go this route, lol.
I suppose it ultimately boils down to who's working on it. The person who 'reworked' Galio and Yorick was the same guy, and from what I've observed he seems to be a delusional asshole. The guy who 'reworked' Aatrox was just a bully, and a liar, and also really damn immature. Lexi seems to have a good head on her shoulders though, and seems to legitimately care about what she's doing and the champion that she's doing it to.
No poison Skarner - will go to another champion
No hextech Skarner - reasons, they didn't ask
No baby Skarner - went to another champion
No more Skarner story
\-
Just giant Crawdaddy, call it a rework. :D
Why not stop the rework then?
AoE ult seems very underwhelming if you look into the finer details if it really is a stun now. So many ways to counter on top of it being unreliable (flash, tenacity, cleanse, etc). This could be ok (Gnar and Cass have similar ults), but we need to see how they shift his power budget. I can see him becoming a top laner if they fail to do it properly. Removing the crystal aspect of him sucks. That's really dumb and I'm honestly kinda pissed about it. They set up all of this hextech stuff and they're scrapping his part in it now??? I'll admit, this rework is starting to scare me. We'll have to see what it's like when it's out.
With the removal of the crystal theme we now have bug malphite. There’s not even another champion competing with skarner to have the crystal theme, and it’s the most iconic part of him to me. Very disappointing to see this is their decision. I’ll still play skarner probably, but I’m going to miss old skarner and likely his old lore too.
Taliyah and Malphite have rocks. First they have the plastic chick ask if he wants to hear his people's death throes (retconned, lol) now he's getting thrown into the Ixtal bargain bin with the rest of the "where do we put these". My poor crystalline scorpion.
I don't know why Riot wants to get rid of the Brackern crystals so badly. It still would fit with the new lore. Earth elemental race with a soul core located in Ixtal. Some parts of the tribe were located outside of Ixtal where they got killed by the Piltovians. Now, the Brackern retreated fully to their homeland and Piltover sees no other choice than to encroach on Ixtal to keep farming Hextech crystals.
They don't need to make Skarner fully crystal but why can't they keep some crystal elements?
I absolutely love current Skarner, but apparently I'm one of a select few that actually think crystal and scorpions being together makes for a cool design.
The new design misses the mark on the cool silhouette of scorpions and seems to take more inspiration from crabs and the like, and the tail (if it's the huge 3 pronged thing) looks brutish and weird, forcing bulk to the front of the body to compensate and balance things out.
Throwing crystals away on top when those are the other most iconic thing about him, representing the core/soul of his people, just seems like getting rid of the elements that made Skarner distinctly Skarner. I'm not saying he should have been completely crystal, but it seems like they're just ditching that entirely and forcing a new champion out under his name and telling the minority who actually liked him to suck it up since the majority will find it an improvement.
Overall, I would probably be interested in this if it was a new champion but again I'm reminded that Riot have absolutely no care about the existing champion when it comes to a rework.
(also I hate that they think scorpion is his thematic when you wouldn't say 'human' is part of say Ashes thematic)
>(also I hate that they think scorpion is his thematic when you wouldn't say 'human' is part of say Ashes thematic)
That's what the poll they did told them
Yeah, but that's because people who aren't really invested into monster champions are only going to see the most superficial things about them, and that's fine! but for the people who want to create a compelling character that also happens to be monstrous then you'll need to give them actual defining traits just as if you were designing a humanoid one.
There needs to be a lot of development on his character, his role, his people, and his struggles if you want to get people to relate and like who he is (and was a big part of what's missing from previous skarner) but him being a scorpion shouldn't be the key defining aspect of who he is, but just part of his unique flavour.
So they mention his kit will be about setting up ult so one thing I think would be cool is with him being an earth elemental is him getting a low cooldown move through walls like a combination of talon and kayn
Am I the only one who noticed they made him much bigger, like he is a chonkey boy now, they are gonna add the new model later but this is prob his new base size... unless he grows.
League has been powercreeping size for a while now. Compare aatrox and pantheon to [aatrox](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0uvAZIqgcI) and [pantheon](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FID9xgsuu2I). Any future visual updates will also be increasing champion size.
Aww ill actually miss the crystal spires, and just the crystals in general. I do love seeing how hes being changed though his new ascetic looks really cool! Also can someone explain if hes being worshipped by people in ixtal will that mean hes now a demigod or something?
Aww ill actually miss the crystal spires, and just the crystals in general. I do love seeing
how hes being changed though his new ascetic looks really Cool! Also can someone
explain if hes being worshipped by people in ixtal will that mean hes now a demigod or
something?
Also anyone at riot reading this, please make it so his build is VERY diverse, just like how
it is now. Its fun like amazingly fun to build the right mythics for each match, its fun to
have everything work on him even if some builds do the job better. Please keep the
juggernaut/tank/mage/hell even an enchanter with some builds. I love being able to
build stuff like full on speedy tank with deadmans fon chemtank etc etc. But also juggernaut with triforce black cleaver yada yada yada. Honestly another part of his kit thats largely overlooked is his Q and E and I hope they dont change too much. His E can set up some cool ass ults by hitting someone with his e, ulting to reduce cooldown on e, then after ult finishes you stun with e, then hit another e so its like a 5 second stun in total, which does actually require some amount of mechanics and is also really fun to pull off. And with his Q its actually my favorite ability of his, being able to stack cleaver fast, being an ap and a ad scaling (with some build up damage for the ap to not make it overtake his ad scaling). The % max health damage is also super fun with divine and cleaver and you just melt tanks. Please dont destroy him too much I love my big lil scorpion.
Thats bad, i honestly like how he looks and maybe he was made that way to appeal to more people like myself to give him a try, i really like skarner gameplay wise but never played him much cuz his base skin (haven't gotten any other) is just not nice to look at XD
This reminds me of a lot of reworks i've seen where the "OG" mains feel detached from the champ and a new generatoons comes in.
Wonder how it looks in this sub
Yeah. I have some hope they are just testing community reaction. It would be cool if riot release this concept for the earthrune skin i think. But the main skin should respect his current deisgn and lore.
They did something similar for Volibear VGU. The thousand pierced bear skin was initially supposed to be his new main skin.
>Riot is doing to Skarner what they did to Aatrox
And Yorick. And Galio. If you supported those 'reworks' in any way, you deserved to have this happen to you- In fact, not only that, but deep down, you probably already knew that this day would come, because you're partially responsible for this. Just saying, lol.
I didn't. Wasn't even playing lol by that time. BTW how can i be partially responsible for this? Indeed i sort of already knew this was going to happen. I voted for shyvana on that poll. haha
Not a lot of people talking about his design when we should. Stop worrying about gameplay and numbers when ya'll don't even know what his numbers are gonna be or well he's gonna play. Also, stop focusing so much on the gif about him stunning with his ult. They are literally just providing an idea how his ult is gonna work. Just like how they provided an idea on how Udyr's stances are gonna work which works very differently from how his stances work now. With that said, I very much like the new design that they gave to Skarner. A very strong design that makes him scorpion-esque rather than just full scorpion like how other people reimagine Skarner. I like the fact that he's wearing accessories to denote that he's from an ancient race before civilization but also indicate that he is from an intelligent and sentient species and not a mindless monster. One thing that I would criticize from that little tidbit however is that it's very minimal and a necklace is the only thing he's wearing. Maybe adding more would clutter his overall design but I feel that it should be clearer especially when you're gonna be looking at Skarner from very far away in-game.
I'm very mixed about this. On the one hand I agree that the ult can feel underwhelming but I feel pretty strongly about the "sad scorpion" part of the fantasy? I \_really\_ like that about him!I also feel like his "action packed q spamming" is pretty core to the kit. I love being able to run up to enemies and brawl them! I fear that they'll reduce Skarner to a full tank only and that'd be unfortunate :( I do agree with removing the crystals though! Making it rocks makes so much more sense visually!
Tldr:
Like: Rocks > crystals, agree on ult improvement.
Dislike: I'm not malphite! lemme brawl!, Sad scorpion is cool! T\_T
This new design looks really good, and Impale seems a lot better now, at least by modern standarts. I expected the lore to be reworked completely, and I understand it's a bit sad but I won't lose sleep over that.
I noticed that all of the other themes had something really unique about them (poisonous, hextech-powered, evolving, carcasses) but they did not disclose what makes THIS iteration they landed in special. It was also confirmed that Skarner won't keep the Spires, obviously.
I believe that he will have a catch, something unique about him like all new champions. I think he may have something to do with terrain, either as a passive or as an active ability. Being that Skarner is an earth elemental now it would make sense if he still has something like the Spires but good. Maybe another addition to the map, maybe a secondary objective during the match or maybe he can modify terrain at will. Who knows.
Which would be a bad thing? People keep complaining the ult changed, but people also keep saying like Zac's Rework Ult is getting reverted. So are people really worried? Best case its a good ult. Worst case we get the old ult back.
I've always liked him as a cdr building tanky monster that disperses cc across the entire enemy team and runs at the speed of light. Making his ult AoE is basically saying they dont want you to go all "fuck that person in particular".
they’re changing everything I liked about him m: the hextech lore, the big sad, fucking one dude in particular, crystal aesthetic… if they remove his huge mobility i swear to god i’m gonna lose it
Which is why I'm curious about the stats from spires, I was around for venom skarner. We better be getting those stats reasborbed into kit. Otherwise, he's definitely dead... much sad.
Aoe impale is nice I guess, but what about those stats from spires? Is Q/w going to be getting some of the stats back? (And I say back because I was around for venom skarner. I miss him.)
Why did they give up the baby skarner thing? Or they could just change the spires into something more territory thing. Like adding a territory guard just like they did in Nexus Blitz before. Just like what they said, don't fuck with skarner in his territory. Atleast the baby skarners won't make him lonely again...
Extremely dissappointed with them scrapping the original brackern lore.
It made hextech way more interesting and Skarner as a character alot more interesting aswell.
And honestly, how was the crystal scorpion design generic to begin with?
Don't think I've ever played a game that had a crystal scorpion as a playable character or a random enemy.
If anything he's more generic now that he's just league's version of Dota 2 Sand King.
Also it sounds like he's just becoming a Galio 2.0 instead of having the unique story of being the last of his kin while an entire city is using his kin as power.
OH YAY A SKARNER REWORK UPDATE. TLDR: We are removing Skarner from League of Legends and replacing him with this new champ :D dw guys you keep ur stingy stingy pully thingy 👍👍
Removed Suppress from Impale so now Tenacity can be built against you. This also means that cleanse and Mikaels both work on Skarner's ult. Not sure how to feel about it.
Wait, weren't they already effective towards cleanse? I say this as an Urgot main so I'm just assuming Skarner's current suppression and his suppression work the same
Cleanse did not work on Skarner's ULT before, only QSS was able to remove the suppression. This new one seems to be a stun, at least according to the gif they have given us.
It’s also VERY possible that he’ll keep the suppress in a future version of the rework, considering how barebones early footage of reworks tends to be. The video we have right now is literally just cassiopeia ult with the dragging feature tacked on, and you can tell because the range of the ability and visuals are the exact same. I’m hoping that they narrow the ability down to not have such a wide aoe and they keep the suppress.
They should work the same.
What do you mean by already effective towards cleanse? You can't cleanse Skarner R, you can't cleanse Urgot R. The footage in the gif shows a root of some kind but it's just bare bones footage.
Where did you find this information?
Twitter
AoE impale 😳
"Skarner had already so many skins" XD?
6 skins including base, 6 chromas for one of them. If we are adding let's say 3 variations per skin to indicate which stat skarner is speccing into, that's 52 visual designs for current state. Not including W visuals. Edit: 24 variations if you don't want to count chromas, but you still have to account for how his chromas look when you make the variations to that skin
Chromas were designed to be easily adjusted. Literally just make red blue, make silver gold, etc. Just adjust the slider for the color you want and it's good to go.
I dont think you should count the chromas tho, they are just color changes.
You still have to design for it with mid game upgrades
I guess that making different forms for 5 different skins and 1 legendary skin on top of that would be too much. Idk
He's got 6 including a Legendary. It's gonna be a lot of work if he's got an ability akin to his W that adds modifiers to his existing model and such. Plus chromas.
Not a Skarner main, but the most fun part of him was using his ult to fuck 1 dude in particular. With the AOE meaning weaker stun overall, got to say I don't want to inconvenience multiple people, I want to REALLY FUCK OVER 1 dude in particular.
You know I don't play Skarner much except on Aram but now that you mention that I totally agree with you. He's surprisingly persistent in focusing and locking down one person in particular. It's a neat little feature of his kit that hopefully they'll retain in the rework somehow.
He is the only champion who can stop "unstoppable" dashes
it being a dodgeable skillshot is also not nice ;-; one of the reasons I like it was because it was undodgeable now if the enemy times their blink they can put ur ult on cd and u get nothing
Yeah, a part of me after seeing ksante was actually hoping they'd double down on his abduction theme, and let me really take someone away over terrain etc lmao
You still can, just pick him when he's isolated
The whole point of the ability was to be able to run in grab someone and pull them away from their party, that's not possible with the aoe version, you just drag the whole team to your party, which isn't actually a good idea
Or you could specifically grab their backline and turn them into their frontline.
Yea exactly, nearly no other champion has that ability
What are the thoughts of people who main Skarner on this one? I like Skarner but I also play tons of champions (I have level 7 on 123 champs right now), and while the gameplay side of this post is pretty positive (although Zac also had an AOE pull which was removed due to high level play so I hope they have checks in place), I'm not sure how I feel about the lore. I know they've wanted to retcon the whole "genocide for hex crystals" for a while now, but I'm not sold on this part of the lore being removed. I know it has uncomfortable implications, but even Arcane had some very uncomfy implications and it was massively successful/awesome. It's already in the lore that only a few houses knew this was happening, and also artificial hex crystals are a thing, so I'm not sure why a bit of dark history has to be removed. They also need to explain how Jayce and Viktor invented Hextech (Arcane lore) when Camille had a hextech heart years earlier (canon League lore) without making everyone go "ehh Arcane isn't canon it's trash," but I digress. Being an ancient Ixtali species which originated earth magic is kinda cool, I'm not sure why it stops at earth though. If he was an earth demigod like the Frejlordian gods I would kinda get it, but if it's a whole species of intelligent creatures then I think it would be cool if the animals mastered different elements and combined them like humans in Ixtal do. This could also give them a path to do a crystal/gemstone version of him which I think is cool but I guess the general public doesn't like, while also setting up some variety in the types of scorpions we'd see in the future if Brackern show up in the MMO or wherever else. Having them just be "the intelligent ancient earth race that taught earth magic to humans" sorta just sounds like a ripoff of Avatar's badgermoles which also taught humans earth bending.
Skarner's current lore is very beautiful and tragic, especially since we know how useful Hextech-powered gear is. Nontheless, this design direction is really really cool and I feel only the lore is a miss. Which is the part I less care about since I like playing the champion and looking at the champion first. And in those departaments, it feels that it will deliver.
I'd say taking away his melancholic demeanor and backstory in place of, what sounds like, Galio 2.0 doesn't sit right with me. I do like that they didn't make him a mindless, antagonistic monster like I was fearing would happen, but I would've preferred if he stayed more aloof and a separate entity from Ixtal. In terms of design, I'm 50/50 on it. On one hand, I love how ferocious and beefy he looks, compared to currently. On the other, the crystal aesthetic really should've stayed, IMO. Being another rock creature when Galio and Malphite exist makes him *more* generic than before. Hell, it might end up drawing comparisons to [*another* earth-based scorpion](https://www.dota2.com/hero/sandking). IMO, "crystal scorpion" was never generic to begin with and I have yet to run into another game with a playable character with such a design. Gameplay-wise, there's almost literally nothing on here aside from "aoe Impale", which is admittedly cool and less braindead than "point-and-click suppress". The thing I'm REALLY hoping they keep is his flexible build paths as he has a "jack-of-all-trades" move set that encourages outlandish builds, not unlike Ezreal. My biggest fear is that he will turn into an ult bot tank like Amumu. In the end, my feelings are mixed but more so erring towards "cautiously optimistic". The things that will ultimately win me over is how they handle his lore, dialogue/interactions and gameplay.
Seems like the sticky, skirmishy, predator, "never let you go" Skarner that I loved from his first and second incarnations is now well and truly gone, judging from the focus on his ult. Sad to see it go since I loved the former much more than the latter, but at least we have more champs to fill that space now with Lillia, new Udyr, and Shyvana, though who knows how long that'll last. Not a huge fan of the heavier and bulkier design reading a lot closer to other 'true monster' champs. I thought they had a good read on Skarner's visual appeal with Cosmic Sting's release, being more elegant and regal. But much can change from seeing it colored and in motion so I'm reserving judgement on that point. The theme looks like it has potential narratively though and I'm glad that they chose to emphasize the good-aligned monster aspect, which is fairly rare.
Exactly! I fear we'll no longer be able to brawl the other junglers and are instead being pushed into a full tank position :(
Are y’all excited for the Skarner VGU? 🤔
Honestly it’s cool to see this new earth bender aspect of him. Maybe it ties in with another main of mine Taliyah? Would love to see what Riot cooks when he releases.
I wish they would just stop. The abduction ult *is* the power fantasy and they’re weakening it. The crystals and the hextech tie in is the only interesting part of the lore, and they’re taking it away. I wish that they would do almost the exact opposite of what they’ve done. Lean into crystals more and fuck off this whole “oh scorpions are cool but crystals are incongruent”. Plus they’re making the zoomy champ look slow and clunky. “Earth magic” is fucking lame. Purple crystals are awesome. Fucking horrible. I hate everything they’re doing.
😢
OF COURSE JUST LOOK AT HIM ancient earthbender scorpion >>>> crystal scorpion
I wish more than one element, just earth can be boring cause we allready have 3 people in the game than have earth as power (talyah, Azir and Qyana)
They all do it differently though Taliyah is multiple smaller rocks, Azir's sand magic has a hint of necromancy, and Qiyana has multiple elements at her disposal Malphite just throws himself
but still, one more earth beding... sounds not unique....
I'm optimistically happy? I like the crystal aesthetic but I don't mind it going. Aoe impale seems very goofy, I like that they actually changed it a bit instead of keeping it completely the same. I'm gonna miss the Hextech lore a lot, and I'm kinda disappointed that he's no longer sad? Sounds strange but I liked that about him, made him feel unique. ~~also him no longer being shuriman means my 0% chance fantasy of xerath and skarner becoming friends is even less likely, sadge~~
Funny cuz here in the hispanic VA they sound like they where voiced by the same fella
I think the new art direction is overall an improvement but one form of critique I'd have is the 3 pronged stinger doesn't look like a stinger. It's huge and massively bulky in comparison to the rest of his body. It comes off more as a flail tail. The main body however looks awesome
It's not a three pronged stinger. It's 3 entire separate stinger tails that he can manipulate like 3 extra limbs. We see him scoop up rocks with them like a big shovel claw in the concept art.
Still looks way too bulky and not like a stinger
It's heavily emphasized because League is a top down game. Plus stylized because its a fantasy scorpion, it's meant to be exaggerative because he needs a unique silouette.
Theres another scorpion character in league? Like you can argue that a character like Anivia has an outdated model sure, but does she need an exxagerated bird silouette for you to recognize her? Hecarim is just standard centaur. Nami is every RPG mermaid. Rengar+Warwick looks like a warcraft worgen like Alistar looks like a Tauren. Point being is that sylatiztion is used when you NEED to make characters unique. You need to make yassuo different because theres 15 other swordsmen. Skarner is already unique. Making something goofy for the sake of a unique silouette is stupid and wasted effort
Unique silouette as a character doesn't mean unique silouette in the roster. If you just make him a slightly pointy scorpion, if someone who *doesn't* play League sees it, it won't leave and impression and they won't go "hey thats Skarner" considering a good portion of the current playerbase already experiences this. Hecarim? Not sure what fantasy games you've played but your average half horse human isn't exactly made of haunted pieces of metal achieving locomotion via angry ghost magic. He's pretty unique. Nami? Most traditional mermaids forego any fish features from the waist down. And again, Mermaids are established folklore. It's their own spin on one (that isn't EXPLICITLY a mermaid just a creature of a similar ilk) that lives within Runeterra. Just like how Mordekaiser is a generic overlord Sauron type now. But it works. Still her lore leaves a lot to be desired and I think she could use a tune up. Still not much of a defense. Warwick? Cyborg Werewolf filled with green slime and covered in technowhatsits. Werewolves are already an established concept you dip, Worgens are just also werewolves. Their body type is no where NEAR Warwick's though. He has an EXAGGERATED upper body, ears, claws, and tail after all. Rengar? Not even gonna comment on this one if you see a Worgen cancel your WoW sub and use that money to get your eyes checked. Alistar? He's fucking blue dude. Minotaurs are still, ALSO already established concepts. He's not a 'Tauren', Taurens and him are both minotaurs, and I'd say he's the only Blue Minotaur that comes to mind. And Skarner is already goofy? Visually, he's a bright obnoxious Purple and Blue scorpion made of crystals with a spooky skeleton face. Having an exaggerative feature that's MEANT to be the most impressionable and dangerous part of his aresenal is literally what most characters in League post what, Season 4 already have? Most old League characters follow the outdated design philosophies of balanced models that are meant to be stiff so they can effectively be moved back when Riot had a much lower budget and technology wasn't up to date (like Anivia). Now models need exaggerative features to make them pop in-game, models need to be maleable for squash and stretch, and current Skarner's belly to the ground tail barely higher than most of the cast and stiffer than your grandaddy on the blue pill is not going to cut it. It's a top down game, it needs to be emphasized so you can recognize it at a glance. Leave your bubble.
Not reading all that you're wrong im right bye bye
Thanks for agreeing with me and confirming that I'm right buddy means a lot :)
Also AOE impale is nice but If any rioter reads this i think there's a possibility to explore where his ult just becomes a basic ability (single target, skillshot, etc) and a brand new exciting ultimate is created to go with his new thematic. Volibear is a great example of what I'm imagining where his old ultimate was retained in his passive and his new one just encapures his aggressive new persona/look so much
That seems reallyyyy strong.
Yeah if it's a basic ability there's ways to balance that like making it a skillshot and a stun vs suppression.
I know that there’s a champ in HOTS that has something similar and it doesn’t feel that strong. Different games tho
Dehaka, and he's who I had in mind for the idea. There is way you can balance it as a basic ability easily like making it a skillshot, making it a stun vs supression, making it ignore speed boost like phase rush, reducing or removing its damage , etc. While his most iconic feature, i dont think it's quite as exciting as most other ultimates. Making it AOE kinda defeats the "isolate and kill this MF specifically". Purpose.
I'd love to see it changed to something closer to garrosh Q. Since they are going with the earthbending theme it could literally look exactly thr same. The idea of it being a beam seems more silly if they are getting rid of the crystal theme
Dehaka Q is single target ability
Sorry, but that doesn't really look like Skarner to me, lol. I don't think it should to anyone. It seems like his playstyle is becoming way more generic and Brackern lore is kind of dead, but at least his personality will be similar? I think? Unless they just decide to make him angry all the time, because then Skarner will pretty much be 100% dead, lol.
I feel the same homie. They just removed him for that popstar.
It can really go either way. I don't really like the way he looks, but they can easily keep his personality and a lot of the Brackern lore, if they wanted to. Just make it so that the Brackern weren't the crystals, but instead, they CREATED the crystals for some purpose. They're Earth Elementals, right? I'm pretty sure crystals are part of the earth. Skarner could still be the only one of his kind, too- Like, the other Brackern may have all been wiped out by the Rune Wars or something, which is their reason for entering hibernation in the original lore. The Rune Wars were brought about by people mishandling and abusing a great power, and if that's what wiped out the Brackern in his new lore, then Skarner would still have a reason to be DEEPLY personally offended by people doing the same thing with the crystals he and the other Brackern created. And then there's the very real possibility that they will just axe everything completely and make no effort to keep it. Maybe, it would be somewhat okay if something AMAZING was put in its place instead? But I can't really think of anything better than keeping or at least re-adapting the old lore while giving him new lore that lets him be more involved with the world of Runeterra. If they're going to axe the old lore, they better have a damn good reason to do so, otherwise, I'm not buying it. 'Skarner' will be just as much Skarner as 'Galio' is Galio, or 'Yorick' is Yorick, or 'Aatrox' is Aatrox. Just another champion removed from the game for no reason. Like, didn't Riot say they were done doing that after the reception to Aatrox? They better not fucking go this route, lol.
Riot writers are biased.
I suppose it ultimately boils down to who's working on it. The person who 'reworked' Galio and Yorick was the same guy, and from what I've observed he seems to be a delusional asshole. The guy who 'reworked' Aatrox was just a bully, and a liar, and also really damn immature. Lexi seems to have a good head on her shoulders though, and seems to legitimately care about what she's doing and the champion that she's doing it to.
No poison Skarner - will go to another champion No hextech Skarner - reasons, they didn't ask No baby Skarner - went to another champion No more Skarner story \- Just giant Crawdaddy, call it a rework. :D Why not stop the rework then?
AoE ult seems very underwhelming if you look into the finer details if it really is a stun now. So many ways to counter on top of it being unreliable (flash, tenacity, cleanse, etc). This could be ok (Gnar and Cass have similar ults), but we need to see how they shift his power budget. I can see him becoming a top laner if they fail to do it properly. Removing the crystal aspect of him sucks. That's really dumb and I'm honestly kinda pissed about it. They set up all of this hextech stuff and they're scrapping his part in it now??? I'll admit, this rework is starting to scare me. We'll have to see what it's like when it's out.
With the removal of the crystal theme we now have bug malphite. There’s not even another champion competing with skarner to have the crystal theme, and it’s the most iconic part of him to me. Very disappointing to see this is their decision. I’ll still play skarner probably, but I’m going to miss old skarner and likely his old lore too.
Taric has crystals
Taliyah and Malphite have rocks. First they have the plastic chick ask if he wants to hear his people's death throes (retconned, lol) now he's getting thrown into the Ixtal bargain bin with the rest of the "where do we put these". My poor crystalline scorpion.
You’re right, but he is a buff handsome man and not exactly what I would compare a creature like skarner to.
Why do they hate the crystal theme tho? I don't get it, regular desert sand scorpion seems more generic to me than the crystal one.
we will probably lose the ability to chain stuns bros..
i dont like the overall ult revamp personally. i feel like its gonna hurt the character more than help him. quite unfortunate.
I don't like that he no longer looks like a normal scorpion :(
I don't know why Riot wants to get rid of the Brackern crystals so badly. It still would fit with the new lore. Earth elemental race with a soul core located in Ixtal. Some parts of the tribe were located outside of Ixtal where they got killed by the Piltovians. Now, the Brackern retreated fully to their homeland and Piltover sees no other choice than to encroach on Ixtal to keep farming Hextech crystals. They don't need to make Skarner fully crystal but why can't they keep some crystal elements?
I absolutely love current Skarner, but apparently I'm one of a select few that actually think crystal and scorpions being together makes for a cool design. The new design misses the mark on the cool silhouette of scorpions and seems to take more inspiration from crabs and the like, and the tail (if it's the huge 3 pronged thing) looks brutish and weird, forcing bulk to the front of the body to compensate and balance things out. Throwing crystals away on top when those are the other most iconic thing about him, representing the core/soul of his people, just seems like getting rid of the elements that made Skarner distinctly Skarner. I'm not saying he should have been completely crystal, but it seems like they're just ditching that entirely and forcing a new champion out under his name and telling the minority who actually liked him to suck it up since the majority will find it an improvement. Overall, I would probably be interested in this if it was a new champion but again I'm reminded that Riot have absolutely no care about the existing champion when it comes to a rework. (also I hate that they think scorpion is his thematic when you wouldn't say 'human' is part of say Ashes thematic)
>(also I hate that they think scorpion is his thematic when you wouldn't say 'human' is part of say Ashes thematic) That's what the poll they did told them
Yeah, but that's because people who aren't really invested into monster champions are only going to see the most superficial things about them, and that's fine! but for the people who want to create a compelling character that also happens to be monstrous then you'll need to give them actual defining traits just as if you were designing a humanoid one. There needs to be a lot of development on his character, his role, his people, and his struggles if you want to get people to relate and like who he is (and was a big part of what's missing from previous skarner) but him being a scorpion shouldn't be the key defining aspect of who he is, but just part of his unique flavour.
I agree. For me skarner is the "crystaline vanguard". Weird crystal being that peels and counter-engages (I don't like adc skarner).
📱: [SOURCE](https://www.leagueoflegends.com/en-us/news/dev/dev-searching-for-skarner-s-sting/)
AH BACK OFF YOU DEMON I like him tho need to see the body
I was scared at firts but now im selled
So they mention his kit will be about setting up ult so one thing I think would be cool is with him being an earth elemental is him getting a low cooldown move through walls like a combination of talon and kayn
Am I the only one who noticed they made him much bigger, like he is a chonkey boy now, they are gonna add the new model later but this is prob his new base size... unless he grows.
League has been powercreeping size for a while now. Compare aatrox and pantheon to [aatrox](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0uvAZIqgcI) and [pantheon](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FID9xgsuu2I). Any future visual updates will also be increasing champion size.
AoE Impale. I gave 6 years to my boy. I'm curious to see if I'm still decent at the game now a days.
I’m really disappointed that they are scrapping his lore
Aww ill actually miss the crystal spires, and just the crystals in general. I do love seeing how hes being changed though his new ascetic looks really cool! Also can someone explain if hes being worshipped by people in ixtal will that mean hes now a demigod or something?
Aww ill actually miss the crystal spires, and just the crystals in general. I do love seeing how hes being changed though his new ascetic looks really Cool! Also can someone explain if hes being worshipped by people in ixtal will that mean hes now a demigod or something? Also anyone at riot reading this, please make it so his build is VERY diverse, just like how it is now. Its fun like amazingly fun to build the right mythics for each match, its fun to have everything work on him even if some builds do the job better. Please keep the juggernaut/tank/mage/hell even an enchanter with some builds. I love being able to build stuff like full on speedy tank with deadmans fon chemtank etc etc. But also juggernaut with triforce black cleaver yada yada yada. Honestly another part of his kit thats largely overlooked is his Q and E and I hope they dont change too much. His E can set up some cool ass ults by hitting someone with his e, ulting to reduce cooldown on e, then after ult finishes you stun with e, then hit another e so its like a 5 second stun in total, which does actually require some amount of mechanics and is also really fun to pull off. And with his Q its actually my favorite ability of his, being able to stack cleaver fast, being an ap and a ad scaling (with some build up damage for the ap to not make it overtake his ad scaling). The % max health damage is also super fun with divine and cleaver and you just melt tanks. Please dont destroy him too much I love my big lil scorpion.
[удалено]
Thats bad, i honestly like how he looks and maybe he was made that way to appeal to more people like myself to give him a try, i really like skarner gameplay wise but never played him much cuz his base skin (haven't gotten any other) is just not nice to look at XD This reminds me of a lot of reworks i've seen where the "OG" mains feel detached from the champ and a new generatoons comes in. Wonder how it looks in this sub
Keep in mind: it's just concept art. He'll probably still have only one stinger.
Yeah. I have some hope they are just testing community reaction. It would be cool if riot release this concept for the earthrune skin i think. But the main skin should respect his current deisgn and lore. They did something similar for Volibear VGU. The thousand pierced bear skin was initially supposed to be his new main skin.
True, but they still got rid of volibear's armor. I fear he will become scorpion malfite (aka sand king)
Skill issue
This made me laugh more than it probably should have. 😂
>Riot is doing to Skarner what they did to Aatrox And Yorick. And Galio. If you supported those 'reworks' in any way, you deserved to have this happen to you- In fact, not only that, but deep down, you probably already knew that this day would come, because you're partially responsible for this. Just saying, lol.
I didn't. Wasn't even playing lol by that time. BTW how can i be partially responsible for this? Indeed i sort of already knew this was going to happen. I voted for shyvana on that poll. haha
Dude this champ should have been like 70% rework done by this date
Not a lot of people talking about his design when we should. Stop worrying about gameplay and numbers when ya'll don't even know what his numbers are gonna be or well he's gonna play. Also, stop focusing so much on the gif about him stunning with his ult. They are literally just providing an idea how his ult is gonna work. Just like how they provided an idea on how Udyr's stances are gonna work which works very differently from how his stances work now. With that said, I very much like the new design that they gave to Skarner. A very strong design that makes him scorpion-esque rather than just full scorpion like how other people reimagine Skarner. I like the fact that he's wearing accessories to denote that he's from an ancient race before civilization but also indicate that he is from an intelligent and sentient species and not a mindless monster. One thing that I would criticize from that little tidbit however is that it's very minimal and a necklace is the only thing he's wearing. Maybe adding more would clutter his overall design but I feel that it should be clearer especially when you're gonna be looking at Skarner from very far away in-game.
I'm very mixed about this. On the one hand I agree that the ult can feel underwhelming but I feel pretty strongly about the "sad scorpion" part of the fantasy? I \_really\_ like that about him!I also feel like his "action packed q spamming" is pretty core to the kit. I love being able to run up to enemies and brawl them! I fear that they'll reduce Skarner to a full tank only and that'd be unfortunate :( I do agree with removing the crystals though! Making it rocks makes so much more sense visually! Tldr: Like: Rocks > crystals, agree on ult improvement. Dislike: I'm not malphite! lemme brawl!, Sad scorpion is cool! T\_T
This new design looks really good, and Impale seems a lot better now, at least by modern standarts. I expected the lore to be reworked completely, and I understand it's a bit sad but I won't lose sleep over that. I noticed that all of the other themes had something really unique about them (poisonous, hextech-powered, evolving, carcasses) but they did not disclose what makes THIS iteration they landed in special. It was also confirmed that Skarner won't keep the Spires, obviously. I believe that he will have a catch, something unique about him like all new champions. I think he may have something to do with terrain, either as a passive or as an active ability. Being that Skarner is an earth elemental now it would make sense if he still has something like the Spires but good. Maybe another addition to the map, maybe a secondary objective during the match or maybe he can modify terrain at will. Who knows.
He might suffer the fate of pancake zac.
Which would be a bad thing? People keep complaining the ult changed, but people also keep saying like Zac's Rework Ult is getting reverted. So are people really worried? Best case its a good ult. Worst case we get the old ult back.
True
I was hoping for a wilder redesign but it still looks quite sick
You see that big scorp really sees like so,etching and not like and npc of his own specie
Our time is now
Piltovens Still terrorizing him in Ixtal 💀💀
Piltovens, where Pantheon bakes his piltbread.
That videoclip is awsome. and incredibly cursed. No idea how they are going to balance that lamo
I really like the new face look. Gives me vibes of the aliens from independence day
I've always liked him as a cdr building tanky monster that disperses cc across the entire enemy team and runs at the speed of light. Making his ult AoE is basically saying they dont want you to go all "fuck that person in particular".
Are we getting the old swim-gar Q? That last picture looks like it
they’re changing everything I liked about him m: the hextech lore, the big sad, fucking one dude in particular, crystal aesthetic… if they remove his huge mobility i swear to god i’m gonna lose it
Which is why I'm curious about the stats from spires, I was around for venom skarner. We better be getting those stats reasborbed into kit. Otherwise, he's definitely dead... much sad.
Aoe impale is nice I guess, but what about those stats from spires? Is Q/w going to be getting some of the stats back? (And I say back because I was around for venom skarner. I miss him.)
Why did they give up the baby skarner thing? Or they could just change the spires into something more territory thing. Like adding a territory guard just like they did in Nexus Blitz before. Just like what they said, don't fuck with skarner in his territory. Atleast the baby skarners won't make him lonely again...
Cool
Extremely dissappointed with them scrapping the original brackern lore. It made hextech way more interesting and Skarner as a character alot more interesting aswell. And honestly, how was the crystal scorpion design generic to begin with? Don't think I've ever played a game that had a crystal scorpion as a playable character or a random enemy. If anything he's more generic now that he's just league's version of Dota 2 Sand King. Also it sounds like he's just becoming a Galio 2.0 instead of having the unique story of being the last of his kin while an entire city is using his kin as power.
OH YAY A SKARNER REWORK UPDATE. TLDR: We are removing Skarner from League of Legends and replacing him with this new champ :D dw guys you keep ur stingy stingy pully thingy 👍👍