I've begun playing Talon jungle recently, I got inspired by xPetu's Talonted series, and my usual champions (Shaco and Skarner) are a bit stale for me atm.
I've tried tons of different rune pages and builds, but the one thing I can't figure out is how you get your hp back. Like his early clear isn't terrible but you're not close to full hp at level 3, but the issue is beyond just early game. If I take a skirmish and get out with low hp... I just have to back? If someone invades me, I just have to back. Late game if I get low for any reason, I just have to back, because there's like... no good way for him to sustain. There's no omnivamp ad item anymore, and the lifesteal options are pretty bad for Talon.
So... what do you do exactly? I don't think I've ever played a champ (a lot) that didn't either have some form of innate sustain, or can build sustain. Shaco gets botrk, Skarner has a shield so he can use that to maximize jungle healing, I used to play Warwick, Udyr, and Nidalee who all have healing, but Talon feels like there's no good options.
Literally I've been trying to make either BT work somewhere in the build or run Cringebow as my Mythic JUST for the sustain.
Update: I forgot that Goredrinker exists and gives Omnivamp. It's not an item I've ever needed to buy before for anyone I play. That shit slaps on Talon. Definitely my go to from now on unless it really feels like an Eclipse game.

It's been a hot minute since I played our favorite scorpion and I felt like picking him up for a little bit before he's gone forever. The last time I had played Skarner he just went Chemtank into CDR to E R E stunlock someone to death but after browsing statistic sites it seems to no longer be the case.
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I see that he's now got 3 primary mythics: Frostfire, Trinity, and Jak'Sho, so may I ask, how do you gauge the matchups for each mythic? I also see that Phase Rush gets fair use when not going Conqueror, is there any specific builds/matchups that use it?

Skarner can build basically anything, but I've never really gone into lethality. I would rush Glaive for vision control, with zombie ward on top of it. Especially since sweeper got nerfed. It's only 2300 so its a pretty quick buy. Its also a cash generator, with clearing wards. Clear ten support wards and that's and extra 250 gold. Thoughts?

Searching for Skarner's Sting

The recent Skarner post got me thinking about how I would approach the Skarner update, and while I like some of the art they've showcased, ultimately I disagree with a good amount of the conclusions Riot has drawn.
To start they address some key problems Skarner has, all relating to his popularity (or lack there of). It's not at all surprising that Skarner is last in all of those surveys, he's a monster champion with a niche playstyle, that's spent most of his existence in relative obscurity and in a relatively weak balance state. And yet when Seraphine came out with lore implications contradictory to the ancient Skarner lore there was an uproar. For a time, people rallied with Skarner's story, only for him to drop back into obscurity when Riot didn't do anything with it. I don't think the thematic is a problem, I think the execution has just been poor.
Skarner is the crystal vanguard, but he doesn't really deliver on either pat of that title. A vanguard is the leading part of an army, but his lore has never had that feel to it. Dreamsong tells a story of Skarner, experience the strange loneliness after Clan Ferros mined the namestones. He chases after his lost kin, alone, not leading an advance. And for crystals we have a few things. His model is clearly crystalline, but is old and could use a a refresh. His spires are crystals, but they feel very separate from him, they are just there. Tacked on, a hold-over from Dominion. Then his W, his crystalline exoskeleton which shields him and.... makes him faster? I'm not surprised a lot of people don't really associate him with crystals when that's all we have that supposedly would.

Theme

That said, I think crystal scorpion is salvagable as a concept, if you make crystals a more active part of his identity, and not just the material his carapace is made out of.

1. Tying the Brackern more closely to the earth is good, but that doesn't mean they can't be crystalline. Crystals are rock and are associated with the earth/stone archetype in fantasy already. In the context of earth magic, it is of a higher level, more pristine, powerful and difficult to master. The Ixtali masters weave stone with relative ease, but the Brackern control even crystal.
   
2. Most scorpions are ambush predators. While fast, they tend to hide in burrows and quickly grab prey that wanders too close. The Brackern, and Skarner specifically should be territorial, building their nests and taking down whoever invades their territory.
   
3. Skarner as a good-aligned hero, can still set out to save his kin from Piltover. Make him the vanguard. He is actually the one leading, while the remaining survivors trail after him. He doesn't need to be seeking vengeance for the hurt Piltover caused, he can simply be looking to safeguard his people. This can all be done in tandem with introducing ties to Ixaocan.
   

Narrative

Northern Ixtal is a great location for the Brackern. Keeping them crystalline lets the Brackern remain distinct among Ixtal’s pre-existing earth elemental dragons, as well as Malphite. Having them be the first earth elementalists that taught the people of Runeterra is cool and I wouldn’t change it, but I also wouldn’t scrap their intersection with Piltover. Noxus and Piltover both have tried to plunder the jungle. Clan Ferros can still have found and mined crystals from the Brackern. Crystals that Skarner seeks to reclaim.
Being opposed to Piltover doesn't necessitate he be a mindless rampaging monster. He can still be a highly intelligent creature, a force of nature seeking to save and protect his kin, rather than out for blood and vengeance. The Piltovans are ignorant of their sin, and don't understand the force coming at them.
Picture this, "The great houses of Piltover delve deep into the jungle and return having found and mined a crystal of abundant magical power. Now the crystal valley is spreading, moving ever closer towards Piltover." From their perspective a literal geological site has suddenly started grinding its way towards them. The Ixtali understand the Brackern are moving solely to reclaim what was stolen and are torn in how to respond between their isolationism and their reverence/respect for the Brackern.

Kit

Here's a possible kit that draws from his current/past kits, but alters him in a way that makes him more thematically coherent. The numbers given are drawn from similar existing abilities in the game, but would obviously be subject to balance changes:
Passive: Crystallizing Venom: Every three autos Skarner strikes with his stinger, injecting venom into his target. Venom applies a 5% slow for 3 seconds and can stack up to ten times. Subsequent attacks refresh the slow duration.
Q: Crystal Slash: Skarner strikes in front of himself with his claws dealing physical damage. If he strikes an envenomed target he consumes the stacks to stun them and deal bonus magic damage. Stun duration scales with number of stacks consumed, from 0.5-1.5 seconds. Targets cannot be stunned more than once every few seconds.
W: Crystal Growth: Skarner causes crystals to grow rapidly on and around him, granting himself a shield, damaging nearby enemies and applying a stack of Crystallizing Venom.
E: Refractive Carapace: (Passive) Skarner’s carapace refracts light, allowing him to camouflage himself when staying still. Skarner gains a short (1.5s) burst of movement speed upon exiting stealth.
E: Crystal Spire: (Active) Skarner creates a crystal spire transforming the terrain around him and empowering him. While within range (800 unit radius, slightly bigger than Trundle W) of a spire Skarner gains the following benefits: can move while camouflaged. W has reduced cooldown. At rank 3 your passive applies on every other auto and at rank 5 it applies on every auto. The spire has HP which scales with ability rank and decays over 30s.
R: Riot’s proposed ult update, skill-shot AOE suppress and grab.
As far as balance goes, there’s plenty of levers here to work with. Spire HP/lifespan, slow strength/duration, stun duration, stun immunity duration, movespeed amp/duration, on top of the usual spell CDs and cost. There’s also other little tie-ins or adjustments that could be added for example casting W could also shields/heals the spire, you could deal bonus damage to stun-immune targets, or his venom could also have an actual damage # to go along with it.
This changes Skarner in a couple of major ways. First and foremost, stealth. I wanted to find a way to utilize stealth in his kit because scorpions in real life utilize camouflage, and the idea of crystals refracting light to hide fits. We also don’t have any stealth mechanics on current tanks (the closest comparisons being Wukong and Viego), so finding a way to introduce that is particularly compelling.
Letting him move while near his Spire makes him a territorial ambush champion, an exception zone controller and counter-engage champion. He retains some ability to sprint at a target to ult but works better when they approach his territory. His goal is to draw you I and make it hard for you to leave.
The 6 fixed spires on the map have a lot of problems. They feel oddly tacked on to his kit to give him power, disjointed from the champion by just being permanent terrain features. Changing them into something he creates not only adds a way to demonstrate his elemental magic, but they also feel more connected to him. Similarly extending his shield to grow crystals around him is more in line with crystals as a refined earth-shaping magic. Most importantly he gets to choose where to build his territory now, letting him bring the crystal terrain into lanes for ganks (or laning). Letting them be destroyable terrain I find far more interesting than the current capture mechanic. If you can destroy the spire it takes a decent chunk of power away from Skarner, creating a window where he’s much less sticky and less durable, rather than live where you often just get 30g and momentary vision. It also gives a nice nod to the Piltovan lore about mining the crystal veins, during which they certainly destroyed many crystal spires.

His passive makes no sense right now unless you build AP, either make it scale with levels so you actually gain something out of whether you play him with ap or not or give it 1% ad and 1%HP scaling so titanic kinda makes sense to build on him
The Q seriously feels miserable right now I don't know what to say who do you even think to catch with that? If I were to change the Q make it scale with movement speed Revert his W to 6% again again And for his R give him extra bonus HP lvl 6 at 200 bonus HP 350HP at 11 and 500HP at 16 So his spike is more early then late
Idk where riot is going with Volibear but pls don't put him into the dust like they did with ryze or skarner

So, I really enjoy Skarner currently, as a solid tank that counters melee carries (one of the few really good solid counters, really). His ult is extremely fun to use with Ghost, and the stun reset mechanic can show some good skill expression. The crystals give him really solid jungle speed, and is a fun mechanic to fight for, a new objective that really makes a difference if he can fight 1v1 on invades or not. He is a solid tank that does percentage health DMG and reliable speed and stun.
The issue is, people don't try Skarner, and when they do they build him full speed just for impale, when in fact he should ideally be played with a lot of tank stats and iceborn gauntlet. There are other champions like this like Lilia (people build dmg and often get bursted down too quickly so she has low play rate). If the rework gives him speed and a bizarre AOE impale, he might lose the stun reset and insanely consistent dmg he has right now, and that would be sad. He would become what people think he is, an impale bot. I wish people understood how strong he is when building tanky with iceborn gaunglet, how insanely powerful tank he becomes, a true menace for all the wind shitters out there with his impale and dmg.
Honestly, I wish Skarner remained the same. The reason he is unpopular is not because he is a monster (people like malphite and warwick, for example, they have high play rates on League of Graphs). People don't play him because he has low mobility (which most don't like, but probably would if they tried) and most don't know how to build him. I wish he remained mostly the same. Unlike Udyr he actually isn't weak at all pre-rework, he is fun to play and very powerful atm.

Hello i recently start to play Skarner and i wana ask for some advice on his build or runes bcs i follow the runes and build from op.gg like the noob that i am and i rly don't like so much phase rush on him

Theres ALWAYS a build or a playstyle you can utilize to negate an enemy counter and turn odds in your favor. Skarner is the most versatile champ in the game, use it to your advantage.

can you help me learn from this loss i just had? I actually don’t know how to optimize a full build support senna for the game i just played. I just got done with a really long one and I found myself shuffling items a lot at the end and unable to reliably using the scaling i acquired. had about 180-200+ souls. I was using the following: - Support item - swifts - eclipse - maw - wardstone ( was giving about 50 bonus ad) - I had umbrel most the game, was my first item, swapped it to serpent fang once we perma grouped. felt like i should have sold for ldr or ie? idk 🤷‍♂️ i had red potion and control wards too and still enough money for any item.
enemy team was really dive heavy. akalj (fed all game hence maw), darius, skarner, karma, and kaisa. They had mostly hp and shields not armor. and their comp ran me down a lot and we had no frontline. what would you build ? it was a really tough one. i’m not sure .

To make the list as logical as possible I sort all reasonable important Piltover and Zaun characters and characters that might lead to another Region, how they could appear or mentioned in a simple way in S2.
An easy example for this would be Ziggs, a yordle and explosive specialist. He could simply the one who demolishes the ruins of the buildings Jinx blew up. He can also relate to her love for explosions.
I do this specifically to prevent the list to become too complicated, because some characters are more complex since they can be connected with each other or match the general thematic. If a Character can be placed in one of the 3 story lines (Political with Jayce and Mel, the sister conflict and the villain story line) there is a decent chance that they can appear, if they can’t placed in one of the story lines they are a “filler character” and very unlikely to appear. For characters who can placed in the background the chance of an appearance increases with simple solutions like author of a book or similar.
Some characters are that I call fundamentally important. This are basically characters that you can't ignore and must be planned in advance, since the lore usually revolves around them or they affect the world in some way or the plot is build up around their actions. Silco and Vander are a good example for this, since the plot builds around their conflict with each other and the upper city. Singed is an example for a fundamentally important character from the original source. In his case he is involved in the creation of Warwick (in Arcane in even more champions) and responsible for a genocide in Ionia. Since this is also his core plot, you can't really retconnet it. If you ignore such characters you are prone to create major plot holes, that can also appear in later seasons. An example for this is Star Wars 7, which puts Luke in a position in which he must be kinda depressive and so he gets deemed to be out of character by a lot of fans in episode 8 (the Marey Sue is also a large problem).
Characters who lead to other regions are specifically important for future seasons, since the story of a character who travels to another region can be continued. Its simply having already introduced character who fans can root for or relate. This is also an excellent way to give lore to side characters. The only exception for this are characters from Noxus, since Noxus is a antagonistic nation, who invaded multiple regions. Basically Noxus can be shown in a similar way to the empire in Star Wars. Noxus can simply use the villain storyline in future seasons. It is also a possibility (although unlikely) that Noxus can invade Piltover season 2.
This list can obviously also used for fan fictions.
Related to Arcane Characters
Jayce:
Jayce should be criticized for his deal with Silco, since it will make it worse for the normal population of Zaun, mostly because his fear of the consequences. He can basically criticized by Camille (Status Quo/possible future revolution), any Demacian (not helping the poocowardness) or someone else.
-Ezreal is an explorer who uses magic thru an ancient gauntlet. Since Jayce is naturally interested in magical artifacts its makes sense, that Ezreal might work fohelp him getting them. Ezreal also explores basically every region, but is mainly known for visiting Demacia.
Ekko:
Ekko will build the Z-Drive with the help of Heimerdinger. The Z-Drive manipulates time, so he should meet Zilean (a time manipulating mage) simply to progress his lore. This means he will eventually travel through the desert in Shurima. Now you can search for a character, that could meet him in Piltover and be a guide. This leads to Taliyah.
-Taliyah is a shuriman stone weaving mage that traveled from Ionia to Freljord to Shurima. Geographically she would travel through Piltover and Demacia to reach Freljord. Basically you can let both of them travel through Demacia, Freljord and Shurima. You can also add Ezreal to meet/interact with them.
Viktor:
Viktor probably used some form of blood magic to augment himself. He might have some documents from Vladimir (a blood mage from Noxus). It makes also sense that he should interact with Camille, since she is also heavy hextech augmented.
-Blitzcrank is also build by Viktor but most likely Jayce will be credited by others for the invention of Blitzcrank. Originally professor Stanwick took the credits for it but he is already dead in Arcane and Jayce got in S1 already all the praise for the their inventions. Blitzcrank has also they/them pronouns but in my opinion Viktor would simply call Blitzcrank he/him. Stuff like this creates also translation issues.
Singed:
His daughter isn't necessary dead, she just might have no contact to him anymore. She could have chosen a similar career and despises Singed experiments. Also Ambessa was looking for weapons and might bought the poison from Singed.
-Orianna is a clockwork construct by Corin Reveck, who designed her after his dead daughter /replaced parts due an illness from her until nothing human was left. Singed might have helped him when his daughter was alive or like the popular theory he is her father. The problem with the latter is, that Singed is more a chemist than an engineer. He might not be able to build Orianna. Outside that her visual design is clearly Piltover (clean, new and upper class) and the things Singed created belong very clearly to Zaun (asymmetric, used, poor, chemical).
-Zac is a chemical weapon blob created/adopted by a pair of scientists who became his parents. It is very likely that research from Singed was used and the female scientist could be Singed daughter. The Orianna theory can also work with this theory and Baby-Zac is probably very marketable.
-Twitch is a mutant rat with a crossbow and Singed created a mutant rat in Arcane. You can assume that this rat escaped and reproduced until some later generations Twitch was born. Now you need someone who is dumb/reckless enough to give him a crossbow. It is a possibility that someone from the Firelights teaches Twitch how to use a crossbow.
-Dr. Mundo is a chemtech (in Arcane shimmer) experiment that looks similar to shimmer injected Vander with the difference that Mundo is purple. He can be used to remind Vi of the events in Ep 3 and appear as a random henchman of a chembaron but generally he is more a one episode villain, that can be a interesting story but ultimately it would be filler material.
-Warwick is a human turned into a "werewolf" by Singed. Since it is known that Warwick knows Jinx and Vi, he was very likely once Vander and he could be heard in the season 2 announcement.
-Teemo is a yordle scout who buys poison in Zaun. He might buy it from Singed, but it is more likely that he gets mentioned by someone or appears in a children book again.
Heimerdinger:
Depending on the outcome of Jinx rocket Heimerdinger may become a councilor again and he could order his friend Ziggs to building implosion the ruins.
-Corki is a yordle pilot flying a ROFL Copter. He could be task to patrol the city by Heimerdinger (this could be simply mentioned), be a test pilot for an invention or simply appear as a random pilot.
Mel:
Mel is probably the reason that some people survived the Jinx rocket (Viktor must survive since his arc isn't finished), since her jewelry glowed unnaturally hinting at magic. She might be a mage or has some magical artifact somewhere. Most likely she didn't know she had magical powers, because in my opinion she wouldn't let Jayce experiment with magic if she had some knowledge about it, since there is a decent chance he blows himself up. The ring she wore might be a explanation why she never showed signs of her magic, since there could be petricite (white stone that stores magical energy) or something similar in it, that would prevent her magical ability's. Her mother might have sent her to Piltover to protect/hide her from the Black Rose. This means it is a good idea to let her meet another mage with a connection to Piltover who could teach her magic or expose her if she already knows magic.
Zeri and Seraphine definitely can't teach magic, while Ezreal might at least be able to recognize a magical artifact. Twisted Fate might be able to teach her but it is very unlikely that they meet (at least in a way of teaching magic or similar) since he is a criminal. Then there is Shyvana who technically isn't called a mage, but she has magical ability’s similar to a mage and her father was a mage and he probably taught her how to use magic. She can be in Piltover for diplomatic reasons and she is also connectable to the nobility of Piltover. Shyvana's father is already dead unless the timeline is different.
Fundamentally important characters connected to Piltover
Camille:
Camille Ferros is a hextech cyborg with bladed legs and manages the affairs of the Ferros Clan. It is very likely that one of the councilors is a Ferros (or under their control). Lore wise she would try to prevent threats to Piltover making her very likely appear in the political plot line. This means she probably tried to prevent or make use out of Vander & Silcos revolution in making some people disappear. Her decision to become a cyborg will probably similar to Victors (illness/accident or similar) and she should also wear normal prosthetic legs since her bladed legs are impractical for everyday life. She has also the problem that she is supposed to be a fairly advanced cyborg before hextech was invented by Jayce and Viktor, but if you consider that Jayce's Hextech-Hammer is basically a magical artifact created by a normal human, it is a possibility that a real mage was involved in her augmentation. Blood magic could be also involved in her construction. The Ferros clan is also involved in procuring the hextech crystals.
-Hakim Naderi was Camille's lover and was responsible for her Hextech augmentation. Originally he left her for hextech reasons that most likely wouldn't apply in Arcane. This means they could be married and have children. He would likely only appear in a flashback unless Camille becomes only in season 2 a cyborg.
-Shyvana's father is a unnamed mage and the only one in Piltover that could help in Camille's hextech problem. Lore wise he stole a dragon egg, did (depending on the version of the lore) some magic experiment on the egg and while never specified blood magic would be logical, since a human baby hatched out of the egg. He lived a while in Piltover and eventually fled after the female dragon came after him and made him pay for playing with magic. Logically he should worked for someone who could afford and need a mage, making him connectable with a lot of the novelty and chem barons of Piltover. Clan Ferros has probably the most interest in a mage. The Mage might also know that he might get hunted by the dragon, so it would be logically that he put his daughter up to adoption or chosen some one to take care of her in case he dies. He probably trained his daughter in magic.
-Renata Glasc is at least in Arcane a future chem-baroness. Her parents got killed by Camille and she lost her left arm. This could happened during Silco & Vander’s revolution and it is likely that Camille probably send also someone to Vander later. In S2 it could be shown how a younger Renata obtains power and becomes a chem-baron. Zeri, who is connected to a older Renata, would be impossible, since she wouldn't be born or too young. Renata could theoretically be a victim of a mage.
Generally Camille's lore related stuff would be enough material for a book about Silco and Vander and is easy to integrate into the lore of arcane, since she can appear in a council scene.
Shyvana(Ana):
Shyvana is a mage like half human who can shape shift into a dragon. She was born and lived in/near Piltover and later saved a prince of a country in which magic is forbidden, they killed together the dragon and she became his love interest. This is a "world shaping event" which must be resolved since it should trigger something like a revolution from above (in the game lore they ignored this and the demacian lore is at least considered controversial). Since this is up to ten years in the past this part must be resolved to prevent plot holes and other issues. She can definitely end up as a princess (or another high position) who might be willingly to help Piltover. Through her father she could have some influence on a noble family or even a councilor making it logically for her to visit Piltover. She kinda is a magical experiment and also knowledgeable on magic making her a prime candidate to interact with Jayce, Viktor and maybe Mel. Probably she can also criticize their political action from a demacian perspective and she might be able to figure out, that Viktor killed Sky.
Shyvana has also a design problem. Usually characters are designed that you can identify someones region or where they work. An example for this is Mel's mother, who is easily recognizable as Noxian due the faction color red. This stuff is basically a requirement for a decent design. Shyvana's base skin fulfills none of the important design limitations. Realistically nobody is that bad in designing character outside of marketing people. In fact her base skin matches the general design of the early dragon slayer skins while her ironscale skin shows her running below a demacian wall wearing an armor, what is probably a early version of royal guard armor. The ironscale skin can also fulfill another potential design limitation in making her father looking similar to her.
-kinda fanfiction purpose but Luxanna Crownguard could be her student and come with her to Piltover
Shyvana fits the thematic of the political plot line surprisingly good and could improve the plot. She can also simply introduced trough a council scene.
Swain:
Jericho Swain is a cripple with demon powers and becomes/is the ruler of Noxus. He is also a very likely antagonist for future seasons. Lore wise he overthrow the old ruler Boram Darkwill. There are some possibility's to introduce him in Arcane. While they simply can open up a noxian plot line with Mel's mother Ambessa, Swain has also some reasons to go to Piltover. He had to eliminate Urgot, one of Darkwills henchman for his plan, so he could also travel with him to Piltover. Outside that he might seek medical attention and combine the visit the a concert.
-Urgot got send to Piltover by Swain and got attacked by someone and later turned into a cyborg. Later he escapes and becomes a chembaron in Zaun.
-Sona is a mute demacian musician and can appear in a possible concert scene (the same applies to Seraphine, who can also used for one of the songs). According the lore trivia Swain is a fan of Sona and Piltover is basically the only place where he could visit one of her concerts.
Since some Noxian power shifts got teased in season 1, it is very likely that we hear something about Swain.
Other Characters
-Tahm Kench is a demon who can simply mentioned in a song or appear in a book. In fact the song in the very first scene in season 1 could be about him.
-Janna is a wind spirit and she can also mentioned in a similar to Tahm Kench. Outside that she is also cleaning the air pollution of Zaun and that might be a plot point.
-Evelynn is another demon and could be mentioned/teased with a murder location or something similar.
-Skarner is a brackern, a intelligent species of crystal scorpions and they are the source of the hextech crystals. This may lead to the almost extermination of the brackern or they defend themselves and making the hextech crystals rarer than they already are. Obviously the brackern can be mentioned in Arcane or appear in Camille's past story line. Skarner himself is searching for some of his people, so he may appear in Piltover, but this is very unlikely and would be more filler.
-Graves and Twisted Fate are criminals from Bilgewater, who also operated in Piltover. Basically both can be incorporated in the past plot line with Silco and Vander or simply chosen as generic criminals. They are generally used for comedy.
Graves was also once imprisoned and this can be retconned to Stillwater Hold or another prison in Zaun. His shotgun is also from Piltover. Twisted Fate is a mage who is probably not as powerful since it seems so that he stores his magic in his cards. The most likely way for him to meet someone of the magic connected one, is him getting caught by the enforcers.
-Rest
Both Zeri and Seraphine can still be used as Easter egg appearance but generally don't add much. The ninja plot in Piltover is obviously irrelevant for Arcane.

TL:DR: Rek’Sai should have her ultimate ability reverted but her W maintained as is so she still has to build damage to be relevent, but regains her map control and sustained damage back instead of being pushed as a clunky assassin.
Rek'Sai launched in Season 5 as one of the most overloaded kits Riot games had ever seen in the jungle. For nearly 2 years, Rek'Sai's dominance over the jungle meta was ever present in a way few other junglers could ever compare as a control jungler, for that time period she was easily comparable to champions like Lee Sin as a jungle staple. However, she was a high priority champion in professional play, and Riot didn’t like her omnipresence there without her being gutted in solo queue.
For context to those of you who weren’t around in Seasons 5-7, Rek’Sai used to be a tank jungler. Her original kit can still be seen in her champion spotlight. Her W Unburrow was an AOE knockup and she would be a good ganker early who would transition into engaging AOE knockup bot like a poor man’s Malphite later on in a game. Her ultimate ability Void Rush previously allowed her to travel to any of her tunnels on the map with a telegraphed teleport. There were signs within the launch version of her kit that indicated Rek’Sai was intended to be played for damage. She had bonus attack speed granted passively from her ultimate and her Q and E were still damage oriented abilities similar to how they are today. I agree that the idea of this champion building a full tank was unsatisfying to her thematic fantasy (and intended playstyle) as a bruiser and that she needed change.
So, in 7.11, Riot Games decided to change things up, which I think many junglers would agree was a good idea given her dominance. They also made her W Unburrow knockup only apply on a single target and not AOE, which IMO was a good change to push her into the direction of her intended gameplay. This encouraged Rek’Sai to build damage in order to scale instead of just providing AOE Knockup to teamfights later on. To buff her in solo queue and nerf her in pro play, they also took the teleport ultimate away and replaced it with her modern ultimate, which allows her to jump to any marked target to gapclose to them and execute them. This new ultimate was borderline non-functional for a long time after her rework first came out. For 2 years after this rework came out, this ult could be dashed or flashed out of and it would simply not land on many opponents. It took until 9.4 for her ultimate to be functional against a large amount of the champion roster, and when it was fixed it turns out that many buffs they gave her made her overtuned and so they greatly reduced her AD scalings in consequence.
There’s some pretty big gameplay issues with this rework many Rek’Sai players have even outside of the intended purpose to kill off her tank builds. It’s pretty obvious that with her new kit she was designed to be played as a bruiser, as the fury stacking and empowered E is intended to punish long fights against her and her ultimate scales with missing health damage. However, there’s really no incentive to build her bruiser when her base damage and cooldowns scale poorly which don’t allow her to continue fighting after outputting her damage on you. You have to build damage to be meaningful on Rek’Sai, which encourages people to build her like an assassin. However, playing her like an assassin is pretty terrible because her gapclosers are slow and telegraphed and she has no escape after using her ultimate to pick off a target. The removal of her old ultimate completely changes her identity as before she was a control jungler which rewarded good macro play and setup, instead being changed to a pick based champion. I think that her old ultimate was more thematically fitting to her as a champion and the bonus attack speed given passively from this ultimate was also removed with her rework which also nerfed her scaling even further for extended fights.
Nowadays, Rek’Sai is one of the least played junglers in league of legends, with only Shyvana, Ivern, Trundle, and Skarner having lower pickrate than her as well as a few champions from other roles like Mordekaiser. Her winrate is fine, if not good, but it’s in an unhealthy playstyle which wasn’t intended when she was designed. Her strength as a champion is completely tethered to her one item power spike with Prowler’s claw allowing her to use tunnel, then prowler’s claw to gapcloser to an enemy while burrowed to knock them up, and 0-death them with no counterplay. However, her scaling is really bad later on into a game to the point where she is useless after 20 minutes because she has no escape after getting a pick unlike most other assassin champions. Isn’t this just old Lethality Wukong where he would cc chain 0-death someone with no counterplay but become unplayable later on into a game unless he was really fed?
Rek’Sai also went from being a champion accessible to most players to being a champion who is only really accessible to a small group of players. The rework did remove her from pro play effectively, as her scaling is weaker than other early game champions like Jarvan, Elise, and Lee Sin, but her pre-6 is also weaker than these champions for ganking. However, this handicap also removes her from low elo because games last too long for her to be useful if the game isn’t massively favored by one team at 2 or more items, and her burrowed vision advantages are better taken advantage of by good players to invade and kill the enemy jungler in higher elo play, even though preseason jungle changes have made it less favorable for you to take the enemy jungler’s camps due to the jungle pet damage nerf. This change is about to be reverted so it’ll just be a footnote here. So she’s a champion who is only viable in high elo but not in pro play, which IMO is the worst position for a champion in league of legends for exposure. She’s not even a high pick rate champion in high elo either. Not accessible to low elo players, not good enough for pros, and not picked enough in the elo bracket that she’s best in. So there are many players who just forget this champion exists because you don't see her in solo queue or in pro play most of the time.
What’s also notable is that Riot indicated today’s Quick Gameplay thoughts that Prowler’s claw changes in the future because the item is pretty unhealthy to the game, which I would agree with as it has the same balancing issues that stridebreaker had just in a glass cannon way. However, without this synergy it is likely Rek’Sai as a champion will be dramatically weaker than she already is and her pick rate will deteriorate. They will likely have to follow up these changes with compensation buffs that may push her harder into being an assassin if they buff her AD scalings to compensate, which IMO is the wrong direction for the champion.
However, in the past few years Riot has been reverting unpopular champion changes from previous seasons. LeBlanc, Rengar, and Zac have all had partial reverts of their kits to be more like their older versions that more players enjoyed. So here’s the proposal: Return Rek’Sai’s old ultimate (including the attack speed passive), but keep her W change so she still has to build damage to be useful later on in a match. She will have a unique role as a control jungler while also still being encouraged to take 1 vs 1’s instead of teamfights like her previous version was that was problematic. I guarantee you that the majority of the league player base would prefer a version of the champion with the old ultimate back because as is, there’s no reason to pick her over a safer and more reliable assassin or a bruiser with %hp damage or better sustained fights instead. It’s a shame too, because Rek’Sai is thematically one of my favorite champions, but I really have no desire to play a champion who spikes really hard until 10-15 minutes into a match then is incapable of winning teamfights with her early lead unless she’s very far ahead.
I’m sure I’m not the only one with this opinion. Please let me know if you have any other thoughts or comments about this once great but fallen champion in the comments section below. Maybe she just needs a midscope or something else that I’m not seeing.

I pretty new to skarner and idk which items should I build, the only item I build every game is trinity force, and besides that I build whatever wich items should I build next?

Hello Guys!
I love Skarner as a champion for so long now but he felt to weak everytime I played him, lost some games here and there. Im at the point in League where i dont wanna only tryhard full meta champs to win games. So i decided, im gonna give him a go as main champion and dont care about the chat blaming this champ if im 0:1 or so.
Played him like 10 games on toplane now, works pretty good. Im getting convident with his Kit and different item builds, being useful every game now. But i cant decide on which position im gonna play im mainly, what do you suggest? Top or Jungle? Like both so far but cant tell what has more impact on the game/ is stronger on him.
Thank you very much!
PeitschenDaddy

Some context: Chat GPT has cut off knowledge capping at 2021.
OP: Give me the perfect build for Skarner in 2021
Chat GPT: As of my knowledge cutoff in 2021, the ideal build for Skarner in League of Legends would depend on several factors, including the player's preferred playstyle, the enemy team composition, and the current state of the game. However, here's an example of a standard build that can work well for Skarner:

1. Starting items: Hunter's Machete and Refillable Potion
2. Core items:

• Turbo Chemtank (for added mobility and crowd control)
• Plated Steelcaps or Mercury's Treads (depending on the enemy team's composition)
• Dead Man's Plate (for increased durability and mobility)
• Trinity Force (for increased damage and utility)

1. Situational items (choose based on the enemy team's composition and your team's needs):

• Randuin's Omen (for countering critical strike damage)
• Thornmail (for reducing healing and countering high AD champions)
• Spirit Visage (for increased healing and countering high AP champions)
• Gargoyle Stoneplate (for increased tankiness in teamfights)
• Adaptive Helm (for reducing damage from repeated spell casts)

1. Boots upgrade: Iron Elixir
2. Jungle enchantment: Cinderhulk

It's important to adjust your build and itemization based on the game's specific circumstances, but this build can serve as a good starting point for playing Skarner in 2021. Additionally, be sure to communicate with your team and adapt to the game's changing conditions to increase your chances of success.

I know these items are quite literally the definition of situational items, but after looking up boots winrate on every champion in the game (ignoring those with very low sample size of these two items), I found out that Steelcaps have a higher winrate on a total of 5 champions, while all other champs who build tank boots as core or on occasion (about 100 champs) have higher winrate with Merc's, on average 2.5% higher.
 
The ONLY champs where Steelcaps had higher winrate were:
Malphite: +3.39% (remember that Malphite himself is often picked into full AD comps)
Pantheon: +0.89%
Taric: +0.4%
Leona: +0.31%
Gangplank +0.07%
 
The champions who had the largest winrate difference when buying Merc's were Diana (+5.7%) followed by Skarner (+5.44%)
 
https://u.gg/lol/champions/gangplank/items
https://u.gg/lol/champions/leona/items
https://u.gg/lol/champions/taric/items
https://u.gg/lol/champions/pantheon/items
https://u.gg/lol/champions/malphite/items
https://u.gg/lol/champions/diana/items
https://u.gg/lol/champions/skarneitems

i thought this champion was dead. yesterday i went to play a ranked game in plat my team had a kaisa with 20 kills and i was illaoi with 10 kills. our jungle was ekko enemy team had skarner jungle with trinity and the item nasus build that reduce attack speed and gives mana. WTF he solo carried his team. we had 0 cc (support was twitch mid was lucian)
This game was horrible because everyone won his lane hard but skarner won the game by utiling kai sa all game long and spoon feeding his mates. I stopped split pushing to stay near kaisa and try to protect her but then skarner would just ult my kai sa at incredible speed and stun me too and it’s gg cause our other mate were useless and had no cc
Now that i think about it idk why kai sa didn’t buy qss…

hello, i started playing this champion after i made up a full ability haste build for him (i'm now sure it's nothing new) and after discovering this subreddit, i've gone down a rabbit hole of weird builds that are supposed to work, but i genuinely don't know if you guys are joking or not when you make shit up like "unsealed spellbook double item haste redemption rush skarner." it sounds like you guys smoke a bunch of weed and use a ouija board to get your items and call it a day. i'd like to know if these things really work or if there's some big spreadsheet of all the builds and how you're supposed to play them. i'm a big fan of weird builds and this champion is perfect for me, i hope his rework doesn't fuck him up. thank you skarner mains

Hi fellow Viego mains, following my first post on Ing. hunter sinergies with Viego's itemization, I just wanted to propose or make a discussion about possible builds for next patch. Let me know your thoughts in the comments. Hope you have a great time enjoying these buffs
TLDR:
Runes: Conq/PTA > Triumph > Alacrity/tenacity > Last stand/Coup + Eyeball collection > Ing hunter
Items builds:
Powerfarming full crit build: Noonquiver > Essence Reaver > Shieldbow > GA > Infinity edge > Last whisper item
This build can have many variations: Kraken instead of Shieldbow, Essence reaver rush skipping noonquiver first item, if against Caitlyn or other champ that is good against GA's revive exchange GA for DD, BOTRK can be rushed first item with no problem, if Maw is a good buy go Kraken/Eclipse instead of Shieldbow, etc
If you have already saw the patch preview, just skip the following summary:
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Viego buffs reminder:
Q's passive %current HP dmg can now crit
R's bonus AD ratio goes from 3%/100 bAD to 5%/100 bAD
Other changes to be aware of:
Maokai, Elise, Amumu, J4 and Udyr nerfs
All really strong META junglers that counter Viego because of their tankiness, survivability, CC and early game power
Demonic embrace now has a dmg cap of 40
The followup to Udyr, Amumu and Maokai changes. This makes the item a lot less valuable as a first item purchase in order to clear the jg
Treasure hunter now gives 20 less base gold per takedown
This means that the total gold provided by the rune goes from 550 to 450 gold. Strong rune on Viego since he could get his BOTRK powerspike a lot earlier, not the end of the world but maybe Ing hunter will have the upper hand from now on.
Kill and kill comeback XP are nerfed
Long story short: early game kills against people who are the same lvl as you are worth less XP. Kills against champions who have more lvls than you are worth less XP, kill comeback XP starts from two lvls difference rather than one. This is overall a buff for farming playstyles/junglers rather than ganking/early game ones.
Base kill heal of jg camps goes up 5 HP
Viego struggles to stay healthy in early game clearing so this is also an indirect buff for him
Base gromp HP: 2200 > 2050
Nice change, gromp is the only magic dmg dealing monster and is the tankiest one excluding buffs so it was a struggle for a lot of jg champs that lacked single target dmg. Benefits farming junglers more than heavy gankers.
Companion AP ratio reduced from 15 to 13% AP
Slight nerf to AP champions clear, indirect buff for Viego too
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Build discussion:
Because of the meta changes, ganking/skirmishing will be less rewarding while full clearing, generating XP leads and objective taking is more important. This will affect Viego's build paths.
BOTRK has been the core 1st item for any competent Viego build for the last patches since its dueling/burst/utility potential is unmatched. Because of this meta shift, BOTRK will lose some value since other builds have better jungle clear and may offer more scaling and dmg. However, BOTRK is far from being a useless item on Viego and may be good depending on the situation.
Crit itemization clears the jg and kill objectives way faster than bruiser, and Noonquiver is the main reason for that: 1300 gold for 30 AD, 15% AS and 20 dmg on-hit is just crazy for PvE jungling, if you rush this first item it basically doubles your clear speed.
Next item wont be Shieldbow, why?, the item by itself is underwhelming since it gives little dmg boost for completing it and the shield is less valuable in jg in comparison with a laner. Junglers NEED dmg to clear the jg fast and be useful when ganking. BOTRK and Essence reaver are both nice first items, BOTRK is better in early skirmishes, ER has more scaling alongside other crit items and also clears the jg faster. Essence reaver got buffed in 13.2 with 10 more AD for 100 gold more, totally worth it, great powerspike in dmg and because of the shit ton of AD you get from this build, it scales really well.
Note that with Ing hunter both item's CD's go down by a 1/3: 30 > 20 secs for BOTRK and 1.5 > 1 sec for ER which makes it so much reliable in one shot combos (W > AA with sheen > Q > AA > AA > Ult with sheen proc, for example)
We buy boots, mercurial/tabis preferably, berserkes amps your DPS notably but most of times is an overkill
Next we finish Shieldbow, IMO a better mythic for these squishy full crit builds, gives a lot of durability. Kraken's dmg is insane, dont get me wrong, but most of times is an overkill for these builds. With Ing hunter full stacked, Shieldbow's CD goes from 90 to 60 secs, which makes the shield a lot more reliable in general.
After that we can go for many options: GA gets its CD reduced from 5 to 3.33 minutes so its a good buy against physical dmg, DD is nice for these builds since your dmg output is crazy and you can get many resets if the incoming dmg is delayed. Last whisper items against tanky champions are really good options. Infinity edge for maximum scaling and burst dmg is a also an option. Bloodsthrister shield makes you really tanky and the life steal is very welcomed. Mercurial scimitaSilvermere dawn against Malza/Skarner ults (both CD's reduced from 90 to 60 secs)