Skarner Rework Ability Reveal
On Patch 14.7 of League of Legends, Skarner will receive a rework where his whole kit gets changed. The reason he is getting changed is because he isn’t very popular, and no one really plays him in his current state. There is no point playing Skarner when there are stronger, more diversified champions around.
In this Mobalytics article, we will break down and compare his new abilities to his old ones.
In February 2022, Riot Games released a poll which let the community vote for which champion would receive a VGU. VGU stands for Visual and Gameplay Update. In this poll, Skarner won with a staggering 33.4% of votes.
It is clear that the community wanted Skarner to get the rework as the next highest-voted champion was Shyvana at 19.6%. It has taken Riot quite a long time to get these changes on to the live servers, but he will be with us soon!
When does the new Skarner Rework get released?
Skarner’s Rework will be released on the liver servers for Patch 14.7, which should be on Wednesday, April 3rd, 2024.
Skarner New Ability Breakdown
Skarner’s Passive is Threads of Vibration
New Passive:
His abilities apply stacks. If the enemy has 3 stacks, increased damage will be dealt to the target.
Old Passive:
He spawns crystals across the map, which grants him additional stats.
What we think: I now think that Skarner has a good Passive. This will be really useful in fights with the enemy for instance. The old crystals made sense, but I don’t feel like they offered him so much value. It felt more like a money pit more than anything. So, it is nice to see Riot give him a proper Passive.
Skarner’s Q is Shattered Earth / Upheaval
New Q:
Skarner empowers his next 3 auto-attacks. The third attack slams the target. This ability can be recast, and you can throw a rock at the enemy.
Old Q:
He empowers his attacks and deals damage to nearby enemies.
What we think: This is a pretty cool ability. It will help him clear the Jungle and fight his opponents. Unlike his previous Q, which felt more like a spam ability with no real thought needed, this ability feels more useful and versatile—like you actually need to think about using it.
Skarner’s W is Seismic Bastion
New W:
He gains a shield and slams the ground, dealing damage and slowing nearby targets.
Old W:
He gains a shield, and additional movement speed.
What we think: This is basically the same as before. I don’t think it really needed changing, was a versatile tool and can offer him a lot of protection and play making potential.
Skarner’s E is Ixtal’s Impact
New E:
He charges, ignoring terrain and grabs the first target. If he pushes the target into terrain like a wall, they will be CC’d.
Old E:
He throws out a crystalline that slows targets. Damaging a target that is slowed will stun them.
What we think: This ability is the big one. I would compare this ability to Sion’s Ultimate, in the fact that the animaitonsa re somewhat similar. I think this new ability is pretty cool as it offers a lot of different ganking routes to Skarner. I think warding against Skarner is going to be a bit harder, but I don’t really care. This is a cool ability.
Skarner’s Ultimate is Impale
New Ultimate:
His new Ultimate is a skill shot, but it can hit and CC multiple enemies at once. You can grab up to 3 people, and pull them along for a ride.
Old Ultimate:
You root and suppress an enemy. It is a point-and-click CC that allows you to drag the enemy into your team mates.
What we think: For his Ultimate, I think it’s much better as a whole. Instead of taking one target out of the fight, he could take 3 people down at once. There are a lot of options and playing making chances with this ability. I am looking forward to trying this out more on the PBE and the live server. My only critique about this ability is that it looks to be quite short. Would be nice if the duration was a bit longer.
Final Thoughts
What do you think of the new Skarner? I am honestly quite looking forward to the changes and I think that he will be a much more popular champion heading forward. It is nice to see Riot updating older champions and bringing their kits up to par with some of the newer champions in the game, like Smolder or Hwei.
Let’s hope Riot continues this streak and updates more champions this year. I believe that they are focusing more on reworks rather than new champion releases, but only time will tell how they progress with these reworks, as there are a lot of champions that need some major updates.
Anyway, if you found this article interesting and want to see more, make sure you head over to the Mobalytics Blog where we will be releasing more Skarner articles soon.
