The Skarner VGU in League of Legends has been taking much longer than many anticipated, but finally the VGU team have given an update on the champion and where they're at and what direction they're taking!
Skarner is going to be receiving a Visual and Gameplay Update, as was voted by the community in 2022, but ever since a small snippet of concept arts, nothing else has been revealed regarding the crystal scorpion on Summoner's Rift.
On March 17, 2023 Riot released a dev blog outlining the challenges the VGU team have faced in regard to Skarner and the direction they'll be taking the champion on. So let's go over the key information right now.
LoL: Riot Reveals Direction of Skarner Rework
Skarner's VGU is one of the most anticipated League of Legends champion reworks in a long time and finally, Riot has given fans a little bit of information on the scorpion and the problems the VGU team has been running into with the champ.
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Riot To Drop Crystal Fanstasy From Skarner
One of the main issues with Skarner has been the fact that his look as a monster, scorpion champion, does not fit with the crystals that have been a part of his lore and his in-game champion persona at all.
Crystal is generally regarded as beautiful, magical and serene. Whereas scorpions are seen as badass, venomous and menacing.
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Therefore, Riot have decided to move away from the crystals for his VGU. What does this mean gameplay wise? Well, say goodbye to the clunky and weird crystal spire mechanic on Summoner's Rift, because it isn't going to be part of Skarner's VGU.
Skarner Moved Away From Shurima
This was mentioned a few months back already, but Skarner will be moving to a new region. Until now, he's been a part of Shurima, with his involvement reaching even further into Piltover and Zaun as well, but all that is going to be changing with his VGU.
Riot have decided to move him from Shurima and into Ixtal, where the Brackern will play a completely different and new role.
The Brackern [will be] Runeterra's first earth elementalists, dating back to pre-civilization. Ancient and powerful, they're revered for their primal knowledge of earth, which they taught to the people of Runeterra long ago.
So, instead of crystals, the Brackern will now bend the earth element. This honestly reminds me of Avatar the Last Airbender and the Badgermoles who were the 'first earth benders', but it's a good decision to move the scorpion to Ixtal.
Sadly, his interactions with Piltover and Zaun will likely be nullified by this change so we're going to have to wait and see how Riot change that around.
New Gameplay Design
When looking at Skarner's gameplay one thing that has always come to mind is just how simple it is. Riot didn't want to change that and they definitely wanted to keep his key ability, his ultimate, as a part of his kit.
So, what have Riot done? After experimenting with a bunch of different gameplay themes like, venom abilities or growing abilities, the team has decided to make his Impale an AoE pull, something which will be very impactful during a teamfight.
Not only is this going to be part of his playstyle, but it's also highlighted with a brand-new look. Riot wanted to keep the scorpion and monster fantasy alive, but they've decided to take it up a notch and give him three stingers instead of just one.
This will make him look more menacing on Summoner's Rift. Overall, we finally get some brand-new information on Skarner and his rework and we know the direction the team is going to take him.
There has not been a timeline for a release yet, but it still seems to be a ways out, so we shouldn't get our hopes up for a release soon, but rather stay patient and hope it'll be released in 2023.