A lot of time has passed since Skarner won the VGU (Back on February 4th, 2022), so plenty of players were mad because of how long things were taking, and despite the fact that the LoL Pls released in January did acknowledge this, it did not share many details on the rework.…
That is until the new dev blog recently published on the League of Legends page titled “Searching for Skarner’s Sting” which shed light on the Skarner Rework. Let’s start it off with the first part: Narrative/Backstory.
No more Shurima – New LoL Skarner Rework Narrative/Backstory
To make Skarner lore more attractive, instead of being the lonely scorpion defending his species from outer enemies, the Riot narrative team made a drastic turn on his backstory, especially towards Skarner's species, the Brackern.
Skarner is one of the Brackerns, Elemental Ancestral Beings.
Previously known as Shurima old beings, the Brackerns now are going to be ancestral elemental beings, masters of the Earth axiom. With that said, Skarner now is going to be tied to the region of Elementalists, Ixtal.
IIn Skarner new narrative shift, he's now revered as a protector (and made a center piece of Ixtal history).
(Funny thing that after Milio a lot of Ixtal stuff is coming to fruition. Possible event? Who knows?)
New art for the LoL Skarner Rework
Riot "TheBravoRay", revealed that they were focusing on three main points when looking for Skarner’s new directions: Scorpions, Crystals, and Heroic Archetype.
While his Scorpion essence remained attractive to them, they couldn’t find ways to make Crystals work in this new history and gameplay. Reason is that they found it very difficult to combined well both the scorpion and crystal thematics. For that reason, Crystals are flat out omitted from the new LoL Skarner Rework.
Concept art for the new Skarner.
Regards his Heroic Archetype, Riot TheBravoRay said this:
He’s not just a monster who kills everything in sight. We sort of had a “King Kong” vibe—someone who wants to be left alone, but will protect his territory with extreme prejudice if needed. He’s not necessarily someone who is openly aggressive to everyone, but he can (and should) hold his own in a fight if need be.
This means that the new Skarner will have an entirely different “feel” from before. Now that the Scorpion and Heroic Archetype are the main focus of his direction, maybe he will look and play like an ancestral scorpion defender.
LoL Skarner Rework Gameplay – No more Crystals, and an AOE ultimate.
To play out his fantasy of defending from intruders, now his Impale will be AoE, to balance things out they did make it a skillshot with a short cast time, and the duration of the ultimate will be lowered.
Recent footage on new ultimate (No Annies were harmed on this demonstration)
There was no more information regards his gameplay. However, Riot Llama did share a few of the ideas they were exploring but did not make the cut:
- Skarner Venom - An entire kit revolving around the use of using Venom DoT (Damage Over Time) abilities.
- Hextech Crystal abilities - Very flashy and academic.
- Skarnerlings - Rebuilding of the Brackern, with cute baby brackerns.
- Skarner with Carapace Transformation - With enhancing his outer shell by molting of his current carapace and moving into a new one.
Release Date of new LoL Skarner Rework
There’s still no announced date for Skarner Rework or even a possible month of release. But, while Riot is doing a lot of work to bring the new Scorpion, you can check our Skarner Mobafire Guides so you can play him while he still has his crystals (Also he’s very broken in the top lane!).
