I was going to say something about this but kudos for actually thinking about this.

..Does he have a hidden passive too, considering this was his home for X thousand years? It would make sense.

I think the issue quickly becomes, at least in a min/max environment, that hes EXTREMELY close to udyr in playstyle yet inferior in almost every way.

While Skarner has a great foundation (perhaps too good, honestly) I feel his numbers are just way off. WHILE that might not be your issue but rather other designers tinkering his numbers down. As the game progresses even on dominion it becomes difficult for skarnr to maintain mana. I can keep mana on kassadin easier (largely due to kassadin's rod/archangel build giving assloads of mana, while skarner's wit's end/trinity build gives 300.)

But I think it can be said that of champions with an ultimate, skarner is the least reliant on his ultimate. Its more of a "oh hey this is nice" rather than a "IS IT OFF COOLDOWN YET?!" That ends up being -really- nice on dominion.

So far as designing a tanky damage that I feel one day might be really fun to play, skarner is way up there. He contains all the things that I think tanky damage shield contain. Hes easy-ish to kite (allowing counter play.) Hes BRUTAL in range. He builds up damage in range (you don't stay in melee with him.) And he NEVER runs out of damage (well at least till he OOMs.) Those concepts I find to be just the #1 thing in tanky damage design.

The only issue I find, if his damage/survivability wasn't to go up on base abilities, is that he has little reason to NOT stay in melee and fight him. If hes stronger then clearly his spam slow is gonna chase down and kill weaker enemies, BUT. If the enemy is equal/stronger to you then the issue becomes running is pointless, so they just sit next to skarner and beat him to death. I don't think the correct approach to fighting a melee champion should ever be stay in melee and just deal with it. If he just had SOMETHING to discourage people from face-tanking him he'd be a lot better. A stacking debuff/buff or something.

I've never seen a good skarner in this mode, tried to play him myself with lackluster results.

If anyone didn't think Skarner wouldn't be good, it is because they have never played him before tbh.

If you think about it, Skarner starts greatly excelling after he gets his 2-3 core items. Seeing as in Dominion you get an influx of gold and LEVELS quickly, Skarner can excel quite easily.

We got destroyed by a Skarner in a game tonight. His ult when the tower is hitting you is lulzy, and with his snare, if he catches you in the jungle you're forced to stop and fight him which prevents you from getting to where you're going. Having a sprint and shield dont hurt him either =P

The problem with this is that skarner starts only becoming equal to other champions half way through the match, heh. Before he gets those 2-3 core items he can't really function as the "chaser" because nobody "runs" away (cause they can kill you.)

NOT SAYING ITS NOT A GOOD POINT. It IS a good point. Just saying that there IS still a flaw.

I thought he was horrible. Maybe I suck, or maybe it was the matchup, but I spent the whole game trying to engage someone who could just kite me easily or trying to backcap only to be shutdown... by someone who could kite me easily.

Skarner is hardly "horrible" right now. Hes capable of doing stuff. The only problem is his numbers are too low and the "stuff" he does ends up being less "stuff" than other champions by a noticable amount.

I don't think it is his numbers. If someone chooses to engage, his Q spam does a ton of sustain. His E is virtually worthless though. I think the real problem is in how almost awesome his W is. Push W and you become a damage dealing, chasing god... until you get hit twice.

He's still inferior to other tanky dps in general.