Skarner wasn't balanced LOL and still isn't

http://na.leagueoflegends.com/board/...1#post20133019

Here's my post. Didn't realize someone was already more active than me and posted before!

I'm not a fan of the Skarner nerfs either, but obviously your butt just hurts. His R is just as strong as before.

Strong? Yes.

Never up because your mana hungry Q is being spammed? Also yes.

My personal opinion is that the buffs to Nashors Tooth are a fair exchange for the mana cost increases to Skarner's Q. It was already a strong item on Skarner, and it only got more cost efficient. If you run this in conjunction with Shurelias Reverie, you should hit max CDR and have more than enough mana regen to jungle reasonably. This opens up different options for armor besides Frozen Heart, which previously was probably the most cost efficient source of mana and CDR.

really? If I see a skarner jungling I know we lost, if they know how to hit buttons with one and a hold the mouse with the other, stop *****ing about a very over powered champion needing a mana regen item.

Hahahahaha! Yeah, no. You're stupid. Calling Skarner OP is like calling the current Eve OP. And coincidently, it has the same outcome;

You. Are. Laughed. At.

Skarner is completely useless in extended chases or in multiple fights unless you constantly go back to base to regen, or have blue. But even having blue is only a band-aide on the gaping open wound over Skarner's figgen heart; Blue barely maintains a constant level of mana. You don't actually regen anything during a fight, and with how much you spam your Q (when jungling, which is is only viable option now >.> since he needs Blue to keep up) you're actually losing manaduring fights, even WITH its incredible regen.

If you're scared of an OOM Skarner, then you sir need to stop playing with six year olds who cry and scream when they see ANYTHING running toward them. Their idiocy is clearly rubbing off on you.

So you want to get two items whose combined gold cost is far more, and don't benefit Skarner very much, just so that you can choose a different armor item? I really don't think that's a good idea.

Shurelia's is faily useful on a tank who is inherently sturdy enough to get one without sacrificing too much survivability, or a support who will not be in the thick of it anyways. It's basically something to build a philo stone into because you had to get one during the laning phase, and contributes something besides damage (since neither of these champ types will ever put out that much dps). Skarner is melee without a dash, so he needs to be far tankier than most melee champs to be able to do his job -- which is keep people in place for his team to kill. Shurelia's just gives sustainability, but at the point you can afford even if you rush it, having a constant sustained jungle is less important and you're going to want to be ganking a lot more than jungling. Also if you rush it, then you are not putting out any dps and you can't take a hit.

Nashor's tooth is... well I love the concept but I find very few champs that can actually use it well. Taric, Kayle, and Orianna are probably the only three I would ever consider it for, and even then it is not an item I would rush. Most champs just can't make use of attack speed, mana regen, and AP that well. I think it would actually be a more accessible item if they removed some of the stat types and buffed the others.

On Skarner it is just okay, but there are many other items he benefits from far more. It again goes back to his primary role of being constantly up in their carry's face keeping pressure up and keeping people in place so your own team's dps can do their thing. Early game, the only real damage item you need is a sheen -- the rest of your money needs to go to mana and survivability or you just won't survive long enough to do your job. And anything leftover needs to go into wards. You need an early armor and an early magic resist item so you aren't just bursted down, while taking into consideration his mana-hungry-ness so the only real armor option at this point is going to be an early glacial shroud. A Nashor's at first seems like a great idea on Skarner -- but the mana doesn't solve his mana problems, the CDR is nice but not required, and the attack speed helps keep his shield up..but without grabbing early defenses getting his shield up again won't be an issue because you'll be dead.

The only real time I could see getting a Nashor's on Skarner is as a last or second to last item for those games that last forever and you get a full item build, or early game in a match where you are unspeakably owning them anyways and you're like 5 levels higher and don't fear getting bursted down anyways. But even then I find other items to be a lot more beneficial. For me, I find that you need to straddle that fine line so you are too tanky for them to want to focus first and too damaging and disruptive to just ignore. This usually means 2 out of your first 3 items after boots will be defensive and a sheen is the third for damage (to be turned into a triforce later).

Shurelias is already core on a lot of Skarner kits. I'm not sure why you have a problem with that particular item.

Funny, last time I checked, one of the stats Shurelias gives was HP. Sure it's not Warmogs, but 330 HP is not insignificant. 15% CDR is also very significant.

It shines on Skarner, who has some of the best AS scaling in the game, and also becomes more tanky due to the way he scales with AP since AP increases his sustain from E.

If we remove the focus from Glacial Shroud, we have other desirable options like Sunfire Cape and Thornmail to consider, and these items aren't too outrageously expensive and all build from Chain Vest. In the meantime you also build Feindish Codex for CDR/mana regen and then build that into Nashors.

Triforce is way too expensive, and Sheen I find is actually really inefficient on Skarner early on compared to items like Zeal and Fiendish Codex given your damage is primarily ability based as opposed to directly from your autoattacks. In fact if you want to build Triforce, you should always build Zeal before Sheen, because the damage potential difference is really small if anything, but Zeal is cheaper and gives you movement speed, which is actually more important than straight damage on Skarner, not to mention attack speed is a strong stat on Skarner in general.

Typically after boots, I generally just stick to Chain Vests / Negatron cloaks depending on what type of damage I need to ignore more, but after that, I'd say focussing Nashor's tooth is really strong. It's much more cost efficient than Trinity Force at the moment, and Sheen I feel just doesn't really give what Skarner needs these days.

Actually, my build is Lucidity boots, Trin Force, Rylais, Forzen mallet (for the slow no matter WHAT I do, and the tons of health), Black Cleaver, and FoN OR Thronmail depending on the situation. THis is the usual order I build in, and while yes, it is expensive, it works almost every time (or at least, it used to >.>).

Curiously, I don't use any of the items you guys mentioned above. I get enough AP and AD and Health from all the items I just mentioned. Personally, I never found much use for Nashor's on ANY champ. It just seemed like such a lack0luster items. And Glacial Shroud just never seemed useful to me. Of course, I never play supports, so its full potential impact may be lost on me.

Shurelia's is a nifty item yes, but I never usualy get it. I'll simply sell my Philo stone for space when I need to, since I'm already stacking health with Rylai's and Frozen Mallet. Armor or MR comes next.