A gameplay of the Skarner VGU is out as his abilities are explained, and his skins have been reworked.
Riot has done an outstanding job with VGUs in recent history. Udyr and Aurelion Sol are great examples of that, as they have been excellent reworks for League of Legends. As such, the Skarner VGU has been in the works for a long time.
However, a little while back, Riot unveiled when we will get our hands on Skarner. That said, more details about the Skarner VGU have come out. So, I will start explaining the abilities based on what has been revealed thus far. Let’s get right to it.
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Skarner VGU Abilities
Let’s first start with his Abilities. All of them have been revealed and look excellent and unique. However, as he is not officially out on PBE, the numbers on the abilities are completely unknown. Expect those to be added to the article when Riot inserts him into PBE. Here are all the abilities descriptions
Passive – Quaking
Skarner’s new Passive – Quaking will apply Quaking stacks to enemies for Auto Attacks, Qs (Shattered Earth & Upheaval), and E – Impale for a duration of time (the exact duration is unknown). At max stacks (3 is the maximum, judging the video), enemies will take a percent health magic damage over a certain time.
Essentially, it works like a delayed Darius bleed effect where it only siphons health if you can trigger maximum stacks on an enemy. Pretty neat.
Q – Shattered Earth/Upheaval
Skarner’s new Q is divided into two activations: the first is Shattered Earth, while the other is Upheaval. Both function similarly as Skarner lifts a boulder from the ground and empowers his auto attacks.
The empowered auto-attack part is called Shattered Earth. Here, Skarner empowers his three next auto attacks to deal with AoE damage, the third being the massive one, as he smashes his enemies with the boulder.
On the flip side, Skarner can opt not to use the empowered auto attacks and instead fling the boulder at the enemy. This slows enemies and deals AoE damage.
Hence, his Q will work on two different fronts, which are to either go up to the enemies’ faces or throw a rock at their heads.
W – Seismic Bastion
With his W – Seismic Bastion, Skarner slams into the ground, damaging enemies, slowing them, and gaining a shield that increases based on Champion hits. There’s a lot that happens, but from the looks of it, the damage numbers don’t look that high, and Skarner might get massive shields in the middle of fights.
E – Ixtal’s Impact
Skarner uses his E – Ixtal’s Impact to move through the terrain and grab any champion or monster in his path. If he does grab a champion or monster, he can stun them by slamming them into a wall and both damage and stun them.
While a champion is grabbed, it looks like they cannot do anything as they are Suppressed. Also, the exact amount of damage and stun duration are not shown in the video, so that is something that will need to be checked out on PBE.
R – Impale
Lastly, we have Impale, as the name is kept, but it does more than before. Skarner approaches his enemies, channels Impale in a rectangular area and Suppresses all the enemies that fall into this area. Just like his old ultimate, once they are suppressed, Skarner can move them around as he pleases.
The channel time on Impale looks pretty fast (about a second or a little more than that) and this adds so much more than his previous Ultimate. Overall, it’s an incredible addition to Skarner.
Overall Thoughts On His Abilities
At a glance, Riot has buffed up Skarner to do some solid damage with a ton of utilities. He has the ability to CC multiple enemies at the same time while also being able to pick someone off without the use of his ultimate. Also, he can bypass terrain, which works really well for his identity as a jungler.
Question remains in terms of balance, as the damage numbers will need to be fine-tuned, and the exact limitations of the abilities are still unknown. However, based on what I have seen so far, this could be one of the best, if not the best, reformation of a champion Riot has done in a while.
Splash Arts
With the new looks, Skarner’s entire cosmetic repertoire, including the base model, has been changed. Along with the changes in art, Earthrune Skarner’s price is also changing. Here are all of the Splash Arts.
Base Skarner
Battlecast Alpha Skarner
Cosmic Sting Skarner
Earthrune Skarner
- New Price: 750 RP.
Guardians of the Sands Skarner
Sand Scourge Skarner
Release Date
Skarner will be releasing in Patch 14.7, alongside the new April Fools skins and much more. The patch will be landing on the live servers on Wednesday, April 3, 2024.
