Reign of Gaming

I'm of two minds about Skarner. He was my main in ranked since release and still stands as one of my favourite champs in the game. But the nerfs to his ult and the cooldown to W really hit him hard. They damn near castrated him with that change.

Its hard to place why it had such a huge impact,  the s3 item changes weren't great for him but there were a few upsides (iceborn gauntlet,  boots of swiftness and spirit of the elder golem were all nice changes). I think the bugfix on his ult just drastically reduced it's effectiveness against highly mobile champs. And now we're in the  league of gap closers  that effect is just compounded. He was never the best tank,  or the best damage dealer. He was a scud missile,  picking out a champion and sticking to them no matter where they run. Now they've taken away one of the most important aspects of that he just feels sub par.

Reverting the changes would fix the problem but im not so sure that is the way forward. 

So how do you guys feel about this?

I've been toying with the item on him since its release and to me it seems like an ideal item. It compensates most of the area's his kit is lacking;
- AOE Improves clear speeds
- High AOE Lifesteal synergises great with W and passive (improving his already godlike sustain)
- Due to Trundle's innate ability to disengage a fight quickly he becomes a brutal split pusher, Hydra+Q can devastate a wave in seconds.
- High damage output for relatively low cost helps prop up already strong dueling power
- Less innate risk than a BT and cheaper cost
- Active gives him far more presence in teamfights

Depending on how well i do on my early invade, i try to pick it up as a 2nd or 3rd item. I know BOTRK is popular on him at the moment, which is probably a better choice if you're taking him top lane but in the jungle, Hydra just seems so strong compared to the other options. It's really become my go-to damage item for him, even more so now they've worked sustain into his W.


Side note: Anyone else p***ed his ulti no longer works on neutral creeps? I miss being able to solo-dragon at level 6 with only a Madreds.

Try it on Trundle as a 2nd or 3rd item and split push/clear to your hearts content. It gives everything his kit needs, a good chunk of damage, AOE clearing, lifesteal and an active that synergises with both his Q and W. BOTRK is a bit of a waste on him and i find BT to be too big an investment for a jungler.

With Hydra his kit becomes even more devastating, just gotta remember to use that active every time its up.

So after playing him a bit im of two minds. First and foremost, he's really fun to play. His E is just crazy at max ranks. Combined with his ulti he's easily one of the strongest gankers in the game as you can close the gap on literally anyone and avoid the majority of wards. In a teamfight the ulti can decimate the back line and he's an amazing initiator.
But he is on the weak side in a few areas, his itemisation kinda sucks. He synergises with some weird combinations of items and both tank and ap/magic pen builds feel really lackluster. His damage is kinda poor even when specced for it. His sustain late game is crazy good when farming but picking up globs in a teamfight is probably gonna get you killed and it usually ends up being a drawback. Early game sustain is strong but not godly, WW and Trundle are both better at staying alive - he's a bit like a healthier Mundo in that respect. His Anivia passive is pretty good, again it usually fails in a teamfight but it's great for some duels, ganks, baron/dragon steals and tower dives. He seems to be like a cross between hecarim and maokai, amazing mobile ganker/initiator but a little underwhelming outside of that.

TL;DR - He's crazy strong during laning (top 3 best gankers in the game easily) but needs a few tweaks to either his itemisation or his damage to maintain that level into the late game.

I love playing assasins but they all have the same flaw, limited hard CC and short gap closers.

Most assasins want to be played mid, which problematically is where the AP carry wants to play. So your left with a choice, bump the AP up to top lane and hope your jungler can succeed as the only bruiser or lose out on your ap burst.

There are of course AP assasins - Kassadin, Diana. Akali etc. but they dont seem to suffer the same issues. Maybe due to the meta, maybe because they fulfill the two roles as opposed to 1. I think this is a large part of the problem. In pracftical terms its easy to snowball with someone like Panth or Talon, but once you start hitting late game not having that AP control or the double bruiser is going to really hurt your teamfights. I often find myself going 7/0 or 11/2 and still losing the game because we cant capitalise in those 5v5 situations.

Extending their escapes, shortening the cooldown or making them directional (think graves dash but longer range) would help you get in and out of the back line a little easier and counteract that lack of teamfight presence but that aside i can't see any realistic changes to make without buffing those defensive stats and merging them into the swarm of bruisers.

Wait.....Pillager stacks with Brutalizer????? WHY DID I NOT KNOW THIS?!?!?

Please excuse me while i go wreck some faces.


Side Note: Anyone know if they plan to bring Pillager over to Summoners Rift? So many Brutalizers going to waste late game on my junglers and i hate having to buy a Youmou's

As much as i love the current wave of assasins Riot are pumping out, a new tank would be nice. Im not looking forward to Zed he seems a bit trash to me.
They really need to make Lord Van Damm's Pillager available in 5v5's, i hate Youmou's and i need something better to do with my precious Brutalizer. Anyone know if they are planning on making it available in Season 3?

As for Wooglet's - Seems like they took Zhonya's and Rabadon's, smashed them together and then didn't bother adjusting the price.

Your far better off with a Wit's End, as it offers the maximum damage available from his shield as well as giving you a defensive boost. Ionic spark is a good alternative though if you dont need the extra damage/MR. As for building AP on Nautilus...its bad, really bad. He doesn't scale well with it especially into late game. Your job is a CC machine that soaks up all the damage and slaps people about with an anchor, to do that you need to maximise the potency of your shield (HP) and the amount of CC you can dish out and damage you can soak up.
You should be aiming at a build that fills these criteria:

Boots>Philo>HoG>Warmorgs>Wits End>Frozen Heart>Frozen Mallet>(Situational Item)>Shurelyia's or Randuins

This gives you everything you need to soak up the brunt of the damage and churn out CC rapidly, your priorities are this:
HP/CDR/AS(up to a 50% increase)/AR/MR

You dont need to do much damage, the Wits End/Ionic Spark is really there to make full use of his shields potential damage output as well as being cheap and efficient. AP is a wasted stat unless your playing ARAM and building him as a glass cannon (in which case Nashor's Tooth ftw) because you feel like trolling.

It's a great item on him as his kit begs for you to spam his abilities. Unfortunately the ghoul nerf hit him really hard and he's fallen out of play because of it (plus Jayce is a far stronger pick to fill the job of a pokey top lane bruiser), but he's still a strong choice for normals.
The problem i see with most Yorick players is that they rush it, which is a mistake. Tear of the Goddess should be the first item you aim for without a doubt but once it's built, upgrading it to a Manamune is really inefficient until it has around 400 mana stacked up. By that point you should be hitting mid game and team fights where you will need the sudden jump in damage. Before then you should really try to focus on getting him some sustainability, rushing straight for Manamune is a really bad decision and a trap 90% of Yorick players fall into.

Too many leavers in ranked at the moment, this game needs harsher punishments. 3 leavers in a row today already, cost me the best part of 100elo.