The general League of Legends community seems to find Skarner a bit underpowered, but Senior Staff Writer Chris "Pwyff" Tom thinks this crystal scorpion might just be misunderstood.

Whenever Riot Games releases a new champion, I like to think that my opinions are a fair reflection of the overall League of Legends community. Every now and then, however, I get really excited about an upcoming champion so, instead of even seeing what the community has to say, I just play piles of games against all sorts of opponents, tweaking my item builds, runes, and masteries, before I find something that elevates this latest addition to a whole new level. Usually, I'll emerge from my lab sessions with the opinion that this champion will be a top-tier contributor with my methods, but more often than not, I'm met with a community set on believing that Riot has introduced another underpowered champion. With all of this in mind, let's get down to talking about the newest addition to the League of Legends: Skarner, the Crystal Vanguard.

If you couldn't already guess from my opening statements, Skarner is, by and large, considered to be a bit of an underpowered addition to the game. Also, if you couldn't guess, I find that I disagree with popular opinion. I'll get to my reasons why in a moment, but I'll introduce this champion first.

Skarner, the Crystal Vanguard, is a unique 'tanky DPS' champion who focuses on sticking to his targets to deal consistent damage. This is mostly due to Crystal Slash, a short-range AoE ability that deals damage in an AoE radius for a set amount. If Skarner hits anything with Crystal Slash, he becomes empowered with "Crystal Energy," which makes his next Crystal Slash deal extra magic damage while also slowing his targets. Combine this with Skarner's passive, Energize, which reduces all of his cooldowns by 1 second every time he hits an enemy champion, and Skarner can really harass someone if he's allowed to auto attack for any given amount of time.

Skarner's other abilities also do well to support his persistent nature; Crystalline Exoskeleton shields Skarner for a medium amount of damage, while also increasing his attack speed and movement speed until the shield dissipates or absorbs its set amount. Fracture is a straight-line skill shot that deals magic damage and 'marks' enemies it hits. If Skarner follows up with a physical hit to anyone who's been 'marked,' he'll be able to consume that mark to heal for a small amount. Skarner can also use his Crystal Slash AoE damage to "proc" all of the marks to heal at the same time. If the previous two abilities were a bit too common, Skarner gets a unique ultimate in Impale, where he grabs an enemy champion, suppressing it and dragging it behind him for a set amount of time.

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