Skarner was too unpopular to be this important || Casual Champion Review 

Man, Pre-Rework Skarner did not deserve the disrespect he got. No appearances in any sort of media, no short stories, the abuse by Piltovans and his only champ connection was to Seraphine, who abused the souls of his brethren to power up her speakers. The Lewis the gator fan club sympathizes with Skarner players

Sad thing abt skarner being moved to ixtal is that we will never hear abt him again

I'm really going to miss Skarner's old lore, for me it was an absurd mistake for Riot to simply throw the thing about hextech crystals being living beings in the trash, this had a very interesting conflict about champions who are good, but use hextech without knowing it, Camille becomes a much more sinister villain since she knew and simply didn't care, even Seraphine had enormous potential to find out about this and make songs that addressed it in an implied way (during the Brazilian dictatorship, several musicians made songs criticizing the regime, but in the subtext to be able to pass the censorship, I always imagined Seraphine doing something like that because if she spoke explicitly Camilie would slice her), Skarner himself had to make the choice to leave his people unprotected to go and rescue those who are in Piltover, now what? Is he at most an obstacle for Qyiana? Maybe one or two interactions with Malphite? Seraphine remains purposeless and, until they release Arcane 2, Camille simply doesn't exist in the canon because her story directly conflicts with Arcane.

The funniest thing is that Skarner is unironically tied to the entire spaghetti code of league that deleting him would cause the entire client to implode. Bro really was the chef behind the recipe.

Ironic that in the Skarner Casual Champion Review, NickyBoi got a bunch of Hextech Drakes in this game 💀

"Seraphine would've been behind their cause" T H A N K Y O U. I have been saying the whole freaking time that the fix for Seraphine's lore was right in front of their noses - just LET her hear them and LET her want to help! That would've made Sera an actual hero relevant to the main conflict of Piltover - how this great Progress society is built on exploitation - and given her a concrete goal, obvious points of conflict and interaction with other champs - Camille, Jayce, maybe Caitlyn, definitely Skarner - and played into her theme of 'empathy'. It could've even worked with Arcane, since we don't know where Jayce got the Hextech crystals from and it's entirely plausible with some timeline tweaks that Clan Ferros are his secret supplier and he just doesn't think to ask about the origins of the stones. But nope - Sera got retconned to be ignorant of the Brackern and then the entire Brackern-Hextech lore got yeeted out. Riot chickened out, IMO.

I watched a guy play Skarner for 290 days till his rework

I think skarner was made too *important to be so unpopular. Meaning so many characters were made with lore connections to him, whereas he had almost nothing. But now they're changing his lore entirely, so what happens to all the previous connections

Man, I wished they made him a classic skin for him. Because I do enjoy the purple crystal design for him. Wished they brought that to make a skin for him. Just like they did for Trundle and Karma

i remember when skarner lore was him sleeping under Crystal Skar the map between Noxus and Demacia, and they both are fighting for the rights to dig that place and in one of the crystal diggings one of the crystals (Skarner) woke up and kill the miner and saw half of his people gonne dead by the miners and started defending that place for the few brackens that was still alive and sleeping, that lore stick with me for so long and on that time his passive was the crystal venon i miss that time

Might as well consider Ixtal to be lore purgatory

Nicky, the "get over here" line is for his new legendary skin which will be Battle Boss Skarner where they will also give one to Kog'Maw and arcade Ivern with Daisy being a battle boss and no I am not on copium :)

Love the molting Skarner art but god damn the make out one was cursed.

As a Skarner main, the rework was one of the reasons I quited. The lore was much more important to me than gameplay or character. Since Riot decided to complete the gen0cide of brackern, there is nothing left for me in this IP to be attached to. My dsc pfp is still weeping Skarner, because I'm sad for him.

Y'know, Bracken Queen Seraphine would be a neat skin Idea, innit? Like, in another world, the Piltover's diva stumbled upon a dying old Skarner and was given enlightment of the hextech and shit like that. Old Skarner know that only the diva that treat his kin better or something like that...

I think a fun way they could have handled Seraphine and old Hextech is that it isnt that she's doing nothing for the Brackern, its that nobody believes her as she is the only one who can hear the singing in the first place. eventually she gains a small cult following her that actually DO believe her, but its revealed that the higher ups of Piltover have known about the Brackern the entire time, maybe even keeping this knowledge away from Jace (from aracne). it could get to the point where they send Camille after her and her followers, only for old Skarner to save her and team up with her.

I think the craziest thing about skarner is the fact that he has an actual legendary skin, even though no one has ever cared about in the history of his existence. Its really cool that they gave an unpopular champion a legendary, whereas we now live in an age where poster boys like lee sin have 3, and a boatload of "undesirables" are left to beg for an epic skin maybe once every two years, if they're lucky. Pretty artistically bankrupt.

Gives one of his mains a 5/10 and really likes a Yone skin. This is one of the reasons I really like NickyBoi, he tends to be fair in his judgement despite his biases and his channel isn't just about hating everything. I don't have to agree with everything he says but I respect that he is genuine.

The name stones are their culture. It's a very powerfull and deep analogi for the character and i'm sad they dealt with it COWARDLY

I am very fond of Skarner, he was one of the first champions I started playing, in addition to being the character with whom I have played the longest. When the news came that they were going to rework him, it made me incredibly sad, because I knew they would try to change him completely. I feel tremendous sadness knowing that I will have to say goodbye and never see him again. I just hope I can enjoy his new look as much as I do now, just as I hope everyone can enjoy playing with him a little more now.

Idk why they changed him from his Crystal Venom to the stupid spires in the first place. The Crystal Venom version was great. I missed the movement and attack speed from his Q and being able to actually do stuff outside the jungle.

I remember having so much fun playing skarner in seasons 4/5. I remember discovering him in ARAM and getting mastery 7 pretty quickly on him to the point he became my second most played champion

will you play with reworked Skarner as well? Just curious.

Man when you mentioned A Sol I really felt that. I only played him a month before the rework and instantly understood and got good at his play style. When he got reworked it was cool but the new champion hype wore off and now I wish we had old A Sol. Such a unique and fun champion.

Its sad that they killed everithing about skarner and made a new scorpion champion 😢 Like, i love the color scheme of his, i am a big fan od purple and cyan/blue, and his lore is so good... but hey, he now is part of the forgoten region, that doenst exist, very fitting for him, as the least popular. they removed the only thing he as knew for, the good lore

They really should have kept his lore and kinda just updated his current fantasy (removing the spires! hooray!) and kept the whole hextech lore. Like, it could make really good interactions and conflicts with piltover where people like Jayce does not know exactly what the crystals are, and the ones who knows what they are (Camille and maybe a few more) does not care and want to keep that hidden so people won't turn against hextech. Now imagine this: Seraphine, a young girl with aspirations and love for music is gifted this really advanced, cool hextech music hoverboard thingamajig and falls head over heels for it! She uses it a lot, get better in music etc and everything is looking so good for her dream. But after she got it, she starts having nightmares. Not so clear at first, but always in the back of her dreams are screams of dread, pain and fear! Screams of a people trapped, getting killed while they are in stasis, fully conscious but unable to defend themselves! She doesn't get much good sleep, and the dreams get worse and worse over time, until one night, she wakes up, sweating and distraught, looks over at her hoverboard and it glows a sickly blue color, the screams of her dreams emanating from it. She doesn't understand them, but she can feel the pain and fear in their screams! Her whole mission becomes to find out what this is. Through her music she starts to be able to communicate with them, even soothe them, give them comfort, and becomes a person who tries to speak out against hextech. She is obviously a dismissed as a delusional teen by Camille and others, but becomes more and more of a thorn in their side, until she might even be driven out of piltover, so she starts her search for the brackern. This imo would be a cool story, with cool nuances and themes....but no more of that. Skarner is a tyrant now :(

Rip old Skarner. We will truly miss your kind...

Skarner is my jungle main. And of course I hate the spires. I always thought they should have put a spire in the bases that way you weren't half a champion when you pushed into your base. I am excited for the rework, but I'm worried that he'll become an insanely popular champion and I'll never get to play him because he's either banned or picked before I can pick. Also hope we get a skin (probably that mythic skin line) where he is a purple crystal scorpion again

I'm gonna really miss this champ so much, I loved to play as Skarner in ARAM because it was so cool pulling the enemy out of their safe space

The most sad thing is that we will NEVER have a story about Scarner been captured, send to circus in Piltover and then been save by Seraphine....to just he cut of her head...

Good video, little disappointed you didn't mention the old Journal of Justice lore back when The League of Legends was a canon institution erupting during a site of battle between Demacia and Noxus (I think it's been like 13 years it's hard to remember). There was all this speculation because Jarvan was the one who instigated the battle, and one of the reasons why people first began to suspect Jarvan was actually LeBlanc in disguise.

Just had this tin-foil hat theory just now but what if Hex crystal still exist how they are but instead of Brackern souls they are like crystallized souls from the Shadow Isles or from Blue Mordikaiser’s realm and made into the tech. Would sound weird but could lead somewhere

Idk they don’t even need to change much from his old lore to tie him to Ixtal. And NOT changing the old lore would be even more interesting for his conflict with Qiyana. To some degree he agrees that he should destroy piltovans but he might be fearful about opening Ixtaocan to other regions and risk discovery since he might be reluctant about the entire Runeterra learning about the source of namestones/hextech crystals.

The baby boy himself Despite that he looks awkward af i will have a soft spot for his old design, he's kinda friend shaped. Ofc the rework design is miles better too, tho i wish riot would give him one of those fancy cristalis dominus skins, it would serve well as a "traditional" skarner skin.

18:12 Rare footage of Nicki playing monster hunter.

Finally, THE SKARNER VIDEO!!

Skarner kinda feel like a reverse Aatrox. Where instead of changing the champs identity through his kit they keep the abilities similar to the original but literally change his identity lorewise and appearancewise

18:59 Since they announced that all lore is shared in 1 universe, the hextech lore is literally the hextech crystals from the Arcane show now.

"I can't think of any champion that can turn off Your passive and get money from doing so" Have you ever laned as Naafiri vs an irelia? She chews up your dogs and turns in a profit with your corpse

The brackern themselves are super unique but they got replaced with a malphite cousin by the dude who made smolder and ksante

Unpopular Opinion: Nicky should've used both the old and new skarner in one video

Totally missed the opportunity for Seraphine to have an epiphany upon meeting Skarner, realizing that her tech is being powered by the Brackern. She would become distraught, guilty, ashamed, completely besides herself with pure despair. Her beautiful, carefree, happy-go-lucky music she has been using to unite the people of Zaun and Piltover has been a travesty in itself. No excuses aside ignorance, no possible way to apologize, no way to make it up to Skarner... except cast aside her technology and use her own powers to commune with Skarner and the Name Stones, soothing them in their peril and vowing to make things right. Her core cause to unite the people of her own home now joined by the effort to free the Brackern, she would join forces with Skarner and set out to completely change the entire region's philosophy of life.

I'll miss the crystals on the map with his cosmic sting skin. They are really pretty

Honestly about the crystal skin. Surprised Riot isn't doing one with his rerelease. Seems like an easy way to get some money without much work

I like spires. I think it's a fun mechanic and adds some purpose for your team to help you in the jungle. I'm Iron 1, I might be stupid, but I think having random fights in the jungle bc "Don't you touch my crystals you dog" is fun :3

Skarner was my second most played champion back when I still played league. I believe he has a very dedicated lil community of players that are all kind of bittersweet about his changes. I already dislike how slow he is and how his ult comes out so slow. I also liked just the amount of exploration of items you could try out with his kit

my favourite part of this video is the audible q spam

12:57 Shyvana. All that needs to be said.

I honestly love skarner since hes so fun to just vibe to, but saddly he fell off as a tank but its a good champion for group sessions and always gave me good laughs

I'm gonna be honest, i never liked skarner and the hextech thing never sticked to me really, like the only character who the hextech crystal being alive creatures favored was blitzcrank but it could be said that he is just a smart ia and not a crystal scorpion, i think is neat they gived a different lore with the rework and also this make seraphine a normal sound mage and not being a scizofrenic girl who start hearing voices from her speaker. (Yes i like seraphine character, no not his design except the lor one

loved Skarner during the rune glaive abuse meta. 😂 man time really flies

Old Skarner was good imo, his old passive that gave cdr per attack was so good, I used to rush RoA and his mana was not a problem the entire game Like Skarner misses his kind, I'll miss this purple scorpion

Kindred has a passive the enemy can take advantage of. If you kill her marks you get gold and she doesn't get stacks

You know as much as skarner was unpopular gameplay wise and design wise I really liked him, mainly because one of my best friends is Skarner player. I learned all about his gameplay, the skarner build flowchart and how funny you can do some things with E+R+E+ Spam Q, it was hilarious to see an enemy stunned for 8 secs As a support player I used to pick seraphine to annoy them too was funny This is the first time a rework had this effect on me and honestly i'm really gonna miss old skarner, the new one isn't the same, goodbye ugly ass crab (old Aatrox players i get you guys now)

the crystal scorpion doesn't look ancient well yeah hes crystal and immortal he doesn't age and I think him not looking like an intelligent/sad empathic creature is part of the charm like the misunderstood monster trope and tbh his rework is to remove the spires so he operates like his old self with all the silly champs out here I think release skarner with most of the buffs would do fine or just design a new passive and he's not just a key part to piltover Apparently Skarner was super important to League's Code a lot of champions reference skarners code to keep bloat down so removing old skarner breaks a lot of shit

Funnily enough only illaoi haves that as a mechanic, you gain gold by removing her tentacles

Im gonna miss my Crystal Scorpion i will still main him but i must let old one go..

Finally, skarner video released

Im dead serious when I say this, Skarner after like 3 or 4 items feels like the BEST melee tank shredder in the game. If you build bruiser and a ton of ability haste, his Q begins to reset it's own cooldown against champions, meaning your dps is only limited by how quick you can press Q, and because it has rather good percent max health damage, you shred every tank.

This fanart section was so cursed . . . I loved it

I actually have always enjoyed his simplistic gameplay, the spyres are weird and can be annoying but there a fun gimmick. Watching this video actually made me wanna play him again

I'm totally with you on the "why couldn't we get a traditional skarner skin" for me personally, I actually really liked the crystal scorpion aesthetic. I thought it was neat and a cool, different kinda scorpion design. I was actually kinda sad when I saw the rework was just basically making him....what to me reads as just...a stone golem shaped like a scorpion. Which is far less unique imo. I would have loved to still be able to use the 'crystal scorpion' design. Granted, I dont play him really, just one of those design aspects I always liked kinda things.

We're losing "Oh no! I seem to have stepped on one of my cousins!" in favor of a discount ASol.

I personally really love the subversion presented by OG Jayce and Viktor lore. Not that their arcane interpretation is bad, its just kinda bog standard.

From what you said about not another champion having a passive where an enemy can shut it down. May I introduce kindred

I guess where hextech crystals come from are gonna be changed or retconned? Because the hextech core is more void-y and I don't see how brakern memories can do the things that the hextech crystals did in arcane (since arcane is canon)

I also miss Dominion and Ascension 🥲 I hope the new Arena mode continues to bring back ideas from that era

Ngl I'm gonna miss the old Skarner lore.

The thing about skarner conflict with piltover, is that Piltover doesn't really need it to have any kind of conflict or problems. We already have Piltover exploring Zaun(which already is bigger than mistreating some species). We have piltover hunting vastayas and other sentient creatures while invading Ixtal.

Skrrt Skrrt Skarner was busted last season with Divine Sunderer because of how it interacted with his Q, you'd deal 7% Max Health Damage and heal for that amount, throw a Titanic on there with a FoN and Dead man's plate, there was no escape

I loved dominion, I miss it dearly. It and Skarner got done dirty

You sound a lot better on this video Nicky, and that’s my favorite part of this for me. ❤

While Arcane being canon will have huge consequences for the universe I also think it will be for the better.

8:05 I think that's a pretty disparaging way to look at things. Not everything that's purple is from the void, but everything from the void is purple.

I love playing Skarner and Hecarim because I like going fast.

How do you feel about the reworked skins tho? You've only really addressed Battlecast but I feel like they have missed the essence of Earthrune and Cosmic Sting. I really dislike how muted the colours are, the skins have less detail, the obnoxious and cheap 2D moving texture effect on his limbs.. I loved current cosmic skarner due to how bright, colorful chromas and elegant he looks. To me it seems a bit lazy how they did some of the skins for example his tail is just taken from his reworked base skin instead of having them be segmented, just like the earthrune & cosmic one.. to me they're downgrades. They are especially lazy since Guardians of the Sands recall animation was just taken from his base skin with added sand vfx.. unlike his old unique recall where he stands on his tail.

Man I also do love Skarner's gameplay :(

Skarner is actually the champ I installed League to play. I loved the whole concept. And honestly I don't love the gameplay. I hope his rework is fun, and I'll genuinely enjoy that. But I'll always wonder why his voice isn't more musical.

Skarner is my nr 5 mastery champion and I absolutely love him. In honor of his rework im doing a 20 game streak (at least) and I won't be playing any other champion other than him till the rework. The silly little goober gets all my love, but to be honest. I can't wait for his rework. and just goof around some more.

I think the best thing about skarner rework is that the gameplay is relatively the same although I suspect that he'll be the second comming of aatrox (clunky at start but once players get the hang of it, will become an unbearable monster) also the guy who design this rework also design k'sante and smolder.

I was goofing around playing with some friends one for all and I thought hey why not play skarner and man, I was so sad to have never played him before, its a super simple champ but also funny as fuck, Im sad I found out how much fun he can be around the days he is gonna be reworked, but hey, I can say Im one of the people who played him at least once

9:40 I feel like this is one of the lowest critiques league players make I'm ngl "art no clear" or "purple so void" or "not ancient but also not advanced looking" like I was a new player with no prior experience to league, saw a vid with Tyler angry about a maokai support and started playing league but I could tell skarner and chogath were from two different worlds and that based on his gameplay he's a scorpion on a mission needing his spires for support I'm alright with the changes but like looking at other forms of fiction from manga to books to anime to movies to cartoons to live actions and even video games. A character doesn't need to look a specific way to give you this feeling of whimsy or "what type of character are you" Look at frieren (recent example) she is the slayer of demons but she's also a prehistoric grandma and it's all articulated by her actions not her facial expressions nor her emotions nor her design and yet she's handled very well for books look at "the legend of darkstalker" dude has a creepy name and knows his future but he's a charming dude all the dragons have the same face and descriptions dont go far in books when they're not expressly human but the way his actions are described we see what made him a legend Look at Genshin's Furina her design is clearly water derived and otherworldly in a subtle way and yet she's nothing special it is her patience and steadfastness that make her an interesting character no brain, strength, or magic just patience in a terrible situation I liked old skarner because despite his simple design it works well for him, he is a monstrous creature I mean look at genshin so many "ancient monsters" are actually very playful and articulate in their speech and culture. But they can't exist in the modern day they're too big or the harm they caused was unintentional but very severe. I like that skarner is intelligent and has morals but he's not of the same standards as league humans. he's not a pretty gal ashe or a monstrous chogath he's just another species I'll end it off with it's ok for design to match character trope but I like designs that don't match the trope look at Gojo vs Sukuna. Sukuna is very respectful to his enemies after beating them respecting their craft even though he is truly evil and his design shows it vs Gojo who's supposed to be a hero but disrespects his enemies and is sadistic in many ways. Even to a serious fight Gojo chooses to show off over taking it seriously not caring about the consequences vs sukuna who makes sure he can have fun but still survive the encounter virtually unscathed I could go on but I feel Skarner's gameplay reflects his character, he's cc heavy with a lot of mobility showing he likes to avoid fights and or wants to separate hordes to make necessary fights easier. he relies on his team, scavenging kills, or duels near his spires and I like the gameplay thematic of "flight or fight" in a world where survival is needed (not angry just a tired rant about design vs character, I'm happy with the update but man not every character needs to fit a certain criteria for design. Sometimes the gameplay can speak for the character. other times the art can be a big help like briar "creepy and cute" and sometimes it doesnt work (ashe))

Personally, im not a huge fan of the rework, i cant really put my finger on why, its well done and all but idk, maybe im too attached to the current skarner

Why dont you make a second video about skarner? That way you could have both versions of him in this series. You got to play him right in between of his reworks, i feel like it would really be right to play them both.

I did not realize old bracken were basically trill from Star Trek lol

i bet they're gonna make a crystalis indomitus skin for him. partly to milk out people looking for "traditional" skarner, and also to hopefully actually improve his crystal skorpion design. not to say it's a terrible design, he's a very cool design as he will have been. but it could be so much MORE, and i hope they take the opportunity to see what they could do with it.

Can we have a mission when the New skarner comes out we spam play him to the ground, so riot thinks updating Champs is the way to goo and continues doing this 🙏

The last remnant of the crystal scar is gone...

Almost as if every region has a colossus now.

That is indeed a fun fact

I can't believe it. It was my wedding day. Me and Skarner had been planning this for years. It was our special day. We were both at the altar, having just finished our wedding vows. We were about to kiss as soon as Riot broke down the door and shot him dead right in front of my eyes. They killed my husband, just like that... I feel the pain of all the old Aatrox mains now... May my beloved husband rest in peace, in crystal heaven. I loved you Skarner, and I know you felt the same.

Por fin tenemos el video de Skarner que dijo en su momento :v

18:20 Nickyboy : im not doing any damage 😭 Me : bc you forgot to buy heartsteel 😢

Isn't it already confirmed that hextech crystals are a thing called Targonite or something? Or is targonite a different stone?

Two Skarner videos in one week is the prophecy true

I honestly loved skarner before he had the spires but I sucked and still suck at the game so it was fun lol

He was also really fun in poro king

is the last drawing a JOJO REFERENCE ?!

IMO Sand King is a waaaay better representation of what Skarner was trying to reflect as a character

I love dominion... i love that game mode.