Riot Games has released a micropatch for League of Legends to address balance issues with Skarner following his VGU release earlier in the week. The patch focuses on buffing Skarner in the jungle while nerfing his top lane performance. Changes include a reduction in Skarner’s mana growth, an increase in monster damage from his passive and Q abilities, an increase in W mana cost, and a decrease in E cooldown.
Lead gameplay designer Matt Leung-Harrison stated that the patch aims to address Skarner’s performance in the top lane, which was outperforming his jungle performance at low mastery levels. Despite his low average winrates, high mastery Skarners are performing well. The changes were also made to improve the feel of Skarner’s abilities and add more counterplay options.
Riot developer Pehrek mentioned that the patch also includes bug fixes related to Skarner. The changes come shortly after Skarner’s rework in patch 14.7, which received a mostly positive reaction from players. Despite the initial low win rates, players have been enjoying the new look champion. The decision to nerf Skarner may seem unusual for a champion with low win rates, but the developers want to see him performing better in the jungle rather than only in the top lane.
Players can expect further changes to Skarner when patch 14.8 launches in just over a week. The new patch is scheduled for release on April 17 and may include additional balance changes based on player feedback and data. While the upcoming patch may not introduce a major VGU like the previous one, players can anticipate some interesting adjustments to keep the game balanced and engaging.
