Riot Games shook up the League of Legends fandom with massive reveals in its Champion Roadmap for April 2022, including revealing early concept work on the new Skarner champion rework.
Skarner won the fan-decided poll on the next champion to receive a full Visual Gameplay Update, and Riot has begun to make public early explorations into the crystal scorpion’s new identity. These early glimpses include a brand new take on the Brackern brawler that would revamp what fans might expect from the champion.
What will the Skarner rework look like?
The Skarner rework had the first few pieces of concept art released as a part of a new Champion Roadmap. The art that Riot published depicts twelve possible new looks for Skarner, arranged into similar rows of three alternate appearances for the crystal scorpion. The first row focuses on a more natural scorpion appearance, with prominent Hextech wings and stinger on two of the options. The second row leans away from the crystalline aspect entirely, giving Skarner’s tail the main focus with multi-pronged ends or a scythe tip.
The third row goes the other way, focusing on crystals all over the body of the Skarner rework. These make Skarner more clearly a mythical monster, befitting the ancient age and power of the Brackern.
The final row is perhaps the most exciting for fans of the League of Legends champion, with Riot floating the idea of Skarner being captured by Piltover and augmented into a weapon before going rogue. This version of Skarner would be a high-tech threat to Piltover, set on avenging the wrongs done to his people by the Piltovans.
At this pace, the new Skarner rework would likely land in early 2023 or perhaps even late in 2022. All of these looks drop Skarner’s anthropomorphic aspects and focus further in on making him more of a monstrous champion.
