Talk:Skarner/@comment-24795478-20141116195834/@comment-35229418-20141117201716

Pre-rework Skarner, in the jungle, had one build: SotAG->Mercury->Shurelya->tank items (usually FH). Sometimes people built Trinity on him. IBG was pointless because he already had a slow. Sometimes he was played AP in mid, but it was stuff like, say, AP Tryndamere would be now. No one played Skarner AP in the jungle. So, technically, he's more versatile now than before. About versatility, Udyr has two ways of dealing damage (AP or AD), but he's still a bruiser. Skarner has two ways of playing (carry-like or more tanky), but he deals damage the same way, so I guess Udyr can be considered more versatile. Note, anyway, that Skarner has still more versatility in his build compared to most junglers.

About the damage nerf, it's true that he had more damage before. The problem is that he didn't have ways of applying that damage, at least before acquiring Trinity/Gauntlet. And if you couldn't stay attached to an enemy, you didn't get kills/assists, which meant no gold, which meant more time before you had TF/IBG. Usually when you did it was already too late.

Finally, about the ways of dealing damage, the guys at Riot have to make a champion more viable in their set role at the cost of shutting down unwanted alternatives. Think about AP Yi, AP Sion, bruiser Kha'Zix. They were all alternatives that weren't intended to exist in the first place.