Talk:Skarner/@comment-24212263-20131210025140/@comment-8267817-20131210171642

He hasn't been very big in the competitive scene for one main reason, quicksilver sash stops his ultimate, as does cleanse, so as soon as he is seen in high levels of ranked play anyone of importance will have a QSS and save it for when he ults, if they are a mage then they will simpy take cleanse for once he hits level 6.

Tried jungling as Skarner in ranked back in season 2, as soon as I picked Skarner my team started flipping out and sure enough, by the time mid game rolled around the entire enemy team had quicksilver, and I couldn't engage with my ult anymore, I would sometimes have fights where my ult was just good for a little burst damage, and that was it. Intelligence counters Skarner, and makes him much less effective, that game was in Silver elo, imagine diamond, plat, or challenger. Skarner and a few other champions have kits that simply punish ignorance, Heimer, Skarner, and Shaco (for the most part, some people are just crazy good with Shaco) come to mind first in that department, sure they will work fine in normal games, but you very rarely see them in high level play because their kits have easily exploitable flaws.

As for the whole "Melee faceroll" era, I don't like it personally, glad Olaf is popuar again, but still. Once season 3 hit, melee assassins and bruisers got a lot stronger as a group, and it is getting old to constantly see teams with the same 3 people top lane. Olaf, Riven, and Wukong are the most common top laners I see, rarely see Jax, Mundo, Nasus, or Sion top lane anymore.