Domination Runes Buffs
With the introduction of Patch 8.10 two weeks ago, we saw some small but effective changes in the domination tree. Even though these changes passed unnoticed by the general community of League of Legends, they are quite impactful for certain champions. One of the champions that benefit most from this small buff is without doubt Skarner. But before we explain how this impacts the overall gameplay and how it can be used, let’s see what the changes are.
Cheap Shot and Ingenious Hunter
As you can see from the picture, two runes in the Domination tree were changed.
The first rune, Cheap Shot, got an overall buff. The damage was increased from 12 to 15 at level 1, and from 30 to 40 at level 18.
However, the change on the Ingenious Hunter rune is what interests us more. Namely, even though the overall power of the rune has not be tacked, the base cooldown on the active items has been increased from 10 to 15 percent. What this translates into for champions that use active items such as Predator Boots, Banner of Command, Righteous Glory, ZZ’Rot Portal etc. is more frequent usability in the early stages of the game.
So what does this mean for Skarner
The meta in the past few months has been gravitating around Predator. As one of the champions that benefits most from the added movement speed, Skarner did not have any other option for a main rune except for Predator. Combined with the power of Righteous Glory, Skarner could easily target an enemy champion and pull him towards his team with his Ultimate whenever these two were available.
However, with the introduction of this new change on Ingenious Hunter, Skarner not only gained an early game boost on his current active items, but saw some new possibilities for a different build. Namely, most of the items that follow the regular build on Skarner include some tank items such as Dead Man’s Plate, Adaptive Helm, Warmog’s Armor, Zeke’s Covergance etc., as you can see from the picture on the right. However, this new cooldown allows Skarner players to take Banner of Command an ZZ’Rot Portal which can drastically help their split pusher to achieve pressure on the map.
With a cooldown of 72 seconds on the Banner of Command, Skarner could easily put two, and in rare occasions even 3 Banner powered minions which take down structures in a matter of seconds. Now, knowing that the Banner powered minions are immune to magic damage, this leaves a window for opportunity for the team to focus on neutral objectives, start team fights or siege other lanes. With such constant pressure, it is only a matter of time when the enemy team will crack.
In game performance
The famous YouTuber Pants Are Dragon was the first one to introduce the power of this changes. In the video below he showed how OP this tactic is on champions like Skarner if it is used properly. You can watch his video to see how this tactic is used in-game.
For previous episodes of Power Picks and Meta Tricks click HERE.
