Karma: The Old, The New and The Ugly
So, there are two issues:
- Meddler announced a kit update for Karma (see here )) for early 2018
- Karma is in a HUGE identity crisis, that I will explore in this thread
The Karma community has suffered a great lot from the divide, that followed her rework. Arguably so did the boards, as they have to keep rereading the same arguments again and again. The upcoming changes are a chance for reconsiliation, but also for troubles. Riot has been dealt a bad hand: Focusing on current Karma will certainly piss off Old Karma fans. Going back to Old Karma might alienate the New Karma fans. And going new, healthy and innovative ways might begrudge both parties. This is even more set off by the fact, that not even all Karma fans are on the boards. More precisely: They are a vocal minority. So, finding out what the Karma community wants is challenging, yet crucial. And here is where we come in. We need to help them out. We need to come together. We need to be cohesive about what we want. We have always asked for our opinions to be heard and the time is high.
Now they finally matter!
Fans of Old Karma's Fans
To get together, we need to understand each other. At the core of the problem there surely lies the Old Karma community and the bewildering confusion of anyone who wonders why in the flying Zac they still are around. Karma's rework was over 4 years ago! So you might say:
https://shootthemoon88.files.wordpress.com/2015/12/get-on-with-it.png?w=665
Well, I explored this in depth in my last post. Put shortly, Karma's rework sucked because:
- It was Riot's first rework of that scale. It lacked funding, a dedicated team and experience.
- Karma's old visuals got binned.
- Karma's beloved fanweapons got replaced by flavourless magic
- Karma had a lot of unique mechanics in her kit that all got replaced by healthy copies of already existing spells.
Or in the words of Lead Champion Designer Meddler:
That prompted a rework which, overall, hasn't been particularly successful. It was done at a time when we didn't have a dedicated team for rewoks and frankly it shows in her kit. Revised Karma's a more functional, healthy champion, but also in many ways a pretty bland one, with a lot of tools on her kit that feel too familiar... (read more) ))
And this is the first part of Karma's identity crisis: The two Karmas were too different.
- A visually unimpressive, short-ranged, fanweapon wielding, stoic diplomat with a lot of depth?
- A visually polished, poke-ranged, hadouken throwing, unleash mage with lack of mechanics?
Old Karma fans couldn't settle with the bland New Karma and New Karma fans were glad ugly and confusing Old Karma was gone.
New Karma is Best Karma?
Unfortunately no. Old Karma had a lot of issues, but just replacing something bad doesn't mean the new thing will be straight up better (insert political reference here). With her visuals and readability cleared up, her mechanics modernized and counterplay introduced, there came bad things with it.
#New Tools Dillude In the rework Riot retained a lot of effects (emergency heal, shield, damage, empowering mantra), but also added new ones (reveal, group protection, root, range). This just dilluded what the kit actually tried to achieve. It took away weaknesses AND added additional strenghts. What Karma was good at became muddy. How to fight her became confusing.
#Lack of Stat Direction Her mantra scales with different stats. Her RQ loves penetration, but none other skills do. Her RW is amazing with health stacking, but she gains nothing else from it. Support items pump her shielding to incredible strengths, but her other mantras just become a waste. There is no way to build Karma without leaving parts of her kit lacking.
#A Lack of Depth and Skill Expression Old Karma was about choices. Handling your charges, placing your spells wisely and tethering the right target (aka: finding the single competent ally in your team) was hard mental work. In exchange, there was nearly no mechanical depth in there, and the relaunch brought a long of improvements here, but compared to today, it was minimal. In actuality, only hitting her Q and RQ can be seen as mechanically challenging, but they are just generic skillshots. To make things worse, Karma's best skill expression, her decisions, were cut. As I pointed out above, since her mantra only scales with one item path each, choosing between mantras is as easy as deciding whether pineapple belongs on your pizza (HINT: it doesn't). Some time ago even her ability to cast shields on minions had to give. Generally, that's good, because minion denial is not a healthy mechanic. Specifically for Karma it was bad, because the ability to use minions to place your spells more optimally and shielding minions to push waves were one of the last straws Karma mains had to show they mastered her.
What I am traing to say is: Current Karma can be learned by any mechanically competent player in mere minutes. While Old Karma was unbelievably hard to wrap her head around. Again: Something that is diametrically opposed to each other, dividing the community more. Personally I love complex champions and skill expression, but I do understand if people found their home in a simpler champion and fear losing her.
The Ugly Truth
Karma's community is divided, her playstyle is muddied, her buildpaths all over the place and her future uncertain.
But one thing is certain:
We need to find to one another. Old and New Karma fans. Somehow we need to make common ground, so that Riot can focus on it, instead of risking they head off towards something that both sides won't like. We don't need yet another chasm in our midst.
The coming update is a chance for us all. It might be an earthquake that lets New and Old fans drift farther apart, one that might crack open the land. But if we work together, we can drift towards one another. And we can not expect Riot to do the work for us, WE need to support THEM.
You can not build bridges on your own.
Your Job
Get together. Find Karma fans online and discuss. Do not try to impose your views on them, but learn to understand theirs. Teach others what you love about her and think about what you would be willing to give up. Find things to like in the other side and highlight it. We can not be blind to one another.
We need to see both paths
and make another between!
######EDIT: I bow my head to the many pinepple lovers out there! You do you. Don't let anybody tell you what to like.
