What if New and Old Karma had a baby?
Mirror from EU-forum, because apparantly EU doesn't care about Karma :C!
With the upcoming mage update, I expect Karma to be looked at again, and I can only hope, that Riot attempts to unify the Karma community, instead of splitting it yet again. While I do prefer the overall state of New Karma over Old Karma, there were also some aspects removed from her kit, that I don't think needed to go. The old tether mechanic was both unique and creative in use, the charge mechanic needed an amount of strategic evaluation, that I miss, and both her heal/damage-spell and shield/damage-spell gave her an uncomparable appeal. Understandably, a lot of people miss those things until this very day.
What would it look like if Karma were to be reintroduced to those mechanics?
NEW KIT
#P - Enlightenment Hitting an enemy champion or epic monster with spells 2 within 3s triggers [REMORSE]. Hitting with additional spells refreshes the duration. Targets affected by [REMORSE] take +% more damage from all sources for 3s. Allied champions heal for the extra damage they deal.
#Q - Inner Flame Has two charges, that refill every [15/13/11/9/7]. The damage is slightly reduced compared to life. If this spell triggers [REMORSE], the slow is doubled. RQ - Heavenly Flame Becomes a (slightly smaller) targeted AoE effect instead (think Vel'Koz/Lux E). Hit enemies take bonus damage based on their missing hp%. Hit allies are healed based on their missing hp%. After a short delay the area detonates. applying the same effect again.
#W - Spirit Bond
Tether to a target for 4s. Karma gains 40% movementspeed as long as the tether remains. Targeted allies share this bonus, while allies touching the tether gain it for 2s. Targeted enemies take magic damage over time, while enemies touching the tether receive half damage instantly.
RW - Soul Rally
The tether range is increased. Additionally, every champion touching the tether bonds with Karma and all other tethered champions too. This refreshes the duration of all tethers. Tethered allied champions (including Karma) share a part of their received damage with all tethered targets. Enemies can only suffer from one damage-over-time-effect and can only receive the instant damage once.
#E - Endurance
The shield does not speed up anymore, but is increased by 1% for every 1% missing health of the target. Champions with [REMORSE] receive a % of the damage they deal to shielded targets as magic damage.
** RE - Defiance**
The shield explodes, dealing AoE damage in an area. If the target is a champion, the damage is increased by 1% for every 1% health the target is missing.
#** R - Mantra** The cooldown does not decrease with higher levels anymore. Instead, whenever one of Karma's spells affect a champion, the cooldown is reduced.
SKILL DISCUSSION
Passive - A good passive should add a new aspect to a champion, that interacts with the rest of the kit. Currently it feels like something, that should just be on her ultimate. A passive that allows Karma to trade efficiently or rewards allies for hitting the right targets seems more fitting. Also this was once on the PBE as part of her W and I thought it was neat. Q - Current Q is allright, but for the passive to propperly work, she needs more damage tools. Besides, the charge system was interesting, while increasing Karma's skill ceiling, but also punishing failure more. CDR does not profit this ability, to make CDR less mandatory for Karma and more of a contextual decision. RQ - The current version is bollocks. Way too much damage for a poke spell. And still boring in a way. The heal-damage-AoE was so fun on old Karma, but the short ranged cone not practical. This might be a compromise. It doesn't require you in a position, but you can still wiff the heal. W - The old tether was just too interesting, to be removed from the game. Yes, it needs your allies to understand it, but so does Kalista's ult and many other newer abilities. Besides, this was fun even on lower rankings and seeing a pro team make use of this would be so awesome! RW - Talking about awesome; the ult version of this should be even more spectacular. If done correctly, this can win a teamfight. Since people can see it coming, it should be rather fair tho. Also I want to see a pro Zed dodging through these like in some Mission Impossible movie. E - Yes, the current one is neat, but the tether without speed seemed off. And so did double speedups. In the end the possibly strongest shield should be interesting enough, especially with a passive interaction. RE - I've always thought that a damage spell that uses allies to aim was unique and balanced. I died a little, when they removed it. R - Passive moved to here. I am all for skillchecks in kits. This should also reward Karmas who can hit both enemies and allies alike.
STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES
This should be in line with Riot's design philosophy, should keep the core of what makes current Karma awesome, but also please her older fans. In midlane Karma would be the mage-to-go to provide skirmishing-power for longer and sustained fights. Essentially, the only real midlaner, that provides team-heals (or spellvamp/lifesteal on a target). Her kit would allow her to duel assasins, while she struggles against long ranged poke mages. As a support Karma would provide a sustain and damage increase, that interacts with your ADC's damage, instead of being flat heals. Compared to Soraka she wants longer exchanges, instead of pokes.
As a downside, Karma does not offer any CC (outside of a 25/50% slow) and doesn't offer protection against it.
What do you think? Could this work? If you like it, please upvote this. If you do not, please let me know why in a comment.
Thanks for reading!
