@Riot; In regards to Karma shielding minions, use the Lulu/Lee Sin minion-shielding changes instead.

Back in Patch 4.5, Lulu's Shield was changed to no longer grant the shield to minions. However, Lulu can still target minions, preserving her ability to use minions for vision and as a reference point for her Glitterlance.

Even further back in Patch 3.15, Lee Sin's ability to shield minions (and wards) was removed while preserving his ability to minion/ward hop.

Riot is now planning to remove the ability to target minions with shields, and it will remove 4 potential uses.

1. Denying CS from the enemy laner by applying a shield.
2. Extending the life of a minion when attacking turrets by applying a shield.
3. Using a minion as the center-point to hit a group of allies with Mantra-Shield.
4. Pushing a wave slightly farther ahead by applying a movement speed buff.

Points 1 and 2 are the primary abuse cases for minion-targeted shielding. I can understand the reasoning behind removing these. These are also the only two points that specifically use the intention of shielding the targeted minion itself.

Point 3 is a useful tool at Karma's disposal, using the minion as a reference point to shield allies. I disagree that this is only a "niche" use, and feel this should not be removed.

Point 4 is.. something I'll do when running down a lane, usually so I can get part of a wave and some extra vision into a lane more quickly. This, I would qualify as "niche".

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Proposed Alternative

I wish to propose the same type of changes made for Lulu and Lee Sin to apply to Karma's Shield.

Remove the Shield granted to minions, only applying the movement speed buff to minions.

This would remove the abuse cases of denying CS and prolonging turret attacks, while preserving Karma's ability to use a minion as a reference point for Mantra + E. Also, the wave pushing thing that I'm probably the only person that does it.