In depth view of Karma’s Kit Issues and how to fix them (constructive :) )
#Welcome Summoners and Member Riots :)
Currently, Karma seems fine Balance wise in the game. But taking a closer look at her it becomes clear that her Kit has several issues in it that prevents her from using it to full efficiency. These Issues also make her feel “weird” sometimes and give Players enough Reason not to pick her (above other Champions). I know there are a lot of preseason Changes out there but those will not solve the issues of Karma's Kit as these are mostly not based on numbers but rather on their mechanics.
http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/leagueoflegends/images/6/69/Karma_OriginalLoading.jpg
#TL;DR:
- Gathering Fire should interact with Karma's whole Kit not only the damage Component.
- Karma's Q schould not be a colliding skillshot because
- "only" source of damage
- Detonation area is too small to compensate it being colliding, but cant be buffed due to counterplay issues.
- primary Damage tool of a mage is "always" passing through Units (Q should be more like Lux E)
- Damage from RQ should be completely moved to its Cataclysm because of this.
- Increase Karma's Shield-Haste Duration a little bit for each rank (from 1,6 to 2 Seconds).
#At the Moment, Karma suffers from an Identity issue:
Many players tend not to pick Karma because she has “no real nice”, often compared to what she can do in contrast to other Champions and what she can not do. Lately she is often described as being a “worse Lulu”. I often read that Players struggle to fill the following sentence: I pick Karma because… The most problematic parts of her Kit are her Passive and her Q, while E just needs a little tweak. Karma’s decision making is heavily influenced by her Passive, leading her Mantra almost always on her Q, even though it should have empowered another Ability (E) in this situation. In most situations her _**Mantra choices feel restricted **_and because of that they do not feel good.
#Gathering Fire [Passive]:
Every now and then a Thread pops up on the Gameplay and Balance Board: A Suggestion to change or (re)move Karma’s Passive. Thus, the frequently asked change seems to has its reasons. Lets take a look why people feel that Karma’s Passive is ineffective or unsatisfying:
- The Passive is only supported by a part of her kit (only 3 out of 6 Abilities), these 3 Abilities will always be preferred above the other 3, especially “only” the Mantra’d Q.
- This means that the Passive **does not reward for making the right decisions **for your Mantra or Abilities, instead you feel bad because you know that you lost lots of CDR from your Passive for casting your spells in the right order or for making the right decision (e.g.: Normal Combo for Karma is E-W-RQ, meaning you loose ~6-9 Seconds CDR or RE to save your Team).
- Looking at the example above (and the points under it) it gets clear, that the Passive “counters” itself more or less. Since you only gain CDR from the Passive when Mantra is on Cooldown, you want to spam it as soon as possible out, whether the moment is right or the decision is.
- This also means, that Karma has no Passive if Mantra is Off Cooldown.
- In Addition to this, a Passive like this **is normally moved to the Ability associated **to it (here the Ult).
In fact her Passive and Ultimate are created to go hand in hand, emphasizing Karma's Mantra concept. Unfotunately, Karma's Kit seems not to support this; in contradiction its even "playing against" this "Harmony" forcing decisions often to be either doing the right Mantra or using the Passive at its best. This outlined especially after her "soft rework" some Patches ago, where the additional Damage was removed from RW and RE.
Suggestion:
http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/leagueoflegends/images/6/68/Gathering_Fire.png
Reduces the Cooldown of Mantra by 2 Seconds each time, Karma damages an enemy Champion with her Abilities (half for Autoattacks). Inspire and Defiance reduces the Cooldown of every allied Champion shielded by 1,50 Seconds. If Renewal roots the primary enemy Champion, the Cooldown of Mantra is reduced by 4 Seconds. Karma can store up to 4/6/8 Seconds of Gathering Fire, applying instantly after Mantra goes on Cooldown.
#Inner Flame/ Soulflare [Q]:
Inner flame gives Karma her current Identity: a long ranged Poke Mage.
But the Design of Inner Flame has massive Problems:
- **It detonates on the first enemy hit/ leaves a cataclysm. **
- While this is not problematic itself, even offering good amount of counterplay, it actually** hinders Karma’s potential by a lot** (it would be ok if it wouldn’t be her main Damage source).
- Q is Karma’s only “real” source of Damage. Missing it (which is easily done just by body blocking) means missing “all” of your kits Damage, thus being extremely punished especially when it was Mantrad.
- It is **nearly impossible for RQ to proc its second Damage component itself. **Think about that. It always needs help (e.g. W which needs Karma to go mid range, loosing the advantage of a long range Q) or mistakes from the enemy.
- The **Detonation area of her basic Q does not feel rewarding enough **(too small), making it much more difficult to hit many targets with the slow and the damage compared to other mages.
- Usually, Linear-Skillshot Abilities for Mages (or their primary Damage source) are passing through all targets (Ahri, Lulu, Lux, Xerath, Viktor, Lissandra…) to ensure they can deal enough Damage to the entire enemy Team. Comparing Lux’s E with Karma’s Q shows the Problem pretty clear: Lux’s E is passing through to the area being cast, it also has a bigger AOE, Slow and Range than Karma’s Q which only has slightly more Damage and a bit less CD.
- RQ is overloaded with Damage (and tools) kitwise and to Balance things, the Damage in the rest of her kit had to be removed or adjusted.
- Q is used for Poking, bursting, zoning and farming alike which leads to the Problem that Karma relies too much on her Q, having almost no other choices to do the listed things than to use her Q/RQ.
- Missing a Mantrad Q means that Karma, even if she successfully manages to reduce the Cooldown, has to wait for another Mantra. A lot.
- It is the only long ranged skill on a mage, which originally was intended to be mid/close ranged mage (W being mid-range).
- This makes Q feeling weird: on the hand it’s a long ranged Poke but on the other hand it is **heavily restricted **due to the points mentioned above/under.
- The Slow on the basic Q does not feel impactfull enough in many situations to make a difference (lower Duration and/or strength than similar slows).
All these Points summarises up to a huge Problem for Karma, which can not be solved as simply as by just giving her Q/RQ a bigger detonation Radius. Because the detonation Radius has to be hilariously big to make up for the damage being a colliding Skill shot and the only “real” (/primary) Damage source for a Mage (and Support). Also if the detonation Radius would be that huge the primary counter play to a Skillshot (blocked if colliding, dodged) would become quite unrealistic and unfair to accomplish, due to being a circular AoE. If Karma’s Q would pass through units, it would have a weird interaction since it would always explode on max range and not leave the cataclysm on the enemy itself. So it should be adjustable just like Lux’s W and have a slightly bigger AoE radius (when Mantrad) since you need to aim it. So Karma’s Q would be kinda alike with Lux’s E, but having little more Damage for little less Range (more diffucult to hit) and being used a bit differently (Basic Q can not zone, while Mantrad it can not be detonated manually).
Offered Solutions:
- Giving Karma’s Q the capability of passing through units.
- Increasing the Slow’s strength, but making it decaying.
- As a Trade for the changed aiming System, the Mantra Damage will not be separated anymore.
Suggestion:
http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/leagueoflegends/images/a/ad/Inner_Flame.png
Karma sends out magical Energies to the target location (250 AoE), dealing 80 / 125 / 170 / 215 / 260 (+ 65% AP) magic Damage and slowing enemies hit by 40% for 1 Second, decaying over time.
http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/leagueoflegends/images/4/45/Soulflare.png
+Mantra: Increases the AoE (350) and creates a cataclysm under it, which slows enemies inside by 40%. It detonates after 1,5 Seconds, dealing 75/ 200/ 325/ 450 (+70%) magic Damage.
#Focused Resolve/ Renewal [W]:
Currently, Karma’s W is a lesser problematic Ability and only needs little change to no change.
- While Karma being a long ranged, Poke orientated Mage, she has to risk quite a lot to go in mid-Range to cast W (e.g. for her RQ, making her loose the advantage of Q being long range).
- W feels like it is only designed as a tool for her RQ rather than giving Karma a wider area.
- Even for RW, there shouldn’t be any snare lasting longer than 3 Seconds (3 Seconds already are too long imo).
- In Late game the root feels like it takes too long to pull off.
Karma players often feel that this Ability is not as effective and variable as it should or could be. Therefore I will try to give W more versatility.
Optional Changes:
- RW can be casted on Allies too
- A little more room/gameplay for her RW.
- Changing the RW effect to have a little AoE root (on tether touch) rather than to have a overtuned single target root.
- Reducing the time, W/RW needs to trigger the root by a little bit for each point invested.
#Inspire/ Defiance [E]:
Her basic E is probably on of the lesser problematic things in her kit, that’s why it only needs a little adjustment.
The Main Problems of her current Shield are:
- While the haste definitely has its moments to shine bright, it is too mediocre to make the Ability feeling “overall” impactfull.
- Neither the shield nor the haste component is very strong - both of them are only moderate and easily outclassed by other Mixed-Shields and Mixed-Haste’s.
- E.g. Kayles W grants a Heal and a 3 Second Speed buff. Heals are mostly more effective than Shields (don’t vanish) and the Haste is also stronger (scaling with AP in mid-late game) and lasts longer than Karma’s, making it stronger than Karma’s E in both ways although the Cooldown on it is higher.
- Despite having a shorter Cooldown on E, it does not make up for one of its component to not feel “good enough”.
- It does not proc her current Passive, heavily punishing for casting RE.
So for Karma’s E to be more effective it needs some changes to the Haste:
Suggested Changes:
http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/leagueoflegends/images/c/c4/Inspire.png
In Addition to the shield, the target gains 40/ 45/ 50/ 55/ 60% Movementspeed for 1.6/ 1.7/ 1.8/ 1.9/ 2 Seconds.
#Mantra [R]:
The main Problem this Ability has is that it suffers from the current Gathering Fire [Passive].
http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/leagueoflegends/images/7/76/Mantra.png
It would be possible to move a mini-Gathering Fire to it and give Karma a new Passive, but that is optional.
#Final Words:
Applying these changes to her Passive, Q and E would help to make Karma’s Kit feeling a lot better and fluently. Her Kit would synergize better with itself, while separated Abilities (e.g. E/Q/RQ) feel more effective to use, rather than half effective or frustrating (Passive/Q/RQ). Also the changes to the Passive help Karma in terms of decision making for her Mantra. Instead of feeling that you should always Mantra Q for the extra Cdr, you can now decide more freely.
If you have any questions please feel free to ask. Concerns? Feel free to write them down here ^^
#Thank you for reading and participating : )
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on her and that issue with mid range doesn't really become one anymore because she's so beefy and has her RW to heal it all back. After an
and
, she just becomes this unstoppable, oppressing machine gun with proper positioning and mechanics.
