With the removal of Karma's shield explosion Mantra is the only thing left of old Karma

Ulquiorra995·May 14, 2015·13 votes·1,372 views

Just a fact. And another reminder that Riot completely killed one of best champions character-wise and fun-wise they had.

13 Comments

The5lackerMay 14, 20159 votes

I played old Karma. The nostalgia-blindness is staggering. She was unique. That was the only description that's actually accurate. She wasn't good. She wasn't well designed. She wasn't powerful. She wasn't even coherent. She was unique. Uniqueness is not reason enough to exist.

Hinagiku33May 14, 20154 votes

To be fair, old Karma was thematic as heck

What goes around, comes around passive Lots of yin-yang duality between manta'd and non-mantra'd abilities

Besides, the only bad thing about old Karma's kit was her wonky W. AoE damage cone is easy to read - making it heal allies only takes one use for your team to figure out you can heal them if they stand in front of you (and it was the best heal in the game). Huge shield is even easier to read - nuking everything around her allies also only takes one use for her team to figure out she can do that (and it was the biggest shield in the game since it didn't give any other buffs).

Her W was wonky and had terrible readability so no one knew what it did. Maybe if Karma was in the free week rotation more people would know (same reason no one knows what Yorick's ult does).

Her passive was a bit hard for opponent's to understand just looking at, true enough, but it was hardly the worst offender.

Her biggest problem was just the lack of an ult so she only had 3 abilities since mantra'd abilities didn't have a separate cooldown. But even then she had 2 mantra charges so she was honestly fine if you practiced playing her.

Still wish we could have just changed her W and kept everything else :(

Vistha KaiMay 14, 20151 votes

Funny, because from the time perspective old Karma's W is nothing compared to things like Bard, Kalista or Yasuo.

Nameless VoiceMay 15, 20151 votes

Strangely, her old W is the main thing I miss about pre-rework Karma. Mostly because it was an unusual ability with lots of different uses, all of them somewhat tricky (attach it to a minion behind your enemy, attach it to an ally and run around enemies, attach it to an ally on the far side of your team and move so that it passes through your entire team, etc.)

There's nothing else quite like that in the game, an ability that targets something far away from your champion, and then does something to the zone between that target and you.

supernoob96May 15, 20151 votes

But you shouldn't trade thematics for actual coherence to the game.

RatbertMay 14, 20151 votes

Her playstyle was to bait people at low health. It was a coherent kit enough.

Ulquiorra995May 15, 20152 votes

Yeah, getting more power and baiting people as her HP drops was tox-

Tryndamere You were saying? Aatrox Oh hello there. Renekton Rawr. Volibear Come on and dive me. I dare you.

Ulquiorra995May 15, 20151 votes

Still, they did absolutely nothing to preserve her theme or personality. Look at some other reworks:

Sion - the most drastic one. Still a big bulky guy with an axe. Old shield, HP stacking and somewhat ultimate are preserved. Soraka - actually turned out to be much more fun and engaging as a support at the cost of solo lane potential. Identity as a healer is preserved. Xerath - still a long-ranged siege mage. Most abilities are more-or-less same. His lore got destroyed tho, but at least his theme remains. Skaner - better kit that still makes sense... buuuut his lore got destroyed too. By now it is a norm at Riot.

The REAL kick in the face? Riot actually went out to the community for most of these. Karma didn't even get a free week rotation so they see how people play her. Just 'fuck you guys, we are removing her.'

She has suffered from what I'd like to call Cassiopeia syndrome: Received changes that made her much less interesting and that noone really liked, ended up terrible and had to be pushed up to viability by sheer number buffs.

CatastropMay 15, 20154 votes

I just miss the shield damage and her fans....Sighher fans.

Vistha KaiMay 14, 20152 votes

They also killed her literally. Compare her old lore to the new one. Old Karma got killed.

KaipopMay 15, 20152 votes

Please bring my main, midlane Karma back. They are completely gutting her midlane yet she is one of the most balanced champions in the game. Please stop, Riot.

The SoulforgedMay 15, 20151 votes

Didn't play her much before, but played her on freeweeks before her update, and I have to say that she was a fun champ who suffered from not enough gold. Considering how the gold support items came out, it would have made Karma viable, and the replacement of Karma with Skarma would not have been needed. Her w did need work though.