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Help with Karma "being everywhere"

Jaice··3 votes·1,602 views

So I am currently in gold 5, began my LoL career in Silver. I haven't been playing that long, and my main is Karma mid. I have really been focusing on learning the ins and outs (read: counterplays and what not) of Karma and what I need to do differently against each champ I mid against and each comp. One of my issues at the moment seems to be I can't be enough places at once. I'm a utility mage with great burst when I farm....but that is just it...I need to farm. So for instance when I go up against a TF who is constantly TP'ing bot, unless I take Tele, I can never match his map coverage. If I take tele, my kill ability severely suffers given ignite is a great finisher when I just can't complete that last bit of dmg from an Ultimate Q, or kite from ultimate W. I know I have great tools that carry me into the late game by assisting my team (speeding them up, snaring, and constant Q poke), even if I don't scale as hard as some of the other great AP mids, (ziggs, syndra,gragas,etc) but Karma also offers things that those champions do not, and we all know that a team game is much more than "how many kills you get". So I don't focus on that part too much. What I am having trouble specifically dealing with is that in times when Bot or top needs help and I want to help them, my push ability is abysmal and I cannot seem to "make the time" to gank for my team mates as much as I would like because said champions will just clear the lane and disappear. Well If I just follow them , my tower is being be down and it will happen over and over and over. So even if I'm consistently winning trades in lane and killing them, once they force me to my tower multiple times I seem pretty screwed to help anyone else. I rarely out right lose mid(but no one is perfect), but either my bot lane gets destroyed and then I end up with the enemy Bot,jungler and mid taking down my tower, and there isn't much I can do to stop it, so when they do disappear I try to push as hard as possible and take their tower while they destroy bot/top. However, if I'd have had more presence in their lane, perhaps they wouldn't have lost so hard. Granted, I typically expect the jungler to assist in this department, but when you have a pantheon or TF who can tele everywhere, it makes it difficult for me to support them in the early stages like I would like because the enemy jungler will also be involved and its either a constant 2v3 top, or 3v2 bot.

So I guess my question is, are there certain champions you face mid that you take Tele against and forgo ignite? Is there a better build path I can take to maybe sacrifice a bit of my defensive capabilities for myself in order to push better (while making sure I'm not being rekt over and over). Am I just doing it wrong? Feel free to look up my stats and whatnot, I'm not saying I never make mistakes because of course I do. And sometimes I outright lose mid, but sometimes I feel I lost the game for us simply because I couldn't be involved in areas I wanted to be. Thanks for your responses!

3 Comments

clickhead3 votes

If you are playing Karma mid and are focusing on utility and helping your team and don't care about kills that much, teleport instead of ignite is a very good idea. She can poke from afar and is usually pretty safe in lane so as long as you play safe you won't suffer that much from not having ignite.

Kurado2 votes

If you need to be everywhere at once you're probably not putting enough pressure on the map. You're a lane bully with a strong early game and you should make it so that the opponents have to be everywhere at once. Try and focus on destroying turrets more. If you push down mid hard it doesn't matter that you can't follow a TF as fast, because the TF has to come to you or he'll lose his turret while you ping your bot lane to play passive for a bit. Once you destroyed the turret you can push out the lane and help bot get a turret or a dragon or help your jungler invade their jungle now that you have more map control.

Edit: Checked your builds. I wouldn't build rylais on Karma. You already slow nicely and the cumulative effect isn't that big and has diminishing returns. I'd just go for items like Athenes, Deathcap, Voidstaff, Zonya. (prioritize AP, CDR, Magic pen). If you do end up building a tank item it depend on the opponents team of course, but generally if you go for a single tank item a randuins or banshees are decent choices. Frozen heart is bad if as a single tank item on a non melee kiting champion.

NoMonku1 votes

I don't think you're doing anything wrong unless for some reason you aren't maxing Q for waveclear. Your problem seems more like you're just being pushed out by people who have better waveclear then you and they go to roam before you can clear. In TF's case, that's basically his specialty, so your only real counter is to ward the top/bot paths from mid and ping MIA's when he leaves your sight or you see him back. If your team plays aggressive DESPITE you telling them he has tele up, well there isn't much you can do. The main way to prevent the worst is to ward and let them know they are coming. As long as your teammates back off and you push into their tower, its your win as they wasted time roaming and didn't gain any gold/xp from doing it. If you're Karma, though, you shouldn't lose in most cases against champions roaming outside of those with good mobility and waveclear like TF/Jayce, so you shouldn't worry too much. Just ward up and call your MIA's and hope your teammates back off. Knowing the direction they are going is usually more beneficial then seeing them on a ward, so you can try that too if you don't want to ward.

Also since you don't really seem to care for kills, unless you're going against a Mundo and don't want to get Morello's and/or no one else takes ignite, you should probably be taking Exhaust or TP instead. To me it feels like your preferred playstyle is to just push out your lane opponent and deny, which can work, but since you aren't actually aiming to get the kill, taking ignite is a wasted SS.

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