@Live Game Update Team Restore Karma as a Battlemage, That You Took Away

Winterkill··15 votes·1,088 views

Many patches ago the Live Game Update team took away Karma's shield bomb and replaced it with one of the most bland and unthematic abilities in League of Legends. Players repeatedly told this team not to do and what did they do? They put it on her kit and then buffed it to the point that it was the only thing good on her kit. This shifted Karma's entire playstyle to that of nothing else than a support that sits in the back and presses one button the entire game. Players that think they know Karma and say the new mass shield is great on her, don't understand how Old Karma actually played and how much taking away this ability affected her presence as a mage. Karma is a mage. Karma is not a support that sits in the back and presses one button. She is a leader that is not afraid to get her hands dirty and protect herself and allies in the process. There is nothing stimulating and fun about playing a MAGE as a support in the backline and pressing only one button the entire game . . . and buying items to increase the effectiveness of that one button she presses the entire game.

Restore her shield bomb and balance it so it isn't so intimidating in lane . . . . I mean quite frankly . . . removing just the ability to shield minions was a nerf in itself. There were so many ways this team could balance this ability . . . and what did they do? They stripped it and removed her identity even more.

9 Comments

SilverSquid9 votes

My proposed "quick fix" for Karma. Changes are highlighted.

Passive - Gathering Fire

Karma reduces Mantra's cooldown by 2/2.5/3 seconds every time she damages an enemy champion with an ability, halved to 1 / 1.25 / 1.5 seconds when using basic attacks **or when affecting other allied champions with spells. This ability can not reduce the cooldown by more than 4/5/6s per spell. **

Q - Inner Flame

Unchanged

RQ - Souflare

Inner Flame travels (harmlessly) through enemies to target location to deal bonus magic damage and leave an area of effect that lasts 1.5 seconds, slowing enemies inside by 50%. The area detonates at the end of its duration, dealing magic damage to all enemies inside. If Soulflare does not hit a target, the area is created at maximum range.

W - Focused Resolve

Karma forms a tether between her and the target enemy champion or monster, dealing magic damage and granting true sight of them for the duration. If the target does not break the tether by moving out of range, it deals magic damage and they are rooted for a short time. If targetting an allied champion, instead of dealing damage Karma increases her and their resistances by 5/10/15/20/25/30 (+1 per 100AP) as long as the tether persists.

W - Renewal

Focused Resolve deals bonus magic damage and heals Karma for 40/80/120/160 (+1 per 20AP) increased by 3% for every 1% health she is missing, once upon being cast and once more upon rooting its target, with the root duration increased. **If targetting an ally, Karma gives up this heal to grant it to her ally instead. **

E - Inspire

Unchanged

RE - Defiance

Inspire overflows with energy, increasing the target's shield, dealing magic damage to surrounding enemies and shielding all allied champions near them for a fixed amount and a percentage of the damage dealt, while granting them a fixed bonus movement speed.

R - Mantra

Unchanged



There. Doesn't need a full VGU to make a battle enchanter. A real designer could probably do better, but it's the best I could come up with so far.

Explanations

P - Should interact with ALL of Karmas abilities, not just the offensive ones. I tried capping the passive to keep her in line.

Q - Unchanged RQ - Making it a targeted ground ability ensures Karma is not encouraged to fight at max range anymore, but thrives in close combat instead, even if minions are hugging her.

W - Ally function to offer "enchant-y" support qualities at expense of damage/CC. Note how this allows you to stay in battle next to your friends. RW - Health scaling that fits a mage and ally function that fits an enchanter. Removed annoying root because nobody likes it.

E - Unchanged RE - Shieldbomb again, rewarding hitting many players of both team and discouraging simply targetting your team all the time. This adds a well needed skillcheck to this ability and makes it useful for mage Karma.

R - Unchanged

######PS: Yes, those changes would also mean a lot of number changes to her values. I tried keeping it short and simple tho.

inplane1 votes

{quoted}

My proposed "quick fix" for Karma. Changes are highlighted.

Karma reduces Mantra's cooldown by 2/2.5/3 seconds every time she damages an enemy champion with an ability, halved to 1 / 1.25 / 1.5 seconds when using basic attacks **or when affecting other allied champions with spells. This ability can not reduce the cooldown by more than 4/5/6s per spell. **

Unchanged

Inner Flame travels (harmlessly) through enemies to target location to deal bonus magic damage and leave an area of effect that lasts 1.5 seconds, slowing enemies inside by 50%. The area detonates at the end of its duration, dealing magic damage to all enemies inside. If Soulflare does not hit a target, the area is created at maximum range.

Karma forms a tether between her and the target enemy champion or monster, dealing magic damage and granting true sight of them for the duration. If the target does not break the tether by moving out of range, it deals magic damage and they are rooted for a short time. If targetting an allied champion, instead of dealing damage Karma increases her and their resistances by 5/10/15/20/25/30 (+1 per 100AP) as long as the tether persists.

Focused Resolve deals bonus magic damage and heals Karma for 40/80/120/160 (+1 per 20AP) increased by 3% for every 1% health she is missing, once upon being cast and once more upon rooting its target, with the root duration increased. **If targetting an ally, Karma gives up this heal to grant it to her ally instead. **

Unchanged

Inspire overflows with energy, increasing the target's shield, dealing magic damage to surrounding enemies and shielding all allied champions near them for a fixed amount and a percentage of the damage dealt, while granting them a fixed bonus movement speed.

Unchanged



There. Doesn't need a full VGU to make a battle enchanter. A real designer could probably do better, but it's the best I could come up with so far.

P - Should interact with ALL of Karmas abilities, not just the offensive ones. I tried capping the passive to keep her in line.

Q - Unchanged RQ - Making it a targeted ground ability ensures Karma is not encouraged to fight at max range anymore, but thrives in close combat instead, even if minions are hugging her.

W - Ally function to offer "enchant-y" support qualities at expense of damage/CC. Note how this allows you to stay in battle next to your friends. RW - Health scaling that fits a mage and ally function that fits an enchanter. Removed annoying root because nobody likes it.

E - Unchanged RE - Shieldbomb again, rewarding hitting many players of both team and discouraging simply targetting your team all the time. This adds a well needed skillcheck to this ability and makes it useful for mage Karma.

R - Unchanged

######PS: Yes, those changes would also mean a lot of number changes to her values. I tried keeping it short and simple tho.

I really like how you changed Soulflare to be more situational so it wont be her end-all-be-all damage option. Would definitely make her more interesting. I think Focused Resolve should have better values for the ally buff. 5 Armour and MR at Rank 1 is kind of underwhelming. Though I can see why it is like that for balancing purposes. Defiance's explosion radius could also be increased by a little bit to accommodate her AA range. It feels quite small at the moment.

SilverSquid3 votes

As I said, values need to be changed. I took Orianna's E resistance values. I thought that her [W+E] shield/resistance + Aoe movement would compare to Karma's [W+E] double resistance + single target shield/speed. I might be off tho.

Defiance was okay when it could target minions, which increased the effective range by a lot. If it is champion only, the range might in fact be too small. Again; testing required.

IxtaliKing2 votes

This actually needs it's own thread. Does what it says on the tin, quick fix. If they added her twin dragons vfx to her RQ and her shield animation from the client, they could hold off on a full VGU for Karma almost indefinitely.

Props to you, as always xD.

Swarovsko1 votes

Sorry but she doesn't need a "quick fix". She has so much potential and is so wasted right now. She deserves a full VGU, I don't care if other champions deserve it too, Karma has been ignored for 4 years and she will probably be ignored this year too. I don't want a quick fix, I want to play a REAL battlemage. Riot could do so much with Karma (for example, why do her twin dragons are just a decoration on her back? What if they were part of her kit?). Your ideas are cool but she deserves more than a "quick fix".

SilverSquid3 votes

The chances of her getting a VGU within the next 4 year is nearly nonexistent Do you know how much some board members would rage if she got a second one before their champion even got their first?

But I do agree that she has a lot of wasted potential.

Karma has been ignored for 4 years

I don't know why people keep repeating that. She had her rework in March 2013 She had her update in May 2015 She had 5 patches that targeted her as an individual champion (not a group) since then. That is one change every ~4 months, with an average of 2-4 weeks of PBE time per change. She also received 2 skins in the meantime (won't comment on the quality), which averages 1 skin/year which is rather average.

Sure Riot fucks up the communication with her community, but this does not feel like "ignoring" to me.

I don't want a quick fix, I want to play a REAL battlemage.

Realistically speaking, it's the only thing we can hope for in a long time. It's not that I wouldn't want more (check my Twin Dragon Rework for what I truly want), but I don't expect more... for now

why do her twin dragons are just a decoration on her back? What if they were part of her kit?

I assume for the same reason they banked Ao Shin for so long. Because they weren't happy with the animation of long apendages. Only recently they managed to do them properly, which is why Aurelion Sol could be released.

Swarovsko1 votes

Your post about the twin dragons is lit. I really like it, good job! By the way in my honest opinion Karma has been treated very poorly by Riot. Sure, they did small changes ecc on her, but I think Riot still ignored her. Ryze had 38272867823 reworks and Karma had... small changes. Like "See, we actually care about Karma :D we removed her bombshield, now stop complaining". Karma hasn't received the attention she really deserves.

SilverSquid3 votes

Thank you my friend, I am glad you like it!

Karma hasn't received the attention she really deserves

It's hard to disagree with that.

She keeps getting small attention by people who don't seem to understand what she needs. But she gets some. I swore myself to only ever use the best arguments I can find, and "she is getting ignored" doesn't seem like one. Even if I can clearly see where that argument is coming from.

IxtaliKing5 votes

This "scaling supprt" direction for Karma just isn't satisfactory. Karma has nothing unique or special to offer as a support, we all know that when Karma is strong she invalidates other supports (mostly Lulu). Personally I feel as if that's a good reason for her to be primarily balanced around mid, but she won't be good enough mid unless she has damage options. That's where her shieldbomb and an updated tether mechanic (with ally functionality) come in.

I think if Karma were to be a better mage she'd be much more fun, interesting and interactive as a support, and could be strong without invalidating other Enchanters. She should have never lost her damage focus or had her team synergy diluted to just an AoE shield and ms boost. But hey, that's what happens when you let people work on a champ they don't know anything about.

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