A few things we can learn from the current Karma changes

With how everyone is discussing about the Karma 6.6 proposed changes, I figured I'd take a moment to review some changes Karma has underwent over the patches she was involved in. Whether you like, love or hate Karma, the following two paragraphs is a thing you need to be aware of.

1. This is Karma's 8th buff in her patch history, including minor stuffs like Move Speed/Armor adjustment, Base Mana Regen & QoL changes. Minor stuffs excluded, Karma received her 6th buff (5.10 included, though for some this is a straight up nerf). Historically, this makes her the most buffed champion in the entire League history.

2. On the other hand, Old Karma had only received two buffs before being perceived as balanced for most parts. Nope, we're not talking about functionality or being good or bad. The idea that's being conveyed to players is that supercharging values does not make a better champion, but history is about to repeat itself.

3. The next issue I want to raise is your prioritized list. Regardless of whether there are champions higher on the update list, important for reworks, or that you have 100+ champions to balance, every champion is important, and its your duty and responsibility to properly manage these prioritized list. Sounds harsh, but that's the natural truth. Imagine yourself as a Human Resources department, and the champions as your performing staffs. That's how most Human Resources department roll these days, 1 person can very well be monitoring 50-100 people in a company, that's the average ratio - 1:100 and this is a real life example. What does this say about the balance team? The current group of people needs to be more efficient at their job.

4. An obvious issue to discuss on hand is communication between game developers and the community. This has been a very, very, very serious ongoing issue that is not looked upon heavily by Riot. Patch 5.10 was meant to provide Karma with the late game fantasy, yet here we are at soon-to-be Patch 6.6 where we're still trying to make Karma's late game fantasy come true. Where have the changes the gone wrong? There was a lack in communication and direction, but the changes will still roll along. At the end of the game, we get a good ol-fashioned "If these changes upset you, I understand and I can only apologize.", "We've learned from X incident, and we hope to achieve a better outcome/community goal."

5. Lastly, a failed rework. These three words speak a lot. As much as I want to avoid to discussing about reworks, there is an important issue on the hand. When the rework came out and many players felt it was a failure, you did not address the issue adequately, instead choosing to shove things aside. Over the span of three years, it has snowballed in to something serious and bigger, which is now something you as the balance team is struggling to come out from. The lesson here was that you failed to address a matter that was small to begin with, and allowed it to turn in to an accumulated list of problems.

6. I've been monitoring feedback from a few different sources since the PBE changes have been rolled out. Your current changes baffles a lot of players, why is it that a 80% shield getting ramped up to 110%? We understand it's for late game purposes but as if 80% is not high enough, you are now changing things to 110%. For all intents and purposes, this change does not bode well with a lot of players.

If supercharging values is your goal of keeping Karma relevant and functional in the meta as others have said, then my response to you will be it does not solve the problems on hand - bland, general, lack of distinction. Whether or not you plan to tackle the supportive mages list, or if Karma is ever going to be included in said list, I implore you to stop your nonsense with the subclass categorizations & updates and look at at the bigger picture. There is a champion in need of dire attention (subclass or no class, distinctive or indistinctive, niche or strategic), in the midst of prioritized reworks such as Taric, Yorick and Warwick or your BIG 6 update list.

The balance team has landed themselves in a very hot spot with Karma players at the moment, and this is something you can't deny. Every changes in the patch concerning Karma have resulted in more rework threads popping up and it's not a favorable sign on your end. In between here and there, a player remembers her and puts up a thread about her once more.

What do you gain out of opening Karma's case file? You resolve a lot of accumulated problems and put an end to the snowballing of troubles. Judging from the responses, players no longer want to wait for the day you tackle Supportive Mages in an update. Players want it as soon as possible, because its important and it warrants a code red.

My next proposal to you, the Balance Team; is to provide a reply. If you wish to use internal data to present, by all means, put it out there. I'd like to point out that your silence isn't well received by us, and we'd very much like to hear you (Meddler or the whole team) to start speaking up.