_HEADS UP: If you do not care strongly for Karma or don't want to learn about her design history/future, please move along. This is a lot to read. Feel free to skip to the discussion on her skills at the bottom part and let us know in the comments which parts of Karma you want to keep and which one should be most likely be removed/changed. If you do NOT want Karma to be changed, let us know, but please read this post first! _

So, Karma is not going to be included in the upcoming mage-update mid year. This might come as a surprise to some, as the main concern of this update was to give mages more distinct roles in overlapping areas (no matter how healthy or unique their kits already felt by themselves). Karma does suffer arguably the most from it. Compared to other mages, who fight in a certain area for dominance, she doesn't even have an area. If "little reason to be picked over any other champion in a category" would be a competition, Karma would win multiple medals. She is a poke mage, but any poke mage pokes better. She is a support mage, but any support is more useful. She has a lot of damage for a support, but any damage support does more damage than her.... You get the picture.

So why didn't Riot adress her? One answer is, that she doesn't fall into the category they are focusing on this time (pick mages/sustained damage mages). The other answer comes as a question: Do they have a reason?

Does Karma even need change?

Yes and no. Karma is in this curious situation of falling short at everything, but being balanced nonetheless. She can win games, make some plays, has counter play to her and overall feels fair. Her shortcomings only really become apparant in higher levels of plays when her lack of specificity starts showing and her inability to thrive/carry in any area becomes a good reason to never pick her. But then again, in high level play the champion pool becomes smaller and smaller anyways and just because a champion isn't on "top" doesn't mean s/he isn't "good".

However this all was true before Riot tried adressing her over a year ago in the heavily debated 5.10 patch. Next to some quality of life changes, they once again tried improving on her mantra. Some people agree that this was a good change, and some heavily debate this. Essentially, the Karma-effect happened again: Whenever Riot tries to adress Karma, to give her a push into a certain direction, the community splits and falls into chaos.

This results in a particularly confusing situation for Riot, because they can not find out whether the changes did achieve what they intended, or if they did the opposite. I have never seen any coherent thread in which enough upvotes were collected to support an agreed upon opinion on her. At best, a thread breaks the 10 votes mark, and that's it.

Why is that?

Karma's problematic fanbase

As I said, Karma's fanbase is split. Extremely split. Which is weird, since it's already small anyways. But let me give you a short overview to what happened.

Old Karma (before her first rework) had a very unique kit. It was unappealing to most people because of some bland abilities and a design that didn't seem to put her anywhere. But eventually, some people did fall in love with her unique second resource system (Mantra). And as she wasn't forced to go anywhere, people who mained her became incredibly flexible and just played her wherever, adopting a playstyle that felt very personal. So even in the beginning Karma players were united by how different they were.

At this point, no matter what Riot would try to do, they would at least piss off some players. People who played her tanky would be pissed if she became a mage, people who played her support would be pissed if she lost too much utility for fighting power, etc... She did need a rework, that was for sure, but in attempting it, Riot played a losing game.

NOTE: This might be analogous to the upcoming Cass rework. It's really hard to find a good solution, if everyone asks for completely opposite stuff.

The thoughts behind her rework

Karma had two main problems; she felt unappealing because of how mantra gutted her other abilities and how she needed people to understand her kit to make full use of her speedup (W) and AoE heal (RQ). However, nobody understands a champion's kit they never see, so the spells ALWAYS underperformed. The solution to the latter problem was adressed by making them independent of other players. Ironically this problem would've solved itself if Karma just became more popular. Today's abilities, like Bard's cookies, Thresh's lantern, Kalista's ultimate, ... also need your allies to understand them propperly. But the meta was different back then, and so was Riot's design philosophy.

The problem with her Mantra was a bit more complex. Having it at level 1 meant, that its power had to be kept under control, to make laning against her bearable. Having TWO of them at level 1 gimped their allowed power to a point that they barely felt more impactful than other base abilities, whereas the non-mantra'd abilities felt even weaker. So they decided to remove one of those charges, to allow Karma to at least feel like having gamechanging moments. ######Full reasoning for the changes can still be found on her wiki site.

Very understandable, as you can see. And they had success! Karma stopped being a laughing stock ("Karma?Who?") for the community and her playerbase increased immediately. However, two problems did arise: First of all, her original fanbase felt betrayed, because so much of her thematic and character was scrapped (complex ult, lvl6 spells, tether mechanic, bait power,...) in order to appease the masses. She felt like a better champion, but like a worse Karma. Secondly the mantra'd abilities were asked to only feel better and were still available at lvl1.

As a result, mantra'd abilities only superficially appeared as ultimates, but not in value. For example, her RQ damage was ridiculous, but was kept in check because it was a colliding skillshot, that could have 2/3rds of its damage evaded. Additionally it was packed onto Karma's most damage dealing spell, to increase the illusion of dealing massive damage with ONE spell, when it actually was two. The stern politician Karma, that felt weaker than she actually was, was replaced by a shiny more mainstream mage, that had abilities that felt stronger, than they actually were.

This leads us to the next problem.

Perception of Karma's power

The average player perceives Karma as stronger, than she actually is, due to this behaviour. Only thinking, that most people tell you she is "okay" should then already indicate something about her actual state. On the bright side, Karma at least has some counterplay to her now, and Karma fans would finally not be ridiculed for picking her. So that's a plus!

As a downside, it made any critique of her playability in the boards instantly appear missinformed, because any complaint about her feels to the average player like somebody doesn't know what s/he is talking about. "I played against dozens of Karma's and they hit like a truck with RQ and are really useful with RE, and heal 40% of their hp with RW!!!!". The arguments of Karma players who try to make a quick controversial point usually drown in downvotes, whereas elaborate explanations are usually too long to be read by people who don't agree already anyways.

Add to that, that well meaning Karma players usually follow it up by a "rework suggestion", that goes against how 90% of the Karma players use or see her and you can see why the posts on the forum regarding Karma usually don't have a lot of positive votes. Most people don't care, those who know Karma from playing against her think it's missinformed and Karma fans can't agree with each other.

How Karma is meant to be played

This is probably one of her weirdest weaknesses. Karma needs a lot of mana, cdr, ap, penetration and tank stats to use all of her skills effectively. But not all skills profit from these equally and you can't get all of them. In the process Karma players usually focus on different parts of her kit to make it work for them. This sounds great in theory, as it makes her customizeable and adaptable, but this fantasy falls short. Because getting enough of one stat usually renders another part of her kit useless. But as Karma is all about her Mantra, it means that she needs to use her whole kit to actually perform well. Which no build allows her to.

The current most successful solution is to go glass cannon, sprint around with E on yourself and spam RQ. This is so far away from what she used to be and what she potentially could be, that it drives some Karma players insane and makes them spam the boards instead of playing her.

But what do they want? What can even be done?

How to change Karma?

I think Riot lost interest in touching Karma. They haven't found a good solution for what to do with Mantra yet, and whenever they touch her kit, the disparity in her community become stronger. If you don't know what you do, get shouted at no matter what you do and things appear allright anyways, why make the effort? In the end, there is enough to be done in Lol.

This point is understandable, even if it isn't acceptable for the Karma mains out there.... which in turn is understandable too. The only thing we can do, in the meantime, is try to focus on working together and brainstorming over what can be done. What identity she can receive, which abilities she needs and doesn't need, which ones are problematic. In the end, we must admit that some parts of her kit have to go, and some Karma players will miss those parts. The more the community can agree onto something, the more likely is it for Riot to be able to tackle this issue. And if they won't start this conversation, we can! I'll make a head start, but please join me in the comment section.

Karma's passive

I don't think I've seen a single Karma rework suggestion, in which it wasn't changed. Surprisingly there is the consensus, that this passive is underwhelming. It feels like it was intended as her ultimate's passive that was used as a placeholder for a real passive. Either way, if Karma gets touched again, it most certainly MUST include her passive. Any propper passive adds another aspect to a champion, that works with the whole kit and encourages a certain playstyle.

For example, her passive could be used to make her a potent jungler by simply making it interact with jungle monsters. The frequent mantra use in jungle would help her clearspeed, survivability and would allow her powerful early ganks. It would also be the first meta mage-support in the jungle, finally giving her her nieche. However, this is unlikely to happen; making Karma a jungler ignores how 99% of Karma's like to play . Putting aside, that it wouldn't work with her lore anyways, Karma's fanbase just can't handle yet another split.

Karma's Q

While the base version of this is a useful and certainly unique-enough spell, the mantra'd version is the real problem. You might enjoy chunking carries from afar as much as you like, but you must admit that it's bad design to pour 80% of a champion's damage into a long ranged poke burst spell that also slows.

Karma's W

This is the basespell, that is most frequently asked to be changed. Sometimes because people want the old, unique tether back, instead of the poor-man's-version of LeBlanc's tether. And sometimes.... You see, it just doesn't fit her character or kit. If Karma has one spell that asks her to be at pokerange and one that asks her to cuddle, then neither her, nor the enemies know where they are supposed to be when fighting.

This also sends the most mixed signals in terms of what to build. It wants Karma to be close, it asks her to be tanky. Especially since it has a casting time of 0.5s, using the heal in a clutch moment, when you are squishy, becomes nearly impossible. Surprisingly often you can see the mantra and W go on cooldown, but dying before getting the heal, feeling cheated by the game. Considering the frequency of ignite, morellos and the availability of executioners, the missing%hp heal becomes less and less impressive.

Overall, this spell fits Karma so badly, it almost certainly needs to go. It would be a pity, if Karma didn't have a tether, but I have seen a lot of interesting tether suggestions, that could replace it. Sharing damage is a common theme, but also generally the ability to tether to allies seems to be requested a lot. If this returns, we need to consider, that this shouldn't only profit duo-lane Karma, but also needs to have uses for solo-Karma.

Karma's E

So, this is currently the spell, that makes Karma viable as a support. The problem is, the mantra effect of this is basically a combination of talisman and locket. In terms of design, is it good that the only unique utility a champion brings is something, that most supports can buy anyways? They even fare considerably better (40% speed for 3s VS 60% speed for 1.5s // 345 AoE shield vs 205+0.4AP) and can be used on a support with a "real" ultimate.

The other issue is, that a lot of Karma fans miss her shieldbomb. It was a unique damage spell and part of her identity for 4 years. When removing it Riot argued, that it might become too obnoxious in teamfights, if it procd the improved passive too often. This made me wonder a bit; is it really a good design choice to remove a core identity of a champion to improve his power? Intuitively I would say no, but I am not a game designer after all.

Karma's R

Okay, real talk: Karma's mantra must change. Either what it does to the base abilities, at what frequency or with how many charges. We must admit, that this makes for a problematic early game and needs a fix. Either this is intended to make her lvl 1-6 her power window (what it barely does) and let her fall off purposely on lvl 6+, or we drastically decrease what her mantra'd abilites can do at lower levels (to even the curve). We could allow her abilities to level differently, not only in stats (like increasing explosion radius, longer tether ranges, etc.). We must admit, that making spells feel like ultimates, but not perform as some is like taking morphine; it fixes things only superficially. We must either embrace, that Karma will never have an ultimate (Jayce, Elise and Udyr might want to have a word here) or that it does perform like a tri-ultimate, that should come at a higher cost.

A dude on the EU boards once suggested - if you really want 2 charges back - one could allow Mantra to double charge abilities. So she would either cast normal mantra (40s cd) to enhance a spell with a different effect, or use two charges (80s cd) to create an ultimate level spell. Personally I think it's rather elegant, to both reintroduce some of Karma's complexity, but still allow her to perform "real" ultimates. However, it would make Karma VERY complex (this can be good or bad) and HARD to balance. Because not only do all mantra abilities have to be equally strong/useful, but also double mantra'd abilities need to compete with each other AND two single mantra'd abilities. It would throw Karma out of a balanced state, but undoubtedly in a more interesting one. Another thought I had : If this would be too strong for early game, you could let her unlock the second charge at lvl6. This would keep her unique feeling, but even her power curve compared to other champions.

Summing up

If you are still reading this, I must congratulate you on your patience and durability. You are the 1%, one of the real die-hards and deserve a pat on the back, inspiring applause or a hug. Feel free to use this coupon the next time we meet in person and tell me which you want to redeem.

Please let me know which abilities of Karma you want to stay at all cost, which ones should change, which ones should be removed entirely. Remember to keep it civil and respectful, and lets try to work on a consensus! Also please upvote if you want more people to join the discussion!

Thanks :)