Karma, Change Discussion

Karma is my all time favorite champion hands down. I don't want to see her ruined by shortsighted changes to her kit, which has driven me to post for the first time ever.

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Poke is the greatest ally.

Karma needs a modification that maintains her current identity. These modifications should not remove any of her current play/build options, but instead should enhance the tactical choices of her ability usage, open up build choices, and further allow her to be competitive in whichever role she is filling(usually mid lane or support).

Karma is atypical as a champion in that her ultimate's power is distributed throughout her three abilities. The dynamics of her play arise from choosing which of the three augments to use during an encounter. This mechanic along with her baseline abilities creates a champion who possesses strengths in kiting, baiting, engaging, poke damage, and psuedo-tanking(not Sejuani but she can take some heat). She is weak in terms of mana dependency, lower ap scaling, poor team support utility(relative to other supports), poor finishing ability, vulnerability to slows(no dash), and dependency on her ultimate(note this is both good and bad).

Given strengths and weaknesses, the question becomes where/what are the problems Karma experiences?

I. The Problems Sup: As a support karma relies heavily on her poking, kiting, and baiting ability. Karma's problem is that the payout on proper/effective Karma play is much lower than the payout of her competition.

-Firstly, Karma can poke for 10 minutes dodging blitz grabs beautifully, but one single grab landed and all her poke is matched or worthless. In short, one grab, hook, stunlock, snare etc is worth 5+ pokes. -Secondly her snare is short range, and you have to stay close. Again the payout of a good snare is often minimal because of the high risk of sticking it and its short duration. This is worsened by the prevalence of dash abilities that allow for immediate escape of the tether in lane. -Thirdly, effective poking for Karma requires the use of lots of mana. Mana runs out exceedingly quickly. -Fourthly, she is dependent on the long CD of her ult to deliver her major pokes, a much longer CD than the counterpart harass of most other supports.

Many other supports have abilities centered around lengthy or strong isolation while Karma is poke based. (Braum slow 80%, Morgana long range snare 2-3 seconds, lux long range snare 1-2 seconds, leona snare stun combo, blitzcrank grab/knock-up, and thresh hook/flay combo). Compared these abilities to Karma's 25% slow Q, her W with a 2 second delay chasing the enemy before it activates followed by only 1-2 second duration. The point being that her abilities have to compete with these abilities mentioned and in several key ways they do not presently do that..

Mid: As a mid lane karma pokes and kites her way to victory, and, as with support role, her payout on ability exchanges is often low, but not as bad as support.

-Firstly, she essentially has only one damage ability while all other mid lanes have multiple abilities. -Secondly, She has lower than average mid lane ap ratios(her ult provides extra, but other champs get ults). -Thirdly, she is susceptible to slows(no dash) making her an easy target for ganks. -Fourthly, she is ultimate dependent and does not gain a big power spike and level 6 that other mid lane champions get.

Though her damage is good early, her shortcoming is her lack of effective finishing moves in the mid and late game, like her burstier champion counterparts (eg syndra). This makes her a less desirable carry option.

II. The goal of a change When considering champion alterations the most important factor is enjoyment. If the champion is not fun people will not play them. Karma as she stands is mechanically fun to play, and, to a certain extent, fun to play against. She has a unique kit that is aggressive and lively through the laning phase, and later on she shifts into a “hunt em down” sort of play style.
Also, winning is fun, and it is no fun if you always lose. All the same, it is worth pointing out that winning is not the only source of fun.

Fun parts of Karma’s current kit include: For playing as Karma -Landing snares and surviving. -Landing hard hitting poke -Chasing with shield speed boost -escaping with shield speed boost -Shielding the entire team during team fights to quickly engage or retreat -Chasing someone slowing and snaring them in the jungle while your team collapses

playing against karma -Successfully dodging her skill shots -Escaping her snare before it sticks -Escaping from a pursuing Karma -Baiting karma and her team by taking advantage of her ability to chase -bursting her down when she tries to bait

Not so fun parts of karma’s kit -moving in to snare and having no backup/no one follow -dash based champions nullifying your kiting -having people dash out of your snare -having your poke out healed by an opponent

III. Changes worth making to promote fun on both sides of the field. A. The slightly reduced CD on mantra from her passive is awesome. Great change, promotes the poky aggressive play style she currently has.

B. Just a funny note, for a brief period Karma’s snare was 4 seconds long on the PBE, just wow. They have also toyed with the idea of making the Mantra+Snare heal allies and increase damage or even increase snare duration.

C. The reduced mantra CD again is great, but her other changes on live are not much of a step up. Her snare now has a higher base ap ratio. Her mantra snare now grants bonus duration, does less damage.
Her mantra shield provides a heavier shield but does no damage.

These changes are poorly thought out and undermine Karma’s core identity and choices. Her choices frequently revolve around ability timing/ult management, placing abilities at the right target/location, and which effect on the ulted ability to use. (eg, Shield for survival or shield to get the final damage to kill a fleeing target.) Pulling these abilities into 3 basic option mega-snare, mega-shield, or power shot is actually a reduction in karma play choices effectively making her more boring.

Most important note, removing the self heal from karma’s kit is not a realistic option. This change eliminates her ability to engage, chase recklessly, and bait. The self heal must be kept because it allows karma to do many of the things that are enjoyable while playing her.

Instead I propose providing her kit with more utility in its base effects.

Step 1: Increase the maximum duration at all ranks by .25 seconds to make it more competitive with other abilities in its class.(morg 1-3, lux 1-2, karma 1.25-2.25)
--This is mostly a benefit to support karma to help allies secure kills, but would also aid kiting ever so slightly.

Step 2: For the duration of the tether and snare on the regular W, heal the nearest ally for an amount equal 20% of the damage dealt to Karma while the spell is active.. --Mad flavor, damage causing healing, Karma, need I say more? --This opens up the option of using the tether for heals not just snares.
--This is also an attractive option because the base ap ratio is not insane and does not make her a massively more oppressive lane opponent. Karma is not and should not be a burst champion. --Thirdly, this matches up with the ulted snare healing karma for 20% of missing life. The extra hp she gains now translates into some extra healing for allies if she takes damage during this period.

Step 3: Reduce the mana cost of all ranks of her Q by 5. --Lets her continue her aggressive poke playstyle and be more competitive in both mid and bot lanes. This will make her slightly more oppressive without making her powershot damage off the chart.

D. Overall effect. Sup: -The slightly longer snare will enable the laning partner to deal a bit of extra damage.
-The healing effect will make trades less effective for the opponent while still leaving them risky for Karma. -The healing effect will also act as an engage tool, promoting allies to join in and pursue enemies.(more flavor ionian leader against enemies) -The lessened mana cost on the Q will allow her to remain competitive in lane for longer.

Mid: -The reduced mana cost on her Q and more frequent ults will slightly empower her poke and finishing power without pushing her too far. -The slightly longer snare grants her a small amount of increased escape, without removing the vulnerability to dashes and slows all together.

To sum things up, these changes will leave karma similarly vulnerable in her weak areas while allowing her to further excel at what she presently does best, poke, kite, and chase. With her identity intact, armed with these improved and interesting features Karma’s presence will further enhance the tactical depth with which her allies, adversaries, and Karma herself, behave and interact on the battlefield.