Long read ahead: [TL;DR] at the bottom.

The 5.10 patch is one, that many Karma fans remember painfully, because it was a goodbye to one of her most iconic spells: the shieldbomb. Riot removed it, because they wanted to buff her passive and not make her overbearing, and increase the "contextual decision making" with her ultimate. I didn't like the changes when I saw them in the patchnotes, but tried giving it a chance. Sometimes things just look bad on paper, but work very well ingame. I usually agree with the changes Riot does too. However, after some months of playing her in various roles and with different builds, I realized, that I had been right. Riot failed Karma with this update. In this thread I will try to explain to you why.

What changed?

BUFFS: passive scales with levels, [W] has a better ratio, [RW] roots for longer, [RE] shields for slightly more CHANGES: [E] is more spammable at higher levels, [W] can target monsters now NERFS: [RW] and [RE] damage removed

Overall the changes seemed powerneutral, but the changes to her ultimate were bigger than they appeared. Karma was (and is) all about her Mantra. You can differentiate a great Karma player from a new one, by how well they decide what spell to enhance and when. Riot realized this, and thus wrote: "... a goal here was to differentiate Karma's contextual decision making when selecting an ability to Mantra (super root? mega shield?)"

Riot didn't provide the full numbers in the patchnotes, so I did the math, and came up with this:

---

	||**Old RE**| -> |**New RE**|

|:--|:--:|:--:|:--:| |Main Shield| 110-390 (+80%) | -> | 110-410 (+80%) | |AoE Shield| 30-150 (+30%) | --> | 55-205 (+40%) | |Damage| 60-300 (+60%) | -> | 0 |

---

	||**Old RW**| -> |**New RW**|

|:--|:--:|:--:|:--:| |Damage| 135-560 (+120%) | -> | 60-260 (+90%) | |Root| 1-2s | --> | 1.5-3.25 |

---

As you can see, both her spells were nerfed drastically. The improved values on her main target doesn't validate suddenly calling it a "mega shield". The damage nerf on her [RW] means MORE than HALF her base damage was gone, on top of some scaling. Add to that, that her [W]-[RQ] combo was buffed, and using any other combination suddenly could be considered foolish. Another thing is, when the [RW] bonus comes into effect. The damage was noticeable for the first 2s and always had some effect. The root increase only shows its benefit after 3-4seconds, and sometimes does nothing, if the tether breaks.

The new [RW] and [RE] also scale better with base levels than mantra levels. This reintroduces a problem, that Riot tried to remove with Karma's initial rework; they didn't want Mantra to only be useful on the abilities that you leveled. But guess what: Before 5.10 your AoE shield would always be useful, as it was depentant on your Mantra. Now it is based on your [E] strength. The extra damage in [RW] always kept it a viable option, whereas the increased root is too unsafe to apply for supp Karma and too useless for mid Karma. Casting it at lvl13 for example, if the tether wasn't leveled, gives you exactly 2.0s or root. An amount of utility, that Morgana provides at lvl1.

Talking about Morgana; She is the mage with the next comparable root, at 3.0s if her [Q] is maxed (possible at lvl9). Karma with her "mega root" can outdo her.... at level 16-18. Why? Because she needs to have both [R] and [W] maxed. But even then Morgana's [Q] is faster and safer to apply, while offering more damage and is on a lower cooldown. Or put bluntly: due to Karma's casting time (0.5), Karma's root will apply at around the time that Morgana's root already ticks out. Let that sink in.

My point is, that praising her changed [RW] and [RE] as "mega root" and "mega shield" felt like a slap to the face, after how much those two skills were nerfed. But that wasn't even the worst part.

Highlighting Karma's strengths by removing what she was good at

Sarcasm put aside; With [RW] and [RE] that much weaker and the [W]-[RQ] combo buffed, it was pretty clear what combo you would go for all the time. Before the patch you could spot a newbie Karma if they constantly used [RQ]. Now everybody does that.

I think, we can all agree that one of Karma's strengths is her flexibility. This was expressed in her Mantra: it was unique, in that it gave you three options of applying its damage:

• Long range [175+0.3 AP] burst, a hefty slow, while gambling for a second proc for your passive, and [350+0.6AP] extra damage.
• Short range [300+0.6AP] single target DoT, with nice self-heal.
• Conditional [300+0.6AP] AoE burst, that needs allies to target, but also provides nice shielding and speed to your team.

This gave her the tool for nearly every situation. However, since the damage also came in a bundle with some utility, and spells like [RE] also asked for clever placement, choosing the right one at the right time was tricky. You could always improve upon that and always find more situations in which using your mantra some seconds later or earlier in a different way would've been better.

But now? It's [RQ] all day in lane, which makes Karma boring and predictable. You can't bait Yasuo shields anymore and then hit him with a shieldbomb from behind. You can't outrade a fizz anymore, that knows that when he hears your mantra pop, he just needs to keep his pole ready.

And later on? You just need to think: More damage? More CC? More speed/shield? There is nothing more to it. Once you decided what you want, there is no cleverness in your execution anymore, no hard decision making on where to aim your [RE] shield. Just hit as many of your team as possible. Who cares?

To make this clear: I do NOT think that Karma is unbalanced or even weak. I do NOT care if she can't excell in any role or if she is never gonna be picked in LCS or somewhere. I do NOT care if she is underrated and never OP in any meta.

I just want her to have some depth again. I chose old Karma for her complexity and depth, even when virtually nobody liked her. Even after the rework I found enough "wise decision making" in her kit, to enjoy her. But contrary to the good design, Riot loves pouring into other champions (easy to learn, hard to master), they keep lowering Karma's skillceiling again and again. But at least they keep buffing her. [zombie-brand-mindblown]

TL;DR and Summary

Riot failed at "differentiating Karma's contextual decision making". They achieved the opposite. By nerfing [RW] and [RE] and buffing the [W]-[RQ] combo, they made her a one-trick-pony in lane. By making [RW] and [RE] scale mostly by base ability levels, they reduced her flexiblity. By removing the duality aspect from her [RW] and [RE] they made Karma's decision making bland. By removing the shieldbomb they robbed her of an iconic and unique ability.

Riot did prove again, that they have no idea what to do with Karma. I know, we Karma fans aren't united enough to send clear pictures what we want, so it isn't exactly easy for them, but man..... at least we can agree that cutting core parts out of a champion and making their playstyle more shallow is not the way to go.

If you agree please upvote, so Riot sees this. If you disagree.... feel free to downvote, but at least let me know why first!