Analysis of Karma's PBE changes and suggestions

Howdy! Karma has been my main since I discovered her 4 years ago (after her rework) and I am happy that Riot is looking for ways to make her more viable in the current meta. She is a Jack-of-all-trades that can be on any role except ADC, without being really good on what she does, yet her kit allows her to survive when other mages can't and make some nice outplays thanks to her constant poke and low cooldowns.

Yet, I am seeing the changes on PBE and I can feel that Riot is missing a great opportunity to fix some Karma issues that keeps her from being from being a decent Artillery Mage and worries me about her role as a team.

What Riot wants to fix: • Compared to the newer Champions, Karma lacks a unique feature that makes her stand on her own. • Players doesn't feel Mantra doesn't give enough choices.

After knowing the upcoming changes, I have some feedback that may be useful. Let me start with:

Gathering Fire > NEW PASSIVE EFFECT - KINDLED SPIRIT: Karma gains a charge every 7 seconds, up to a maximum of 3 charges. Karma's abilities and basic attacks against enemy champions and large monsters consume a charge to reduce Mantra Mantra's cooldown by 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 (based on Mantra Mantra's rank) seconds.

This is what interest me most about the upcoming changes. By using stacks, she won’t be unable to have multiple mantras during a teamfight, as she must wait 7 seconds for another charge. On the other side, with 3 stacks, full CDR at Mantra’s max level, she will be able to use 2 consecutive Mantras in a 1v1 fight; which is pretty cool. One of the disadvantages of Karma is to decide if you want to deal more damage or heal during a trade, and this can solve it.

Soulflare >Bonus damage increased to 35 / 105 / 175 / 245 from 25 / 75 / 125 / 175. >Bonus damage AP ratio increased to 45% AP from 30% AP. >Detonation base damage reduced to 25 / 110 / 195 / 280 from 35 / 140 / 245 / 350. >Detonation AP ratio reduced to 45% AP from 60% AP.

What Riot wants to solve: Making Karma being able to poke better, by giving more power to the initial damage, while reducing the detonation damage to compensate.

What it doesn’t fix: The main issue of Karma as an Artillery Mage is that unlike most mages, she only has her Q to deal damage. She uses Q to poke, Q to farm, Q to jungle, Q to kill. Soulflare helps her to do the same but with more efficiency, R+Q also helps her to reach the enemy a bit further, to jungle faster and to farm minions easier.

Yet, there is a problem when she wants to trade. While her W also deals damage, most of her damage relies on Q, yet it can be a bit frustrating when minions block her way to poke. On lane, I think it’s ok, as she needs Q to farm, and also because good Karma players rely on the minion position to farm and poke the opponent at the same time thanks to its small AoE. It’s a fun experience that requires some skill and movement prediction. The issue happens in teamfights, where those minions block you from poking. It’s very frustrating when your R+Q, your only source of poke damage, gets blocked by a minion during a tower standoff.

I don’t think the PBE changes solve this issue. Also, it feels Riot doesn’t know what to do with her detonation damage, as they keep making it less and less important. How to fix this? Here are my suggestions:

1. Make Soulflare to don’t hit on minions but allow players to detonate it by pressing Q during the cast. Also, buff the impact damage a bit more and remove the detonation damage. Soulflare will just leave a slow AoE area for a brief time after impact. This will allow Karma players to poke with it in an efficient way, while also help her to farm with it if she wants to. Just like Velkoz’s Q, this can also help Karma players to damage opponents when she slightly misses the trajectory of her Q, although by the projectile max distance and AoE range, it shouldn’t allow Karma to abuse it like VelKoz.

2. Make Soulflare a skillshot AoE ability, like VelKoz’s E; where Karma decides the area where the Soulflare will land, immediately marking such area with a circle that will slow enemies; after a brief moment it detonates once. This will allow Karma to use it to poke and to farm just like always but giving her more freedom of how to do it. Also, will allow opponents to evade the AoE by dashing, but the slow shouldn’t allow to just walk away from it if they are right at the center of the AoE.

Spirit Bond >Cooldown increased to 16 seconds from 12. >Mana cost increased to 70 at all ranks from 50 / 55 / 60 / 65 / 70. >Base damage per tick increased to 50 / 75 / 100 / 125 / 150 from 30 / 55 / 80 / 105 / 130. >AP ratio per tick increased to 60% AP from 45% AP. >NEW EFFECT: Can now target an allied champion to reduce each of their basic ability cooldowns up to 10 seconds over the duration of the tether.

What Riot wants to fix: Give Karma an unique feature to make her stand out.

I think these changes are great. While it costs more at early levels, it deals mode damage and the AP ratio is increased. This should allow her to harass better if she is on the mid or top lane, while will make her clear the jungle a bit faster.

Unlike other players, I don’t see how this can force her into a support position. On the mid/top lane, Karma now has to choose what is better for a gank, and it can be really helpful for the jungle. As a support, giving your ADC more CDR should be balanced around your ADC’s mana, except for…

>NEW EFFECT: MANTRA - HARMONY Reduces the target allied champion's basic ability cooldowns by an additional 20 / 30 / 40 / 50 seconds and also restores 20% of their maximum mana.

Oh my god… This scares me. Not because it may be OP (it kinda does), but because this forces Karma to be a mana battery for your team. I fear that I won’t be able to use a Soulflare or Defiance again as a support. I fear that people will harass me because they want mana. I don’t want to experience the day that I get blamed by losing a teamfight just because I didn’t gave mana to the carry. Please, leave Mantra to Karma. Mantra is her unique feature that allows her to stand out because she can survive an assassin all-in with Renewal, she can help her teammates to escape with Defiance, or to deal that small burst to kill the running opponent. Please, don’t force us to use Mantra to fill everyone’s mana bars. Remove this inmediately.

Suggestion: Allow Karma to self-heal by using Renewall on an ally. This should allow her to stay in-play longer. By the nature of Renewall, this shouldn’t allow Karma to be on full HP, but to be around 80% HP. I think this is balanced.

>Inspire >Base shield strength increased to 75 / 100 / 125 / 150 / 175 from 70 / 95 / 120 / 145 / 170. >Shield AP ratio increased to 55% AP from 50% AP. >Bonus movement speed bonus reduced to 35 / 40 / 45 / 50 / 55% from 40 / 45 / 50 / 55 / 60%. >Defiance >Shield percentage changed to (75% split across all nearby allied champions) from (30% to all nearby allied champions). >Bonus movement speed changed to (75% split across all nearby allied champions) from (100% to all nearby allied champions).

What Riot wants to fix: Remove the OP features of her shield, while making R+E more useful in a teamfight. I think these changes are good and necessary. I don’t have issues with these changes.

Thanks for reading me and thanks for your feedback. I really like that Riot acknowledges that Karma is more than a support and are trying to make her viable no matter the lane. Please take this advice from this humble Karma player.

And please, don’t make Karma a mana battery. Remember Soraka.