Karma changes (with numbers)

Currently, Karma is a utility-mage similar to Lux and Orianna, who can play as a mage in a solo lane, or as a mage-support in bot lane. Let's talk about how the proposed changes will affect each of those roles.

Mage Karma: poke When playing as a mage, Karma tends to build heavy CDR along with AP and focus on poke and damage with her Q and RQ. These will not be affected much by the changes, except that if she is poking she will have her RQ up slightly faster in the mid-late game because of her buffed passive.

Mage Karma: damage combo In lane, her damage combo is usually to tether the enemy with W, shielding herself to absorb damage, and then landing a guaranteed RQ on her enemy if she lands the snare. With the changes, her damage output from this combo will not change, though she will shield herself for slightly less (10 points) if she does this combo late-game (after level 8, which is when she usually takes a second point in her shield.) The relative amount shielded will continue to decrease up to 40 points at level 13, but Karma isn't usually still doing her standard lane damage combo that late in the game.

Mage Karma: sustain combo Karma's other combo is her sustain combo, usually used against tougher opponents (e.g. if she is playing top), which is to shield herself, use her empowered W to heal herself, and then hit the enemy with a normal Q for extra damage. This is where the changes become really significant. Her damage output and healing is reduced dramatically.

Scenario 1: Karma is level 6, has 50 AP, 3 ranks in Q, one rank each in W and E, two ranks in R. She is also at 50% of her maximum health. I've also assumed that she gets in two autoattacks during her combo. Old damage output: 604 New damage output: 454.4 (75%) Old healing: 156 New healing: 91 (58%)

The new amount healed breaks even when Karma starts with 71% (with higher health percentages having the new version heal her for more), and goes down to 36% when she's at 20% health.

Scenario 2: Karma is level 11, has 300 AP, 5 ranks in Q, one rank in W, three ranks in E, and three ranks in R. She is also at 50% of her maximum health. I've also assumed that she gets in two autoattacks during her combo. Old damage output: 1251 New damage output: 888.6 (71%) Old healing: 254 New healing: 178 (70%)

With more AP, the amount healed at 50% health gets a little closer to the old values, though she needs 825 AP before the two values reach equality. At 300 AP, the new amount healed breaks even when Karma starts with 65% (with higher health percentages having the new version heal her for more), and goes down to 43% when she's at 20% health.

So, in solo lane scenarios, Karma's damage output is always significantly lower, and her amount healed is much lower unless she's healthy enough to not really need it.

Teamfights Things look a bit different in teamfights, where she gains a mini-Hecarim W, with somewhat less duration, which allows her to heal from damage dealt against a single enemy, and also provides her allies with an effective 20% lifesteal and spellvamp against that enemy. This could allow her to survive longer in a fight where she is being focused and her team is focusing the primary enemy that's attacking her. Her tether now also gives her teammates 10% bonus damage against the target enemy for 3-4 seconds - which is hard to calculate, but could be significant in teamfights despite the very short window. However, it's debatable if the 10% damage increase to her team will make up for the 30% damage that she herself lost from her combo.

Also in teamfights, her ability to protect her entire team with an AoE shield has got stronger:

AoE shield: Level 6: Old: 70 + (30% AP), New: 85 + (40% AP) Level 11: Old: 110 + (30% AP), New: 155 + (40% AP)

The primary shield target now gains a much stronger shield, however, this comes at the cost of no longer allowing her to damage enemies who are attacking the shield target.

Things I haven't mentioned: late-game, her shield cooldown is shorter, allowing her to shield and speed-boost herself or allies more often, though at a cost in shield strength.

Support Karma This is the role that these changes are actually aimed at. Her W now becomes a tool that slightly buffs her carry's damage in lane, while giving them limited sustain in the form of (effectively) a bonus 20% lifesteal and spellvamp, but only for 3-4 seconds. In exchange, she loses the ability to contribute damage alongside shielding her carry in close fights by using RE.

Jungle Karma Being able to tether monsters gives her a bit more damage output when jungling, and a little less damage taken by snaring mêlée monsters out of their attack range. She can also use her RW to heal herself slightly, though this probably won't be worthwhile unless she's really low on health, due to the massively reduced damage output and clear times she'll have when she does it (since the boosted W doesn't actually do any damage on its own, it only gives a 10% boost.)

One interesting point about the new W mechanic is that it will boost the damage and allow her to heal from her autoattacks, which might lead to us seeing tanky-AD Karma played instead of an AP mage, though the long cooldowns on Renewal and Mantra probably limit the viability of such a build.

Summary With these changes, solo-lane Karma has lost a massive amount of damage output and sustain. Top-lane Karma, who focuses more on Renewal, will be affected the most by the changes, while mid-lane Karma will just become much less safe while maintaining her poking power. Support Karma will trade damage output and the ability to sustain herself for the ability to buff her carry's damage output and to provide them with some minor sustain. Jungle Karma will be buffed. AD Karma-tanky might become a thing.