TL;DR at the bottom

As a Karma fan of 7 years, I'd like to talk about Tank Karma for a second. Because even though I enjoy the occasional off meta build, I personally find her to be atrocious. But let's look at what she does first.

Speedy Karmzales, Creator of Aneurysms

Put bluntly, Tank Karma works because of 3 things:

1. Her abilities are short and slow enemies, root them and speed up herself, easily kiting melee champions in her own AA range.
2. Iceborn Gauntlet, Shield Bash and Cleptomancy perfectly synergize with that abusive playstyle, not only adding damage, but also value to this death of a thousand stings style of laning
3. Mantra'd W. It scales waaayyyy to well with tank stats and nobody has yet been able to explain to me why.

Luckily Cleptomancy will be gone in Patch 9.23. There's a good chance that this will cause Tank Karma to topple of the cliff of viability back into the pit of cheesy jank, but I fear she might arise at any point. Because Tank Karma HAD been a thing before Cleptomancy was. In the end, it just adds value.

Let me quickly assure you that I am fan of having Karma in sololanes - especially toplane - because historically she has always had a place there. However, the current style feels incredibly unhealthy and abusive, depending on the matchup. My vision is to make Karma more viable in a healthy style, and I tend to call this "battlemage". Alongside other mages like Swain and Vlad I believe she could have a place up there, that focuses less on her basic attacks or item/rune-abuse. For that to happen, a few things need to happen.

What Do You Mean, She Has Mantra up again???

Let's talk some facts! With Tank Karma's core items (IG, Athenes, Ardent) at max level the following is true:

• Mantra has a CD of 19.8s
• Mantra's CD reduces by 4s per spell hit and 2s per AA
• W has a cooldown of 6.6s
• Hitting both parts of a W plus 2 AAs effectively allows you to mantra every W
• Mantra's and W's cooldown start when cast.

This means Karma can heal herself twice for 20% of her missing hp within 2s, root you for over 3,25s and then, not even 2s after you freed yourself, Karma has RW up again.

This is URF levels of stupid. And that's not even talking about what the heal does. Because look at this mess!

My Math's Teacher Told Me I'd Need This

If you are a normal human being, I am sorry for making you read all those numbers. For everyone else ( Tips Teemo Hat: M'Nerds! ), take a look at these simplified Karmas:

NUDE Karma (No worries, she is already 18!) that donated her income to Ionian orphans has [2000 base hp] and [40 base mr] which equals [2800 effective mr hp]. If she is at 20% of her max hp (550) and casts RW, she heals by 20% = 450 back up to 1000 effective mr hp.

MAGE Karma with [500 AP] on top of her [2000 base hp] and [40 base mr] and thus also [2800 effective mr hp]. If she is at 20% of her max hp (550) and casts RW, she heals by 25% = 550 back up to 1100 effective mr hp.

TANK Karma with only Spirit Visage on top of her base stats has [2500 hp] and [100mr] equalling [5000 effective mr hp]. If she is at 20% of her max hp (1000) and casts RW, *she heals by 20%1,3 = ~1000 back up to ~2.000 effective mr hp.

So here are your options:

• Without items you heal by 450
• With 12,5k worth of mage items you heal by 550
• With 2,8k worth of SV you heal by 1000

This of course is ignoring effective AR hp and true damage and runes and all that shizzazle, but it's just to prove a point. RW encourages building tank. EXTREMELY so. This also means whenever the heal on RW is somewhat reasonable on a Mage or Support Karma, on Tank Karma it's bound to be borderline broken, bonkers and baloneys.

Dat Heal and Dem Base Damages

I think there is no denying that lategame Karma has her mantra up SLIGHTLY too often and her heal is unreasonably high with tank stats. But again, I do think it should be possible to build Karma a bit tanky, so she can handle toplane, but with THIS kind of heal there is no point in NOT abusing it. As a solution I think Karma should have a FLAT heal that scales with AP and low health. Not actual health, not effective health, just being low. This would make the heal instantly more valuable for Mid and Support Karma, but still somewhat desireable for Top Karma, who can more easily guarantee the second heal, often doubling its effectiveness.

But there's another thing about Tank Karma.

Karma doesn't need damage items, because her base damages are pretty good. They ought to be, because Support Karma needs the damage in her kit, otherwise she does nothing but RE lategame (which tends to happen already). So any nerf to her base damages would gut Support Karma, the one lane Riot seems to actually care about her being in. So they awkwardly had to nerf the AP ratio on Q which felt just dumb and hit Mage Karma like a mercyless anime truck.

Buuuuut there could be another way!

In a recent rework suggestion I proposed having Karma scale with support stats. If heal/shielding power increased her magic damage by some percent, you could nerf her base damages without hurting support Karma. On the contrary, maybe even allowing her to have her damage stay relevant lategame. Additionally, it would open up new and unique buildpaths for her kit and bring her different lane roles a bit closer together.

So let's sum this up:

TL;DR

• Kleptomancy might be gone, but Tank Karma could arise again any patch.
• RW's heal ASKS you to build tank and is up way too often.
• RW should NOT have a %missinghp heal, but a flat+AP heal that scales with low hp
• If Karma's damage scaled with supp items, base damages could be nerfed, invalidating Tank Karma's damage, but allowing Support Karma's damage to stay relevant.
• Maybe this could replace the toxic Tank Karma with Battlemage Karma top.

Now I ask you:

What's your opinion on Tank Karma? Do you like my approach? Have you found a solution yourself? Do you think I missed something? Let me know in the comments!