Karma's niche as a support

Raptor6789·12/25/2014, 8:59:37 PM·1 votes·1,154 views

Compared to today's prominent supports such as Janna, Nami, Braum, and Thresh, Karma doesn't have nearly the same CC or peel as the others. So, why pick her?

I think her niche lies in her movement speed boost, her E. This makes Karma a more mobility-focused support that fills the same role as Sivir, allowing teams to work when their only engagement consists of running up to the enemy. Still, the existence of Talisman and the new Righteous Glory items make even that niche not so unique to Karma.

So what do you think? Should Karma receive buffs to her E that make her a more unique pick, or is she fine right now?

11 Comments

disregardable12/25/2014, 9:06:39 PM1 votes

Karma doesn't have a niche. She's a spamming, high damage AP support, just like Lux or Annie.

flibitydoo12/26/2014, 4:35:31 AM1 votes

She has a pretty big niche in that she's a very strong poke champion whose the goddess of the chase.

In terms of burst and poke damage in the laning phase, not much really nukes as hard as a mantra Q at level 1.

All of her abilities when cast modify movement in some way (slow, snare, movespeed buff, and mantra merely amplifies these effects) so she's amazing at both running away and chasing (with her team).

I feel like shes fine as is.

Muchashca12/26/2014, 6:06:14 AM1 votes

Karma brings a lot to the table, and her most effective elements are usually the less appreciated ones. Her shield, when used correctly, mitigates a ton of damage. If you're good with it, her shield is more effective than having a heal support and will always put your lane's hp above theirs.

Karma is also an amazing duelist, especially if you're able to kite well. Using mantra W, Karma can win a 1v1 duel against nearly all of the other champs in the game.

Another important aspect is that she's significantly more survivable than people expect her to be. Using mantra W or E in a teamfight while being focused makes a huge difference, because the other team uses valuable skills and time failing to kill you.

Basically, Karma is a high-utility support with good poke. She has six skills, so using them correctly is what makes a person succeed or fail with her.

Lstrike12/26/2014, 10:56:51 AM1 votes

No reliable CC... No reliable sustain.. Good in bronze/silver.. falls off in higher tiers.

CoolKnightST12/26/2014, 11:58:00 AM1 votes

Karma is a poke oriënted carry support. Been able to be a lane bully in the early game while still been able to become a secondary APC in the lategame. What makes Karma so unique compaired to other carry supports like Annie Zyra Fiddlesticks is that her carry style is poke oriënted while her friends tend to focus more on teamfighting. Karma excels in zoning her enemies away from her & punishing the enemies that tend to cc her carry.

Even if she's poke oriënted she's not useless in teamfights and has a lot of outplay potentional. It's really a pick that is recommanded between silver till plat. It's just a ballanced support that will always have something todo.

The reason why she's more situational in higher brackets of play is because she doesn't have direct cc. She needs time to channel her abilities what can make it difficult to prevent a Leblanc from oneshotting your carry. In these brackets she's more used in early & poke comps to want to get an advantage early on.

I wouldn't say she's strong but also I wouldn't say she's weak. A support in her position is ballanced despite the only traditional support below her is Zilean .

If she still needs a buff tho than it would probaly be one of these 2 things:

Mantra Cooldown to "40 / 37 / 34 / 31" from "45 / 42 / 39 / 36".
Inspire Mana Cost to "60 / 65 / 70 / 75 / 80 Mana" from "60 / 70 / 80 / 90 / 100 Mana".

She tend to become pretty mana hungry even with item 3092 & item 3165 mostly between maxing your Q & E.

AccountaBilabudy12/26/2014, 3:29:12 PM1 votes

just revert her to old karma. shield was better. healing was better. damage was better. granted old W sucked but who cares.

Ale non è male12/27/2014, 12:44:36 PM1 votes

Poke and zone enemies with your Q to allow your Adc to win lane, shield and MS boost to make people targeted from the enemy survive/escape, allowing the rest of your team to kill the enemy team that has wasted a lot of resources to take out a target. Get an even bigger damage on empowered Q which becomes an even better zoning tool because of the detonation damage or extend the shield to the whole team on the empowered E This is Karma niche, and is a good niche to have, as long as you can synergy well with your ADC - because if you are not going to winning hard lane upon your early damage and shield and keep using that advantage in mid-game when you get Ap you are going to get outscaled, especially on utility, late game -

Karma true problem is her W, because the rest of his kit is kinda good. The non empowered W take ages to provide a CC that isn't even that good (after 2 sec of keeping tether it would be better to have a bigger reward than a root, even if it is a long duration root) and does not heal karma, which is yet squishy when she does not have the shield on herself and has to follow the target and put herself in a position of danger to get her CC. With the empowered W you got the heal, but the problem is that 99,999999% of the situations when you could need the heal from empowered W you would also need the effect from empowered Q or W few seconds before or after so that you never got to use it or you have not available when you would need it to survive

W needs to be seriously worked upon or Mantra should get 2 charges like it was in old karma (if they don't want her to be too powerful she could access it to level 9 or 11 or something like that)

Sohleks12/27/2014, 1:57:13 PM1 votes

You play Karma support because she is batshit OP in lane.

You pick Karma to win lane; her early game is obscene. Yes, her toolkit is lacking compared to other supports late game. Hopefully you snowballed some gold as Karma support so you can buy AP.