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Rebalancing Karma

IxtaliKing·8/15/2017, 2:41:03 PM·33 votes·1,936 views

TL/DR: Make Karma a better example of a hybrid Battlemage/Enchanter, addressing her issues so she can be a better and fairer mid laner and support. The aim is to improve her Mantras so they are all viable wherever she is played, and don't depend so heavily on specific builds to be viable.

  • Gathering Fire: Reduces Mantra's cooldown every time Karma damages an enemy with an ability by 2/2.5/3 > 2 seconds (half effect for basic attacks).

Notes: In this rework Karma will have more ways to interact with her passive, rendering the buffs it received in 5.10 unnecessary. Karma will now have to commit more to fights if she wishes to unleash multiple Mantras in the later team fights.

  • Inner Flame Cooldown: 7/6.5/6/5.5/5s Cost: 50/55/60/65/70 > 60/65/70/75/80 mana Range: 950 Radius: 150 (Q)/250 (RQ) Fires a blast of energy that explodes upon enemy contact, dealing 80/125/170/215/260 (+0.6 AP) > 70/110/150/190/230 (+0.55 AP) magic damage and slowing them by 25% for 1.5 seconds.

Mantra Bonus Soul Flare: Deals 25/75/125/175 (+0.3 AP) > (+0.45 AP) additional magic damage and leaves a circle of flame that slows enemies by 50% > 35/45/55/65%. After 1.5 seconds the circle erupts, dealing 50/150/250/350 (+0.6 AP) magic damage in the area.

New: Soul Flare (RQ) is now a ground targeted projectile. Edit: Inner Flame (Q) is still a linear skillshot.

Notes: People complain about Karma's early Q and RQ damage so I've lowered the base damage on Q, and given it a slight cost increase so she's a little less frustrating to play against at early levels. I also shifted some of the scaling into RQ to make the choice more meaningful, and to keep her early wave clear in check.

RQ now has a scaling slow starting from 35% up to 65%. I believe Karma's Mantras should all offer notable utility upgrades, however I chose to start with a less potent slow due to RQs improved target selection.

  • Focused resolve Cooldown: 12s Cost: 50/55/60/65/70 mana Range: 675 Radius: 1000 Karma forms a tether between her and the target enemy champion or monster for 2 seconds, granting true sight and dealing 60/110/160/210/260 (+0.9 AP) > (+0.6 AP) magic damage over 2 seconds. If the target does not break the tether they are rooted for 1/1.25/1.5/1.75/2 > 1.5 seconds.

Mantra Bonus Renewal: If cast on an enemy, roots for an additional 0.5/0.75/1/1.25 seconds > deals 75/150/225/300 (+0.6 AP) additional magic damage and heals Karma for ~~20% (+1% per 100 AP) missing HP ~~ 30/60/120/180 (+1 per 20 AP) increased by 3% for every 1% HP missing. If the tether is not broken or the target dies Karma is healed for another 20% (+1% per 100 AP) missing HP** 30/60/120/180 (+1 per 20 AP) increased by 3% for every 1% HP missing**.** If cast on an ally they are given the heal instead, enemies who touch the allied tether receive 50% of the total damage and are slowed by 90% rapidly decaying over 1 second. The allied tether cancels enemy dashes which try to pass through it.**

New: Renewal can now be cast on allies to heal them instead. Enemies who pass through the allied tether take 50% of the spell's total damage and take a hard rapidly decaying slow.

Notes: Since Karma's rework seemingly introduced a root to her kit to synergise with RQ, I trimmed the excess root down to a flat 1.5s seconds at all ranks. Personally I think anything more than 1.5s for Karma is unnecessary and forces her to be more of a generalist than she needs to be. Karma doesn't need the best root in the game, lockdown is not area she should be competing in.

The heal was another issue. Having a self makes a ton of sense for a Battlemage, but on an Enchanter? It makes no sense at all. I borrowed those flat heal numbers from SilverSquid (notorious Karma reworker), since they work better with squishies.

I was considering the allied tether briefly rooting enemies who touched it, but decided maybe a slow would make more sense? It adds a different kind of weight to the ability. Also, now that the 5.10 passive buff is undone and RW healing has changed she can have 3 ticks on W again.

  • Inspire Cooldown: 10/9.5/9/8.5/8 Cost: 60/65/70/75/80 mana Range: 800 Radius: 600 Target ally gains a shield granting 40/45/50/55/60% movement speed for 1.5 seconds, absorbing 70/95/120/145/170 > 70/105/140/175/200 (+0.5 AP) damage and applying Inspired for 4 seconds.

New: Allies with the Inspired buff can keep refreshing the movement speed buff for 1 second by auto attacking an enemy.

Mantra Bonus Defiance: The primary shield absorbs an additional 30/90/150/210 > 30/70/110/150 (+0.6 AP) damage. After 0.75 seconds of shielding the primary target, the shield erupts dealing 75/150/225/300 (+0.6 AP) magic damage to surrounding enemies, whilst also granting surrounding allies 30% of the total shield and 40/45/50/55/60% movement speed for 2 seconds. Inspired is applied to all hasted allies for 6 seconds.

**New: **But old, yet new... shield bomb. This spell is too iconic, needs to make a comeback.

Notes: There was never a real justification for it's removal, only some comments about "increasing contextual decision making" which turned out not to be the case. Counterplay was often cited as a justification by players, never by a Rioter themselves (trust me, I've looked... and asked). Still, i agree that instant AoE damage spells aren't always a good idea, so I've added a brief delay and telegraph to the whole AoE portion of RE.

The "Inspired" buff is all about in combat movement speed, encouraging effective kiting for ADCs and stickiness for melee carries. This makes RE in team fights less about AoE mitigation and more about in combat mobility.

Would be grateful for any feedback.

[Reposted]

49 Comments

spaceman spiƒƒ8/15/2017, 5:27:58 PM10 votes

I like this a lot, it's got some fresh takes on older/iconic abilities of karma. Props for that!

Just wanted to add my 2 cents tho.

1 is about empowered shield. The throwback to the old shield bomb is great, and the delayed aoe dmg shield is an interesting addition (I think it used to be instant aoe?). But, with the current state of ardent censer, this would be ridiculously strong considering that it gives a haste, has increased base shield, and scales with AP! Being able to give an entire team movrepeed + shield + ardent censer passive would be terrifying especially with the skills relatively low cooldown. For this ability to go through (which I would love to see) something would have to happen to ardent censer or the abilities cooldown imo. Or possibly, just thinking out loud, add a significant delay to the aoe shield bomb so that there is at least some counterplay.

2 is about empowered Q. I guess I'm just curious about your reasoning for making it ground targeted? It's great for solo lane karma, and would be quite strong on support due to the fact that she can ignore minion lines with the ability and doesn't have to worry about hitting a line skillshot anymore.

3 is about W. I actually like this one the most. Its got that old and new mixed in together and would fit really well into her identity. The empowered version has some awesome additions to it. Out of all the abilities, this one should absolutely be considered by riot.

Good work :)

Catastrop8/15/2017, 8:23:13 PM7 votes

So much yes, retro W and shield bomb? What's not to love?

Point of inquiry though, is unmantra'd Q still a linear skill shot? Or does that only apply to RQ?

Soraka is SO HOT8/15/2017, 8:49:02 PM5 votes

This... this is amazing!

@Meddler taker notes. ^_^

inplane8/16/2017, 12:17:12 AM3 votes

I like the W and E buffs. The E movement speed buff refreshing on every auto attack may be a bit problematic though. Especially on champions like Vayne and Lucian. Orb walking would be so easy and powerful with a constantly movement speed buff.

Nymzo8/15/2017, 11:51:05 PM1 votes

I did not read everything just yet but I have to say that it's very difficult to make a champion that can go to two lanes because when they are too strong in one lane, they are most of the time nerfed which affect the champion in both positions. That could result in a champion being average or mediocre if they weren't very strong in the other lane before the nerfs.

Alec Troy8/16/2017, 1:47:07 AM1 votes

I've been playing Karma since forever. I was really devastated when Riot reworked her because she looked like a completely new champion and her playstyle became boring/generic. I love your ideas, especially the W change. Maybe the shields might be too strong, but Ardent Censer will receive nerfs soon. Overall, I appreciate that you put some of Old Karma's elements into her current kit.

Also : Riot should let Karma hold onto her fans again ^.~

PokladnicaZla8/16/2017, 6:56:06 AM1 votes

Might I add something for her Passive?

A lot of players (especially old Karma players) liked having 2 mantra stacks.Any way to somehow turn her passive into an ability that could grant her another Mantra cast? I mean it's already tied to her ultimate?

Maybe hitting enemies with spells,healing&shielding allies fuels her secondary resource bar.Once filled Karma can cast an empowered skill?

Warden Karma8/16/2017, 3:55:09 PM1 votes

Hey there King,

I want to leave some feedback too :)

First: You might want to improve your text formatting. As with food "you eat with your eyes first" so it is with texts: appealing texts are better received than unappealing (unformatted, chaotic) texts.

I really like your Ideas, so I want to input some of my thoughts:

1) Passive nerfs. Honestly. The passive needs to be moved away to make room for something more interesting. It can be additional but not as a standalone Passive please.

**2) Q nerf. ** Karma is currently the only Mage, whose primary damage source is neither point and click or passing through. This might be a trade off for being versatile and (nowadays) an undercover Battlemage. It can be frustating for Karma players experiencing less power from the Q, because its iffy to hit. On the other hand you added damage in other places of her kit so I think this might work. I would still prefer a conic Q.

**3) RQ. ** It suits a Battlemage much better yes. Also the slow is not high enough to make it hit on its own as it wont be centered on a target and it did not even used to hit on its own back in the days, when item 3116 used to give a 40% slow (making RQ's slows somewhat effective as a 70% slow). Still... Heavently wave preferred ^^

4) W shifts. They are ok. Karma was not meant to be a lock down champion champion anyway. You might consider giving her W also the "touch" part because currently W feels kind of blanc and mostly used just to make RQ hit. It would add more depth into Karma.

5) Spirit Bond. I like this Idea. I myself had and read a lot of Spirit Bond Idea incarnations. The Idea of letting W root touching enemies were actually one of my first, if not the first idea I ever had, back than when they announced the Karma relaunch. However, Karma is not supposed to have this level lock down on her kit (also because she would step on Morgana's toes). Having a second slow in her kit might already be too much; the idea of making it stop dashes etc. can work well though. The Heal is more Battlemage than Tank orientated (I have seen this proposal a lot lately). As a little bonus I will add an idea i came up with while reading your W: What if W an enemy touches the tether (gets damaged) and also damages/heals the W target? For example you tether an enemy, then run past 2 enemy champions, dealing 50% of the total damage to them, but also upon touching them, the tethered enemy gets those 50% as extra damage (and/or heals Karma).

6) E buff. With this buff, the E might be too strong, because it does what it currently does, but has more shield and can extend the MS buff duration. If you want to make it more battle orientated, why not removing the standart MS buff and concentrating solely on the "Inspire buff"; but maybe somewhat like "Inspired allies gain X% MS for 1 Second, after damaging an enemy Champion or Monster". On the other hand that would emphasize poking. Making Inspire only responding to AA's can feel bad on certain champions, while feeling oppressive on others (looking especially at the adc as a support Karma).

**7) Shieldbomb. ** So pretty much back to what we had before 5.10 - but worse (damage traveling time; and the shields might be weaker too). Shieldbomb still has to be part of Karma in some way and nothing speaks against it.

All in one it would work as a mini rework, until Karma would get mayor work (when the sun rises in the north and the apokalypse is happening).

REDREX78/16/2017, 6:15:15 PM1 votes

Some of these changes are interesting. I play mid and top Karma so I am gonna focus on that when looking at your ideas.

Passive changes - Already hurting solo karma. This passive was extremely strong and made or broke a good karma player. Now you nerfed it which now potentially justifies giving karma a new passive which you did not. If your goal is to make Karma stronger late game then why nerf the passive?

Q changes - Nerfing solo lane Karma again early game and late game. Worse base and scaling and more mana costs. Triple nerf on one ability so far.

Mantra Q- Buff of total damage output by .1 ap and a weaker slow early and a stronger slow late and better target selection. So a nerf early game and a buff late game.

W changes - Nerf on Karma in general both on root duration and scaling not to mention the root duration being shorter also hurts Karma's bread and butter combo W into Mantra Q. Currently live once Karma has 4 ranks and above on her W, it is a guaranteed that Karma will land both partions of Mantra Q. Now it is never guaranteed. Because once you wait for the root to land, Mantra Q will have a travel time and a cast time and therefore the root will expire before your Mantra Q second detonation will happen. Now enemy players can flash before the root lands and after to avoid taking full damage at all points in the game. Basically either buff the root duration or shorten detonation on Mantra Q, or make Mantra Q a damage over time ability to justify this. This may not seem like a big deal but at higher elo this is huge.

Mantra W enemy effect - Mantra W does have increased damage again which I like. Realistically though you do not care about the better ap ratio 70% of the time. You only want to use Mantra W when you are low hp and therefore you care more about surviving than the damage. It is nice but not that necessary. I would of love a new effect on Mantra W that added utility and damage. This is a little lack luster for me. Basically live it is a stronger root but no damage, your version is just more damage which is nice but Mantra W should never deal as much damage as Mantra Q. I have suggestions though if you want to hear them. And the heal is weaker early I believe which is another nerf to early game lane Karma but a buff to late game.

Mantra W ally effect - I am glad the tether mechanic would be back. Played old Karma loved it. Love canceled dashes and the heal back. BUT giving Karma an ally heal maybe dangerous Karma already can poke the enemy out of lane if she can sustain herself and or her ally she maybe to much to handle. You nerfed her early game a lot to make this more balanced but did you nerf solo lane karma to much to have these changes?

E - Stop what you are doing. That new effect stop it. No no no. This is broken, refreshing on every auto. Giving your adc or your whole team a permanent 60% movement speed in a team fight is broken.

Mantra E- SO karma has the mega shield value and now the damage? That is over powered. If her shield has damage component on it than her initial shield target should never have an ap shield value .8 ap in total.

I think you nerfed solo lane karma too much, along with Karma early game. As well as you nerfed Karma's basic abilities just to buff her Mantra abilities to much.

BlueBilberry8/15/2017, 3:08:24 PM1 votes

It's an interesting and some of the ideas here are workable IMHO.

But, to be honest, a simple fix to consider and one that I would be quite happy with is, if Karma's shield nerf was reverted to its previous state (and maybe Lulu's too). The reason why Janna's play rate is so high right now is because the other supports which can protect mispositioning ADCs got nerfed (along with the ridiculous abuse of Doran's Shield).

jocomotion8/20/2017, 9:20:51 PM1 votes

I absolutely love your ideas except the damage ratios all-together. I feel like a rework like this would easily balance Support and Tank Top karma, but mid lane karma would just die near instantly.

Velzard of Koz8/15/2017, 9:32:51 PM1 votes

I like this except for the Inspired buff, not because it would be bad idea on its own. But as Vel'Koz main I don't want you to make ADC invulnerable against me because my delayed and telegraphed skills are now easy to dodge with that shitton of MS they get (srsly... 60% more) while they prove their skill by clicking their right mouse button, dealing 600 damage per half-second. We have more than enough mobility creep, continue with this shit and you'll get Mages that point click you for 2k true damage because that's the only way they'd be relevant.

Also I'd rather the buff give different numbers of MS to melees and rangeds, If it's also supposed to support melees.

Hipercsiga8/15/2017, 10:01:54 PM1 votes

She was changed and Nerfed because she had too strong LCS plays as full tank.

FakeGravity8/15/2017, 11:43:41 PM1 votes

my concern is the heal on W which would make her extremely powerful, she could even ignore Q entirely and go for shields + heal build during laning phase and have powerful sustain