Karma root OP?

Sir Rouge·May 29, 2015·1 votes·850 views

So, the Karma changes from this patch may seem to make her have even less of her duality aspect as before and seem to not be very good in the most part.

However, one change I noticed is that she will now have a 3.25 second root at lvl 16 with mantra W!

The only longer root/stun/snare/taunt/knockup is Ashe's arrow, but only when it travelled a long distance making it very unreliable. With Karma's ult being on a very short CD late game now (with a buff to her passive), it would be pretty much up whenever her W is up in teamfights.

Will this change make Karma jungle viable now that her w can now targer monsters, or more likely make top bruiser karma viable?

IMO, she would offer nice peel with Q, E and R, decent damage overall and nice lockdown with W. Building HP would make her decently tanky with mantra W's heal aswell.

This is very early to say however, she's just potentially good on paper.

4 Comments

Dark NephthysMay 29, 20152 votes

At first I thought that she was practically nerfed hard out of top/mid lane and forced into support (and Maybe Jungle) but after looking through the changes and her stats/damage I feel that is probably wrong. When actually thinking about it, I could see Top Bruiser Karma actually being a thing, though I wouldn't exactly know how to build her as one lol.

If I were to attempt something like that, I'd probably try some weird 15 AP, and 6% spell vamp rune page with either 21/9/0 or 9/21/0 masteries. As far as items go...Maybe try a CDR, Spell Vamp tank build? (Athenes, Wota, Spirit Visage?) maybe the last 2 items would be like Rylai's and Zhonyas/Abyssal (Or get a RoA, but ofc first item). I could just imagine how good Spell Vamp could be on Karma's W since it already gives her health back, it'll probably feel as effective as building spell vamp on Fiddlesticks just for adding more health on his Drain lol.

Sir RougeMay 29, 20151 votes

If this is ever a thing, you called it ;D The build you just mentionned is def something I want to try.

In the meantime, imma go try something like that in customs/normals.

Dark NephthysMay 29, 20151 votes

So I tried the Top CDR Spell Vamp Tank Karma out and didn't go so well. Could be because I was against a Ekko and he's ridiculously strong right now, but even during the Mid/Late game I didn't really have the damage to be even remotely a threat in team fights, and even with decent HP and defensive stats I was still getting destroyed in seconds. Though I do feel Spell Vamp is still good on Karma, but I don't know if going all out with Spell Vamp Runes/Masteries, with Wota and Spirit Visage was the right way. Maybe just getting a Wota as a 2nd or 3rd item on pure AP Karma would probably be more effective.

However, I did do another game right after going Pure AP. I was using normal 21/9/0 masteries with a 36 Ability Power rune page so with D-Ring I had 61 Ability power at level 1. Although I was only up against a Nasus which is generally easy to bully with range...I still ended the game 10/0 and was still destroying people with what damage she has left lol.

So after playing her a few times, I do like the changes on her. In most cases you don't often use Mantra W for the damage, so losing that damage probably wasn't to bad and I love the fact that you can hit monsters with it. During my game, there was a time when the Nasus jumped on me and used both his Ignite and Ult and got me down to like 100 hp left...So I just stepped back and Mantra W'd the golems in the jungle (I was red side ofc) giving me about half my HP back and was able to stay in lane and defend tower.

And now with the increased root duration, when your jungler comes in for a gank...Just make sure you smack them with your Mantra W which by the time you hit level 11 I think the duration is around 2.25 seconds on the root (of course the 3.25 when your level 16).

tl;dr: I like the changes to her and of course she got a massive buff as a support, and I feel that she's also better as a top lane mage. AP Top Bruiser might still be a thing, but probably in a certain build. Though I don't know if she is still a good Mid laner since she did lose some burst and that's generally what Mid lane is about.

Sir RougeJun 1, 20151 votes

Hey man!

Thank you for your big insight on this! It's great to hear that she actually got buffed in general.

I guess i'll keep her mage/support type then :P

Hope you had fun trying these builds :D