Riot every Karma buff: "She seems to be underperforming :("
Seeing as Karma has gotten a number of buffs and she's still "underperforming" maybe that means there are fundamental problems with her kit that can't be fixed by buffing her numbers...
91 Comments
Karma has very little outplay potential. Without instant CC or instant mobility, she can not counter actions of others very well. She herself, however, is very predictable and her damage/CC has a TON of counterplay to it.
- Most of Karma's damage is in a skillshot and can not only be dodged, but also intercepted by everything (like random minion AI).
- Her mantra Q even has a warning sound, so people learn to dodge instinctively.
- Her W takes longer to apply, than it roots for the majority of the game, even when mantra'd.
- W can be countered by any mobility or CC spell.
- Even her self-heal has a casttime and is only good at moments when Morellos just procced or somebody used ignite.
Add to that, that Karma has no unique utility and can be sufficiently replaced by items, and we can see why she will continuously underperform relative to the power Riot is pouring into her kit.
Karma needs:
- Some way of dealing damage safely (shieldbomb anyone?)
- Some unique utility (RW ally function?)
- A more interesting passive (it acts like an ultimate passive, not a standalone passive)
- Some direction in her kit, a niche, a purpose.
Karma doesn't need:
- More number buffs
- "We currently do not have any plans for Karma"
She's not underperforming at all right now, she's actually becoming a really strong pick in competitive and soloQ. The reason you don't see her winrate increase that much is because her pick rate in the mid lane almost tripled, while her pick rate as a support doubled since 6.5
She's actually a pretty solid mid laner against things that aren't Zed.
Shhhhhh! 
doesn't need any of this attention! I don't want my main to be ruined :(
Tbh getting 100-0'd by a fed karma r q isn't fun so i say rework it
I enjoyed Karma most, post rework before the 'support' incentive changes were made and a large chunk of her damage tools were removed. She was primarily a mage and I feel like she should have stayed that way. Before her support pigeonholing changes her kit was just so solid on the mid lane. She had at least one tool for combating various strategies. Admittedly she still retains some of those tools still, though mantra's shield burst will always be missed, its been there since pre-rework in some incarnation up until recently. But the changes that were made only further pushed her towards being a R+Q heavy (imo only bad karma players were heavily reliant on R+Q for every scenario anyway) champion and haven't made her a better or more popular support. I would absolutely love to see her damage returned to her other abilities seven at the cost of a less spectacular R+Q and have her return to the mid lane as an all rounder-sustain damage mage.
she has a poor mans lulu kit. weird and awkward to play. she has 1 damaging spell that does absurd amount of damage but the rest is badly designed. I don't like the whole mantra mechanic. she has 3 abilities. and her passive is just really not adding much fun to the kit.
Eventually they'll overbuff her and gut her and leave her to rot in the dungeon.
Basically, from what I know, they don't care about her...
I made a huge thread ages ago, was even talking to Feral Pony over Ask.FM about it, and as soon as the thread had enough contribution for me to link it to him, he stopped responding. They legitimately don't care about her.
That RQ needs to be a targeted circle, she aint hitting no one with it late. At least no one important.
Its kinda crazy because that is where her power budget is spent on.
But if her kit gets the proper rework she needs then whos gonna get biweekly buffs???
Maybe Riot is just blind and hasn't realized that Karma has not been underperforming at all. Those buffs have put her well over the top.
Karma is strong af right now. Im legitimately scared to see one on the enemy team at the moment and get all warm and fuzzy inside when they are on my team.
If they want to make her into a utility mage/support like she seems to be, they need to spread more of her damage out. Mantra+Q damage is ridiculous at pretty much all points of the game if you arent super behind. It's really hard to say tho, she has a shield that grants movement speed.. maybe if they give her w the ability for her to heal an ally? Possibly based on their missing health a percentage of her current health? I do enjoy her mantra+shield but I don't see enough karmas use it in a teamfight. Mantra+w.. i mean healing yourself is cool and all but I feel like something else can be done with this and maybe give her a more interesting passive than ulti cool down. Max rank her ulti CD is at 36 seconds without any cdr. Karma is a really neat champion because of the nature of her kit, I feel like they can adjust and change many things about her without ever making her useless.. It's not a number thing with her that needs changes OP you're right, it's fundamental to her kit and frankly I think it involves her passive and not enough incentive to use her abilities for her team instead of against the enemy for damage.