Thank you for communicating with Karma
I just wanted to thank Riot Neurocat for posting the potential Karma changes on the boards and openly communicating with us to change Karma for the better. I know the boards are usually negative to most change, and would rather attack than discuss so I wanted to post my own thoughts and openly discuss with other players thoughts on the current possible Karma changes that are on the table, and if we’re really lucky come to a conclusion of what Karma truely needs. If you’d like to talk with Nierocat directly, you can post here: https://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/developer-corner/TkiBEVYV-karma-gameplay-change-preview
The first step of any major character change is to look at the goals. Nuerocat listed 3, and I’ll explain them in Layman’s
-
Give Karma gameplay/thematic elements that set her apart from any other champion
-
Make her less abusable in pro play so she can be easily balanced
-
Make Mantra choices more meaningful
Overall, these goals are exactly what Karma needs, and I don’t think I’d add anything else.
Current changes planned
Passive - Gathering Fire Kindled Spirit - When Karma deals damage to an enemy champ or large monster, Mantra’s cooldown is reduced by X seconds (to a cap of Y times over Z seconds).
Souls Alight - Karma can see her allies’ total basic ability cooldowns.
Q - Inner Flame Functionally, the same as live
W - Spirit Bond Ally Cast: Karma reduces target ally’s basic ability cooldowns by up to X seconds. Mantra - Harmony: The cooldown reduction amount is increased by Y seconds. Karma restores Z% of the ally’s max mana.
Enemy Cast: Karma deals X damage to target enemy. If they don’t break the tether, they are dealt X damage and rooted for T seconds. Mantra - Renewal: Roots for longer. When this deals damage, Karma heals for Y% missing HP + Z% AP.
E - Inspire Grants an ally movespeed and a shield. Mantra - Defiance: Grants the target bonus shields. Other nearby allies split X% of the shield and movespeed between them.
R - Mantra Functionally, the same as live
My opinions so far
Passive:
- overall a good change, while I’m a little hesitant on the W cooldown change (which I’ll discuss later) I like the changes made to the CDR aspect of Karma. This should make her ever-so-slightly less abused by professionals, and more accessible to casual/Lower elo players.
RQ
- Not so sure about this one. I don’t like the idea of adding damage into Karma’s Q altogether. It’s already holds too much of her kits damage, and of all the CURRENT mantra’s I believe soul flares the most balanced, and always has a place in Karma’s kit, whatever playstyle she’s playing.
W (ally)
- I’m nervous about the mana interaction more than the cooldown interaction, I’d need to see numbers before I can give it fair judgement
W (enemy) > - I’m surprised this isn’t being changed at all, I expected a change to make it a slightly better damage tool. Honestly I’d rather have more damage loaded onto this spell (probably not directly) rather than on RQ (from before)
RW
- thank the lord sweet Jesus There’s a good AP scaling. THANK YOU.
RE
- I’m REALLY sad there’s no mention of her old shield bomb, I’d rather have that back on exchange for the AOE shield/movespeed boost, But either way I agree her overall movespeed should be nerfed here. Out of all of Karma’s mantra’d abilities this one seems to be most abused in pro play. in terms of her overall champion health. And lowering the intense movespeed would be a good nerf that wouldn’t hit her too hard.
Final thoughts: the second goal was done well, making Karma less pro-abusable. But I don’t see these changes giving her any new identity. The Ult changes are overall good and would add more decision making to Karma’s current kit, but I’m hesitant on changing the W, in fear of Karma being forced to Support.
Please discuss.
