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[Idea] A new Passive for Karma

Warden Karma·7/16/2016, 12:22:54 PM·3 votes·933 views

#Hi there,

lets make the introduction quick: ever since her relaunch the majority of Karma Players think her Passive is kind of blank, boring and could easily moved to her Ultimate (as most Champions have CDR Passives on their Abilities rather than as a standalone Passive). On top of that it doesnt fit her Identity as someone who is supposed to be a wise Champion, someone who tries to find balance between "Yin" and "Yang" - good and evil if you want to call it like that.

Here are some Points:

https://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/leagueoflegends/images/6/68/Gathering_Fire.png

What I dislike about Gathering Fire:

  • It gives Karma "random" power spikes (Mantras); they are very unclear and hard to estimate for enemies AND allies alike.
  • As a standalone Passive it doesnt fit Karma's Identity (Balance not just destruction)
  • Its not a good/creative etc. standalone Passive (its rather blank and boring).
  • Gathering Fire may or may not be a reason more to not give Mantra 2 Charges.

What I like about gathering Fire:

  • Without Gathering Fire, Mantra would be terrible. Terrible or needs a very low basic Cooldown. Or 2 charges.
  • It gives you a chance to "buy back" your Mantra.
  • It has some skillpotential: its very hard to use it to its best (also due to how Karma's kit isnt very functional with just rewarding for damage, because it means be punished for Shields/Heals too).

Many have already suggested very nice Passives for her (the current gathering Fire would be moved (somewhat) nerfed to her Ultimate); my suggestion is in its core nothing new. In fact it has actually been recently implanted into the game as an item.

Yes. item 3174.

[P] Gathering Fire

When damaging enemy Champions, Karma stores 10% of the premitigation Damage dealt as Yin’s Energy and 15% of the Shield/Heal done to allies (half for herself) as Yang’s Energy, up to a maximum of 2 (+11 per Level) (200 at level 18).

When Karma casts a harmful spell, it will gain additional damage based on Yang’s Energy, while a benefit full spell will be strengthened by Yin’s Energy.

The Amount of Yin is increased by 1% for each 1% of the enemies current Health, while Yang scales off the missing health of allies. OR For Mantrad Abilities she will gain 20% instead of 10/15%.

Stored Energy decays after 2 Seconds over the time of 3 Seconds, while Mantrad Abilities will apply the Energy gathered by itself when casting if possible.

Bonus: Visually you can see how many stacks and which stacks she has on her Mantle of Decorum: The two Twin dragons stay, but when receiving Stacks they will start to "burn" in dark/bright colors; in the end they look somewhat like the Icon of Old Karma's Passive.

Its basically a "double Athenes" with a possible karmatic touch. I am aware that this Passive might interact with her kit better after some tweaks or after a (soft) rework e.g. when all her abilities are more close to duality instead of trinity.

Old Defiance would be a prime example of that - AOE Shield and MS while also dealing AOE damage. With the new Passive, Defiance would become more a question of skill as it asks you to hit as many Allies and Enemies as possible to get its maximum effect.

So in Essence: This Passive allows for more dept in Karma's Skillfloor as it asks her to spend it wise/ hit as many allies and enemies alike rather then just spamming out damage. I ve seen Karma's just casting her W on the closest enemy; not out of strategical advantages but just to get the CDR from her Passive. Also its thematically very fitting and isnt that complicated to understand.

#What do you think?

3 Comments

Serevas7/16/2016, 1:17:04 PM1 votes

I don't understand why everyone things that passive abilities need to be super interesting. They're passive abilities, they're there for the express purpose of enhancing gameplay at no cost and providing a unique flavor to a champion.

Additionally her passive really isn't that complicated to use. It basically boils down to instances of ability damage provide cooldown, so each champion hit by Q, and each tick of W.

I will admit that since she certainly is about balance it does make things a little sense that the CDR is only given with offensive action. Maybe they didn't want people to farm out the CDR through shielding? I'm not really sure of the theory behind it.

Hyrum Graff7/16/2016, 1:18:15 PM1 votes

I wasn't around before Karma's relaunch, but I've got probably 300-350 games on her.

I understand you want back the double mantra, but frankly that's not going to happen. Riot has already said that double mantra means they need to nerf mantra hard, and they don't want to do that.

I agree that Gathering Fire, while providing a way to show mastery, is a lot of hidden power (now that we can get 45% cdr and on tank karma, who can stay in tether range safely) and is not very thematic.

I really like this passive thematically, though I think it should be based on damage blocked, not just shield given (shielding yourself when not in danger just to get more damage is weird). However, from a gameplay side, it seems to remove one of the last remaining points of mastery from her kit.

Karma already wants to deal and shield as much damage as possible; this passive just makes her stronger when she does those things. The current passive provides a route to mastery precisely because it means that sometimes it's better to W the tank for the cdr than save it for a priority target -- you have to make a call about whether the mantra cdr is worth putting the spell on cd, and experienced karma players are more likely to make the right decision.

Unfortunately, the right decision is almost always to use the spell for the mantra cdr, so while it's an opportunity for mastery, it doesn't create interesting gameplay for the Karma player.

All in all, I think Karma needs either a full (Sion-tier) VGU or to be one of the big 5ish in a class update.

Rico Nasty7/16/2016, 4:19:11 PM1 votes

I don't understand the passive at all lol.