Please Read: The Reason Why Riot Won't Buff Sona, Zilean.. and the Karma Rework
Poke > All in > Sustain.
Right now, "All in" champions are the meta. Poke champions are so weak right now though, that even though they are meant to counter these All-in champions, All in champions just overpower them.
Poke champions NEED to be kept weak in order to maintain the meta. Why does riot NEED to maintain the meta? Because in the current meta the team with the fed/better ADC typically wins. If you can hard-counter a support out of lane, then that is a HUGE advantage to your team. That is why League of Legends is flawed. The balance team is balancing the game around the meta to enforce the "rules of the game"
What are the current rules of the game?
- You must abide by the tank meta, or you will be out-lasted in teamfights.
- You must have an all-in support with your ADC.
- Your ADC must be an auto-attacking ADC... as opposed to ADCs such as Ezreal and Varus who are ability reliant. This is for two reasons: 1) Because by design auto-attack carries are better with all-in supports, whereas poke/ability ADCs are better with poke supports 2) and to further enforce this, because of itemization... whichever ADC makes best use of BotRK is the best, because BotRK is the best anti-tank item in the game atm. Auto-attackers > Varus, Ezreal, etc...
This is why Ez and Varus aren't so great this season. That is why win-rates have dropped. They weren't nerfed, they've just been out-classed.
Why is Janna so strong in the current meta? Because she counters it due to the strength of her disengage. Riot can nerf her all they want, they are not going to take away her amazing disengage without a large-scale rework.
Also, the reason why I had "Please Read" in the title, I need to get the opinions of Karma players who are following the Karma changes closely. I am aware Karma can be played as a support, I am also aware she is a great poker. Are they strengthening her poke? Are they leaving it the same? Because poke counters all-in champions and she can poke like a boss and she will be given an ability to provide sustain to her ADC as well. I feel as though Karma could possibly be a great anti-meta support in the same mold Talon was anti-meta in Season 2 when he countered nearly every mid in the whole entire game. I am surprised that Riot are making an effort to make Karma more focused on the support role since she is a poker. Perhaps due to her versatility (Riot hates versatility.. hard to enforce meta with versatility, look at all the Off-Builds riot removed from the game, ADC TF, AP Yi, AP Trist, etc..) Riot is trying to force her into a single role. If they made her stronger has a solo laner, chances are they focused on her being a solo-laner this would inadvertently raise her power as a support, so instead they are focusing on her in the support role. imo, due to the current state of the meta, she has the potential to then become the best support in the game, due to all other poke-supports being in a sorry state. Hopefully she doesn't get nerfed post-rework, I foresee huge nerfs to her new W (which provides lifesteal) and her poke. Possibly the Annie treatment, lower the base damages and raise the ratios? Or perhaps flat-out nerfs in general with no ratio improvements due to them hating solo-lane Karma.
