Some ideas for Karma's gameplay changes
Hi, I heard there’s going to be some gameplay changes for Karma, So I have some ideas which has little to no relation with the Karma's gameplay change preview.
Maybe it could be of some use as reference for the rework, Or just as some scrap material for future champion.
#NOTE
- [#1] Please see each ability as well as each part of each ability as separate ideas for reference, in a way which you remove something if it’s too much, or add more in if it’s not enough, not all as one set for her kit; so it might look a bit complicated, because they’re all fragments of concepts.
- [#2] All the numbers in the abilities are merely to give a rough idea of how it works, and are not bound to gameplay balance.
- [#3] One of the main objective is to add some distinctiveness to her abilities, but simple mechanics would usually have a lot of similarities with other champions, unless it’s a new mechanic that is simple yet unique, otherwise to make something uniquely hers would inevitably need to add in some complexity in exchange.
#TL;DR
- [P] Gathering Fire
Consecutive damage on enemy champion grants stacks that reduce [R] Mantra’s cooldown upon gaining each stack, the stack expire fast but refreshes upon gaining new stacks;
Higher stacks reduce more cooldown, up to 5 stacks and grants additional bonus(es) for her next Mantra empowered ability;
Upon stack expiration or upon reaching 5 stacks, [P] Gathering Fire would also go on a static cooldown equal to the cooldown reduction gained for [R] Mantra;
Additionally, gaining stack also marks unique enemy champion, which reduces the cooldown of [P] Gathering Fire upon stack expiration or upon reaching 5 stacks, the more enemy champion marked, the higher the cooldown reduction.
- [Q] Inner Flame
Projectile deals bonus damage based on enemy's current health percentage, while the splash shares the same bonus damage.
- [R] + [Q] Soulflare
Bonus damage for the projectile and splash, additionally, if the projectile or the splash damages any enemy champion, the lingering area would also heal ally champion within the area upon detonation, while the detonation would also have bonus damage and bonus heal based on missing health percentage.
- [W] Spirit Bond / Focused Resolve
Grants tethered ally CDR % instead, stack additively ignoring the 45% CDR cap, and restore mana when the tether is held for a short duration without breaking; as for tethered enemy, same as live.
- [R] + [W] Harmony / Renewal
When cast on an ally or an enemy champion with an enemy or an ally champion in between respectively, both Karma and the targeted champion would tether to the champion in between instead; the damage on the enemy champion and the mana restore on the ally champion would be halved, but the CDR and the root duration remains the same; additionally, ability cast by the tethered enemy would have its cooldown increased by a percentage, directly countering CDR.
- [E] Inspire
Same as live.
- [R] + [E] Defiance
Cast on ally or enemy champion to chain from unique champion to unique champion prioritizing the nearest champion, instead of spreading from one champion to nearby champion in a radius; applying shield to ally champion, and "shield bomb" to enemy champion, which would detonate and deal damage in a radius after a brief delay.
- [R] Mantra
Same as live.
#DESCRIPTION
And here's the too long version for anyone who's interested:
- [P] Gathering Fire
Instead of making it something like the Tribute passive,
Karma's damage on enemy champion grants her 1 stack of Kindled Spirit, which last for x second (very short, but long enough for the shortest basic attack interval of her base attack speed), and refreshes its duration upon gaining new stacks, up to 5 stacks.
The 1st stack reduces her [R] Mantra's cooldown by 1.0 second upon gaining the stack, while each stack onward reduces more - with the 2nd/3rd/4th/5th stack reducing 1.5/2.0/2.5/3.0 seconds instead, up to 2.5/4.5/7.0/10.0 seconds in total.
When the stack(s) expire or upon reaching 5 stacks, [P] Gathering Fire would also go on a static cooldown equal to the cooldown reduction she gained for her [R] Mantra.
**Changes based on champion level: **
The cooldown reduction on the 1st/2nd/3rd/4th/5th stack would also be increased by 0.5 seconds to 1.5/2.0/2.5/3.0/3.5 seconds, and up to 1.5/3.5/6.0/9.0/12.5 seconds in total on Lv.7, and increased by another 0.5 seconds to 2.0/2.5/3.0/3.5/4.0 seconds, and up to 2.0/4.5/7.5/11.0/15.0 seconds in total on Lv.13.
- [Gameplay]
That way you don't have to poke all the time, you can just combo poke a few times for better effects, and stand back while it's on cooldown, freeing up some time for her to reposition, ward etc. as mentioned in the preview.
- [Difficulty]
But yes, it's more difficult compared to how Tribute passive works, but it would be an exchange for gameplay uniqueness.
- [Choice]
Since the cooldown reduction you gain for [R] Mantra is the cooldown you get for [P] Gathering Fire, so in the end it's just more choices based on situation.
- [Utilize]
One thing that player could utilize here is how much cooldown reduction her [R] Mantra needs;
For example, if her [R] Mantra is already not on cooldown upon gaining the 4th stack, player could either pause a short duration and let [P] Gathering Fire go on a 12 seconds cooldown first, or cast [R] Mantra first before hitting the 5th stack, so that the 3 seconds of cooldown reduction from the 5th stack wouldn't be wasted before putting [P] Gathering Fire in a 15 seconds cooldown.
- [Power Budget]
[-] Less cooldown reduction for [R] Mantra from later stacks. [-] Longer cooldown for [P] Gathering Fire, for example, this passive would go on a static cooldown equal to 2 times the cooldown reduction gained for her [R] Mantra, also free up more time. [+/-] More free time without lowering the power? Increase the cooldown reduction for [R] Mantra, and the the static cooldown for [P] Gathering Fire would also be increased. [+] Instead of 5 stacks for maximum effect, make it less like 3 stacks for easier difficulty.
- [Extra Fun]
Upon reaching 5 stacks, Karma's next Mantra empowered ability would have extra effects;
Below are some example of candidates:
[A] Her next Mantra empowered ability would cost less mana. [B] Her next Mantra empowered ability would have reduced cooldown. [C] Her next Mantra empowered ability would have further enhanced effects: damage, heal, shield etc. Any of the above or a mix of more than one of the above, or any extra effect that could make it more rewarding for reaching 5 stacks.
- [Difficulty]
Since 5 hits in a short window are pretty much avoidable for the enemy champion, especially when Karma doesn't have that many hits from her ability, she would still need to rely on her basic attack to reach 5 stacks; so yeah, some reward for reaching 5 stacks should be reasonable.
- [More Fun]
Every unique enemy champion would be marked upon gaining a stack;
Every marked enemy champion - from the second marked enemy champion onward - would reduce the static cooldown of her [P] Gathering Fire upon stack expiration or upon reaching 5 stacks, with the 2/3/4/5 marks reducing 1/3/6/10 seconds of static cooldown from her [P] Gathering Fire.
Changes based on champion level:
The static cooldown reduction would also be increased by 0.625 seconds to 1.625/4.250/7.875/12.500 seconds on Lv.7, and increased by 1.25 seconds to 2.25/5.50/9.75/15.00 seconds on Lv.13.
- [Potential]
If she managed to hit 5 enemy champions with a single Mantra [Q], she could have her [R] Mantra cooldown reduced by 10 seconds, while immediately having her [P] Gathering Fire ready again.
Of course, hitting 5 different enemy champions in 5 consecutive hits is more than just rare, so it would usually be 1 to 3 seconds of static cooldown reduced from hitting 2 to 3 enemy champions, not too powerful.
- [Q] Inner Flame
The projectile deals 80/125/170/215/260 (+60% ability power) magic damage and apply 25% slow for 1.5 seconds (same as live), while the magic damage would be increased by a percentage equal to 1/5 of the enemy's current health percentage;
For example, 80 magic damage + 50 ability power + 75% enemy's current health = 80 magic damage (base) + 30 magic damage (60% of 50 ability power) x 1.15 (1/5 of 75% enemy's current health = 15% bonus damage) = 126.5 magic damage; while the splash shares the same increased magic damage to other enemy in range regardless of their current health percentage.
- [R] + [Q] Soulflare
The projectile deals 80/125/170/215/260 (+60% ability power) magic damage + 25/75/125/175 (+30% ability power) bonus magic damage, and apply 25% slow for 1.5 seconds (same as live), while the total magic damage would be increased by a percentage equal to 1/5 of the enemy's current health percentage, while the splash shares the same increased magic damage to other enemy in range regardless of their current health percentage (same as above);
If the projectile reaches its maximum range without hitting an enemy, the splash would deal increased magic damage based on individual enemy's current health percentage instead.
The lingering area would also apply 50% slow to enemies within, and detonates after 1.5 seconds dealing 60/120/180/240 (+60% ability power) magic damage to enemies within (same as live), while the magic damage would be increased by a percentage equal to 1/5 of the missing health percentage of the enemy champion with the highest missing health percentage in range.
If the projectile or the splash damaged at least one enemy champion, the lingering area would also heal 30/60/90/120 (+30 ability power) health to ally in range upon detonation, while the heal amount would also be increased by a percentage equal to 1/5 of the missing health percentage of the ally champion with the highest missing health percentage in range.
Both the magic damage and the heal amount would be halved when there are both ally champion and enemy champion in range upon detonation, and both the magic damage and the heal amount would be increased by a percentage equal to 1/5 of the missing health percentage of the champion with the highest health percentage in range, regardless of ally or enemy champion.
- [Power Budget]
[-] The detonation would heal only if the projectile hits an enemy champion, splash doesn't count. [-] Magic damage and heal amount are increased basing on individual's missing health percentage instead of basing on the champion with the highest missing health percentage in range. [-] Detonation that heals ally champion would only deal magic damage to enemy champion, which means the detonation would only deal damage to enemy minions and neutral monsters if there are no ally champions in range. [+/-] Increase base magic damage and base heal amount, but both magic damage and heal amount would be distributed equally to champions in range. [+/-] The detonation would also heal any ally minions and pets in range; maybe only when there are at least on ally champion in range. [+] Lingering area that would heal would also grants a percentage of bonus movement speed to ally within before detonation. [+] The magic damage and the heal amount would not be halved when there are both ally champion and enemy champion in range.
- [Gameplay]
This one is rather simple compared to the others, but offers some more simple choice to the ability;
For example, for Karma, when a low health enemy champion is standing beside a high health enemy minion, hitting the enemy minion would deal more damage to the enemy champion through the splash; so when playing against Karma, it's more dangerous to stand behind a high health unit rather than a low health unit, which is usually the opposite when playing against other champion.
And also for the detonation that could heal, for Karma's ally, whether to take the heal for lower damage or to give up the heal for higher damage is also a simple choice, and for Karma's enemy, a tank could also step in and take the damage to lower the heal amount on Karma's ally, or to drive away Karma's ally and prevent the heal entirely, but potentially taking the full damage instead.
- [Scrapped #1]
The lingering area would not detonate when there are both ally and enemy champions within, and would only detonate and deal damage when there are no ally champions within, or would only detonate and heal when there are no enemy champions within.
- [Scrapped #2]
The Mantra [Q] projectile and splash can also hit ally champion for heal - but a direct healing ability doesn't fit very well on her; and it sound like something that could start a team fight with your team mate, for blocking a skillshot or missing a healing skillshot.
- [W] Spirit Bond / Resolve
About the gameplay change preview, the mana restore part is nice I guess, but I personally don't like the how the cooldown part works, and the reason is probably similar to how I don't like to play champions like Soraka, Karthus and Shen, because their [R] needs some extra attention on some additional information that are, well, not on the same layer of attention as everything else.
It's a nice concept on its own, and probably kinda interesting on a new champion or something, but on Karma, it would make her feel different, because her abilities now are rather straightforward, skillshot damage slow, tether damage root, shield movement speed, the need of paying attention to ally's cooldown feels isolated from the rest.
But if it's just the cooldown reduction, then there should be a way to blend in, by simplifying the cooldown reduction - by granting percentage cooldown reduction for upcoming ability cast, instead of granting flat cooldown reduction for abilities that are currently on cooldown.
Where Karma cannot see ally's cooldown, but the cooldown reduction still matters, but it's more of an extra effect alongside the mana restore rather than one of the main effect of the ability, and the choice on Karma only depends on "what ability does the ally have", while leaving the other half of the choice on the ally to utilize the cooldown reduction in a short duration and restricted range.
That way, well... she still "sees the potential in those she works with and help bring out their fullest ability", but the "potential" would be the abilities not on cooldown, and the "fullest ability" would be having less cooldown when used.
- [W] Ally Cast - Spirit Bond
Grants 5.0/7.5/10.0/12.5/15.0% CDR to ally's ability while being tethered (stacks additively and ignores the 45% CDR cap, up to 60%), if the tether holds for 2 seconds, tethered ally's mana would be restored by 50/55/60/65/70 (+1% (+0.1% on every 10 ability power) on every 1% of tethered ally's missing mana);
If the ally doesn't use mana as resource, the rejected mana tranference burst out in a 250 radius from the tethered ally, dealing 50/55/60/65/70 (+1% (+0.1% on every 10 ability power) on every 1% of Karma's missing mana) magic damage to enemies in range.
- [W] Enemy Cast - Focused Resolved
Same as live.
- [R] + [W] Ally Cast - Harmony
Mana restore is increased to 100/110/120/130/140 (+1% (+0.1% on every 10 ability power) on every 1% of tethered ally's missing mana) instead, while the mana outburst is also increased to 100/110/120/130/140 (+1% (+0.1% on every 10 ability power) on every 1% of Karma's missing mana) magic damage instead.
- [R] + [W] Enemy Cast - Renewal
Same as live, but have additional effects; see below.
- [R] + [W] Ally / Enemy Cast - Harmony / Renewal
If an ally or an enemy champion is in between when forming a tether with an enemy or ally champion respectively, both Karma and the targeted champion would be tethered to the champion in between instead, and the tether would break if both tethers combined exceeds 1000 range (same break range when tethered to one champion).
When tethered to two champions, the mana restore or mana outburst on ally, the magic damage on enemy, and the heal on Karma would be halved, but the cooldown reduction and root duration remains the same.
Additionally, the enemy champion's ability would have 10/15/20/25/30% increased cooldown when casted while being tethered to two champions; the cooldown increase directly counters CDR; for example, 30% increased cooldown would decrease 45% CDR to 15% CDR.
- [Note]
Although tethering to two champions would have lower mana restore, magic damage and heal amount, but the cooldown reduction and root duration remaining the same increases the output of this ability.
But a three champion tether would be harder to hold compared to a two champion tether, because both tethers combined shares the same break range as one tether.
- [Power Budget]
[-] CDR gain from this ability cannot exceed the 45% CDR cap. [-] Tethering to two champions does not increase the tethered enemy's cooldown. [+/-] Needs to hold the tether for a longer duration before mana restore, in exchange, grants more time to utilize the CDR. [+/-] Tether's break range increases when tethering to two champions, but needs to hold the tether for a longer duration before the mana restore and the root. [+/-] If the ally target does not use mana as resource, there would be no mana outburst, but refunds half of Karma's mana cost.
- [Scrapped #1]
When both tether combined exceeds 1000 range, but the range between Karma and the initially targeted champion does not, Karma would be tethered to the targeted champion ignoring the champion that was in between - scrapped because tethering to two champions grants additional bonus, so there should be some penalty for not being able to hold the tethers.
- [Scrapped #2]
The tether's break range would be increased based on the size of the champion in between - scrapped because the range gained from a gigantic champion such as a full size Cho'Gath would be overpowered.
- [Extra] [R] + [W] Self Cast - Anima
Referencing the short WIP video xD
Mantra [W] can be casted on herself in any condition (even when affected by hard crowd control or stasis) as long as she is alive, which allows her soul to leave her body, having her body anchored while controlling her soul instead;
The soul form last for 5 seconds, allowing her to basic attack and cast abilities from her soul instead; any buffs and crowd control taken by the soul are transferred to the body, thus would not affect the soul form;
Both the body and the soul can be take damage, but takes halved damage, while the soul can only take damage up to 50% of her current health, in which her soul would return to her body after taking more than that amount of damage;
The soul form also have the ability to ignore unit collision; walking through enemy, dealing damage to enemy or taking damage from enemy with the soul form would mark the enemy and grants true sight for as long as she is in her soul form, if the soul form managed to survived the duration, the enemies that are marked would be dealt with 10/20/30/40/50 (+15% ability power) magic damage as her soul return to her body.
Just wrote these extras for fun xD
- [E] Inspire
Shielding ally or herself for 70/95/120/145/170 (+50% ability power) shield for 2.5 seconds, and grants 40/45/50/55/60% bonus movement speed for 1.5 seconds; same as live.
- [R] + [E] Defiance
Mantra [E] can be casted on ally or enemy champion; on ally champion cast, applies the shield and bonus movement speed from [E] Inspire and grants 30/90/150/210 (+60% ability power) bonus shield, or on enemy champion cast, after a 1.5 seconds of delay, detonates and deal 20/30/40/50 (+10% ability power) magic damage to the enemy and any nearby enemy in within 300 radius, creating something similar to the familiar "shield bomb".
The shield or the bomb would also be chained from unique champion to unique champion within 600 radius, prioritizing the nearest champion, applying the shield to ally, and applying the bomb to enemy.
Both the shield and the bomb gets weaker on each chain;
The shield gets weakened by 40% to 60% on the 2nd ally champion, weakened by 20% to 40% on the 3rd ally champion, weakened by 10% to 30% on the 4th ally champion, and weakened by 5% to 25% on the 5th ally champion;
The bomb on the other hand, gets weakened by 4/6/8/10 (-2% ability power) magic damage on each chain, down to 16/24/32/40 (+8% ability power) on the 2nd enemy champion, down to 12/18/24/30 (+6% ability power) magic damage on the 3rd enemy champion, down to 8/12/16/20 (+4% ability power) magic damage on the 4th enemy champion, and down to 4/6/8/10 (+2% ability power) magic damage on the 5th enemy champion.
- [Extra]
In case chaining to 10 champions is too easy to achieve, some restriction can be added to increase the difficulty:
The shield and the bomb can only chain up to 5 champions including the initial cast champion, unless the chain interchange between an ally champion and an enemy champion, then it would be counted as 1 champion.
For example, Ally A > Enemy A > Ally B > Enemy B, would be counted as 2 champions;
And regardless of order, Ally A > Enemy A > Enemy B > Ally B, would also be counted as 2 champions;
However, Ally A > Enemy A > Enemy B > Enemy C > Ally B > Ally C, would be counted as 4 champions, because Enemy B didn't chain to an ally, and Ally C didn't chain to an enemy;
In case it's not hard enough, the chain can only interchange between ally champion and enemy champion, in exchange, the chain no longer restrict the number of champions as long as the chain interchanges between unique ally champions and unique enemy champions; although harder to achieve, it's actually easier to understand.
- [Note]
Not to confuse the word "chained" with "bounce" like Nami's [W] or Brand's [R]; both the shield and the bomb chains to all the unique champions in range in an instance, just like how the shield works now, except that it chains from champion to champion instead of spreading from one champion to nearby champions in a radius.
- [Note]
The shield weakening should start high on earlier chain to lower the highest potential shield output on 5 champions; in other words, to prevent it from being overpowered.
- [Note]
The bomb damage should be low, mainly because it acts as an extra source of minor damage instead of being one of the main source of major damage, and secondly, unlike the shield, enemy can potentially take damage from up to 5 bombs, which is 60/90/120/150 (+30% ability power) magic damage when they stand in a cluster.
- [Power Budget]
[-] Since Mantra [E] spreads from champion to champion, that means the chain can go really far if the champions stands in a line, which although, makes it kinda interesting, but could be a little overpowered in certain situation, so the chain range could maybe be slightly toned down to about 400 radius, since it no longer spread from one champion to nearby champions in a radius, the weight is lighter. [+/-] The 300 radius detonation can easily be adjusted if it's too big or too small.
- [Gameplay]
With the change of how it spreads in chain, everyone's positioning matters, and that means more choices for Karma as well, as she would need to make the decision on whether to prioritize on giving the highest shield to the ally champion that needed it the most, to separate a cluster of enemy champions with damage that are only significant when they are standing close to each other, or simply to choose a starting point that could chain to the most champions possible, achieving the highest potential output of the ability for the situation.
- [R] Mantra
It's nice the way it is now.
But since these are just ideas anyway, so...
Don't be too serious on this one.
If she casted [R] Mantra but didn't cast any empowered abilities during the 8 seconds, she gain a stack of Mantra, which last as long as no mantra empowered ability is used, and also as long as she remains alive.
Each stack of Mantra grants additional enhancement for her next mantra empowered ability:
[R] + [Q] Soulflare - Increase the size of the lingering area and the detonation by 50 radius.
[R] + [W] Harmony / Renewal - Increase the tether break range by 40 radius.
[R] + [W] Defiance - Increase the bonus movement speed by 8%.
Can be stacked up to 5 stacks, or stacks INFINITELY for a weaker enhancement xD
But all stacks would be consumed upon casting any of the mantra empowered ability.
Of course, it's not meant to be "worthed it" in most situation, otherwise it can be really crazy; if you can survive a few minutes without using any mantra empowered ability, or if you're WILLING to spend a few minutes without using any mantra empowered ability - just to get the most effect out of a one time enhancement - then by all means go ahead, but it's just some investment that is most likely going to be wasted, but - just - might - not - be; so it's an investment you make as much as you willing to.
Since the word "Mantra" means “a word or a phrase that is repeated” according to several dictionaries I checked, so yeah, put aside the crazy ideas above, there could be some interesting reward for Karma to chant her Mantra without empowering any of her abilities.
That's all, thanks for reading.