Revert/Rework concept for Karma
Karma’s one of my favorite champions in the game, and has been fro quite some time. She’s got an interesting aesthetic going for more of a spiritual feel rather than a magic one, she’s a stoic character, one of my favorite archetypes of character. She’s great at kiting, she’s fun for me to play, and she’s Ionian, which is my favorite region. However recently her gameplay’s been lacking. She’s a champion who relies a lot on brute force and kiting despite the fact that she’s supposed to be a battlemage and enchanter hybrid. Her Mantra’s don’t feel impactful, nor do they reward correct choices depending on what mantra’d Ability you use.
Now I’ve designed multiple rework concepts for Karma, but this one is a little different. Recently, Riot has stated that they want to give Karma a mini revert, and wanted to know what players liked about the old Karma that they wish the new Karma had. Now I didn’t get the opportunity to play old Karma. I’ve done my research and learned her abilities, but I’ve never got the chance to mess around with the abilities she had in the past. So I’m light of this fact I have put together yet another concept creation, one that mixes the best parts of the old Karma’s kit, and current Karma’s kit to make something entirely new. So here we go.
[New] Passive: Equilibrium Every few seconds Karma’s next auto attack becomes empowered against the next enemy champion, creating a tether between them and the nearest allied champion or Karma
- Magic damage per second: 10 (+15 per level) (+20% AP)
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Heal: 6% (+.5% per level) damage dealt to champion
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Root duration: .5/.75/1 second (1/6/11)
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Cooldown: 18-6 seconds (scaling with level)
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Tether range Range: 700
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Tether lasts for three seconds or until broken by moving out of range
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If the tether lasts its full duration the enemy champion(s) is rooted
Tethered Enemies:
- take magic damage per second
- rooted at the end of the tethers duration
Tethered Allies/Karma
- Heal for a % of all damage dealt to the tethered enemy
- If tether kills the enemy, the ally gets the kill credit
[reworked] Q: Inner flame After charging, Karma shoots out a ball of spirit energy that explodes on the first target struck, dealing magic damage and slowing enemies hit in a small Area
- Magic damage: Changed from 80/125/170/215/260 (+60% AP) to 60/95/130/165/200 (+50% AP)
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No charge: 60/95/130/165/200 (+50% AP)
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1 second charge: 81/128/175/216/270 (+ 67.5% AP) (35% increase)
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2 second charge: 90/142.5/195/247.5/300 (+ 75% AP) (50% increase)
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Slow: 20% for 1.25 seconds (unchanged)
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Cooldown: from 7/6.5/6/5.5/5 to 6.5/6/5.5/5/4.5 seconds
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Range: from 950 to 750
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Mana: from 50/55/60/65/70 to 40/45/50/55/60
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Karma can hold a full charge for one second, not releasing the spell refunds half it’s CD and mana cost.
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Charging this spell doesn’t interrupt Karma’s movement and her other abilities can be cast while charging.
[reworked] RQ: Soulflare After a .75 second delay Karma releases spirit energy in a target location, damaging enemies hit, and leaving behind an unstable zone that slows enemies inside. The unstable zone explodes after 1.5 seconds damaging all enemies hit
- First explosion damage: Inner flame max charge damage
- Second explosion damage: Increased from 35/140/245/350 (+60% AP) to 50/150/250/350 (+90% AP)
- Slow: 50% (Same)
- (Ground targeted) Range: 950 (Same)
[reverted/reworked] W: Focused Resolve Karma uses her fans to release focused energy in a cone, damaging all enemies hit and knocking back enemies hit in the inner half of the cone.. Projectiles hit with this ability are bounced straight back, and deal damage to any enemy champions they collide with.
- Magic Damage:80/120/160/200/240 (+ 50% AP)
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Reflect projectile damage: 80/120/160/200/240 (+ 50% AP)
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Bolt range: 600 units from origin
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Knockback: 250 units
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Cooldown: 18/16/14/12/10
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Cone Range: 600 (1/5 circle)
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Mana: 80 at all ranks
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Projectiles hit in the area are reflected back as spirit energy, traveling a fixed distance in a straight line away from the cone, damaging and knocking back the first enemy champion hit (ignores minions/monsters)
[reverted/reworked] RW: Revitalize Focused resolve deals bonus damage and heals Karma and any other allies in the area scaling with their missing health
- Bonus damage: 35/85/135/185 (+20% AP)
- Heal: 70/130/190/250 (+40% AP) (+1% per 1% missing Health)
[buffed/nerfed] E: inspire Karma shields a target ally for 2.5 seconds, granting them a movespeed buff over 1.5 seconds
- Shield strength: Increased from 70/95/120/145/170 (+50% AP) to 60/95/130/165/200 (+60% AP)
- Bonus movement speed: 40/45/50/55/60% (Same)
- Cooldown: 10/9.5/9/8.5/8 (Same)
- Cast Range: Reduced from 800 to 700
- Mana cost: Increased from 60/65/70/75/80 to 75/75/80/80/85
[nerfed] RE: Defiance Karma overloads her shield, causing it to to increase in shielding,** cleanse the target,** and instantly damage all enemies in a short radius around the shielded target.
- Damage: 50/125/200/275 (+60% AP)
- Bonus shield: Decreased from 30/90/150/210 (+ 60% AP) to 50/100/150/200 (+40% AP)
- Damage Range: 300 units around shielded ally
- [Removed] No longer shields/haste’s multiple adjacent allies.
- [New] Cleanses shielded target of CC
[nerfed] R: Mantra Passively, Mantra's cooldown is lowered whenever Karma damages/interacts with enemy champions
Upon activation Karma's next ability gains a bonus effect and deals bonus magic damage.
- Cooldown: Increasedrom 45/42/39/36 to 60/55/50/45 seconds
- auto attacking enemy champions reduces Mantra’s cooldown by 1.5/2/2.5/3%
- enemy champions hit by Karma’s Q or W reduce mantra’s cooldown by 2/3/4/5%
- Enemy champions who strike Karma’s shield reduce Mantra’s cooldown by 2/3/4/5%
With this Kit Karma still retains her strengths and weaknesses, she gains more counterplay, has more enchanter and battlemage aspects, and retains a lot about what both old and new Karma players love.
STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES Strengths Strong against dive comps Very effective mid range Good poke High kiting potential Flexible ultimate Strong early game
Weaknesses Little reliable CC Immobile Ultimate doesn’t scale up with other ultimate abilities, especially in the later stages of the game Lower effective range
EACH ABILITY CHANGE IN DETAIL Passive: In terms of Karma’s passive I basically took both iterations of her tether and made it into a new passive ability. Like old Karma, the tether once again attaches to both enemies and allies, but the effect is different AND Karma doesn’t have to be tethered every time. In terms of how it’s like the current Karma, it retains its delayed root. These aspects have been weakened so the passive doesn’t become too powerful, however it adds a lot more to Karma’s kit. Using passive and your E movespeed for extra maneuverability, granting an ally kiting potential, making risky dives riskier, all the good stuff.
Q/RQ: I wanted to retain Karma’s current Q as a spell. It has a soft spot in my heart despite how bland it is. However, I did decide to spice it up. Slightly lowering its cooldown and giving it more damage, but only when charged. Additionally I lowered its range from 950 down to 750 to force Karma to be a little more aggressive when loading a charged shot. A few little things I should mention is that Karma’s Q charge should be visible, so enemies can react easily, and often times charging for 1 second may be more effective than holding for full charge, since a one second charge has a big increase in power much more quickly. Similar to Sion a full charge usually isn’t the most effective option every time.
RQ does the most damage out of any ulted ability, but has the least utility. RQ has been changed to be ground targeted and deals more damage, at the expense of a delay that makes it easier to avoid. No other signifigant changes though. I found Soulflare to be the least “spammy” ultimate Karma’s got in her arsenal. Support, tank, and Mage Karma all use it effectively so no big changes.
W/RW: Welcome back heavenly wave. Basically the same spell with two new effects. One, it knocks people back, and not that far, just like an Vi Q knockback not like Lee sin Kick or anything ridiculous. And Two, it reflects projectiles. Now it isn’t like windwall or unbreakable, this spell is a wave and then it’s gone, it would require timing to pull off a bounce back, but it would be rewarding to do so.
And the AOE healing is back, but instead of % missing health heals it’s bonus healing based off missing health. Same effect but easier to balance. Also deals more damage, but not a lot more.
E/RE: Tiny changes here. The TLDR is a lower range and weaker ultimate in exchange for a better shield. I want Karma to be a support that fights by other's sides, not a shield spammer. So to do this, I decided that making her stay close to the fight in exchange for more power was the best option.
RE only works on one person and the shield is less ridiculous on said person, but it also grants CC immunity on the shielded ally so it’s not as good in teamfights as W but it’d much better as helping a single ally. Oh also SHIELDBOMB, one of the biggest travesties since Riot decided to name Twitches ultimate Rata-tat-tat way back when. Bring it back just like you did Spray and Pray.
R: Longer cooldown to force people to make good decisions on which ultimate ability to use, and current passive is ultimate passive. Pretty self explanatory.
Overall, with less effective range, more powerful basic abilities, more individualized ultimates, and the better aspects of both iterations of Karma, here’s what I came up with. I hope Riot does a better job than me.