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Karma update Ideas

jocomotion·4/30/2018, 5:01:16 AM·1 votes·1,842 views

Well, it's been about 5 months now, and Karma hasn't been updated yet like Riot said she would, So... I'mma make another post to pass the time. So Yeah, I've done this a bunch of times, and this is the like, fourth time I've tried coming up with a new kit for Karma that I'd like to see implemented. A few key points I'm looking to hit with this particular Idea is the following.

  • Give her back her fan's/shieldbomb in a way that's fair. (on a side note, adding an ability that utilizes her fans)
  • Pull back on Karma's Q damage and spreading spreading her damage to the rest of her kit.
  • Give Karma's W some uniqueness (separate it from Leblanc tether)
  • Make Karma less oppressive in duo lanes in exchange for more utility.
  • Make Karma's ult less accessible for enemies to work against, but more impactful for Karma to work with.
  • Retain Karma's ability to go Top, Mid, and Support.

Without further ado, here's what I've got

Passive: Gathering Fire (2 part)

Part 1:

  • Karma's auto attacks deal 20(+6.5 per level) (+15% AP) bonus Magic damage

Part 2:

  • Karma gains a stack of gathering Fire when using her abilities/auto attacking. At 5 stacks her next ability gains a bonus effect.
  • Every time Karma gains a stack of gathering fire she reduces the cooldown of her abilities by 10%
  • Auto attacks against champions grant 1 stack of gathering fire.
  • Inner flame/soulflare:
  • Gains one stack per enemy champion hit
  • At five stacks Heals all allies hit and Karma for 20 (+6 per level) (+ 30% AP) (+5% Missing HP)
  • Focused Resolve/Renewal
  • Gains one stack for every second tethered to an enemy/ally
  • At five stacks Karma can cast focused resolve for 60/40/20/0% (1/6/11/16) of the mana cost
  • Inspire/Defiance
  • Grants 1 stack of gathering fire if shield is broken.
  • At five stacks shield cleanses the target of CC and grants CC immunity for .5/1/1.5/2 seconds

Originally I made this passive a LOT simpler, but after some feedback from Elegant Egotistic and friends alike, It was universally considered boring, so I took Karma's current passive and brought it up to todays standards, now I'm afraid the opposite problem has occurred, where it's too complex, but yeah.

Reasoning: Karma's current passive has some good points, it's a decent skill check, rewarding aggressive players and people who can consistently land Q or stay tethered to enemies, but that's about all its good for. The passive is boring, invisible almost. Most people playing against Karma don't know what her passive does because it's usually not that important. On top of that, Karma's passive only effects her ultimate. Sure her ult ties into the rest of her kit, but this means when her ultimate is off cooldown Karma essentially doesn't have a passive. Finally Her passive doesn't interact healthfully with her kit. Having Gathering fire reduce a flat few seconds rather than a % of the cooldown makes rushing cooldown reduction a bit too powerful on Karma, and because of that it creates another roadblock in balancing.

So my goal was to have Karma's passive have similar skill checks, but have it interact better with her entire kit rather than just her ultimate. By having her abilities gain bonus effects Karma players have key points of strength that players need to capitalize on or play around, and good Karma players will know how to utilize their stacks to the fullest, as well as gain more. It also gave me the chance to play up her battlemage theme a bit more, with every ability potentially granting an edge in a fight if used well.

Q: Inner flame

  • Missile speed is slower than current Q speed, Range is Lower (from 950 to 800), and cone width is widest at the end (300 units wide)
  • Damage reduced from 80/125/170/215/260 (+60% AP) to 80/115/150/185/220 (+70% AP)
  • [New] Karma's Q changed from a exploding projectile to a slow cone ability that damages all enemies it passes through (Same range, slower travel time)
  • [New] Enemies hit beyond the first three take 40% reduced damage
  • enemies are only slowed down when moving towards Karma

Reasoning: Karma's current Q holds a lot of power in her kit. A mid to long range skillshot AOE that explodes around the initial target hit with high base damage, a decent ratio, a low cooldown, a slow, and 0 damage fall off. With all this in mind I decided to tone down at least one of these qualities of Karma's Q to grant power to the rest of her kit.

I decided to hit Karma's range, base damage, and add some fall off damage. The range was hit simply because I planned to buff the habitability of the ability, so nerfing its range hopefully would give the enemy a way to avoid being poked down. The 40% reduction beyond the first 3 enemies hit was another skill check; Good players will land more full damage Q's than unskilled ones. It also checks Karma's waveclear potential to not be broken. And finally the base damage nerf in the late game. This is mostly due to the fact that Karma's inner flame base damage is just ridiculously high, to compensate I granted her a bonus 10% AP ratio, but unless you build more than 400 AP, this ability will deal less damage overall.

QR: Soulflare

  • Slow changed from 50% to 40/50/60/70%
  • Bonus damage of initial blast Lowered from 30%AP to 10%AP
  • AP Ratio of second blast increased from 60% AP to 90% AP
  • [New] Projectile changed to a cone (longer range; from 950 to 1000, wider width, and faster speed than normal Q would be)
  • Does not deal reduced damage for passing through enemies
  • Range increased from 950 to 1000, area of the cone is overall larger

Reasoning: I've decided to make every one of Karma's ultimate abilities feel like an ultimate by amping their power up at the expense of Mantra's cooldown. Currently each of Karma's ultimate abilities feel like juiced up basic abilities and not really like ultimates. With these changes, hopefully that will change.

Increasing the slow and the AP ratio of the second explosion while slightly decreasing the AP ratio of the first will hopefully allow Karma to more consistently hit the second half of the explosion and grant her a better reward for doing so, while at the same time punishing those who can only hit the first wave of damage. Since the projectile is now a cone rather than a circle, it covers a larger area, granting Karma some situational utility for a stronger AOE. On top of that, body blocking this ability isn't a thing anymore since the initial blast doesn't deal nearly as much damage, but the second blast will. On a side note: Windwall and Unbreakable will still stop this ability.

W: Focused resolve

  • Mana cost changed from 50/55/60/65/70 on cast to 17/19/21/23/25 mana per second
  • Tether duration changed from 2 seconds to infinate (or when out of mana)
  • Root durration changed from 1/1.25/1.5/1.75/2 seconds to 1.5 seconds at all ranks
  • Cooldown increased from 12 seconds to 15 seconds
  • Magic damage per second changed from 30/55/80/105/130 (+ 45% AP) to 3/3.5/4/4.5/5% (+1.5% per 100 AP) max health
  • Enemies who stay tethered for 2 seconds are de-buffed with Resolve
  • enemies with Resolve are rooted and take 45/80/115/150/185 (+70% AP) magic damage if they walk out of tether range or if tether is broken
  • Karma will expel Tethers by holding Focused resolve for 1 second
  • [New] If more than one enemy is tethered, 10/12.5/15/17.5/20% of the damage done to one enemy effects other enemies as well as true damage
  • [New] Tethered allies/Karma take 10/12.5/15/17.5/20% reduced damage from all sources.
  • If Karma runs out of mana or dies, the tether will disappear without rooting or damaging enemies

Reasons: Karma's tether is pretty.... bland. Ok it's really bland. It's a point and click Leblanc tether with worse range but slightly more consistent damage. I wanted to make her tether more unique while still keeping it as a tether ability.

With this version the tether doesn't deal much damage at first, but by staying in tether range and whittling the enemy down. With the fact that Karma (and other tethered allies) Ignore a portion of the armor and MR champions have, as well as doing % damage virtually indefinitely Karma's W would become a much more prevalent part of her kit. Add on the passive of gathering fire allowing Karma to tether to multiple champions and this ability can be devastating in the right hands. Skilled players can have three tethers up simultaneously while kiting perfectly, while newer players will still get some use out of the ability.

RW: Renewal

  • Karma summons a circle that follows with her for 4/5/6/7 seconds
  • 450/500/550/600 units wide
  • The circle is basically focused resolve, but to all enemy/ally champions in the area.
  • Enemies who stay in the circle for 2 seconds will be rooted once the circle dissipates or if they touch the walls.

Honestly I'm not too sure about this variant. It replaces the multiple tethers with a large circle that follows Karma and grants the same effects as focused resolve.

E: Inspire

  • Shield duration changed from 4 seconds to 2.5 seconds
  • Shield AP ratio increased from (50%AP) to (60%AP)

Shields able to be spammed more, but doesn't stick around for as long. A bit more skill expression when timing your shields. You could either shield them early for the movement speed to dodge an incoming skill shot or dodge as the skillshot hits their face,but you have to now make the choice. movin on

RE: Defiance

  • Bonus shield ratio decreased from (60%AP) to (40%AP)
  • Shield duration increased from 4 seconds to 5 seconds
  • [New] Deals 100/150/200/250 (+60% AP) magic damage around the shielded target once the shield is broken
  • [Removed] no longer grants shield/movespeed buff to allies around initial target

So a lot of things to note here. with item 3190 and item 2065 back in the game Karma's ult E, isn't unique anymore. Couple that with the fact that it's hard to balance and We've got a problem. So instead I decided to make Renewal the AOE support ability and Make Defiance the single target support ability. Plus now.. ya'know the name DEFIANCE makes since. You're defying the hard CC put on you/your ally. Obviously shield bomb had to come back, but I didn't want it to be too powerful, so I added a timer on it. Break the shield, the timer stops. And for tank Karma mains you now have to make do with a shield that scales off your missing health instead of a Heal that scales off your missing health. Probably means you'll be more AP reliant, but you can still build tank with this plus the healing on W and the % damage on W too.

Edit: Shield bomb is in her passive

R: Mantra

  • Cooldown increased from 45/42/39/36 seconds to 90/75/60/45 seconds
  • [New] If the 8 seconds pass and Karma doesn't use a mantra'd ability, it goes on a 10 second cooldown

Yep, this is where a major nerf comes in. I buffed all of her ultimate abilities, made them have more impact, more decision oriented, and more unique, but in exchange I HARD nerfed the ult cooldown. It's double the cooldown at rank 1 for Pete's sake. Not to mention now Q only shortens the CD by 5% per enemy hit at rank 1 rather than a flat amount of seconds. But yeah, that's the price to pay for actual balance. You can't buff all the Ultimates AND have the mantra not change. The extra mana on cast is meant to be experimental.

Edit: Removed pointless mana cost

So yeah... that's the fourth one I've made, and like the proceeding three I like it better than the last one I made. The links to the other three will be left here: Try 3: https://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/gameplay-balance/y1IB3X9e-karma-mini-rework-concept-take-3 Try 2: https://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/gameplay-balance/LGUBzT0O-karma-update-take-two First try: https://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/gameplay-balance/p3XmvjE4-karmas-balancing

Edit: Made a few edits on Karma's Q and RQ to make the missile speed and width more clear, as well as fixed some typo's on W. Also added a slash to represent changes in numbers

2 Comments

Elegant Egoistic4/30/2018, 12:45:11 PM1 votes

i desperately wish riot would bring back her fan-weapons but i know they wont do it so i'd suggest they could at least make them appear as skill animations for her basic skins ( traditional, sakura and sun-goddess)...concerning the kit concept u made, i honestly didnt feel impressed about it and especially the passive idea.