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@Riot Meddler - Karma's Direction and Uniqueness

Winterkill·12/23/2016, 11:50:55 PM·6 votes·1,171 views

I am going into 2017 being more optimistic about Riot Games towards Karma. I know her splash art is being updated which I cannot wait for. Karma just received a new skin that is amazing. Right now I feel inspired to create more communication about Karma and hope, at least, one Riot employee comes in and communicates with us about her. She has received little to no communication about what exactly Riot is having a problem with her. I am going to create several threads breaking down what works on Karma, what can be tweaked a little more to make her more unique, or what just isn't cutting it.

Please feel free to comment on the topic and insert your own ideas and thoughts.

New players and anyone else that really doesn't play Karma that well, will probably say . . . . there is nothing really wrong with her. Despite the overbuffed shield values, is Karma a somewhat balanced champion? Game health wise she is. The problem with Karma is that she has a kit with some amazing things on it, but it just doesn't really fit what she is supposed to be doing. Karma is not unique and suffers from a kit that really has no direction.

Is Karma a tank, support, battlemage, poke champion, or something else entirely? Karma needs a direction and she needs to be more unique. Here is one idea I have that people might like . . . and I would love some feedback. Thank you.

Karma should be a battlemage with abilities that can be used with or on allies. Her niche should be the fact that she has access to three different types of ULTS, but not at the same powerlevel of an actual ULT. She should be able to combo these mantra abilities together. Her mantra system functions a lot like Heimerdinger ULT. That is unique to him and to make it stand out on Karma, it needs to be done in a way that is unique to Karma. Here is my idea.

Remove current passive. Replace current passive with new passive that actually gathers fire and grants Karma a mantra charge. Here it is below:

Gathering Fire: Casting 4 abilities on Karma grants her a mantra charge. Karma can store one mantra charge at level 6 and increase the amount when she levels it up. When Karma levels her mantra up it increases the amount charges she can store as well as the damage it does. Building cooldown reduction on Karma decreases the amount of time Karma has between casting another mantra ability.

Each of Karma's basic abilities, Q-W-E have two different animations when an ability is cast. Casting a Q waves her hands as she shoots it out. Casting a W right after, Karma gracefully raises her leg and she shoots out the ability. Think of the different animations Karma can use when casting basic abilities that also plays on her passive and actually gathers something. Think of movements like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKiYbyJU4iA every time she casts a basic ability.

I would love to hear what you guys think and if you have your own ideas.

Stay frosty,

  • Hiemal.

32 Comments

MisterShameless12/24/2016, 12:33:33 AM4 votes

I was planning to make a large post on Karma as well since I've mained her back in season 4 and try to do a break down of what they tried to accomplish with Karma since her rework til now. I hope they address Karma and I do want to try and cover as much as I can from what I've seen and learned. She is getting more attention with her larger fanbase and flamers, I really hope Riot talks to the veterans rather than just the new comers, Karma is hard to understand even to the vets. I do find that her identity is "Jack of All Trades, Master of None" which I personally feel is fitting to Karma as someone who you would trust to lead you into battle, being able to fill what is missing from your group (even if she isn't the best at it). Sure a big problem with this is that it doesn't go along well with her lore, which is her kit is lacking a solid place to maintain a battle mage role from Riot's changes by removing so much from her kit. Having an identity as complex as a "Jack of All Trades, Master of None" can feel underwhelming when there are plenty of other champions that can fill the role better than she ever could, however, what she can do is easily change to whats needed by building around her team (she has always needed a team to play around her, whither she is ahead or behind). I plan to expand on this topic in my planned post. She is a leader and as a leader, needs to be resourceful and provide a path for her team to take.

A big issue I have right now is that Riot is destroying her "Jack of All Trades, Master of None" with all the changes by removing her abilities instead of expanding on them. She provided so much more on her release than she does now. I should really get around to making that post because I really dislike Riot's direction with Karma at this time and hope that the newer players start to understand her a bit more.

What are you're thoughts on this?

SilverSquid12/24/2016, 2:09:23 AM3 votes

Loving the positivity.

I am not good with animations&visuals, so I will only comment on gameplay.

Gathering Fire: Casting 4 abilities on Karma grants her a mantra charge. Karma can store one mantra charge at level 6 and increase the amount when she levels it up. When Karma levels her mantra up it increases the amount charges she can store as well as the damage it does. Building cooldown reduction on Karma decreases the amount of time Karma has between casting another mantra ability.

If we do some kind of amunition system (or make it akin to what Annie uses), then I don't get why you would want CDR to affect how often mantra can be cast.... it automatically does. More CDR means more spells cast means mantra recharges faster? Just increasing the stacks to 2 at lvl6 and then adressing specifically what the spells do at what level would already do the trick.

Depends a lot on what you want her to do with mantra, tho.

IxtaliKing12/25/2016, 11:13:36 AM3 votes

Each of Karma's basic abilities, Q-W-E have two different animations when an ability is cast. Casting a Q waves her hands as she shoots it out. Casting a W right after, Karma gracefully raises her leg and she shoots out the ability. Think of the different animations Karma can use when casting basic abilities that also plays on her passive and actually gathers something.

You have no idea how much I love the sound of that, +1. Movements like the ones in that video would suit Karma perfectly.

SchmidttyGames12/24/2016, 12:50:49 AM2 votes

As a Support Main, I find Karma to be one of the strongest and most versatile weapons in my arsenal. She has (in my opinion) the best shield in League with her Mantra-E, and can actually hit someone with some steak on it at any point in the game. She scales well, and when built to heal/shield, her late game R/E is a game changer.

I, personally, think that she's in a good place for the Support Role. But I can understand how her kit would be lacking in other roles.