Karma or Bard? (Hear me out.)

Onwodori·3/3/2015, 5:51:50 AM·1 votes·2,573 views

Hey there, Master Fledgling here.

So, recently I have looked some into both Karma and Bard, and while the latter is out, I am very intrigued with them both. Trouble is, one is expensive and one is even MORE expensive, so I do not know whom I should save up for (ultimately I can buy them both, but for now.) I plan to use them as a jungler and support as those are my two roles, for both seem viable in them at the current meta and time, and they both seem like fun, powerful choices.

Thanks,

-MF

4 Comments

TrueMischF3/3/2015, 8:46:12 PM2 votes

Bard appears to be better than karma conventionally. But if you intend on jungling bard you will need to do something really cheesy I believe. I intend to test ap/atkspd bard and see how that works(basing that off of meeps). It's up to you but if I were looking for a jungler/support I would look for a jungler that makes a "cheesy" support rather than the opposite. Someone like jarvan.

Raxicor3/3/2015, 5:55:16 AM1 votes

I don't know about Karma's jungle clear times, but Bard is super slow at the moment. I say wait until he goes free and play him for yourself if you don't have access to the PBE.

Keisto3/3/2015, 11:56:11 PM1 votes

I think your best bet would be to start with Bard in the support role due to his versatility and challenge and thus, re-playability.

You might want to stick to some junglers that suit the role a bit better, such as Sejuani , JarvanIV and RekSai (or if you really like the off-meta stuff: Fizz and Aatrox ) etc.. The reason I say this is mainly because Karma jungle doesn't exactly have the health or damage sustain to clear as consistently as other junglers comparitively.

Karma s Abilities in the Jungle {Referencing the lolWiki}: Right away you have her passive, Gathering Fire, which is wasted because it only activates on champions. Karma's Q, Inner Flame, does about 100-200 damage in the first grouping of levels with an approximate cooldown of 6.5 seconds. The average jungle camp has approx 1000 health within your first rounds of clearing, and with your other two abilities (W only works on champs and E is a shield) not doing damage you'll end up clearing camps on a ~10-15 second timer, which is insanely slow. Clear times like this also lead to losing more health and needing to back faster- with less money to boot.

With Bard on the horizon, many have speculated that his jungle was going to be amazing, but this assumption was quickly shut down by DanielZKlein, a champion designer at Riot. Replying, "we made sure jungle isn't his strongest role. He doesn't really have the damage to clear anything." {Source}.

I hope that helped in some sort of way!

Best of luck on the Rift, AfroWairus

Ionian StarChild3/6/2015, 8:19:17 AM1 votes

It all depends on your playstyle actually regarding supporting. Karma is an engage/disengage, kite/chase type support. Bard is close to a more traditional support playstyle (think along the lines of Janna and Nami).