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Karma Build Guide by duusuhh

Support Mantra Maniac

Support Mantra Maniac

Updated on May 26, 2023
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League of Legends Build Guide Author duusuhh Build Guide By duusuhh 119 7 367,654 Views 19 Comments
119 7 367,654 Views 19 Comments League of Legends Build Guide Author duusuhh Karma Build Guide By duusuhh Updated on May 26, 2023
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Runes: Standard

1 2 3
Sorcery
Summon Aery
Manaflow Band
Transcendence
Scorch

Inspiration
Cosmic Insight
Biscuit Delivery
Bonus:

+8 Ability Haste
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+6 Armor

Spells:

LoL Summoner Spell: Flash

Flash

LoL Summoner Spell: Ignite

Ignite

Threats & Synergies

Threats Synergies
Extreme Major Even Minor Tiny
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None Low Ok Strong Ideal
Extreme Threats
Ideal Synergies
Synergies
Ideal Strong Ok Low None

Champion Build Guide

Mantra Maniac

By duusuhh
Info/Stream
YO, name's duusuhh and I am a currently Platinum (decay is a ***** when you stop caring about the game xd) support player. Most of the time that I play I stream from my twitch channel
Why Karma?
Karma is a bad ***** who don't take no **** from either the enemy bot lane or her own AD.

In all seriousness, Karma brings solid damage as well as beefy shields to the bot lane. Her high damage, low cool down nuke can scare away any non-confident bot lane. The quite literal leash can setup cheesy early game kills and get an AD rolling. Her shield while not as strong as other supports makes up with a very quick burst of speed that saves more lives than you would think. The cherry on top is that all of these spells become stronger with the press of a button.

Overall Karma's kit is one that can stand on its own while also being an aid to teammates. A strong bit of damage with a shield to help others pop off. Karma is a benefit to her team across all stages of the game and can net you some free wins.
Spells
Gathering Fire (Passive): Mantra's current cooldown is Cooldown reduction icon.png reduced by 5 seconds for each enemy champion hit by Karma's damaging abilities.

Karma's passive is one of her greatest strengths. Any damage with spells you dish will reduce the cooldown of your ult. A 5 flat second CDR for each champ hit can be absurd in teamfights. Make sure to utilize your W in fights as well for maximum spell slingage


Inner Flame (Q): ACTIVE: Karma fires a burst of spiritual energy in the target direction that detonates on the first enemy hit, dealing magic damage to all enemies within the explosion and slowing them by 35% for 1.5 seconds.

Your main source of damage lies in Karma's Q. Although rather short range, the damage and slow easily make up for the range. A solid lane harass tool that can poke down a majority of bot lanes.


Focused Resolve (W): Karma exerts her will over the target enemy champion or monster, dealing them magic damage and forming a Focused Resolve tether between them and her for up to 2 seconds, during which the target is revealed. If the tether persists for the duration, the target is dealt the same magic damage and is revealed and rooted for a duration.

Karma's W is a weird. Essentially a leash, you have to risk your HP bar to try and root opponents. With a fairly sizeable and not well tracked range, a solid root can shift momentum of a 2v2. Do be careful to not charge into a completely unwinnable situation just to land a cheeky root however.


Inspire (E): Karma shields the target allied Champion icon champion or herself for 2.5 seconds, granting the target bonus movement speed for 1.5 seconds.

Gee Bill! How come your mom lets you have a shield and move speed. Solid shield strength and move speed to boot. Not as strong as Janna or Lulu, but the move speed is enough to get the job done.


Mantra (R): Karma empowers her next basic ability within 8 seconds for an additional effect.

Basically, what if we made a champ that was IMBA every ~25 secs. You start the game with a free level. One of the more obscure facts is that this spell is usable while CC'd.
Empowered Spells
Every spell below is under the effect of Mantra (R), all of which scale with levels of Mantra.



Soulflare (Q): Inner Flame detonates upon hitting an enemy or reaching maximum range, dealing bonus magic damage in an increased area. A field lingers around the detonation for 1.5 seconds, slowing enemies within by 50%, after which it explodes, dealing magic damage to all enemies inside.

No idea how this spell has dodged nerfs. With a measly 100 AP you can easily take a fifth of an AD's HP if they dare even look at you. The fact you don't even have to directly hit someone to do damage is downright OP. Most of the time the damage from the field won't hit and that's alright. Just try and surprise opponents with the slightly larger range.


Renewal (W): Focused Resolve's root duration is increased, and heals Karma for 20% (+ 1% per 100 AP) of missing health on-cast and once more when the tether lasted its full duration, or if the target dies while tethered.
Very easy regen. You can use W on any jungle creep, making for very. Easy. Regen. I hardly find myself using R->W in any capacity against laners. More often than not I just run up river and use it on scuttle or nearest camp.


Defiance (E): Inspire's target receives bonus shield, and the effects are extended to allied champions near it, except they only gain 30% of the shield amount.
Big time shields on whomever you target. Minor shields are donated to those around the cast but full movespeed. Very good to chase or buff whatever your win con is.
Laning phase
Karma can easily be the queen of trades. Your starting item (shield or spellthief's)should indicate how you intend to play. With shield start expect to lose some trading power in favor of sustain. Spellthief's allows for better trading with Q for early levels.

Level 1
Karma doesn't have the strongest level 1. The R -> Q combo is deceptively strong but on a 30 sec CD. Land a cheeky combo if possible, but get out ASAP. Recent buffs to Karma mean she is back to a very spammable Q, lower mana cost and more mana regen are ideal buffs. Try and play forward when Q is available as its range is rather short. Your Q has a decent AOE so don't be afraid to hit a little bit of a wave to get some damage out(as long as you aren't ruining the lane and shoving harder than the other bot lane).

Level 2-6
Karma's E opens up a whole lot of aggression. Not only are you being shielded from some oncoming damage you get MOVE SPEED! ITS INSANE! Use the increased burst of speed to get close enough for a standard Q or RQ if possible. The shield isn't too strong in these early levels so still be cautious. With your full kit at level 3 not much has changed. Your W isn't too useful for playing wave control. Use it in tandem with your E to latch on right before a gank. Otherwise use the RW only in extreme situations where an RE won't save you or your AD. With more levels in Q, your presence is felt so much more. By level 5 your RQ hits for at least 200 and is a serious threat to the enemy bot lane. Use this to your advantage to try and pressure the opposing duo back.
Roaming/Teamfight
Karma doesn't benefit too much from roaming. Without hard CC or any repositioning abilities, the extent of your ganks is an RQ followed by a W that will surely be broken due to some mobility ability. Unless mid is heavily over extended, just stay bot and ensure your ad is keeping pace. However, don't be afraid to help around bot side jungle when your jungler is present. These closer and more intimate engagements favor karma. RQ has more impact and you may be able to keep a W chained long enough to actually root. Don't even worry about top unless some fiesta **** is happening lmaoOOOOOOoo

Karma's biggest X-factor is the insane amount of shield output in the mid/late game. Most of the time the RQ combo has no point in being used. Taking the full support rout it is so much better to unleash an RE before a teamfight, hopefully catching the opposition off guard or taking the brunt of some initial burst. Hang back and keep applying shields to the most targeted player. Any damage done by your spells will decrease your R cooldown, leading to another tide turning RE to finish fights.

OK so 10.21 made it so Karma's CDR on ability damage scales now. It might actually be good now to throw an RQ, granted that it will hit at least 2 champs. The dream now is only 4 champs for a free R instead of 5. Feel free to sling it out when shoving down a lane with enemies under tower.
Build
General Path - Echoes of Helia

+ --> + --> --> or or -->


I don't know how much longer Echoes of Helia is going to be the best item for Karma but holy ****. This used to be a paragraph about what parts to grab of Moonstone at what time but that item is literally irrelavant. I don't know why this item is in the game. Just grab bandle glass on first back and complete Helia's as fast as possible. Item just wins the game. Go CDR boots first if you wanna have fun, nothing but Heila's items if you want to win.

Mandate is no longer mythic and is the freest(?) damage buff for Karma. Literally no downsides besides I can't stack this item. Allows you to play even more aggro with increased damage from AP and item's passive. CDR is always a need if you want to attempt to try and deal any damage which thankfully this item gives 30( or 35 if you count mythic passive).

Next on the list is usually the decision between Staff of Flowing Water or Redemption . Like the notes on the build say it just depends on your team at the time. Some times one of your mages is going absolutely mental and just a little more AP can send their damage potential soaring. Other times its better to have a chimp mid than an actual mid laner. In case of the latter just grab Redemption . The massive AOE heal/damage can easily save a fight in mid/late game. Of course this is assuming your team is competent enough to play for the win. Sometimes its worth it to just play for yourself and grab Cosmic Drive .

Cosmic Drive is an exceptional item on Karma, with either Mandate or Moonstone you will have enough AP with fully upgraded support item to get the bonus CDR and MS. Both contribute to Karma playing URF in a ranked playlist. Again consider this item when


At 3 items grab a Wardstone . If you're at 3 items this will be to top of your support build. It upgrades to Vigilant at level 13 and gives major stat buffs. Due to its upgrade later in the game it might just be better to skip until last item given the increased vision caps being moved to the upgrade.

General Path - Shurelya's (Maybe 1/100 games would you ever want this atm)

or + --> + --> or or --> or -->

Shurelya's is an outstanding buy for when you need to run into the enemy team at dangerous velocities. As you might expect, this means you need to be slightly tankier than other builds might. However, most of the build is close to the same.

Starting item can change, I personally think the extra mana regen is too good to pass up, but a passive lane could use Relic Shield . Your first back should always include a Kindlegem or Bandleglass . Regardless of which items I try to include brown boots .

With Shurelya's complete, your CDR will be decent and only scale from there. Complete Ionain's next to sit at 48 haste. Where you go from here is up to you. I try and stick with normal enchanter items like Staff but you can definitely grab some more hp and armor with something like Zeke's
Patches/Misc.
10.25 - Support items are cheaper. Mandate grants allies more damage, Moonstone better in short engages so may be better on Karma now. Shurelya's just slightly worse.

11.1 - Karma base shield strength increased, most notably in later levels, stronger late game shielding yes yes yes daddy likes

Guide update 1/25/21 - Updated to reflect new feeling and emotions towards Moonstone Renewer.

11.3 - HAHAHAH YOU FOOLS AT RIOT GAMES INC. YOU HAVE GIVEN KARMA BACK HER ABSURD LANE PRESENCE. WHEN WILL YOU LEARN. (For real tho making her Q have reduced mana cost while also giving her more base mana regen is something that will push Karma is a very good direction in all walks of life)

11.5 - Cooldown of Q has been flat reduced by a second at all ranks, may be worth more to take double adaptive into lane, will test.

Guide Update 3/20 - Added new CDR focused build, changed some match-ups, still can't get my imgur links to work to show wards so use your imagination.

Guide Update 3/23 - WE HIT DIAMOND LADS, YOU CAN OTP KARMA AND CLIMB THROUGH PLAT. IT'S POSSIBLE.

Guide Update 4/8 - Added Guardian runes, an easier on the eyes build path, and some match-ups.

11.11 - Moonstone given a tiny buff making it an almost go to for Karma. Wardstone got interesting changes that mainly focus and giving supports more relevance in later stages of game. Will be interesting to see a build focused on CDR with an upgraded moonstone.

11.13 - Moonstone tiny buff from 11.11 tinily(?) buffed. Scales better now, might be better than Shurelya's in most comps, Moonstone no good when ape comp go bananas.

11.14 - Solo lane Karma is gone 🦀🦀. With base attack damage nerfed it is even more important to make sure your Qs are cash money. Not too much impact to support role over all though.

12.7 - Near year long hiatus over, Karma is still the same, prob just go Shurelya's over Moonstone tho.

12.12 - Nothing ever happens to this champ any more :(

13.10 - Haha what happend to this game since I last played.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, Karma is a very versatile champ that regardless of what lane you play, will have some impact. I am doing my best to update guide with matchups and patches. Feel free to leave comments, first guide so sorry if **** xd.
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