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Karma Build Guide by

「10.16」🆃🅷🅴 🅲🅷🅾🆂🅴🅽

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Ty for helping me climb, very cool guide.

(8) |

Thanks for the kind words DaWolf!

Hi, you have a typo in the guide, in the boots section of the runes, you call Karma - Sona :)

(8) |

all fixed! thanks for the notice :D

I love playing Karma, and I have around 179k mastery score on her now. Recently I've been trying out my funny "Glacial Augment + Ingenious Hunter" Karma build. Personally I found this build to work really well, better than the traditional Karma, and I wanted to ask your opinion on it. Basically it's building Hextech Icegun plus Twin Shadows to get very strong slow.

The thing I found frustrating as a traditional Karma is that Athene's is incredibly weak when Karma is up against opponents she cannot safely poke on, seeing as Karma literally has the least powerful poke among supports (her Q is much shorter than everyone and the innate slow is only 35%... whyyyy rito!). And Ardent Censer simply does not feel good on Karma, compared to other supports building censer.

So I tried a maximum slow build just for fun and found myself loving it. Twin Shadows is an excellent scouting option since Karma is one of the few supports who can't gain vision from poke abilities (think Lux E singularity giving vision). Hextech Icegun gives much needed mana and the slow compliments Karma's kit surprisingly well, and coupled with Inspired Q's slow field means that Karma has a very wide slow that can help teammates make picks or reposition. It can also cover one of the awkward problems regarding "Do I open the fight with Inspire Q vs Inspire E?" Because now you can simply choose Inspire E all the time and let the Hextech Icegun do the slow. Ingenious Hunter also lowers the cool down on the scanner trinket, so Karma has better vision control. So far I have found a lot more success with Glacial Karma and now I am on 59% win rate (granted, its only on normal games, but I still find myself really happy with that win rate when average Karma winrate is under 50%)

My item order is:
Hextech Icegun or Twin Shadow first, and buy the other as second item. (depending on match up, mostly Icegun unless enemy has very good disengage or their range is too long for Karma to use Icegun safely)
Third item is usually either Ardent Censer or Athene's Unholy Grail. Mostly Ardent Censer.
Fourth is Morello or Shurelya or Hourglass, mostly Morello or Hourglass since if the game drags on long enough to warrant fourth item it means Karma's team is behind.
Fifth is Deathcap, but mostly I just leave the slot empty for buying wards.

(8) |

Interesting concept, but just going off probuilds.net and history of building Karma in high elo play, I don't find this build surfacing.

Here are my thoughts:
We have to ask: What is the main reason is taken? It's mainly for heavy cc oriented champions that require you to set up heavy cc AKA , , and much more easily land your main skillshot. I don't believe has this particular problem because she has no heavy cc skill shot and her W root can be easily landed with E's speed boost and Q's slow.

A reason you could be having success with this build and a higher winrate could simply be the fact that you're more proficient on the champion than others. For example, if we take any pro player and give them completely random runes, of course they're going to excel against the average. Not to mention this could also be due to a small sample size of games.

Regardless, you seem to offer valid points on why the build works for you and how it synergies in your games. So here's my proposal to you: run whatever you're comfortable on and you find working. If you do manage to have a high winrate with this build in ranked, then run it to the ground and climb with it, and then of course if something is lacking, you could take on a more traditional meta oriented build.

I feel like runes are just these little "icing on the cake" finishers on builds, and of course macro/micro knowledge and prowess is far more important to climbing as those are the fundamentals and foundations of league.

Enjoyed reading your post, and I want to thank you for writing it actually, was an interesting perspective for sure, I want to hear some follow-up thoughts as you play more of this build.

Cheers!

In the past I really liked to build Luden Echo on Karma, as it will allow her to havee enough damage to scare off anyone and a nice big shield. But it's simply too expensive an item and lacks utility. Now with Glacial Augment I really like Hextech Icegun as an item on Karma.
One thing about this Glacial Augment build is stepping around the issue of "Do I use Inspire Q or Inspire E?" and just these past ranked games I've tried with this build I am very good at helping disengage. Shoot hextech icegun backward and watch them all slow to a crawl while you Inspire E to get everyone out of danger. Something similar can be done to help your teammates initiate fights, but hextech icegun is a bit too short on range to allow that, so I use twin ghost instead. Another thing about the Glacial Augment is in early game poking, as your auto attack also slows for 30% now, coupled with the 35% slow from Q means that your ADC has slightly more room to poke as well. At least, I find trading in laning phase to be much easier with this glacial augment, seeing as even if Aery gives extra damage, it's unlikely to excel the damage of one extra auto attack your ADC can do. And the extra shield is super negligible not to mention Aery can only get shield OR damage, not both.

The other thing when I tried to switch back to traditional Karma was that she really cannot contribute much to fights. Your carries won't always be able to make use of the extra damage and attack speed from Ardent Censer (especially when the person carrying the team is a mage, or marksmen like Jhin). Your damage is not enough to deter or intimidate anyone to not mess with your teammates, and when enemy forcefully initiates, your damage is also not enough to fend off anyone. You also cannot disengage because if you use Inspire E your regular Q wont have enough range or slow to make a difference (WHY IS KARMA Q RANGE 950!? DAMMIT RITO almost all other supports have skills beyond 1050! With much stronger effects like 80% slow or stun or root! Not a measly 35% slow!). But if you Inspire Q that means you only get to help one teammate escape and leave everyone else to die.

(I keep getting trash talked for picking Karma against some matchups like going against Blitzcrank or Nautilus, QQ. But then again, I decided to play Karma I am still best with her and I am much more liable to get killed playing other supports, so I don't feel too bad about that. )

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(8) |

wrote:

Your damage is not enough to deter or intimidate anyone to not mess with your teammates, and when enemy forcefully initiates, your damage is also not enough to fend off anyone. You also cannot disengage because if you use Inspire E your regular Q wont have enough range or slow to make a difference (WHY IS KARMA Q RANGE 950!? DAMMIT RITO almost all other supports have skills beyond 1050! With much stronger effects like 80% slow or stun or root! Not a measly 35% slow!). But if you Inspire Q that means you only get to help one teammate escape and leave everyone else to die.

Did you see Karma is getting some damage buffs in 10.2?! WOOOOO

(2) |

Great guide for Karma! This is a champion I just started playing again recently and your guide helped me a lot to get back into the swing of playing her. The item section was particularly helpful when describing what to buy for which scenarios. This is probably something I should already know, but it was helpful none-the-less. Thank you very much. Keep up the good work creating quality content guides. (=

(8) |

Thank you! I could've added many more scenarios but I think overwhelming new Karma players isn't a particularly amazing idea haha! Good luck :D

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(3) |

Thank you for this amazing guide and helping fellow Karma Main. Wanted to Know Instead of Boots of Mobility can I use Ionian Boots . They also work fine and make Karma Fast with cooldown reductions too. Also Instead of Magical Footwear Can I use Future Market to buy stuff fast and help team as needed. I play top and support please let me know ! Thanks Again !

(8) |

Hey! You can definitely use as you see fit. I recommend in the current patch atm since the speed on them is increased much more with instead of , also you get max CDR (40%) from , , your support item, and Athene's, making 's cool down reduction not useful late game.

You can run future's market instead of magical footwear if you find that working better for you, but you save 300 gold by running magical footwear and also give yourself 10 movementspeed, which is increased by .

Great comment! I feel like you can change up the runes to your playstyle and still be perfectly fine depending on the situation at hand!

Good luck!

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