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Karma Build Guide by Navn

Support [13.11] Karma SUPPORT + UPDATED ITEMS + TIER LIST

Support [13.11] Karma SUPPORT + UPDATED ITEMS + TIER LIST

Updated on June 2, 2023
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League of Legends Build Guide Author Navn Build Guide By Navn 133 10 450,578 Views 6 Comments
133 10 450,578 Views 6 Comments League of Legends Build Guide Author Navn Karma Build Guide By Navn Updated on June 2, 2023
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Navn's Featured Video
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Runes: Standard 2v2

1 2 3 4
Sorcery
Arcane Comet
Nimbus Cloak
Transcendence
Scorch

Resolve
Bone Plating
Revitalize
Bonus:

+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+6 Armor

Spells:

1 2 3
Standard
LoL Summoner Spell: Flash

Flash

LoL Summoner Spell: Ignite

Ignite

Items

Itemization

Threats & Synergies

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

Champion Build Guide

[13.11] Karma SUPPORT + UPDATED ITEMS + TIER LIST

By Navn
ALL ITEM SUPPORT CHANGES
We're on the new patch! Here's a list of all the changes. Some items have different build paths, but only give more or less stats, and some give completely different stats. I'll be talking about the later as it would be something new to work with, rather than just a slight increase/decrease of stats. Lets get started! Hover over the item name to see what it does! Check the ITEMIZATION tab to see if these items are good for Karma!

Mythics


NEW - Echoes of Helia
- This is a fantastic item for players who love to play aggressively as an enchanter.
- When it says "dealing damage" to get Soul Shards, it includes auto-attacks as well, which is great because auto-attacking mid-late game as an enchanter tends to do very little.
- Also "dealing damage", is based on a single ACTION that deals damage, not from each source of damage. For example:

Karma uses Q - Inner Flame on an enemy, and triggers Scorch and Summon Aery. You get 1 soul shard.

In this example, it was 1 ACTION, then a bunch of stuff triggers. So each ACTION of damage, grants you 1 soul shard.

CHANGED - Moonstone Renewer
- 200 gold cheaper
- This requires TWO allies to be near each other for the passive to trigger. Which means, if it's just you and 1 other person, this passive does NOTHING.

BUFFED - Locket of the Iron Solari
- 200 gold cheaper
- Changed build path

BUFFED - Evenshroud
- 200 gold cheaper
- Changed build path

BUFFED - Shurelya's Battlesong
- 200 gold cheaper
- Slightly lower stats and movement speed on passive.

BUFFED - Radiant Virtue
- 500 gold cheaper
- Lowered base stats.

LEGENDARY


CHANGED - Imperial Mandate
- Is now a Legendary, and not a Mythic.
- 200 gold cheaper
- Different build path, no more HP, but more AP.
- Passive does less damage.

CHANGED - Ardent Censer
- 200 gold cheaper
- Lowered base stats
- Now gives movement speed
- Passive gives more attack speed and deals more damage.
- Different build path

CHANGED - Staff of Flowing Water
- 200 gold cheaper
- Lowered base stats
- Now gives movement speed
- Passive gives more ap
- Different build path

BUFFED - Chemtech Putrifier
- 200 gold cheaper
- Adjusted stats

CHANGED - Redemption
- No longer gives Ability Haste
- Different build path
- Stronger active heal
- Now gives Health Regen

CHANGED - Mikael's Blessing
- Now gives HP
- No more Magic Resist
- Now gives Health Regen
- Active heals a bit more
- Different build path

ADJUSTED - Abyssal Mask
- 600 gold cheaper
- No more Catalyst of Aeons passive
- Less hp, more magic resist.
- Different build path

BUFFED - Zeke's Convergence
- Different build path
- 200 gold cheaper

CHANGED - Knight's Vow
- 100 gold cheaper
- Lowered base stats
- Now gives Armor
- Passive damage redirect does more to you
- Different build path

CHANGED - Vigilant Wardstone
- Now BUILDS from Watchful Wardstone
- 1200 more gold
- Passive gives more bonus stats.
- Now gives Mana Regen.

EPIC


ADJUSTED Watchful Wardstone
- No longer automatically upgrades to Vigilant Wardstone
- Now gives Mana Regen
- Now gives bonus stats.

NEW - Lifewell Pendant
- An Armor/Hp/Ability Haste recipe item towards Tank support items.

NEW - Chalice of Blessing
- An HP/Mana Regen/Health Regen recipe item towards Enchanter support items.

My thoughts and opinion:


- Overall, I like how almost everything is cheaper (even if it they give a bit less stats) so that I can get to actually completing items more often.
- Echoes of Helia is probably overtuned and I can see it being very strong for a while.
- I like almost all the changes and adjustments, except for Redemption no longer giving Ability Haste.
- Really excited Knight's Vow gives Armor now as there wasn't really a support Armor item outside of Zeke's Convergence. So having another option is nice.
- On the flip side, Mikael's Blessing no longer gives magic resist, but it does give HP instead, which more often than not, will be more beneficial.
- I think Abyssal Mask is an insanely good item now, and given the right situations, is probably OP.
- Ardent Censer and Staff of Flowing Water now gives movement speed feels so good, as they sometimes felt like really underwhelming buys for completing an item.
- Imperial Mandate now being a Legendary doesn't really change much, except just make Nami better, as she can now build Echoes of Helia to stack burst damage.
- Vigilant Wardstone getting changed was a huge bummer as it was a massive spike when it transformed from Watchful Wardstone. It just gave so many raw stats and it was so cheap for a Legendary item.
- Chemtech Putrifier probably still sucks.
- Moonstone Renewer looks like it REALLY sucks and looks absurdly conditional.
- I think Karma has benefitted from these changes and I can't wait to try out the itemization!

Overall, I say, great job and I can't wait to play it all out!
About Me and Other Guides

Main account Profile: Navcan
Smurf: Navn
Twitch Stream: twitch.tv/navcan
Tiktok: @navcan
Youtube: navcans


Hi there! I've been playing Karma since Season 6! This guide is just a very general guideline of how to play Karma, with runes and itemization. If you'd like to ask more questions, drop a comment or drop by my stream! I stream almost everyday, and still play Karma frequently. Thank you for reading!


If you're interested in my other guides:
Lulu - Support Lulu
Ashe - Support Ashe
Soraka - Support Soraka
Amumu - Support Amumu
Miss Fortune - Support Miss Fortune
Trundle - Support Trundle
Veigar - Support Veigar
Jarvan IV - Support Jarvan
Pantheon - Support Pantheon
Heimerdinger - Support Heimerdinger
Sona - Support Sona
Yuumi - Yuumi
Milio - Milio

Why Karma? Pros/Cons
- Very rewarding to play when piloted well.
- If you like being aggressive and having early laning pressure, Karma is kind of like an engage enchanter lane bully.
- Around mid/late game, you play more like an enchanter, by constantly using Mantra, for big team shields from Defiance, and Soulflare to keep ticking down Mantra cooldown.

Pros:
- Lots of early game opportunity.
- High potential to snowball similarly to an engage support lane.
- Can play it mid or top if necessary.

Cons:
- Hard to pilot efficiently.
- Pretty useless if not ahead from laning phase.
Itemization
TLDR; Movement Speed is nice, Tankiness is nice to get closer in fights.

There are 3 main mythics to buy, and generally speaking, you will be rushing one of these 3. Your early buys can include, Ruby Crystal, since it builds into all 3 items, and Faerie Charm, since that builds into almost everything you're looking to get anyways, so if you decide to get Locket of the Iron Solari instead of Echoes of Helia / Shurelya's Battlesong, then you can still turn the Faerie Charm into something regardless.

Mythic:

Reasons to get Locket of the Iron Solari
- There's a lot of AoE damage on the enemy team to mitigate.
- There's a lot of burst champs that can kill you easily.
- Good when you're going even or behind. Even good when you're ahead, but not as optimal.

Reasons to get Shurelya's Battlesong
- Most hypercarries don't have much mobility, you can give that to them so they can position to put out their damage.
- Just a good safe mythic choice. Can't go wrong with it.

Reasons to get Echoes of Helia
- If your opponent's have a lack of mobility and you're looking to keep playing aggressive, then this'll be great to keep up offensive pressure.

Boots/Shoes Choice
- Mercury's Treads if there's an absurd amount of CC or vs high AP team comps.
- Plated Steelcaps if there are multiple AD threats (at least 3)
- Ionian Boots of Lucidity are a very safe choice
- Boots of Swiftness if they have some very crippling slows that are hard to avoid, such as Ashe or Trundle Pillar of Ice
- Mobility Boots are pretty bad on karma, since the moment you tether someone with W, you'd just lose your movement speed to hold the tether.

Legendaries

Staff of Flowing Water
- Pairs much better with AD casters, such as Ezreal or Kai'Sa, or while having multiple AP threats on your team.
- Gives movement speed to really help hold Focused Resolve

Ardent Censer
- I usually don't end up buying this item in general, because if your ADC isn't doing too great, it ends up being a relatively weak buy.
- The only reasons why I'd buy Ardent Censer, is because I have at least another ranged Auto-Attack focused carry on my team ( Kayle, Corki, Graves, Kindred etc etc). AND/OR your hypercarry is really fed.
- Pairs pretty well with Echoes of Helia since the attack speed will help generate Soul Shards and makes your auto-attacking meaningful again.

Mikael's Blessing
- I'd be looking to buy this if there's a bit of CC to get rid of, but if there's too much CC, then it won't feel impactful at all. The main choices of CC, usually Ashe's Enchanted Crystal Arrow, or Twisted Fate stun card or other ranged hard CC abilities to get use against. Otherwise, better to just build other items.
- If you can self cast this by buffering it just before CC hits you, this also becomes a Cleanse for yourself, which increases the value tremendously. Here is a youtube short demonstrating that. Mikaels as Cleanse

Redemption
- Relatively safe choice if none of the other legendaries look appealing to buy. Works much better if you pair it with Echoes of Helia or Locket of the Iron Solari.

Chemtech Putrifier
- Enemy bot lane is Soraka or Sona or Yuumi then I would outright rush this item first. But if its another Enchanter with just a bit of healing like Nami or Senna its not too bad to get Oblivion Orb then finish your mythic.

Frozen Heart
- If the enemy team has multiple assassins, and short ranged AP attack-speed reliant champions (ex Diana), melee AD top laners/junglers, then this becomes a better and better buy. Definitely consider it.

Dead Man's Plate

- PERSONALLY, I love this item vs heavy AD comps, especially if they have a decent amount of range (ex. Jayce)
- Make sure the armor is worth it and to no longer auto-attack things in fights since you'll lose the movement speed.

Knight's Vow
- If you're against a AD-heavy team comp, and you have 1 particular team mate who is doing very well, then this'll be a nice buy

Abyssal Mask
- If you're against a AP-heavy team comp, then you can buy this and get pretty darn tanky while helping your own team's damage.

Vigilant Wardstone
- This item should be your last item. It will give a LOT of stats.
How to use your abilities
TLDR; Get closer and use your abilities. Don't forget your mantra cooldown.

Passive - Gathering Fire
- Hit your abilities, get Mantra 5 seconds cooldown reduced. (This does not include items that do damage)
- If you hit multiple enemy champions with a single Q, you will get 5 seconds off each champion hit.
- If they stand on Soulflare explosion, thats also 5 seconds off for each person standing on it.
- If you root an enemy with Focused Resolve or Renewal it is 5 seconds off for the initial cast, and the root itself. (Since it damages them twice)
- This is why its really important to be able to get closer in fights, to get your Mantra up as often as possible.

Q - Inner Flame
- This has a shorter hitbox than it may seem, but then the Soulflare has a bigger hitbox than than the explosion itself.
- The main way to hit enemies with Inner Flame is to try hit the minions with Inner Flame and have the AoE hit the champions.
- Just be very careful while doing this because it tends to mess up cs-ing for your lane partner, and that can frustrate them a lot.
- At level 1, with Soulflare before minion waves even hit each other, this is one of the best and hardest hitting spells in the game, so you can usually hit them while they are leashing Blue Sentinel or if they walk through Tri-Bush.
- In some cases, to stall for time or zone an area, you could Soulflare a river entrance and make your opponent hesitate to walk down and over the explosion.

W - Focused Resolve
- This is a good majority of Karma's skill expression. Being able to hold the tether while dodging enemy abilities, is the difference between an OK Karma and a Great Karma.
- Good Renewal timing also makes a Great Karma player, since the HP you get back is based on MISSING health, the closer you can get to almost dying, the more HP you get back and bait your enemies, and turn fights very often. Renewal counts on the initial cast AND the root, and it brings back to the point above.
- For Renewal the healing ALSO procs on the death of your target if they die before the tether goes through.
- If you're running low on hp and need a bit of a touch-up but you can't recall, then you can use Renewal on any jungle monster as well.

E - Inspire
- Once you start putting more points into Inspire, using Defiance will feel way more impactful, usually around mid-late game. However, if you can land a good Soulflare first, then within a few seconds, you can even still cast Defiance from all the Mantra cooldown you'll get back from Gathering Fire
- Staying just outside of Focused Resolve range will keep your opponents guessing if you decide to Inspire and run at them. The farther away from your enemies you are, the less pressure you have, which is why Enemies that have a lot of range will be harder to deal with.

R - Mantra
- You can cast this while under crowd control effects, so if you're still CC-ed and you want to use Renewal, you can pre-cast Mantra, so you can spam cast Renewal the moment you're out of CC.
- Once you start getting to mid/late game, and have a good amount of ability haste, Mantra comes off cooldown much faster than most people think, so always keep an eye on it's cooldown in fights.
Runes
TLDR; I think Arcane Comet is her best keystone, the Resolve tree is amazing, and adjust the minor runes accordingly. If I didn't mention a rune, then I thought it wasn't ever worth it. If you'd like me to add a rune to mention, leave a comment and I'll happily add it in.

Keystones:

Arcane Comet
- This is most likely Karma's best rune. She's very good early, and a strong lane bully, and if you ever land Inner Flame, Arcane Comet will almost always hit them.

Summon Aery
- I would take this in more even/losing match-ups due to likely that you have to hold your Mantra for Focused Resolve to survive lane or all-ins.

Nimbus Cloak
- Pretty much mandatory on Karma. It's just so good to hold tethers on enemies, and EVEN IF the enemy has Flash, if you Flash on them first, after you Focused Resolve them, the amount of movement speed will likely still keep them tethered even if they Flash away. And if both of you don't have Flash, you can even pre-emtively Ignite or Exhaust just for the movement speed to keep tethers.

Manaflow Band
- I think only take this if you take Relic Shield as your support item. If you go Spellthief's Edge you don't really run out of mana for almost the whole game.

Transcendence
- The other two runes in this row just kind of suck, so this is really the only one worth taking.

Scorch
- To be taken with Arcane Comet, since you're more likely to be playing to be a lane bully

Gathering Storm
- Take this with Summon Aery, since the lane is harder to outright win, so at least you can scale a bit better.

Resolve

Demolish
- If you have a constant wave pushing lane partner, and the enemy bot has a very hard time pushing back, then this will help rip the tower down even faster.

Conditioning
- This will help with durability once you get into mid-game to hold tethers with Focused Resolve and get into range to hit Inner Flame
- If Second Wind and Bone Plating don't look too appealing, this is a safe choice.

Second Wind
- Deal with poke heavy lanes so you're not too low.

Bone Plating
- Good vs All-in 2v2 lanes, as well as many enemy assassins on the enemy team.
- Pay attention to the cooldown of this, as it can bait a lot of enemies due to how much it will block if they decide to jump you.

Revitalize
- If you're looking to take Locket of the Iron Solari , this will definitely be a much more appealing rune choice.
- This does work with Renewal, and you will gain a surprising amount of health back.
- Also consider maxing Inspire after getting a few points into Inner Flame

Unflinching
- Very good against high CC lanes such as Leona Nautilus or Maokai

Domination

Zombie Ward
- Incentivises taking Oracle Lens at level 1, to keep control of lane brush to create much more lane pressure, and also makes roaming early a lot better and snowball leads.
- If your opponents can't see when you're going to shoot Inner Flame, its going to be a lot harder for them to dodge, or even stand near the minion wave to cs, because of the AoE damage, which increases your chances of landing it.

Ghost Poro
- Take this rune if the enemy jungler scares you more than your laning opponents, such as Nunu & Willump, Rammus, since that you can ward areas they need to run through, and even after the ward expires, it'll still spot them for a bit longer. Unfortunately, you'll likely want to sit on Stealth Ward until you finish your quest for wards.

Treasure Hunter
- Should only take this rune if you have a winning lane match-up, so that you increase your chances of actually getting your stacks.
- This helps get to Mythic/Legendary item spikes way sooner.
- Try to avoid buying Control Ward until your second completed item. Once more important fights start happening (such as Baron or Dragon Soul/Elder), then start investing into Control Ward

Ingenious Hunter
- Also very good, with all the mythics. If your second item is an active, there will be a lot more value for this as well, such as Mikael's Blessing or Redemption.

Relentless Hunter
- Can't go wrong with more movement speed to get from place to place. And as a support, you're going to be rotating to a lot of fights.
Early/Mid/Late game
Karma is a pretty unique champion in terms of how she's played throughout the game, and that also makes her harder to master. So pay attention in each phase of the game.

Laning Phase/Early Game


- This is arguably where you have the most influence as Karma. You kind of function as an Engage-Mage-Enchanter-Poke-Lane-Bully. Looking for Soulflare opportunities, and while Mantra is on cooldown, you can look for Inner Flame on the ranged minions, because the enemies tend to be standing pretty close to them, in particular to when they try to auto attack your own ranged minions.
- When starting a fight, you will want to Inspire yourself for movement speed, Focused Resolve the enemy, (or Renewal if you're kind of low), and if you AND the enemy has Flash, you have Nimbus Cloak and therefore, you should flash FIRST, so that you can keep them tethered and root them. Afterwards, if you have Inner Flame or Soulflare hit em.
- If there isn't a whole lot happening, you can even Inspire yourself, to walk up and auto attack, just to get some Spellthief's Edge gold stacks.

Mid game


- How this will play out depends on how your laning phase went, because of how dynamic Karma can be played.

Ahead from laning phase
- If you're ahead, meaning some kills or turret plates, you can build more AP items, such as Dark Seal and Amplifying Tome to have more potent poke. You end up sort of playing like a mage who can do a lot of damage with more points into Inner Flame, and even get the kills yourself without anyone's help.
- This also kind of allows you to keep playing really aggressive like an engage support, since its unlikely your opponents can burst you at this point.

Even or Behind from laning phase
- Once laning phase ends and people start getting items, people will start dealing a lot more damage, and there will be more people in team fights that can just blow you up. So you end up playing much less aggressive, and focus more on playing like an enchanter.
- So instead of using Inspire to run up and Focused Resolve on a single enemy, you focus more on using Defiance instead. Especially if you only have 3 points in Inner Flame and/or build Moonstone Renewer.
- It all really depends on how fast you can die, so that you can actually get closer to hold tethers and land Inner Flame.

Mid/Late Game


- Its very identical to playing from behind from laning phase. Since people will have items, and it's likely you build items that don't make you tankier, it will become harder to live for longer periods of time in team fights.
- 4v4 or 5v5 fights will start happening a lot more often, and your Mantra will come up very often. Aim to use Defiance as often as possible, and only use Soulflare if you're for sure going to hit more than 1 person, so that Mantra is almost always ready to go for Defiance.
- The amount of value from Defiance becomes huge as you start shielding everyone from 400-800 every few seconds, and that will be much more effective than anything else Karma can do late game.
13.11 Tier List
Grading Explanation below the lists! Check the RANK too!

- Karma kinda plays like an engage enchanter, and you have to be willing to get closer to fights to land Inner Flame and keep Focused Resolve on people. But once you get closer to fights, shes very rewarding when played well. She seems like a simple champion, but shes very hard to pilot efficiently.

13.11 Plat and Below



13.11 Diamond+


Tier List Grading Points

- Winrates
- Champion Difficulty (more relevant in platinum and below)
- Counter-play (more relevant in platinum and below)
- Flex pick for draft (more relevant in diamond+)
- Early game (more relevant in diamond+)
- Late game/scaling (more relevant in platinum and below)

Overall Points:

- Games last longer the lower in elo you go. Therefore, mage supports tend to do much better since you can buy your items, and you basically become another carry threat. This leads to enchanters/engage being weaker in lower level play since you would rely on your teammtes more often.

- Champions that are fundamentally easier to execute on will have higher win rates. Since it is more unlikely players are pilot-ing their champion runes/builds/kit efficiently, the easier the champion, the more likely to maximize their kits. This is especially apparent in Platinum and below.

- I would recommend playing any of the champs in S+, S, or A. However you can climb on almost anything, provided you always look to maximize your champion kit, mechanics, and impact on the game. Winning is the result of improving.
Want to know more?
If you have any questions, leave a comment below! I'll be editing this as I go and be sure to let you know once I have more updates. Or if you'd like to ask me a question directly, you can go to my twitch stream! twitch.tv/navcan

There's also my tiktok
And my youtube!

Cheers and thank you for reading! Good luck on the rift

League of Legends Champions:

Teamfight Tactics Guide