✿ Strong in lane ✿ Great at skirmishing ✿ Flexible playstyle ✿ Decent roaming potential ✿ Good utility

✿ Scales poorly ✿ Unreliable in sidelane ✿ Poor performance into tanks ✿ Cannot be a primary carry ✿ Withers to Serpent's Fang.

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Karma is a burst mage, meaning she mainly relies on using her spells together to beat out other champions. Compared to the freeform and sustained damage of artillery and battle mages such as Viktor or Xerath, Karma prefers to play the game through shorter trades, choosing to whittle down opponents with repeated usage of her ultimate ability, Mantra. Unlike other ultimate abilities, Mantra is available to Karma from Level 1, making her very powerful against more ultimate-reliant champions in the early stages of the game.


In this clip, Hwei, unable to cope with my aggressive Mantra usage,
ends up getting killed before unlocking his own ultimate, Spiraling Despair.


During the later stages of the game, Karma's identity generally shifts to a more supportive role. With the 2 second channel time of Focused Resolve getting harder to stick as damage and mobility increases with game time, Karma's damage output plummets, forcing her to rely on poking with Soulflare instead of the short trades she prefers.

The power of Inspire, meanwhile, remains pretty consistent, making it very easy to rely on as long as your opponents aren't playing anti-shield champions like Renekton or Serpent's Fang users.

Such factors, alongside others I've omitted, make it so that amplifying your teammates with Inspire, using Inner Flame as a debuffing slow instead of a damage source and sacrificing yourself to root people with Renewal will generally end up being much more worthwhile than playing selfishly and relying on risky Soulflare combos.

Karma might feel like a champion that should have access to various keystones, but her reliance on Axiom Arcanist and Ultimate Hunter typically forces her into playing Domination and Sorcery.

While Ultimate Hunter isn't an absolute necessity, the additional Ultimate Haste it provides often reduces the time it takes to reach her haste threshold by 1 full item, which is usually too good to pass up. The main exceptions that can really justify another path over Domination are burst damage oriented builds with Stormsurge that don't intend to reach Karma's Ability Haste threshold in the first place, and tank off-shoots that would rather make excellent use of Shield Bash and the rest of the Resolve path.

Below I've outlined what each path can provide for Karma. Feel free to skip to any specific section by clicking on the following buttons.

Keystone wise, Precision unfortunately doesn't offer much. Conqueror seems like it would have potential, but due to how Soulflare and Focused Resolve are coded, they only grant 2 stacks each. Unlike other champions like Cassiopeia, who has absurdly low spell cooldowns to stack it up, Karma doesn't rack up stacks fast enough to make it worthwhile.

On the other hand, the lesser runes are a bit more promising. Presence of Mind can help cover up Karma's crippling mana problems, making it worth considering as part of your secondary path if you struggle with managing your mana. Legend: Haste is great, giving you tons of haste on a champion that loves to consistently dish out spells to repeatedly trigger Gathering Fire and reduce Mantra's cooldown. Lastly, Cut Down is a solid option to consider over Presence of Mind, giving you generally stronger poke damage in the midgame, as well as massively improving your burst damage should you opt into a Stormsurge build.

For Domination keystones, both Dark Harvest and Electrocute are pretty gimmicky, so I personally do not like them all that much. Dark Harvest seems like it'd be strong for a burst-oriented Stormsurge & Shadowflame build, but I prefer having Sorcery keystones over it for a stronger lane phase. Electrocute, however, is pretty funny. Renewal has a strange bug where it's treated as 2 instances of damage, so any time you have access to Mantra, Renewal paired with a basic attack or Inner Flame will immediately trigger Electrocute for an unexpected burst of damage. When I tested it, Electrocute worked best into short-ranged champions: assassins such as Akali and select fighters like Sylas or Yone, but it's probably too gimmicky to be seriously considered.

The lesser runes are okay too, with Ultimate Hunter being the main reason to opt into Domination, since it can reduce Mantra's cooldown by over 3 seconds at maximum stacks, giving you enough haste to consistently execute Soulflare - Focused Resolve - Soulflare combos. When playing Domination as a secondary path, you'll usually pair up Ultimate Hunter with Cheap Shot due to it serving as a second Scorch and letting you exert even more pressure in lane. Taste of Blood is another viable option, but I personally don't find a big need for additional lane sustain when you already have Refillable Potions and Renewal.

If you do end up taking Domination as your primary path, the only lesser rune you can really opt into from the second row is Grisly Mementos, since the others are simply too tailored towards supports and junglers respectively.

It's very likely that Sorcery is going to be your primary path, and for good reason. Summon Aery is an amazing keystone for Karma, being very good for harrassing opposing laners in the early game with repeated basic attacks, as well as giving additional shields to allies you've Inspired. Arcane Comet is also serviceable in matchups against higher-ranged champions that you cannot consistently attack, though I personally only opt into Arcane Comet if I'm planning on using the Stormsurge build.

Axiom Arcanist is effectively a must-have on Karma, buffing your waveclear thresholds with Soulflare, amplifying the healing Renewal provides, as well as supercharging your Defiance shields, since Axiom Arcanist's reduced effectiveness only applies to AoE damaging spells. Despite this, I still see a lot of people, including high-ranked onetricks still choose to play Manaflow Band. I suppose you can justify it if you struggle to manage your mana reserves, but I wouldn't recommend taking it over Axiom Arcanist.

The second row of lesser runes is an all-you-can-eat buffet, with each option being great on Karma. Transcendence is just a solid stat stick for a champion that loves haste, while Absolute Focus empowers your lane even further. I'm not the biggest fan of Absolute Focus though, since I like playing on the edge to maximise the power of Renewal, which often leaves it offline due to its health requirement. Regardless, my personal favourite of the lesser runes in this row is Celerity. The movement speed amplification lets you play much more effectively with Inspire, as it improves your kiting and fleeing abilities, as well as making Focused Resolve roots much more reliable for combo plays.

The last row offers a decision between Scorch and Gathering Storm. My personal preference is Scorch, since I like to play with a focus on lane dominance. Gathering Storm is fine as well, since you can make use of Karma's high AP ratios, with Soulflare having a total ratio of 150%, and Defiance's shield having a 105% ratio on its primary target.

Grasp of the Undying is an okay keystone option into short-ranged champions if you want to opt into a tank-like build, but its repeated nerfs have turned me away from experimenting with it.

Demolish and Font of Life are both serviceable runes, but I personally think Shield Bash trumps them both. Its empowered basic attacks are amazing for extended trades with repeated Inspire shields, and Fimbulwinter lets you chain multiple empowered attacks with additional shields generated through Focused Resolve roots.

Any of the options in the second row are fine. Second Wind is serviceable, but not great, into lanes where you'd get poked out by something like Viktor, while Bone Plating boils short trade oriented champions like Ekko and Fizz alive. Lastly, Conditioning is a solid scaling option into unthreatening lane matchups.

The last row only really matters if you choose to play Grasp, as you'd much rather use Shield Bash in conjunction with Second Wind or Bone Plating for your secondary path over Overgrowth or Revitalize. Regardless, I personally strongly prefer the additional Heal and Shield Power provided by Revitalize over the health Overgrowth would provide, but this comes down to your own preferences.

Keystone-wise, you could play First Strike, but I wouldn't recommend playing Inspiration for your primary path.

Using Inspiration as your secondary path, your main options are likely to be Triple Tonic and Cosmic Insight. While Magical Footwear isn't necessarily a bad choice, I prefer to buy Boots before 12 minutes to have more reliable Focused Resolve roots. Biscuit Delivery is probably fine for skirmishes in the midgame, but it doesn't really impress me, so I would rather opt into something else.

Generally, I would advise you to just skip over this path, since I believe it doesn't offer much for Karma that she would want over other paths.

While Karma can theoretically buy a lot of different items as a laner, from ones designed for mages, to support and even tank items, I'll try to keep this section more concise by mainly focusing on mage items.
Feel free to skip to any particular item by pressing on its respective icon.

Malignance is a great first item spike, with its Scorn and Hatefog passives amplifying your damage to the point that you can start reliably running opposing laners down and killing them in the early stages of the game.

Despite this, it's not necessarily a must-buy as your first item. For mage-oriented builds it is too great to pass up, sure, but a tank-like build may forego it until 3rd item, and an enchantress variant might pass it up entirely in favour of maximising Dawncore's passive.

Regardless, in this guide that highlights mage Karma specifically, I recommend buying it first. Keep in mind that even if you can afford Blasting Wand, you should prioritise getting Sapphire Crystal and Lost Chapter first due to Karma's restrictive mana pool.

Blackfire Torch is a really interesting item. Despite being a Lost Chapter item that is typically bought first, its AP amplifying passive makes it a surprisingly solid option in later stages of the game. If you feel like you're struggling with mana management in the later stages of the game and want a damage-oriented item, it may be worth buying Blackfire Torch after completing Malignance and Cosmic Drive.

Seraph's Embrace is pretty underwhelming. It's fine to purchase after Malignance but due to factors like delaying your first item spike with a Tear of the Goddess, providing no health to synergise with Renewal, and making you even more vulnerable to Serpent's Fang, I strongly disavow buying it.

You could buy it into certain magic damage assassins such as Fizz or LeBlanc, but I personally prefer buying something like Mercury's Treads and health items for self-defense.

I would only consider suggesting it if you're new to Karma and are struggling to get accustomed to her mana costs.

I'll start by saying that I was very pleasantly surprised by Hextech Rocketbelt. The stats themselves are what initially made me try it, having everything Karma desires in an item, that being AP, AH, and health. What I didn't expect was how effective Rocketbelt's dash would be. It's been useful for me both in getting out of sticky situations, as well as securing Focused Resolve roots I wouldn't be able to get otherwise.

Personally, I think this may be one of Karma's best second item options, and I would strongly recommend giving it a try, even if it may seem dubious at first. If you don't end up liking it afterwards, that's perfectly fine too. Karma has access to a lot of options other champions don't.

This is Karma's best item by a long shot. Cosmic Drive provides everything Karma wants and more, with AP, AH, health already being an amazing stat spread for her, yet the item also provides up to 33 movement speed for kiting and chasing people down with Focused Resolve.

If you aren't intending to burst people down with buffed up Soulflares in a Stormsurge oriented build, this item is a must-have in your inventory. Always get it second or third.

Stormsurge as a second item option kickstarts Karma's main alternative build, with a heavier focus on burst damage and stronger poke. Due to Soulflare's high base damage, as well as Malignance's magic resistance reducing effect, Karma has a very easy time triggering Stormsurge's Squall for some truly oppressive poke damage.



The item isn't flawless, needing to concede sustained damage by building little Ability Haste in exchange for its higher damage, but it's great into teams with weak frontline as well as situations where your win condition is assassinating an opposing hypercarry like Zeri.

Your main answer to physical damage assassins like Zed and Talon, Zhonya's Hourglass has a few cute synergies with Karma's kit that may be useful to remember.

Since Mantra can be used even while affected by cast-inhibiting crowd control, you can even use it together with Hourglass, letting you shave off up to 2.5 seconds on successive Mantra uses by casting it mid-stasis.

Focused Resolve and Renewal also stay tethered on a target while in stasis, letting you get clutch roots and heals in risky situations.

You should typically aim to get Zhonya's Hourglass as your third item.

Providing 20 Ability Haste, Cryptbloom is your default Percentual Magic Penetration choice over Void Staff and Bloodletter's Curse. While Bloodletter's Curse may seem like a better choice due to the additional health it possesses, Karma's spells are unfortunately not good enough at applying the magic resistance reduction.

It may also be good to keep in mind that Cryptbloom has a cute synergy with supportive items like Moonstone Renewer and Dawncore due to its healing passive.

You should typically aim to get Cryptbloom fourth or last.

Providing significantly more Ability Power and Percentual Magic Penetration than Cryptbloom, Void Staff is your damage-oriented alternative.

While Ability Haste may be generally more useful for Karma, I would strongly recommend buying Void Staff over Cryptbloom in the much less utility-focused Stormsurge - Shadowflame build.

You should typically aim to get Void Staff fourth or last.

Morellonomicon is frankly not that great, but it does have all the stats Karma needs, so it's not the worst.

You should consider buying Morellonomicon into more than 2 healing threats, and only if your team doesn't have anyone that's better at applying it, like a Milio.

Oblivion Orb can be purchased as early as you desire, but you should only upgrade it to Morellonomicon after finishing at least 2 other items first.

Liandry's Torment doesn't give you much AP nor does it have any Ability Haste, so you should typically avoid opting into it. The reason I'm including it in the cheat sheet in spite of that, is because Karma does not have any percentual max health damage in her kit.

Liandry's Torment is your only true answer to multiple health-stacking threats like Dr. Mundo and Sion, so even if it has poor synergy with the champion, you may have to begrudgingly buy it regardless.

Should this happen, you should aim to buy Liandry's Torment as your third item. Note that both Blackfire Torch and Seraph's Embrace get significantly better due to the additional mana you need to match such champions' massive health pools.

The remaining half of the Stormsurge - Shadowflame item set, Shadowflame raises your Soulflare from a mere poke tool, to a deadly execute. This is because Soulflare's damage is split into two parts, so even if the initial cast is above Shadowflame's 40% health threshold, the second half will still get to critically strike frail opponents.



If you're opting into a burst damage oriented build, you should buy Shadowflame third.

You love it, you hate it, Rabadon's Deathcap is necessary all the same. Though it makes Karma a lot more fragile with its all-AP statline, Deathcap makes Soulflare's 150% and Defiance's 105% AP ratios dance with joy.

Buy Rabadon's fourth, though you can delay it if magic penetration becomes a higher priority.

Horizon Focus is not a very good item. Disregarding the fact that it has been bugged to not work with Soulflare since January 23rd 2025, there are multiple other reasons not to buy it. For one, Karma really desires items that improve survivability, which is why I've highlit Hextech Rocketbelt and Cosmic Drive as outstanding options.

Besides that, though, the stats it provides are also kind of underwhelming. Sure, 125 AP and 25 AH for 2750 gold looks pretty good, but adjusting Ability Haste's value to match Ornn's Masterwork stat pricing, Horizon Focus ends up being only roughly 119% gold efficient. For reference, that makes it inferior to Blackfire Torch, Bloodletter's Curse, Cosmic Drive, Seraph's Embrace, and Void Staff.

On top of not being very strong on the stat efficiency side, it's also an inferior damage tool to items like Stormsurge and Shadowflame. It's supposed to serve as a kind of all-rounder item, but it performs so poorly that it's better to simply commit to any specific niche. Don't buy it.

The default Boots upgrade for Karma. Buy these if you feel like you don't need the bonus resistances Plated Steelcaps and Mercury's Treads provide.

Purchasing Ability Haste is always going to be great on Karma. Crimson Lucidity having an additional movement speed oriented passive is even better. Should you win Feats of Strength, get Crimson Lucidity as soon as possible.

Being the most damage-oriented boots, Sorcerer's Shoes are a perfect fit for the Stormsurge variant.

Should you win Feats of Strength, you should upgrade them into Spellslinger's Shoes either immediately after completing Stormsurge or after Shadowflame.

Being a source of armor with an anti-attack passive, Plated Steelcaps are great into opposing teams with several champions that rely on basic attacks, even if your lane opponent isn't.

Prioritise these boots if you're facing off fighter midlaners like Yone or assassins like Qiyana.

Should you win Feats of Strength, upgrade them into Armored Advance whenever you see fit.

Being the only source of Tenacity for mages, Mercury's Treads is amazing against crowd control heavy teams.

Prioritise these boots if you're playing into AP assassins like LeBlanc or strong immobilisers like Syndra.

Should you win Feats of Strength, upgrade them into Chainlaced Crushers whenever you see fit.

I've outlined the most common ward spots I personally use, with the wards highlit in green representing the most viable locations for your first wards, which you should place within the first 2 minutes of the game. Remember that once you place a ward down, you should lean towards that side of the lane to avoid being jumped by an opposing jungler or support from angles you don't have vision of.

Keep in mind that even if you reach Level 9, you shouldn't immediately exchange your Stealth Ward for Farsight Alteration, since Stealth Ward is still oftentimes more useful during the early game.






Karma is an extremely strong laner, and you should concentrate most of your resources in aggressive play to pressure your opponents out of gold, experience, and roaming opportunities.

You may find Inner Flame and Soulflare to be quite difficult to land on opposing laners due to minions getting in the way, but there's a few ways to counteract it. Oftentimes, people will underestimate the explosion radius of Soulflare, so if they stand too close to their Caster Minions and stop moving for a basic attack, try blasting them immediately. This also becomes easier to execute if you play on the sides of the lane, rather than in the center where not just Caster Minions stand in your way, but Melee Minions as well. You can also thin the wave, focusing your attention on killing the opposing Caster Minions with basic attacks and Inner Flames as fast as possible to deny your opponent from using them as cover.

Remember that the shield from Inspire makes it incredibly difficult for most opponents to trade into you, so don't be afraid to posture aggressively to try and deny minion gold. Should they walk up regardless, you can deal massive damage with a Focused Resolve - Soulflare combo and threaten to kill them, or force them to take a disadvantageous Recall.

Once you hit Level 5 to 7, your Soulflare becomes potent enough to kill minions faster than most opposing laners can, letting you contest epic monsters in the river with your jungler, or roam towards the sidelanes. When roaming, it's important to consider the location of where both junglers are. For example, roaming towards toplane while your jungler is clearing their bottom side may be unwise, especially if you cannot see the opposing jungler. It's entirely possible that they might be topside and suddenly turn a winning 2v1 into a 2v3 together with the opposing midlaner, making you and your toplaner incur massive losses.







Karma isn't the best sidelaner. While her dueling prowess can be alright, especially against melee champions she can effectively dance around with Inspire and Renewal, she can't really match the sustained damage output of someone like Yone, and champions with effective lockdown like Jax are a death sentence for her. Karma also struggles with dealing damage to towers, which is essential for pressuring the opposing team to answer you in the sidelane.

You should mostly play out the midgame by supporting your botlane once they've moved to mid. Make sure that they can get push in midlane safely, and if they can't, assist them! Once you do that, you can look towards sidelanes and respond to any waves that have been pushed in with a quick Soulflare before going back and hovering around midlane in case a fight breaks out.






Karma excels in skirmishes and fights due to her supportive kit. Inspire is especially useful with its low cooldown, letting you continuously guard your carries like Jinx against sustained damage, as well as denying massive burst combos executed by assassins with Defiance. Inspire is also extremely useful for letting your immobile teammates like Darius and Xin Zhao get into the range of opposing carries, or to protect you as you try to secure a root with Focused Resolve onto someone.

Her Soulflare also becomes much more powerful, with it hitting multiple people causing Gathering Fire to become twice, sometimes even thrice as effective at reducing Mantra's cooldown, letting you chain multiple Soulflares in a row for massive damage.

Despite how well she operates against opposing champions, Karma struggles to deal significant damage to epic monsters like Elemental Drakes and Atakhan. Instead, you should use your presence to threaten and zone off enemies from contesting such objectives, as they'll struggle killing Karma through Inspire and Renewal without incurring significant damages themselves.