Hi! Im Ulises and im an experienced Toplaner Player, that likes to keep testing Champions on the worst lane of the game,while making (ussually unfinished) guides about them. Im here to enlighten you about the ways of Ionia´s Sorcerer Supreme, Karma !

I´ve been playing League since the mastery system was changed back in 2017. My mains are Garen, Pantheon, Renekton, Sejuani and Sion. I came to play Karma Top recently, for 2 really dumb re***ons. First, i was playing Legends of Runeterra and got a Karma card in a chest, and i really loved the art of the card. Second, i though it was time for me to learn how to play Ranged Tops, since the only ranged Champs i play are the ones i get in ARAM.
So, now that you know me better, lets get into it!


12.3 Info
Right now, Karma is performing very good in both Top and Support roles. With the Toplane loosing impact with each patch, playing supports like Karma and Lulu up there is solid. Karma is extremely safe pick,and i recommend her to every player new to the Toplane, her laning phase is good, with great poke, amazing survivality,good utility and decent waveclear once she gets going.
My current favourite bouild is Moonstone into Tank/Supp item mix, with Grasp against melee and Comet against ranged

Karma, The Enlightened One Karma is a Champion from the region of Ionia,a region isnpired by the ancient asian civilizations. She is a powerfull mage,and she contains the spirit of all the previous encarnations of Karma within her.She is extremely powerful,but also she is wise,kind, and sweet. During the Ionia/Noxus war, she was the first of all the "Karmas" to truly do something for her people, and she participated on the war using her powers to wreck havoc among the Noxian Army while empowering and Inspiring Ionian forcesIn game, Karma is a Supportive kind of Champ, wich means she is at her peak when she can help allies on Teamfights,giving shields,healing and disrupting the enemies. This kind of gameplay is also known as PEEL. What makes her different from other supportive Champions like Soraka, is that she can do pretty well on her own, since she has a great poking tool with Mantra+ Inner Flame, while also having good trading paterns with Inspire, and Sustain with Mantra+ Focused Resolve. Her abilities are pretty simple, and she is an easy champion to pick up,but also has a soft learning curve into a high skillcap, that doesnt represent into mechanics (Her only skillshot is Inner Flame) but is represented with decision making. A good Karma will know when to use Mantra on wich skill,will also know when and how to poke/trade,and will develop a great advantage for her team with the Shields and Tankiness of the Champ

PASSIVE ABILITY

Gathering Fire ✦ Whenever Karma hits an enemy Champion with an ability, she refunds 5 of Mantra Cooldown ✦ While not being amazing,this passive allows you to use your R more often.Its a simple yet efficient passive that will be pretty good later on the game.Try to proc it with Q and W during laning phase

Q

Inner Flame ✦ Karma fires a blast of energy,that explodes dealing damage in area while also slowing them for a moment ✦ This is your bread and butter for pretty much everything.This is your poke,this is your most damage spell,this is your waveclear and this is the first ability you level up. Keep in mind that,while being AOE, the blast clash on the first enemy it hits, so minions can prevent you from poking

W

Focused Resolve ✦ Karma locks an enemy with a mystic chain that last for 2 seconds or until broken if the enemy goes far enough from you. It deals a tick of damage at the beginning and other tick at the end. If the chain doesnt breaks for the 2 seconds, the enemy becomes rooted ✦ This is your only hard CC. Its a bit unreliable cause you need to stay at a medium distance for 2 whole seconds,although this ability is great to setup ganks, secure your Mantra+ Inner Flame and to heal when paired with Mantra

E

Inspire ✦ A shield for either you or an ally,that also grants a boost of movement speed ✦ This ability allows you to have better trades during laning phase,trigger Shield Bash and tanking minion waves to freeze. Its also a decent scape tool when paired with your Focused Resolve. During Teamfights,later in the game, the Shield has a very low CD so you can pretty much spam it to move incredibly fast and tank a lot more damage that you should

R

Mantra ✦ Mantra empowers the next ability you cast.You have Mantra avaible at lvl 1, and you should level it up at 6/11/16 like any champ ✦ While not having a "true" ult may seem bad, Mantra is what allows Karma to be played in the toplane. Your empowered abilitys not only get more powerfull, they also gain aditional effects.RQ deals more damage,slows a bit more,and leaves an area that explodes dealing more damage. RW heals you A LOT on the first and second tick of damage,while also adding extra duration to the root. Finally, RE overloads our shield, making it bigger and also affecting allies near us, that also get a smaller shield and a bit of movement speed. The usage of Mantra is what separates a good Karma from a bad one. Mantra´s CD lowers when we affect enemy champions with our abilities. In the late game, hitting RQ to a couple of champions during a teamfight will almost reset the cooldown

Pros → Ranged Champion= Oppressive in lane → Gets really tanky → Extremely useful,good in almost any teamcomp → Off meta, few people know how to play against you → Great sustain and damage early game, great tankiness late → Really good teamfight

Cons → Damage really falls off in the late game → Doesnt have a "True" Ultimate → Some matchups can be unplayable (Mundo) → Needs a team that already has damage → CC is very unreliable in Teamfight → RE is ussualy worse than RW or RQ, so ussually needs to shield the right ally instead of the full team

RESOLVE

While being a ranged champ prevents Karma from benefiting 100% from this rune,its still the best option for a Tank build. You get some minor Sustain, while also poking a bit better and having a bit of extra HP along the game. While this bonuses are small,combined they make Grasp a powerfull choice.

Shield Bash is really easy to trigger for us,using Inspire. It helps us during laning phase,with better poke and also with some resistances while shielded. Can also use Demolish to take some early Plates.

Conditioning gives you extra resistances later in the game. You can pretty much take any rune of this row,they are matchup dependant.

Revitalize is awesome,it powers up your Shields and your Heals!.

The Shards you take are also matchup dependant. On the first row, either Axe or Time are the best for Karma. Then you can take Diamond, Shield and Circle in any combination.

SORCERY

Both Summon Aery and Arcane Comet are strong poking tools Karma can use.Aery deals a tiny bit of damage on each attack,while also shields a little bit more. Comet is for straight poke damage during laning phase.

Manaflow Band gives some needed Mana Sustain alongside Doran Ring .

There is nothing to think here. Transcendence is just amazing. It gives early AH and at level 11 allows us to spam abilities upon takedowns.

Gathering Storm gives us a very powerfull late game AP scaling,but neither of this 3 runes are that good on Karma anyway

The Shards you take are also matchup dependant. On the first row, either Axe or Time are the best for Karma. Then you can take Diamond, Shield and Circle in any combination.

MANAFLOW BAND ✦ Manaflow Band This is the secondary rune you will go when using Grasp of the Undying as it is the most important of its tree.

TRANSCENDENCE ✦ Transcendence This is the secondary rune you will go when using Grasp of the Undying as it is the most important of its tree.

SHIELD BASH ✦ Shield Bash This is the secondary rune you will go when using Summon Aery or Arcane Comet as it is the most important of its tree.

REVITALIZE ✦ Revitalize This is the secondary rune you will go when using Summon Aery or Arcane Comet as it is the most important of its tree.

MOONSTONE RENEWER

VS

FROSTFIRE GAUNTLET

Moonstone is a great Mythic on Karma for a couple re***ons. It is cheap,it gives all stats we need,and the passive is amazing. I suggest running this item everytime you are playing with Sorcery as your main tree, also when the enemy team/toplaner cant jump on your face, Jax for example

Frostfire is a nice item for melee,although its still usefull for us. It grants some decent ARMOR and MR and lots of HP while also having a slow on our first AA each 6 seconds. This item is good to get with Resolve or when you are facing a team with hard engage,or another ranged Toplaner.

AS Karma, I SUGGEST RUSHING MYTHIC 1ST ALWAYS, ITS A GREAT POWERSPIKE

-OR-

Ionian Boots > ABILITY HASTE This are the boots you are getting 99% of your games. Even with Tank build, i suggest getting this boots ASAP, they are bonkers with Karma. They are from Ionia,what did you expect?. Defensive Boots > DEFENSES You may want to get either Plated Steelcaps or Mercury's Treads when you are the only tank of the team, and only if there is 4+ AD enemies, or at least 3 heavy CC´s in the case of Treads.

**I will keep updating the guide once i have enough time

Currently making this