Karma is a very strong support for kiting / poking. She is a very annoying champion to play against.

She is most effective in a strong kiting / poking comp, so if possible try to pick her in a comp that has good poke. I recommend picking a more all in champion, such as Leona or Annie if your team lacks poke and would rather just brawl.

(Recommended) Ignite + Flash

(Situational) Exhaust + Flash

Ignite is needed for kill pressure and is the best summoner for bullying lane with. Flash is necessary for everyone. Exhaust is a situational choice which is good vs champions such as Yasuo, or AD Carries without mobility.

9 Offense
CDR/ AP are all normal.
Expose Weakness is quite strong, as it boosts the damage of every ally on your team during teamfights.

21 Utility
This is a pretty normal 21 Utility set-up. I do not get Inspiration because it is bad. I prefer Meditation and Fleet of Foot over Phasewalker .
The Utility Tree provides a lot of movespeed, utility, gold generation, mana regeneration, summoner spell, item and ability cooldowns. Karma makes effective use out of all of these things, so 21 utility fits her very well.

With Karma you want to exploit her early game dominance, and this is done by maxing out her early game AP. Using this rune setup makes her Q hit extremely hard early game.

These runes (and the masteries displayed above) do leave Karma extremely squishy, so this will take some getting used to. If you feel you are dying too much with these runes, you could drop some of the Mana Yellows for more HP, or even some of the quints for Armor quints.

(Passive) Gathering Fire

Lowers the cooldown of Karma's Mantra every time you hit a spell or auto attack on enemy champions (2 seconds per spell, and 1 second per AA). Is very effective with AOE spells such as Karma's Q, since if you hit multiple champions it will reduce it multiple times.

(Q) Inner Flame Cooldown: 7/6.5/6/5.5/5 seconds

Shoots a fireball that explodes on impact. If it misses it will not explode. It explodes around the middle of the enemy hit, which means that clipping an enemy minion will cause the explosion to happen from the middle of that minion.
Using this to help clear the ranged minions is commonly helpful in pushing. Otherwise you should be using this to harass down the enemies, spamming it off cooldown basically.

MANTRA'ed: This adds a significant amount of damage, and makes it much easier to hit as the AOE exploded even if it misses. This is the most common Mantra you use throughout the first half of the game. It also leaves a detonation area which explodes shortly after; this causes enemies to move out of the way or get hurt.

(W) Focused Resolve Cooldown: 16/15/14/13/12 seconds

Throws a line to an enemy that damages them over 2 seconds. If they are still in range at the end of the 2 seconds it roots them.
This is usually thrown on any enemy trying to hard engage upon you. It's also quite useful for peeling for your ADC. Just save it and throw it on anyone trying to engage upon your or your ADC, usually you want to target melee champs with it.

MANTRA'ed: This increases the damage and gives yourself a huge heal (20% of missing hp and then 20% again if the leash holds). This is a useful skill for baiting enemies early game and winning all ins where you are focused. This is the least used Mantra and should only be used if you are being focused down and need the heal.

(E) Inspire Cooldown: 10 seconds

A shield that speeds up whoever you throw it on. Early game you should be using this for preventing damage wherever possible, and running away from engages. Late game, once you have the mana to sustain it, you should be spamming this on your ADC as much as possible, it helps their kiting an extreme amount.

MANTRA'ed: Makes the shield AOE (at half effectiveness for allies not targeted) and does AOE around those cast damaging enemies. This is basically a Shurelia's on cast, and for the second half of the game is the primary way you should be using your Mantra's. AOE speed boost + Shield is extremely strong. Use it on your team to catch enemies or to kite enemies.

(R) Mantra Cooldown: 45/42/39/36 seconds

Mantra (R): POWERS UP OTHER SKILLS. EXPLAINED INDIVIDUALLY ABOVE ^

Leveling this up reduces the cooldown and increases the damage of Mantra'ed abilities, making it worth it to level this, rather than just leaving it at lvl 1.

Spellthief's Edge -> Core for AP Harass supports.
Sightstone -> Core for supports.
Sorcerer's Shoes -> Good damage increase for Karma.
Frost Queen's Claim -> Good utility and damage Increase, gives you more catch potential and kite.
Haunting Guise -> Build if they do not have much MR.
Morellonomicon -> Build to max out your CDR, and get some good AP.
Rabadon's Deathcap -> Just lots of AP, is a good 5th or 6th item.
Void Staff -> Build if they have heavy MR.

(+1) Annie's high burst and range makes it hard for you to harass her down before she is able to force a fight on you. She will attempt to kill you very early on, and your terrible base stats make surviving very difficult versus such a high damage support. Try to stay at max range and harass her down with Q, she is squishy as well and if you can get some good Q's on her you can keep her low enough so that she is unable to engage upon you or your ADC.

(-1) Karma can bully Leona extremely hard early game. You can stay out of range of her E with your Q, just try to stay at max range as much as possible and you can slowly lower her or her ADC's health with your Q spam. Try to avoid engages as much as possible, as Leona will win an all in with you. At level 6 Leona will try to force a fight on you, you should try to have your jungler their to counter this if possible. If Leona ever does manage to go on you, make sure you Mantra W her, as it will heal yourself up immensely.

(-1) Sona is a high harass champion with a heal. Her heal is what makes this a hard matchup, as she can negate a lot of the harass you are able to inflict on her, well harassing you back quite effectively. Here you want to push the wave as much as possible, use a mantra'ed Q on the back wave as soon as you can. Harassing her down is not going to be as effective as it is versus other supports, but if you can get the wave on your side you should be able to bully her down.

(+1) You can bully Thresh down in much the same way as you can Leona. The only issue is that Thresh's hook is quite high range, and it is trickier to harass him without being at threat of being pulled. It's better to attempt to push the lane as much as possible and then harass them under tower. Early game you can use your Q on the ranged creeps to control the push. If Thresh ever does manage to go on you, make sure you Mantra W him, just as you would Leona. This matchup is heavily skill based, and is based around your skill shots and his. Try to be a hard target.

Attempt to push the wave with auto attacks as much as possible. Use your Inner Flame ( Mantra'd as much as possible) to harass down their ADC or Support, and try to get the wave pushing on their turret. Karma is the most effective support at harassing down enemies under their turret, and you can cause the enemy ADC to miss many creeps due to your high pressure.

Karma is not a super effective ganker, due to her squishy nature and lack of really hard CC. I recommend mostly getting wards down and staying with your ADC, and trying to push down turrets. Once you guys get the turret bot lane, you should rotate to mid lane and try to harass them down under turret and slowly finish turrets.

Karma is quite effective at grouping, as she provides a large amount of mobility to her entire team with Talisman of Ascension and her Mantra'd shield, Defiance. I recommend staying with the large part of your team and attempting to poke the enemies as much as possible. Always be ready to use Talisman and mantra'd shield to help your team engage, or to allow your team to run away from an engage.

During teamfights you should be Mantra'ing her shield as much as possible, as an AOE shield and speed boost helps immensely. You should be spamming her shield on to your ADC as much as possible. Use Karma's Focused Resolve on any melee champion that tries to get on to you or your ADC, and use your Inner Flame to help your ADC kite any champion trying to get to him.

THANK YOU FOR READING MY KARMA GUIDE.