Karma Build Guide by

Never Fear Change │ Invincible Top Lane Karma

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55 Comments League of Legends Build Guide Author Chrys_Barber

Karma Build Guide By Updated on

Guide Discussion (55) More Karma Guides

Runes: Renewer (S12 Recommended)

1 2 3

Sorcery

Summon Aery

Manaflow Band

Transcendence

Scorch

Resolve

Font of Life

Revitalize

Bonus:

+8 Ability Haste
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+6 Armor

Spells:

Always

Flash

Teleport

Items

Starting items

Starting items 2

Archangel start

First back options

Mythic options

Boots

Must buy

Situational items

Example Renewer Build

Example Gauntlet Build

Example Sunfire Build

Example Sunderer Build

Example Mandate Build

Only if very ahead

Ability Order The only way.

Karma Passive Ability

Champion Build Guide

Introduction

Hey!
Im Chrys, a "veteran" player since Season 2. Although I main support, I do play all roles. I have decided to write my first guide about Tank though, as I consider her to be one of the most versatile Top lane champions. Her sustain (W), as well as her ability to strenghten her team and turn teamfights upside down makes her a huge powerbank.

In case you like my content here on MobaFire, I would gladly welcome you to my stream at twitch.tv/crywoofietv!
I have started streaming just recently, so every viewer helps me greatly! <3

See you on the rift, summoner!

Pros & Cons

Pros

+ Huge survivability
+ Great sustained damage
+ A lot of poke and slows with
+ Can carry the team as a protector
+ Not hard to learn
+ Literally unkillable if played right

Cons

- Mana hungry early game
- Needs core items for full potential
- You can get flamed for the pick
- Anti-healing makes your life a bit harder
- Needs good decision-making
- You tilt enemies too often

Summoner spells

is the best summoner spell in the game. Can be used for escape, initiation or even picking up kills and stealing objectives.

I consider to be the only secondary summoner spell viable for Top . It gives her early to mid-game sustain and roaming potential later on.

Runes

Rune page 1 - Recommended

This is my preferred page for and builds.

- great for entering and quitting team fights, as well as for escaping from fights.
- an obvious choice, which gives us the mana sustain we need early.
- after the S11 changes to ability haste and this rune, taking it is vital.
- great for poking and burning down your opponent early.
- helps you with trades in the lane greatly and scales well with your health/shield power items.
- your W and E are buffed a bit by this. Plus, it can save some of your teammates.

- Other possibilities :
- Provides just a bit of resistances to top it off. Perfect after your itemization is complete.
- the rune is great for shutting down all-in champions.
- great against poke and damage-over-time lane opponents.

Rune page 2 - Grasp

This is the preferred page for builds / strongest laning pressure.

- if you get an easy-to-poke matchup, this rune gives you a lot of sustain, good poke, and a lot of health in the long run. I prefer due to the mobility it provides, but this one works as well!

// -all of these are great choices, depending on the match-up.

Rune page 3 - Moonstone Renewer page

- works really well with your mythic and shields, but you lose a lot of beefiness/mobility.

- for even more healing to your team

Abilities

PASSIVE
Refreshes 5 seconds of 's cooldown whenever you hit an enemy champion with spell.

R
This is what makes so versatile. Within the next 8 seconds after casting this, you can cast an empowered ability.

Q
Great farming tool and really good poking spell with high damage.
Fires a blast of energy that explodes on enemy contact dealing magic damage to enemies in the area and slowing them for 1.25 seconds.

When empowered, deals extra magic damage and leaves a circle of flame at the impact area or upon reaching maximum range, slowing enemies. After 1.5 seconds, the circle erupts, dealing magic damage to enemies in the area.

W
This is what you save for most of the time.
Karma forms a tether to target enemy champion, revealing and dealing magic damage over 2 seconds (one tick at the start of the cast and one at the end). is applied every time this ability damages. If the tether is not broken after the 2 seconds, the target is rooted for 1-2 seconds.

When empowered, increases the duration of the root by 0.5-1.25 seconds and heals Karma for 20% (+1% per 100AP) of her missing health immediately plus another 20% (+1% per 100AP) of her missing health if the tether remains unbroken.

E
Great for escapes, survivability and when empowered, it can boost your whole team in team fights a lot.
Karma shields target ally for 4 seconds and grants the target bonus movement speed for 1.5 seconds.

When empowered - it increases the target's shield amount. Allied champions gain 30% of that amount as a shield, and are also hasted by 40-60%.

Items

Starting items

+2x - this is the best start, as it provides some ap, hp and mana sustain.

-I also consider taking:

+2x - if you want to try Archangel's, take this either as a starting item or on your first recall.

- for even more sustain AND a great buff to your poke early.

Mythic options

- against tanks and matchups you can freely poke, this, combined with offers the strongest lane pressure. The mythic bonus is not as useful on you, but the item itself does very decently.

- the best item for extended trades for tank also offers a tenacity mythic bonus, which helps your build greatly.

- this one makes you even beefier and offers our good old gauntlet slow on auto-attacks every 4 seconds. If you want to be the team's frontline, you get a bit bigger with this item's mythic bonus.

- a situational pick, I only go mandate if my team has enough tankiness or I want to play around a hyper-carry.

- I think this item fits our playstyle perfectly, as it can give up to 30% bonus heal and shield power in prolonged fights, where excels.

Always go for

- Health and health regen, magic resist, ability haste, and to top it all, 30% increased self-healing, what gives Tank the survivability she needs.

Boots

- I usually take those just to sell them later. Early, it gives you some ability haste to get your cooldowns lower, and later on in the game you can sell them to get some armor or magic resist.

- Magic resist and tenacity are great, as you are going to move around team fights a lot, and making the CC on you reduced helps that case.

- Against heavy ad / auto-attack teams, when you want to block %dmg of auto-attacks and also get some armor for survivability.

Situational - your choice

- ability haste, mana and armor this item provides are great for by itself, but the item really shines against high attack speed carries.

- in case you need grievous wounds, good against fed AD opponents.

- S12 changes made this item a bit less tanky, but it is still viable if you want to dash out some bonus damage.

- health and armor, great if you need the bonus mobility before the teamfights.

- health, armor and the same passive as . Active is great for chasing and can help the course of any team fight.

- changes to the item in S12 made it INSANE against magic damage and that works especially well in prolonged fights, where our champion shines!

- good choice against heavy ap teams or damage over time.

- if you need more health and regeneration out of fights. Great for short trades. I prefer to build this item 5th or 6th if I do not get bursted down in fights, therefore making use of the bonus health instead of resistances.

- does this pick seem weird? The new passive heals you a lot, even though is ranged and the shield is great if you find yourself getting burst down before having time to activate your empowered W.

- even more bizarre pick? Great against AD burst and full AD teams. Very situational.

, or - for a little bit of bonus damage and team-buffing. Especially, if you have an ADC like , , , etc. which gain a lot from attack speed and on-hit effects, this is the best pick. Next, is my new favorite - giving the whole team ability power and movement speed with your empowered is just insane. On the other hand, is more sustain based - as the Active effect can save you, or your teammates, even after you DIE.
All of these items have +% healing and shielding power, which is great for your kit too. You can even combine 2 of those items together in your build, and be even more helpful to your team.

- with the new ability haste passive, this item became a great addition to our build. Definitely try this!

- again, thinking what a weird item? If you find yourself splitting from your team too much, consider taking this - if not for the resistances, the push it provides makes up for the non--like stats. Especially good with .

- See a carry getting fed early? Take this and make them bleed. Ability haste is great too!

Do not run:

- Only go this if you are ahead early, or if you manage to buy tear after cheat recall (crushing 3 waves into enemy tower). You do not often get out of mana and the stats themselves are less valuable than armour / magic resist.

Matchups

Medium

His sustain is great, his CC is hitting hard, and later he becomes tanky enough to eat all of your damage. You can outtrade him early, as your damage and mobility are pretty high itself but he will get very beefy, so take . Do not overpush - since can set up ganks easily. Make use of as much as you can, so you won't get caught in his abilities.

Easy

I am not as certain about this one, yet considering all the games I have played this matchup in, I do not feel like it is a hard one. Poke whenever she tries to farm and stay behind your minions, so she will not be able to use on you. With your movement speed from and , you should be able to dodge her tentacles and poke her down. Kill her tentacles whenever you can - or whenever you want to bait her into a fight, as players usually try to defend those, if they are nearby.

Easy - Medium

The matchup got better in the recent patches.
Deny his farm, poke whenever possible. If he starts a fight with you, your spells should be enough to lock him down and along with , it is nearly imposible for him to lock YOU down. He outscales you in the late game but still, your sustain and protection is way too much for this guy to handle.

Easy - Medium

Most of the time, she will try to dodge or negate your with her , yet our Q has 3 seconds shorter cooldown, so abuse that.
A good player will not recklessly fight you head on before getting an advantage.
Early, use your poke as much as you can after baiting out with your autoattacks.
Whenever she tries to run up you pre-6, you can simply use to negate damage and to lock her down, followed by + combo.
You should have the upper hand when she hits level 6 and dominate the lane with your + heal whenever she decides to burn you down with her ultimate. If you anyhow fell behind, just can always ask for the help of your jungler whenever you let her push.

Easy

He cannot outtrade you early and you can punish him for every minion he tries to take.
Use whenever he throws at you to get out of it and continue to poke and slow him whenever he tries to walk up to you. Abuse your and early and save your in mid game - when uses his ultimate you can easily escape after rooting him and heal up. You will be able to push him under the tower early and mid game, so get a for river vision.

Easy

You cannot go wrong here, as the kit has is not going to endanger you, if you keep distance from him and poke.
Whenever he uses to speed himself up and to stop and slow you, you can just + to slow him and to speed yourself up - resulting in one-sided trades in your favor. Do not overpush too far, as jungler might screw your advantage up.

Easy

Even though I believe you are to have the upper hand, he can be a nuisance later on. There are many mains and he has a high pick percentage, yet a good is hard to find nowadays. Trade-wise, you should start the trade with , as it often baits out his , but it does not stop you from snaring him, as your is not a projectile. Without the wind wall, it is easy to poke him out with autoattacks and your . Beware of the enemy jungler though, as he might want to help get fed. Do not underestimate his scaling, as your damage falls off. Get to reduce his damage output against you and or to make his attacks hits hurt less.

Easy

depends heavily on his skillshots (and soul fragments) and you are mobile enough to not only dodge them but also counterattack and win trades.
Early, your poke is just far better and your CC is far more reliable, as your is a single target spell. Later in the game, can be a hard one to fight against, so get a lot of magic resistance.

Medium

The thing with this big guy is that most of his power comes from prolonged fights, where he can make use of his passive. Even if getting crushed in the lane, he can get it back with just a little bit of underestimating in team fights. With that said, your laning phase and team fights should be focused on making him hurt less by zoning, kiting, and making sure he does not get to you and your team for free. Everything comes to your positioning. Whenever he wastes his (which has a huge cooldown), poke him down. Also, stacking health items works well against his true damage from .

WIP

Created - 9th November 2017
Updates:
//10th November 2017
- changes to some of the recommended items
//11th November 2017
- added item description
//17th November 2017
-minor update
//26th November 2017
-minor update
//5th December 2017
-minor update, match-ups WIP
//12th January 2018
-added few matchups
//16th January 2018
-second rune page added
//29th January 2018
-8.2 Changes
//11th February 2018
-8.3 Changes did not affect Karma, just to point this out.
//14th February 2018
-Change in the runes section and reasoning for not using Inspiration runes.
//22nd February 2018
-minor update for 8.4 Changes, did not affect the build as much though.
//5th March 2018
-minor runes, item, and matchups update
//11th March 2018
-8.5 did not affect at all, yet I am meeting a lot more es and s now, so expect matchups soon.
//26th March 2018
-8.6 Changes to runes and items - and have been removed, got minor changes.
//16th April 2018
-8.7 did not affect or this build.
//28th April 2018
-8.8 did not (again) affect - the build is still viable and fun to play!
//24th May 2018
-8.9 and 8.10 have affected the starting items - minor update of these.
//8th June 2018
-8.11 Changes added to items and runes. Rest in peace, .
//24th June 2018
-minor changes
//9th July 2018
-8.13 did not affect and the build is still very viable. Added two more matchups.
//23rd July 2018
-in 8.14, got some changes. Her starting armor got buffed, which benefits this build greatly! Early, her mana sustain is better and her inner fire has a bit bigger explosion radius now / even tho combined with , it deals a bit less damage early game.
//16th August 2018
-8.15 and 8.16 did not affect this build and it is very viable. Even though has half the damage now, the cooldown was also lowered to 10s, which benefits our poke-based laning even more.
//20th November 2018
-8.23 already and the build is still very viable. has been buffed few times, and the new rune is great with this playstyle. Looking good!
-I also want to apologize for not updating the guide through the last few patches due to a lack of time. I will probably update the guide slightly every now and then.
//10th December 2018
-minor chapter updates, 8.24 changes did not affect this build.
//5th February 2019
-the build is still very viable and the last few patches helped it too. For example, and got buffed, both being used in the build
//18th February 2019
-none of the changes affected this build, plus some of the matchups (,) are somewhat easier now, after the nerfs.
//12th June 2020
-After more than a year, I decided to come back to the guide and I will try to update it as often as possible. The build is still not only viable but also very rewarding in the current meta!
//29th June 2020
-removed outdated info
//8th October 2020
-the guide is still very viable, currently testing out the new items on PBE, so we can update to the next season!
//15th October 2020
- What a time to be alive! has been hit with some nice buffs this patch, go and get some free LP!
//26th January 2021
-S11 is here, so I will try to update the guide as much as I can! Some parts are still missing, but bear with me, please.
//4th February 2021
- 's base mana regen and the cost of inner fire got buffed in 11.3!
//19th February 2021
- The build is still very viable. There were some changes to moonstone, but the main builds remain untouched.
//3rd March 2021
- We got another buff in 11.5, this time, our Q cooldown got reduced!
//18th March 2021
-There are no changes to the build in 11.6
//4th April 2021
The build stays unchanged for 11.7 and Karma remains invincible.
//12th July 2021
Karma has been nerfed recently (her base AD got reduced by 3) and so did Divine Sunderer, but the builds are still very viable. I will try to update the guide as much as possible.
//3rd March 2022
Added some S12 changes, continuing to test more. Will try to update the guide from time to time. The build remains strong, recently I found to be the most viable mythic choice.
//16th April 2022
Moonstone has been nerfed but still remains the best item for our playstyle.
//14th May 2022
Not much has changed this patch, but the next one is going to bring huge healing changes and will need more testing.

Looking forward to your feedback!

- CB