Champion Guide

Karma Guide

By LoLSuggest

Support

Karma plays like an aggressive, lane-bullying engage enchanter early — poking with Soulflare and chasing roots with Focused Resolve — then transitions into a classic enchanter who spams Defiance for big team-wide shields in the mid and late game. She's rewarding when played well but falls off if she doesn't get ahead in lane.

Recommended Setup

Our recommended Karma build

Our recommended runes, summoner spells and items. Compare build win rates on the stats page.

Items

Starting Items

Core Items

Situational Items

Arcane Comet with Axiom Arcanist, Celerity and Scorch, plus Font of Life and Revitalize, is the standard page — Summon Aery for even or losing lanes and Guardian as a safe back-up. Take Flash with Heal, Ignite to snowball or Exhaust against all-ins. Start World Atlas with two potions. The best items are Locket of the Iron Solari, Redemption and Moonstone Renewer, which belongs in almost every final build. Other items fit into four paths: tanky (Knight's Vow, Bandlepipes, Solstice Sleigh), poke mage (Imperial Mandate, Horizon Focus), heal-and-shield (Dream Maker, Staff of Flowing Water, Dawncore) and utility (Shurelya's Battlesong, Mikael's Blessing).

Runes

Primary Tree

Secondary Tree

Summoner Spells

Strengths

Lots of early-game pressure and snowball potential, like an engage support.
Defiance's team shields become huge with ability haste and Moonstone Renewer.
Flexible: can also be played mid or top.

Weaknesses

Hard to pilot efficiently, with much of her skill in holding tethers.
Fairly useless if she doesn't get ahead in laning phase.
Scales worse than other shield-and-heal enchanters; Pyke and hook supports are hard to pin down.

Laning Phase

Lane is where Karma has the most influence. Look for Soulflare when Mantra is up, and otherwise hit Inner Flame on the enemy's ranged minions when opponents stand next to them. To start a fight, Inspire yourself for speed, tether with Focused Resolve (or Renewal if low) and follow up with Q. If both you and the enemy have Flash, flash first so Nimbus Cloak's speed keeps them tethered. Be careful not to ruin your ADC's last hits with Q.

Mid & Late Game

If you're ahead, build more AP and keep playing aggressively like a poke mage who can get kills herself. If you're even or behind, play as an enchanter: use Defiance instead of running in for tethers. In mid and late teamfights Mantra comes back very often — aim to use Defiance as much as possible and only spend it on Soulflare when you're sure to hit more than one enemy.

Key Tips

Every ability that hits a champion reduces Mantra's cooldown, so get close enough to land them.
Renewal heals based on missing health — the lower you are, the more you get back.
Pre-cast Mantra while crowd-controlled so you can cast Renewal the moment you're free.
Self-cast Mikael's Blessing just before CC lands to use it like a Cleanse.

Matchups

Matchups and synergies

Our picks for difficult opponents, favorable lanes and strong allies. Compare matchup win rates on the stats page.