Talk:Karma/@comment-5056700-20150826062254/@comment-25223119-20150826151345

I am positive you already have your answer. Karma's worst lane is probably Top. And I'm not saying she's a bad top laner, but just put Support, Mid and Top Karma together and you'll probably see more Support and Mid Karma. Top Karma performs the least satisfactorily, and appeals to a more specific group of players who prefer playing off-meta roles, Top Karma is one of them I'd say.

You've provided fine points, such as Karma being a lane bully, snowballing and zoning out melee tops effectively, but she does all of that equally well in Mid or Support without sacrificing some team tankiness or team damage. Top Karma is responsible getting an early lead but the power wil come to a halt by late game. You said it yourself, by late game, she's best played using R->E with bruiser builds. But there's no stopping other melee tops from getting back at you, think Tryndamere and Irelia/Fiora. So your team will have to capitalize mid game very very well to ensure a strong or equal lead by late game. If played on equal strenghs on both teams, you'll still see Top Karma falling off a bit. Whereas this is not the case in Mid/Support Karma, because Mid Karma builds full AP to keep up, while Support Karma still retains enough utilities as a support to impact the team in a different way. Top Karma is like a cross between a tanky top and bursty top wannabe that doesn't quite happen, so she will fall off late game because you are building half def stats, half survivabillity and half danage.

Regardless Support is Karma's best role at the moment, because she provides much raw power in early/mid game and can just do support jobs by late game. Top role is best reserved for your all-out bursty melee tops or your tanky tops with %damage to remain relevant late game and also those with huge presence (Shen?). And also, speaking of top matchups for Karma, while she does well against melee tops, she can struggle against gimmicky champions like Rengar where the top bush helps him with the element of surprise and even if she snowballs the lane, a Rengar with AD items will always find a way to come back at you by the end of the game, even if your W reveal flat out counters him.