Karma/Strategy

Skill usage

 * In order to play Karma effectively, you must know when to use.
 * on creates , 's most powerful and dangerous ability, as it is one of the most powerful nukes in game (has both spectacular base damage and AP ratio) and should be used in teamfights. It's also the most important part of 's max damage combo onto a single target.
 * on creates, which can strongly heal yourself in combat and cripple a fleeing enemy.
 * However, the heal is quite ineffective unless your health is under 50%, but you can use it and follow up with to protect  while she heals.
 * Using on  creates, a potent AoE shield and haste which is useful to help an ally surrounded by enemies, as the shield strength and haste are huge. It can be used to absorb a large portion of an AoE ability that you see coming.
 * Of her skills, and  have the lowest mana cost and cooldown, making it easy to reduce 's cooldown faster.
 * Take into account that  reduces 's cooldown by 6 seconds alone.
 * Remember that, and  effects are independent to their normal counterpart ranks.
 * Even so, take into account that a higher ranked ability will of course feel more powerful than a lower ranked one when empowered.
 * 's rework was centered around allowing her function as a mage, which was successful. 's main combo is:
 * Land ; if you miss it, think twice before following up.
 * Wait until CD has dropped to 2 seconds (easy with 40% CDR).
 * Use and land the snare. This is critical, as missing the snare can ruin the combo.
 * -> ; is thrown right into your snared victim, shutting down any possible escape from the secondary zone
 * Use any time you see a counter-attack heading your way, to either avoid it with the bonus movement speed, or to shield yourself from damage.
 * 's kit is quite versatile, you should think carefully about which ability to max, depending on the situation.
 * As her main source of damage, harassment and burst, should be maxed out if you are taking a solo lane or decide to become a severe poking support.
 * can still be used as a support, because is a low cooldown and mana-affordable shield with a potent haste. If you decide to run  as a support, it would be possible to max this ability first.
 * However, it should be maxed last if playing as a mage, as it provides an impressive 40% movement speed boost at rank one, making it a one-point wonder. This gives both increased mobility and saving power.
 * Providing a good amount of damage and useful CC, is not to be ignored. However, its short range can make it troublesome to use properly, and maxing this ability can waste a lot of damage. If you are facing a melee opponent like  or, who needs to be up your face to deal damage to you, the root can be an excellent disengage. Also, in most scenarios you'll easily be able to trigger the snare.
 * If your having trouble sticking to a target long enough to trigger the root of, slow your opponents with and/or speed yourself up with.
 * is very useful during the laning phase, as well as becoming especially powerful in teamfights.
 * In teamfights, where you most likely have a high amount CDR, 's cooldown is drastically lowered by, as  can trigger multiple times, and can be spammed more often due to the CDR.
 * can allow incredibly powerful escapes for her allies as well as herself:
 * Using and  on a chasing opponent will cripple them down.
 * Using the massive haste, as well as shield from,  can swiftly get an ally out of danger.
 * 's early game power is surprisingly high due to her high base damages, and the fact that she can use Mantra at level 1 to empower her abilities. A into  combo can easily do up to 50% of your opponent's health early on.
 * Combined with her high base AD in comparison to other mages, Karma excels at early trading.
 * The cooldown of starts when activated, not when the enhanced spell is cast. Activating  in advance of an imminent fight can theoretically save you up to 8 seconds of cooldown on the ability.
 * In top lane functions well by kiting and zoning melee champions with auto attacks and abilities.  taken at level 1 allows her to zone effectively and taking  at level 2 both allows her full damage combo and excellent disengage.  can burst easily at low levels, but tends to win top lane through forcing her laner to back due to harass and kiting. This also benefits Karma due to the ability to get more use out of her passive.

Build usage

 * benefits greatly from cooldown reduction, and combined with, can refresh the cooldown of in a couple of seconds in a teamfight and can allow the use of your ultimate multiple times if you are play aggressively.
 * is quite mana-hungry because of the prolific nature of ability casting, due to this the allows her to sustain her damage and improve her "spammability", as well as providing a good deal of AP.
 * Another option is, however, keep in mind that when you buy yourself this item, a large deal of gold is poured on the defensive stat. This is quite more expensive than the and does not provide as much as AP as the Book.
 * Any of these items combined with the sorcery mastery and  will allow her to achieve 40% CDR, which is quite critical on her.
 * Another to cover the remaining 15% of CDR is to use runes:
 * 9 Glyphs of Scaling Cooldown Reduction will grant the 15% on their own, making them very efficient at reaching the CDR cap of 40%.
 * 5% CDR in the runes (either flat or stacking) will allow her to buy and acquire the missing 10% from items such as.
 * can be built early to solve any mana issues and rushed to to charge it faster. Coupled with items such as  it can provide over 130 ability power, not to mention that 's mana pool is naturally quite large.
 * However, since neither of them grant CDR, be careful about buying these.
 * Having excellent ratios on her abilities (especially when is activated)  is a must if playing as mage, and can even be useful if playing as a support, if your team lacks burst.
 * is a very effective damage item on, as it gains charges quickly due to her low cooldowns and the haste on.
 * works well with for many reasons, one being that  keeps dealing damage and healing Karma even in stasis.
 * As explained above, has quite powerful burst potential, usually enough to destroy any marksman (which is usually the mage's responsibility) but struggles in bringing tanky fighters under half their health.
 * can help with tanks stacking a lot of health.
 * 's abilities can make her deceptively tanky. However, since this tankiness comes from active abilities she is especially vulnerable while stunned or silenced, making and  viable options when the other team has a lot of CC.
 * is her main source of damage, and it also applies a slow, which instantly procs the improved burn of , not to mention that it gives the magic penetration that she is likely to sacrifice by getting  instead of , and the bonus health is quite high, considering she has to get relatively close to deal damage with.
 * Building and  will not only provide more durability for, but additional AP as well.
 * Remember that to execute 's combination effectively, she must land her snare, this means that she has to be pretty close to her target. Tanky AP items like, or are highly recommended for her.
 * is also an excellent item, as it provides all the stats Karma needs and grants an aura to your allies.
 * As a support, either or  and their respective upgrades are needed for gold income.
 * will grant more effective poke in lane, and more gold if the passive is regularly used. If you aim for an AP Support build, the same item choices as for a regual mage build are to be recommended after and  are completed.
 * You don't necessarily need to complete . A viable alternative is to stick to, using it purely for the gold generation, and selling it later if you have 5 completed items in order to free up a slot for a last item.
 * and further will grant more sustain in lane and a lot more utility later on. Keep in mind however, that your damage will fall off drasticly if not opting for any Ability Power.
 * Your high base damage should still keep your damage on an acceptable level during laning phase.
 * is an essential item for every support and should be picked up early.
 * is a niche item on support when you have teammates who scale well with Attack Speed, such as  or . With a  on it can grant 15% attack speed and 30 on-hit magic damage to all allies you shield. However,  grants many stats other support items may already give you.
 * If you prefer to save for another ability or if it's on cooldown, you can also buy a  since its unique active will shield you and your allies while also applying the passive of.
 * Consider buying a if you're playing support. The unique passive will grant you and your marksman +50% crit chance and +20% AP when it activates, drastically enhancing your ability to trade during brief windows of power. Since  already wants to auto-attack in order to trigger, the crit chance is somewhat valuable on her, further improving her damage output.
 * Top lane will generally require to rush an early  and then a  to allow for constant mana and then to counter AD damage and grant some AP.
 * Either or  is recommended due to the fact that having mana and all your abilities off cooldown will vastly improve 's zoning and kiting potential, as well as making her much harder to gank.
 * Karma can even be played as a bruiser in the toplane. Keep in mind that this build takes a long time to become effective, as it needs a vast amount of gold to complete, but will pay off eventually.
 * , and  grant solid damage.
 * and or  grant exceptional tankyness in combination with, and much needed CDR.
 * Finishing with,  or  will round of the build according the given circumstances.

Countering

 * She is likely to max out first. Keep minions beween you and her, to avoid a large portion of her damage.
 * Even if she tags you with, stay calm and try to stay behind minions, if you are not able to break the bond.
 * lowers her cooldown when she hits enemy champions with basic attacks and abilities. Deny her from getting free hits on you.
 * is a difficult champion to finish if pushed to a corner. Don't turret dive her or overcommit unless you can finish her with one or at the best 2 moves.
 * erupts for bonus damage in the area in which it's been placed. React quickly and escape the circle to avoid taking heavy damage.
 * This ability is usually combined with to prevent an escape, so play accordingly.
 * is a strong disengage tool. Create distance to avoid being rooted and seek to engage afterwards.
 * Champions who depend heavily on staying on melee range are not recommended against as she can use  to cut short any engage and heavily punish it with  or
 * has a very sharp mana cost compared to her other abilities. Try baiting it if you are champion with dashes or blinks. This tactic will drain her mana and leave her without her main CC tool.
 * Carefully watch for the dragons on her back - if they are rotating,  is off cooldown.
 * is painfully hard to kill by another lone champion. She will play around her and escape with, on the other hand she can be quickly killed by an ambush with several champions.
 * 's arms and eyes will be shining brightly whenever she activates . Her next ability within 8 seconds will be enhanced.
 * is especially dangerous at level 3, since she has her whole kit available at this point.
 * She can actually get her full damaging combo by level 2, be very conservative until you hit a higher level, keep your distance to prevent and keep minions between you and her to prevent  the massive early nuke from  if she combos it.

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