User blog comment:Bouseherb/What about Karma?/@comment-95.176.161.63-20130321191804

The new Mantra with it's 45 second recharge is basically an ulti that you can pick to do one of 3 possible effects. If you consider the new Mantra an ulti not unlike lux final spark (comparable recharge) you'll notice that it's very weak. Her passive is non-existent (should reset mantra on kills/assists at least to make her have more impact in team fights) and getting any considerable recharge reduction from it is an unrealistic expectation. The new shield E is weaker than the old one and weaker than most shield supports. You will notice a lot of people say "OMG HER MANTRA Q DOES SO MUCH DAMAGE" however they don't consider that it's worse than some others' mid Q+R, most obvious counterpart being lux, who on top of having better passive and better shield, will do far more with her Q+R than new Karma with her R+Q. IOW she is a mediocre mid now and a very bad support. As far as her supporting goes she's far behind real supports who need 0 items to stay relevant late game (thresh, lulu, leona, zyra) unlike Karma who needs shittonnes of AP to work in late game. Sure she has some support elements that stay relevant (slow, speed boost, immobilize) but most of those are weak (slow and speed duration is shit and immobilize is very much delayed). I'll take a support with 2 hard CCs with some more soft CC or buffs over Karma as support any day.