Talk:Karma/@comment-10136989-20150428142424

I have been playing her top lane recently with some great success. She can really bully melee champions, and even ranged ones like Lissandra Gnar or Vlad have problems dealing with her poke and sustain. (empowered abilities will now have a + after eg. Q+)

The greatest tool she has against melees is her disengage with a quick shield and tether into Q+, however W+ can really help too. It only has slightly less damage than Q+ and the same base damage before level 6. This actually leads to some interesting maths, pre 6 in laning, assuming you are about to take damage or have lost a couple of hundred points of hp, always use W+, it outrades better than Q+ does. If going for the kill ofcourse the bonus damage and slow from Q+ works better, and E+ should never be used.

Farm well, harrass, don't be scared to push + poke, regular aa help get mantra cd down, max Q first then W if doing well, or E if you feel the fights could be over in a matter of seconds. E allows better seiging and protection for carries, but generally prioritse W as it lowers the cooldown and increases root duration.

Build path is fairly regular, D-ring + pots, into Morellonomicon, boots (prefer sorcs, but you can make your own mind up if they enemy team is 4 ad carries or heavy cc etc). After this core you want to branch into the item that will define your role. If they have hard engage low magic damage get zhonyas. Squishier champs not many tank = haunting guise. Won the lane and you value your damage output a bit more than survivability, go Ludens echo or Rabadons. (ludens is GREAT for poke, Rabadons makes you hit almost as hard, and your shield is a bit stronger. One of the best feelings is when you just finish second item Ludens around level 11, casually walk into a lane, Q+ someone for half their hp and they go nuts. You either want to go down the straight AP route, or finish haunting, get a liandries, and burn them down before the fights even start.

One thing to remember here is you aren't playing a champion with engage, and if that's what your team needs from the top laner, pick someone else. Karma fills any other role necessary quite well, as a strong solo laner, poke, disengage and teamfight power. She isn't a tank, but can be one if you are quite sadistic, going FH, SV, Liandries, for a nice 40% cdr + tank stats, mana and stupid survivability from her W+. This is also a situation where maxing E would suck, you wanna empower W as often as possible to remain annoying.