Karma set to receive move towards Support role in LoL patch 11.16

Since her launch in 2011, Karma has left a big mark on the League of Legends competitive scene, where iconic players such as Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok have come to demonstrate her explosive potential that has led her to be an excellent flex-pick for both the mid and upper lanes, as well as an incredible support.

At present, Karma has had relevance for two different reasons: its predominance in the ranked queues having one of the highest rates of selection with more than 90% in the bot lane, and a massive decline in her performance in professional leagues, where her role has been diversified among the three main lanes, without good results.

Because of this, Riot’s team has taken on the task of improving her stats, as well as putting a bigger focus on her effective role as a support, by applying a large series of adjustments set to release alongside League of Legends patch 11.16, according to info collected by Spideraxe from Surrender at 20 through the PBE.

Among the most striking changes, Riot Games wants Karma's passive to not reduce R's cooldown on auto-attacks. To better understand the nerf, we must remember Karma's abilities and basic attacks tend to hasten the use of his ultimate, and this in turn grants bonuses to his three basic abilities: from area damage to movement speed.

To compensate for the nerf, Karma will have a cooldown reduction buff when connecting abilities against enemy champions. Previously, this was a reduction of 2/3.5/5 seconds according to the level: now it will flatten to only five seconds.

In addition, Karma will also suffer from a stats adjustment on her other abilities, which you can see below:

Passive: Gathering Fire

• Mantra cooldown reduction 2-5s ⇒ 5-7s.
• [Removed] No longer reduces cooldown on basic attacks.

Q: Inner Flame

• Damage 90-270 ⇒ 70-270
• Cooldown 8-6 ⇒ 9-5.
• Mana cost 55 ⇒ 45
• Mantra bonus damage 25-175 ⇒ 40-220.

E: Inspire

• Shield 80-240 ⇒ 80-260.
• Bonus move speed 40-60% ⇒ 40%.
• Mantra nearby champion move speed [same as ally spell was cast on] ⇒ [30%]

As always, we must note these changes are tentative, and if approved, these will arrive on League of Legends’ main servers in patch 11.16 on 11th August.

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