Karma, the most popular tank top laner in League of Legends history, is about to get her very own gameplay update, according to a post from Riot on the official game forums today. That’s mostly a joke, she’s not actually a popular top laner, but tank Karma might make a comeback with the buff to her W in today’s patch.
Back to her update, though, because it’s pretty interesting. It’s not quite as large in scale as Swain or Evelynn’s updates, as it only really affects a couple of abilities. It’s similar to Ezreal’s in terms of size, except it doesn’t include a major visual update like his. At least, the forum post didn’t mention a major visual update.
The first major change of the update comes to her W, Spirit Bond. On top of its usual rooting effect, you’ll now be able to cast it on allies. When cast on an ally, you reduce the cooldowns of their abilities by a flat amount. This is a first for the game—think Zilean, but for allies.
This could be huge for the game and the meta, as a support who reduces your cooldowns would do very well with a burst type of marksman who relies on abilities more than basic attacks. Riot will have to be careful when designing the specifics around it to not make it too strong, or we could have another Irelia or Akali on our hands.
The other change comes for Karma’s E, but it doesn’t function too differently than it does now. When Mantra is applied the bonus shielding is a bit different now, but not by enough of a margin to call it a total ability update.
Karma has been somewhat relevant in the meta for a couple of years now, both professionally and in amateur play, so this change will have a significant effect. It’s still a ways out though, as Riot said it won’t be included on the PBE as part of the pre-season update. That means we could still be a few months away.
