So, first of all, thanks for reading this guide on Karma, The englightened one.

I bought this champion shortly before her rework, wanting to snag myself the free skin. Upon first playing her my thoughts were 'Oh god, this is terrible.' After her rework however I fell in love with her playstyle, it is very fluid, brings tons of utility to the team as well as damage. You can play her mid or support, however this guide will focus on Karma in the support role. What comes around goes around? ;)

Now, why pick Karma as a support? As I mentioned already she brings a lot of utility to the teamfight and is one of four champions having more than 4 skills. The major thing about Karma is her Ultimate, Mantra, which is the reason why she has more than the 4 skills most champions have. Mantra gives her Q, W and E additional stats. Her passive reduces Mantra's cooldown by 1 second for each time Karma damages an enemy champion, 0.5 seconds if this happens through autoattacks. If you are great at poking, this is amazing. If not...well, you have something nice to learn with this champion as it is really rewarding. But for now, let's take a closer look at this, comparing the normal and Mantra'd skills.

This is her ult, as you can see the cooldown on lvl 1 is fairly long, it is 36 seconds at max level.

So this is one of her bread and butter skills in my oppinion. A good mantra'd Q can disrupt a teamfight really well, as usually the enemy team will try to walk out of it before it explodes and gets distracted that way, making your own team able to pick on them and eliminate key targets. This is also good for waveclear whenever you are pushed to a tower. If you are good with timing, steal barons/dragons with this, that requires some feeling for how much damage exactly it does and when. I would normally mantra this or E.

This skill is nice as a follow up to a mantra'd Q. When they are slowed you can pick your primary target, lock your W on them, maybe speed yourself up with E as well and root them at the end. Unless I play ARAM I never really use my mantra with this. Maybe...just maybe...when I have a few kills as well and think I can 1v1 the person fighting me at the moment, because the heal can save your life. But normally...just don't mantra it :P

This is what makes laning amazing. The shield cast is instant, putting this on your ADC makes them able to evade roots, hooks, whatever else botlane has to offer as well as shield them from enemy poke. Come the teamfights, a mantra'd E can save lifes and turn the tide of the battle, giving a shield+speedbuff to everyone is just amazing. This is also a great skill for escapes, whether it's just you alone escaping or the whole team.

Now, what skill to use when. Basically during laning phase it's to shield your ADC with E whenever needed. If you want to initiate and set the lane up for a gank, mantra'd Q, then Focused Resolve on the enemy ADC and shield whomever needs it most. I like to use it on myself in this situation to be sure the root goes through, even if the enemy ADC uses flash. In teamfights you have to see what is more important, if you have the upper hand already I'd go for the mantra'd Q. If it's a tight battle or you need to retreat, use the mantra'd E.

As for the skillorder, I always go Q on LvL 1, E on LvL 2, W on LvL 3. Prioritize your Ult over everything, this is self-explanationary. Check what you are more comfortable with for the rest, I like to max Q second, E third and W last but depending on how the lane goes, if we get a lot of poke and just need to make it safe through the lane without snatching many kills, I occasionally also max E first. W is more or less only useful for the root, not for the damage so I advise maxing this last.

As for runes and masteries, some people will now think: "You're crazy, no armor runes in botlane!" but I am confident in not getting too much poke as I am a support main and know more or less when to go in and when to stay back. So if you feel like you're getting a lot of poke please put in some armor runes. I just prefer the mana regen myself to be able to play agressively.

I run 9x Greater Mark of Magic Penetration, 9x Greater Seal of Mana Regeneration, 9x Greater Glyph of Magic Resit and 3x Greater Quintessence of Ability Power on Karma as a support. If I were to play her mid it would probably be the same runes. Magic Pen just to get through that magic resist that the enemy has, Mana regen as I said already to be able to poke well, give the shields when needed and basically never run out of mana, Flat Magic Resist to stand a chance versus that midlaner in teamfights (those tend to hurt me the most over all the game) and possibly the support as well and Ability Power Quints for that extra bit of damage.

My masteries however are pretty standard support masteries, just because there is too much good stuff in there to give it up for the damage tree. Extra starting gold? Passive gold generation? Gold stealing by autoattacks? Yes please, this is an aggressive ranged support's paradise!

Sorcery 4/4: 5% CDR is great!
Expose Weakness 1/1: Peel for your ADC, let them do more damage.
Recovery 2/2: I like this to be able to stay in lane longer.
Phasewalker 1/1: You might think one second shorter recall isn't much but trust me...it is.
Meditation 3/3: Extra Mana regen, great! If you run the same runes as me you could potentially trade this with something else.
Scout 1/1: 15% more cast range by trinket items can, at times, be a lifesaver and is nice in general.
Summoner's Insight 3/3: 10% Summoner Cooldown Reduced, so worth it!
Strength of Spirit 1/1: 1% Health per 5 seconds for every 300 Mana. This can be traded for something else but I like it coupled with Recovery, gives good Health Regen in lane.
Alchemist 1/1: 10% increased duration for potions and elixiers, I tend to take 2 pots or so with me into lane and this is really nice.
Greed 3/3: +1.5 Gold every 10 seconds, huge help and you NEED to take this.
Culinary Master 1/1: Remember the cookies from Season 3? The ones with health and mana regen? Yeah, this mastery makes health pots into cookies! Take it, amazing coupled with Alchemist!
Scavenger 1/1: 1 Gold for every lane minion that dies close to you, killed by an ally. Passive gold anyone? Take it!
Wealth 1/1: +40 starting gold, love this for an extra pot or ward.
Inspiration 2/2: +10 exp every 10 seconds while near a higher level allied champion. This is great as you will miss out on exp when you go to ward, this way you won't fall too hard behind.
Bandit 1/1: Grants +3 Gold each time an enemy champion is autoattacked. This can't occur more often than once every 5 seconds on the same champion. Bread and butter skill for poking and generating passive gold. ONLY use this on ranged champions.
Intelligence 3/3: +5% Skill cooldown reduction and 10% CDR on activated items. This skill is a must, no reason to explain.
Wanderer 1/1: +5% movement speed out of combat. Get back to the action faster or out of the action as well. Great skill.

So what to buy? This is an example build to let you see what a potential build could look like, including stats such as gold earned etc.

I prefer the Talisman of Ascension support item over the other 3 so I start with an ancient coin, 2 pots and a ward as well as the yellow trinket. I work my way towards a Ruby Sightstone to replace the Trinket slot with the Sweeping Lens and finish the Talisman of Ascension, throwing in basic boots somewhere in between. After that finish your boots, I'd suggest taking the Sorcerer's Shoes. Once you have got all those items, your basic stuff is finished. After that it is really depending on how the game goes, what your personal stats are, what you are up against etc.

I like building pure damage after that, so I go for a Rabadon's Deathcap, all my other AP items will benefit from this. Then, if their physical damage dealers are pretty fed I run Zhonya's, if not either Rylai's Scepter for the slow and being more tanky or Morellonomicon or Athene's Grail. Personally I like Athene's Unholy Grail more but Morellonomicon is a great item as well.

Don't forget to finish your Sweeping Lens though, the longer vision it gives is really helpful in Baron Fights! I like to buy Homeguards as well when I have a bit of Gold left in between, just because you don't have to stand in your base for ages and are back to support your team a lot faster!

So this concludes our little journey into Ionian's Elder Karma! I hope you enjoyed it and learned something out of it :3 For any further questions to her playstyle feel free to post a comment and I will get back to you!