The recent durability changes that accompanied League of Legends Patch 12.10 prioritized champions that have high mobility since it now takes them a bit more time to send an enemy back to the fountain. This has led to a resurgence of enchanters in the bot lane like Rakan and Karma that can effectively build and use Shurelya’s Battlesong to give their allies that extra push.
Karma has remained a staple pick in solo queue and professional play for years. Whether it be her notorious top lane tank playstyle or a more standard support build, the Enlightened One brings a lot to teams with her low cooldowns and supportive abilities.
Luckily for Karma, her build path since the introduction of Mythic items in the preseason of the 2021 season has remained mostly the same. Between poking her enemies with high damage at low levels and speeding up enemies while shielding them, Karma is a staple pick in most team compositions, facing competition only from other supports like Janna that have a bit more crowd control in their kits.
Here is the best build for Karma in League of Legends.
Best runes for Karma in League
Sorcery
Arcane Comet: Karma’s empowered Q, accessible to her at level one, can do nearly half a health bar of damage to enemy ADCs and supports—even with the recent durability changes. Taking Arcane Comet ensures that any opposing champion hit by her Q is running away to safety or else they’ll succumb to massive damage from a follow-up attack.
Manaflow Band: Like most enchanter supports, Karma struggles extensively to control her mana costs due to the low cooldowns of her abilities. Since this champion wants to be using her abilities as much as she can, taking Manaflow Band is imperative to help her before she can purchase the right items.
Transcendence: This rune in the Sorcery tree makes Karma’s cooldowns even lower. While this is great for her ability to poke with her Q, it’s even better for her E, which both shields and speeds up allies simultaneously.
Scorch: Every 10 seconds, Scorch gives Karma a small burn on her abilities that make contact with enemies. Combined with Arcane Comet, this makes Karma’s empowered Q one of the most oppressive abilities at level one.
Inspiration
Biscuit Delivery: This rune pairs with Manaflow Band to restore much-needed mana to Karma when she needs it. It also acts as another potion to heal Karma and her low base health, though it only appears in players’ inventories every two minutes three times.
Cosmic Insight: The active of Shurelya’s Battlesong has a massive cooldown that forces Karma to use it at opportune times. Cosmic Insight lessens the burden of this cooldown slightly, as well as gives her summoner spells some haste.
Best starting items for Karma in League
Spellthief’s Edge: Karma’s poke damage makes Spellthief’s Edge the preferred starting item for her. This item rewards Karma with 20 gold each time she attacks an enemy champion or structure, which is easy for her to do thanks to her Q and speed up from her E. After accumulating 500 gold with the item, it will give Karma extra wards that refill when going back to the fountain.
Health Potions: Outside of high mana costs, Karma also suffers from the enchanter class’ low base health, meaning she is incredibly susceptible to all sources of damage. Her E shield may be able to mitigate that damage, but its cooldown early on means it should be prioritized for use on allies. Health potions will help Karma gain some lost health back and work nicely with the biscuits she’ll get every two minutes.
Stealth Ward: Karma gains extra speed when using her E on herself. This lets her roam exceptionally well and therefore makes her ability to ward in multiple places one of the best of all supports in the early game. But she is still very squishy, so players should be careful when they don’t have vision of the enemy jungler or mid laner.
Best core items for Karma in League
Shurelya’s Battlesong: This Mythic item has remained a pivotal part of Karma’s success for over two years. Its active effect of providing bonus movement speed to all allies in Karma’s vicinity is great for engages, but its passive effect is what allows Karma to shine. When shielding an ally while having this item, Karma and that ally will receive a substantial buff to their movement speed for a short duration. Combined with her E’s short cooldown and empowered E targeting all allies at once, Shurelya’s Battlesong makes for a perfect item to let your team fly across the map.
Chemtech Putrifer: Most enchanter supports thrive with an Oblivion Orb in the early game, and Karma is no exception. Though healing has been reduced drastically with the durability changes, having no way to deal with it still makes it oppressive. Buying an Oblivion Orb and completing a Chemtech Putrifier shortly thereafter gives Karma access to grievous wounds to lower enemy healing, as well as grants her additional stats at a low gold cost.
Redemption: Karma does not have access to any healing in her kit, which can be detrimental when her shields just aren’t enough. Building Redemption helps to mitigate this issue while also providing Karma with a large amount of mana regeneration to ensure that she can spam her abilities as much as possible.
Best late-game items for Karma in League
Ardent Censer: As one of the oldest support items in the game, Ardent Censer holds up exceptionally well. This item is primarily used to help Karma’s allies that thrive with attack speed and can be activated each time Karma uses her shield on them.
Staff of Flowing Water: Ardent Censer is most often paired with Staff of Flowing Waters for the buffs it provides allies and the stats it gives Karma. When shielding allies, this Legendary-tier item provides them and Karma with a buff to their ability power and ability haste for a small period of time and can be applied to all allies at once with her empowered E.
Vigilant Wardstone: The Wardstone items are often overlooked by players in favor of items that give supports access to buffing their allies. But after level 13 when Vigilant Wardstone becomes available, the ability to place four wards and two control wards at a time is unlocked, which can be crucial for securing objectives like Baron and Elder Dragon. It also gives Karma an exceptional amount of ability haste, as well as empowers all stat bonuses Karma already has.
