Reddit AMA Karma

**Q: [AkingSquid]hey there, real quick question. my friend and i were having a debate over how you pronounce your handle in regards to "Runaan's Hurricane". would you mind putting this to rest for us? thanks!**

**A:** [RiotRunaan]It's "Roo-NAHN." :) Roo as in "rupie" and then naan bread.

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**Q: [Force-of-Will]Thank you for doing the AMA :] For my questions: 1. I don't believe we've seen her new background yet, but would you say it feels more like a progression to Karma's current background, or are there aspects that needed to be changed/retconned? (for instance, her connection to Janna. Would that still be there?) 2. With her current passive being taken out of her new kit, would you still say that the name "Karma" suits her? I feel like the passive made the name and vice-versa. A lot of game play seemed to revolve around it (shield-baiting, heal-baiting, low health kiting). If you could, would you guys change her name to something that suits her relaunched game play and art? Or do you feel Karma fits well with her relaunched themes and such? 3. I know this isn't related to Karma, but I will ask anyway xD. With her fans gone from her game play, do you guys currently have plans to make a champion to fulfill that role? What role/game play style do you think it would suit better? 4. What was difficult in making the fans work for Karma, and, if you could, what iterations of her kit and/or art did you try to make them work? EDIT: Forgot to ask this in here, and I haven't really seen an answer for this yet: I understand she is getting a new voice over, but is the voice actress still the same? Her name is Danielle McRae, for those who don't know.**

**A:** [RiotRunaan]Hey there! I can answer two of your questions - 1. It's a little bit of both. We've focused on a moment of her backstory that hadn't been explored before where she goes from the pacifist diplomat of the past to the active, aggressive Ionian leader she is today. That said, there are a few detail changes, and a lot of stuff will feel "omitted" because we've focused so heavily on one particular story element rather than many, like in her old bio. She may still have her fans and a connection to Janna in deeper lore, but it won't be explicitly stated, as it sort of confuses her own power. Should Karma feel strong because she's Karma, or because Janna gave her an enchantment? Your edit question - she has a new voice actress, yes. We approached Karma's new voice the same way we approach voice-casting an entirely new champion. We had a very specific vision in mind, and we sent out tons of auditions, and finally we picked what best suited what we wanted for the character.

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**Q: [finalej]will karma be getting new VO's? or at the very least a different joke seeing as the "innappropriate clothes for the situation" joke doesn't work w/ her not wearing gowns anymore.**

**A:** [RiotRunaan]Her new model will have entirely new VO, yes.

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**Q: [SilverFlower]Why did Riot change her clothes the way they did? There is a huge disconnect from her old outfit to her new one. From black, white/silver, and red to green, purple, and gold. These colors are extremely different and doesn't really show her evolution. Rather, it looks like a whole different champion with just the same name. I understand that it is to show her evolution, but new players wouldn't be able to piece it together. Clothes are just as important as the lore and I felt that Riot failed on this aspect to incorporate some of the old ideas into her new outfit in order to show her evolution. Taking out the yin/yang aspect of her clothes was most depressing as well. Ionian colors are Red and White, yet she is wearing purple and gold. While these colors are to depict royalty, it does not make sense on Karma as there is a stressing that she's the "paragon of Ionia". If she was, why is she not wearing her country's colors to show it? Also, is there a reason why Riot continues to use a lot of purple? There's a ton of other colors out in the spectrum, yet we keep having champions wearing full/majority purple. Is someone on the team obsessed with purple?**

**A:** [RiotRunaan]Hey there! Yes, her outfit is a huge change, and I do understand how the old black and white color scheme communicated the duality of her theme. However, the black and white color scheme--the "yin yang" color scheme--is very much based in the real world and not the world of Runeterra. It's also a very simplistic representation for a very complex character--things are no longer just "black and white" for Karma. We wanted to build Karma OUT of our setting rather than build her INTO our setting. That said, Ionia's colors are not just red and white. I know Irelia stands out, but she's a very militaristic and revolutionary character. Karma has a lot of muted purples--a softer take on the "dark" side of Ionia, like Syndra, and the gold you'll see in traditional Ionia (take a look at some of the architecture in the background of her splash). Hope that helps a bit!

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**Q: [SuperGinger]What is Karma's greatest fear?**

**A:** [RiotRunaan]Seeing Ionia succumb to inner turmoil and tear itself apart from the inside.

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**Q: [RegrettableDeed]>Jayce is forward-thinking, technologically advanced, and heroic Based on that description, I would say Vi would be the embodiment of Piltover, considering she built her gauntlets herself.**

**A:** [RiotRunaan]She's got a bit of an inversion on the forward-thinking theme, though--she's inventive and clever, but she really does just love breaking stuff down instead of building stuff up. :) Like I said--there isn't a "perfect answer" to the "who represents each nation the best" question. If we're doing our jobs right, every character will be a strong representation of their homeland--it just becomes a matter of nuance and twists on those top-level themes.

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**Q: [BinSupaman]So, I heard she was going to become the leader of Ionia, right?**

**A:** [RiotRunaan]She's a leader of Ionia, but not THE leader of Ionia. Ionia is in a very fractured place right now after the war with Noxus, many forces are vying for leadership of the land. Karma is someone that is striving to lead her people to peace and forge a new, stronger path for her nation. Many people follow her, but many people oppose her, too (Syndra won't be happy with Karma's vision, for example). If you've seen Legend of Korra, there's a good parallel there. Korra's the Avatar--you'd think she'd have an easy time becoming a leader, but there are political forces that work against her. Karma is essentially the spiritual will of Ionia made manifest, but she will face a similar struggle.

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**Q: [Demosth]I've always thought that Caitlyn was a perfect representative for Piltover. She just fits the "image" most in my opinion.**

**A:** [RiotRunaan]Caitlyn represents Piltover quite well. This is why it's a tough question to answer in general--Lux is also a great representation of Demacia, for example. The big picture of each part of our setting is generally something you can get by looking at each champion from a particular region, but there are a few champions (Garen, Jayce, Darius) that really call out the core ideals of their homeland for those who might not delve deeper. Jayce is forward-thinking, technologically advanced, and heroic--these are the essentially the basic beats of Piltover. Other Piltover champions have these too, but not quite as in-the-face.

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**Q: [EdumBot]- I don't like her new dance,it doesn't make good use of her fans.How did you come up with this one? - Why did you change all skill names? Ok.Heavenly Wave doesn't fit her new Q anymore but why didn't you keep Spirit Bond and Soul Shield? - Does her new lore talk more about the recent changes in Ionia? Y'know...fighters like Irelia becoming more warlike and stuff.**

**A:** [RiotRunaan]In response to the second question - we renamed the abilities because they fit her new identity much better. Secondly, we did a lot of testing on Karma's new kit, and something we noticed was that people would only see ability titles ("Spirit Bond") and assume the ability did the same thing even though we'd changed a lot about them. When people see new ability names, they know something's changed--communicating differences is key here. As for her new lore, while those details are important to Karma as a character (Irelia's revolutionary tendencies, darker characters like Zed and Syndra upsetting the balance of Ionia), her new story will be a moment of the past where her power first manifests. We don't typically like bios to rely on deep lore knowledge for understandability of a particular champion (not a hard and fast rule, but something we aim for). Karma has definitely been impacted by more recent developments in Ionia, but her bio will be much more focused on Karma herself.

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**Q: [Luqizilla]Dieico from BR forums asked what's the meaning of that "thing/tattoo" on her back/leg?**

**A:** [RiotRunaan]The thing on her back is her mantle (an Ionian symbol--you'll notice something similar on Irelia and Ionian Master Yi in particular). It's two twin dragons, part of Ionian's national crest. The tattoo on her leg is a dragon as well. Both glow when she calls upon her spirit fire and inner will. We really wanted to elevate her as a paragon of Ionia. : )

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**Q: [Sundurma]KARMA was a Duchess. Şhe was a diplomat with a silver tongue sharper than her fans. BUT, her new look does not fit in that role. How will her story change? A new story, or a story of change?**

**A:** [RiotRunaan]Karma will be getting a new bio, yes. It'll be quite a bit different--we've focused on the moment of her story where her unique power firsts manifests for her, and the moment she decides upon her path to become a leader of Ionia. It's a new story, yes, but we wanted all of the old details of her story to be able to stand alongside it. She's still a diplomat, and she's still a leader with incredible presence and cunning, but she's essentially taken the gloves off. Karma recognizes what needs to be done to change Ionia for the better.

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**Q: [GlaiveGuy]You mention you wanted Karma to be the paragon of Ionia similar to Garen and Darius represent Demacia and Noxus. Could you elaborate on how she does this? What qualities of Ionia does she embody? On a wider scale, which champions do you feel best represent Piltover, Bandle City, Zaun, Shadow Isles, and The Void? And why?**

**A:** [RiotRunaan]Hey there! We tried to bring out Ionia through Karma in a lot of ways. Primarily, Ionia is one of the most spiritual places in Runeterra. It's a very ancient, mysterious place with magic unlike that you'd find anywhere else. Karma's magic is spirit fire, the projected force of her willpower. It's the purest form of Ionian magic we've really done on a champion so far. Second, if you take a look at the crest on her back, it's essentially the crest of Ionia itself (twin dragons). We wanted Karma to really represent the spirit of her nation. Finally, her attitude. Ionia suffered a great hardship when Noxus invaded their lands. All of the traditions and practices Ionia had practiced since ancient times couldn't hold back the onslaught. Ionia had to adapt. Some became resistance fighters and revolutionaries (Irelia), much more warlike than Ionia ever was before. Karma, too, has suffered this hardship, but she's sticking to the spiritual traditions of Ionia while recognizing that her nation must change to push forward into the modern world. As a leader of Ionia, she has to contend with the contentious division in modern Ionia between tradition and revolution. As for the rest of the nations, it would take a while to explain in depth, but my thoughts are essentially... Jayce for Piltover, Teemo for Bandle City, Viktor for Zaun (though Zac really represents the "other half" of Zaun--it shouldn't be all mad science and darkness), Cho'Gath for the Void. The Shadow Isles are a bit tougher. Each of the characters from the Shadow Isles plays a role in the "big picture" of that place--it's a bit of a puzzle, nobody represents the Shadow Isles entirely.

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**Q: [Sergeoff]> so the passive is currently 1/1.5/2 seconds of Mantra CD per spell-hit, and .5/.75/1 seconds (half-effect) for auto-attacks Does that mean her passive will auto-upgrade at levels 7 and 13, like her Mantra does now?**

**A:** [riotscarizard]Yes - similar to a couple of other scaling passives in our game, this will auto-upgrade once she reaches champion level 7 and 13.

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**Q: [Fencinator]Absurd question, for the sake of curiosity - Will Hurricane lower her Mantra cooldown based on how many enemies she hits?**

**A:** [riotscarizard]I...I am pretty sure this works. Mother of god.

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**Q: [DanielZKlein]Pflanzenzombie in the German forums asks: Will we really only have one Mantra charge now? And what do you get out of skilling Mantra at 6/11/16? CDR? Stronger effects? And Maximum Proxy adds: I'm guessing you will have Mantra at level 1?**

**A:** [riotscarizard]Yes, she has Mantra at level 1, and only one charge. Ranking up Mantra will increase the effectiveness of her Mantra'd effects, so Soulflare, Renewal, and Defiance - Meaning that a mid karma who is maxing Inner Flame can have her W2/E2 just as strong, where Live Karma has to max the ability she wants to focus on using Mantra Charges.

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**Q: [Luqizilla]Nepo also asked in the BR forums if her cooldows will be long to incentivate the usage of her passive?**

**A:** [riotscarizard]I won't comment on some of the CD's (as things are suspect to change), but her Q is on a 7->5s CD (3 with CDR), her passive scales up starting at 1s per spell/.5 for AA's to 2s per spell/1s for AA's, and 45s base on Mantra (Able to be lowered by CDR) That's a lot of numbers, but the basic gist of the flow is that early game, Karma uses her passive to bring her R back over a long period of time, while end-game she becomes kind of an overclocking super mantra CDR HYPER KARMA K.O.

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**Q: [Luqizilla]Nepo asked in the BR forums if she still have those flying symbols around her? (the two charges of her ultimate).**

**A:** [riotscarizard]She doesn't - the floating symbols were an indicator of when her Mantra was available, and how many charges she currently had. As we removed the charges, we didn't need the floating symbols - however, we still have an indicator of her Mantra CD/Availability! Her Ionian Mega-Dragon Gigacircle now spins when her Mantra is available, and lies dormant while mantra is on cooldown.

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**Q: [specialwink]I think recharge time is to long because it was already long when it was 30 Seconds. I can see how the heal is not a great mechanic in the positioning but it does help with poke and sustain. I think that the ratio of reduction is fine but the CD of mantra is to long and on top of that she has no sustain for her partner in lane if she is supporting...**

**A:** [riotscarizard]Mantra's CD seems long at early levels (and had to be, due to power level concerns) - but actually overclocks with %CDR. CDR will affect the cooldown of Mantra, but so will all of her basic abilities - her passive also scales up throughout the game, so it's entirely possible to end up with a 27 second Mantra base cooldown, a 3 second Inner Flame cooldown, and 2 seconds off of Mantra per spell-hit (So hitting multiple people gives even more CDR...) As the game goes on, Karma really starts to shine and pumps out a lot of Mantra-casts per fight.

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**Q: [SpiritBomb42]will mantra still be affected by cooldown reduction like it is currently?**

**A:** [riotscarizard]Yes.

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**Q: [DanielZKlein]TaoTiger in the German forums asks: Will Mantra versions of base skills be immediately available after you Mantra or will they share cooldowns with their non-empowered versions?**

**A:** [riotscarizard]When Karma activates Mantra, her next ability cast will be the empowered version of that spell - however, Mantra's activation does not reset any of her cooldowns (like Rengar). She follows the same conventions of Live Karma in this department - Press R, then Press an ability to empower it.

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**Q: [Enhander]A couple of concerns about problems that may not have been addressed: * **Rank 6 Abilities with Rank 5 Power** With the previous Karma, her abilities required 6 skill points to max out, but at that max rank they only had the base power of rank 5 abilities. This caused her to be always 1 step behind everyone else. What have you done to address this? * **Range** Karma previously suffered from low ranges, which combined with the fact that she was fairly squishy made her an easy target in team fights. Her attack range was absurdly low (425). Her Q range was also fairly low, so you would have to often choose between healing your allies and damaging your enemies - almost never both. **Now, there are some new potential problems with her new kit** * **Her passive** Honestly, this feels like an afterthought. I feel like this really should have been a part of Mantra, and not her passive. If this stays on, I feel like she's going to suffer from Renekton-itis - that is a lack of a passive holding her back. Perhaps change it to something like: **Dual Flame** Karma has a third resource, which runs from -50 to +50. While her resource is less than 0, her disables gain a little extra duration. While her resource is greater than 0, her nukes deal more damage. She can gain resource by disabling enemies, and she can lose resource by nuking enemies. The effects can be changed, but you get the general idea. This would also add another level of game play with her. Right now, her Gathering Flames seems like a cop-out. * **Lackluster W** At first glance her W seems very much improved. However, the delay is what really concerns me. The mobility creep has had a lot of time to accumulate, and most champions have at least one built-in flash escape now, or something to push you away. Do you think that the delay on the root could be shortened slightly? That, or lengthen the delay and make it so that tethered people cannot use mobility skills. Thanks if you reply.**

**A:** [riotscarizard]1. While Mantra is still available at Level 1 - it can now be leveled as a regular ultimate at levels 6, 11, and 16. Doing so helps out her power curve where she was weak in some places (Annie gets tibbers at 6 - Karma gets nothing; Kassadin gets a 280 base damage spell at level 9 - karma gets it at level 11?), but also just allows us to help her scale better into late-game with base damages without overloading AP Ratios. 2. Her AA range is currently 525. 3. For something that seems like an afterthought, it was actually one of the pillars that this rework was based on - the idea of her new theme and playstyle would no longer be 'I have 2 coins and 3 slots what do', but about 'I have to make a decision RIGHT NOW' and then put you in a spot where you can take action to 'buyback' her Mantra - giving her sometimes 2-3 Mantra'd abilities per fight. You should always be thinking about her passive, and ways to have it work in your favor to get access to multiple uses of your 'ultimate', now that each Mantra packs a lot more punch and properly scales throughout the game. The more mantras you get, the more likely it is that you're on the winning side of a teamfight :D 4. We haven't found this to be an issue in testing - the delay is currently 2 seconds, but because she can speed herself up/slow enemies, players can have more control on if the enemy will be rooted or not. [As an aside, Renekton -does- have a passive. It's an epic passive; 50% more fury generated while below 50% life may not sound like a lot, but especially in combination with Dominus (Fury generated/second) you basically ensure that at low life, every one of his basic abilities is empowered instead of needing for work for it. It gets pretty insane.]

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**Q: [DanielZKlein]Diebels asks in the German forums: will AP Karma be more bursty or more damage over time?**

**A:** [riotscarizard]The simple answer is - a little bit of both. She probably has more sustained damage over time with chaining Inner Flame's (Q) slow/low cd, but has the ability to pump out a lot of burst in a gank-setup or team-fight with a well-placed Soulflare (Q2). However, if you're expecting leblanc/kassadin/syndra levels of OMG MYFACE - Karma's not that type of lady. Definitely more on the sustained side of things, and more of a teamfighting champion than 'I REALLY HOPE THEY DON'T CHECK THIS BUSH RIGHT NOW...'

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**Q: [Luqizilla]Laureon asked on the BR forums if with the changes in her Passive and her W, do this make Karma viable as jungler? (Sustain with heal/def enough to survive the jungle)**

**A:** [riotscarizard]Sadly no! Her passive works on spell-hits/auto attacks on champions only - her W, Focused Resolve, is also enemy target only D: Her Q (Inner Flame) does get to a very low CD, helping her take out jungle camps later on in the game, but not close to the level of being a dedicated jungler.

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**Q: [Aim_Wizard]What made you opt for a self-heal rather than a team one? How exactly does the new passive work for spells, how many seconds comes off per auto-attack, per spell, and any extra if multiple targets are hit (like with her aoe skills, or even Ruannas)?**

**A:** [riotscarizard]The decision to change her AoE-heal (that was previously tied to her AoE-Damage spell) was that, similarly to Ezreal's old Essence Flux (though not -quite- as powerful) it was difficult for players to have to 'line up' their skillshot damage on the team while simultaneously trying to hit the skillshot heal on the allies inside of cone (super awkward targeting); furthermore Q2 on live doesn't increase the base function of the Q (causing some weird scaling issues) but also making it difficult for new players to understand the use case (Q1 i use on enemies, then i press a button and i'm supposed to point it in a different direction?) - plainly, we wanted to make each Mantra'd increase the base-effect while simultaneously adding a bonus effect, and we felt that 'Giant, AoE tideturning damage + teamshield/speed' was a more defining and functional reversal moment than a conditional heal (that is even futher gated by your allies needing to kind of be dying for it to match the baseline effectiveness of a heal in league). For your second Question: Gathering Fire will trigger off of hits on multiple champions - so the passive is currently 1/1.5/2 seconds of Mantra CD per spell-hit, and .5/.75/1 seconds (half-effect) for auto-attacks. This means that you could potentially get even 20 (!!) seconds off of her mantra with a really well-timed Q2 (5 champions hit by the blast, 5 champions hit by the eruption - 2s each!). And since so many of you have asked, Mantra's base CD is currently at 45 seconds :D (not the 120+ some of you have theorized)

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**Q: [lenopix]what role does karma fulfill now?**

**A:** [riotscarizard]The intended 'role' for Karma is as a support-mage. It's a term i've tossed around a lot, but in the end what we've aimed for is a very 'Zyra, Lux, Morgana' type character - one that supports the team regardless of damage output, but has the ability to pump out burst to fit the situation as needed. As i've mentioned before, Statikk/JHa actually prefer her as a support (we played Ashe/Karma and i think ashe went 9/0!) - but some others prefer her as a mid. She has enough ways to apply pressure to her opponent that zoning for an allied ADC or whittling someone down and assisting a jungle gank is no problem for her. Where people will play her (or what will rise to the top as her 'most viable' role) will often vary between bottom and midlanes, and as we move forward keeping the balance of both of these roles is core to the design of the relaunch.

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**Q: [letler]My issue with the current Sakura skin is the mismatched feeling of the top and bottom as well as the coloring of the bottom half. Could any of these be addressed to make the skin feel more connected? Currently it's like Karma on laundry day had to throw on her old pants... Just some coloring touch ups would be nice if a new skin cannot be made.**

**A:** [grumpy_monkey]This is something I can do. I'll take a look at it for sure. Maybe we can even make the pants greenish so it blends better so it gives the feeling of a dress? Wheels are turning... Great feedback.

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**Q: [LarneNessit]Here are some questions, concerns and thoughts. - I feel the new base model is cool, but give me the impression of a melee monk fist fighter. - I do not really care for the dance. I had hoped that the fans will fold and unfold as part of the dance similar to Jade Fang Cassiopeia. - I really like the Sun Goddess changes, but feel as though the cleavage is poorly shaded, and her boobs look mushed together. - If you wanted Karma to seem so level headed in the heat of battle why was she given such an angry expression? - What brought about the decision to use a purple and green motif? Purple in Ionia is usually associated with evil (Varus/Syndra). - What leads to a character having an articulated face? Why does Karma not have one? - Why was Karma taken from a AA to a DD cup size? Do you feel this standardized silhouette will help her popularity? - Why was the decision to remove Sakura Karma's kimono made? I am sure most people like myself were most excited for that remade skin, but it is clearly the ugliest. - One of the common and valid complaints I have seen floating around is that Karma has lost a lot of her femininity or more “Lady-like” attributes, such as wearing gowns and using fans. Was this Riots intent with the changes made? - Most importantly to me... What was the thought process behind keeping the eye makeup the way it is? I have always felt that makeup made Karma look evil, like Morganna. I am disappointed to see it remain in the VU. Thank you for reading my thoughts, concerns and hopefully answering my questions. I am very excited for this release and to reading your reply.**

**A:** [grumpy_monkey]Hi LarneNessit I want to answer some of your art questions. *I feel the new base model is cool, but give me the impression of a melee monk fist fighter. You are not too far off the mark. We wanted Karma to be much more visceral and as if she belongs on the field of justice. If you look at her animation set, Her movements are very much inspired by martial arts such as Tai Chi, and Yoga movements. She is much more of a fighter now, but not with her fists per se. *I do not really care for the dance. I had hoped that the fans will fold and unfold as part of the dance similar to Jade Fang Cassiopeia. Thanks for the feedback. :) The fans do in fact unflold and pop out of her dance. When it hits PBE you'll see :) *I really like the Sun Goddess changes, but feel as though the cleavage is poorly shaded, and her boobs look mushed together. Great feedback, while she is on pbe perhaps I can update the texture. I agree with you on this one. *If you wanted Karma to seem so level headed in the heat of battle why was she given such an angry expression? We did not have the bone count to give her proper facial animation, We decided that a determined expression is better than a blank one. *What brought about the decision to use a purple and green motif? Purple in Ionia is usually associated with evil (Varus/Syndra). We were actually aiming for a tranquil color scheme for Her, purple is not necessarily a dedicated "Evil" color, but it is a color I think can convey a darker tone. The saturation of the greens and golds counter act that vibe imo. *What leads to a character having an articulated face? Why does Karma not have one? It basically boils down to bone count in the rig, and Animation production bandwith. The more bones a rig has the more memory that character takes. We like to keep our characters fairly light for lower spec machines. I personally love facial animation in our characters. But it takes a lot of bones that don't really add to the overall read of the character. All the bones went to karma's dresses. Each character only has one rig, we only make custom rigs for Legendary tier skins. *Why was Karma taken from a AA to a DD cup size? Do you feel this standardized silhouette will help her popularity? We did not do it to increase popularity per se, but it was an aesthetic choice for game readability and overall silhouette. *Why was the decision to remove Sakura Karma's kimono made? I am sure most people like myself were most excited for that remade skin, but it is clearly the ugliest. The old skins were concepted around the idea of the "Matronly Diplomat" and that closed up dress design. We worked very hard to keep the closed dress design for the Sakura skin, but the polygon clipping and texture stretching was unacceptable. We had to find a design solution that would give her legs a greater range of movement for her more aggressive animation set. *One of the common and valid complaints I have seen floating around is that Karma has lost a lot of her femininity or more “Lady-like” attributes, such as wearing gowns and using fans. Was this Riots intent with the changes made? I think a lot of these comments are subjective. Words like "Femininity" and "Lady-Like" are hard to articulate, I understand that the change is jarring, which is why we made the classic skin for Her. RiotRunaan has some great things to say lore-wise as to why Karma felt she she needed to change her clothes and get her hands dirty. I think that her new base is still Lady like and Feminine. *Most importantly to me... What was the thought process behind keeping the eye makeup the way it is? I have always felt that makeup made Karma look evil, like Morganna. I am disappointed to see it remain in the VU. You know, I have never thought of it that way, I don't think it makes her look evil. I think it is interesting. I will hit up the original concept artist as to why they are there, but I thought they were worth keeping. Thank you for your thoughts and feedback.

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**Q: [Camavan]For how long have you been effectively working on the Karma rework?**

**A:** [grumpy_monkey]I recall having meetings about her look since August last year.

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**Q: [EvilJulik]Is it honestly not possible at all to make the new Karma's Sakura dress an actual kimono? It is very disappointing to see that kind of hard deviation (much like the removal of Diana's headdress) on one of the oldest and most elegant skins. While the Parrot did mention it was done due to animation problems, is it really THAT hard?**

**A:** [grumpy_monkey]Hi EvilJulik, to answer your question about sakura, The Kimono design was really difficult to get to look right with the new animation set. We tried a more traditional covered up design, but it looked horrible when animated. We do allow a level of clipping and stretching, but the level of clipping and stretching was unacceptable. The only way we could make it look nice would be to add more bones and polygons, which would be taxing on specs, and new animations which would bring it into a different tier of skin. We did our best to find a solution that would still would work for the theme of the skin, and the more open design lent itself well to the new animations. She does a ton of yoga and tai chi inspired movements, which even irl are hard to do in a tight dress.

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**Q: [VerboseAnalyst]Taking some guesses here.... Parts of her old kit that Verbose guesses where problematic * Baiting * Scaling. * Ability to sustain long pushes * Access to full ability combo before other champions hit 6. (Karma is super strong at level 3 bot lane) * Amount of damage to opponents and aid to allies providing a large health swing in a team fight. * The way health swings stack with armor/mr or other support to create giant effective health swings. * Ability to maintain full power 20 seconds after a team fight and apply heavy map objective pressure. Towers, Baron, or Dragon. Doesn't matter. Team fight ends with 3 survivors vs 3 survivors and Karma's side can go after something. I don't really blame you guys on moving more towards the aggressive mage play patterns but she's definitely losing a lot of support play patterns as a result. Her support style is a complete 180.**

**A:** [MorelloRiot]It's definitely a different pattern - agreed - but it is effective.

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**Q: [MunkeFlunke]What parts of the old Karma have you actively tried to keep in the new Karma?**

**A:** [MorelloRiot]Mostly the turnaround and dual-nature of E, and Mantra gameplay (which is greatly enhanced).

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**Q: [Templar56]Does the new karma lift?**

**A:** [MorelloRiot]Only your spirits.

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**Q: [TheRileyss]How are you today?**

**A:** [MorelloRiot]Great! Hungry though :P

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**Q: [soulantern]I'd like to know at what point in time did someone in the team go "We need to fix this". Can you speak a little more on how you came to the conclusion that she absolutely needed to be revamped and visually upgraded, and what was the biggest influence in her direction? Thank you!**

**A:** [MorelloRiot]Sure! Karma is really lackluster, from a power perspective. When we investigated, our original idea was a light rework (Guinsoo's) that basically buffed her and made her a bit more satifying. The results of this were insanely OP. Digging further, we brought out what were fundamental issues with the kit - unbalancable or poor gameplay components. When fixing these, this is what remained :) Direction was largely about maintaining the good kit elements - Mantra and E - and exemplifying those. Additionally, we wanted to make sure she could be played as an AP mid or caster support. We felt that was also important to Karma.

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**Q: [lifelovah]Why have you removed the passive that made Karma - Karma?**

**A:** [MorelloRiot]We've answered this several times, but I'll summarize here; 1) The old passive is "free power" for a ranged caster 2) People actually overvalue this from what it provides from a gameplay sense. This is a berzerker pattern, which is really not right for Karma. Skills are how she baits, as opposed to "I get numerically stronger." 3) The new passive actually does something you can make decisions around to optimize.

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**Q: [okpbro]if she was a new champ released today, what would you call her, knowing she's black..**

**A:** [MorelloRiot]Karma

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**Q: [Justinia]And I'd like to see them answered but the Riot AMAs are more about PR and advertising than addressing legitimate concerns. They even had a poll to gauge how much they should interact with us (and Facebook, and Twitter) not long ago.**

**A:** [MorelloRiot]Oh the irony of the conspiracy theories :P

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**Q: [goggris]When you guys do a redesign, or even a new champion, do you take Twisted Treeline or Dominion into account for how their kit/power might fit into those maps?**

**A:** [MorelloRiot]We do a little, but not as much as we'd like to. This is more about testing resource limitations than desire/intent. :(

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**Q: [Kekisha]Hello, as a long time Karma player, And a prefered Support play style, i am extremely unhappy with the current rework for a number of different reasons. I wish more detailed numbers were released with her kit so i could debate and express my concerns and frustrations more or less then what i am currently able to. First thing i would like to address is the "straight forward - No brainer" kit you are planning on giving her, instead of the Diverse kit that she currently has. Nothing in the reworked kit "WOW's" me as a Karma player, and i feel others share the same opinion as well. Currently she is already a great mid/top champ as well as a decent, but not perfect support. From what i understand based on the posts that i have currently read, Your taking away all of the Fun aspects of playing her in a Team Play Role, and making her just another Solo AP MID champ, Why? I feel there is already a Huge number of champions that do this job perfectly, Yet a lack of support champs with Team play in mind. Looking at this new kit, it feels like its a copy cat of Leblanc yet, not as effective. When leblanc Normally Links someone she proc's the secondary silence effect from Sigil to enable her a free Root without much fear of being countered, Fiddle's drain can be pair'd with fear/silence to assist. Where Karma's kit has nothing to help, Link can easily be counter'd by heal cut, Ignite or items, or abilitys or simply Many other things. In other words simply adding a Root effect on the end of Link, Does not seem to be enough, Or unique. I would argue the same for Mantra since it has been reduced to 1 stack. Now it just looks like what Mimic is, as in, you will only ever have 1 choice to start with, Atleast old karma could empower two abilitys. Why remove this unique feature? The New Q is just similar copy cat to lux's and I just don't understand why its even being considered, Current Q, has the ability to hit 5 enemys + creeps, as well as empowered Healing 5 heroes's Plus creeps, making it THE Strongest ability in her kit if played right, The most unique and Fitting for her theme in so many ways. She carried the only aoe % heal in the game. Why remove this? i feel this is one of the main reasons Karma was loved Her E seems on paper to be better, and if it goes live with Karma's Current values it would be. However that depends greatly on its Number values, and how similar it is to Current E. For instance, How long does it last/ whats the cooldown/Base skill value in comparison. I feel if those numbers are nerfed, then the AOE shield aspect does not compare to what she had previously. I am also not happy with the passive change, as it feels like a core fundamental to what she stood for. Now its just a direct copy to what so many other Champ's already have. With all this said, Why not just create a Brand new hero and stick all these idea's on that Since Nothing in the rework, Gives that Karmatic feel anymore, has been gutted and completely ripped out?- Why Fully change a character when Current karma is still functional and viable in many roles. I Did some quick looking around at the changes Karma has received ever since she was added, and Nothing about her was ever Really changed, Nerfed, Buffed, or otherwise. Only bug fixes for the past year+ It looks to me that the team almost didnt lift a finger when it came to her, Yet expects to force a rework upon us without giving Other idea's/Any idea's a try http://lol-patch.com/karma.html Reading over those patch notes are extremely angering, and simply just hurts me as a beloved fan of Karma. I strongly urge your team to reconsider. For what its worth, Thanks.**

**A:** [MorelloRiot]There's a few things to go over; Karma has always had fundamental problems. What you're referring to as "teamwork" is actually "skills that actually don't work on this character." Things like her Leash are unique, but Karma, as a caster, is not a good fit for this skill. This is a good skill for a melee tank - not a caster - for example. AOE Healing (with shielding and DPS capabilities) is not good for the game if actually powerful. The options here, essentially, were either leave Karma completely alone, or make changes. This happens on many reworks, and is an unfortunate (but many times needed) cost of making changes. We tried several different approaches (and Gunisoo's original rework went to the logical extreme on this front) for power, but it is simply unsalvageable. Uniqueness and originality matter, but are not the only values that make sense - long-term invested players will be attached to this - that was known. Where things are working, we tend to just make balance changes as needed, but when things aren't, we have to rip the bandaid off to treat the wound. When reworking Karma, there a few factors: 1) All current Karma players will like everything on the kit and just want it to be stronger. 2) Since the kit has fundamental issues, 1) is not a valid path. 3) We try to prioritize the things that are both indiciative of her (the E and the R, in this case) that do work, and amp those up. 4) We tried to make sure the new mechanics meet the goal of exemplfying those elements. Not the most reassuring news for invested Karma players, I know. This is tough medicine, and I understand that, but this is one of those aspects that is good for Karma in the long run (honestly like most of our reworks) but strings in the short term because change is highly disruptive.

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**Q: [Xcution]Why is karma in need of a rework? Is it only because she doesnt fit the meta?**

**A:** [MorelloRiot]Karma has a number of fundamental problems that now only make her sub-par, but her unbalanceable in her current form. Additionally, Karma's old W made it so no matter how good you were with Karma, it relied moreso on your ally's ability to utilize Karma's skill. While teamwork is a core part of support, Karma should be determine the flow on this stuff.

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**Q: [letler]I mostly play Karma in the support role and really liked her for those "clutch" saves and plays. In testing, does she still have this sense of desperation and reward from great saves now that heal has been removed?**

**A:** [MorelloRiot]It's much more in the skills now - this type of gameplay is exactly why we kept the E intact. We thought this was really important, and especially the ability to turnaround a ffiht. We moved this a bit a way from you always being able to do it, and needing to be smart with cooldowns. Managing this resource (along with maximizing your passive to optimize this) is a big part of that play now.

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**Q: [PaintItPurple]Thank you, I meant to ask this. I'm very curious about the path that this very long-awaited rework took. Guinsoo finally finished and then his rework vanished. Very mysterious!**

**A:** [MorelloRiot]Sure - I can share a bit of the background here; Most of the differences between this and Guinsoo's original ideas lie in the scope. Originally, we had something more conservative - all of the spells were essentially the same, but had mechanics changes. We'd tested this quite a bit, but the issue was that Karma's fundamental kit essentially had problems that needed to be solved. Once you actually tune her old mechanics to a "strong" level, you wind up with an absurdly powerful character - something that actually couldn't be well-balanced in League. Couple this with the core problem of the leash skill (Karma's success depended on her allies' ability to use her skills and less her own on this), and we decided that what was there wouldn't cut it. We had a bunch of guys work on some new directions, and trying to maintain the things that are actually good and important (the E shield and Mantra) while being more liberal with the other abilities. Basically, the scope changed as we discovered we could and should do more. Guinsoo's original project was much smaller in scope because we had more limitations originally. Changing those changed the rework.

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