Champion Sneak Peek: Karma, the Enlightened One[]
By Daniel 'ZenonTheStoic' Klein[1]
Summoners!
If you're a fan of Ionian champions, or just a fan of fans in general, you're really going to take to this next champion. It is my pleasure to introduce, 
Karma, the Enlightened One, to the League of Legends. Along with a pair of particularly deadly-looking 
fans, Karma brings an elegant look and a particularly level-headed disposition to the League of Legends. Keep an open mind. After all: we can all use a little enlightenment.
So, about that Karma leak...[]
Looks like our cover's been blown:
Yep, this is new Karma. Yep, this is a big change. We believe Karma needed a reimagining, and we are going to talk to you about why we feel that's the case. But before we dig into it, there's something you should probably know first - anyone who owns Karma before her relaunch will get this 
Traditional Karma skin for free:
This is important, because we know there are lots of fans (heh) of Karma's existing look, and we don't want to take that for granted.
We actually have been working on a dev diary that talks about our thought process behind Karma's relaunch, but since the cat's out of the bag we'll share the story and art sections of the dev diary right here, right now.
- Why did you change Karma's look and costume?
Karma's original look had a few shortcomings that we'd like to address for her relaunch. For starters, her aesthetic was hard to read and didn't really convey much about her character. Her fans, dress and posture didn't reflect her playstyle or storyline. There was a lot we could change about Karma to bring a more cohesive vision to the character.
First, we made sure that Karma's new look showed off her status as a paragon of Ionia while appearing unique on the battlefield. Her floating fans weren't cutting it as magical conduits, so we replaced them with a powerful manifestation of her Ionian will. Now, Karma carries the 
draconic symbol of Ionia with her at all times. We also decked her out in Ionian garb to emphasize her allegiance. We also crafted a new set of animations that emphasized her status as a champion of Ionia rather than a matronly diplomat.
This new approach to Karma transforms her into a badass conduit of inner strength that brings Ionia's strength to every battlefield.
In the past, we've created engaging characters that epitomize the ideals of their homeland. 
Garen as the Might of Demacia or 
Darius as the Hand of Noxus are good examples. With Karma, we wanted to capture Ionia, a place of wisdom and great spiritual power.
We also wanted to hold onto much of Karma's characterization. She's a strong leader and a mystic who stands apart from other champions.
- What were we looking to improve with Karma?
The connection between Karma's motif and playstyle was never as clear as it could have been. She didn't have a distinct theme that tied everything together and brought out the badass spiritual leader she is in her lore.
Ionia is a land that has suffered greatly. The ongoing struggle has taken its toll on Karma's calm, composed demeanor. We wanted to evolve Karma's personality to suit her place in a nation filled with internal strife and awakened ferocity.
- What have we done to address these issues?
Karma can now manifest her inner spirit and willpower as powerful magical energy. With her 
Inner Flame she can 
Inspire and protect her allies, damage foes and manipulate the spiritual bonds between those around her. We've also taken her Ionian ties a step further: her magic springs from the crest of twin dragons in her 
mantle, literally and figuratively transforming her into a symbol of her homeland.
The changes we've made have given new life to Karma's title, 'The Enlightened One'. In the past, her title conveyed her serenity and calm. Now, it represents the enlightened path she's found for Ionia: a new path, merging the spiritual traditions of Ionia with the nation's newfound strength.
Finally, we've given Karma new VO that conveys her internal struggle and intensity. Karma's attempting to unite a wounded and divided nation, which is no easy task! We want you to believe she's got the inner strength - and Inner Flame - that it takes to persevere.
- Conclusion
Karma's now the powerful Ionian leader she was always meant to be. Through her determination and indomitable spirit, she's set to rebuild Ionia and Inspire her people to greatness.
By Patrick 'Scarizard' Scarborough
- Old Karma had issues. What were they?
Karma's kit was in a weird place, but her ultimate was especially problematic. Her base abilities didn't feel impactful and only felt effective when supercharged by Mantra. On top of that, when Karma had two charges of Mantra, we had to make both of them weaker to compensate for players double casting empowered spells.
The changes we made to Karma's kit focused on making each decision fun and meaningful while giving her abilities the focus they needed to perform her intended role. We kept the 'empowering'-type gameplay of Mantra, but instead of waiting around for it to recharge, Karma's basic attacks and abilities now lower Mantra's cooldown. This rewards aggressive play so you can 'buyback' her ultimate. Also, we gave Mantra a single charge to pump extra power into each cast. We also made sure Mantra empowers Karma's abilities in drastically different ways, leading to more impactful decision-making and a better feeling of accomplishment when you pull off the right move at the right time.
- Why was she hard to place in team comps?
Karma had the offensive tools to support her team in small skirmishes but not the powerful defensive abilities she needed to protect a team. Also, her all-purpose abilities are so broad they never felt like the right choice in any situation. All in all, Karma lacked direction.
- Why isn't Karma fun?
The effectiveness of Karma's abilities relied too heavily on your teammates knowing all their nuances. No matter how hard you were carrying with Karma, your teammates had to be just as good with her for you to be super effective. When an ally's confused about whether or not he should run from or pass through your 
Spirit Bond, we probably made a mistake.
- What did we like about Karma?
Despite all the Mantra hate we've got going on, we actually think the concept is pretty kickass. It's unique and character-defining to old Karma, and augmenting her abilities with an immense surge of Ionian will is visually and thematically fun. We also liked how Karma could turn the tables on her opponents with abilities that provided defensive bonuses and had hidden offensive power. Finally, Spirit Bond's 'clothesline' gameplay is really cool, but it'd work better on a tank champion that has an easier time jumping into the fray.
- Karma's new role
Originally envisioned as a support, Karma's fringe successes actually came from players using her in the top or mid lanes as an AP burst mage with support abilities, much like 
Zilean or 
Morgana. We like this direction and want to encourage you to boost both her offensive and support abilities by building AP. We also want to make sure she can hold her own as a solo or with a lane partner.
Finally, we've updated her skills so allies are reliant on Karma, but Karma's not reliant on them. She's got enough power at her fingertips to feel strong as a mage or as a support without teammates having to work in perfect concert for you to be effective.
- So without further ado... here's Karma's new kit
- Gathering Fire
Mantra's cooldown.
- Focused Resolve
Enemy-targeted tether that deals damage over time. If the tether is unbroken after a short duration, the tethered target is 
rooted in place.
- Inspire
Shields an ally and grants them a short speed boost.
- Mantra
Karma Rework[]
By Alice 'a tiny frogo' Labrecque[3]
In the pursuit of harmony, control, and donuts - here's the story of how Karma, the Enlightened One, blessed the Rift.
A new champion coming to Wild Rift is always an exciting moment. It means new gameplay opportunities, pretty new art, and it also marks the end of the “day 204: please I need x champion in Wild Rift” posts.
Now you can all finally stop asking about Karma, because she’s here! And she’s brought a unique style of gameplay that has been missing from our roster for a while now: a battle mage. But bringing Karma over from League PC wasn’t as easy as just pressing Ctrl + C. Much like the Enlightened One, we had to go on a bit of a spiritual journey.
So sit back, grab a donut (trust me, you’ll be craving one by the end), and take a peek at how we made some harmonious changes to a classic kit.
- Bringing Harmony to a Wild Rift
We’ve talked about this before, but when choosing which champions come to Wild Rift we try to prioritize the ones that add unique gameplay to the current roster. You might notice that until this point, we have quite a few enchanter supports who can heal, shield, and protect their allies from danger. But we’re missing someone who can help their allies while also being a mastermind who controls her foes over the course of a fight…and that’s where Karma comes in.
“We initially looked at Karma because of two gameplay-focused reasons,” says David “Papa Smoothie” Xu, Gameplay Product Lead. “One part was that we didn’t have any sort of battle mages in our roster of champions, and the other was that we also didn’t have any aggressive enchanter supports except for 
Lux.”
We’ve made adjustments to champion abilities before, but when we do our number one priority is to keep the champion’s fantasy the same. We wanted to make sure you could play Karma on League PC, then hop on your phone and play her in Wild Rift with her still feeling like the same champ you’ve known and loved for years.
“I loved reading and seeing comments on Reddit from over ten years ago when Karma originally released. I intentionally was thinking about them when making these changes, and didn’t want them to ever think ‘oh this is a completely new champion.’ I wanted them to feel the soul of Karma and view this as just an upgrade for our game,” recalls game designer, Wei “wei2troll” Xie.
However, in order to maintain a champion’s fantasy, we sometimes have to make adjustments to their gameplay to fit Wild Rift. We’ve discussed making changes like this before, and our gameplay adjustments still fall into those same three broad categories:
Dead buttons: We want every button you press to have meaningful output, which could come in the form of a small buff to your attack speed or a giant crystal arrow zooming around the map.
Control opportunities: Making the most of twin-stick controls, with more opportunities for abilities like skillshots.
Design opportunities: Adapting to Wild Rift’s smaller map, shorter game length, or a chance to innovate on a dated champ kit.
Now, where does Karma fit into all of this?
Well, she falls somewhere in between all three of these categories, and it’s why her adjustments are going to look different from anything we’ve done with champions so far.
“We’ve made a lot of customized changes to fit our game, but this is just our next step in the journey,” says game designer Sol “Solcrushed” Kim.
- Ever Good Journey Ends With a Donut
Walking down a new path is something Karma mains are familiar with. In her ten plus years on the Rift, her kit has seen a number of adjustments and she’s had many different play styles. Whether she’s peeling for her 
Vayne who's 1v9’ing the enemy team, being an unkillable pest in the top lane, or a must pick mid-lane battle mage that even represented Faker in a cinematic, Karma’s done it all.
With Karma’s extensive past and long resume, there were plenty of places to look for inspiration for her new wilder journey. But, for wei2troll a lot of her inspiration came from watching what Karma did in all those cinematics.
“I saw Karma in so many cinematics and she was so popular, she even represented Faker in the Worlds one. But I saw in each one she was this supportive battle mage who had this measured power,” recalls wei2troll. “Karma will try to keep the peace when possible, but she will also take action when necessary. She’s like this support who will empower her teammates, but she also has the power to destroy you if you cross the line, or overstep too much. It was really important to me to emphasize that in her style and kit.”
Something key to Karma’s kit is her ability to empower and protect her team. In League PC this power comes from her ultimate, but for Wild Rift it’s been moved to her passive.
Karma’s passive is Mantra. She gains a stack of Mantra with each spell cast, and reaching three stacks empowers her next ability. This change meant Karma’s signature spell empowering remained while ensuring it wasn’t a “dead button.”
“Mantra also fully resets when she ults,” adds wei2troll. “We wanted to keep the empowerment from her ultimate while making sure players could optimize it in Wild Rift to account for shorter game length. Moving Mantra to her passive also lets her combo smoothly and makes her kit cohesive.”
One of those smooooooth combos that players can pull off will be with Karma’s updated second ability. Focused Resolve will now automatically tether up to two nearby enemy champions on cast, and if those champions fail to escape the tether range, they’ll be rooted for a short time. When empowered, it will form an additional tether, forcing the two enemies to scatter. If the tethers aren’t broken in time, the enemies will be more rooted than the Dreaming Tree.
“The double tether is a small upgrade to making the ability feel better,” wei2troll explains. “It’s different from PC because in testing it felt hard to use our twin-stick controls to select the champion you want to tether. It will also give players more gameplay options, because having a double root will create interesting situations and allow players to make more decisions on how and when they use the ability.”
“This was really a prime example of keeping that same champion fantasy, while making adjustments so they feel good on mobile,” adds Champions Product Lead Maddy “Riot Madz” Wojdak. “Karma’s second ability will still feel the same, but it just needed some adjustments so it could feel that way with our twin-stick controls.”
Using your ultimate should always feel good. It’s when your champion’s kit fully comes online and everything in it feels connected. It lets you do cool combos, sway the course of a teamfight, or maybe even an entire game. Karma’s ultimate has always brought her kit together and given her plenty of options on how to play games out and sway teamfights in her team's favor.
Karma’s original ultimate paired with her passive fits the longer, chess-like style of gameplay in League PC, whereas in Wild Rift games are shorter and faster-paced. And because we moved her ability-empowering ult to her passive, she needed an entirely new “big moment” ult that still gives Karma players the chance to shine in teamfights.
Karma’s new ultimate, Transcendent Embrace, forms a ring of spirit energy that deals damage, slows, and knocks enemies into the center if they’re caught on the edge. It was called The Donut in testing, and we all agreed to unofficially call it the Donut Danger Zone if you dared to stand on the edge.
“We tested a lot of different variations of what Karma’s new ultimate could be. I was thinking of ways to turn the power from enemies into something against them. The first version I tried was a teamwide cleanse, which is something we don’t have in any other enchanters’ kits. It would cleanse all your teammates and then turn it back into a damage wave and shoot it back at the enemies,” laughs wei2troll.
“It’s important that abilities always feel good for players to use. This aoe cleanse is one of those things that could maybe be really good in the right hands or be really strong in that one perfect teamfight you randomly get. But that’s not the only thing that matters, we want players to feel good when using an ability. Because if they don’t, it doesn’t matter how strong it is or could be,” says Riot Madz.
And with that (plus a lot of other stuff like modeling, animation, sound effects, visual effects… you get the idea) Karma was ready to tip the scales and make her big debut in Wild Rift! Hopefully the new battle mage brings a little bit of harmony to your life and to your winrate. And if not… you can always blow up your enemies to brute force the wins.
Media[]
- Related Music
- Related Videos
- Main article: Summoner icon
- Main article: Emotes
Trivia[]
- Karma is voiced by Danielle McRae.
- McRae stated that her voice-over is the result of fusing the accents of Storm (X-Men) and Gaia (Captain Planet and the Planeteers).
- Karma is voiced by Rashida Clendening, who also voices Faerie Queen Karma and 5Karma in Legends of Runeterra.
- Karma's Japanese voice actor is Junko Minagawa, who also voices Riven in Japanese.[4]
- Karma's Japanese voice actor is Junko Minagawa, who also voices
