Last week’s League of Legends Patch 11.16 preview detailed a slew of champs receiving buffs and nerfs. But Riot may have left one out.
Surrender at 20 mod Spideraxe detailed extensive Karma adjustments today that are being tested on League‘s PBE, claiming the nerfs are aimed at “reducing some of her pro skew.”
If the changes hit the live servers, Karma’s Gathering Fire passive would no longer reduce her Mantra (R) cooldown with auto attacks. While hitting an enemy champ with a spell would still reduce Mantra’s cooldown, it’d now be by a flat five seconds rather than 2/3.5/5.
Karma’s Q would have its mana cost reduced from 55 to 45, its cooldown changed from nine to five seconds to eight to six seconds, and its base damage reduced at early levels. The empowered Q would deal increased bonus base damage, however, increasing to 40 to 220 from 25 to 175. The movement speed buff on Karma’s E is being reduced to a flat 40 percent, instead of 40 to 60, but its shield will go up at later levels. And the empowered E will now only grant 30-percent movement speed to the primary target and 12-percent movement speed to nearby allies.
These adjustments appear to make Karma more accessible to all players while taking away some of her power when in the hands of top-tier players. Her early game and team coordination will take a hit, but players will be rewarded for landing powerful nukes.
Since Karma didn’t appear in last week’s patch preview, it’s possible that her changes will be delayed to another update. With the tweaks included in the current PBE cycle, however, it’d be unsurprising for them to ship in Patch 11.16. Riot employees are on a week-long break, pushing the Patch 11.16 release date to Aug. 11.