Karma is a powerful lane-dominant enchanter support that can completely take control of the laning phase if left unchecked.
Karma offers a little bit of everything, which is why her lane can feel so difficult to play against for many players.
This can be attributed to several reasons, the main one being she has access to her ultimate from level 1. This allows Karma to empower her 3 basic abilities which offer strong early game effects that her allies can capitalize on.
First, let’s break down Karma’s abilities and how they are best utilized;
Karma’s Abilities Breakdown
Inner Flame (Q): This ability is what gives Karma a strong lane presence. Not only does it allow her to punish enemies who overstep, but it also lets her secure early minion push due to its AoE damage. Early minion advantage is crucial for several reasons such as setting up a tower dive, roaming, or securing a dragon.
Focused Resolve (W): This ability gives Karma a way to set up for takedowns on an enemy target. It offers little damage but roots them for over a second, giving allied champions time to secure damage on the target. This can be used both aggressively and defensively.
Inspire (E): Karma is able to shield targeted allies with Inspire, also granting them a short burst of movement speed which benefits a lot of ADCs, especially the immobile ones.
All of these abilities are key to Karma’s lane dominance, but what makes them even more powerful is how they can be empowered by her ultimate.
With all of this in mind, let us analyze the top 3 pairings that synergize best with Karma support.
Top 3 ADC Partners for Karma Support
Ashe
With the right matchups, Ashe is able to be extremely oppressive in lane. She has massive range potential from her basic attack radius as well as Volley (W). These tools give her an advantage over many ADCs and also let her bully many supports who can’t deal with her range. Karma can use Ashe’s kit to better push her own advantage as well.
Ashe is able to slow enemies with her basic attacks and Volley, which is perfect for Karma. The slows let Karma land (Q) which can win you bot-lane with ease. Karma’s skill shots become virtually impossible to dodge when paired with Ashe’s slow effects.
Ashe also utilizes the movement speed from Karma’s shield extremely well because it gives her more kiting potential. Movement speed is extremely important for immobile ADCs because it’s one of their biggest weaknesses. Karma’s shield buff is a band-aid fix for Ashe’s immobility.
Essential Tips
- Use Karma’s empowered (Q) for a guaranteed hit when enemies are slowed by Ashe’s Volley (W).
- Target an enemy with (W) as soon as Ashe stuns them with her ultimate, this will cause them to be rooted by the time Ashe’s stun duration ends, effectively layering the crowd control.
This duo becomes even more oppressive because they are easily able to secure an early lane push, forcing the enemy to CS under dower while being barraged with constant skill shots.
Not many bot lanes are able to deal with a properly played Ashe/Karma duo, they really only struggle with hard crowd-control champions who can punish them when they get near the enemy tower or bot lanes that can match their push & poke potential.
For these reasons, Ashe is an extremely optimal pairing with Karma support.
Read Also: The Best Supports for Ashe
Seraphine
Seraphine is a pick that comes and goes depending on the current meta. She excels in drawn-out, front-to-back teamfights where she is able to get several empowered abilities off and massive multi-target ultimates.
Many players think Seraphine can only be paired with Senna or Sona, when in reality one of her best pairings is Karma.
Seraphine & Karma have one of the best pushing lanes that can ever be played in bot lane, there simply isn’t any combination that can even come close to matching it. They both have strong splash damage abilities that constantly give them priority to move around the map with ease while the enemy is forced to clear minion waves.
Not only do they have a wave clear advantage, but they also have powerful harass and crowd-control potential.
Seraphine’s High Note (Q) is able to clear minions and deal significant damage to the enemies, especially if it’s empowered by her passive. Karma’s (Q) slow and (W) root allow Seraphine to land both instances of High Note with ease.
Seraphine also benefits from slows because it lets her root enemies with Beat Drop (E), giving her and Karma even more opportunities to bully their opponents out of lane completely. This is also a great way to set up ganks and pressure enemies who may be walking into choke points.
Essential Tips
- Try to land Karma’s empowered (Q) on multiple targets, this sets up Seraphine for a root and ultimate.
- Focus on using Karma’s empowered (E) during teamfights. This will give you and your allies massive healing & shielding when paired with Seraphine’s (W).
But perhaps the strongest synergy between the two comes from Surround Sound, Seraphine’s (W) ability. This ability is very powerful when paired with Karma’s (E).
This is because of how Surround Sound interacts with shields, if Seraphine is already shielded when cast then she will heal herself and nearby allies. This pairing becomes difficult to deal with during mid and late game teamfights because of the sheer amount of healing/shielding both champions can provide to their team.
This pairing can only be tackled by strong Serpent’s Fang users as well as champions who are able to quickly take either of them out of the fight when they slightly misposition.
Overall, Seraphine is a great pick when paired with Karma if your team already consists of powerful physical damage threats. They benefit each other greatly due to their AoE abilities and crowd-control opportunities.
Read Also: 5 Best Supports for Seraphine APC
Caitlyn
Caitlyn & Karma are the premier bot lane bullies. They are known for their dominance in lane and ability to completely demolish their opponents, quickly take a tower, and snowball the game into an unwinnable state for the enemy.
Caitlyn excels at pushing minions and harassing enemies under their tower due to having the highest basic attack range in the entire game. Karma only further encourages Caitlyn’s oppressive playstyle, making lane for unequipped enemies a death sentence.
They will struggle to CS under tower while losing several early tower plates, and will suffer a massive gold deficit because of it.
Essential Tips
- Use your Inner Flame (Q) to secure early lane push. This gives Caitlyn room to walk up and harass with basic attacks due to the enemy lacking allied minions.
- Use your empowered Q when Caitlyn is also in range to Q the enemy, this will pile on massive damage.
- Karma’s shield is a great way for Caitlyn to ignore minion damage and harass enemies with auto-attacks. Be sure not to use it too early because the shield duration is short.
Caitlyn can push and harass even more effectively with Karma’s (Q) ability. She also lets Caitlyn set up traps with ease due to Karma’s (W) root, giving Caitlyn massive damage from headshots and her own abilities.
Furthermore, Caitlyn is able to better abuse her massive range with the movement speed Karma grants her, letting her poke enemies freely without taking damage from a tower shot or minion aggression.
This pairing only struggles when threatened by long range crowd control or hook champions. Strong early game ganking junglers like Jarvan can also pose a threat to the duo.
However, some of the best competitive bot lanes throughout the world were known for their Caitlyn/Karma duo lane. The advantage that these two can create through bot lane opens up massive amounts of opportunities to take every objective on the map.
When played correctly, they can effectively make the game a 3v5.
Read Also: The 7 Best Supports for Caitlyn
Conclusion
Karma is an extremely aggressive support that should be picked to achieve the goal of winning bot lane. Many supports and ADCs struggle to match up to the sheer amount of early damage and utility she provides.
And when paired with an ADC who has the same conditions as Karma, your bot lane presence can become unstoppable.
