Hey!
Im Chrys, a "veteran" player since Season 2. Although I main support, I do play all roles. I have decided to write my first guide about Tank Karma though, as I consider her to be one of the most versatile Top lane champions. Her sustain (W), as well as her ability to strenghten her team and turn teamfights upside down makes her a huge powerbank.





In case you like my content here on MobaFire, I would gladly welcome you to my stream at twitch.tv/crywoofietv!
I have started streaming just recently, so every viewer helps me greatly! <3

See you on the rift, summoner!

Pros + Huge survivability + Great sustained damage + A lot of poke and slows with Inner Flame + Can carry the team as a protector + Not hard to learn + Literally unkillable if played right

Cons - Mana hungry early game - Needs core items for full potential - You can get flamed for the pick - Anti-healing makes your life a bit harder - Needs good decision-making - You tilt enemies too often

This is my preferred page for Iceborn Gauntlet and Sunfire Aegis builds.

Phase Rush - great for entering and quitting team fights, as well as for escaping from fights.
Manaflow Band - an obvious choice, which gives us the mana sustain we need early.
Transcendence - after the S11 changes to ability haste and this rune, taking it is vital.
Scorch - great for poking and burning down your opponent early.
Shield Bash - helps you with trades in the lane greatly and scales well with your health/shield power items.
Revitalize - your W and E are buffed a bit by this. Plus, it can save some of your teammates.

- Other possibilities :
Conditioning - Provides just a bit of resistances to top it off. Perfect after your itemization is complete.
Bone Plating - the rune is great for shutting down all-in champions.
Second Wind - great against poke and damage-over-time lane opponents.



This is the preferred page for Divine Sunderer builds / strongest laning pressure.

Grasp of the Undying - if you get an easy-to-poke matchup, this rune gives you a lot of sustain, good poke, and a lot of health in the long run. I prefer Phase Rush due to the mobility it provides, but this one works as well!
Shield Bash
Second Wind/ Conditioning/ Bone Plating -all of these are great choices, depending on the match-up.
Revitalize
Manaflow Band
Transcendence


Summon Aery - works really well with your mythic and shields, but you lose a lot of beefiness/mobility.
Manaflow Band
Transcendence
Scorch
Font of Life - for even more healing to your team
Revitalize

Starting items

+2x - this is the best start, as it provides some ap, hp and mana sustain.

-I also consider taking:

+2x - if you want to try Archangel's, take this either as a starting item or on your first recall.

- for even more sustain AND a great buff to your poke early.

Mythic options

- against tanks and matchups you can freely poke, this, combined with Grasp of the Undying offers the strongest lane pressure. The mythic bonus is not as useful on you, but the item itself does very decently.

- the best item for extended trades for tank Karma also offers a tenacity mythic bonus, which helps your build greatly.

- this one makes you even beefier and offers our good old gauntlet slow on auto-attacks every 4 seconds. If you want to be the team's frontline, you get a bit bigger with this item's mythic bonus.

- a situational pick, I only go mandate if my team has enough tankiness or I want to play around a hyper-carry.

- I think this item fits our playstyle perfectly, as it can give up to 30% bonus heal and shield power in prolonged fights, where Karma excels.

Always go for

- Health and health regen, magic resist, ability haste, and to top it all, 30% increased self-healing, what gives Tank Karma the survivability she needs.

Boots

- I usually take those just to sell them later. Early, it gives you some ability haste to get your cooldowns lower, and later on in the game you can sell them to get some armor or magic resist.

- Magic resist and tenacity are great, as you are going to move around team fights a lot, and making the CC on you reduced helps that case.

- Against heavy ad / auto-attack teams, when you want to block %dmg of auto-attacks and also get some armor for survivability.

Situational - your choice

- ability haste, mana and armor this item provides are great for Karma by itself, but the item really shines against high attack speed carries.

- in case you need grievous wounds, good against fed AD opponents.

- S12 changes made this item a bit less tanky, but it is still viable if you want to dash out some bonus damage.

- health and armor, great if you need the bonus mobility before the teamfights.

- health, armor and the same passive as Frozen Heart. Active is great for chasing and can help the course of any team fight.

- changes to the item in S12 made it INSANE against magic damage and that works especially well in prolonged fights, where our champion shines!

- good choice against heavy ap teams or damage over time.

- if you need more health and regeneration out of fights. Great for short trades. I prefer to build this item 5th or 6th if I do not get bursted down in fights, therefore making use of the bonus health instead of resistances.

- does this pick seem weird? The new passive heals you a lot, even though Karma is ranged and the shield is great if you find yourself getting burst down before having time to activate your empowered W.

- even more bizarre pick? Great against AD burst and full AD teams. Very situational.

, or - Ardent Censer for a little bit of bonus damage and team-buffing. Especially, if you have an ADC like Kog'Maw, Twitch, Varus, etc. which gain a lot from attack speed and on-hit effects, this is the best pick. Next, Staff of Flowing Water is my new favorite - giving the whole team ability power and movement speed with your empowered Inspire is just insane. On the other hand, Redemption is more sustain based - as the Active effect can save you, or your teammates, even after you DIE.
All of these items have +% healing and shielding power, which is great for your kit too. You can even combine 2 of those items together in your build, and be even more helpful to your team.

- with the new ability haste passive, this item became a great addition to our build. Definitely try this!

- again, thinking what a weird item? If you find yourself splitting from your team too much, consider taking this - if not for the resistances, the push it provides makes up for the non- Karma-like stats. Especially good with Divine Sunderer.

- See a carry getting fed early? Take this and make them bleed. Ability haste is great too!

Do not run:

- Only go this if you are ahead early, or if you manage to buy tear after cheat recall (crushing 3 waves into enemy tower). You do not often get out of mana and the stats themselves are less valuable than armour / magic resist.

Created - 9th November 2017
Updates:
//10th November 2017
- changes to some of the recommended items
//11th November 2017
- added item description
//17th November 2017
-minor update
//26th November 2017
-minor update
//5th December 2017
-minor update, match-ups WIP
//12th January 2018
-added few matchups
//16th January 2018
-second rune page added
//29th January 2018
-8.2 Changes
//11th February 2018
-8.3 Changes did not affect Karma, just to point this out.
//14th February 2018
-Change in the runes section and reasoning for not using Inspiration runes.
//22nd February 2018
-minor update for 8.4 Changes, did not affect the build as much though.
//5th March 2018
-minor runes, item, and matchups update
//11th March 2018
-8.5 did not affect Karma at all, yet I am meeting a lot more Dariuses and Swains now, so expect matchups soon.
//26th March 2018
-8.6 Changes to runes and items - Mirror Shell and Iron Skin have been removed, Abyssal Mask got minor changes.
//16th April 2018
-8.7 did not affect Karma or this build.
//28th April 2018
-8.8 did not (again) affect Karma - the build is still viable and fun to play!
//24th May 2018
-8.9 and 8.10 have affected the starting items - minor update of these.
//8th June 2018
-8.11 Changes added to items and runes. Rest in peace, The Ultimate Hat.
//24th June 2018
-minor changes
//9th July 2018
-8.13 did not affect Karma and the build is still very viable. Added two more matchups.
//23rd July 2018
-in 8.14, Karma got some changes. Her starting armor got buffed, which benefits this build greatly! Early, her mana sustain is better and her inner fire has a bit bigger explosion radius now / even tho combined with Mantra, it deals a bit less damage early game.
//16th August 2018
-8.15 and 8.16 did not affect this build and it is very viable. Even though Scorch has half the damage now, the cooldown was also lowered to 10s, which benefits our poke-based laning even more.
//20th November 2018
-8.23 already and the build is still very viable. Karma has been buffed few times, and the new rune Shield Bash is great with this playstyle. Looking good!
-I also want to apologize for not updating the guide through the last few patches due to a lack of time. I will probably update the guide slightly every now and then.
//10th December 2018
-minor chapter updates, 8.24 changes did not affect this build.
//5th February 2019
-the build is still very viable and the last few patches helped it too. For example, Shield Bash and Forbidden Idol got buffed, both being used in the build
//18th February 2019
-none of the changes affected this build, plus some of the matchups ( Aatrox, Irelia) are somewhat easier now, after the nerfs.
//12th June 2020
-After more than a year, I decided to come back to the guide and I will try to update it as often as possible. The build is still not only viable but also very rewarding in the current meta!
//29th June 2020
-removed outdated info
//8th October 2020
-the guide is still very viable, currently testing out the new items on PBE, so we can update to the next season!
//15th October 2020
- What a time to be alive! Karma has been hit with some nice buffs this patch, go and get some free LP!
//26th January 2021
-S11 is here, so I will try to update the guide as much as I can! Some parts are still missing, but bear with me, please.
//4th February 2021
- Karma's base mana regen and the cost of inner fire got buffed in 11.3!
//19th February 2021
- The build is still very viable. There were some changes to moonstone, but the main builds remain untouched.
//3rd March 2021
- We got another buff in 11.5, this time, our Q cooldown got reduced!
//18th March 2021
-There are no changes to the build in 11.6
//4th April 2021
The build stays unchanged for 11.7 and Karma remains invincible.
//12th July 2021
Karma has been nerfed recently (her base AD got reduced by 3) and so did Divine Sunderer, but the builds are still very viable. I will try to update the guide as much as possible.
//3rd March 2022
Added some S12 changes, continuing to test more. Will try to update the guide from time to time. The build remains strong, recently I found Moonstone Renewer to be the most viable mythic choice.
//16th April 2022
Moonstone has been nerfed but still remains the best item for our playstyle.
//14th May 2022
Not much has changed this patch, but the next one is going to bring huge healing changes and will need more testing.

Looking forward to your feedback!

- CB