Karma vs Swain Counter Pick

Karma and Swain share an attack range of 525, a magic damage profile and a mana bar, so nothing about the opening exchange looks asymmetric on paper. The result is not symmetrical at all: Karma takes it at 52.3% over 1,092 games on patch 16.13.1, Easy on the difficulty scale.

• Swain has to land Nevermove. The wave only roots on its return path, which is a long telegraph, and the rest of his kit is priced off that root connecting.
• The shield arrives faster than his damage. Inspire with Mantra absorbs the Death’s Hand follow-up and hastes her clear of Vision of Empire.
• Difficulty is uneven. Swain is rated 8 against Karma’s 5, and the gap shows up in how often the root actually lands.

The stat sheet supports the same conclusion. Karma opens with 630 health and 28 armor against 595 and 25, and by level 18 she holds 2,483 health behind 113 armor against his 2,278 and 104.9. She also moves at 335 to his 330, which matters when dodging a returning Nevermove. The counterweight is Ravenous Flock: the Soul Fragments his ravens collect restore health and add permanent maximum health, so a long game spent farming fragments erodes that early edge. Short trades, plus the movement speed from Inspire to leave the radius of Demonic Ascension, is how the advantage holds. The Mantra upgrades are covered on Karma’s champion page.