Karma vs Volibear — Top Lane Matchup Guide

How to win lane as Karma against Volibear · 28.57% win rate over 21 Emerald+ games · Updated 2026-07-27

Verdict: Volibear is favoured — Volibear owns 5 of the 7 game windows to Karma's 1. Play it patient and win your windows. Karma wins 28.57% of games vs Volibear in top lane (21 Emerald+ games analysed).

Favour timeline — who owns each window

StageFavouredWhy
Level 1KarmaMantra is up at level 1, so RQ Soulflare chunks him before his Q stun or W heal exists — the only stage you outright own.
Level 2Even / skillHe has Q or W but not both online yet; your max-range Inner Flame still pokes, but his bite heal starts erasing it — genuinely even.
Level 3VolibearWith Q's empowered run-and-stun plus W's heal-on-recast, he closes the gap and out-sustains your poke — the lane turns here.
Levels 4-5VolibearMultiple Q rotations net nothing when his W bite heals them off and his stun-dash punishes every step you take up.
Level 6VolibearHis Q stun lands before Inspire can shield, and R leaps in for bonus health while disabling your tower escape — his hardest spike.
First itemVolibearYour first AP item sharpens RQ, but his bruiser-tank items and W self-heal shrug it off while he runs you down.
Two+ itemsVolibearHe scales as a tanky brawler with no counter on your side — one Q stun and he dives you or your backline.

Early game (levels 1–5)

Level 1 is your one good moment — open with RQ Soulflare for a big delayed-zone chunk while his Q stun-dash and W heal are both still off the table. From level 2 it sours fast: any Q poke you land, his W (Frenzied Maul) heals back on the second cast, and once his Q empowered run is up he just sprints the range gap shut and stuns you on the auto. Don't over-extend to throw a second Inner Flame he can run onto — root him with W only when you can actually back off behind Inspire's speed.

Read the rest of this matchup

The full Karma vs Volibear report continues with the mid-game plan, the late-game and teamfight plan, every power spike to play around, and the win conditions for both sides — plus cooldown tracking and the live enemy-jungle tracker inside the app.

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Playing the other side? Volibear vs Karma guide →
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