Riot is hitting new League of Legends champion Mel with the nerf hammer as the newcomer proves "a bit too strong overall." Making her way across from the hit LoL series Arcane, the stylish councilor is the latest addition to the roster, and has found her home largely in a mid-lane role, although she's also playable as a . Following an initial surge, win rates for Mel have already started to settle slightly, but Riot is still targeting her devastating execution ult in its first round of patch notes.
MOBA already with a kit that's very capable of catching unaware players off-guard.
Mel's W, Rebuttal, flings any incoming projectiles back at the enemy that sent them her way, which can be potentially devastating if you're unfamiliar with her and not expecting it. That's proving to be quite a nasty surprise, but the introduction of a reflect skill is something players can learn to adapt to as Mel spends more time on the Rift. Harder to overcome is her Searing Brilliance ive, which builds Overwhelm stacks that can be detonated by her ult, Golden Eclipse.
Golden Eclipse hits every affected champion for massive damage, regardless of range or line of sight, allowing Mel to essentially execute anyone she's hit in the past five seconds and making it almost impossible to escape. Following her arrival, Mel's win rate initially soared, although it seems to have settled a little so far. She's sitting at a fairly respectable 50.86% win rate in Emerald, with performance a little better in low ranks and worse at the top tier. Her pick rate for mid lane puts her in second place, just behind fellow Arcane favorite Viktor, but her ban rate vastly eclipses him – she's struck off the list in over 30% of games.
League of Legends lead gameplay designer Matt 'Phroxzon' Leung-Harrison says the team is "pretty happy with her shape, but she's a bit too strong overall." In particular, he highlights the power of R casts at low stacks, meaning Mel can just get a hit or two off and still deal devastating damage. He adds that "her economy with [her ive] helping with last hitting is allowing a bit more gold generation for average players than expected."
To fix this, a few key changes are being made, which will arrive in a micro-patch today (Saturday January 25). The flat damage AP ratio on Mel's Overwhelm ive is being cut from 25% down to 10%. For her ultimate, the flat damage has been reduced from 125/175/225 + 40% AP to 100/150/200 + 30% AP, and the flat damage increase from Overwhelm lowered from 65/80/95 + 25% Ap to 60/70/80 + 10% AP.
In addition to this, Mel's Q, Radiant Volley, also gets a slight nerf to its power ramp as you rank it up. The magic damage per exploding bolt has been dropped from 13/16/19/22/25 to 13/15.5/18/20.5/23. The number of bolts at each level hasn't changed, which means the total damage dealt has gone from 78/112/152/198/250 to 78/108.5/144/184.5/230.
Leung-Harrison explains that the team is happy with the learning curve to play against Mel, calling it "reasonably high but intuitive and learnable." He adds that she is currently "picking up disproportionate value from playing against popular champions like Ahri, Miss Fortune, and Lux," and also says, " to drop away from her and not let her stack up on you."
These League of Legends Mel changes will be live in a micro-patch for Saturday January 25, 2025. In the meantime, to be mindful of her kit and how you play against her – she's certainly a champion who benefits against players who aren't careful about who they're tossing their skills towards.
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