r/MelMains

I've been having a conversation about how successful some newer-ish champ releases have been at creating spaces that are not as male dominated as league is as a whole, I appreciate anyone that is willing to answer!

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I swear this champ has to hit you once with just part of her ability to kill you, she throws her Q and even if you dodge the entire thing just the initial part is enough to take 25% of your HP, then theres her E, if you just get hit by the edge you get slowed and hit by her full Q, killing you if she has ult, why does this champ even have the root in her E if she doesnt need it to 100-0 someone, the only time you can win is if you dodge everything and dont let her hit anything, what other champ is this broken, her reflect doesnt even matter, she could have it removed and only have 2 basic abilitys and she would still be impossible to play vs. So is there like a secret formula other than just hoping mel cant click Q on me?

let me preface this post by saying that this is not another post about how weak mel is, and how she’s in need of a buff. the reason why i’m posting this is because riot themselves have acknowledged that mel’s problems aren’t solely numerical.

after the recent adjustments to mel’s abilities, phroxzon admitted that the team believes that she still needs more work longterm. on top of that, in a later patch review, riot also made an important distinction: mel can be in a balanced state, yet still be in a state that is too frustrating for players. they promised that they would continue to test changes to address her “play against” without compromising her resonance and accessibility for her arcane audience (for clarity, by “accessible” i’m assuming phroxzon means keeping mel relatively easy to pick up for players coming from arcane, rather than how faithfully her kit represents her in the show).

i personally believe that mel mains should be talking about this more, because i don’t think any of her previous updates answered the fundamental question that has persisted since her release:

what is mel supposed to be?

26.3 changed a lot of individual mechanics, but it felt more like riot was adjusting everything around the fundamental problem than actually rethinking her kit as a whole. the adjustments have, rightfully, been described as lazy by many players.

rebuttal lost its universal damage immunity. Q and E became easier to avoid. her passive autos lost all significance. damage was moved around. and since then we’ve watched riot buff her, pull buffs back, adjust her again … only for them to openly admit that it wasn’t enough. so at what point do we stop moving numbers and mechanics around the same design, and actually decide what her gameplay identity is supposed to be?

and why is mel an artillery/burst mage in the first place?

another question that has not only bothered me, but many others since mel’s release.

mel has the range and safety expected of an artillery mage whilst also having a defensive ability specifically designed to punish enemies for committing important abilities onto her. those strengths cover weaknesses that would normally keep each other in check, but if rebuttal is genuinely so fundamental to mel that riot is unwilling to replace it … why was she designed as one of the safest kinds of mages to begin with?

put her reflect on a shorter range battlemage and suddenly the interaction makes a lot more sense. mel has to enter danger to deal her damage. she has an incentive to weave autos and abilities. rebuttal becomes a defensive resource that enables her to operate within a dangerous range rather than another layer of safety on a champion already attacking you from across the screen. ironically, there was a period of time where her passive encouraged exactly that. her empowered autos actually matted enough where entering AA range was worth the risk. riot themselves have discussed encouraging mel to enter auto range so opponents have opportunities to retaliate. but why did we move away from that again?

instead, so much of her power has been shifted towards landing spells and bursting someone to the point where she increasingly just feels like another variation of the burst mage formula. her passive could have supported a very distinctive sustained-combat identity: continually applying overwhelm through spells and autos, becoming more threatening the longer she successfully interacts with someone, then eventually cashing her stacks in. i’d much, much rather riot explore that than continuously trying to make artillery/burst mel coexist with rebuttal.

another thing i find strange is that if rebuttal is being preserved because it’s such a fundamental part of mel’s identity, i genuinely want riot to explain why. as i mentioned earlier, riot has specifically said that they want mel to remain resonant and accessible to her arcane audience … but if arcane resonance is important enough to constrain how much her kit can change, why does so much of arcane mel’s actual abilities and magical identity not exist in league?

mel’s magic in arcane has a very distinctive visual and thematic identity: protection, barriers, reactive magic, the way power manifests around her body, and the transformation/power-up changes associated with it are memorable parts of what people have watched. other adaptations of mel, mainly in tft and riftbound, have even played with elements of that fantasy. league instead made the centerpiece of her identity a projectile reflect, and built most of the rest of her kit around ranged damage, crowd control and detonating stacks.

i’m not saying a league champion needs to reproduce every single scene from arcane literally, because of course gameplay comes first. but riot can’t simultaneously tell us that rebuttal needs to remain because it’s so fundamental to mel, all whilst invoking resonance with arcane players as a reason to be careful with changes. they need to invite the question about WHY it was that specific part of arcane mel that was deemed indispensable.

if preserving the exact current implementation of rebuttal repeatedly forces the rest of mel’s kit to be weakened, reshaped or made less satisfying just so the champion can exist without being permanently banned, i think majority of us agree that preserving it at all costs isn’t preserving mel’s identity. it’s just preserving one mechanic, and those aren’t necessarily the same thing.

i love mel with all of my heart. her being gutted, homogenized or turned into a completely different champion is the last thing i want. but i also don’t want her kept deliberately weak because that’s the only state where the rest of league tolerates her existence. and i especially don’t want another round of “reduce this ratio, increase that ratio, move the damage from here to there” presented as some sort of solution especially when riot already knows the underlying problem remains.

if riot is genuinely considering more longterm work, i hope this time that mel mains are involved in a much bigger and pressing conversation.

what parts of mel do we actually love? what should her mage identity be? what part of arcane mel should her gameplay express? and is rebuttal in its current form worth designing the entire rest of the champion around?

similarly, u/RiotEmizery, u/Phroxz0n and u/RiotMeddler(if he happens to see this) need to start telling us what riot currently sees as mel’s intended long-term gameplay identity. because after more than a year of balancing and an update that still hasn’t settled the issue, i don’t think that answer is clear anymore.

It’s been a minute since she received a skin. Although I’d love Coven as much as the next person, I actually have a suspicion that Mel has a pretty high chance of getting a Victorious skin. She’s highly picked and highly banned—carries ranked games and is fairly popular.
Hell, I even picked up Wild Rift again because of her exclusive skin—we need more Riot. 😭
Also, don’t get me wrong, her braids are stunning. But Riot shouldn’t be scared to give her a buss down. She’s literally opulence; we all know she’d have a few lace fronts in storage. Let’s give her some variety!

i love playing her sm :(( but mainly because of her passive and stacking, its really fun and satisfying to try and collect as many stacks on the enemy as possible imo!

and i know that her w is her core identity but i would take anything to have her be a functioning champion

before her rework she had an era where her passive at 9 stacks did so much damage and it was actually fun to play with because you had get into range to use it and it was always a bit risky😭 miss that sm because after her rework its not that useful now

she feels a but underpowered rn but its ok i guess :(( at least shes not banned every game, just every second game

what do my beautiful mel mains think? whats ur fav thing about her gamepaly?

So to start off - I don't hate Mel, but I do find Rebuttal to be the most disgusting ability in the game. Do I ban Mel? Not really - but every ranked game I still play they still ban her in like, 50% of the lobbies I'm in.

It really makes me wonder that since the champ is gutted / mostly gunned down because she's proplay jailed like K'Sante is - does removing her execute, changing up Q and E move the needle anymore?

I feel like for the playerbase itself, her Rebuttal seems to be the most debated ability in the game if they should allow it to exist or not. It's not that Riot hasn't taken notice or given out multiple statements about it yet, but what can they actually do if they're so stubborn on keeping her Rebuttal what it is?

In my honest opinion - I hate Zoe more than Mel. Infinitely I feel more tilted playing against a Zoe than a Mel, and Zoe is pretty okay I guess rn, but in pro play she's kinda reserved as someone's emergency pocket pick.

I do agree with Riot that they need to be firm on her W - but what can they actually do that could lessen the player frustration/champion hate campaign around her? Like surely they're not just gonna kick the can further down the road and release just a more disgusting champion that takes all the attention away from Mel? /s

Old Clip I had with her. The Old W felt so good.

I normally don't post but I have kinda sat on this idea for awhile and wanted to share it with actual Mel mains. I've had this idea that allows Mel to have a healthier version of rebuttal while also keeping what I love about the character. Her stacking passive. Also I am NOT a game designer therefore this idea may not be perfect but numbers can be changed. I wanted to find a version of Rebuttal that is not as frustrating, but not weak. And if she IS weak with this version of rebuttal, hopefully there will be room to buff her in other areas with this rework. Also for those that want to know. I am a Diamond/Masters support and mid main, who plays Mel OCCASIONALLY when I play mid. But I want her to be cooler and not be stuck at a 40% winrate.

Rebuttal rework:

Rebuttal now lasts 1 second and still provides movement speed. No longer grants a shield. Rebuttal will break all projectiles (similar to windwall). If it is not a projectile, Mel will take damage. Mel has 50% damage reduction during the duration of rebuttal. Rebuttal will no longer reflect abilities back at enemies. Rebuttal will break the projectiles and reflect back homing missiles back at the enemy that threw the projectile, depending on damage dealt. ​

For example, if an Ezreal throws and ult at Mel which would normally do 500 damage, Mel can use Rebuttal to break the ultimate and reflect 5 (1 for each 100 damage) homing missiles back at Ezreal.

The goal of this rework is to put Mel into more of that "anti-mage" role (big high damage spells means more homing missiles spawned) while also not making her super frustrating to fight as certain characters (reflecting nami and seraphine ults back at the enemy team). Additionally, the extra homing missiles will help stack her passive leading to more opportunities to kill enemies with her ult. With this rework, she also retains her core flaws of being bad against melee brawlers and assassins. She wouldn't be a great first pick champion, but she would be a decent mage overall which is the hope.

Thats it! A bit long but I hope I got the point across. Lemme know if yall got any other ideas. I would really love if the devs saw this!

Base Mana : 500 Base HP : 610 Base AS : 0.435 Mana Regenaration :9.5 Searing Brilliance
INNATE: Mel's basic attacks and abilities apply a stack of Overwhelmfor each instance of damage they deal to enemies for 5 seconds, refreshing on subsequent damage instances and stacking infinitely.

OVERWHELM: Store 45 / 55 / 65 / 80 (based on Golden Eclipse's rank) (+ 12.5% AP) magic damageon the affected enemy with the first stack, reduced「 to 40% 」against minions. For each stack, store an additional 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 (based on Golden Eclipse's rank) (+ 0.75% AP) magic damage on the target. If the total post-mitigation damage stored exceeds the target's current health and shields, the next stack applied against them will consume them all to deal the stored damage.
INNATE - SEARING BRILLIANCE: Mel's ability casts each generate 3 stacks of Searing Brilliance for 5 seconds, refreshing on subsequent casts and stacking up to 9 times. Her next basic attack consumes all stacks of Searing Brilliance to additionally fire an equal number of blazing projectiles at the target. Each projectile deals 10 – 45 (based on level) (+ 5% AP) magic damage, for a total possible damage of 90 – 300 (based on level) (+ 55% AP) at maximum stacks.

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Radiant Volley
COST:
65/ 70 / 80 / 85 / 95 MANA
COOLDOWN:
11/ 10/ 9/ 8 / 7
CAST TIME:
0.25
TARGET RANGE:
1000
EFFECT RADIUS:
220• 10
SPEED:
5000
SPREAD:
60

ACTIVE: Mel launches a barrage of luminous bolts at the target location over 0.5 seconds which distribute evenly in the area. Each bolt explodes upon landing to deal magic damage to nearby enemies, with all explosions after the first dealing reduced damage.
INITIAL EXPLOSION MAGIC DAMAGE:
REMOVED
MAGIC DAMAGE PER SUBSEQUENT EXPLOSION:
5
6/ 9 / 11 / 13/ 15 (+ 4,5% AP)
NUMBER OF BOLTS:
10
TOTAL MAGIC DAMAGE:
90/ 135/ 180 / 230 / 290 (+ 80 / 85 / 90 / 95 / 100% AP)
The bolts momentarily grant sight during their travel, while the explosions grant sight over their target area. Both can see through brush and terrain.

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Rebuttal
COST:
100 MANA
COOLDOWN:
35/ 33 / 29 / 27 / 25
CAST TIME:
NONE
EFFECT RADIUS:
175

ACTIVE: Mel forms a protective barrier herself
for 1 seconds, granting herself a invulnerable for the duration, and gaining  0% bonus movement speed that decays over 0 seconds. Additionally, all hostile projectiles sourced from enemy champions that collide with the barrier will be destroyed instantly before Mel fires the same projectiles as her own, either toward or in the direction of the original source or toward herself
REPLICATED PROJECTILE MAGIC DAMAGE MODIFIER:
►
40 / 45 / 50 / 55 / 60% (+ 5% per 100 AP) of the original damage

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Solar Snare
COST:
60 / 70 / 80 / 90 / 110 MANA
COOLDOWN:
13 / 12 / 11 / 10 / 9
CAST TIME:
0.25
RANGE:
1050
EFFECT RADIUS:
80 • 80 • 260 • 60 • 400
SPEED:
1000

ACTIVE: Mel fires an orb in the target direction that grants sight of its surroundings every 0.25 seconds as it travels. Enemies hit by the orb are dealt magic damage and rooted for 1.2 / 1.5 / 1.75 / 2.25 / 2.5 seconds.
ORB MAGIC DAMAGE:
55 / 100 / 140 / 165 / 210 (+ 65% AP)
The orb emanates a field of solar radiation that additionally expands after a 0.5-second delay. Enemies within the field are dealt magic damage and slowed by 25 % every 0.125 seconds, lingering for 0.25 seconds after exiting.
FIELD MAGIC DAMAGE PER TICK:
►
1 / 2.5 / 3.5 / 4.5 / 6 (+ 3% AP)
Both the orb and the field of Solar Snaredeal 50% damage against minions.
ORB MINION MAGIC DAMAGE:
30 / 52.5 / 75 / 97.5 / 120 (+ 50% AP)
FIELD MINION MAGIC DAMAGE PER TICK:
►
1 / 1.75 / 2.5 / 3.25 / 4 (+ 2% AP)

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Golden Eclipse
COST:
100 MANA
COOLDOWN:
130 / 110 / 90
CAST TIME:
0.75
TARGET RANGE:
GLOBAL

PASSIVE: * *Overwhelm stacks store more damage.
INCREASED STORED DAMAGE:
20 / 30 / 40
STORED DAMAGE INCREASE PER STACK:
1 / 2 / 3

ACTIVE: Mel unleashes a radiant blast on all enemies affected by * *Overwhelm, dealing magic damage to each of them. Enemies are also revealed for 1 second from the start of the cast time.
MAGIC DAMAGE:
120 / 220 / 265 (+ 40% AP) (+ 4 / 7 / 10 (+ 7.5% AP) per Overwhelm stack on the target)