League of Legends’ Mel receiving sweeping changes to address 40% ban rate and 45% win rate problems

Since Mel joined the League of Legends roster following Arcane Season 2’s conclusion, she has been a significant problem for the game’s balance. And that’s about to change.

Mel’s largely uninteractive gameplay, combined with her safety, poke damage, and general annoyance factor, has made her a pain to deal with across all skill levels. Naturally, Riot previously nerfed her power because of how strong she was, and as a result, her win rate has declined substantially, yet she still remains the most-banned champion in the game because of her fundamental design issues.

This represents a major problem for the wider playerbase, as the sentiment is consistent across most Elo brackets. Lower Elos tend to have between 30-45% ban rate, while the top Echelons tend to range between 15-30%, and all Elos tend to hover around a 40-45% win rate. The frustration with Mel’s kit is a common sentiment across all skill levels, even if more experienced players have developed methods to deal with her.

• Info via UGG LoL’s recent data

In response to this ongoing issue, Riot Games has taken to Reddit to announce some substantial changes to Mel coming in patch 26.03. And don’t forget, we still have 26.02 coming this Thursday too.

Proposed Mel changes in League of Legends

RiotEmizery posted the main changelogs and design philosophy behind the very large adjustments to Mel’s kit.

Some of her changes are affecting her Rebuttal design, the move that counters most other abilities in the game, with the goal of introducing more counterplay opportunities for opponents. Some champions like Fizz will no longer be completely countered by her move, as the fish will still stun her and deal damage if she presses her W late. Her longer-range poke on her Snare and Q abilities should also be more visible, similar to other poke-heavy champions like Ezreal, Kog’Maw, Vel’Koz, Hwei, and Xerath.

Players can test these changes out on the PBE right now, FYI, as they prepare for 26.03.

Q – Arcane Barrage changes:

However, Mel is also receiving some meaningful buffs to compensate for the nerfs. The main improvements come to her Q and E abilities, with her Q damage, mana cost, and channel time all receiving favorable adjustments. It does come with some nerfs to area width and projectile speed, making it much easier to dodge and react to her Q.

The general idea is to transform her Q into a more traditional mid-laner ability that excels at farming and requires more skill to harass effectively with.

• [CHANGE] Stronger area telegraph visual
• [NERF] Cast Time: 0.25s >>> 0.4s
• [NERF] Projectile Speed: 4500 >>> 3800
• [NERF] Explosion Radius: 230 >>> 200
• [NERF] Area Spread: 30 >>> 25
• [NERF] Damage type is now DoT AoE (reduced effectiveness in resetting Arcane Comet)
• [BUFF] Channel Time: 0.75s >>> 0.5s
• [BUFF] Mana Cost: 70/80/90/100/110 >>> 70/75/80/85/90
• [BUFF] Minion Damage: 75% >>> 100%
• [CHANGE] Now deals additional damage the first time an explosion hits; reduced subsequent hit damage
  • Initial Hit: 55/80/105/130/155 + 50% AP
  • Subsequent Hits: 5/6/7/8/9 + 5% AP
  • Total Damage: 85/122/161/202/245 + 75-95% AP

W – Rebuttal: Opening counterplay windows

The goal of her W changes is to introduce more counterplay opportunities while maintaining the ability’s defensive utility. She will now take damage regardless of whether abilities hit her when the ability is active or not, but in exchange, she receives a shield for mitigation.

The ability now destroys most projectiles rather than reflecting non-targeted abilities, making it less frustrating to play against and removing the “Magic Cylinder from Yu-Gi-Oh” feeling that many players complained about. She also gets better movement speed on activation, but only against certain mid-lane matchup abilities.

Overall, she can still use it as a defensive skill, but it’s no longer as outright irritating to have everything completely reversed or negated. Enemies now have clearer counterplay options and some outsized interactions have been removed.

• [NERF] No longer provides damage immunity
  • Now provides 80/110/140/170/200 + 60% AP Shields
• [NERF] Physical damage reflected is reduced by 30% before magic damage conversion
• [CHANGE] Now destroys projectiles that target each unit in an area instead of reflecting them when those projectiles aren’t targeting Mel; affected abilities:
  • Ryze E
  • Brand E
  • Katarina R
  • Samira R
  • Yunara Q
• [BUFF] Decaying Move Speed: 30% >>> 40%
• [BUFF] Decaying Move Speed now lasts 1.5s (up from 0.75s)

E – Solar Snare: Risk and reward adjustments

Solar Snare is an ability that revolves around landing the root to set up her damage combo. The issue was that players would max this ability first, turning opponents into sitting ducks with long-range crowd control followed by substantial poke damage.

Riot is nerfing the radius to make it less likely to hit enemies, along with reducing cast range to make it more telegraphed when she can throw it, while rewarding successful hits with buffs to the root duration and damage.

The idea is to introduce more risk to using the skill while providing greater rewards for landing it successfully.

• Lower low-clarity impact cases, move away from E max first
• [NERF] Root Missile Radius: 80 >>> 70
• [NERF] End of Travel Linger Duration: 0.5s >>> 0.25s
• [NERF] DoT Radius: 260 >>> 230
• [NERF] Cast Range: 1050 >>> 1000
• [BUFF] Projectile Speed: 1000 >>> 1100
• [BUFF] Root Duration: 1.1/1.2/1.3/1.4/1.5s >>> 1.5s
• [BUFF] Damage: 60/100/140/180/220 >>> 60/105/150/195/240
• [BUFF] DoT Damage Per Second: 16/26/36/46/56 >>> 16/28/40/52/64
• [BUGFIX] No longer visually pops at the end when descending terrain