Riot Games is finally taking on one of the most frustrating abilities in League of Legends. Mel, the Piltover councilor and Arcane fan favorite who joined the roster early last year, is getting a midscope update that removes the reflect from her Rebuttal [W] entirely, and the studio has explained exactly why it made the call.
Riot announced the update yesterday (October 20th) alongside a new /dev blog from Gameplay Designer Kevin "Captain Gameplay" Huang:
Why Riot Is Changing Mel
Huang opens by explaining that new champions usually need new mechanics, and new mechanics are risky by nature. He compares Mel's reflect to Yasuo's Wind Wall and Sylas' Ultimate, abilities that created new kinds of gameplay for everyone in the match when they launched. In Mel's case, the bet did not pay off.
According to Riot, Mel settled into a ban rate of roughly 15 to 30% after her launch, with a 48 to 49% win rate and a fairly high pick rate of more than 10% for most players. For most of her first year, the team felt she was walking the line between challenging opponents to adapt and simply frustrating them. She was slightly weaker than average, but Mel players still felt they could win with her.
That changed as elite and pro players worked her into their playstyles. By the middle of this year, Mel was sitting at the same ban rate, but with a 45 to 47% win rate and less than half of her previous play rate. Riot says it became impossible to balance her existing kit into a place where she still had a compelling amount of power without opponents' frustration boiling over.
The Versions That Did Not Make It
Riot says it tested many variations to preserve the reflect, knowing it is a big part of why some players love Mel. One version made her a shorter-range champion so her powerful [W] would be easier for opponents to tolerate, but Mel players felt it strayed too far from how she plays now.
Another version had Mel steal a cast of the first missile that hit her. Huang called it very exciting, but it forced Mel players to know how to cast every projectile spell in the game, and it created total chaos in team fights when it was unclear which spell had been blocked first.
The team also considered moving the reflect to her Ultimate slot. That would have meant downgrading Golden Eclipse to a basic ability, which Riot called an unacceptable trade since it already works as an exciting high moment and is core to her identity as a mage. A reflect on a 90-second cooldown Ultimate would also have needed to be far stronger than the current one, which would have been even more frustrating to play against.
Mel's New Rebuttal
The new Rebuttal [W] releases a nova that destroys enemy projectiles, then shields Mel's team and grants them movement speed. It still retaliates against attacks for a small amount of damage, and Riot says it will actually be better at protecting Mel and her allies than the current version.
What it will no longer do is send enemy abilities back at them. That means no more reflecting a Seraphine Ultimate to charm the entire enemy team, or nuking Jhin with his own Fourth Shot. Since the new [W] will often be less impactful than the live version, it also frees up some power budget for the rest of her kit.
The Rest Of Her Kit
Riot says one problem with the current Mel is how hard it is to land more than a single rotation of her Searing Brilliance [P] stacks, which often leaves her able to kill one opponent and only one opponent. She also has a lot of power packed into the early game, which made her a sharp lane counter who then fell off in team fights.
The rework shifts that power toward scaling with several changes:
- Passive: Less early durability and less damage on her empowered attacks, in exchange for scaling health and armor.
- [Q]: Slowed down slightly, with more damage moved into its follow-up hits instead of the first explosion. It also gets a flat cooldown refund if it hits at least one enemy champion.
- [E]: The root is shorter against nearby enemies and longer against distant ones, rewarding long-range hits.
- Ultimate: More cooldown reduction as it levels up, making it a bigger payoff for stacking Searing Brilliance.
The goal is a Mel who is more vulnerable in many lane matchups but much stronger in team fights later in the game.
When The Rework Arrives
Mel's rework is planned for Patch 26.22, which is scheduled to go live in two weeks (November 4th). Patch 26.21 launches today, so players have one more patch to reflect enemy Ultimates before the change lands.
Are you glad Riot removed Mel's reflect, or will you miss sending enemy Ultimates right back at them?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.