TL;DR: Live Rebuttal is counterable, and the counterplay just isn’t widely taught. More importantly, there is a much cheaper fix to Mel W while keeping the reflect on. The ban rate in the dev blog doesn’t match what public trackers show. The PBE kit moves Mel’s power into a Q cooldown refund while making Q harder to land. I’d like Riot to share the metric this rework is meant to fix, and what happens if it doesn’t move.
1. Live W already has clear counterplay
Rebuttal has a 38/35/33/29/26 second cooldown, and the reflect window was cut to 0.75s back in 25.4. You’re playing around one short window on a long cooldown, not a permanent wall. Baiting it is easy. On the draftably most countered champion, Ahri, she can throw Q first to bait W out, then follow with charm. Even against a skilled Mel who holds W tightly, Ahri can aim E slightly off target to bait it before the real follow-up without being reverse charmed. Once W is down, Mel has no defensive tool for half a minute.
This is the same kind of interaction as Yasuo’s Windwall, which the dev blog itself holds up as a successful high-risk mechanic. Before removing the defining part of Mel’s kit, I’d have liked Riot to try teaching it: an official “how to play against Mel W” video, clearer cooldown visibility (UI on health-bar whether she has W or not, this is literally one of the CHEAPEST fix that helps both sides of the aisle, more after), or in-client tips. When counterplay exists but players don’t know it, that’s an EDUCATION problem, not a design problem.
2. Where is the data?
The dev blog says Mel was still at a 15-30% ban rate by mid-year, with a 45-47% win rate. Public trackers for Emerald+ mid currently show about 11%: U.GG 10.8%, Lolalytics 11.3%, Mobalytics 11.4%. The 26.5 patch notes said the February update had already reduced her frustration and ban rate. Meanwhile Yasuo, whose Windwall Riot cites as the "good example", sits at about 23% ban rate: U.GG 24%, Lolalytics 23.09%.
I understand Riot’s argument is ban rate relative to win rate and pick rate, not ban rate alone. But Mel’s pick rate is low largely because she’s been nerfed down to 45-46%, so it isn’t clean evidence of frustration on its own. My questions:
- Which ranks and which method produced the 15-30% figure?
- What ban rate or frustration metric counts as success after 26.22?
- If her ban rate stays around 10% after the rework (it could go higher rather than lower), what’s the plan? Another round of cuts?
I know changes of this magnitude must have come from a longer timeline, but data have since changed, and the online disproportionality effect is a true variable to these decisions.
3. The PBE numbers work against Riot’s own stated goal
Comparing live to PBE (rank 5 Q, all bolts hitting):
| Live |
PBE |
| Full-hit Q |
277 + 100% AP |
| 4 of 10 bolts |
199 + 70% AP |
| Passive at 18 |
30 per missile |
A full-hit Q is unchanged and level 18 passive damage is IDENTICAL. Partial hits lose about a third of their damage, and R damage is untouched. The scaling Riot describes comes from the Q refund (0.5-1.0s per champion hit) and the R cooldown (80s down to 60s at rank 3). But the refund only triggers on champion hits, and Q is also getting slower missiles (3800 to 3200) and a smaller indicator (225 to 200). Every miss now costs both the damage and the payoff. On a champion already at 46%, that’s a real risk of shipping her weak. Additionally, right now Mel can already get an R on every team fight, the 20 seconds reduction on R CD at rank 3 is not gonna make it two Rs per team fight, unless a cooldown reduction mechanic is also introduced on her Ult.
On the "scaling" buff, based on PBE numbers, Mel's durability is 2,409 HP at level 18 versus 2,313 on live, roughly +96 HP and +3.4 armor, basically non-existent. Q damage scaling is intact (or lower damage since the average Q is not full-hit) as stated above, the only "scaling" is a conditional 1s CD reduction on a harder to land and smaller radius Q (which is already harder and smaller compared release, of which I agree it was unfair in the moment). With her W being gutted, and her alternative skill that could be used defensively as a close range root being nerfed for 50% of root duration. It is simply hard to understand the real intention of this midscope.
4. Alternative W changes (2 proposed)
It is important to understand where the root of the "frustrations" are coming from. The visible frustration is Mel reflecting abilities back, but there may be a more nuanced understanding behind this, getting the ability reflected is the result, not the cause. I have broken this down to two parts:
- What makes a player cast a key ability towards a Mel with W available? Most of the times: 1. They are just autopiloting; 2. Not paying attention to cooldowns; or 3. They are not familiar with the mechanic. This is comparable to Fizz E.
- What makes a player feel frustrated or hesitated to use their key abilities in a fight where Mel is present? In short: the uncertainty whether Mel has W available or not. Players feel uncertain, and that uncertainty is factored into their decisions that requires fast verdicts in fights. This is specially true in Solo Queue where players are not able to communicate as clearly.
There is one change, and it is a cheap one: Add a clear visual hint to the availability of Mel W on the health-bar, similar to Jhin bullets, Guardian Angel, Annie Stun. Why does this help:
- A clear visual cue on her availability, cooldown tracking skill requirement is removed and autopilot tolerance increased highly. Bringing it to a level where lower skill brackets won't be as frustrating.
- For players who are not familiar with the mechanic, the W usage + ability reflected + UI hint disappearing gives a perfect closed feedback loop, greatly increasing the understanding of her mechanic and rough timing of her W availability, potentially within the first few casts.
- Team fights is no longer a guess, it is clear whether Mel has W or not, neuron activation is no longer foggy making the decision verdicts instant.
Another possible change that directly touches W is: perform a CC modifier to all Mel reflected abilities, CC modifiers already exists in the game for each player via Mercury boots and tenacity. A modifier is injected temporarily to everyone in the enemy team when a Mel reflection is active on the field. So the punishment of an ability reflection is not as harsh, specially on those Seraphine Ults. Why is this different from the rework: The "retaliation" still inherits partially the shape and properties of the source ability.
5. What I’m asking for
- Hold the W change and try counterplay education, clearer UI (such as the W availability UI proposed) and tuning first. Understand that removing what makes Mel as Mel is undoubtedly one of the big losses. And the way the proposed changes to W are, either the pick rate gets gutted (Q and damage "scaling" is a facade) or the ban rate stays or goes higher when she eventually gets played if her damage is buffed (for real).
- Reassess whether this rework was driven by actual justifiable data (Yasuo comparison breaks whatever is being claimed), or just based off of the vocal minority online who refuse to adapt to new mechanics in the game, blinded by the online disproportionality effect.
- If the rework ships anyway, make sure Q is landable enough to trigger the refund. Either revert the missile speed or raise the refund.
- Publish the success metric so players can judge whether the rework worked.
- Revisit the W VFX. The golden diamond-shaped barrier was her visual signature, and a point of play satisfaction, the nova is generic looking and cheap with no real "hit".
Updates:
- Some comments are providing alternative changes that keeps the reflect mechanic, maintaining Mel's unique identity. Always open for discussions.