Never has a new champion in League of Legends been so hated by the players as number 170, Mel – The Reflection of the Soul. Mel is not perceived as too strong in LoL but rather as too “easy”: It’s complained that she is a mage for toddlers. Players feel their honor is offended.
This is Mel: Mel Medarda is supposed to be played as a mage/support and her difficulty level is rated by Riot as “medium”.
The champ came to LoL on January 23, 2025, and her abilities focus on direct damage: She summons projectiles that she shoots at her enemies. It’s a “direct kit”, without much circumlocution.
At launch, the heroine was perceived by the community as too strong and there was so much complaining that Riot Games caved in after just a few days and already rolled out a first nerf.
Feedback is so negative that Riot Games has to nerf already
What is the problem with Mel? Currently, even after the nerf, Mel is ranked as D-Tier
with a win rate of 49.26% at u.gg. However, she has an extremely high ban rate of 64.1%.
Mel is in a special situation. Because objectively, by the numbers, she is not that strong. However, she is perceived as “too easy to play”. The comments about Mel read as follows:
- She is a “mage for toddlers”
- She is “giga-broken” or “absurdly strong”
- Her abilities are “too powerful and allow too much room for player mistakes”
Mage for toddlers
This is a player’s criticism of Mel: A thread on reddit, which has 2.5k upvotes and 622 comments, lists her problems in the eyes of a player:
It is too easy to land last hits with her. She has a huge advantage over any other mage.
In the lane, you cannot dodge her Q, as it has no cast time. Therefore, she can terrorize the opponent all day with her Q during the laning phase. Especially melee champions have to constantly swallow her Q if they want to hit minions too.
Most champs have to pay close attention to their rotation if they want to optimally utilize their passive damage and weave corresponding abilities into their rotation. Mel does not have to pay attention to that.
Mel’s ultimate is “totally insane” and combines the ultimates of Syndra, Darius, and Garen. You don’t have to do anything for the ultimate, just press the button.
Her entire kit has so much “skill-less crap” that it dumbs down the typically hard-to-play mage class.
Mel is the new Yuumi in LoL
This is what it’s all about: It sounds a bit like the “honor of mages” is at stake, as LoL players are proud of their skill. Mel seems to suffer from the same problems as the cat Yuumi: She was also so easy to play that some even called for her removal: One of the best players in the world demands that Riot completely remove a champ from LoL
