Mel Mid Lane Build Guides, Runes, Items, and Abilities

Mel, known as "The Soul's Reflection," is a versatile champion in League of Legends, blending powerful offensive capabilities with utility and survivability. Her kit revolves around her passive, Searing Brilliance, which enhances her auto-attacks and introduces a unique stacking mechanic called Overwhelm. When used effectively, Mel can devastate enemies with her high damage potential and crowd control while reflecting incoming threats and turning the tide of battle in her favor.

Mel Medarda is the presumed heir of the Medarda family, once one of the most powerful in Noxus. In appearance she is a graceful aristocrat, but beneath the surface lies a skilled politician who makes it her business to know everything about everyone she meets. After an encounter with the mysterious Black Rose, Mel discovered the depths of her mother's deception and, for once, faced a situation potentially beyond her control. With newly awakened magical abilities, she sailed home in search of answers—and though many still seek to temper the light within her, Mel's soul remains forever defiant.

Riot Games says Mel Medarda in LoL will be more than just a familiar face. She’s adding a new dimension to gameplay. Her abilities will change battles in ways we’ve never seen before. Mel will be the 170th League of Legends champion, making her debut on January 23, 2025, with Patch 25.S1.2.

How to play Mel in LOL: Beginners Guide to Playing Mel Medarda in League of Legends

Mel Medarda is the presumed heir of the Medarda family, once one of the most powerful in Noxus. In appearance she is a graceful aristocrat, but beneath the surface lies a skilled politician who makes it her business to know everything about everyone she meets. After an encounter with the mysterious Black Rose, Mel discovered the depths of her mother's deception and, for once, faced a situation potentially beyond her control. With newly awakened magical abilities, she sailed home in search of answers—and though many still seek to temper the light within her, Mel's soul remains forever defiant.

1. Searing Brilliance PASSIVE

Whenever Mel uses an ability, she gains three bonus projectiles (up to nine maximum) on her next attack. When Mel deals damage through an ability or attack, she applies Overwhelm, which can stack infinitely. If the enemy is hit by Mel with enough Overwhelm damage, the stacks are consumed to execute the target.

2. Radiant Volley Q

Mel fires a barrage of projectiles that explode around a target location, dealing damage repeatedly to enemies within the area.

3. Rebuttal W

Mel forms a barrier around herself that reflects enemy projectiles back at the attacker, prevents her from taking damage, and grants her movement speed.

4. Solar Snare E

Mel fires a radiant orb forward, rooting those at its center while the area around it slows enemies and deals damage over time.

5. Golden Eclipse R

Mel strikes all enemies marked with Overwhelm regardless of their distance from her, dealing additional damage for each stack of Overwhelm. Ranks of Golden Eclipse increase Overwhelm's damage.

Tips (Basic)

• When possible, try to consume your Passive and extra damage on the enemy champion rather than minions. It will help to gain a health advantage in the lane.
• Your W spell is your main defensive spell. Play safe when it is on cooldown, and make sure you only use it to block major damage. Avoid using it unless you have to!
• Aim both your Radiant Volley Q and Solar Snare E so they push and poke the enemy lane opponent at the same time. This makes great use of your mana bar and helps you look for that all-in.

Tips (Abilities)

1. Passive - Searing Brilliance

When an Ability is cast, Mel's next Attack fires 3 extra projectiles, each dealing magic damage. This effect can stack up to 9 projectiles.

• Be careful not to waste her extra attacks accidentally on minions or suboptimal targets during a fight.
• The extra projectiles remain stored when attacking wards, so don't worry about wasting them.
• Stacks of Overwhelm last for 6 seconds.

2. Q - Radiant Volley

Mel unleashes a barrage of 6 projectiles that explode in the area around a target location.

Each explosion deals magic damage,

• 25% reduced damage against minions.
• Similar to Syndra's Q.

3. W - Rebuttal

Mel forms a barrier around herself that reflects projectiles from enemy champions, prevents her from taking damage, and gives her 30% decaying Move Speed for 1 second.

Reflected projectiles deal a percentage of the original damage.

• Does not work against towers.
• Remember that it also blocks non-projectiles, even if it doesn't reflect them.
• This ability has a long cooldown, so don't waste it.
• Be careful what you reflect. For example, Amumu's Q will make her travel to him, which Mel won't want in most situations.
• Anything that is blocked by Yasuo's Windwall can be reflected by Mel.
• The movement speed can be used to escape in rare situations.

4. E - Solar Snare

Mel fires a radiating orb, Rooting enemies at its center for 1.75 seconds and dealing magic damage.

The orb builds up a hostile area around it that Slows enemies by 30% and deals magic damage per second.

• 50% damage against minions.
• You can Flash-E to make it travel further or change it's direction.

5. R - Golden Eclipse

Passive: Overwhelm damage is increased.

Active: Mel unleashes her power on all enemies affected by Overwhelm, dealing magic damage plus extra damage per Overwhelm stack.

• Can only be cast when an enemy champion is affected by Overwhelm.
• Mel has 6 seconds since last damaging an enemy to cast her ult.
• This is technically global if an enemy managed to escape with something like Ryze's ult.
• It can damage monsters such as Baron, but only if she's damaged a champion to be able to cast it.

Mel's W is the latest unique feature to join league of legends and it will reshape how enemies will play against you. You need to be able to maximize the value of this spell and sometimes that means not even using it at all. Fear factor of you reflecting team fight breaking spells will prevent enemies from even using them causing a lot of broken synergies, especially in solo queue. Enemy Seraphine, Nami, Renata etc. won't risk losing the team fight solo by having their main AoE ability used against their own team. In these cases patience is key. Use W only when in grave danger. This ability will make certain matchups completely trivial as long as you have solid reflexes. Ahri should never be able to all in due to key ability(Charm), posing no real threat. Veigar full combo only works if you get stunned, he can basically never get an execute. Zed ult goes from one of the scariest abilities to low threat. Anivia can never initiate with a stun unless she wants to get absolutely one shot and have her own ultimate canceled. These are just a few match ups out of dozens I've looked at. You will not know them all and will always find new potential awesome plays.

My recommendation is to utilise your time in champion select and loading by counting how many abilities you can reflect and order them by threat level. This will be of TREMENDOUS help and will make you develop this knowledge so much faster than just playing the game. Bonus is if you can project how the match up/fight will transpire in your head. For example Fizz before ulting will almost always use Q on the minion to close the gap then use his ultimate. By being aware of this patter you are much more likely to expect it and react accordingly. Again you can do this same exact process for every pairing in the game. Nami will never use her ultimate versus Mel, she will be looking to land the bubble first to deny the reflection. Knowing this we can bait her to bubble herself and basically one shot combo her.

1. Pros

• Powerful CC
• Reflect ability
• Versatile champion
• Synergizes with a lot of champions

2. Cons

• Lack of mobility
• Difficult for beginners because of her kit
• Vulnerable if her rebuttal is on cd
• Unable to use her ultimate unless you have her passive applied to the enemy
• Easy to use stacks by mistake on minions

• Q + AA + W + AA + E + AA + AA + AA + Q + R: Press Q then AA, W, AA, E, AA, AA, AA, then Q and R.
• E + Q + R: Use E, then Q and R to finish.
• E + FLASH + AA + Q + AA + W + AA + AA + Q + R: Press E then Flash, then AA, Q, AA, W, AA, AA, Q and R.
• E + FLASH + Q + R: Use E and Flash, then Q and R.
• E + AA + Q + AA + W + AA + AA + AA + Q + R: Lead with E, then AA, Q, AA, W, AA, AA, AA, Q and R.

1. Laning Phase

In the laning phase as Mel most of your damage with come with Q poke + comet. Try and save your Q for when they come up to CS to guarantee more of the missles hitting (since they will be locked in animation). Later in the lane when you have lower mana costs/CDs, you can spam this out even if they aren't coming up to CS. If your opponent's cooldowns are down or they are melee, try get some autos onto them as well when they come up to CS.

Depending on matchup, you may want to hold your E defensively or use it aggressively. If you opponent needs to chase you down the lane e.g. Aurelion Sol, Yone, Fizz etc it can be more valuable to hold E to prevent any sort of retaliation trade after you poke them with Q. In other matchups that don't have this sort of chasedown threat (most mages) you can throw out your E when they come up to CS and then follow up with a Q.

Your W also matters a lot, it can be used to either reflect key abilities/combos OR more importantly it can be used to immune damage. Try and save W in order to absorb the most damage possible e.g. Fizz Eing onto you at level 3, or blocking LeBlanc's W. In other matchups you can save it for key CCs e.g. Zoe E, Ahri E etc.

Post 6 if you get your opponent low enough you can probably land an E and follow up with Q + auto attacks to get high stacks to look for an execute. Sometimes you can surprise your opponent with the extra damage offered by reflecting one of their spells as well.

Mel's main weakness early is getting ganked or punished when her CDs are down, make sure to be careful with how you commit your cooldowns (especially your defensive ones) and if you do use them, make sure to play a little safer while they are down. Setup vision to hug to and you should be safe for the most part.

2. Mid Game

In the mid game as Mel you will want to do your best to continue to keep up your gold/xp while also being at all the major objective fights. The best way to do this is try shove the side wave as far as you can without dying. If you don't have TP up, it can be a good idea to group with your team instead and just catch sidewaves when they are going to crash on your tower until your TP comes back up. If your sidelane matchup is really easy + your team is winning and you have vision then sidelaning should be very easy, if the opposite of these things are true then you will need to be a lot safer on side. Mel clears waves pretty quickly so even if you aren't safe on side you should be able to quickly clear waves and then regroup. If you have a lot of extra time on side you can consider taking some extra sidelane camps like Gromp/Krugs, but you'll only have time if you're fairly fed.

3. Teamfighting and Skirmishing

For Mel's teamfighting you will mostly play as a front to back DPS mage. However, your long range means sometimes you might have the luxury of hitting squishy targets behind the tanks. Focus on CCing the front line with your E and poking out the highest value targets with your Q, and obviously if no high value targets are in range just hit the frontline. With your ulti you can either play to execute an individual when the stacks get high enough, or if you spread out the stacks onto a bunch of different people you can just press R to deal a lot of AOE damage. This can be especially valuable if you are running a burn build or malignance build.

Keep in mind as well how you can turn a teamfight with your W. There are certain abilities such as Ornn R that could single handedly decide a teamfight if reflected back into the enemy team. This can also be used to peel your ADC, but be aware of certain abilities potentially putting you in danger (e.g. blocking Leona E will pull you to her...) When your W and E are down you are a lot more vulnerable, so make sure to position accordingly.

Mel is a dynamic champion who thrives in both team fights and skirmishes, offering high damage, utility, and survivability. While she demands precise positioning and ability usage, her potential to carry games is immense when mastered. By leveraging her stacking Overwhelm mechanic and balancing aggression with defense, players can unlock the full potential of "The Soul's Reflection" and dominate the Rift. Whether you’re a seasoned veteran or a newcomer, mastering Mel’s intricacies will undoubtedly make her a powerful addition to your champion roster.

Thanks for Reading! If you want to gain more in-depth knowledge about LOL, check out many helpful articles here!

Good luck to you! – Cheng