How to Play Mel Medarda in League of Legends
Mel is the latest addition to the League of Legends roster, making her the 170th champion to hit Summoners Rift, and those who are fans of the Arcane series may recognise her already. She is the first champion in existence that you can unlock for free through the seasonal missions. You can unlock her just by playing the game! This is great for beginners as you no longer need to pay over 6000BE to unlock her.
The stand-out ability of her kit is her W, which can reflect abilities back towards their target. This is something brand new which we have never seen on any other champion before. In previous champion releases, each champion had things “stolen” from other champions, but her kit is unique.
This Mobalytics article with outline some beginner tips and tricks on how to play Mel Medarda. This beginner’s guide is aimed for both the Top and Mid lane. While this article isn’t aimed at Support or Jungle, some of the information will help you in those roles too.
As this is a beginner’s guide and not super in-depth, you can find more in-depth information and tips and tricks by heading over to Mel’s Champion Page.
1. Understand Her Kit
The first thing you need to do if you want to learn about any champion in League or any game in general is to understand the champion you’re playing. I would recommend you use the LoL Wiki Page in conjunction with this breakdown.
Mel’s Passive is Searing Brilliance
Mel’s attacks apply stacks that scale with her Ultimate. The first enemy she hits consumes all the stacks. Her abilities can stack up to 9 times. There is also a fatal damage bar on the enemy champion, and getting the enemy below this threshold executes them.
Mel’s Q is Radiant Volley
She launches a spell that explodes and deals damage to enemies. It is reduced against monsters, but it is still useful and can be used in conjunction with her E to push waves quickly, especially in the mid-game.
Mel’s W is Rebuttal
Rebuttal is the core ability for Mel, and probably the best thing about her kit. She gains a 1 second barrier that makes her invulnerable to damage and spells. She will also reflect enemy projectiles that collide with the barrier. They are fired back to the enemy who throws it at them.
Naturally, this spell could be extremely OP as you could counteract a lot of enemy spells such as Briar’s Ultimate or Caitlyn’s Ultimate. This spell will take some time getting used to and you should only really use it to block tons of damage or spells that will execute you. This is due to its very long cooldown at all ranks, in particular level one, which has a 35-second cooldown.
Mel’s E is Solar Snare
She fires an orb that deals damage and roots targets. It can also slow targets and del additional damage per tick. Like her Q, its damage is reduced against minions, but it is still a good wave-pushing tool. It can be a really useful team fighting tool as it can help you deal damage to multiple enemies at once.
Mel’s Ultimate is Golden Eclipse
First off, you cannot cast this ability unless at least 1 enemy champion is affected by your Passive.
It stores more damage for your Passive, and when activated it deals damage to all enemies who have your Passive stacks applied to them. If you’re able to get some abilities down on multiple enemy targets, you can deal a lot of damage to multiple enemies. So, you should really use this after you’ve gone for a trade or near the middle/end of a team fight.
2. Pick the Right Runes and Build the Right Items
If you want to truly master any champion in League of Legends, you need to first pick the correct Rune page and build the right items. We have the best builds for any champion in League of Legends, and you can directly input them into your client with the Mobalytics App. The Mobalytics App helps you’ve saved time researching builds and staying up to date with the latest changes. The app will automatically import the best builds and Runes for Mel.
This is currently the best build for Mel in League of Legends.
3. Fight in the Jungle and Around Objectives
The truth is, many champions in League of Legends benefit from fighting in tight areas, and Mel is no exception. It is really good to fight in these areas as it can help her land her E on multiple targets. Remember if you land it in the middle, the enemy will be cc’d.
Fighting in the jungle and around objectives together allows you to hit multiple enemies at once with your abilities, allowing you to not only CC multiple people, but also deal a lot of damage with your Q and Ultimate as well.
While it’s not always possible to do this, try to keep this in mind and prioritise fighting in these areas of the map and around objectives.
4. Rebuttal Usage
From reading the ability breakdown, it is clear that your W is the main spell that protects you versus all-ins, as it redirects projectiles and some incoming damage. Because this spell is so powerful, especially during the laning phase and late-game team fight, it is vital that you only use it when you need to.
I would recommend only using it on vital, high damaging spells, and nothing that doesn’t deal too much damage.
It has a considerably long cool-down during the laning phase, so you must play safe while it is on cooldown. If you continue to play aggressively while it is unavailable, you run the risk of dying.
This is true for team fights as well. Try to play safe while it is on cooldown, and delay team fights until it is up. A well-timed Rebuttal can protect not only you but also your team. This is why it is such a valuable tool in your arsenal.
To summarise:
- Don’t waste it, and save it for high damaging abilities.
- Delay team fights until it is off cooldown.
- Play safe while it is on cooldown.
5. Abuse Passive Empowered Abilities
Mel’s Passive can be powerful thanks to its stacking potential and execute. During the laning phase, it would be beneficial to harass the enemy and then auto-attack them afterwards. It is a good idea to do this because it will consume the stacks and deal additional damage.
Your Passive works on the first target you attack, so make sure it is an enemy champion and not a minion to ensure you deal additional damage to them in a trade. If you have a full 9 stacks and then auto-attack the target, you’ll deal 10 stacks of damage (9 + an auto attack that applies an additional stack) for tons of damage!
6. Maximize Mana Usage
As a champion who relies on using their spells to deal most of their damage, you must maximise your resource bar. One way this can be achieved is by aiming your abilities to get the most value.
During the later parts of the laning phase, you may wish to use your E and Q abilities to push the minion wave into the enemy’s tower. However, instead of just using them on the minion wave, you should try to aim them so they line up with as many minions as possible and hit the enemy champion simultaneously.
Doing this is super important and a skill that many lower ELO players seem to forget. If you can, try to always aim every ability so it pushes and pokes at the same time to make full use of your mana.
This skill is also super important when trying to coordinate a tower dive or a roam, as it cannot only force the enemy to stay in Lane for longer, can also mitigate the chances of them rotating and following you if you roam as they will be missing a lot of health.
7. Champion Synergy
Finally, I will now discuss some champions that have good synergy with Mel. Before I begin though, it is essential to note that these champions may not be statistically the best, but they are very good with her as they have things in their kit that synergize well with Mel.
Amumu
The first champion is Amumu. He has good synergy with a lot of Champions as his Ultimate deals a lot of AOE damage, and can keep enemies CC and locked in position for quite a while. This allows her to land follow up abilities and deal considerable damage with her Passive, Q and Ultimate.
While Amumu may not be the strongest Jungler around right now, he can gank early on thanks to his Q, which can lock enemies down: allowing her to follow up with her E. He is also really good in team fights, which is where Mel can shine. So, the two of them can be quite powerful in the mid and late-game team fights and around objectives.
Rell
Rell is the second champion who we recommend. Firstly, she is strong in team fights thanks to her kit, which can lock down enemies for a long period of time. Keeping enemies locked down allows Mel to follow up and deal considerable damage, which ultimately helps increase her chances of winning the game.
Rell can roam around the map and help her during the laning phase to get kills, which will help her to snowball. A good thing about Rell is that she is also one of the strongest Supports in the meta right now.
Lee Sin
The final recommendation is another S-tier Jungler, with it being Lee Sin. Lee Sin is an aggressive and strong Jungler no matter the ranks. When paired with an aggressive Jungler, Mel can get kills and snowball quite effectively. Lee Sin is an early-game champion and can continuously gank the enemy. In this laning phase, Mel must harass the enemy and play around her Passive. Lee Sin can then finish off the kill.
Mel has quite good objective control, which is important for a Jungler, as they can quickly rotate and help them if needed. Lee Sin should be looking to take every objective, and thanks to her fast pushing and AOE abilities, she can push and roam to help him take them. Or, she can leave quickly if he needs assistance.
In Conclusion
There have been so many changes to LoL lately, and Mel getting introduced to the game is just one of them. I feel that this champion is an excellent addition to League of Legends, and I can’t wait to play her without the huge ping increase! I don’t think I want to play against her though, as her W is hard to play against at times!
We hope that this basic champion guide for Mel has provided you with the tools you need if you’ve not played Mel yet. Remember to head over to Mel’s Champion Page for more in-depth information and tips to play her.
