Guide · Mid

Mel Guide

the Soul's Reflection

Mage

Support

Tier C Mid

Mel, the Soul's Reflection, is a mage and support champion of medium difficulty. Across our 506 analysed ranked games, Mel is mostly played in Mid (43% of its games), and more rarely as ADC (42%) and as Support (14%), with a 48.2% win rate in that role: tier C among Mid champions (#42 of 42, ranked by win rate). Mel's damage is mostly magic (92%): magic resistance items are therefore effective against this champion. Win rate stays steady whatever the game length (48.0% to 48.5%): a reliable pick in every phase of the game.

Updated Oct 10 2026 · Patch 26.22

Averages measured over 220 Mid games played with Mel, from our ranked Solo/Duo data collection.

How to play and combo preview

Mel is a mage who accumulates bonus projectiles (up to nine) with each ability for her next attack, and applies Overwhelm, which stacks infinitely. If there are enough stacks on a target, they are consumed to execute it. Golden Eclipse hits all marked enemies regardless of distance.

Harassment

Q › E › AA AA

When: An enemy is within range.

Radiant Volley deals repeated area damage, Solar Snare roots at the center and slows at the edge, your attack benefits from the bonus projectiles.

Protection

W

When: An enemy fires projectiles.

Rebuttal creates a barrier that reflects enemy projectiles back to the sender, protects you and raises your movement speed.

See all 3 Mel combos: key order, when to cast them, cooldowns →

Laning phase

Chain abilities to charge your next attack with bonus projectiles. Rebuttal reflects enemy projectiles back to the sender: keep it for a decisive ranged ability.

Common mistakes

• Wasting Rebuttal on minions.
• Casting the ultimate without having stacked Overwhelm.
• Attacking without a previous ability: you lose your bonus projectiles.

Riot's official tips for playing Mel

• Mel can destroy enemy projectiles, including powerful spells. Wait until she casts Rebuttal before throwing powerful projectiles her way.
• The more Mel hits you, the more Overwhelm stacks she applies. If your health drops too low her next hit will kill you, so back off for a couple seconds to let the Overwhelm stacks fall off.

Build, runes and summoner spells

The most-played core build is Rabadon's Deathcap, Shadowflame, and Luden's Echo (42 games, 54.8% win rate), usually with Spellslinger's Shoes (47.5% over 160 games).

Rabadon's Deathcap+Shadowflame+Luden's Echo

42 games · 54.8%

Zhonya's Hourglass+Shadowflame+Luden's Echo

35 games · 40.0%

Rabadon's Deathcap+Zhonya's Hourglass+Shadowflame

24 games · 54.2%

Skill order

Max order : Q > E > W50.0% · 36 games

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15
Q	●			●	●		●		●
W			●											●	●
E		●						●		●		●	●
R						●					●

The order shows which abilities reach rank 5 first; the grid shows the most-played level-up sequence with that order (measured over 43 games).

Starting items

Doran's RingHealth PotionHealth Potion43.9% · 41 games

First completed items, in order

Luden's Echo›Shadowflame

17 games · 29.4%

Laning phase (averages)

At 10 min: 3750 gold, 80 CS, 4748 XP. At 15 min: 5779 gold, 119 CS, 7316 XP.

Boots

Spellslinger's Shoes47.5% · 160 games

Crimson Lucidity47.5% · 40 games

Summoner spells

Flash + Teleport45.8% · 179 games

Exhaust + Flash43.8% · 16 games

Most-played runes

Arcane Comet + Precision

47.6% · 164 games

Primary tree · Sorcery

Manaflow Band98%

Transcendence97%

Scorch91%

Secondary tree · Precision

Presence of Mind73%

Coup de Grace70%

Shards

Ability haste68%

Adaptive force96%

Health scaling78%

For each row, the most picked rune among the games played with this page (share of games in brackets).

Which items to build against the enemy team?

We sort every game by the enemy team's damage. These are Mel's completed items and their win rate in each situation; "▲" marks an item that does at least 3 points better than its usual win rate.

Mostly magic-damage enemy team44.1% · 68 games

At least 50% of their damage is magic

Shadowflame 45.6%

Luden's Echo 38.6% ▼

Blackfire Torch 54.2%

Zhonya's Hourglass 37.5%

Rabadon's Deathcap 52.9%

Hextech Rocketbelt 41.7%

No item clearly stands out in this situation: the usual build remains the reference.

Mostly physical-damage enemy team52.7% · 55 games

Less than 35% of their damage is magic

Shadowflame 48.6%

Luden's Echo 50.0% ▲

Blackfire Torch 62.5%

Rabadon's Deathcap 60.0%

Zhonya's Hourglass 55.0%

The item that stands out most is Luden's Echo: 50.0% win rate, +4 points versus its usual win rate.

Balanced enemy team48.4% · 97 games

Mixed physical and magic damage

Luden's Echo 50.0% ▲

Shadowflame 45.9%

Rabadon's Deathcap 65.6% ▲

Blackfire Torch 43.3% ▼

Zhonya's Hourglass 45.5%

Hextech Rocketbelt 71.4%

The item that stands out most is Rabadon's Deathcap: 65.6% win rate, +5 points versus its usual win rate.

Counters and matchups

How to play against Mel

• Mel can destroy enemy projectiles, including powerful spells. Wait until she casts Rebuttal before throwing powerful projectiles her way.
• The more Mel hits you, the more Overwhelm stacks she applies. If your health drops too low her next hit will kill you, so back off for a couple seconds to let the Overwhelm stacks fall off.

Win rates measured over direct same-role duels; only matchups with more than 15 games are listed. See all of Mel's matchups.

Mel Mid: what our games say

Laning phase against the Mid average

Measured over 43 Mel games with a timeline; the average covers 72 champions played Mid in our ranked games.

Win rate by game length

Best result: long (over 35 min). Only groups of at least 30 games are shown. A gap of several points shows the phase where the champion is the most reliable.

Mel in another role

Role	Games	Win rate	CS/min	Gold/min	Most-built items
ADC	215	54.9 %	7.8	475
Support	71	43.7 %	2.2	365

Roles where we have at least 40 Mel games.

Abilities

PassiveSearing Brilliance

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.

QRadiant Barrage

Mel unleashes a volley of projectiles that deal magic damage. Hitting an enemy champion reduces this ability's cooldown.

WRebuttal

Mel unleashes a refraction nova that destroys enemy projectiles it collides with, retaliating with magic missiles.

The nova also shields and grants move speed to Mel and her allies.

ESolar Snare

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

RGolden Eclipse

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.

Other Mid champions to know

Most played

Syndra53.0 %Viktor48.9 %Ahri50.4 %Yone49.8 %Locke50.8 %Yasuo48.9 %Zed51.8 %Sylas48.5 %

Strongest (at least 100 games)

Vel'Koz54.3 %Kassadin54.0 %Twisted Fate54.0 %Lux53.0 %Diana52.9 %Katarina52.6 %Anivia52.3 %Aurelion Sol52.1 %

Frequently asked questions

Full Mel page · League of Legends tier list · All champion guides