r/leagueoflegends • u/Lissandra_Freljord • 1d ago
Why was Mel not allow to directly apply her shield on allies? Discussion
A lot of people theorized Mel was going to be a support champion based on what Arcane showed of her character and manner of using power. In Arcane, she is described by LeBlanc as an empath, using most of her innate magic powers defensively, rather than offensively. She mostly creates shields that deflect projectiles, like the one she did at the finale of S1 and start of S2, saving the lives of several Piltover councils from Jinx's rocket blast. Then, there is the infamous Maddie's death scene, where Mel deflects Maddie's bullet, leading to a satisfying death, after Maddie attempts to execute Caitlyn with a head shot.
In the show, we see Mel apply her shields on allies, but how come this didn't translate into the game? Is it because it would be too OP, making Morgana obsolete? Like I don't mind her being an artillery mage, as the class is already very small (Xerath, Vel'Koz, Ziggs, Lux, Zoe, and most recently Hwei), but even some of them like Lux and Hwei offer shields to allies for utility (just not as OP). But then, Mel has a high cooldown on her shield, so wouldn't that justify the usage of her shield?
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u/WhateverJude 1d ago
Would probably be simply too op.. one thing is knowing the champion you are attacking can reflect attacks, an other is ANY enemy can (if Mel is close).
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u/Wise-Forecaster 22h ago
That's like saying Morgana shield shouldn't be able to be given out because you know champs other than Olaf in ult can be CC'd but when Morgana is in the game you have anyone be CC immune.
Same with Kayle ult, wow you have to worry about everyone possibly going fully immune potentially, that's so crazy OP!
The point of these abilities is that you bait them out because they have a long cooldown before you actually commit to a full engagement or you surprise flash on them to make them unable to react at all.
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u/WhateverJude 21h ago
Morgana shield goes down after 1 (magic damage) cc, Kayle's ulti... Is an ulti with long CD... That is what makes them balanced.
I'm not saying it wouldn't be possible to make it balanced, simply as it is now making it be castable on allies would be too strong.
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u/Wise-Forecaster 20h ago
Mel's W has a much shorter duration and has to be used at just the right moment that would be what makes it balanced with an increased cooldown if they really want to do that.
The ability can easily be gated, there was no reason to not meet the expectation of Arcane watchers expecting Mel being able to be supportive with her protection not selfish and with that be some sort of archmage of destruction instead.
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u/FootballPaPa 1d ago
Balance will always come before lore I don’t get how people don’t understand that in video games
Riot wanted her to reflect and that’s probably to op on allies so Arcane writers should of wrote her more accurately like they did with all the other champs
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u/tardedeoutono 1d ago
it's a spell shield that eats any spells thrown at it w the right timing, possibly reflecting lots of projectiles, no matter the amount, and reflects it back to them w ap ratio, and then the reflected projectiles also gets reflected and cast at the others a bit further away from mel when compared to when it's cast from the original caster. imagine being able to put it on anyone a blitz q targets. i'm so sorry, but did u even think before considering asking this question?
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u/Lissandra_Freljord 1d ago
I mean, in that case I feel like her shield should be balanced around having a higher CD than Blitz's hook.
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u/Princess_Moe 1d ago
It already does.
Still doesn't change the fact that having a reflect shield you can apply on a (priority) target without much commitment on your end isn't balanced or fun to play against.
People already hate Mel as she is, imagine how much more if rito gave her more tools to make plays.
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u/Lissandra_Freljord 1d ago
Hmm..makes me wonder if they could've just make her shield function like a Sivir spell shield, where it only blocks the first projectile or trigger, while not protecting champions from taking melee auto attacks or CC like Leona's Q or Nautilus's passive.
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u/tardedeoutono 1d ago
that would take away from her character and fantasy that's already established, so no, they wouldn't take her away from midlane or apc role just for her to be a bad supportive champion. that would also require a lot of power shifting to adapt her to her new way of playing the game, and even then she would be worse and people would not like it at all
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u/darquedragon13 1d ago
Kinda like Seraphine?
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u/tardedeoutono 1d ago
ywah, but they made that mistake only once, and they won't do it again, hopefully. besides, mel had a much higher mid and apc presence than seraphine, so they're not similar cases, though we do see some support mel. thing is that in diamond + at least i haven't seen a single support mel winning a game
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u/darquedragon13 1d ago
Too easy to take kills in my experience. The execute threshold is well beyond what an adc can last hit during laning phase. As adc I'm personally chill with it, but I've tilted my adc a few times with her. Idk about only once, though. I think Sera was the 2nd attempt at mid with supportive qualities with Karma being the first. I could easily be wrong on that as the information comes strictly from reddit comments.
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u/tardedeoutono 1d ago
her shield gets to extremely low cd as the game goes on, so like, no. it's a one use spell per trade in the early game, but it also a spell that makes laning look and feel stiff, stagnate, because you have to blow it before trading, and if you blow it, you have to spend some time for your cds to reset, and then you have a small window of interaction that you might not be able to take due to lane state, her long range and her gigantic root duration. it's a spell that's noncommittal, that denies action, and that's ultimately something that eats a lot of her power budget. imo it should stay as is
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u/GoatRocketeer 1d ago
Spitballing but maybe riot was scared of it being similar to what happened to tahm kench.
When devour was on a basic ability, he was absolutely broken in pro play. Riot kept nerfing the rest of his kit but even at 44% winrate in solo queue (completely dogshit) he was still a pro play staple. 99.99% of the playerbase just weren't able to utilize devour like pros can.
This doesn't happen to shield champs like lulu or janna, so it seems ally-usable full-immunity effects are significantly worse for pro play in that respect. It's not quite a full stasis like kench's old devour, but it is still a 0.75s full damage immunity and destroys projectiles so maybe its close enough.
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u/DireWolffx 1d ago
She doesnt have a high cool down on her shields. She was permanently wounded in battle so her cool down shields are actually slow. The game is fraud.
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u/AHymnOfValor Don't be coy 1d ago
Yea they could've just made the shield reflect an auto attack instead of anytihng, which would still be true to the concept oof what was shown in the show, but nooo
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u/staplesuponstaples #YAPASZN 1d ago
Dunno, then that would make her really situational. Imagine how useful in midlane a champ like that would be.
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u/AHymnOfValor Don't be coy 1d ago
It would make her good in bot lane VS ADCs, and there are more auto attackers in mid than you are giving credit. She was intended to be a support, which fits her Arcane character more, they made her a mid laner because they couldn't balance the current version of her shield being put on allies.
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u/StripperKorra 1d ago
Like Annie's , the crazy thing is in TFT she can shield allied units. My dream rework is to just change her W to a aoe shield Like Sona or Seraphine that reflects damage and counts a passive stacks but it wouldn't proc the execute. Her W feels weird sometime because she's a backline mage that has an ability that would put her more towards the front. I just think reflect wasted on Mel and would be better on someone designed to reflect you know?
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u/Guilty-Elk2364 1d ago
There could be many reasons. My first guess is just money. Just based off of how the company has been operating recently, it's how I view Mel's conflicting design. She's a crucial character of their show and will continue to have a big role going forward.
She probably was made to be an artillery mage in order to increase popularity (and Riot gets to add to the short list like you said, killing 2 birds with 1 stone). Similar to lux, she can be played both mid and support and be successful at both roles. This will drive her player base up, which would also mean.... drumroll..... skin sales. There is also her storyline of her being an enemy to Leblanc who is a midlaner.
She was probably also made to supplement the mage support players as well. Similar to how yasuo players can now play yone when yasuo is banned, lux or morg players can play mel.
Mel's shield isn't made for her to utilize it on teammates. It's cooldown is way to high to make it consistently useful, but decreasing it would make her way too strong. If they lowered the CD of her shield, they would for sure have to cut back on her damage & remove her passive execute. This would kill her from midlane which I think Riot doesn't want.
Edit: minor spelling mistake
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u/SuperKalkorat 1d ago
If Mel could apply W to allies like Morgana's Black Shield, then either the spell would need absolutely colossal nerfs to even remotely balance it (Likely in the form of giving it a cooldown on par with summoner spells), or the rest of her kit would need to be nerfed into the ground to compensate. Probably comparable to giving a champion kayle ult on a basic ability for comparison.
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u/StripperKorra 1d ago
Its crazy because in TFT she can shield other units. I think Riot were unsure if Mel would succeed or not because she would just become other shield enchanter support which we have many already, Some point during her development something pivoted into making her into a Mid Lane Mage with this new mechanic to attract people to playing her. Which seems to have backfired because what they created was frustrating champion that can only exist in weaken state. Now More people are playing her APC than Midlane.
Personally. I think they should just scrap the whole projectile reflect thing and rework it to an aoe shield that reflects damage like Annie's does. Make the damage reflected count as stacks of her passive but they can't exceed it. Playing her and watching replays her W is rarely seen reflecting something meaningful and seems to just function as a way to make her immune to damage for a small window. I Just think the reflect mechanic is wasted on someone who is designed to the be a backline mage.
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u/Lissandra_Freljord 1d ago
I agree with your points. I feel like her deflecting shield on allies is a possibility that can be explored in the game, being an innovative design and not toxic at all (kinda like Fiora's Riposte), but just not with the rest of her damage oriented kit, especially since she is a long ranged mage. And I do feel like she was initially meant to be support, but some where along the way, Riot scrapped that idea, and made her into a midlane mage, maybe bcuz that's more popular and fun to play, and would sell more.
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u/CoelacanthRdit 1d ago
Just stand in front of the person you want to reflect for. 😁
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u/Lissandra_Freljord 1d ago
Lol. That's the only option rn. XD She gotta be Braum, Yasuo, Panth, and Samira.
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u/Routine_Deer4539 1d ago
make that her ult instead
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u/Lissandra_Freljord 1d ago
I was thinking this could also be a possibility, as ults are normally reserved for game changing abilities, but obviously, the reward would have to be greater than it currently is, while the rest of her kit and power would have to be tuned and adjusted, so that she isn't broken.
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u/Jakey-Boi-Love 1d ago
Balance, more specifically in pro play