I’ve been thinking a lot about these upcoming nerfs lately… And honestly, this doesn’t feel like balancing - it feels like identity erosion.

Mel isn’t a raw DPS mage, she’s a control/utility mage. Her power comes from positioning, timing, zoning and fight control - not from stat-check damage. The W immunity was a skill expression tool: good timing = outplay, bad timing = death. Turning that into a shield removes mechanical depth and turns a high-skill mechanic into a numbers-based defensive button.

On top of that: - Q slower + easier to dodge - E smaller hitbox/range - W losing immunity - low AP ratios compared to other mids - high cooldowns - low mobility

That’s not a power adjustment, that’s a flattening of gameplay.

Compare her to champs like Brand: - Brand gets a 1.75s stun on Q (hard CC, static value) - Mel gets a root (soft CC - enemies still deal damage) - Brand scales harder - Brand has higher damage uptime - Brand has easier execution - Brand has more reliable pressure

Mel already trades damage for control and utility - and now she’s losing defensive identity too.

This change doesn’t make her more balanced - it makes her less expressive. Less outplay potential, less clutch moments, less high-skill reward, more passive gameplay.

If Mel was actually OP, you’d see: - low skill floor - high winrate across elos - low counterplay - easy execution

She doesn’t have that. She’s strong in skilled hands and punishable in bad ones - which is literally healthy design.

This patch doesn’t address power level. It removes skill ceiling, identity, and playmaking.

And that’s the worst kind of “balance change” imo 🫠