Riot is heavily nerfing Mel in patch 26.03 to cut down on lane frustration

Riot Games is pushing a large set of nerfs to Arcane’s Mel Medarda in patch 26.03, with the changes hitting the Public Beta Environment on January 20, 2026, according to designer Myles “Emizery” Salholm’s Reddit post. The balance team says the goal is to reduce the core frustration Mel causes in lane by temporarily cutting her power and rebuilding her later.

Mel is a control mage whose laning phase has felt very uninteractive. Her spells have long range, fast execution, and her W granted effective invulnerability while reflecting projectiles, which left opponents with little recourse. Emizery shared the changes on Reddit.

Mel Changes 26.03
byu/RiotEmizery inleagueoflegends

The updates include a mix of large nerfs and a few selective buffs meant to keep Mel functional for farming while removing her most oppressive interactions. The changes touch her base stats, passive Overwhelm, Q Radiant Volley, W Rebuttal, and E Solar Snare.

Base stats get a single fix that raises her attack speed growth. The passive Overwhelm sees its projectile damage and total per-cast damage reduced and gives fewer interactions on non-champions, while Q receives multiple nerfs to cast time, projectile speed, radius, spread, and its damage profile while gaining a slightly shorter channel and better minion damage. W loses damage immunity and now grants an AP-scaling shield instead, loses some reflected physical damage, and will destroy certain multi-target projectiles instead of reflecting them. E gets its projectile and DoT areas tightened, range cut slightly, but gains some speed, root duration, and end-rank damage.

Overall, the suite of nerfs is aimed at reducing the uninteractive aspects of Mel’s play. That will make lane matchups less frustrating, but the changes also substantially reduce her laning viability. With multiple core damage avenues reduced, Mel will struggle against many meta picks until the team restores her strength in a later pass.

PATCH NOTES

Below are the official PBE notes shared by Riot designer Myles “Emizery” Salholm. These changes are deployed to the PBE for testing as of January 20, 2026.

26.03 Mel Changes hitting the PBE today from Riot Emizery, Mel’s designer:

Base Stats
- Remove outlier stat reducing attack speed value
- [BUFF] Attack Speed Ratio :: 0.4 >>> 0.625

P – Overwhelm
- Lower high reliability damage output
- [NERF] Overwhelm Projectile Damage :: 8-50 + 5% AP >>> 8-25 + 3% AP
  - Total per Cast :: 24-150 + 15% AP >>> 24-75 + 9% AP
- [CHANGE] Reduced visual clutter by no longer displaying passive mark on non-champions for enemies
- [BUGFIX] Fixed certain champion spawned units dying to Overwhelm from an unempowered basic attack

Q – Radiant Volley
- [CHANGE] Stronger area telegraph visual
- [NERF] Cast Time :: 0.25s >>> 0.4s
- [NERF] Projectile Speed :: 4500 >>> 3800
- [NERF] Explosion Radius :: 230 >>> 200
- [NERF] Area Spread :: 30 >>> 25
- [NERF] Damage type is now DoT AoE (reduced effectiveness in resetting Arcane Comet)
- [BUFF] Channel Time :: 0.75s >>> 0.5s
- [BUFF] Mana Cost :: 70/80/90/100/110 >>> 70/75/80/85/90
- [BUFF] Minion Damage :: 75% >>> 100%
- [CHANGE] Now deals additional damage the first time an explosion hits; reduced subsequent hit damage
  - Initial Hit :: 55/80/105/130/155 + 50% AP
  - Subsequent Hits :: 5/6/7/8/9 + 5% AP
  - Total Damage :: 85/122/161/202/245 + 75-95% AP

W – Rebuttal
- [NERF] No longer provides damage immunity
  - Now provides 80/110/140/170/200 + 60% AP Shields
- [NERF] Physical damage reflected is reduced by 30% before magic damage conversion
- [CHANGE] Now destroys projectiles that target each unit in an area instead of reflecting them when those projectiles aren’t targeting Mel; affected abilities:
  - Ryze E
  - Brand E
  - Katarina R
  - Samira R
  - Yunara Q
- [BUFF] Decaying Move Speed :: 30% >>> 40%
- [BUFF] Decaying Move Speed now lasts 1.5s (up from 0.75s)

E – Solar Snare
- [NERF] Root Missile Radius :: 80 >>> 70
- [NERF] End of Travel Linger Duration :: 0.5s >>> 0.25s
- [NERF] DoT Radius :: 260 >>> 230
- [NERF] Cast Range :: 1050 >>> 1000
- [BUFF] Projectile Speed :: 1000 >>> 1100
- [BUFF] Root Duration :: 1.1/1.2/1.3/1.4/1.5s >>> 1.5s
- [BUFF] Damage :: 60/100/140/180/220 >>> 60/105/150/195/240
- [BUFF] DoT Damage Per Second :: 16/26/36/46/56 >>> 16/28/40/52/64
- [BUGFIX] No longer visually pops at the end when descending terrain

These PBE notes remove Mel’s damage immunity and cut down multiple areas of her reliability in lane while leaving some targeted increases to minion damage, projectile speed on E, and attack speed growth. Riot appears to be reducing Mel’s ban and frustration footprint first and planning a follow-up rebuild to return her to a healthier position.

Follow updates and reaction to these PBE changes on X, Bluesky, YouTube, and Instagram.

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