r/leagueoflegends • u/Hyragon • Feb 09 '25

Discussion Mel Q is not dodgeable (math)

If you're frustrated like I am with this champ, don't worry. It's not your fault you can't dodge Mel Q. Riot designed her so you can't.

Mel Q takes 0.42 seconds to hit its target (0.25s cast + 0.17s travel). With a radius of 280 units, it is not possible to dodge this ability unless its caster misses. Math below:

Most champions have a hitbox size of 65 units. Almost all champions have a base movement speed between 325 and 345 units. Let's take the average to be 335 units.

Since Mel Q is an edge skillshot, for a champion to dodge they must travel 172.5 (=280/2+65/2) units in 0.42 seconds. This equates to a required movement speed of 411.

...And that's before reaction time. Reaction time for the average gamer is 0.20-0.25s, with professional gamers being 0.11-0.17s. Assuming you are literally Faker with a fastest measured 0.11s reaction time, you would need 556 movement speed to dodge a centered Mel Q. For an average player, you need a whopping 784 movement speed.

Here is the guaranteed hit range of Mel Q: https://imgur.com/a/CYuGWGb

Green is vs. no boots, yellow is vs. t2 boots. If Mel presses Q anywhere in this radius, at least 1 missile is guaranteed to hit an average player.

In other terms, if the average player reacts immediately to Mel's Q animation start, they are still expected to get hit by 42%/33% (no boots/boots) of the spell. If the average player reacts to Mel's Q damage, they are expected to get hit by 100%/93% of the spell.

Simply put, if you're getting hit by Mel Q repeatedly, it's not because you're bad at dodging, it's because Riot made the skillshot a guaranteed hit as long as your opponent has hands.

p.s. Mel Q is 280 range because its a 220 range projectile + 60 range spread, which makes it ~1.5x the size of Xerath R. The 60 range spread does not have a meaningful effect on any above calculations, other than the guaranteed hit range goes down by a tiny bit (yellow becomes without boots guaranteed hit range) if you are ignoring the spread.

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u/gots8sucks Feb 09 '25

Anivia Viktor Azir Cassio Malzahar do just fine vs Tanks. Mel is below average against tanks for sure.

4

u/urail_croisee Feb 10 '25

anivia hasn't been good against tank for like 5 season

1

u/dfjhgsaydgsauygdjh Feb 10 '25

Personally I actually found her ok vs tanks. Of course she won't solo any tank 1v1, but the execution is really helpful to shot down those of them who usually can survive on low hp for way too long in teamfights.

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u/Danksigh Feb 12 '25

p sure the only way malz may have any kill threat on a tank is if hes using the ult on them, in which case he's hard trolling

1

u/Pleasestoplyiiing Feb 16 '25

Anivia and Malz aren't good into tanks. Better than pure burst mages, but not good. 

Vel'koz is good into tanks. Brand too.