Melissa, Cursed Needle, the second hero of the Forsaken Light series is finally making her debut in the Land of Dawn. Melissa is a rebellious girl who runs her own tailor shop and solves problems for other people with the help of her beloved dolls. We have previously made a detailed hero analysis of Melissa as she made her appearance on the MLBB advanced server. In this Mobile Legends guide, we will take a look at the best emblem, spell, build, including tips and tricks to dominate every game with Melissa.
We have previously discussed how to master playing with other Mobile Legends heroes like Miya, Ling, Wanwan, Pharsa, Carmilla, Silvanna, Hayabusa, Atlas, Luo Yi, Yu Zhong, Aurora, Khaleed, Freya, Khufra, X.Borg, Lesley, Tigreal, Hylos, Valir, Cecilion, Lylia, Uranus, Barats, Odette, Angela, Vale, Rafaela, Hanzo, Esmeralda, Brody, Lapu-Lapu, Nana, Benedetta, Hilda, Mathilda, Selena, Jawhead, Chou, Paquito, Thamuz, Lunox, Yi Sun-Shin, Yve, Gatotkaca, Karrie, Ruby, Beatrix, Gloo, Argus, Baxia, Granger, Phoveus, Hanabi, Alpha, Harley, Karina, Eudora, Natan, Dyrroth, Balmond, Aulus, Guinevere, Sun, Belerick, Floryn, Aamon, Valentina, Kagura, Saber, Leomord, Bruno Akai, Bane, Edith, Martis, Alucard, Gusion, Chang’e, Yin, Clint, Alice, Grock, Kadita, Popol and Kupa, Zilong, Minotaur, Helcurt, Cyclops, Lancelot, Kaja, Claude, and Lolita. So make sure to check these hero guides as well. For now, let’s focus on Melissa.
Skill Analysis
Melissa has three active skills and a passive skill like most other heroes in-game. In this Mobile Legends guide, we will also talk about the skills to use in certain scenarios as well as skill combos to be able to play Melissa to her maximum potential.
Passive – Doll Buster (Buff)
Melissa deals 150% extra damage to minions and summoned units, including Muddles and all units summoned by the enemy.
Skill 1 – Falling! (Blink, Buff)
CD – 8.0
Mana – 60/65/70/75/80/85
Melissa dashes in the target direction and gains extra attack speed for a while. She will also pull Muddles and Cuddles towards her when the two are on the field. This is Melissa’s mobility tool that allows her to maneuver around the map and adjust the positions of her dolls as well. The extra attack speed grants Melissa decent burst potential.
Skill 2 – Go! Muddles! (Debuff, AoE)
CD – 1.5
Mana – 50/40/30/20/10/0
Melissa throws Muddles in the target direction, which stops upon hitting an enemy hero or on reaching the maximum distance and deals 250(+80% Total Physical ATK)Physical Damage on first hit and binding itself to all nearby enemy heroes for upto 6 seconds. For the duration, Melissa will summon another doll Giggles which will shoot an extra cursed needle at Muddles on each of her basic attacks.
Melissa can also use the attack minion button to attack Muddles directly. All the damage taken by Muddles during the duration will be transferred to the enemies bound by Muddles. Each needle thrown by Giggles will also reduce part of the cooldown of Melissa’s first skill. This is Melissa’s primary source of damage.
Ultimate Skill – Cuddles! Protect Me! (Summon, Buff)
CD – 40.0/36.0/32.0
Mana – 120/150/180
Melissa orders Cuddles to release the field of Protection, which damages and knockbacks enemies while preventing them from entering the field for a while. The field will disappear early if Melissa moves out of the range of the field. This is Melissa’s main defense against melee heroes. When the skill is ready, Cuddles will appear and grant Melissa extra Physical and Magic Defense which is a passive effect of the skill.
Skill-up method for Melissa
Unlock Skill 2 Go! Muddles! followed by Skill 1 Falling! Unlock Ultimate Skill Cuddles! Protect Me! at level 4. Prioritize upgrading the Skill 1 to max first as it is your only movement ability and also gives an attack speed boost followed by the Skill 2 and upgrade her Ultimate whenever available. Skill 1 >> Ultimate >> Skill 2.
Best Emblem set and Spells for Melissa in Mobile Legends
Marksman Emblem Setup
The Custom Marksman emblem is the best emblem for Melissa when playing her as an offlaner in the gold lane.
Use Talent points in Bravery in Tier 1 which gives +4.00/8.00/12.00 Physical Attack and Agility in Tier 2 which increases movement speed by +2.00/4.00/6.00%. Take Weakness Finder in Tier 3 which gives basic attacks a 20% chance of slowing target by 90% and lowers its attack speed by 50%. This effect has a 2 seconds cooldown.
Assassin Emblem Setup
The Custom Assassin emblem is also pretty good for Melissa when playing her as a Jungler hyper carry.
Use Talent points in Agility in Tier 1 which increases movement speed by +2.00/4.00/6.00% and Invasion in Tier 2 which gives +2.00/4.00/6.00 Physical penetration. Take Killing Spree in Tier 3 which restores 12% max HP and increases movement speed by 15% for 5 seconds upon slaying an enemy hero.
Battle Spells
Purify
Immediately removes all negative effects. In the next 1.2 seconds, gain control immunity and 15% Movement Speed. It comes in handy to counter a heavy-CC line-up dedicated to shutting you down. Watch out for heroes that have incredible speeds to catch you and have CCs and displacement skills to lock and isolate you. Even though Melissa’s Ultimate is pretty much of a no-entry zone, having Purify will still come in handy.
Inspire
After the recent buffs to inspire, it is pretty broken for heroes that specialize in dealing damage with basic attacks. For up to 8 basic attacks: Increases attack speed by 55% and Attack Speed Cap to 400%, and ignores 8 (+1 × Hero Level) of the target’s Physical Defense. Each basic attack also restores 70(+15%Total Physical ATK) (+15%Total Magic Power) HP on hit. This emblem will synergize extremely well with the attack speed bonus Melissa receives from her Skill 1.
Best Builds for Melissa in Mobile Legends
One can try many builds on Melissa. All which one needs to do is to just follow the enemy’s pick and then decide the role on the battlefield. We have set out the following template to try out with Melissa on the battlefield.
- Start off the match by buying Swift boots which increase Attack Speed by +15%. Players can also build either Warrior boots/Tough Boots to gain early game defense. The Type of boots will depend on the Enemy lineup as well.
- Players need to buy the core items of the build next which are Berserker’s Fury and Scarlet Phantom. Berserker’s Fury gives +65 Physical ATK and +25% Crit Chance and also increases Crit Damage by 40%. It’s unique passive is Doom which on Crit hit will increase the hero’s Physical Attack by 5% for 2s.
- This should be followed by building Scarlet Phantom which gives +30 Physical ATK, +20% Attack Speed, +25% Crit Chance, and its unique passive Frenzy increases hero’s attack speed by 30% and crit chance by 5% on critical hits. This effect lasts for 2 seconds.
- Players should build Blade of Despair next which gives +160 Physical ATK and +5% Movement SPD. Its unique passive Despair increases the hero’s Physical Attack by 25% on attacking enemy units that have HP below 50%. This effect lasts for 2 seconds.
- Players can also build Wind of Nature to counter unavoidable damage like Saber’s and Hayabusa’s Ultimate thanks to its unique passive Wind Chant which makes the hero immune to all Physical Damage for 2 seconds which has 70 seconds cooldown. Wind of Nature also gives +30 Physical ATK, +20% Attack Speed, and +10% Physical Lifesteal.
- Malefic Roar should be bought during the mid-end game of the match when opponents will have some sort of physical defense in their build. Malefic Roar gives +60 Physical Attack and its unique passive Armor Buster which for each point of enemy’s Physical defense increases Physical penetration by 0.05% when dealing damage, capped at 20%.
- Players can sell their boots in the late game and for the final item build either Immortality or Winter Truncheon based on whichever’s passive is available.
Mobile Legends Melissa Gameplay Tips
Although she is a marksman, Melissa’s ultimate ability to protect herself makes her unique from other marksmen. However, a player must need a good understanding of the map to bring the best out of any hero. According to her gameplay, we can break it down into three phases. Our Mobile Legends Melissa guide includes the perfect game plan for the early, mid, and late game.
Early Game
At level 1, unlock Skill 2 followed by Skill 1. During the laning phase cast Skill 1 to approach the enemy and use Skill 2 to bind them to Muddles and then poke them with basic attacks with the attack speed bonus from using Skill 1. Do not engage aggressively until level 4 when Melissa unlocks her Ultimate and exercise serious map awareness to detect missing heroes that may be out there hiding to gank. Melissa can cast her Ultimate to knock back enemies in case she gets ganked.
Mid Game
Players should keep a mix of both aggressive and cautious mindsets as they play in this phase. Always have an eye on the map and rotate to help your teammates in securing objectives like killing the turtle, stealing enemy buff, or creeps after clearing lane minions.
During teamfights, look for the right opportunity to engage and don’t feel shy to Cast her Ultimate to block enemies approaching her and use Skill1 again to reposition herself. With her excellent mobility and Ultimate mechanism, she plays a big role in small scale teamfights in mid-game. One of the other objectives is to take down as many outer turrets as players can in this phase. Try to secure as many objectives as possible in this phase to gain a gold advantage over your enemies.
Late Game
This is the point of the game where players need to be aware of their positioning and timing. After getting their hands on a few of her core equipment Melissa can deal insane amounts of damage to the enemies she binds with her Skill 2. With a good tank peeling for Melissa, she can absolutely destroy the enemies from the backline and her Ultimate also helps her avoid any possible gank.
Melissa can steal Lord with an exceptionally timed use of her Ultimate which will knock back the enemy hyper so that they miss to get the lord using retribution. If your team is in a lead with most of the enemies’ turrets taken down, it’s best to freeze lanes such that enemies can’t kill the minions to get gold. Try split pushing after taking down lord, don’t let lord go waste. Also, in the final stages when going to destroy enemy nexus focus on targeting the nexus instead of trying to kill enemies if you have minions.
| Heroes that counter Melissa | Heroes Melissa can counter |
| Lancelot | Saber |
| Lolita | Hayabusa |
| Natalia | Fanny |
| Popol and Kupa | Gloo |
Final Thoughts
Melissa is the newest OP Gold laner added to the game as she is right now. Her early game is decent however she truly shines from the mid-game when she has got one or two of her core items while in the end game, she is abysmally strong. Her Ultimate ability is pretty strong as it is basically an anti-gank skill that not only creates a no-entry zone for enemies but also provides decent CC by knocking back enemies as well.
An excellent pick for rank games, Melissa is definitely a good pick for the current meta. These tips will surely help you to guide easy wins with Melissa in Mobile Legends. You can also refer to our latest tier list to know more about the revamped meta heroes in this current season.
That’s all for today’s Mobile Legends Melissa Guide. Do you prefer to use Melissa in any other way? Let us know in the comment section below!
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