Best Emblem, Build and Gameplay Tips

Melissa, the Cursed Needle, the second hero from the Forsaken Light series and one of the top marksmen in Mobile Legends: Bang Bang right now, thanks to some recent buffs. Melissa’s got that rebellious streak and a real talent for finding solutions to problems. Armed with her trusty dolls, she’s all about bringing justice to the battlefield. In this Mobile Legends guide, we will take a look at the best emblem, spell, and 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, 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, Lolita, Melissa, Layla, Moskov, Irithel, Kimmy, Harith, Estes, Roger, Xavier, Gord, Franco, Minsitthar, Terizla, Masha, Johnson, Zhask, Fanny, Aldous, Diggie, Julian, Faramis, Vexana, Natalia, Fredrinn, Joy, Arlott, Ixia, Novaria and Nolan. So make sure to check these hero guides as well. For now, let’s focus on Esmeralda.

Skill Analysis 

Melissa has three active and passive skills 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 125% extra damage to minions and summoned units, including Muddles and all units summoned by the enemy.

Skill 1 – Falling! (Mobility, Buff)

Melissa dashes in the target direction and gains extra attack speed for 3 seconds. 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 manoeuvre around the map and adjust the positions of her dolls as well. The extra attack speed grants Melissa decent burst potential. Every time she hits an enemy while her doll Muddles is out, the cooldown of this skill is reduced by 1.5 seconds.

Skill 2 – Eyes on You! (Debuff, AoE)

Melissa throws Muddles toward a target direction, stopping either upon hitting an enemy hero or reaching max distance. It deals 250 (+80% Total Physical Attack) Physical Damage with the initial hit and binds itself to nearby enemy heroes for up to 6 seconds. These linked enemies get slowed by 60%, which fades over 1.5 seconds and can break the link by moving out of range.

If there are no enemies nearby, or if Melissa moves too far away, Muddles returns early to her. While Muddles is around, tapping the Attack Minion button lets Melissa directly attack it, though it won’t trigger multi-hit damage.

Ultimate Skill – Go Away! (Summon, Buff)

Melissa orders Cuddles to release the field of Protection, deals 500( +100% Total Magic Power) Magic Damage, and knockbacks enemies while preventing them from entering the field for 4 seconds. It continues to push back enemies who try to enter, dealing 50 (+10% Total Magic Power) Magic Damage and briefly slowing them.

The field also interrupts enemy movement skills unless they’re immune to control effects. Plus, it moves with Melissa once, if she’s about to step out of the boundary. As a passive effect, Melissa’s Physical and Magic Defense increase by 3, amplified to 5 times when the skill is active.

Skill-up method for Melissa

Unlock Skill 2 Eyes on You! followed by Skill 1 Falling! Unlock Ultimate Skill Go Away! at level 4. Prioritize upgrading Skill 1 to max first as it is your only movement ability and also gives an attack speed boost followed by Skill 2 and upgrade her Ultimate whenever available. Skill 1 >> Ultimate >> Skill 2.

Best Emblem set and Spells for Melissa in Mobile Legends

As you play Melissa on the Gold lane, I suggest using the Custom Marksman emblem. You can pick talents that best match your style and needs to improve your Melissa gameplay.

Custom Marksman emblem

In the Gold Lane, Melissa benefits from the Custom Marksman emblem, which boosts her Attack Speed, Adaptive Attack, and Lifesteal, allowing her to deal more damage and maintain her health in fights. For talents, Swift and Weapon Master are the way to go. Swift ups her attack speed, while Weapon Master gives her extra attacks, making her an even bigger threat in combat.

For the core talent, I recommend Weakness Finder or Quantum Charge. It slows enemy movement and reduces attack speed, making it a solid choice for gaining control in battles and avoiding enemies. You can also go for Quantum Charge, which increases movement speed and restores HP when dealing damage with basic attacks helping you sustain, especially in the early stage. However, if you want to read an in-depth emblem guide, check here.

Battle Spells

For the Battle Spell I recommend using Inspire, it boosts her attack speed and provides HP regen. With this spell, Melissa can attack faster, take down enemies and structures quicker, and stay in fights longer thanks to the health regeneration. You can also use Flicker to escape dangerous situations or close the gap between your enemies for a surprise attack. Purify is another good option, if you face heroes with a lot of control skills.

Best Builds for Melissa in Mobile Legends

One can try many builds on Melissa. All that one needs to do is to just follow the enemy’s pick and then decide the role on the battlefield. I have set out the following template to try out with Melissa on the battlefield. To know more about the best heroes in every meta in Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB), do refer to our best heroes article.

• Swift Boots: Boosts Melissa’s Attack Speed, crucial for quickly unleashing her damage in battles.
• Corrosion Scythe: Slows down enemies hit by basic attacks, helping Melissa chase down opponents and secure kills.
• Demon Hunter Sword: Provides additional damage against high HP enemies, enhancing Melissa’s effectiveness in prolonged fights.
• Golden Staff: Increases Melissa’s Attack Speed and grants a chance to deal bonus damage with each attack, improving her overall damage output.
• Malefic Roar: Penetrates enemy armour, allowing Melissa to deal more damage to heavily armoured opponents.
• Wind of Nature: Grants immunity to all Physical Damage for a short duration, providing Melissa with survivability against certain enemy abilities.
• Rose Gold Meteor: Offers a shield when Melissa’s HP drops below a certain threshold, granting her additional survivability in fights.
• Sea Halberd: Reduces enemy regeneration and healing effects, making it easier for Melissa to take down enemies with sustain.
• Athena’s Shield: Provides a shield that absorbs damage when Melissa’s HP is low, giving her extra survivability against burst damage.
• Immortality: Revives Melissa upon death, allowing her to rejoin the fight and potentially turn the tide in her team’s favour.

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 games.

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 team fights, 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 team fights 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 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 the lord, don’t let the lord go to 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.

Esmeralda with other heroes

In this section of the guide, we will discuss the heroes that Melissa can counter and heroes that can counter Melissa in Mobile Legends: Bang Bang. To know more about hero counters in Mobile Legends, do read our Ultimate Hero Counters Guide.