Neeko vs Mel Counter Pick

The stat sheets nearly overlap. Both champions attack from 550, both are magic-damage mage supports on mana, both begin with 21 armor and finish at 109.4, and the difficulty rating is 5 on each side. Neeko still takes 57.7% of 194 recorded games on patch 16.13.1, a small sample best read as a direction rather than a precise figure.

What separates them is what happens when an ability is thrown:

• Rebuttal reflects enemy projectiles back at the attacker and prevents damage, so a mistimed Tangle-Barbs returns as a root on Neeko herself.
• Searing Brilliance turns each of Mel’s casts into up to nine bonus projectiles on her next attack, rewarding her for holding position at 330 move speed against 340.
• Pop Blossom ignores the reflect entirely — it is a nearby-area knock-up and stun, not a missile — which is where most of the win rate originates.
• Golden Eclipse strikes Overwhelm-marked targets at any distance, so backing out of vision does not cancel it.

Health totals split the difference: Mel opens higher at 630 to 610, Neeko ends higher at 2,378 to 2,313. With no armor or magic resist gap to exploit, itemization comes down to whether Neeko wants burst for the ultimate or the health to survive Mel‘s repeated area damage.