In Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Maelle emerges as a devastating burst DPS powerhouse when built right, capable of obliterating foes in a single turn with her Virtuoso Stance-boosted attacks. Mastering her optimal build-focusing on agility, defense, and the unique Medalum weapon-unlocks her full potential, turning her into an unstoppable force on the battlefield. This guide reveals how to maximize her damage output with the best skills, pictos, and attributes to dominate every encounter from early game to endgame.
With all of the weapons and pictos to choose from in Expedition 33, every playable character can be molded to fit whatever playstyle you need for the moment. You could turn Sciel into a tank, Lune into a glass cannon, or Monoco into.all sorts of things. While these options are viable, some are better than others.
In this Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 guide, we’ll break down the best Maelle build, including details about what weapon to pick, what skills to choose, and what attributes to max out.
Best Maelle build in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
The best Maelle build in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 focuses on maximizing her burst damage potential by leveraging her Virtuoso Stance, which boosts her damage output by 200%. Key to this build is equipping her with the Medalum weapon, which allows her to enter Virtuoso Stance immediately, and prioritizing Agility and Defense attributes to enhance her damage and survivability. Essential skills include Stendhal and Last Chance, while Pictos like Immaculate Glass Cannon and In Affinity boost her critical chance and agility, enabling Maelle to often eliminate enemies in one turn. This setup requires confidence in defensive mechanics but rewards with devastating single-target damage, making Maelle a formidable DPS character throughout the game.
Maelle is a burst DPS character who synergizes well with critical hits and the Burning status ailment. To make the most of her toolset, you’ll want a build that allows you to get into Virtuoso Stance – which deals 200% increased damage – as soon as possible and deal massive damage to enemies before they can move.
In the game’s opening act, she benefits from placing all points into the Luck stat with a few points in Might. As you gain better weapons and Pictos, her best attribute will change, though focusing on a high-damage playstyle remains.
To that end, the best Maelle build is:
- Attributes: Agility and Defense
- Weapon: Medalum
- Skills: Stendhal and Last Chance
- Pictos: Immaculate, Glass Canon, and Inverted Affinity
Agility and Defense are the best attributes for Maelle because they are the attributes that Maelle’s best weapon, the Medalum, scales alongside. Maelle is balanced around the firm Virtuoso Stance that grants 200% damage. The Medalum allows you to start an encounter already in Virtuoso Stance, putting you in a position to quickly end any battle. As for skills, even though Stendhal has been nerfed, it is still one of the best abilities in the game.
With Virtuoso Stance, you are still in a good position to one-shot most enemies one Maelle’s first turn, but if you don’t, you can use the Last Chance skill to refresh Virtuoso Stance. However, with this setup, you won’t need Last Chance very often, especially with the Immaculate, Glass Cannon, and Inverted Affinity Pictos equipped. The aforementioned Pictos provide extra health, crit chance, and agility, but the damage boost offered by this Pictos setup requires comfort with Expedition 33’s defensive options.
Below, we’ll explain in more detail why this is the best Maelle build in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.
Best attributes for Maelle
Maelle’s best attributes in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 focus primarily on Agility and Defense. Agility increases her turn frequency, allowing her to maintain the powerful Virtuoso Stance more often, which boosts her damage output by 200%. Defense not only enhances her survivability but also scales with her best weapon, the Medalum, increasing her critical hit rate and damage potential. Early in the game, prioritizing Luck and Might is beneficial until the Medalum is acquired, after which shifting focus to Agility and Defense maximizes her burst DPS capabilities and overall effectiveness in combat.
You’ll want to prioritize different attributes for Maelle depending on how far you are in the game. And remember, you can use a Recoat to reassign attribute points.
In Act 1, prioritize these attributes:
- Luck
- Might
In the opening hours of Expedition 33, Luck and Might are the best attributes for Maelle as they work well with what Maelle wants to do in an encounter. Since you cannot get her best weapon, Medalum, until Act 2, prioritizing these stats will allow her to remain strong until you get your hands on it.
After Act 1, prioritize these attributes:
- Agility
- Defense
Once you have Medalum, you will want to begin pumping points into Agility and Defense at every opportunity. Increasing Maelle’s Defense also increases her crit rate, and with high Agility, she’ll play more frequently, allowing for more opportunities to dominate the enemies on the field.
Best weapon for Maelle
The best weapon for Maelle in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is the Medalum. This weapon is highly prized because it automatically places Maelle into Virtuose Stance at the start of combat, boosting her damage output by 200%, which is crucial for maximizing her burst DPS potential. Obtaining the Medalum requires using Maelle in the final solo fight in the Gestral Arena near the end of Act 1, making it a missable but essential weapon for her optimal build. Its synergy with Maelle’s skills, especially Percee, allows her to deal massive damage early in fights, simplifying many encounters. While other weapons like Lithum and Jarum offer different strategic advantages, the Medalum remains the top choice for players focusing on maximizing Maelle’s damage and effectiveness in battle.
The best weapon for Maelle is, without a doubt, the Medalum.
Getting your hands on this weapon, which is technically missable, is as simple as using Maelle during the fourth and final solo fight in the Gestral Arena near the end of Act 1. You can only challenge the arena once, so if you have missed this weapon, the only other way to get it is by beating Golgra, a much more brutal fight.
This weapon is so good for Maelle because it instantly places her in Virtuoso Stance at the start of combat. Virtuoso and the skill Percee trivialize much of the early game by providing cheap access to a high-damaging ability at a point where the enemy health pool isn’t as inflated.
Best Pictos and Luminas for Maelle
For the best Pictos and Luminas for Maelle in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, the optimal setup focuses on maximizing her burst damage potential while balancing survivability. The top Pictos to equip are Immaculate, Glass Cannon, and Inverted Affinity. Immaculate boosts Speed and Critical Rate, increasing damage by 30% until Maelle takes a hit. Glass Cannon raises Speed and damage output by 25% but also increases damage taken by 25%, making it a high-risk, high-reward choice. Inverted Affinity enhances Health and Critical Rate and grants a 50% damage boost while the Inverted status is active for three turns. For Luminas, defensive options that synergize with parry mechanics, such as Healing Counter and Energizing Parry, are essential to offset the fragility caused by aggressive Pictos. Additional Luminas should be chosen based on whether you want to boost damage further or increase Action Points for skills, enabling Maelle to maintain her Virtuoso Stance and unleash powerful fire-based attacks consistently.
The best Pictos and Luminas for Maelle depend on where you are in the game, just like the best skills and weapons. As for Pictos, the best three you can take on Maelle are Immaculate, Glass Cannon, and Inverted Affinity. Below, we’ve noted what perks these Pictos grant and what stats are effected by them, though note that the exact number might differ depending on what level your Pictos are:
- Immaculate – Speed and Crit Rate. 30% increased damage until a hit is received.
- Glass Cannon – Speed. Deal 25% more damage, but take 25% more damage.
- Inverted Affinity – Health and Crit Rate. Apply Inverted on self for three turns on battle start.
50% increased damage while Inverted.
This selection of Pictos provides Maelle with more scaling and damage at the cost of survivability. To use Maelle at her best, you must have mastered the dodging and parrying mechanics of Expedition 33. Luckily, Luminas can make defense easier as the best ones will synergize with your parries. Luminas such as Healing Counter and Energizing Parry are pivotal to the build. Outside of those two, you have a choice based on whether you want more damage or more AP points for skills and should pick your Luminas accordingly.
We’d recommend using the following Pictos, depending on how many Lumina Points you have.
- Burning Shots
- Empowering Attack
- Energizing Start II
- Rewarding Mark
- Critical Burn
- Painted Power
- Weakness Gain
- Tainted
- Full Strength
- Greater Powerful
- Marking Shots
- Dodger
- Energising Start III
- Teamwork
- Healing Counter
- Energising Parry
- Roulette
- Warming Up
- Burn Affinity
- Energising Turn
Best skills for Maelle
The best skills for Maelle in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 focus on maximizing her damage output through stance switching and leveraging her powerful Fire-based attacks. Key skills include Offensive Switch and Fencer’s Flurry to apply the Defenseless debuff, boosting damage taken by enemies. Her Fire skills like Rain of Fire, Pyrolyse, and Burning Canvas are essential for stacking and consuming Burn effects, which synergize well with her unique weapon and Pictos to enhance critical chance and damage. Maelle’s Virtuose Stance is particularly valuable, offering a 200% damage boost, making skills like Sword Ballet and Fleuret Fury highly effective for single-target nukes and multi-hit damage. Additionally, support skills like Guard Up provide party-wide Shell, enhancing team survivability. Mastering stance switching and combining these offensive and support skills makes Maelle a versatile and formidable character in both early and late game scenarios.
The best skills for Maelle are the following:
- Last Chance: Change stance to Virtuose Stance. Reduces self-Health to 1 but refills all AP.
- Payback: Deals very high single target Physical damage. 1 hit. Reduced AP cost for each attack parried since last turn. Can Break.
- Momentum Strike: Deals high single target damage. 1 hit. Uses weapon’s element. Increased damage to Marked targets. Virtuose Stance: Costs 4 AP
- Stendhal: Deals extreme single target Void damage. 1 hit. Removes self-Shields and self applies Defenceless.
- Breaking Rules: Deals low single target Physical damage. 2 hits. Destroys all target’s Shields. Gain 1 AP per Shield destroyed. If target is Defenseless, play a second turn.
- Sword Ballet: Deal extreme single target damage. 5 hits. Uses weapon’s element. Critical hits deal double damage.
Last Chance is your “get back into Virtuoso” move for the few times that your first turn Stendhal isn’t enough to one-shot your target. Payback is a skill that rewards good players by giving them access to a high-damaging move that can break targets at a skill cost that directly scales with parried attacks. Momentum Strike adds synergy with the rest of the party. Breaking Rules is a utility skill for enemies that stack shields, and Sword Ballet offers a crit-focused option.
How does the optimal Maelle build maximize her damage potential in Expedition 33
The optimal Maelle build in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 maximizes her damage potential by focusing on a hybrid DPS-support role that leverages her Virtuose Stance for massive burst damage. The key to this build is equipping the Medalum weapon, which automatically activates Virtuose Stance at the start of battle, boosting her damage output by 200% without penalties. This allows Maelle to unleash devastating attacks immediately, often wiping out enemies in the first turn.
To complement the Medalum, the build prioritizes Agility and Defense attributes, as these scale best with the weapon and improve Maelle’s attack speed, critical hit chance, and survivability. Early in the game, points are invested in Luck and Might to increase critical hit rate and raw damage, then transition into Vitality and weapon-scaling stats for sustained effectiveness.
Core skills include Stendhal, which delivers high burst damage, and Last Chance, which refreshes Virtuose Stance to extend Maelle’s peak damage state. Additional skills like Percee and Swift Stride synergize with Virtuose Stance and status effects like Burn, amplifying damage further.
Pictos such as Immaculate, Glass Cannon, and Inverted Affinity enhance critical chance, speed, and health, while Luminas like Burning Shots and Marking Shots apply damage-over-time and debuffs, stacking with Maelle’s burst to maximize damage output.
This combination of weapon, attributes, skills, Pictos, and Luminas creates a build where Maelle can consistently deliver enormous single-target damage, maintain survivability, and capitalize on status effects, making her one of the strongest DPS characters in the game.
How does Virtuoso Stance amplify Maelle’s damage output in Expedition 33
Virtuoso Stance amplifies Maelle’s damage output in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 by increasing her damage by 200% with no downside, making it her most powerful stance for burst damage. This massive damage boost applies not only to her regular attacks but also to counterattacks, allowing Maelle to deal devastating damage consistently when she ends her turn in this stance.
Certain weapons, like the Medalum, enable Maelle to start battles already in Virtuoso Stance, bypassing the usual setup and allowing her to unleash her full damage potential immediately. Skills such as Swift Stride can transition her into Virtuoso Stance when used on burning enemies, further facilitating frequent access to this damage multiplier. Additionally, some builds focus on maintaining Virtuoso Stance as long as possible, using skills and weapons that trigger or sustain it through counters or other conditions, maximizing Maelle’s damage output throughout fights.
In summary, Virtuoso Stance is the cornerstone of Maelle’s damage strategy, multiplying her attacks by 200% and enabling her to quickly eliminate foes with powerful burst damage and critical hits.
