Maelle Build Guide In Expedition 33

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a turn-based RPG game that focuses on teamwork during combat. Each character has a wide variety of skills that enable them to take any role. Of course, players choose these roles by building the characters accordingly.

When it comes to Maelle in Expedition 33, most of her skills focus on hitting and debuffing one enemy, which lowers her value in AoE fights. However, against bosses, Maelle shines and showcases how important she can be for the team if her build supports that. So, here are the best builds for Maelle in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

Updated on December 13, 2025, by Nahda Nabiilah: Maelle is one of the most versatile characters in Expedition 33 when it comes to combat. She can smoothly shift from top-tier support to a damage dealer that melts anything in her path. As players unlock more weapons and Pictos, her build options continue to expand. For those who enjoy experimenting with different setups, Maelle is an ideal pick. With several new weapons and Pictos in the mix, here’s an updated Maelle build for Expedition 33.

Maelle Best Early Game Build In Expedition 33

Early in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Maelle is a great hybrid damage dealer with her one-shot skills and her supportive abilities. Here’s the best early game build for Maelle in Expedition 33:

Starting from Maelle’s stats, players must build as much Speed and Critical Rate as possible through her Pictos. She needs around 300 to 400 Speed, alongside 25% to 35% Crit Rate. This will help maximize Maelle’s early game damage. Maelle will get an extra 25% Critical chance from her Critical Burn Lumina, which increases her Critical chance to reach around 50%. It’s enough for an early game Maelle build.

Best Weapons and Attributes (Maelle Early Game Build)

Best Pictos and Luminas (Maelle Early Game Build)

Best Skills (Maelle Early Game Build)

Strategy (Maelle Early Game Build)

Start the fight by applying Burn on one enemy, using Maelle’s Spark. After applying burn, cast Swift Stride on Maelle’s next action to switch into Virtuose Stance. Now, she’s ready to unleash Percee and deals 9999 damage in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

On top of the rotation, players can also aim and shoot enemies once or twice to apply a Mark on them. If the debuff is applied, Maelle won’t lose her AP because of the Rewarding Mark Lumina. Pair this with the Dead Energy II Lumina, and Maelle can beat all enemies while constantly replenishing her AP.

If Maelle has Medalum, players can set the Burn debuff using another ally to immediately launch the Percee at the start of the fight, which notably improves Maelle’s rotation and damage during combat.

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As a true hybrid DPS, Maelle can also start by applying Defenceless and Shell to all enemies and allies, respectively. This allows her and her allies to hit harder and withstand more enemy attacks. Additionally, players can add Offensive Switch to apply Defenceless on bosses by using one AP instead of three, or add Egide to protect allies from taking damage.

Maelle Best Mid Game Build In Expedition 33

As players keep finding new weapons, skills, Pictos, and Luminas, Maelle’s hybrid build will keep expanding to make her more effective during combat. Not to mention, she will be able to operate as a full DPS or full support.

There are so many different builds for Maelle in Expedition 33. Players can build her as a dedicated support who can continuously apply the Burn DoTs on enemies or protect her allies, or as a dedicated DPS who can deal incredible single-target damage. However, the best build for Maelle is still a hybrid build where she combines her supportive abilities with a lot of DPS, mainly thanks to her Sword Ballet skill, which deals massive damage when she’s in her Virtuose Stance.

In the endgame, putting points into Maelle’s Luck attribute becomes less important since Pictos levels will increase and will offer more stats. Players can easily get around 50% Crit Rate from Maelle’s Pictos alone, leaving the rest to her Critical Burn and Critical Vulnerability Luminas. Instead, players need to put more points into her Vitality, Might, and whatever stat her weapon is scaling with.

Best Weapons and Attributes (Maelle Mid Game Build)

Best Pictos and Luminas (Maelle Mid Game Build)

Best Skills (Maelle Mid Game Build)

Strategy (Maelle Mid Game Build)

In this DPS Maelle build, she enters the Virtuose Stance to deal damage, but this time she doesn’t use Percee. Instead, Maelle uses Sword Balletor Stendhal to deal devastating single-target damage, and the Painted Power Lumina is crucial here to allow Maelle to exceed the 9,999 limit on every hit. Players can still use Percee when there’s not enough AP, or even replace it with Momentum Strike, which is an upgraded skill with the same effect, but much more damage. It’s best to have teammates that can apply Burn so that she doesn’t need to use Spark.

Guard Down stays important since it puts Maelle in a position where she allows her team to deal damage as well. That’s important because Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 endgame is filled with monsters that absorb so much damage. Spark is also very supportive and must stay in her kit since most of the game’s strategy revolves around the Burn DoT. Players can also swap it with the Rain of Fire skill, as it’s also an upgraded version that costs more AP but deals much more damage.

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For support Maelle build in Expedition 33, fill her with defensive stats like Defense and Vitality to ensure her survivability. It’s better to start with Egidethen Guard Up to prolong Egide’s duration, but if the enemy mostly hits AoE, Guard Up is the better choice. With Lumina such as Longer Shell and Powerful on Shell, players will not only have a long duration of Shell but also the Powerful buff in one skill cast. If players have already obtained Faster Than Strong, they can use Egidethen Guard Up back to back.

Next, use Guard Down for AoE Defenceless debuff or cast Offensive Switch for a single-target debuff. Maelle also has a niche move, Breaking Rules, which is handy for enemies who apply a lot of Shield. Alternatively, using Barrier Breaker weapon encourages players to destroy Shields using Free Aim Shot so that Maelle can steal the Shields and enter Virtouse Stance at the same time.

The final two skills can be anything, but going back to the early Swift Stride + Percee/ Momentum Strike combo is a good bet so that Maelle can deal damage if necessary.

Maelle Best Build In Expedition 33

This Maelle build allows her to one-shot almost any target in E33. Of course, some conditions and requirements need to be met first, and then Maelle gets to enjoy all the big numbers when dealing damage.

Best Weapons and Attributes (Maelle Best Build)

Best Pictos and Luminas (Maelle Best Build)

Best Skills (Maelle Best Build)

Strategy (Maelle Best Build)

In this Maelle build, she has almost every Pictos and Lumina that increase her damage. Warming Up works on its own, giving Maelle around 25% extra damage. Cheater, Clea’s Life, and Full Strength work together to protect Maelle and amplify her damage. Cheater gives her two turns when it’s her action. Cela’s Life will heal her full HP, and Full Strength will amplify her damage on that second turn, where she needs to use her one-shot attack. There are a couple of other amplifying Luminas with different requirements, like Glass Canon, Powered Attack, and Teamwork. Some of them will always work, and some will work until they don’t, like Immaculate, where it will stop giving Maelle extra damage if she gets hit.

Other than Luminas, Maelle also gets an insane amount of damage from her weapon, which consumes her AP to grant her up to 250% extra damage. This will cause any attack to hit really hard if players build Maelle to take advantage of that.

The weapon consumes AP until there’s only 4 AP left, so players should build Maelle to deal damage with attacks like Momentum Strike and Burning Canvas, instead of Stendhal and Sword Ballet. Finally, it’s extremely important to have the AP Discount Lumina as it allows Maelle to use 5 AP cost skills, which increases the variety of toys she can play with.

The idea behind this Maelle build is to maximize the damage of her Gradient skill Gommage. Her team needs to buff Maelle and fill the Gradient charges until she’s ready to hit, and that attack should one-shot any enemy in her way. It’s a Gradient skill that doesn’t need any AP to use, which means Maelle’s weapon and Luminas are consuming all those APs to pour it all into Gommage‘s damage.

Before hitting any of her damage attacks, it’s important to always get her in the Virtuose Stance by using her Swift Stride skill. If her Gommageisn’t ready, Maelle can use either Momentum Strike or Burning Canvas every time she gets into the Virtuose Stance. Momentum Strike is better by default until Maelle’s team stacks enough Burn DoTs on enemies, and that should greatly amplify the damage of her Burning Canvas.

Released

April 24, 2025

ESRB

Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, Strong Language, Suggestive Themes, Violence

Developer(s)

Sandfall Interactive

Publisher(s)

Kepler Interactive