Summary
- Degagement is weak due to fast enemy deaths and short-lived fire weakness, lacking impact compared to other skills.
- Stendahl's high void damage is redundant in certain situations, resets Maelle's stance, lacks utility, and fails to impress.
- Last Chance's flashy appearance isn't worth the risk - better alternatives like Fleuret Fury exist, making simplicity key to victory.
Maelle is by far one of the strongest party members in all of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, bringing so much damage and burst right from the start and having some of the best utility skills in the entire game. She brings a lot to the table and can be quite self-sufficient if built correctly, offering a unique playstyle that rewards careful decision-making and puts a lot of emphasis on perfecting the stance-swapping mechanic.
Best Maelle Build in Clair Obscur Expedition 33
Maelle in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is an excellent early game DPS that can also work as a support later on; here's how to build Maelle.
But as high as some of her skills can go, there are certainly some that fall a bit short compared to the rest. While it is nice to experiment and to have a few extra tools to bring to the fight, some skills for sure have an overall higher level of power, and while any build can work throughout the game relative to other options, some skills just fall short at the finish.
4 Degagement
A Nice Setup But A Lot To Be Desired
- AP Cost: 2
- Effect: Change Stance: Offensive. Deals low single-target Fire damage. 1 hit. Target becomes weak to Fire damage for 2 turns
Fire is one of Maelle's core element types, with a lot of her abilities working off of or buffing burning attacks, allowing her to dish out incredible tick damage over and over again. 
Degagement is an okay tool to assist in making those burns just a bit harder, but the problem is that early on enemies die pretty damn fast and later, the fire becomes much less valuable than a simple heavy hit.
Swapping to Offensive stance can be useful to chain into fiery follow-up, but the payoff just isn't as effective as some of her other skills, especially when considering that a good chunk of the enemies in the game are already weak to fire, so having that weakness buff doesn't serve much of a purpose and it only lasting two turns makes it pretty weak compared to the rest of her skills. While there are some good follow-up options that really make use of the extra fire effect, it still struggles to have much of an impact compared to the other options.
3 Stendahl
One Big Hit That Has To Count
- AP Cost: 8
- Effect: Change Stance: Stanceless. Deals extreme single-target Void damage. 1 hit. Removes self-Shields and self-applies Defenceless
Stendahl is a relatively powerful ability in the right circumstances, but is also rather strange when considering how the typical Maelle playstyle goes. Normally, players will want to build up buffs, swap between stances, and then unleash a powerful attack with the corresponding Stance, normally Virtuoso. The issue is that this attack pretty much resets Maelle, removing her stance and debuffing her, which can be pretty dangerous if that initial hit doesn't go too well.
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It is also a strange ability to fit into the few slots available, as players will want to build out a set of skills that play off of one another or at least bring some utility. This skill acts alone and doesn't bring a whole lot to the table. The one benefit of the high void damage becomes basically redundant if the enemy is resistant or the player is using a void-based weapon to begin with. Not awful, but nothing to ride home about.
2 Last Chance
Never Worth The Risk
- AP Cost: 1
- Effect: Change Stance: Virtuoso Stance. Reduces self-health to 1 but refills all AP Switches to Virtuoso Stance
Last Chance is a strange skill that doesn't really serve much of a purpose aside from looking flashy. Virtuoso Stance is Maelle's best, but having to go down to the final hit is not worth the potential upside that comes from the bonus damage. The skill might be cheap and guarantee that the next turn will be pretty deadly, but it assumes the player can even make it to the next round alive.
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If the goal is to cast in Virtuoso next turn and have enough AP to fully make use of the power, then there are far better skills for achieving this, like Fleuret Fury that doesn't cost too much, keeps the stance, and still allows the player to rebuild their AP supply in time for next turn. Sometimes, the risk can be worth it, especially if the player has plenty of resurrections left, but overall, it's a strange skill that feels like it tries to do too much in situations where simplicity can be the key to victory.
1 Mezzo Forte
Not Much Of A Point
- AP Cost: 1
- Effect: Reapplies current stance and gives 2-4 AP
Mezzo Forte is a simplistic utility skill that doesn't really make sense to have in an equip slot. Sure, having the same stance next turn is useful, and having the extra AP can mean that higher cost skills suddenly become a lot easier to cast, but a two-turn setup for an extra spell, with no additional damage or buffs in between, can feel underwhelming and the payoffs just isn't big enough.
It also suffers from a problem of not fitting into an early game or late game build. Early on, players can rampage through enemies no problem, and towards the later stages, AP is never an issue as enemy attacks can go on for a long time, allowing the player to recoup a full meter of AP and effectively making Mezzo Forte useless regardless of whether the player is fighting a lowly Gestral or the final boss.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
- Released
- April 24, 2025
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, Strong Language, Suggestive Themes, Violence
- Developer(s)
- Sandfall Interactive
- Genre(s)
- Turn-Based RPG, JRPG, Fantasy
- Platform(s)
- PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, PC
- OpenCritic Rating
- Mighty
