The “Phoenix Build” for Maelle in Expedition 33 is a well-planned setup that focuses on boosting her fire-based skills and stance-switching abilities.
This guide will show you the skills, stances, weapons, and best strategies for making an aggressive, yet smart build that can beat enemies while still being flexible.
If you like playing with high damage or want to master Maelle’s cool stance-dancing, this build is perfect for you.
Who is Maelle?
Maelle is one of the coolest characters in Expedition 33. She’s an orphan with a mysterious past who left Lumiere years ago to beat the strange Paintress.
In the game, she’s a unique glass-cannon type with a shy personality, but don’t be fooled: with the right build, she can unleash powerful fire attacks, burn her enemies over time, and smoothly switch stances for extra battle benefits.
At first, she might seem weak. Her tricky mechanics and multiple things to manage (like stances, skills, and burn effects) make her one of the harder characters to learn. However, the right setup unlocks her true power and makes her a total beast in battle.
The Phoenix Build fully embraces her attacking abilities, focusing on burn mechanics, critical hits, and unlocking her amazing fire skills.
Understanding Maelle’s Stances
At the heart of Maelle’s gameplay is her stance-dancing mechanic, which changes during combat. Here’s a breakdown of her stances and why they matter for the Phoenix Build:
- Stanceless (Default): This stance doesn’t give any bonuses or penalties, but it’s the starting point. At level 20 (with the Brua weapon), stanceless guarantees 100% critical hits.
- Offensive Stance:
- Effect: +50% outgoing damage but +50% incoming damage.
This stance is critical for ramping up offensive firepower, especially during burst phases.
- Defensive Stance:
- Effect: -50% incoming damage, and you gain AP when you parry or dodge attacks.
While not the main focus for the Phoenix Build, this stance can offer some survival during tough fights.
- Virtuoso Stance:
- Effect: +200% outgoing damage.
This is the most important stance for this build. It allows Maelle to deal massive amounts of damage, and using virtuoso stance well can guarantee a huge DPS advantage.
Stance Importance: Changing stances happens through basic attacks or using skills, and every time Maelle switches to a new stance, she gains 1 AP. Managing stances efficiently is a big deal here, letting you balance buffing your attacks and keeping Maelle alive.
The Phoenix Skill Path
The Phoenix Build focuses on fire-based skills, burn damage over time (DoT), and high-damage combos. Below are the key skills you’ll require:
Core Skills for the Build
- Engagement (Fire)
- Effect: Deals single-target fire damage and applies a “weak to fire” debuff for two turns.
- Why It’s Key: Weakness debuffs make enemies 50% more susceptible to fire damage, amplifying all your follow-up attacks. Use this to set up your core fire abilities.
- Rain of Fire (Fire)
- Effect: Hits a single target twice with fire damage and applies 3 stacks of burn.
- Why It’s Key: Your bread-and-butter burn application skill. Each burn tick deals scalable DoT, making this skill pivotal for both early and late-game damage setup.
- Combustion (Fire/Physical)
- Effect: Consumes up to 10 stacks of burn on a target to deal massive fire/physical damage.
- Why It’s Key: This skill is your finisher. The more burn stacks you have on an enemy, the higher the damage output from Combustion.
- Swift Stride (Physical)
- Effect: Low damage attack that forces Maelle into virtuoso stance (200% damage boost).
- Why It’s Key: Use this skill as a setup for Combustion. Swift Stride guarantees you’re in your highest-damaging stance before unleashing your big attacks.
- Guard Down (Debuff)
- Effect: Applies “defenseless” to all enemies for 3 turns.
- Why It’s Key: Enemies afflicted with defenseless take bonus damage from all sources. This skill boosts team-wide DPS and works beautifully when applied in AoE fights.
- Breaking Rules (Physical)
- Effect: Single-target skill that destroys all shields on a target, generates 1 AP per shield broken, and grants Maelle an immediate second turn if the target is already defenseless.
- Why It’s Key: Shields can be a major obstacle in Expedition 33. This skill is crucial for countering enemy defensive mechanics while also generating AP and creating powerful follow-up opportunities.
The Required Weapons
Selecting the right weapon is critical for this build. Both recommended options enhance the Phoenix Build’s fire/burn core:
1. Brua
- Obtained: Early on after defeating the two enemies at the Flying Water Zone near the giant anchor.
- Key Traits:
- Elemental Affinity: Fire
- Scales with: Agility and Luck
- Bonus Effects:
- Level 4: Critical hits apply burn.
- Level 10: Basic attacks apply 2 burn stacks.
- Level 20: 100% critical hit chance while stanceless.
- Why It’s Key: The crit synergy with burn application is a game-changer. Combined with skills like “Rain of Fire,” Brua ensures Maelle applies maximum burn ticks effortlessly.
2. Chantenna
- Obtained: Late-game reward after defeating the vendor in the Sirene Level, past the Gissando enemy.
- Key Traits:
- Elemental Affinity: Fire
- Scales with: Agility and Luck
- Bonus Effects:
- Level 4: Starts battle in Offensive Stance.
- Level 10: Fire skills cost 1 less AP.
- Level 20: Switching to Offensive Stance grants 1 shield.
- Why It’s Key: Chantenna saves AP (critical for fire-heavy skills), offers automatic stance-switching, and boosts survivability with free shields.
Picto and Lumina Recommendations
Pictos and Lumina enhance your stats and buffs, and you’ll need to select a combination that strengthens Maelle’s offensive firepower. Below are recommended choices:
Top Picto Choices for Socketing
- Double Burn
- Effect: Doubles all burn stacks applied to enemies.
- Importance: Mandatory for maximizing burn DPS.
- Location: Found in Visages Zone (Anger Side).
- Breaking Burn
- Effect: +25% damage to enemies with burn.
- Location: Overworld west of Manokco Station.
- Critical Burn
- Effect: +25% crit chance on burning enemies.
- Location: Early-game Spring Meadows zone.
- Critical Vulnerability
- Effect: +25% crit chance on defenseless targets.
- Location: Overworld west side guarded by enemies.
Lumina Activation Strategy
Activate the strongest Lumina that grant fire damage boosts, burn application increases, or AP adjustments. A suggested breakdown:
- Mix Painted Power (breaks 9,999 damage cap) with AP boosters like Energizing Turn and Weakness Gain.
Combat Strategy
- Start Off Strong:
Open with Engagement or Guard Down to weaken enemies. Apply burn stacks early with Rain of Fire. - Stance Management:
Use Swift Stride to enter Virtuoso Stance during key moments, especially before heavy hitters like Combustion. - Apply and Exploit Burn:
Keep burn on enemies consistently. Use Combustion to deal massive damage when burn stacks peak. - Counter Shields:
Use Breaking Rules to strip shielded enemies and gain AP for follow-up attacks. - Sustain with Healing Fire:
Pairing burn with Healing Fire Picto can help fuel limited self-sustain.
Final Thoughts
The Maelle “Phoenix Build” really shines when you fully utilize its combination of burn stacking, critical hit mechanics, and switching stances. While it requires good technical skill, especially when managing stances, the payoff is absolutely worth it.
If you’re ready to deal fiery damage and take on the toughest challenges in Expedition 33, this is the build for you.
Now get out there, set your enemies ablaze, and watch as Maelle rises from the ashes to claim victory.
