MAELLE, THE PAINTRESS BEST OF September 2025

agility Hero

created by by Limitless Libido | Last update: Dec 04, 2025

1.0

version

Just finished Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and I have to say, it's probably my favorite game of all time I also thought that Maelle's change stance, and stance-specific additional effects mechanic would work in Dota's complex gameplay, so I tried to make her character here and tried to balance her damage output. Comments are welcome!

agility HERO

melee

unspecified

Preferred role

Position not specified.

COMPLEXITY

PERCÉE

active ABILITY

Upgrades Percée

100/105/110/115

RAIN OF FIRE

active ABILITY

Maelle summons fiery chromatic daggers that rain upon an area, dealing initial impact damage and as well as burn damage to enemies. If Rain of Fire is cast in Offensive Stance, it additionally bur...

120/130/140/150

14/13/12/11

GUARD UP

active ABILITY

Upgrades Guard Up

80/85/90/95

18/16/14/12

PHANTOM STRIKE

ULTIMATE

active ABILITY

125/145/165

60/55/50

SWORD BALLET

passive ABILITY

Upgrades Sword Ballet

Maelle's Innate Ability; gains first level and scales with Phantom Strike: Maelle can enter different stances after casting her abilities. Each stance gives her different bonus effects and last a ...

FACETS

passive ABILITY

FLEURET - Guard up can be ground targeted, allowing Maelle to perform only the leap back. PAYBACK - Offensive Stance grants Maelle 12% lifesteal for her attacks and abilities. BREAKING RULES - Pe...

Traits unselected

LEVEL

BONUS STATS

STRENGTH

+PER LEVEL

+ TOTAL GAIN

AGILITY

+PER LEVEL

+ TOTAL GAIN

INTELLIGENCE

+PER LEVEL

+ TOTAL GAIN

DPS

DAMAGE

SPEED

RANGE

ARMOR

MAGIC RES.

SPEED

TURN RATE

VISION

ABILITIES

THIS IDEA CONTAINS A TOTAL OF 6 ABILITIES

Showing abilities of MAELLE, THE PAINTRESS

PERCÉE

RAIN OF FIRE

GUARD UP

PHANTOM STRIKE

SWORD BALLET

FACETS

Active

PERCÉE

Active

RAIN OF FIRE

Active

GUARD UP

Active

PHANTOM STRIKE

ULTIMATE ABILITY

Passive

SWORD BALLET

Passive

FACETS

BASIC

PERCÉE

TYPE active

DAMAGE physical

TARGET MODE unit

Maelle rushes to an enemy unit and performs an elegant strike that dispels and damages it. Damage is increased based on how many buffs were dispelled. This ability is affected by attack modifiers except for critical hits. Switches to Offensive Stance. If cast from Virtuose Stance, additionally applies a stun. Damage pierces debuff-immunity, but dispel does not.

CAST RANGE 700/750/800/850

BASE DAMAGE 125/200/275/300

BONUS DMG% PER BUFF 10%

VIRTUOSE STUN 1.0/1.5/2.0

Aghanim's Shard

Upgrades Percée

Virtuose Stun pierces debuff immunity.

100/105/110/115

BASIC

RAIN OF FIRE

TYPE active

DAMAGE magical

TARGET MODE area

Maelle summons fiery chromatic daggers that rain upon an area, dealing initial impact damage and as well as burn damage to enemies. If Rain of Fire is cast in Offensive Stance, it additionally burns their armor every second. If cast in Defensive Stance, it reduces the affected enemies' outgoing damage as well as reduce vision for a short duration. Changes to either Offensive or Defensive Stance if currently in either stance, but reverts to Stanceless if cast in Virtuose Stance.

CAST RANGE 600

IMPACT DAMAGE 100/125/150/175

BURN DPS 20/30/40/50

BURN DURATION 3

--- ---

ARMOR REDUC PER SEC 2/3/4

ARMOR REDUC DURATION 5

--- ---

DMG REDUCTION 20%/25%/30%/35%

VISION LOSS 25%

DMG/VISION DURATION 5

120/130/140/150

14/13/12/11

BASIC

GUARD UP

TYPE active

DAMAGE physical

TARGET MODE unit

Maelle strikes an enemy unit, forcefully knocking them back, dealing damage, and slowing them for a brief duration. Maelle also leaps back a short distance. This ability is affected by attack modifiers except for critical hits. Switches to Defensive Stance. If cast from Virtuose Stance, restores 135/235/335 HP. Damage pierces debuff-immunity, but slow does not.

CAST RANGE 300

KNOCK/LEAP DISTANCE 200/250/300/350

DAMAGE 125/165/205/245

SLOW 20%

SLOW DURATION 1.0/1.4/1.8/2.2

VIRTUOSE HEAL 135/235/335

Aghanim's Shard

Upgrades Guard Up

Virtuose Heal restores an additional 10% of Max HP.

80/85/90/95

18/16/14/12

BASIC

PHANTOM STRIKE

TYPE active

DAMAGE physical

TARGET MODE area

Maelle awakens her Paintress powers, enveloping her rapier with Chroma, and slashes an area multiple times. All enemies are dealt damage equal to 100% of her attack damage per strike and is affected by attack modifiers including critical hits. Additionally, after the first strike, the area is enveloped with Chroma that stuns all enemies caught in the area. The chroma lasts for 0.5s after the last strike. Chroma Stun pierces debuff-immunity if cast in Virtuose Stance. Switches to Virtuoso Stance if it hits at least one enemy hero. If Phantom Strike is cast in Virtuoso Stance, one slash is counted as one instance of damage.

CAST RANGE 300

AREA OF EFFECT 600/650/700

STRIKE COUNT 2/3/4

CHROMA LINGER DURATION 0.5

125/145/165

60/55/50

BASIC

SWORD BALLET

TYPE passive

DAMAGE none

TARGET MODE none

Maelle's Innate Ability; gains first level and scales with Phantom Strike: Maelle can enter different stances after casting her abilities. Each stance gives her different bonus effects and last a short duration. Stanceless: No effect. Stanceless is Maelle's base stance. Stanceless is entered when the current stance duration ends, or if Maelle attempts to enter the same stance she is currently in. Defensive Stance: Gains 15%/25%/35% Damage Reduction but has her movement speed reduced by 12%. Offensive Stance: Gains 20%/40%/60% damage output and damage received. Applies to items. Virtuose Stance: Gains 100%/175%/250% outgoing damage for 1 instance of damage. Does not apply to items. Reverts to Stanceless after all instances are expended. Virtuose Stance also grants bonus effects to other abilities. Stances cannot be dispelled, however, they are temporarily disabled if affected by Break.

STANCE DURATION 6/7/8

Aghanim's Scepter

Upgrades Sword Ballet

Stances no longer have durations, and gains a sub-ability to manually revert to Stanceless. Virtuose Stance damage instance is increased by 2.

Aghanim's Shard

Upgrades Sword Ballet

Grants new ability: Last Chance Maelle reduces her health to 10% of her Max HP and refills her mana. Changes into Virtuose Stance. Can't be cast if her health is below 10% of her Max HP. Mana Cost: N/A Cooldown: 30

BASIC

FACETS

TYPE passive

DAMAGE none

TARGET MODE none

FLEURET - Guard up can be ground targeted, allowing Maelle to perform only the leap back. PAYBACK - Offensive Stance grants Maelle 12% lifesteal for her attacks and abilities. BREAKING RULES - Percée additionally graints Maelle the buffs that were dispelled. All buffs last only 3.5 seconds.

ADVANCED

AVAILABLE FROM LEVEL

ABILITY MAX LEVEL

This ability has no targets

SPECIFIED RULES

blocked by Linken's Sphere: YES

goes on CD when cast interrupted: YES

ADVANCED

AVAILABLE FROM LEVEL

ABILITY MAX LEVEL

This ability has no targets

SPECIFIED RULES

castable when leashed: YES

goes on CD when cast interrupted: YES

ADVANCED

AVAILABLE FROM LEVEL

ABILITY MAX LEVEL

This ability has no targets

SPECIFIED RULES

goes on CD when cast interrupted: YES

ADVANCED

AVAILABLE FROM LEVEL

ABILITY MAX LEVEL

ULTIMATE ABILITY

This ability has no targets

SPECIFIED RULES

castable when leashed: YES

ADVANCED

AVAILABLE FROM LEVEL

ABILITY MAX LEVEL

This ability has no targets

SPECIFIED RULES

is breakable: YES

ADVANCED

AVAILABLE FROM LEVEL

ABILITY MAX LEVEL

This ability has no targets

SPECIFIED RULES

castable when leashed: YES

blocked by Linken's Sphere: YES

is breakable: YES

goes on CD when cast interrupted: YES

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HERO´S MODIFIERS

MODIFIERS THAT ALTER THE GAMEPLAY OF THE HERO

•

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AGHANIM'S SCEPTER

Stances no longer have durations, and gains a sub-ability to manually revert to Stanceless. Virtuose Stance damage instance is increased by 2.

Upgrades Sword Ballet

AGHANIM'S SHARD

Virtuose Stun pierces debuff immunity.

Upgrades Percée

Talent Tree

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+1 Phantom Strike Attack Count

No notes

+1.5s Chroma Linger Duration

No notes

+20% Offensive Stance Damage Output/Received

No notes

+10% Defensive Stance Damage Reduc; no longer slows Maelle

No notes

+10% Percee damage per buff dispelled

No notes

Guard Up affects enemies in a 350 AoE (Knocks all affected back)

No notes

Rain of Fire +2 Burn Duration

No notes

Rain of Fire +2 Effect Duration

No notes

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VOICE LINES

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ITEM & SKILL BUILDS

Optimized item & skill guides for MAELLE, THE PAINTRESS.

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IDEA DESCRIPTION

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ART & GALLERY

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

SOMEONE WONDERFUL MADE THIS WONDERFUL IDEA

Old Friend - Migrated from DotaIdeas v3

Limitless Libid...

Last seen a long time ago Member since Oct 2023

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ABOUT THE IDEA

INFORMATION ABOUT THIS POST

03 Aug 2025

Created 4 months ago

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COMMENTS

SAY YOUR THOUGHTS

frenky commented 3 months ago

Very clever concept. I like how it synergizes with itself as a whole and her stances also have drawbacks for being as powerful as they are. Only thing I would point out is more information like Q rush speed, R stun duration, etc.

Limitless Libido replied 3 months ago

Thanks! Q is basically just Riki blink, while the first slash of R creates something like Chronosphere, and lasts 0.5s until the last slash

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