What This Build Does
This is the entity:stendhal One-Shot. entity:medalum as the weapon, entity:painted-power as the Lumina, a single Virtuose Stance hit that absorbs the entire buff stack into one number. At Act 3 scaling with Agility 99 / Defense 81 and the full picto/lumina stack, one Stendhal cast reaches billion-damage territory. No other build produces the same ceiling on a single action.
Run this build in Act 3 endgame content where Painted Power has unlocked. Run it in boss fights where you need to delete a single target in one turn. Do not run it in Act 1 before Medalum drops; the Virtuose opener is the build, and without Medalum's level 20 passive you are setting up Virtuose manually for 1-2 turns every fight. Do not run it on a session where your parries are cold. Stendhal applies Defenseless to entity:maelle herself, so a missed parry after the cast cuts her down fast.
Core Loadout
Character: Maelle.
Weapon: Medalum. Rapier, Physical element, A grade in Agility, S grade in Defense. The level 20 passive starts every battle in Virtuose Stance. That single passive is the whole reason this build exists. Maelle's stance system normally costs 1-2 turns of setup to reach Virtuose; Medalum skips that. Opening turn is always the Virtuose turn.
Pictos (all three slots):
- entity:augmented-first-strike for the bonus damage on the first action of a fight. Stendhal opening in Virtuose is the definition of a first action.
- Glass Canon for a flat damage increase at the cost of survivability. The whole build already commits to "delete the target before it acts," so the survivability loss is already paid for.
- entity:critical-burn so every crit hit applies a Burn stack, turning the opening Stendhal into a burning-target setup for the next rotation.
- entity:immaculate for damage while at full health. The opener is always at full health.
- entity:inverted-affinity for element conversion flexibility on Stendhal's Void damage through weapon passives.
Luminas (5 slots):
- Painted Power is mandatory. This is the single most important Lumina in the game. Without it, Stendhal caps at 9999 and the whole build collapses to mid-tier.
- entity:burning-shots boosts damage on burning targets. Pair with Critical Burn for the self-sustaining burn loop.
- entity:empowering-attack adds a flat multiplier on basic attacks and skill damage.
- Critical Burn as a Lumina on top of the picto form doubles down on the burn-application per crit.
- entity:rewarding-mark for the bonus damage on Marked targets. Pair with a teammate who applies Mark.
Each slot earns its place. Painted Power lifts the cap; Augmented entity:first-strike and Immaculate load the multiplier stack; Critical Burn feeds Burning Shots; Rewarding Mark caps the stack with the marked condition. Glass Canon is the flat damage sugar on top. Every multiplier compresses into one Stendhal hit.
Attribute Curve
Per game8's tracked curve:
| Phase | Level | Attributes |
|---|---|---|
| Act 1 | 15 | Luck 25, Might 15 |
| Act 2 | 30 | Agility 45, Defense 35 |
| Act 3 | 60 | Agility 99, Defense 81 |
Act 1 runs Luck and Might because pre-Medalum, the Burn Stack path on entity:brulerum is the strongest Maelle option and Brulerum scales S in Luck. Once Medalum hits level 20 in Act 2, the curve pivots to its A Agility / S Defense grades. The S grade is the better return per point, so Defense maxes at 81 while Agility sits at 99. Agility runs higher because it raises Speed (more turns) and backs up parry.
This curve is specific to Medalum. Switch to entity:tissenum, entity:glaisum, or any other Maelle weapon and rebuild around that weapon's scaling letters.
Stance Rotation
The rotation changes based on whether the target is already burning.
Cold opener (target not burning): Turn 1 entity:spark or entity:pyrolyse to apply Burn. Spark is the Act 1 default because it generates bonus Burn stacks in Offensive and Virtuose stance. Turn 2 entity:swift-stride into Virtuose on the burning target, then Stendhal on the marked target in the same turn.
Warm opener (teammate already applied Burn): Turn 1 Swift Stride into Virtuose, Stendhal on the marked target same turn.
Medalum opener (level 20 passive active): Turn 1 already in Virtuose from battle start. Stendhal immediately if the target is burning and marked.
The Medalum opener is the reason Lune and entity:sciel are the party picks. Lune primes Burn on turn 1 so Maelle skips the Spark setup; Sciel primes Mark through Foretell. When the party sets up correctly, Stendhal fires on turn 1 in Virtuose with Burn and Mark already on the target. That is the billion-damage shot.
Between Stendhal casts, use entity:breaking-rules to generate AP off enemy shields, basic attack in Stanceless to recover AP, and entity:last-chance as emergency stance recovery.
Why Painted Power Matters
This is the breakpoint the whole build hinges on.
Pre-Painted Power: every hit caps at 9999. A 5-hit skill that pins each hit to the cap deals 49,995 total. A single-hit Stendhal deals 9999. Stendhal is strictly worse than any multi-hit skill on the same AP cost.
Post-Painted Power: cap removed. Virtuose Stance (3x), Augmented First Strike, Critical Burn proc, entity:powerful-gustave buff from teammates, weapon Power, Agility/Defense scaling, and Rewarding Mark all compress into one number. Every multiplier in a multi-hit skill splits across hits; in Stendhal, they all land on one. Damage escapes the 9999 ceiling and climbs into the six-figure to billion range depending on stack depth.
The numeric difference is invisible until Painted Power activates because both outputs read as 9999 on the damage screen. The moment the cap lifts, Stendhal overtakes every multi-hit alternative. This is why late-game Maelle guides treat Painted Power as mandatory.
Party Fit
Lune for Burn priming. Her Fire skills (entity:ice-lance, entity:immolation, entity:fire-rage) apply Burn on turn 1 so Maelle can open with Swift Stride directly into Virtuose on turn 1. Without Lune, Maelle eats a setup turn for Spark or Pyrolyse. Lune also brings AOE for trash waves that Maelle's single-target kit ignores.
Sciel for entity:all-set. The signature Sciel support skill applies Shell, Rush, and Powerful to the entire party in one cast. Powerful is a damage multiplier that stacks with the Stendhal multiplier tower. Sciel also builds Twilight State for her own burst window, which lines up with Maelle's second Stendhal cast two turns later.
The composition is called the entity:stain-pressure-core in community guides: Maelle as the one-shot anchor, Lune as the Burn and AOE layer, Sciel as the buff engine. It is the strongest Act 2-3 default party because every character's core rotation feeds into every other character's core rotation.
Tradeoffs
Stendhal applies Defenseless to the caster. After the cast, Maelle takes extra damage. If an enemy moves before the team can re-shield her, she takes the hit and drops fast. Parry uptime covers the gap; entity:second-chance as a Lumina covers it when parries miss. Second Chance is the standard insurance pick on this build for exactly that reason.
Single-target only. Stendhal hits one enemy. Against trash waves, the build reduces to basic attacks and Breaking Rules while the party handles the adds. Lune's entity:elemental-genesis or Fire Rage fills the AOE gap.
Needs a burn priming turn without Lune. Solo or duo parties without Lune eat a turn on Spark or Pyrolyse before the Stendhal opener. That delay is the difference between a 2-turn boss kill and a 4-turn boss kill.
High LP cost stack. Painted Power, Empowering Attack, and Critical Burn together consume a big slice of Maelle's Lumina Point budget. Expect to run Color of Lumina farming before the build slots fit.
Party Optimizer Preset
Preset parameters for the Party Optimizer tool:
- Base skill damage: leave as user input per wiki guidance; source Stendhal damage values are not published
- Painted Power: on
- Stance: Virtuose
- Crit: yes
- Slot 1: Maelle as the anchor
- Slot 2: Lune for Burn priming
- Slot 3: Sciel for All Set
Toggle Painted Power off to see the pre-Painted Power output and compare against a multi-hit build like Burn Stack. The output gap is the decision point on whether to keep farming Painted Power or respec into Burn Stack for the current stretch of content.