Melia/Gameplay (XC1)

Melia is the fifth party member in Xenoblade Chronicles (or sixth, depending on whether her temporary status counts) and a starting character in Future Connected. She is a mix of an attacker and a stat support; her main arts summon elementals that buff nearby allies, which can then be discharged at enemies to deal high . Her playstyle is very unorthodox: she uses her to build her talent gauge, which when full, provides temporary doubled damage and access to extra-powerful debuffing arts. Her main issues are that outside ether she has the worst stats in the party across the board, and her complex playstyle means that the AI is notoriously poor at managing her.
==Stats==
On joining the party, the Crest Cap cannot be removed (and in DE, her head appearance cannot be altered). During the events of the High Entia Tomb, it is replaced with the . Afterward, Melia's head is uncovered, and her head equipment slot is unlocked.
In Future Connected, Melia immediately starts at level 60 and has different default equipment:
Weapon	
Head 	
Torso 	
Arms 	
Legs 	
Feet 	
==Arts==
 	Talent art 	Fires the most recently-summoned elemental at the enemy.
Electric Discharge	Discharge art	Deals one hit of high electric damage.
Fire Discharge 	Discharge art	Burns enemies in a range around point of impact.
Water Discharge 	Discharge art	Absorbs a small amount of HP form the enemy.
Wind Discharge 	Discharge art	Damages enemies in a range around the target.
Earth Discharge 	Discharge art	Inflicts Poison.
Ice Discharge 	Discharge art	Inflicts Chill. Hits in a range around Melia, instead of being fired at the enemy.
 	 	
Summon Bolt 	Support art 	Buffs ether of surrounding party members.
Summon Flare 	Support art 	Buffs strength of surrounding party members.
Summon Aqua 	Support art 	Buffs regeneration of surrounding party members.
Summon Wind 	Support art 	Buffs agility of surrounding party members.
Summon Earth 	Support art 	Buffs physical defence of surrounding party members.
Summon Ice 	Support art 	Buffs ether defence of surrounding party members.
Summon Copy 	Support art 	Copies the effect of the last summon art used.
 	 	
Spear Break 	Physical art 	Inflicts Slow.
Hypnotise 	Ether art 	Puts the enemy to sleep.
Burst End 	Ether art 	Reduces defenses of surrounding enemies. Burst art.
 	Ether art 	Inflicts Bind.
Healing Gift 	Support art 	Donates HP to an ally.
 	Topple art 	If in a combo with Spear Break, forces topple.
 	Support art 	Reflects non-talent art attacks.
 	Aura art 	Doubles the range of elemental passive buffs.
Mind Blast 	Ether art 	Deals high damage and wipes out enemy auras. Burst art.
===Element Burst===
Melia's talent gauge represents her progress towards building her Element Burst (, Element Burst), an that activates automatically when she reaches 100%. Melia gains 10% talent gauge for each elemental discharged, with an extra 5% (for a total of 15%) if a different elemental was discharged in the last 5 seconds.
While the burst aura is active, discharged elementals deal double damage, and her burst arts (Burst End and Mind Blast) are available to use. However, each discharge carries a chance of ending the aura and resetting her talent gauge back to zero. This chance depends on her current .
Burst aura maintain rates
Tension 	Chance of burst aura continuing
Very high	90%
High 	75%
Normal 	60%
Low 	50%
Very low 	0%
If Melia never discharges anything, the burst aura will be maintained indefinitely. This will greatly hamper her damage output but allow unrestricted use (cooldown permitting) of her burst arts.
Whenever the burst aura is deactivated (aside from its termination on discharge), Melia's talent gauge is reduced to 90%. This includes being d, being incapacitated, or the battle concluding.
===Strategy===
Melia's success hinges upon finding the correct balance between support and offence. To much support, and she just stands around contributing little; too much offence, and she takes the aggro and thus immediately dies.
* The choice of elementals to equip is an crucial one. Assuming Summon Copy is used, it is not necessary to have more than three elementals equipped, and very much overkill to have more than four. Melia's damage-over-time effects are her most powerful aspect, dealing far more damage than a simple bolt for a fraction of the aggro, but their high cooldowns require investment to use regularly. The buff aspect should not be ignored either, as proper usage of Melia means having at least one up at all times if only to ensure a decent chain attack.
* Having the element burst aura up as much as possible is important, as it lets Melia abuse aura-related gems and amplifies her damage output. Throwing out a bunch of weaker elementals can help build it up, but not help actually utilise it or maintain it. Talent Boost gems, or linking skills such as Glorious Future, Vital Force, and Explosion of Energy, can provide huge gains in this department (though the skills are expensive).
* The Starlight Kick combo is powerful for being a one-person topple that ignores break resistance, but takes up two art slots and requires Melia to be doing things that go against the rest of her playstyle, such as being in melee range and relying on physical attacks to land. It is useful, but not essential.
* Electric Plus gems boost both discharged bolts and Mind Blast, making Melia the second-best user of them.
* Back Atk Plus is an excellent gem for Melia to use, as when played correctly she will never have aggro and thus position at will.
==Skill trees==
===Skills===
===Skill links===
====Outgoing====
These are the skill shapes that Melia can use to link to other party members' skills.
====Incoming====
These are the skill shapes that other party members can use to link to Melia's skills.
==Gifting preferences==
Melia's likes include purple things, sour food, all sorts of flowers, and many animals. Her dislikes include green things, meaty and juicy food, and bugs/nature in general.
==Dialogue==
==Gallery==
===Tutorial===
XC1 Tutorial Battle Tactics Melia - 1.png|Page 1
XC1 Tutorial Battle Tactics Melia - 2.png|Page 2
XC1 Tutorial Battle Tactics Melia - 3.png|Page 3
XC1 Tutorial Battle Tactics Melia - 4.png|Page 4
XC1 Tutorial Fighting with Melia Alone - 1.png|Fighting with Melia Alone - page 1
===Tension icons===
====Original====
XC1 tension icon Melia normal.png|Normal tension
XC1 tension icon Melia high.png|High tension
XC1 tension icon Melia low.png|Low tension
====Definitive Edition====
XC1DE tension icon Melia normal.png|Normal tension
XC1DE tension icon Melia high.png|High tension
XC1DE tension icon Melia low.png|Low tension
====Future Connected====
XC1DE FC tension icon Melia normal.png|Normal tension
XC1DE FC tension icon Melia high.png|High tension
XC1DE FC tension icon Melia low.png|Low tension
Category:Party members (XC1)Category:Party members (FC)