Fire Emblem Engage has a lot of different classes. While the game returns to the traditional Fire Emblem formula of Basic and Advanced Classes (unlike the previous title, Three House), it is still home to almost 50 different classes. From sword-wielders to bow-slingers and magic casters to adept healers, there’s plenty to learn and lots to use in Engage’s frenetic tactical combat.
However, with limited space in your team for each battle, there’s only room for two types of party members: your favourites and the best. Which begs the question of what are the best classes in Fire Emblem Engage?
Well, here are the top 10 best classes in the game. Whether they are the best in their field at dealing damage, have incredible versatility and movement or can provide some other unique benefit, you cannot go wrong with having the following classes in your line-up.
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Sniper
We will begin our list with a basic, but very strong pick in Sniper. There are a few variants of Sniper (including Fogado’s Cupido and Alcrysts’s Tiereur D’Elite) which have their strengths and weaknesses, but the base of each largely remains the same, strengths and weaknesses included. To get any of these classes, you need to hit level 10 with either Archer, Sentinel or Lord.
As the name implies, Snipers are long-ranged fighters who use Bows to take down distant foes. While they likely won’t wow like Berserkers, or leave you in awe like Thieves, Snipers are incredibly strong and important figures in your army. In most situations, they provide a safe way to either clean up or prepare an opponent for another unit, not to mention their effectiveness against pesky Flying foes. They can deal very high damage and can shred through a lot of targets with ease: that strength does come at a cost, though, as they are very weak, often dying in a round if you don’t position them correctly.
The choice of which Sniper to choose largely depends on personal preference. The normal Sniper class is a consistently strong option, especially with the skill No Distractions encouraging you to pair the Sniper with another ally. Cupido is a bit more self-motivated thanks to being a Calvary unit, with the additional movement (and the skill Back at You) promoting a lone-wolf playstyle. Lastly, Tiereur D’Elite is likely the strongest singular option, with the highest potential damage output and the ability to negate enemy Defence.
Which class you decide to put in your team will likely depend on your other party members. However, the baseline is that any of the three Advanced Archer classes is a great boon for you and your team, and you should certainly have at least one in every fight.
Sniper Class
Wolf Knight
Wolf Knights are one of the new classes introduced in Fire Emblem Engage and they take the already perfect Thief and dare to present it with even more movement. To become a Wolf Knight, you need level 10 in one of the Cavalier classes as well as proficiency in daggers. Merrin is the first character you meet in this class natively, but it can become an option for other characters, too.
The main idea behind the Wolf Knight is to take the base of Thief (high Avoid paired with high Speed) and give it some additional legs – 4 more, in this case. Instead of a Covert unit, Wolf Knights are Cavalry units, giving them wider range and movement. Paired with their high damage and assassination potential, they make great units for disrupting your foes, sneaking behind the backline and picking enemies off one by one.
Another handy benefit of taking the base of Thief is that they won’t be taking a lot of hits thanks to their high Avoid. When paired with Emblem Skills like Alacrity, this allows Wolf Knights to kill most enemies before they can get off a counterattack, while also dodging the vast majority of their enemy’s initiated attacks. The downside to this is that they’re generally a bit weaker than most units (even Thieves) and will go down easily if you aren’t careful.
Wolf Knight
High Priest
High Priest serves as a great middle-ground between healer and mage, supplying great damage potential with the ability to support their allies. You need proficiency in magic, staves and arts, as well as level 10 in Martial Monk to become a High Priest. Pandreo is the character you will first find this class on.
Magic is one of the strongest things in Fire Emblem Engage. It has spells of raw strength like Elfire, spells that have a massive range like Elthunder, and versatility against Flying units or close-range units: units who use magic are some of the most adaptable in the game. What the High Priest does is take that malleability and pair it with the ability to aid your allies via healing. This makes the High Priest a strong sword (and shield) for your army, capable of dispatching some of the strongest foes while keeping everyone else alive and in the fight.
Another benefit over some of the other healer classes like Martial Monk is that High Priest doesn’t have to worry about continually keeping their own HP gauge up: Chain Guard is a great skill (and would’ve made Martial Monk better in most scenarios) if it didn’t have the arbitrary limitation of needing full HP. In contrast, the High Priests can focus on dealing damage or healing without needing to concern themselves with not being able to perform their key duty. To add insult to injury, High Priests can even heal themselves using the class skill, Self-Healing, giving them the edge in terms of survivability.
On their own, High Priests are already a slot on your team thanks to the utility they provide. However, when compared with other healing options (excluding one that we will discuss later), the choice becomes even more evident.
High Priest
Divine Dragon
While this may seem a bit redundant, the Divine Dragon class is good enough to place on this list. This is an Advanced version of the Dragon Child class, which is exclusive to the player character Alear. Getting Divine Dragon should honestly be one of your main priorities when you first gain access to Master Seals, as Alear is the only character who will always be in your team.
Divine Dragon has well-rounded stats, with a particular focus on Speed and Avoid. In many ways, they can be seen as similar to the Thief class – high damage potential, negates most damage through dodging attacks rather than tanking them, high chance to land Critical hits – with the distinction that Divine Dragon is more of a frontline fighter. This has positive and negative effects on the class, but it doesn’t diminish its strength.
Swords are some of the most versatile weapons, including things like the Armourslayer, the Levin Sword and the Wyrmslayer, giving the Divine Dragon a ton of options for dealing with foes. This isn’t even to mention the Liberation, Alear’s unique blade. All of these weapons deal very nice damage and make it so that Alear is never without the tools to effectively beat his enemies.
Another focus of the Divine Dragon class is how it interacts with Emblems. The level 5 skill, Divine Spirit, shortens the Engage Meter by one step, allowing Alear to make use of his Emblem Ring far more often than most other classes. Depending on who you choose to pair them with – whether it be Lyn for bonus Speed, Lucina for the ability to take part in chain attacks or Sigurd for extra movement – Alear can make the most out of the Emblem’s power.
The Divine Dragon
Swordmaster
Swordmaster is a top-tier option for those who want a competent, powerful frontline sword user without having to rely on Alear. This is an Advanced Class requiring level 10 in Sword Fighter. You first encounter this class on Kagetsu, but it is very potent on other characters like Lapis.
The Swordmaster class excels in one main area: getting Critical Hits. They have very high native Dexterity which, when paired with their already high Hit stat, makes getting that high damage more consistent. Swordmasters also boast very high Speed, allowing them to almost always guarantee a counter-attack when they are attacked. This high damage potential negates their somewhat lower Strength and Physical Attack stats (when compared to other frontline units like Berserker, anyway) by just letting them hit big and hit often.
You could think of them as a lamens Divine Dragon, using the same basic structure and stat spread as Alear’s exclusive class, but having it available on more characters. Another massive benefit Swordmasters have over their Divine counterpart is their class identity as Backup units – characters who can initiate chain attacks – which make them far more viable in a variety of situations. Paired with the class skill, Run Through, which can be used to quickly reposition, Swordmasters are one of the best fighters to pair alongside Berserkers, Generals and other such fighters.
Swordmaster Class
Sleipnir Rider
We begin the top 5 with potentially the best healing class in the entire game: the Sleipnir Rider. Like many classes belonging to the royalty of Fire Emblem Engage, Sleipnir Rider is a class exclusive to the Elusian Princess Hortensia and serves as a sort of hybrid class between a Pegasus Knight and a High Priest.
As a Flying unit, Hortensia can navigate the map with ease and speed, a great boon for a healer who needs to get to their wounded allies wherever they are. This is a big limitation of the High Priest or Martial Monk classes that aren’t found on the Sleipnir Rider: once you pick a direction, you can’t stray from that path because of a lack of movement. You can also use this Flying status to reach hard-to-reach areas in between the maps, allowing Hortensia to heal without being in immediate danger (most of the time).
This bonus movement also allows Hortensia to act as a Cavalry Mage. Elthunder and Thorion are great picks because of their long range and high damage potential, something Sleipnir Rider can exploit using the Flying capabilities previously described. She can not only keep herself alive and keep others alive, but she can also defend herself using some of the strongest single-target damage in the game.
Princess of Elusia
What makes Sleipnir Rider such as great healing class, in particular, is not only the movement and the ability to keep herself alive but the unique class skill. Once you reach level 5 Sleipnir Rider unlocks World Tree, which gives a % chance (based on Hortensia’s Dexterity stat) to not consume a Staff charge upon use. Paired with Hortensia’s personal skill, Big Personality, this is a perfect combo for any healer: not only can she heal practically anyone on the map thanks to her Flying movement speed and extra range on staffs thanks to her personal skill, there’s a high chance that she won’t even have to use a charge, allowing you keep healing and keep fighting for longer. This is especially potent when paired with Physic which, while powerful, is a very expensive healing staff.
Overall, the Sleipnir Rider is the best of both worlds. Hortensia can heal for very high numbers without needing to get into the thick of combat thanks to numerous factors. She can also effectively defend herself and her allies using magic, and she pairs well with a large number of Emblems including Byleth, Miciah and even Corrin. Sleipnir Rider manages to sidestep many of the issues plaguing most Fire Emblem healers, landing it a spot in the top 5 best classes.
Sleipnir Rider
Dancer
Dancer was previously a baseline class in other Fire Emblem titles, but in Engage it can exclusively be found on Seadall. Perhaps that is for good reason, too, as Dancer has once again emerged as one of the strongest classes in the entire game.
Simply put, Dancer is so powerful because of a single ability. Sure, the Arts focus (usually only found on Martial Master) does give Seadall the ability to Break colourless foes and yes, he works fairly well as an impromptu healer thanks to the personal skill Curious Dance. But what Dancer is known and celebrated for is the Dance mechanic.
Elegant Dancer
The only other way, in the entire game, to give a unit another turn is through Byleth’s Goddess Dance Engage Skill – the most powerful ability an Emblem can use. While regular Dance isn’t as strong as the Goddess Dance (which has the potential to give up to 4 units another turn, as opposed to a single unit), normal Dance can be used every single turn. Pairing Seadall with other strong classes makes certain parts of this game laughably easy: you can deal a heavy, killing blow on one enemy and then just repeat the process again immediately. Or you can use that extra turn to get into a better position or heal using an Elixir or…
The list goes on for a while because there are a ton of moments in the game where you just think – ‘If only I had another turn’. Seadall and the Dancer class may be simple, and pretty weak in terms of raw stats and combat potential, but Dance is good enough of an ability to justify Seadall’s permanent place on your team. Every single character in the game benefits from Dance, without exception, making Dancer one of the best classes in all of Fire Emblem Engage.
Learn the Dance Steps
Griffin Knight
Next up is the Griffin Knight which is potentially the strongest and most versatile Cavalry class in the whole game. Griffin Knight is an Advanced Class that asks for level 10 in any of the Flier classes, as well as proficiency with staves.
Think of Griffin Knight as a super-powered version of the Pegasus Flier class, focused more on frontline offence and survivability than the Wyvern Knights. With a high base Avoid, Speed and Dexterity stat, Griffin Knights excel at getting up close and personal with nearly any opponent on the map. Their status as Flying units gives them enhanced movement and the ability to cross the threshold far easier than most other frontline fighters. I would personally highlight the Lance variant of the Griffin Knight, which is perfect for characters like Chloe. Lances already have pretty high Avoid rates, making them a great fit for the hit-and-run style gameplay of the Griffin Knight.
Swooping In
However, Griffin Knights also are adept in another area: assassination. Thanks to their high movement and the ability to dodge most attacks, they can quickly get behind the backline of the enemy forces and begin to dismantle them with ease. You can use them to take out key targets that may become troublesome when they reach the main force, or rush towards the map boss for a quick kill to end the fight.
Of course, with any Flying unit, you need to be wary of ranged attacks and Archers. Griffin Knights are pretty good at dodging attacks, but Archers and Dagger-wielders are where you’ll see the most pushback. Despite that, though, Griffin Knights can exist and thrive in nearly every aspect of the battlefield: it’s this versatility and the way that Griffin Knights can exist in both the thick of combat and the shadows that makes them a great option for any team.
Griffin Knight
Berserker
If you want to take a lot of damage and deal even more back, the Berserker class is in a league of its own in terms of raw damage and tanking potential. Berserker is an Advanced Class which requires proficiency in Axes and level 10 in the Axe Fighter class to unlock. This makes it a great pick for Anna, but you’re more likely to see it (and use it) on Panette.
Berserker is just an incredible class for frontline fighters. With the potential to have the highest Strength and HP in the game (especially if you know which Emblems to pair them with), Berserkers can cleave through most opponents with ease. Whether Armoured, Flying, magic or even just high-health bosses like the Hounds, a good Berserker can easily dish out enough damage to kill in a single hit. Not only that, but they can also effectively take the damage they receive back in most circumstances without much problem.
Frontline Berserker
Another great part of Berserkers is how nicely they slot with most of the Emblems in the game. Want more damage potential and the ability to stay in the fight for longer? Choice Ike. Want more Speed and the ability to close in on counterattacks? Choose Lyn. Higher critical rate? Lucina. There’s a myriad of options and choices that benefit almost every part of the Berserker, whether it be damage, survivability or a mix of both.
Overall, Berserk is one of those classes where, once you finally put one on your team, you’ll be wondering why you didn’t use one earlier. They are powerful and tough and can clear practically any obstacle in your way while serving as great fodder for enemy units. Whether attacking or tanking, Berserkers deserve a spot in your party.
Massive Damage
Thief
At the top of the food chain (and the top of this list) is the Thief Class for Fire Emblem Engage. This is a Special Class like Dancer, but unlike that class, it can be used by anyone with proficiency in Daggers. However, most players will simply gravitate towards the Thief units you receive and leave at that – Yunaka or Zelkov – because… well, they’re all you need.
Thief strikes that perfect line between being an absurd damage dealer and having great defence because you likely won’t be getting hit a whole lot. Thieves have one of the highest Avoid stats in the game, paired with high Speed and high Dexterity to make Critical Hits and counterattacks far more frequent. This ensures that you can dish out a ton of damage while never truly taking any, especially if you play around terrain which aids in boosting Avoid (something that becomes even better with Yunaka’s Trained to Kill personal skill).
Sneaky Thieves
Like with many of the game’s best units, Thieves can take great advantage of many different Emblem Rings to enhance their abilities. Lucina’s can add even further to their already good Dexterity, Lyn provides them with more opportunities to obtain additional Speed, but it is Corrin that pairs best with most. The Dragon Vein skill gives Thieves an instant +20 Avoid whenever they need it, whether it be in preparation for an enemy attack or to defend their allies, perfectly synergising with the Covert unit type. Draconic Hex also pairs great with the poison effect from Daggers.
If built correctly, Thieves can overtake practically any unit in your team. They have high survivability, high damage output, and the ability to counterattack almost every single engagement with decent movement and set-up potential. There’s almost nothing bad about a Thief, which should secure them a permanent spot in your team and a place at the top of this list.
Perfect Synergy
Those were the top 10 best classes in Fire Emblem Engage. If you have any other suggestions or thoughts on the best classes in the game, be sure to comment down below.
