Fire Emblem Engage: Best Hortensia Builds

Throughout the Fire Emblem series, there have been many attempts by the developers to let healers do more. Typically, healers begin in a class restricted to healing staves, then can eventually branch out with their promoted class. Usually, this promotion involves unlocking tomes and in a few cases axes, swords, and lances. Fire Emblem: Engage takes yet another approach to healers with the Martial Monk class, but even those outside the new class bring something new to the table.

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Hortensia utilizes the typical combo of staves and tomes but brings her personal skill and class skill to shake things up. Joining your team in Chapter 14, Hortensia is the healing-focused counterpart to her sister Ivy. As one of the later recruits, the Second Princess of Elusia needs to bring something unique to compete with your established team members, so here’s why you should consider her for the spot.

Growth Rates

Hortensia’s stats are strange. Her stellar Resistance is somewhat negated by the lowest HP growth in the game, and her amazing Speed is forced to utilize her merely average Magic. Nonetheless, Hortensia’s unique attributes make her worth using regardless of the strange stat distribution. As she will focus on healing, her Speed and Magic are more than enough to dispatch the occasional low Resistance target, and her bulk, while shaky, is more than enough to survive most mages thanks to her high Speed. Finally, while her Dexterity is nothing chart-topping, it is more than enough to make use of her personal class skill.

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Best Classes

Like many of the royalty in Engage, Hortensia’s personal class is powerful enough for her to not consider other classes. Sleipnir Rider’s class skill is World Tree, a skill that allows the user to occasionally not consume a durability point upon the use of a staff. Combined with her personal skill Big Personality, which provides a +1 range when using staves, this makes Hortensia the ideal candidate for all types of staves.

Furthermore, Sleipnir Rider gives Hortensia an S proficiency in staves, giving her access to staves unavailable to any other mounted class. All of these attributes combine to create an extremely versatile unit with access to unparalleled utility options, all while darting in and out with 6 Movement and access to flier-only terrain.

Best Weapons

While Hortensia is stuck with a laughably low 5 build, she will rarely feel any downsides from this. Since staves do not have a weight stat, and her attacking targets will primarily consist of low-Speed armors, she can make use of her incredible Speed stat without worry. Other than a Fire or Wind Tome for offense, Hortensia will want to fill her inventory with whichever staves best suit your strategy and situation.

If you enjoy playing aggressively, a Rescue Staff will allow her to pull your unit back to safety. If you prefer to take it slow, an Obstruct Staff can block off foes’ movement for a turn. By the time you recruit Hortensia, you will have access to plenty of such utility staves, so take the chance to experiment with strategies and find the best use, alongside healing, of Hortensia in your team composition.

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Best Emblem Rings

When discussing the power of healing and staves, the most important ring to mention is Micaiah. Not only does she provide access to the Staff Mastery and Healing Light skills, but her engage buffs also help to create the most powerful healer the Fire Emblem series has ever seen. When engaged with Micaiah, Hortensia has a +6 range and +1 AOE on staves. This makes Fortify heal every ally within 11 spaces, Physic becomes an AOE 11 range heal, and so on.

The AOE even applies to staves like Obstruct, creating 5 spaces of ice instead of the usual 1. As if all that isn’t enough, Micaiah’s engage skill, Great Sacrifice, fully heals all allies on the map in exchange for bringing the user to 1 HP. Since Hortensia already has a low hp stat, she will be able to quickly heal herself through Healing Light. If you are already using Micaiah on another unit, Hortensia can make great use of Byleth or Corrin’s support skills, but you should prioritize using Micaiah.

Best Skills

Hortensia will want to prioritize support and safety when choosing her skills, and as she joins over halfway through the game, budget skills are appreciated. Quality Time allows for passive healing without using staff durability, and Reposition lets her keep her allies safe. Canter is especially useful on a unit as frail as Hortensia, letting her dart in and out of enemies’ threat range without fear.

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