Sol is better than Galeforce - Fire Emblem Awakening

The Fire Emblem Community has been sleeping on this skill for way too long. It's time for the comeback. Move aside Galeforce, the king has arrived.
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Mangs - / mangsandzerul
PheonixMaster1 - / pheonixmaster1
Shadowofchaos725 - / shadowofchaos725
Sagemaster15 - / sagemaster15
Shadowmario3 - / shadowmario3
HungryHungryHanbei - / hungryhungryhanbei
Raikohex - / blackfirehawkx
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Fire Emblem Awakening - Divine Decree Ablaze
Super Smash Bros Brawl - With Mila's Divine Protection
Fire Emblem Fates - Dusk Falls Ablaze

[@hylianfelldragon1308]

You know what else has the same effect as Sol except it has 1-2 range that always procs? The Nosferatu tome.

[@saintekweena795]

on Grima's back it doesn't work cause you need waste to kill Grima, (so Sol become pretty great to do it and still survive)

[@Pablo_Martin_aa]

@@saintekweena795 i learn the hard way on my ironman run, my dark mage prota could not deal sht

[@kjoeyb.]

Only problem is that only dark mages and sorcerers can use it

[@MayorofHopeville]

Having anything in common with Nosferatu is a good sign in the broken meter

[@hylianfelldragon1308]

@@MayorofHopeville Fair enough.

[@pr0xi_zura.]

Imagine using a skill slot to get health back on enemy phase - This message was brought to you by the nosferatu gang. (Vantage + Vengence + Nos Tank booyah!)

[@GensoBees]

The best skill in awakening is actually Lethality because it was really funny to see Lunatic Walhart run up to my Morgan, miss, then get one-shot by a hand axe with an over the top animation.

[@nightwish1453]

unfortunate how Lethality is basically useless in apotheosis since the enemies block the instant death

[@shadowofchaos725]

2:36 OMG that's my wife! It's kinda nice seeing random footage from me while listening to this video essay to support your points. It's a very unique and enjoyable experience being featured in a pretty well constructed video. In all seriousness, funnily enough I was just talking about this in a discord since picking up the game again. In Lunatic Classic no grind Sol is definitely more valuable than people give it credit for. Though Galeforce is a lot more valuable in aggressive playstyles that can facilitate hit and run... Lunatic Classic no grind is so enemy phase skewed it's insane how valuable Sol is.

[@flight_knight_]

U have great analysis of awakening. I don't really see much gameplay analysis from fe youtubers for this game

[@SuperZez]

The problem with Sol is that it's just an inferior version of a tome you get infinite access to in this game. Also, Lunatic+ actually inverts what you said the progression is. It starts out enemy-phase based when you dump all of your exp into Robin and maybe one more unit, and then becomes player phase based once Robin can't one-shot counter enemies anymore and you rely on Robin's children and Galeforce to kill as many counter enemies as possible before enemy phase.

[@kjoeyb.]

The only problem is that you must be a dark mage/sorcerer and if you are to do that you would need to get robin to level 10 tactician before you can reclass assuming you are trivializing with him and not grinding, which can be a bit hard and rng dependent. If infinite resources sure nos + vengeance + vantage is the best, but if you aren’t grinding side skirmishes (which I argue triviliazes lunatic more than robin) good luck getting that kind of skill combination in normal gameplay. For most people it is best strategy to just use chrom A/S robin with tactician-> grandmasterlevel10-> sorcerer. For most characters in the game, hero is a more accessible class than sorcerer (especially starting off/second sealing to myrmidom) as it’s accessible to all mercenary and fighter characters you get (vaike, gregor, donnel, inigo, and severa) compared to the more limited number of sorcerers (only tharja and Henry can promote into it without a second seal, which squashes gold especially if you aren’t using reeking boxes aka no grinding) So with grinding via risen spawns and reeking box, yes Without grinding, no sol still clears and you’ll use it far more

[@deskita]

I like the video and you're definitely right on how much of a struggle galeforce is to get. However I think that vantage is actually better, given that spotpass gives early access to brave weapons including the celica's gale through summoning Celica. Having a vantage - celica's gale mage is surprisingly easy to do and it mops up almost the entirety of the game, with the only weaknesses being longbows and mire tomes. The nice thing about vantage as well is that unlike sol it's guaranteed to activate as well meaning the player can always plan around it rather than having it activate when it's not needed e.g sol at full health and then dying due to lack of sol later.

[@Hiiyapow]

Having vantage on a mage is actually quite tricky. I don't see anyone other than robin really being able to get that. Celicas gale is also does not have infinite uses so it's going to break eventually. As well as that, vantage isn't quite as reliable as you are saying- you have to be at half hp for it to work which means that if you get killed from above half hp, it isn't going to work. This is actually pretty likely considering that mages outside of robin have pretty poor bulk.

[@nightwish1453]

@@Hiiyapow Laurent can inherit the skill of course it's dependant on the father, Lon'Qu is very easy to do and really only requires the S-support and then your done it's also notable that Laurent is one of the few children that can be easy to get, train up (so they can be usable for the remainder of the game) and also his paralogue is reasonable to beat unlike say Inigo where Olivia might not help him in a big way and the paralougue is a complete nightmare to beat without grind investment

[@Hiiyapow]

@@nightwish1453 So there are a couple of problems with the vantage laurent setup 1) You have to train lonqu to at least level 10, and deploy and pairup up lonqu and miriel enough so they get an S support. Fighting with this pair is not exactly optimal. It is very doable, but you do go very noticeably out of your way in lunatic. It's probably a little easier in hard. 2) Laurent's paralogue isn't too hard enemy wise, but the enemies also aren't just going to roll over and die to everyone you have. Routing the map isn't too tricky, but if you want to get to the villages and get the secret reward this map has to offer, then you may want to save it for later. 3) Lonqu inherits stats from his parents. This means that if you just got Miriel and Lonqu to the levels they needed to be and no further, he's going to suck. However, if you train your Miriel/Lonqu pair much more, you're hurting yourself in the main story because neither of them are particularly good on enemy phase. Lonqu can be sort of ok if he dodges enough stuff, but miriel is incredibly bad at combat unless you reclass her to Dark Mage and wait until chapter 13 to be able to buy nosferatu. As I said before, Celicas gale is not infinite and the only other "good" vantage strat for him is vantage vengeance which, while it might be strong if you put lots of time into training laurent, everyone can be strong if you train them. Although I will say my original comment was incorrect in the sense that getting vantage on a mage-type unit is really easy. Owain comes with it and you can reclass him to a mage with a dad that passes that down. The problem is that even with vantage, these mages are bad units.

[@nightwish1453]

@@Hiiyapow to be fair most of the early game has a lot of filler characters with only a few stand outs and even then most of them are just meh at base, I do agree though that Owain could be able to pull it off much quicker (though might need an arms scroll in tomes to really go for it) shame he will likely won't be able to use his perf but oh well

[@Hiiyapow]

@@nightwish1453 I'd still argue that there are many better candidates in the earlygame that you can invest into vs training lonqu to level 10 and trying to go for a well trained Miriel. Vaike, Chrom, Robin , Sully, Stahl, and Gregor/Tharja when you get them are much better units to invest into combat-wise. Out of those, only Sully and Stahl have a notably weak early game. Tharja is weaker than you would like her to be in her join map, but pays off very hard as well. As for utility, sage Miriel is actually pretty good, but you want to get her to 10 then not train her any more and just spam staves after promotion which would make laurent suck.

[@ooomith]

You can't "vantage" and then Galeforce because those are on different phases but i get wha tyou mean

[@joshuabrown6791]

Galeforce: I'm the best! Sol: No! I am! Limit Breaker: Fight my children. We all know who daddy is. :)

[@PranavRC]

Just found your channel. You definitely need more subscribers! Make sure to keep making content, it's only a matter of time till you get blessed by the algorithm.

[@TheoJay615]

Very well done video.

[@KuzuTomoki]

I've been getting back into FE the past few weeks, and this entire video is practically in another language lol

[@PillowStacker1]

I actually agree since the game is so enemy phased focused. Unless u are ltcing the game, sol is better. But imo vantage vengeance combo is way better.

[@wbjeg]

Awesome video! Good to see people still care about Awakening after all these years. Some personal thoughts: -I do agree that Galeforce is a bit overhyped (and its poor availability often outweighs its strong utility imo) although I still think the activation requirements for Galeforce are better than Sol. Don't get me wrong, Skill% in this game is very attainable (especially with braves) but planning around Galeforce is more reliable -I have had the great misfortune of playing Lunatic solo runs, and the final boss' ridiculously inflated stats do require offensive proc skills, turning the final chapter into kind of a player-phase map -As a few others have mentioned, Nosferatu (and Aversa's Night) are weapons that do indeed exist, and while this benefit can only be used by dark mages, tomes are arguably the best weapon type in the game -Sol does nothing for you if you are at full health -Also defensiveness in late-game usually isn't a huge issue due to mostly pair-up related things like Dual Guard and crazy S support avoid buffs -I still think Sol is a good skill, but maybe not one of the best skills in the game since it's still a bit situational for my liking But hey, to each their own. I'm just more of an Anathema person lol

[@nightwish1453]

think with the galeforce's availability is mostly ignored, for DLC availability is thrown out the window since it's assumed the player will grind to their hearts content and when it comes to topics LTC and DLC are kind of a mess in meta talks about awakening (but I think as time went on it's much more clear). speaking of skill% it is so abusive to use in fates with Quikzotic it's just scary top it off way less counters in the game for something like lethality even in out of LTC runs of fates

[@Kryptnyt]

I'd rather build some units to be fully offensive and others fully defensive and I think the value of these skills varies depending on the role you are assigning to the unit

[@Ranger52]

Lol this thumbnail is from the same stock footage the Overwatch League used in an ad for perks by T-Mobile. I think that's funny, and I figured I'd just share that will you guys. Have a pleasant day!

[@giraffedragon6110]

I definitely see your point on this, for long term, Sol: is in a classline that is easier to pass down compared to Galeforce is gained quicker compared to Galeforce as a level 5 tier 2 skill the skills you would get prior to this (fighter classline for males or mercenary for either) stuff like HP +5 and Paitence assist in survivability. you get access to 2 weapons of the triangle, Axes and Swords, making it easier to survive by manipulating the battle to your favor. Nosfrotu is so good in awakening that it's typically all Henry or Tharja need on normal difficulty and sol is Kinda like that Now, the reasons I typically don't run Sol are: I might be going for a Vantage, Wrath, Vengeance/megacrit build With certain units like Vaike, his high HP but low res means he can get within Vantage range but barely leaving it might get him killed. It may be competing with another skill I'd rather have, say Luna or Vengeance with as much grinding as I do I may think they don't even need it anymore.

[@ChillstoneBlakeBlast]

Sol is an underrated skill for the entire Series. Yes, it is a Luck Based skill proc but it can easily make someone unkillable and self sustainable if it constantly procks.

[@VanguardJohnson]

It's super broken in Tellius series. Practically makes Oscar Kieran and Titania even more godly

[@MayorofHopeville]

Avaliablity matters for characters. For skills, it's a no brainer

[@OzenGame]

Why choose when you can catch them all ?

[@Auron3991]

So, based on my no-grinding, hard mode experience: Galeforce is insanely good on exactly one or two flying units, since it allows the flyers to be problem removers (Galeforce Cordelia did an excellent job clearing archers or mages safely), but it is exp-prohibitive on any unit which is not already a Pegasus Knight. However, it's basically free on said units to pick up Galeforce and reclass to Falcoknight for the stat boost. Admittedly, I like my flyers and really enjoy being able to outmaneuver archers. Sol, on the other hand, has a bad habit of letting me down and I often compare it unfavorably to evasion skills, especially when said evasion skills are so free to get. Sol just doesn't heal enough consistently to justify attempting to tank hits you normally shouldn't. I will give it props for shrugging off chip damage, thus saving Physic staff uses but this isn't a game where chip damage is the problem. The problem is the one or two enemies with high damage that manage to roll well on hits. That's not taking into account that Hero, while not being an overly tedious class to go for, is absolutely not free. There's plenty of cash, even with missing some chests and some bad hording habits, so Mercenary's Armsthrift isn't necessary and Patience is generally a worse version of Myrmidon's Avoid skill. Fighter, on the other hand, I find so bad a class that I can't even use Vaike except as a backpack. And bypassing those by reclassing at 10 promoted effectively makes it a level 15 skill anyways. All of this at the cost of an actual level 15 skill, because Axebreaker is a wasted skill slot for the Hero class due to its already fine evasion and not having any axes it needs to worry about. I like Sol. It's cool and sometimes leads to amazingly ridiculous moments, but Awakening just isn't the game it shines in.

[@mysmallnoman]

It's an extremely reliable skill lol Also Nosferatu exists and does the same thing waaaaay better

[@Keyanlux_Deluxe]

What about lifestealer

[@doubleflores8350]

He’s not wrong. I got gale force after leveling up Cynthia and Morgan to 15 and let me tell y’all, not impressed.

[@charlesreid5137]

commenting for metrics

[@blankblank6214]

Why not have both

[@sillyslim4769]

Veteran is best skill

[@PeevedLatias]

Hey, pretty good video! I'm convinced, actually.

[@fen6300]

why not use both ?

[@SleepyBrady]

Galeforce would be great on player phased focused games like Fire emblem Three houses but this game is very enemy phased focused making Skills like Galeforce underwhelming at worst

[@albertusgo276]

if shadowgift is attainable, the MU would be OP af

[@helpivebeencursedbyawizard1513]

dude they are tearing you to shreds in the comments /j

[@kaleax7525]

Both? Both is good.

[@AzumarillConGafasBv]

Just Astra Bottom text

[@vanjagalovic3621]

Hahahahaha, OK great joke video you almost got me there for a sec. Anyway Sol is a very good skill, however as Lunatic LTCs show Galeforce is a complete game changer unlike Sol which is just very strong. Galeforce allows you to dance without using a dancer, and dancers are already considered one of the best classes in FE in general, so the ability to make another movement after defeating an enemy is ridiculously powerful, especially as defeat boss maps become more common then route maps in the later parts of Awakening. Also another problem is that Sol is replacable by Nosferatu, which is even easyer to get than Sol and there are plenty users that can use Nopsferatu excellently, not to mention you could argue that vantage is even better. You cannot really say the same for Galeforce, as using it in combination with a dance gives you 3 actions per turn which is HUGE. Also on the availability part, while it is true that Sol is more available than Galeforce that isn't incredebly important. This is because late joining units such as Xander, Perceval, Ced and mayn others have gotten high tier list placements despite their bad availability. The best comparison is between Shanna and Miledy in FE6. Now Shanna is an excellent unit as she's the first flyer you get, has great speed and can even be a pretty decent combat unit if you eraly promote her. Not to mention how Shanna will still be your strongest flyer even after Thea joins, unless Shanna got heavely RNG screwed. However, Miledy is generaly considered better, despite joining significantly later than Shanna, because of the fact that she contributes more than Shanna after she joins and has access to flight and the same weapon as Shanna, while also being able to insta promote because of her high level. So ultimately, while availability matters, it's not as important as it might seem.

[@avinadadmendez4019]

Lmao you'll get Galeforce like almost end of the game Milady joins midgame it isn't a fair comparison

[@vanjagalovic3621]

@@avinadadmendez4019 You also don't get Sol in chapter 2 like you do Shanna. The point was that availability isn't the most important thing in the world

[@jopudding2537]

Bruh you seriously just run the mercenary/hero then win

[@kaiser5074]

Solferatu combo???🤔🤔🤔

[@topiaslankinen4176]

I don't think that awakening being enemy phase based is well enough established in your argument. I would argue that galeforce is still stronger than sol because it makes the game almost fully playable in player phase. With a second move after a kill, you have the advatage of retreating or going for another kill, making survival a positional requirement not a throughput requirement.

[@DYhalto250]

I think this is a conclusion based off poor analysis, as game is heavy player phase.. when like almost every child unit gets gale for free.. and you just run around as pairs.

[@beanus2901]

who cares awakening is trivialised on all difficulties with nostanking anyway and the only skill that even slightly matters is veteran