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Thread: Team Building in Pokémon

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    DonatorMarsh UserSoul UserRainbow UserThunder UserCascade UserBoulder UserSS Veteran
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    Lightbulb Team Building in Pokémon

    Posting RMT (Rate My Team) threads here seems to be a fairly common thing to do, but most of them could benefit from the same general information. So for the sake of saving some time and typing, here are a few guidelines.

    Basically any team can work in-game!

    Given that all in-game battles take place far below the level cap and the use of healing/X items is permitted, unlike competitive Pokemon, any Trainer could be defeated by just about any Pokemon through level grinding and item spam. So don't stress too much about whether or not a Pokemon should stay or be replaced. Some are just easier to use than others.

    Hit fast and hard!

    There are a crap ton of battles in Pokémon games, avoidable and unavoidable. You can play competitively with Toxic stall and Protect and set up all 6 possible layer of entry hazards and blowing opponents left and right with Whirlwind, but this will get boring quickly and there's usually a better way to go about doing things. Ask yourself how many times do you find yourself using Toxic and Protect if you can two-shot something with Earthquake? You generally want high-powered moves with lots of Power Points and good accuracy that can easily two-shot an opponent's Pokemon.

    Coverage: The ability to handle as many types of opponents as possible!

    For some odd reason, it seems to be a popular trend for people to train an Emboar with Flame Charge, Heat Crash, Flare Blitz and Flamethrower. Fantastic, you can hit 4/17 types for super effective damage and 9/17 for neutral damage. But when a Water or Dragon comes in, you have to either resort to doing small amounts of damage and taking large ones or switch out to someone else.

    As a general rule, you should never have more than one main attacking move of the same type, and never more than two. For a couple Shards in Black and White 2, you can teach the same Emboar ThunderPunch in Driftveil or Superpower in Lentimas. Or you can play on the Battle Subway or PWT for a little while and earn enough points for Brick Break.

    That's not to say you should never use two moves of the same type. Even though Surf and Aqua Jet are both Water attacks, it isn't a terribly bad idea to load them both onto a Samurott. Surf deals damage, but Aqua Jet almost always hits first so it will still find some use in-game, such as Marshall's bloody annoying Sawk with Sturdy and EdgeQuake.

    Stats matter!

    Gyarados is a Water type and Surf is an extremely popular Water attack of high base power (95) and perfect accuracy. However, is Surf a good move to teach Gyarados?

    I'm not going to explicitly say "NO!", but Gyarados' base Special Attack sits at a low, low 60. On the other hand, its base physical attack is more than twice as high (125) and Gyarados learns physical attack of similar base power at level 35; Gyarados' Aqua Tail would outdamage Surf against all but the most physically bulky, specially lacking Pokémon.

    Most Pokémon are either physically or specially oriented in terms of attacking, with a lucky few (Lucario, Mienshao, Infernape, Emboar) capable of doing both. Bear that in mind when deciding which moves you want to teach your team.

    If you don't need to be obscenely overpowered, don't!

    If you can OHKO Lance's Dragonite with both Blizzard and Ice Beam (gulp), would you rather use Blizzard or Ice Beam?

    Overall, move powerful moves with imperfect accuracy and low levels of Power Points will not dish out as much damage as a less powerful move with more power points and perfect accuracy. The extra 20% of power from Blizzard is nice sometimes, but on average Blizzard will miss on 1 to 2 of its 5 Power Points (2 or 3 of the maximum 8), dealing zero damage and leaving you vulnerable to opponent attacks. Especially later in the game, where any of Lance's Dragonite could easily use an extra turn to KO you, it's better to play it safe.

    The same can be said about attacks that can hit multiple times. Rock Blast has the potential to outdamage Stone Edge, but unless you have Skill Link, this only happens 12.5% of the time; 75% of the time, in fact, it will only hit 2 or 3 times - before you even factor in the accuracy.

    Use status moves wisely!

    I implied earlier that entry hazards are a waste of time, but a well placed Stealth Rock can make a battle much, much easier. Each member of Lance's initial team in HeartGold/SoulSilver (Gyarados, Dragonite, Dragonite, Dragonite, Aerodactyl, Charizard) has a Stealth Rock weakness; throwing them on the field the first turn will instantly strip health equivalent to 1.5 of his Pokemon (0 for Gyarados, since it's already in play; 25% for each Dragonite and Aerodactyl; 50% for Charizard).

    Reflect and Light Screen, although they take an extra turn each to set up, can easily turn the tide of a battle. For five to eight turns, 4X effective moves used against you are nerfed to 2X, 2X to neutral, neutral to 0.5X, and anything less than that to nothing. These extra turns can be very valuable, used to switch to someone better equipped for the opponent, set up some Dragon Dances or Sunny Day's or use some Parlyz Heals or Hyper Potions. Glass cannons like Archeops or Emboar can stay alive to wreak havoc for a little longer.

    Boosting moves can change an entire battle, namely moves that raise a stat multiple stages or multiple stats at the same time. In one turn, Lucario using Swords Dance doubles its physical damage output for its stay on the field, Volcarona using Quiver Dance sends its SpA, SpD and Speed to monstrous levels and Dragonite using Dragon Dance can become a juggernaut capable of sweeping everything except pherhaps Pryce's gym in Mahogany.

    Use HMs at your own risk!

    My undiagnosed OCD-ness prevents me from ever sidelining someone for an HM slave, so I'm guilty of this also, but seriously consider if it's a good idea to carry your HMs on your team's starting roster. Some HMs are good moves in-game, obviously (Surf, Fly, Waterfall namely), but most have less-than-desirable power, type, accuracy, or all of the above and only waste move slots. If you've reached a point in the game when you know you're never going to use Defog or Whirlpool again, hit up the Move Deleter and reclaim your otherwise bricked move slot.

    That being said, to the people who review the teams, I think everyone already knows if their Samurott knows Cut and that Cut is <sarcasm>the best move ever.</sarcasm>




    Okay, with that in mind, enjoy your team building!
    Last edited by Dragonite; 06-27-2013 at 05:54 PM.

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    Thanks rate my team

    serpiror
    lucario
    arcanine
    gyrados
    krookidle
    tyranitar

  3. #3
    DonatorMarsh UserSoul UserRainbow UserThunder UserCascade UserBoulder UserSS Veteran
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    Quote Originally Posted by GameDirect View Post
    Thanks rate my team

    serpiror
    lucario
    arcanine
    gyrados
    krookidle
    tyranitar
    No serious coverage holes (although 3 of them are weak to Fighting), but aside from that you don't give much to work with. Consider posting your movesets.

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