I'm trying to put together a team for Victory Road and the Elite Four. Unusually for me, I decided on most of the team early & now have 5 Pokemon around level 49. I'm at the stage of taking HMs off them and putting TMs on, but I'm not altogether sure of the movesets or items I want to use. And I have to decide on my sixth Pokemon.
For in-game battling I tend to favour high power attacks over complicated strategies, and I always prefer higher accuracy over power. I'm the sort of person who would only ever use Thunder (power 120, acc 70) rather than Thunderbolt (power 95, acc 100) if I was using the Rain Dance + Thunder move combination that makes Thunder's accuracy 100%. I also love STAB. If you see a * by any power, that means it has the same type bonus.
Drifblim - male - GHOST / FLYING
I'm planning on Drifblim's final moveset being possibly this, but the Calm Mind TM isn't available until after obtaining the National Pokedex. So I'm thinking about:
1. Ominous Wind / Shadow Ball - GHOST, Special [1]
2. Silver Wind - BUG, Special - May raise all user's stats one stage.
3. Thunderbolt - ELECTRIC, Special.
4. Gust - FLYING, Special [2]
Hold item: Kasib Berry - If held by a Pokémon, it weakens a foe's supereffective Ghost-type attack.
[1] I can't decide between Ominous Wind with power 90* + 10% chance of raising all user's stats one stage and Shadow Ball with power 120* + 10% chance of lowering foe's Sp.Def one stage. At the moment it has both and I really should get rid of one!
[2] OK, Gust is pathetic - power 40. But it goes up to 60 with STAB, making it as powerful as Silver Wind. And it is useful against Fighting and Bug types, both of which Drifblim is naturally strong against. I prefer Gust with power 60* and a hit every turn to Fly with power 135* but only hits every other turn and only 95% accuracy.
Floatzel - female - WATER
1. Waterfall - WATER, Physical [3]
2. Crunch - DARK, Physical
3. Ice Fang/Ice Beam - ICE / Dig - GROUND, Physical [4]
4. Some other move to be decided / Swift - NORMAL, Special never miss ??
Hold item: Wacan Berry - If held by a Pokémon, it weakens a foe's supereffective Electric-type attack. - if I can get a Wacan berry! Otherwise don't know.
[3] I've decided to go for Waterfall over Surf because Waterfall is a Physical attack - Surf is Special and hits your ally in 2 on 2 battling.
[4] Ice Fang is Physical but only power 65, accuracy 95%, whereas Ice Beam is Special and power 95, accuracy 100. Which is better - the physical move that's not so powerful and not as accurate, or the special move that's working on a not-so-good stat? Having said that, I don't actually need an Ice-type move on Floatzel because I have Abomasnow for that - so I could use Dig to give her some protection against Electric types. I'm not sure why I've gone for Swift as the fourth move when it uses the Sp.Atk stat, but I like a couple of never miss moves on the team to deal with annoying foes using evasion or messing with your accuracy.
Abomasnow - male - GRASS / ICE
1. Leech Seed - GRASS [5]
2. Razor Leaf / Wood Hammer / Giga Drain / (Energy Ball) - GRASS [6]
3. Ice Punch - ICE, Physical / Ice Beam - ICE, Special
4. Earthquake - GROUND, Physical
Hold Item: Big Root?
[5] This was bred on and I'm having (mental) trouble dislodging it because it'll be impossible to relearn. I keep thinking "But what if I change my mind?!". Also, with the Big Root as hold item, it seems quite powerful. I could remove it if someone comes up with a decent alternative, though.
[6] I have no clue which Grass-type attack to choose. Abomasnow's base Physical & Special stats are equal, so it doesn't "matter" if I choose to go with Physical or Special. Except that if I'm going to use Earthquake, I might want to spend EVs on Attack rather than Sp.Atk. Also I don't have Energy Ball available at this stage in the game. So it's the choice between:
Razor Leaf - power 82.5*, acc 95 + 30% chance of critical hit
Wood Hammer - power 180* (!!), acc 100 but user gets 1/3 of damage caused to foe in recoil.
Giga Drain - power 90*, acc 100 but uses Sp.Atk.
He has Wood Hammer at the moment, but I'm not liking the recoil damage.
[7] Abomasnow is 4x vulnerable to Fire-type attacks, so hopefully having Earthquake on him should offer some protection.
Staraptor - female - NORMAL / FLYING
1. Aerial Ace / Brave Bird - FLYING [8]
2. Steel Wing - STEEL [9]
3. & 4. Dunno. [10]
Hold item: Dunno.
[8] Personally, I'm thinking AA FTW - AA is never miss, and though BB has twice the power, it gives 1/3 recoil damage. Not worth it!
[9] Staraptor is 2x vulnerable to Ice & Rock-type attacks and Steel attacks are 2x effective against Ice & Rock Pokemon.
[10] This is where I completely run out of creativity. Staraptor is Normal & Flying so I "should" use a Normal-type attack for the STAB and versatility, but which one? Quick Attack and Frustration / Return are all possible. Can't get Facade until after the National Pokedex. Then the fourth move could be Roost or Close Combat.
Then again, I could do: Endure + Endeavor + Salac Berry.
Infernape - female - FIRE / FIGHTING
Argh. My starter in Pearl, and the Pokemon I have least idea about.
1. Decent Fire-type move
2. Decent Fighting-type move
3 + 4. Dunno
I cannot decide on a Fire-type move. Again, I'm having Physical vs Special and recoil damage dilemmas - Flame Wheel / Flamethrower / Flare Blitz?
I'm vaguely thinking of going for the horrendously over-used Sunny Day + Fire-type move + Solarbeam combination on Infernape to protect against Water and Ground type Pokemon. The arguments against this are:
1) I'm not sure if Infernape would withstand 2 rounds of attack by a Water or Ground type in order to use Solarbeam (either it's two turns for Solarbeam to power up or you use Sunny Day first then Solarbeam is immediate).
2) I have Grass-type moves covered by Abomasnow already and don't really need any more.
I'm also having trouble picking a Fighting-type move - Close Combat or Brick Break? Another possibility could be Focus Punch + Substitute, but that's also overused, and would block the Sunny Day combination mentioned due to lack of free slots.
And I was vaguely thinking about a Rock-type move, on the basis it would defend against Flying types and I don't already have one on my team.
It's too late at night to think about this much more, but I'd welcome suggestions. I'm also trying to figure out who should occupy the 6th spot on the team. I have an idea, but it would be interesting to hear what other people think the holes in the team are.
For in-game battling I tend to favour high power attacks over complicated strategies, and I always prefer higher accuracy over power. I'm the sort of person who would only ever use Thunder (power 120, acc 70) rather than Thunderbolt (power 95, acc 100) if I was using the Rain Dance + Thunder move combination that makes Thunder's accuracy 100%. I also love STAB. If you see a * by any power, that means it has the same type bonus.
Drifblim - male - GHOST / FLYING
I'm planning on Drifblim's final moveset being possibly this, but the Calm Mind TM isn't available until after obtaining the National Pokedex. So I'm thinking about:
1. Ominous Wind / Shadow Ball - GHOST, Special [1]
2. Silver Wind - BUG, Special - May raise all user's stats one stage.
3. Thunderbolt - ELECTRIC, Special.
4. Gust - FLYING, Special [2]
Hold item: Kasib Berry - If held by a Pokémon, it weakens a foe's supereffective Ghost-type attack.
[1] I can't decide between Ominous Wind with power 90* + 10% chance of raising all user's stats one stage and Shadow Ball with power 120* + 10% chance of lowering foe's Sp.Def one stage. At the moment it has both and I really should get rid of one!
[2] OK, Gust is pathetic - power 40. But it goes up to 60 with STAB, making it as powerful as Silver Wind. And it is useful against Fighting and Bug types, both of which Drifblim is naturally strong against. I prefer Gust with power 60* and a hit every turn to Fly with power 135* but only hits every other turn and only 95% accuracy.
Floatzel - female - WATER
1. Waterfall - WATER, Physical [3]
2. Crunch - DARK, Physical
3. Ice Fang/Ice Beam - ICE / Dig - GROUND, Physical [4]
4. Some other move to be decided / Swift - NORMAL, Special never miss ??
Hold item: Wacan Berry - If held by a Pokémon, it weakens a foe's supereffective Electric-type attack. - if I can get a Wacan berry! Otherwise don't know.
[3] I've decided to go for Waterfall over Surf because Waterfall is a Physical attack - Surf is Special and hits your ally in 2 on 2 battling.
[4] Ice Fang is Physical but only power 65, accuracy 95%, whereas Ice Beam is Special and power 95, accuracy 100. Which is better - the physical move that's not so powerful and not as accurate, or the special move that's working on a not-so-good stat? Having said that, I don't actually need an Ice-type move on Floatzel because I have Abomasnow for that - so I could use Dig to give her some protection against Electric types. I'm not sure why I've gone for Swift as the fourth move when it uses the Sp.Atk stat, but I like a couple of never miss moves on the team to deal with annoying foes using evasion or messing with your accuracy.
Abomasnow - male - GRASS / ICE
1. Leech Seed - GRASS [5]
2. Razor Leaf / Wood Hammer / Giga Drain / (Energy Ball) - GRASS [6]
3. Ice Punch - ICE, Physical / Ice Beam - ICE, Special
4. Earthquake - GROUND, Physical
Hold Item: Big Root?
[5] This was bred on and I'm having (mental) trouble dislodging it because it'll be impossible to relearn. I keep thinking "But what if I change my mind?!". Also, with the Big Root as hold item, it seems quite powerful. I could remove it if someone comes up with a decent alternative, though.
[6] I have no clue which Grass-type attack to choose. Abomasnow's base Physical & Special stats are equal, so it doesn't "matter" if I choose to go with Physical or Special. Except that if I'm going to use Earthquake, I might want to spend EVs on Attack rather than Sp.Atk. Also I don't have Energy Ball available at this stage in the game. So it's the choice between:
Razor Leaf - power 82.5*, acc 95 + 30% chance of critical hit
Wood Hammer - power 180* (!!), acc 100 but user gets 1/3 of damage caused to foe in recoil.
Giga Drain - power 90*, acc 100 but uses Sp.Atk.
He has Wood Hammer at the moment, but I'm not liking the recoil damage.
[7] Abomasnow is 4x vulnerable to Fire-type attacks, so hopefully having Earthquake on him should offer some protection.
Staraptor - female - NORMAL / FLYING
1. Aerial Ace / Brave Bird - FLYING [8]
2. Steel Wing - STEEL [9]
3. & 4. Dunno. [10]
Hold item: Dunno.
[8] Personally, I'm thinking AA FTW - AA is never miss, and though BB has twice the power, it gives 1/3 recoil damage. Not worth it!
[9] Staraptor is 2x vulnerable to Ice & Rock-type attacks and Steel attacks are 2x effective against Ice & Rock Pokemon.
[10] This is where I completely run out of creativity. Staraptor is Normal & Flying so I "should" use a Normal-type attack for the STAB and versatility, but which one? Quick Attack and Frustration / Return are all possible. Can't get Facade until after the National Pokedex. Then the fourth move could be Roost or Close Combat.
Then again, I could do: Endure + Endeavor + Salac Berry.
Infernape - female - FIRE / FIGHTING
Argh. My starter in Pearl, and the Pokemon I have least idea about.
1. Decent Fire-type move
2. Decent Fighting-type move
3 + 4. Dunno
I cannot decide on a Fire-type move. Again, I'm having Physical vs Special and recoil damage dilemmas - Flame Wheel / Flamethrower / Flare Blitz?
I'm vaguely thinking of going for the horrendously over-used Sunny Day + Fire-type move + Solarbeam combination on Infernape to protect against Water and Ground type Pokemon. The arguments against this are:
1) I'm not sure if Infernape would withstand 2 rounds of attack by a Water or Ground type in order to use Solarbeam (either it's two turns for Solarbeam to power up or you use Sunny Day first then Solarbeam is immediate).
2) I have Grass-type moves covered by Abomasnow already and don't really need any more.
I'm also having trouble picking a Fighting-type move - Close Combat or Brick Break? Another possibility could be Focus Punch + Substitute, but that's also overused, and would block the Sunny Day combination mentioned due to lack of free slots.
And I was vaguely thinking about a Rock-type move, on the basis it would defend against Flying types and I don't already have one on my team.
It's too late at night to think about this much more, but I'd welcome suggestions. I'm also trying to figure out who should occupy the 6th spot on the team. I have an idea, but it would be interesting to hear what other people think the holes in the team are.
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