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DPPt/HGSS My dual type Platinum team

baratron

Moderator of Elder Scrolls
Staff member
Moderator
This is my current in-game team. I doubt it's going to become a competitive team because most of the Natures are rubbish. But I'm concerned about any obvious weaknesses that'll come up in the rest of the game. At the moment I think my team is hopelessly weak to Ice, but I'm not sure if that's just me being paranoid because two of my Pokemon are 4 x vulnerable to Ice. There may be other type weaknesses that I haven't noticed yet.

I've just got the 8th badge and have to beat the Elite Four and Champion. There are a few blanks in the movesets, and I also want to add held items for three of the Pokemon.

Twiglet - Torterra - GRASS/GROUND @ Wide Lens?
1. Seed Bomb - GRASS - STAB
2. Earthquake - GROUND - STAB
3. Body Slam - NORMAL
4. Stone Edge?? - ROCK

Twiglet clearly needs a Rock move as Rock is super effective against Fire, Ice, Flying and Bug (hence dispensing with all of the vulnerabilities), but I'm not sure which one to choose. I personally hate low accuracy moves but Rock doesn't have any 100% accurate attacks. Stone Edge at least is powerful, and the Wide Lens should boost its accuracy, though I can't remember how much.

Skorpi - Drapion - POISON/DARK @ Razor Claw/Scope Lens *Sniper*
1. Night Slash - DARK - STAB
2. Cross Poison - POISON - STAB
3. Slash - NORMAL
4. X-Scissor - BUG

The first three moves all have a high critical-hit ratio, and the Sniper ability and hold item both make critical hits more likely. I'm quite pleased with this moveset. X-Scissor is left over from when she was a Skorupi but it's super effective against other Dark types. Alternatively I could move tutor in Ice Fang to cover the Ground vulnerability, but it isn't very powerful.

Gnash - Garchomp - DRAGON/GROUND @ ?? *Sand Veil*
1. Dragon Claw - DRAGON - STAB
2. Iron Head - STEEL - super effective against Ice types.
3. Earthquake - GROUND - STAB
4. ??

Dragon Claw and Earthquake are for STAB, Iron Head covers the pesky 4 x vulnerability to Ice, but I don't know what the fourth move should be. Crunch, Brick Break, Aerial Ace and Shadow Claw are on my list. Am reluctant to spend a non-buyable TM on Gnash because she's female.

Elliot - Gallade - PSYCHIC/FIGHTING @ ?? *Steadfast*
1. Psycho Cut - PSYCHIC - STAB
2. Close Combat/Drain Punch - FIGHTING - STAB
3. Night Slash - DARK - Super effective against Ghost-type.
4. ??

Elliot is covered against Ghosts with Night Slash. His other vulnerability is to Flying, so I've been thinking about Ice Punch or Thunderpunch, or throwing in Fire Punch just so that someone on the team has a Fire move. (Otherwise getting past Lucien's Bronzong Of Doom is a nightmare, iirc). But Gallade has so much scope that Leaf Blade, Slash/Façade, Aerial Ace and Rock Tomb are all possibilities.

Pippa - Empoleon - WATER/STEEL @ Quick Claw?
1. Surf - WATER - STAB and covers Ground weakness.
2. Flash Cannon - STEEL - STAB
3. Drill Peck - FLYING - super effective against Fighting types.
4. Ice Beam - ICE ??

Pippa has higher Sp.Atk than Attack stats, but Drill Peck has been useful over and over again. Empoleon's move pool is kinda icky and Ice Beam is the obvious fourth choice. Not sure how necessary it is, though, as Drill Peck already covers Grass types.

RocketX - Rotom - ELECTRIC/GHOST @ Wise Glasses
1. Something! - ELECTRIC - STAB
2. Shadow Ball/Ominous Wind - GHOST - STAB
3. Swift - NORMAL - Never miss
4. Substitute??

I caught RocketX and levelled him up in a hurry because I couldn't get past Crasher Wake's Gyarados, but he's proven himself very useful. Unfortunately I can't figure out whether to go with Shadow Ball or Ominous Wind for the Ghost move (more power vs 10% chance of stat boost?), or whether with Shock Wave, Discharge, Thunderbolt, or Charge Beam for the Electric move. Give me a choice of low power but never miss, 30% chance of paralysis but hits everyone, high power but no special effects and 70% chance of raising Sp.Atk but lower accuracy and I have no idea which to go with! (I hate moves that hit your ally Pokemon! Though I often send him out with Gnash the Garchomp for 2 on 2 battles, so that would make for an Earthquake *Rotom avoids with Levitate* + Discharge *Garchomp avoids with Ground type* evil combo. Hmm.)

I'm also wondering whether I should use one of the alternative Platinum Rotom Formes, which would make for a better fourth move.
 

KoL

Expert FPS Player
Staff member
Moderator
I wouldn't be too worried - your team right now is solid as a rock. Empoleon puts paid to the Ice-type weakness with his quad-resistance to it, and I don't think anyone in the Elite Four uses many Ice-type moves anyway, so you should be fine unless you're horribly under-levelled.

To fill in the blanks:

- If you have the money for it, getting Swords Dance for Garchomp will pay off big time. You can massacre the Elite Four quite easily with him alone if you get off a Swords Dance at the right time. Luckily, Swords Dance is indeed buy-able from the Game Corner. With regards to Lucian's "Bronzong of Doom," who is still quite a nasty foe, one Heart Scale gets this nasty beast Fire Fang over Iron Head - I can't imagine Bronzong liking that much.

- Leaf Blade on Gallade will hurt Bertha quite badly, doing wicked damage to anything that isn't her Gliscor. Cynthia's Milotic won't like taking a hit from that either. Gallade can do Swords Dance as well, but that may be pushing it on the money front.

- If you have the Key to access Rotom's formes, get those formes ASAP - they make Rotom much, much more potent, boosting both his defenses and giving him a nice boost to Sp.Attack. As for which Forme is best, any will do for this, although if Fire Fang on Garchomp alone isn't enough to make you feel at ease about 'Zong, Heat Rotom's Overheat can deliver a fierce blow. As for the other moves, Shadow Ball is superior to Ominous Wind here not due to power vs effect, but due to Ominous Wind's awful 5 PP. Discharge works fine for STAB Electric attack, although Charge Beam can work in its place if you have nothing better. Swap either Swift or Substitute for the "Forme move" when (and if) you get it.

For in-game, that should hopefully fill in all the cracks.

For hold items...if you have a lot of Sitrus Berries, these things are really good at filling up item slots in-game - their healing effect can make all the difference in battles against the Elite Four. If you can't get hold of these, Garchomp and Gallade can either have a power-boosting Plate for their STAB moves (or at least one of them) or just go without - items aren't really all that abundant pre-Elite Four, and they aren't really 100% necessary in-game either.
 
Kol seems to have covered basically all of it.
But a few tips for when you have to battle Cynthia.
First, 'RocketX' will be very useful. I know this sounds obvious, but Togekiss and Milotic can be difficult. You probably have Milotic covered with 'Gnash' but I found that when I taught my Blaziken (who is terrible against both those pokemon) ThunderPunch, it really made life a whole lot easier. Also, if you think you can defeat Bronzong without Heat Rotom, I think your next best choice would be Frost Rotom, as Ice is 4x on Garchomp. I know you have Ice Beam with 'Pippa', but Garchomp's Earthquake is really gonna make life difficult, whereas with 'RocketX' you have immunity to that move and Giga Impact and you would have a 4x super effective move on it. Alternatively, you could use Heat rotom and just shadow ball Garchomp, as Bronzong and Lucario would be easy for Heat Rotom. I would go for Heat Rotom, but Frost Rotom is an option. If Heat Rotom, you could take out Roserade pretty easily and you pretty much hit Spiritomb with 'Skorpi', as a Scope Lens/Sniper/Cross Poison would probably take Spiritomb out in one go through a Critical hit. Remember, be wary of Cynthia using lots of Full Restores. Now go and become Sinnoh's Champion!
 

baratron

Moderator of Elder Scrolls
Staff member
Moderator
So, despite the fact I didn't test the Pokemon for IVs and some of them have useless natures, I seem to be EV training them anyway. Oops :-[.

I figure that the following Pokemon want 252 EVs in Attack:
Twiglet - Torterra - GRASS/GROUND
Skorpi - Drapion - POISON/DARK
Gnash - Garchomp - DRAGON/GROUND
Elliot - Gallade - PSYCHIC/FIGHTING

and these two want 252 EVs in Sp.Atk:
Pippa - Empoleon - WATER/STEEL
RocketX - Rotom - ELECTRIC/GHOST

But what should the other EVs go on?

I'm thinking about my Gallade having 252 Attack, and then half the rest on each of Defense and Speed. And I suppose Pippa the Empoleon should keep the large number of Speed EVs that she has, as that's probably why she isn't slow like Empoleons usually are. Skorpi the Drapion needs completely redoing - her Special Attack EVs are over 100, ugh.

Also, if I have access to all of Rotom's possible Electric attacks, which is best? I'm still not sure about Discharge (free, but only has power 80 = 120 with STAB) vs Thunderbolt (TM, but has power 95 = 142.5 with STAB). I suppose I can use Discharge for now because it's free and then add Thunderbolt later if Discharge isn't doing it for me?
 

KoL

Expert FPS Player
Staff member
Moderator
Gallade usually goes full ATK/full Speed - Gallade's Speed is probably its biggest weakness, and its Speed certainly needs all the help it can get without Shadow Sneak (which isn't the best option anyway with only 40 Power.)

Drapion can probably split the rest of its EVs between HP and Defense - its great Defense stat is worth investing in even for a more offense-oriented moveset.

Garchomp excels at being simplistic really - 252 both in Attack and Speed will suffice for the land shark.

Torterra could probably run a similar spread to Drapion, since overall it has similar stats and a similar role in the team.

Empoleon...the Speed is a lost cause without Agility or Choice Scarf for the most part. The EVs for Empoleon depend on the set - Empoleon is extremely versatile, and picking out an EV spread for it is nigh impossible until you know for certain what you would like it to do for you.

Finally, Rotom tends to go full HP/Defense since its Formes tend to batter most common physical attackers, Heat Forme especially. He won't need a huge EV investment in Sp.Attack unless he wants to go offensive, which he most certainly can, and would probably desire 252 EVs in Speed if he were to go that route.

As for Rotom's STAB attack, neither Discharge or Thunderbolt are considered outright better for it - Discharge's 30% paralysis chance makes switching in anything that doesn't have Electric immunity quite risky and the move packs decent power, although Thunderbolt overall is the stronger move and may be favourable for the extra damage. I'd run Discharge on a defensive set, and Thunderbolt on an offensive set. Also of note is that Discharge will damage your partner in a double battle, and unless they're something like Jolteon or Electivire, I doubt they'd appreciate getting hit by it. Thunderbolt, however, only hits one target.
 
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