Are you a technical battler?

[jasonthedrag0n]

Do you battle using stat boosters and lowerers like tail whip, scary face etc? Or do you like to cause status changes like poison, paralysis, sleep etc? Or do you just like to go all out with the big moves?

Personally I go for the brute force, most of my Pokemon have 4 powerful attacks and just hammer the opponent, but I also try and have a sleep inducing move if my Pokemon choice and level allow it.
I started playing Pokemon as a young kid and never got into the technical stat adjusting moves and am kind of set in my way as an older guy. I can see how all of the different styles can produce formidable trainers, but I don't venture out of my comfort zone (maybe with the next generation if it's encouraged by the way the first few towns are laid out?) :P.

How do you battle and why?

 

[Nah]

Moved this into Pokemon Gaming Central since I think it fits better there.

Depends on where I'm battling. If it's general in-game stuff I usually just do brute force because rarely is there a reason not to and it's often enough to beat the main storyline.

But on Battle Spot and Showdown and such you usually have to get a little more "technical" because simply spamming powerful moves doesn't work as well as it does in-game.

 

[esperance]

Yeah, whenever I battle in-game I tend to just go full power and don't even bother with status moves.

In competitive battling, on the other hand, I like to focus on building up my own stats and then sweeping. I also like to set up hazards to my opponent's ability to fight at full power, so that it's even easier for me to do my sweeping.

 

[SparklingMistral]

In game, I just plow through. No sense in unnecessarily drawing it out, haha.

I don't really do competitive, but I'd probably just do a little setting up and then try and beat their Pokemon up. I'm not that great at competitive battling, tbh, so I don't really get into it too much.

 

[Sylphiel]

STRAIGHT TO THE FACE!

Haven't done enough competitive battling to really get used to using status effects, at least outside of that, and things like status buffs and debuffs are still weird to use for me, but in-game I definitely try to load up on offensive moves and then just spam them. Brute force all the way. :D

Unless I somehow have problems, then I might consider another tactic. Otherwise, nope, always to the face.

 

[ProboVon]

As is the case with most players, my style differs strongly between battles against CPU players and human players. Against the CPU, it's normally best to take a strong offensive approach without playing around too much with stat changers or ailments. Of course, depending on the match-up, that approach won't always be best.

In competitive play, I definitely favor indirect methods of inducing damage. I'm a huge fan of the Leech Seed/Sleep Powder combo (Sleep Powder is one of the most reliable sleep-inducing moves in the game). Paralysis and confusion are also nice. If possible, I try to ensure that each of my pokemon are capable of inflicting paralysis or confusion (through Thunder Wave or Confuse Ray--100% accuracy with each). It by no means guarantees victory, but it helps strongly if I'm battling pokemon that have type advantages or are downright superior (example: my Ludicolo against a Dragonite--roll the dice and try chaining some attacks together in combination with some confusion damage). Creativity is definitely more applicable in competitive play.

 

[Megan]

Over the years my ingame playstyle has become more and more slow. When I started I would just use what I have and blast through all the trainers, but as of more recent playthroughs, I like to use unusual mons and different strategies. Like in my latest playthrough I've been using a Jumpluff with Leech Seed+Sleep Powder+Mega Drain+Acrobatics and I've stalled so many opponents to death with it, partly because I try to restrict leveling as much as possible, which also means that I just lack the power to blast through opponents.

In battles against other people I'm more on the semi-offensive side. I like having strong mons, but I also like having a team that can take a hit and get around my opponents offenses and defenses.

 

[Wicked3DS]

I grind and I try to get diverse type coverage, but that's about all I do for the most part.

 

[JJ Styles]

I use a lot of entry hazards such as Spikes, Rocks, Hidden Missiles, and Toxic Spikes. Ever since i learned about how strong entry hazards are, i decided to abuse them even when playing in-game to see how good hazards are. There's also me using team buffs such as weather and tailwind to turn my team into a real fighting machine.

 

[Pendraflare]

In normal playthroughs, usually brute force is enough to get me through the game.

But in challenges, like Nuzlockes, those are when status moves can work best, like stat-lowering moves like Charm, and status moves like Thunder Wave. Those are when I want to get creative with my strategies.

 

[Crimson Arcanine]

In-game, i'll usually hit hard and accurately but I'll usually have some form of highly defensive pokemon to fall back non, or something with a status effect, generally burn or sometimes paralysis or sleep
There's not much difference when I play more competitively, except I tend to be a bit more forgiving towards inaccurate moves and I tend to have a slight lean (usually) to having more defensive pokemon than in a normal playthough I'm not one for setup, especially for stealth rock.

I tend to only rarely play using any pokemon that I don't like, so my teams tend to be a bit skewed towards certain typing and sub-optimals

 

[Hikamaru]

In casual playthroughs I tend to go for brute force, but competitive battles I do on Showdown make me focus more on strategy and usually those pay off extremely well.

 

[Wicked3DS]

In casual playthroughs I tend to go for brute force, but competitive battles I do on Showdown make me focus more on strategy and usually those pay off extremely well.

Pretty much sums me up (even though I don't play competitively much at all), I pretty much just go to hit hard in-game because there's not much point in doing anything else.

 

[Somewhere_]

In-game I generally use brute force with status moves for catching pokes.

Competitively, I like using speedy pokemon (some priority moves) and two bulky mons (not necessarily walls). I try to weaken my opponent with some solid predictions and sweep with a choice-scarf user or fast mon.

 

[Chicken Fingers]

Well, I typically just use my brute force for the mainstream games. I also carry along one Poke who knows thunder wave for captures. When I play a game like Dark Rising though, I usually have a Dragon Dance user, a burner and paralyzer, along with a sweeper. I don't vary much from the little battling I've done on Showdown. I have one physical sweeper, a defensive status inducer, a bulky offensive, and whatever else fits into the mix.

 

[Seth Rollins]

Yeah, I am a technical battler, both in the Battle Server and in-game. My most used moves are probably Swords Dance, Calm Mind, and moves like that. It always makes the battle easier so like, why not :3

 

[Brendino]

A majority of the time, I don't bother with status moves or stat-boosting items in battle, because it isn't all that hard to beat the in-game trainers without using them. As it is, even if I have a Pokemon with a status move, I always say that I'm going to use it, and then end up just using attacks instead, so I don't know why I bother keeping them.

If I were more into competitive battling I might try using them more often, but I still don't think that would change how I battle in game.

 

[Bgoldwax]

I haven't done too much competitive battling (some Showdown and D/P wifi) but usually when I play the story I use status moves against legendaries and the occasional Elite 4 otherwise it's always offense all the time. When I feel like messing around I go and rebattle trainers or wild Pokemon and just mess around using stall turns to see how effective they potentially can be. Online my tactic is generally hit, predict the next move or two and then plan accordingly and occassionally sweep

 

[Eden]

For in-game I tend to use paralysis and confusion when I get underleveled, but other than that I just barrel through the whole game.

Competitive is twitchy though because I stopped back when Gen V was just getting out of its borderline-anarchy phase where rules didn't exist and only the previous ubers (minus chomp and mence) were banned. Back then though I was pretty aggressive and used tactics that seemed flat-out stupid in order to deceive my opponents.

 

[Sheep]

Go damaging moves. :D I'll hardly rely on stat increasing or reducing moves unless I'm seriously struggling, then moves like Sand Attack can be huge lifesavers.

But otherwise I'll Thunderbolt, Flamethrower, Ice Beam, Shadow Ball, Psychic, and etc away. Knock 'em all out quickly. If moves have secondary status effects then that's awesome but I tend to focus more on good power and accuracy than very good power and low accuracy (or additional effects). So Thunderbolt > Thunder and so on.