My HG team sucks. Any help please?!

[Rapidash]

Ok, my team is useless. But I don't know what a good alternative is for them.

All around lv 55.

Rapidash
Ho-oh
Dewgong
Gyarados
Ampharos
Espeon

I don't know why I have two fire and two water ¬.¬

Ok, the only ones I really want to keep are Rapidash and Dewgong. Any suggestions?

I'm just at the Power Plant bit in Kanto.

 

[Weavile05]

If you picked Chikorita then go with that and a moveset of something like synthesis, Petal Dance, Leech Seed, and either Hyper Beam or Return, or you could also go with hidden power, as long as it's effective against something that isn't already covered.
If you do this, i suggest you take out Gyarados, since you want to keep Dewgong.

Also, if you're gonna take out Ho oh, you need to replace it with another flying pokemon, like Crobat or Honchkrow.

 

[jjnerdful]

I would toss Gyarados and replace it with a more variable pokemon, like Starmie or Slowbro. Or I would really get a strong physical sweeper (but not something that is weak to same stuff other team members are weak to). You could always get a stalling pokemon too.

Try
Rapidash
Dewgong
Espeon (a decent replacement for Zam if you can't get it I suppose...)
Ampharos
Some strong physical sweeper/stalling pokemon
a variable pokemon that can cover many types in case your other pokemon go down (starmie, slowbro, etc)

 

[Rapidash]

Thanks for the answers guys. I've chucked out Ho-oh and replaced it with a Dragonair... not sure how long that'll stay either.

Starmie is a good idea actually, I've never trained one of them before. Might ditch Gyarados for one of them.

I'm such a noob

 

[Ruin Maniac]

You might want to ditch your Espeon for an Alakazam, seeing as it has all round better Sp.Atk and Spd, making it a considerably good choice.

 

[Shadowposion5]

Switch Gyrados for Wheezing

 

[Paulus magintie]

Why ditch gyrados?

Hes awesome and powerful. He can take alot of damage and dish it out just as well.

Dont switch for Wheezing thats just downgrading.

 

[jjnerdful]

Why ditch gyarados? I'll tell you.
One thunderbolt, it's dead unless you pump all EVs into Sp. Def and HP, in which case it would lose all its destructive power and make Gyarados useless. He really can't take that many physical hits either.

There are many better alternatives. You want to take hits and hit back harder? Try Slowbro, Snorlax, etc - i.e. ones without 4X weaknesses.

 

[Rapidash]

Why ditch gyarados? I'll tell you.
One thunderbolt, it's dead unless you pump all EVs into Sp. Def and HP, in which case it would lose all its destructive power and make Gyarados useless. He really can't take that many physical hits either.

There are many better alternatives. You want to take hits and hit back harder? Try Slowbro, Snorlax, etc - i.e. ones without 4X weaknesses.

This is why i want to lose Gyarados. I'd rather have my Dewgong for ice/water because, to my surprise, she can really take a hit. Didn't expect that when I caught a Seel. Not best attack, but defensive wise she's great.

Team is now -
Espeon (up for replacement)
Rapidash (staying)
Dewgong (staying)
Snorlax (unsure)
Dragonair (unsure)
Ampharos (up for replacement)

 

[Ninja Caterpie]

Why ditch gyarados? I'll tell you.
One thunderbolt, it's dead unless you pump all EVs into Sp. Def and HP, in which case it would lose all its destructive power and make Gyarados useless. He really can't take that many physical hits either.

There are many better alternatives. You want to take hits and hit back harder? Try Slowbro, Snorlax, etc - i.e. ones without 4X weaknesses.

uuuhhh, the point of sweepers is to not let them touch you in the first place. What're you gonna say, HEATRAN IS BAD BECAUSE IT'S WEAK TO EQ, SALAMENCE IS BAD BECAUSE ICE SHARD OHKOS IT, SCIZOR DIES TO FIRE, TYRANITAR IS SUPER WEAK TO FIGHTING, etc, etc, etc? Doesn't work like that; there's a reason the five Pokemon I just mentioned are the most common Pokemon in OU play. Salamence was banned, even with its massive weakness to a priority move.

Gyarados has Intimidate, which basically moots a Physical enemy, which you can set up Dragon Dance on and sweep from. You can use a Wacan Berry if you're REALLY scared of Thunderbolt, in which case you survive practically all of them bar stuff like Zapdos and Jolteon.

 

[Paulus magintie]

uuuhhh, the point of sweepers is to not let them touch you in the first place. What're you gonna say, HEATRAN IS BAD BECAUSE IT'S WEAK TO EQ, SALAMENCE IS BAD BECAUSE ICE SHARD OHKOS IT, SCIZOR DIES TO FIRE, TYRANITAR IS SUPER WEAK TO FIGHTING, etc, etc, etc? Doesn't work like that; there's a reason the five Pokemon I just mentioned are the most common Pokemon in OU play. Salamence was banned, even with its massive weakness to a priority move.

Gyarados has Intimidate, which basically moots a Physical enemy, which you can set up Dragon Dance on and sweep from. You can use a Wacan Berry if you're REALLY scared of Thunderbolt, in which case you survive practically all of them bar stuff like Zapdos and Jolteon.

Instead of having a growl or what ever i just use gyarados as the pokemon to weaken the attacks of the oppement and just keep switching until all my pokemon can take there attacks.

I normally switch between HO-OH for the pressure and Gyarados for weakening the attacks There a great combo

 

[jjnerdful]

This is IN-GAME, NOT competitive battling. AI will often just throw out the super effective attacks at pokemon super weak to a certain move. Unless the pokemon in question is grossly over-leveled, the player is skilled so that he will never let gyarados get hit by electric attacks, gyarados won't be the best pokemon available. It's not fast, and it isn't that sturdy either. Faster pokemon are generally easier to play with, which is why Salamence is a bit easier to use than Dragonite in ingame.

Sure, the whole intimidate thing could be useful against physical pokemon. But too bad more electric attacks are special than physical.

 

[FerretFox41]

I don't really see the point in your post.

As you said in the beginning, this is in-game.

That means that they most likely have it set to where they can switch after they KO a Pokemon. Unless the topic's creator has no idea about the typing chart, they'll most likely not keep Gyarados in on an Electric-type Pokemon, or a Pokemon that usually has an Electric-type move.

So, basically, your first statement contradicts the rest of your post.

Also, look at Gyarados's stats. 95 HP, 79 Def, and 100 Special Defense. That's not the bulkiest, but its certainly sturdy enough to take a hit.


Anyways, on topic.

As a replacement for Ampharos, I'm gonna suggest a very... uncommon Pokemon. Tangrowth. I know it's nothing like Ampharos, but Tangrowth makes an awesome Pokemon for an in-game team. You can catch Tangela on Route... 44? pretty commonly. And then, you just have to level it up until it learns Ancientpower, and then level it up again.

I gave my Tangrowth Sleep Powder, Power Whip, Rock Slide, and Tickle. It worked out really well, to be honest. I'm gonna use one for my Nuzlocke Run, if I'm lucky enough for it to be the first one I see.

 

[jjnerdful]

No, it doesn't. You are going in assuming OP is knowledgeable at least somewhat about pokemon. Wrong way to start. How do you know that OP thoroughly knows pokedex? You don't. Too much help underestimating the OP's abilities is better than too little help overestimating and screwing the OP up.

Unless OP has played through the game many times, in which case she would not need help, OP won't have a thorough knowledge about opposing pokemon in-game without a walkthrough. OP likely won't have a very thorough knowledge of all the pokemon and their respective movepools either, and with the vast amount of species, it becomes more and more possible that a surprise pokemon with a surprise move could prove to be very troublesome OP.

Pokemon like Gyarados, Scizor, etc that have 4X weakness to common types aren't necessarily bad. But THINK about the context. They can be powerful in the hands of an expert, but can easily be terrible in the hand of a novice. This is not an expert we're talking about here. This whole talk about competitive battling is useless in this thread because OP isn't an experienced competitive battler.

95 HP, 79 Def, 100 Sp Def are all great, except that 4x weakness. Chances are the EVs will be all messed up and nowhere near the stage of "maxed out" EVs (not to mention that the IVs probably won't be too great either). So why bother with all that give OP's context when there are easier to use, less risky pokemon out there?

 

[Ninja Caterpie]

Because less risky often also means bad. They all do different jobs, Gyarados is about the best Water-type sweeper. If you're that scared, just go with Kingdra. >_>

And these pokemon are good when used by newbs and pros alike, usually. I mean, pros can get around the weakness by doing something smart, less-experienced players can just switch. :|

 

[jjnerdful]

Haha, less risky often means bad. Unfortunately, not the case in ingame. Hell, I even turned a Farfetch'd into something quasi-useful back in FR (note: in-game).

You'd be surprised at how many "less-experienced" players get screwed over by gyarados. I've seen many people going "OMG that [pokemon] can use thunderbolt???"
So unless the player is facing a very obvious electric pokemon like jolteon or pikachu, uncertainty can easily screw over people.

In Gen III when I did some competitive battling, I sometimes used Tauntrados against tanks and Scizor to beef up Machamp. So yes, I know at least a little of what 4x weak pokemon can do if it's used right.
Starmie could put up a good fight for that slot of being the best. (Perhaps you mean physical water sweeper?)

 

[Ninja Caterpie]

Set-up sweeper, I mean. And, tbh, the team needs a physical sweeper more than a special one, ja? :D

 

[Paulus magintie]

Is'nt Gyarados a dragon??? Well he can stand up to Ice attacks better than most dragons.

I faced lance last night my level 50 Kyogre against his lvl 68 gyarados. I landed an ice beam and did nothing to him. Now against his salamence i almost took it out in one shot.

Sure its weak against certain types thats why you either boost up its speed and attack. Or don't let him fight against his weakness.

 

[FerretFox41]

Gyarados is a Flying-Water type, or Water-Flying, although the order of the types doesn't really matter. Yes, he's very similar to a dragon, and he can learn Dragon-type moves, but he's not a Dragon-Type Pokemon.

And I was assuming that the original poster was knowledgeable in Pokemon because they're spending their free time on the Internet on a forum based on Pokemon, which makes me think that they probably know that Water-Flying is weak to Electric moves, and they shouldn't keep it in on an Electric-Type.

 

[jjnerdful]

With types no longer being affiliated with physical/special but individual moves being so, it probably would depend more on the team a person has (or I'm just really outdated for being out of competitive battling for so long).

Just think Charizard. Charizard's appearance is based on European mythology dragons (Gyarados on Asian mythology dragons), yet neither are dragon types.

Another example as to why I said you shouldn't assume anything but the least.