Seel- Lvl 18 (Female)
Careful Nature
Headbutt, Growl, Icy Wind
- Seriously considering breeding at Mauville for another Seel. Seriously. I've whined about Seel before, but it's just because words can't express my dissapointment in this Pokemon! I'm not sure if it's just the bad IV+Nature combo, or if Seel just sucks in general (someone tell me this isn't true!), but I'm tired of having to keep grinding this thing over and over again. The only small bit of praise I have for Seel right now is its HP and perhaps DEF & SPDEF. Something inside me is thinking tank, but Dewgong doesn't seem like the Pokemon for that job. We'll have to wait and see. Suggestions?
About your Seel...
First time I played Pearl, I ran it with a pre-chosen team of Gallade, Luxray, Honchkrow, Arcanine, Garchomp and - you guessed it - Dewgong. The reason I chose Dewgong was because I always loved that Pokemon from way back in my Red days, and I hadn't trained one since. Sadly it utterly failed to live up to my nostalgic expectations. I remember it being similarly impossible to raise at low levels.
Sadly it is a very defensive Pokemon, but even so its stats aren't that great. Mine's at Lv.55, and her stats are:
Nature: Relaxed
HP: 176
At: 89
Df: 117
SA:88
SD: 115
Sp: 87
-Aqua Tail
-Avalanche
-Ice Beam
-Surf
Pretty awesome movepool given that its stats lean towards it being a
weak mixed attacker, but sadly its stats are pretty poor. Compare that to my Luxray from that same runthrough. He's also at Lv.55, but his stats are as follows...
Nature: Hasty
HP: 165
At: 151
Df: 90
SA: 114
SD: 110
Sp: 106
-Spark
-Shock Wave (not sure why I never gave him Thunderbolt)
-Charge Beam
-Crunch
As you can see, the only real advantage Dewgong has over Luxray here is her higher HP, and even that's not much higher.
I think the be-all-and-end-all is that Dewgong is, sadly, not a very good Pokemon, as much as I love it. It was horribly affected by the Special split in Gen II. I hope you come to love yours though, like I still love mine, and hopefully it'll help to lower your expectations a bit... On the flipside, Magmar are awesome, and even more awesome when they become Magmortar (shame you're playing Gen III...).
Anyway, keep updating, I'm enjoying reading your impressions thus far!