Do you make your pokemon try to cover its own weakness or aim to cover party weaknesses?

[bajuwa]

For example if you have an electric pokemon that's weak to ground, would you:
A) make that pomemon learn a water move
B) have a water pokemon in the party ready to switch in

PS assume that you aren't allowed to switch pokemon once your opponent faints and declares their next pokemon.

 

[Relica]

I like having a fairly balanced team that's capable of responding to all situations if need be. I know it's truly impossible for one Pokemon to cover all of its weaknesses easily, so I rather go with option B overall, not that I haven't had Pokemon before that I've set up to counter their weaknesses, it's just more of team synergy thing for me.

 

[Pilkie]

I perfer to have a well balenced party that can cover my arse against any type as oppesed to putting all my chips into one Pokémon. I try to focus on training each individual pokémon to be effective using its STAB. I, of course, have a few much-purpose pokémon (ie: Torterra knowing bite to keep ghost a psychic pokémon at bay)

 

[acatfrommars]

I honestly do it differently each team. The most recent Pokemon game I have beaten was X and I trie to get other Pokemon to cover up each weakness. I tried to form my in game team in a way that I would use to battle competitively online. Weaknesses that Greninja had, I would try to cover up with Raichu or Snorlax.

 

[Boilurn]

I'd rather select a Pokemon than choose a move. If I'd chose a move on a checked Pokemon I might not realize it if the checker is simply faster than me and has its super-effective move to OHKO my Pokemon. To avoid checks is one of the reasons why we switch out during battling.

 

[Hiatus]

I try to do a bit of both. Whenever I put a new Pokémon on my team, I always make sure that it has an attack in its moveset to help protect itself, and also has a couple of moves that provide assistance to some of its fellow teammates. Let's say that I have a Gyarados on my team, whose major weakness would be electric-types. To counter electric, I would teach it Earthquake. With this move, it could take out any electric-type Pokémon within just a blink of an eye. Its other attacks would consist of Waterfall, Stone Edge, and perhaps Bounce. Waterfall should give it the chance to defeat any fire, rock, or ground-types, which my Pokémon would be super-effective to if they're either grass, ice, or steel. Stone Edge would allow it to take down flying-types, which could make any of my fighting Pokémon feel safer. Finally, with Bounce, Gyarados should be able to defeat a variety of fighting Pokémon. Once they're out of the way, none of my normal-types could ever be taken down. Well, they could, actually, but it'd just take a longer time for the opponent to beat them. xD

 

[Hikamaru]

Covering weaknesses is one of my OCD things when it comes to team building. Like, if I have a Water Pokemon I usually carry a Flying, Ground or Fire-type to counter its main weaknesses. Also, I tend to put a variety of moves on my Pokemon as well as covers for certain types.

 

[FSNW5yiFrXVXqv]

I try to "build it up" so it does what it can do best**, whilst covering up for another party member's weakness, if need be. In the end, the decisions I make depend on the current battle's flow -- whether or not I would switch to gain advantage is totally situational.

** This also means that it may or may not have a move covering it's own weakness. Depends on the pokemon.

 

[Nakala Pri]

I don't make my Pokemon learn different type moves. :P Well, if it's something like Hyper Fang, then of course! But otherwise, nah. :X

 

[Starry Windy]

I have a mixture of both, that sometimes I manage to give my Pokémon some moves to backing up if it happens to have type disadvantages, and I like variation of moves on my Pokémon, but mostly I resort to switch to another Pokémon which could handle it better.

 

[WhiteKnightL]

I just make my Pokemon as strong as possible. Depending on the stats, some switch out as soon the opponent brings out a stronger Pokemon while others stay in. A good example is my Conkeldurr. It can tank physical hits with the right EV investment and gave it Payback in order to surprise Ghost- and Psychic- types. (Note: Gave it a Smogon set but replaced Mach Punch for Payback)

 

[Vairan]

Out of habit every party member needs to be a dual type and i can't have 2 members have a same type. I can't have 2 with flying ect. Also i can't stand having normal on my team :/
I also try to have only one move of their type in their moveset. I'm not a comp battler but i like the idea of being versatile.

 

[PumpJack]

Kinda both. If it can learn a decent move that helps cover its most obvious weakness (lessay a Fire type trying to cover its Water weakness), I'll go ahead an teach it that.

But I also try to make sure that my team covers as many bases as possible. Just common sense, really. Don't want to end up in an online match or deep inside some cave just to get jumped by something that you have no real way to deal with.

I learned that the hard way the first time I ran into a Wooper- didn't know it was dual type, so I figured that I could send my Mareep out and hand its ass to him.


BUT I WAS WRONG, WASN'T I.

 

[EB]

I like having all four in my moveset available for either sweeping or setups. I don't play competitively (yet), so that's probably why having each pkmn fend for itself hasn't become something habitual.

 

[Firox]

Since I play with my favorite Pokemon, so weakness at times is a big issue for me at times. I know I can't cover all of them. I always try to teach my 'normal type' Pokemon an attack or 2 (either by TM or Move Tutor - many normal types can learn attacks from other types) from another type to try and cover the weakness.

One example that comes to my mind: My #1 favorite Pokemon is fighting-type (Mienshao) so I know it's weak to psychic and flying (and fairy for gen 6), since none of the psychic (before gen 6 that is) or flying type Pokemon I like - I'll rely on one of my normal type Pokemon to cover for both flying and psychic types

Spoiler:

my example would be Watchog, I would teach it a TM for electric move like Thunder to take down flying, and a dark move like bite to take down the psychic Pokemon - hope my example helps a bit

.

Poll: it would be closer to the second choice, (75%) but also partial first choice too (35%). So went with the second option

 

[Arma]

Why not both? I mean, I try to have as much coverage as possible when picking a moveset. I don't usually pay that much attention to my team's types, if they look cool, and are able to pull their own weight, I'll gladly train 'em Maybe that's why half of my current team is weak against ice

 

[Shirayuki-san]

No, I usually make a balanced team wherein one covers another's weakness. There was this one time that I fought someone with the same strategy as me and we wasted several turns switching pokemon to counter each other. lol.

 

[Kikaito plush]

I just make that pokemon learn a move to cover that weakness.

 

[Palmer-Granate]

I consider each talent of the individuals, and I roll with the battles. The key is to have more than one prime attack. (The Prime Attack should be of the matching type. eg: Blastoise should have Surf.) If you have a fighter w/ his Prime Matching Attack, he should have another attack, one nearly or more powerful than the Prime, like Skull Bash. It's Normal, but it still has a lot to offer in terms of sheer power, I will accept it as 'Prime Attack', yeah.

Weakness is where you see it. If you lose, reform your team, re-level and try again. Type differences is one of the key elements of the series, it's universal.

 

[KittenKoder]

Depends on the stat spread. I only use those with two types, and always try to ensure they have one of each move with STAB. This maximizes the move set for the team, and many of them will have non-STAB moves of other types as well.

For EVs, training is always catered to each pokemon, sometimes it's maxed HP and defenses split, sometimes it's maxed attack or satk and speed, depends on what it's weaknesses are and if you can feasibly predict what is most likely to pose a threat.

Some type combinations it's very easy to predict which defense is most valuable, in which case I try to maximize the EVs for that and add one status affliction move to the move set. For IVs, well, I breed with highest IVs in all but the least important stats, usually at least maxed IVs.