In-game movesets

[Raburesu]

Seeing your team slowly come together over the course of a Pokémon game is really satisfying, but the way moves are learned, as well as their limited accessibility, means you'll be using suboptimal sets for a large part of the game. But does that really matter, given the low difficulty of the games?

How do you guys feel about in-game movesets? Do you go to great lengths to give your Pokés awesome sets? Do you breed for Egg Moves? Do you include HMs on actual team members instead of just on slaves?

In my current playthrough of Soul Silver, I spent HOURS on Voltorb Flip to give my Nidoqueen, DairyQueenII, Ice Beam, Thunderbolt and Flamethrower :) She's only four levels away from Earth Power!

 

[Hiatus]

In-game, I don't tend to put much thought on my Pokémon's move-sets, and allow them to learn attacks naturally. For my competitive team, however, that's sort of a different story; I do take my time on considering what sort of moves my Pokémon would or would not learn, and try my best to make sure that these moves work well together. In the competitive scene, this matters a lot.

 

[Raburesu]

But only attacking moves. I see status moves as super pointless in casual play. It's just time wasting to me. :(

This is a good point. I'll sometimes include status moves on Pokémon who have few options, especially in earlier generations, though it's mostly offensive moves for my in-game sets. Also, I'll always make sure to have a Sleep-inducer for Legendaries, and the odd problem Poké, like, say, Cynthia's Milotic.

 

[Drayton]

I always go for good amount of raw power and a bit of stats boosters or status inducing moves, heck the world of pokemon is pretty tough even you don't battle competitively, you still need to act competitively to overwhelm your opponent with a devastating boost and status problems. Most people play casually just straight using damaging moves instead using status inducing moves, well I'm not that kind of people though just imagine facing elite four/champion/rematching gym leaders/rivals, you need to think competitively instead relaying on raw power and recoveries to fade your troubles.

 

[Raburesu]

I forbid myself from using items in battles, and I play every Pokémon game on Set, so I tend to need some fairly competitive movesets :)