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Please rate my team / give advice

  • 44
    Posts
    14
    Years
    • Seen May 28, 2013
    Well I'm posting because I'm struggling whether to reformulate my team. I've got some new pokemon I kinda want to add but I'm unsure about that.
    BTW I've just beat Ghetsis.
    My Team after E4 (the items are not fixed):

    Samurott Lv. 53 @ Rocky Helmet
    Torrent, Hasty nature
    -Surf
    -Revenge
    -Aqua Jet
    -Razor Shell (is Aqua Tail better?)

    Chandelure Lv 54 @ Spell Tag / Charcoal / Whatever
    Flame Body, Timid nature
    -Will-O-Wisp
    -Flame Burst
    -Curse
    -Hex

    Galvantula Lv 53 @ Silver Powder / Bright Powder
    Compoundeyes, Timid nature
    -Thunder Wave
    -Signal Beam
    -Electro Ball (for more PP)
    -Thunder

    Mienshao Lv 55 @ Big Root / None (when I expect to use Acrobatics)
    Regenerator, Jolly nature
    -Acrobatics
    -U-turn
    -Drain Punch
    -Jump kick

    Zweilous Lv 51 @ BlackGlasses
    Hustle, Naive Nature
    -Crunch
    -Dragon Rush (gonna replace this)
    -Dragon Pulse
    -Body Slam

    Archeops Lv 53 @ No item
    Defeatist, Jolly nature
    -Crunch
    -Acrobatics
    -Dragon Claw
    -Rock Slide

    That Zweilous has recently replaced Krookodile since Hydreigon is stronger and cooler. I'm also thinking of adding Zekrom (also because of its looks). What should I replace? Besides, the national Pokemon (e.g. Kingdra) are great too, shall I modify my team? Thanks a lot.
     
    Your team is pretty good with overall coverage and beating things, but the one thing it does lack, is bulk. Most of your Pokemon are somewhat frail. There's no one Pokemon in particular that would fix your team, but I do have a few suggested moveset changes. You really should swap Curse for Energy Ball, Chandelure is too frail to be a good curse user, anyways. Aqua Tail outclasses Razor Shell, so I suggest you equip your Samurott with that. Finally, you should give Hydreigon special moves. I'd suggest Dark Pulse over crunch, Fire Blast over Dragon Rush and Focus Blast over body slam.
     
    Well thanks a lot. I realize that I seldom planned the team as a whole - I just went with the sweepers. I'll consider adding more bulk when I go through eastern Unova.

    Edit: Oh what about Kingdra? I've just caught one.
     
    Well I'm posting because I'm struggling whether to reformulate my team. I've got some new pokemon I kinda want to add but I'm unsure about that.
    BTW I've just beat Ghetsis.
    My Team after E4 (the items are not fixed):

    Ok, well firstly, either go with Zekrom or Hydreigon or Kingdra, due to them all being dragon-type.I'm not very good with Gen V yet, so no item comments, just moves.

    Samurott Lv. 53 @ Rocky Helmet
    Torrent, Hasty nature
    -Surf
    -Revenge
    -Aqua Jet
    -Razor Shell (is Aqua Tail better?)

    It would appear that you are going for a physical-based Samurott. In that case, try this:

    Megahorn / Revenge / Aqua Jet / Razor Shell

    Ok, sure Waterfall is more accurate, and Aqua Tail has more power, however Razor Shell has a 50% chance of lowering your target's defence, meaning that if you don't manage to KO it with Razor Shell, Aqua Jet will almost certainly pick it off with the defence drop, and most likely will even if it doesn't drop. Also, I would use Life Orb when you find one (it's listed as "Battle Subway" on Bulbapedia). The Hp drop may actually come in handy, as whilst Samurott isn't bulky, it isn't a glass cannon either, so using Life Orb will drop your Hp into Torrent levels faster, further boosting Aqua Jet.

    Megahorn can be tutored with a Heart Scale. Retaliate is also an option instead of Revenge, and you could use Swords Dance instead of Aqua Jet.


    On the other hand, Samurott's special attack is actually its' best stat, so you could try a special-based set of:

    / Ice Beam / Grass Knot / Round

    However, Round is a horrendous move...when I had a Samurott, I tried a pretty successful mixed moveset:

    Surf / Ice Beam / Grass Knot / Megahorn

    Surf is super-powerful STAB, Ice Beam takes on flying-types and dragons, Grass Knot hits the heavy pokémon hard, and Megahorn takes on grass-types, psychic-types and dark-types (just don't pit it against Cheren's Serperior without a Focus Sash). Retaliate could be used over Grass Knot to take advantage of Samurott's middling speed.

    Sorry about the wall of text, that's just my ideas on Samurott.

    Chandelure Lv 54 @ Spell Tag / Charcoal / Whatever
    Flame Body, Timid nature
    -Will-O-Wisp
    -Flame Burst
    -Curse
    -Hex

    Tbh, Hex is unreliable. Curse ruins one of Chandelure's strengths - its bulk. Flame Body is enough to burn, you need to take advantage of Chandelure's offensive movepool. For a special sweeper, try this:

    Flamethrower / Shadow Ball / Energy Ball / Psychic

    This gives you super-effective hits on: Grass, Bug, Steel, Ghost, Psychic, Water, Rock, Ground, Fighting, Poison. Therefore Expert Belt would be a good item, boosting the power of your many super-effective moves. Calm Mind would be an option over Psychic to boost your Special stats.

    On the other hand, there is also another, more risky alternative:

    Holding Toxic Orb
    Flamethrower / Hex / Pain Split / Protect


    With Toxic Orb's "badly poisoned" effect, Hex's power is doubled to 100, giving you a base power 100 STAB attack. Flamethrower is your other STAB, and Protect can be used to prevent any damage on the first turn, whilst waiting for Toxic Orb to activate. Pain Split could be used for healing and damaging your opponent. However, the Toxic effect means that Chandelure will not survive very long, even with Pain Split. This is more of a high-risk, high-return strategy.

    Galvantula Lv 53 @ Silver Powder / Bright Powder
    Compoundeyes, Timid nature
    -Thunder Wave
    -Signal Beam
    -Electro Ball (for more PP)
    -Thunder

    I would suggest this moveset:

    Energy Ball / Bug Buzz / Electro Ball / Discharge or Thunderbolt

    Electro Ball is good, however you need something more reliable for decently fast opponents, I would suggest Discharge (learnt at level 54)or Thunderbolt, the former for Paralysis and advantage in double-battles, the latter for sheer power. Bug Buzz (learnt at level 60), is better than Signal Beam. Energy Ball gives you a good hit on ground-type and rock-types, many of whom are specially weak, and often threaten with super-effective attacks such as Earthquake.

    I'm not sure how Electro Ball's power is calculated, if it's on actual in-battle stats, not base stats, then Agility would be good. However, for safety, stick to something similar to my suggestion.

    Mienshao Lv 55 @ Big Root / None (when I expect to use Acrobatics)
    Regenerator, Jolly nature
    -Acrobatics
    -U-turn
    -Drain Punch
    -Jump kick

    I would suggest this:

    U-turn / Jump Kick / Stone Edge / Acrobatics (Bounce when you learn it).

    These just seem like some of the best options, particularly as Hi Jump Kick is too risky compared to ordinary Jump Kick. U-turn works well with Regenerator.

    Zweilous Lv 51 @ BlackGlasses
    Hustle, Naive Nature
    -Crunch
    -Dragon Rush (gonna replace this)
    -Dragon Pulse
    -Body Slam

    Right, well, upon viewing your team as a whole Hydreigon is much better for you than Zekrom or Kingdra - Zekrom would make the team too special-based (and you already have an electric-type), and Kingdra gets incredibly similar coverage to Hydreigon, just slightly less powerfully, with slightly less variation.

    I would try this:

    Dragon Pulse or Draco Meteor / Flamethrower / Focus Blast / Surf

    Sadly, without breeding Hydreigon cannot take advantage of its' dual STAB with Dark Pulse. The choice between Dragon Pulse and Draco Meteor depends on how long you want to stay in battle for, if it's a hit-and-run pokémon, you could use Draco Meteor, and give it a Choice Scarf for more speed. If you want to stay in and sweep, use Dragon Pulse to avoid the special attack drop, and use Life Orb, Expert Belt or Wise Glasses.


    Archeops Lv 53 @ No item
    Defeatist, Jolly nature
    -Crunch
    -Acrobatics
    -Dragon Claw
    -Rock Slide

    I'd suggest:

    Crunch / Earthquake / Dragon Claw / Stone Edge

    Oh god, Defeatist is horrible. Therefore, screw Acrobatics, give it Leftovers for some recovery. Crunch and Dragon Claw are good, I'd give it Earthquake and Stone Edge as the other options.

    Hope this is helpful.
     
    Wow, thanks for all this advice. It's sad that I'll have to wait a long time before I can get moves like Energy Ball and Psychic (I like them too). Bounce, Bug Buzz etc belong to the future too. I'll try to train harder.
    I'm just wondering, is Bounce reliable enough? I didn't like it very much when I put it on my Rapidash in Gen IV. Also, I totally prefer Thunder on Galvantula (91% is really acceptable) to Discharge/Thunderbolt. Hmm.
    By the way, I think I'll probably come up with something to replace that Defeatist guy...if there is something better.
    Anyway thanks again.

    Edit: Galvantula has Compoundeyes. So Thunder is a must-have, I think.
     
    Last edited:
    Psychic is a tm, as is Energy Ball, and tms are, of course, reusable now...hopefully you can find them soon :)

    Uhh...Thunder has 70% accuracy, unless I'm missing something...unless it's accompanied by Rain Dance, where it becomes 100% accurate.

    If you still want a rock-type, you could try Gigalith...for something faster, you could try Sawk, who is extremely powerful and fast. Golurk and Bisharp are other options.
     
    Hmm...I was thinking about getting an Aerodactyl in place of Archeops, but as Karpman said, it's too frail for my team...I'm now training up a Togetic, Togekiss was my favourite back in Platinum. Bisharp is a good choice too, if I dropped the Zweilous, it may be my option.

    As for curse, I actually depended on it when I defeated Iris. I sacrificed Chandelure to burn and curse that mad Haxorus, otherwise I couldn't win.
     
    Last edited:
    As Karpman also pointed out...Chandelure is too frail to use Curse to its' full (the best use of Curse is when you can then heal off the damage whilst they lose 1/4 of their total health each turn).

    Personally I would go Togekiss > Zweilous, as it can't get the best dark-type move for it (Dark Pulse) unless you breed it. Which is annoying to do.

    Braviary is an option, you could run something like this:

    Superpower / Brave Bird / U-Turn / Return (Crush Claw until it hits max. happiness)

    However, with both Braviary and Togekiss, you would be electric-weak.

    Krookodile is actually pretty good, or you could use Excadrill.

    So, personally, I'd replace Zweilous with Togekiss and run a set like this (make sure the ability is Serene Grace):

    Air Slash / Nasty Plot / Aura Sphere / Roost - coverage, boosting and healing. Plus flinch chances from Air Slash.

    I'd also swap Archeops for either Krookodile or Excadrill (both have similar weaknesses, although Excadrill resists Bug) and run either:

    Krookodile - Earthquake / Crunch / Stone Edge / Outrage - holding a Lum Berry
    This has brilliant coverage - only Steel resists Outrage, which Earthquake hits super-effectively. Crunch is STAB, Stone Edge hits Ice and Flying for you. Lum Berry heals off one round of Outrage confusion.

    OR

    Excadrill - Earthquake / Swords Dance / Rock Slide / X-Scissor
    Swords Dance boosts, Earthquake is STAB, Rock Slide hits flying-types, X-Scissor hits grass-types (between X-Scissor and Rock Slide, the only two types that hit for normal damage are hit super-effectively)
     
    Actually in several days' time I've already arrived at Lacunosa and had some new choices.
    First, my Togekiss is at Lv 51 already.
    It has Air Slash, Aura Sphere, Wish and Flamethrower (temporary)
    I thought Togekiss can't get Roost in Gen V anymore? And would you tell me how to breed it Nasty Plot?

    Second, I've bred a Psycho-cutting Pawniard, mainly due to my team's lack of dark and steel types.
    If I'm using it, I'm going to give it Iron Head, Psycho Cut, Night Slash and Rock Polish or Swords Dance.

    Lastly, I've also obtained a Nidoking. It's at Lv 20+ and has Earthquake, Poison Jab, Chip Away and Double Kick. That's because my team has neither a poison-type (since I'd ditched Scolipede) nor a Pokemon that can use Earthquake.

    As for Krookodile, I had once used it until I got Deino. I have to admit it hits hard and fast. I just stuffed it into the PC because of Deino (and partly of its looks, which I couldn't stand :P). Excadrill is strong too, just a bit slow. Both are solid choices for my ground-type slot. I'll consider them.
     
    Okay, well, Togekiss can get Nasty Plot off: Honchkrow, Minun, Plusle. You can find Minun in White as a swarm, although awkwardly they only learn it at level 56. The same for Plusle, except on Black (you have White though, right?). Murkrow can only be found in Black, although if you got one, Honchkrow learns it at level 35.
    ...so that's highly impractical.

    For Bisharp, I'm going to suggest you forgo Iron Head for Stone Edge, giving you more power against Fire-types. As for Rock Polish / Swords Dance...up to you, although you could always keep Iron Head and swap Stone Edge in over your boosting move.

    Oh god, why was your Nidoking evolved so young? Thrash is the first exceptionally good move it learns, and that's at level 35.

    Depending on the nature, however, you could run physical, special of mixed:

    Physical: Earthquake / Stone Edge / Megahorn / Sucker Punch

    Sucker Punch can be bred from many things, such as Purrloin / Liepard. Megahorn is level 58, the other two are tms.

    Special: Earth Power / Ice Beam / Thunderbolt / Shadow Ball

    Earth Power at level 43, 3 tms.

    Mixed: Earth Power or Earthquake / Ice Beam / Thunderbolt / Superpower or Shadow Ball.

    The choice of ground-type move depends on the nature: unless it's -attack (in which case you should re-breed) or +special attack, go Earthquake. If you go for Earth Power, Superpower hasn't such bad sideffects, if you go Earthquake, choose Shadow Ball. Or you could work it backwards (i.e. "I want Superpower, therefore I will use Earth Power).

    If you dislike Krookodile and Excadrill, then that's fair. I'm not forcing you to do anything, just giving you my suggestions. I once had a Mixed Nidoking running Earth Power / Thunderbolt / Ice Beam / Superpower. It's only ever fainted once, and it's played on Diamond, Platinum, HeartGold, Battle Revolution and Black. Trust me, they're good

    p.s. Make sure Nidoking has Poison Point. Much better than Rivalry.
     
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