Entry tags:
Pokemon SoulSilver Special Aside 7: Every move you make creates your destiny
We--or at least I--apparently am in the kind of mood to analyze and plan out Pokemon movesets. I've actually quite enjoyed doing so for the new recruits in all of their introductory entries (well, almost all of them; I forgot to do that for Badgertwo.) In fact, I enjoyed it so much that I'm now thinking of going back and reevaluating the entire rest of the team. You know, while we're here.
I think half of it is that our options have expanded. We ran into a lot of issues where getting that move would involve being tutored from the Battle Frontier or getting a TM that's like 10,000 Coins in the Game Corner or something, and those systems are bullshit. Before, that meant settling for what we could get without them. However, as seen in part 21, I have now changed my mind on those two specific hurdles in particular; the Battle Frontier and 10K+ Coins in Voltorb Flip are such bullshit that I'm just cheating for them, because fuck that. Thus, those options are back on the table now. (Everything else--Pokewalker unlocks, even Pokeathlon points--we're still doing legitimately for now. Hell, even something like 4,000 Game Corner Coins for a Swords Dance TM isn't too bad; we could do that, maybe. But 10K for Thunderbolt? Fuck the you.)
So, the team has build options now that they didn't before, especially post-National Dex. Also, I'm just in a mood to analyze builds anyway, and... I dunno, maybe I made some move-based decisions back then that I just feel like we could do better on now. Whatever the reason, I just felt like now was the time to revisit everyone's builds with fresh eyes. join us as we now analyze the current movesets and possible changes we could make for the entire old guard party.
Listed in the form of:
Pokemon name
Pokemon species
Whether their Attack or Special Attack are significantly better (and thus whether build options should favor Physical or Special moves)
Current Moveset
Held Item
---TIER 1: THE ACTIVE PARTY---
(The ones we're still using first and foremost on the front lines; expect every session to start with forming a team of Drake and Bladewings plus any four of the following, depending on what we're up against/who needs to be leveled/etc.)
Her Imperial Majesty, Moonchild, the Chikoritalike Empress:
Meganium
Attack and Special Attack are basically identical
Current moveset: Magical Leaf/Safeguard/Reflect/Light Screen
Held item: Light Clay
Moonchild's whole deal for a good portion of the game now has been "set up whatever screens protect from the exact thing this trainer will be hammering us with--physical or special damage or status annoyance--and then switch to the sweepers." That part I'm still content with and plan to keep. The problem is Magical Leaf, which is her one STAB to defend herself, maybe for grinding and getting through long dungeons and such. That one was definitely a "best we could do" pick from a pool of options that are less limited now.
The best Grass move she can get not counting the ones with drawbacks that are too steep to be worth it (the windup turn on SolarBeam, the being-locked-into-it of Petal Dance) is Energy Ball, which we previously passed on because it was a Battle Frontier TM. The rest of her moveset is fine, but upgrading Magical Leaf to Energy Ball now that we stopped playing fair on that particular front is exactly the kind of overlooked stuff we expected to root out now that we're doing a closer review on everyone.
Energy Ball/Safeguard/Reflect/Light Screen, basically nothing's changing but finally getting the upgrade on that Grass move, still the best girl.
Oracle
Glaceon
Special Attack is literally double his Attack; obvious Special Specialist
Current moveset: Ice Beam/Hidden Power (Fighting)/Hail/Blizzard
Held item: Black Belt
We've explained the logic behind this moveset before, and honestly, it's fine and doesn't need adjusting at this time. The held item, maybe, but ehh.
Falkor
Dragonite
Special Attack isn't awful, but Attack is significantly better and physical moves are thus strongly preferred
Current moveset: Dragon Claw/Draco Meteor/Fire Punch/Dragon Dance
Held item: Currently none
The most obvious issue at this point is that someone with such a clear physical advantage (she currently has 172 Atk vs. 128 SpA) is running Draco Meteor, but... honestly, 128 SpA isn't a dump stat or anything. That's better than the actual primary stat of a lot of her teammates. 128 is more than enough to make a Draco Meteor hurt, possibly as much as Dragon Claw after accounting for how much more powerful the move itself is, even if it really looks like Falkor wants to make everything physical. That's probably why we ended up running it at first.
Dragon Claw probably is still the safest and most reliable "just Dragon something as hard as you can" STAB move that doesn't start getting into some serious drawbacks. Outrage was the "much much stronger, but at a cost" option with the locking-in and self-confusion effects that ultimately made it lose out to Dragon Claw... but if we're already running what I'm now calling the "Old Reliable and Panic Button" set (a weaker but more reliable/less drawback-y/higher PP/etc. STAB move for most of the time plus another STAB of the same type that's stronger and riskier for bosses and such,) then maybe we were looking at this setup wrong. Outrage isn't fighting Dragon Claw for the Old Reliable slot; it's fighting Draco Meteor for the Panic Button slot.
As far as Dragonite's other STAB... I'm sorry, but all of Dragonite's Flying options in Gen IV are awful. Like, Wing Attack is about the best it can do. Let's just not bother with these.
Falkor is very weak to Ice (4x) and normal-level weak to Dragon and Rock. As far as her outgoing damage, the only element in Gen 4 that resists Dragon-type attacks is Steel. Fire Punch is an obvious choice to cover the Ice and Steel, Dragon covers itself, and options for Rock include Superpower, Earthquake, Iron Tail/Steel Wing, and Aqua Tail. Falkor also happens to have a 51-power Grass Hidden Power, but... really, whenever you have a list like this and Earthquake is an option, especially on someone who prefers physical attacks, then it kind of doesn't matter what her Hidden Power looks like; someone said "Earthquake," say no more. Even though we were just talking about an Old Reliable and Panic Button setup on the Dragon side, and this would therefore be where Outrage goes... come on, it's Earthquake.
Falkor can learn Swords Dance, and a double-Attack-up boost on that already monstrous Attack stat with equally-monstrous physical moves is terrifying. On the other hand, she already has Dragon Dance. Is 2 Attack boosts better than 1 Attack and 1 Speed? It might not be; the Speed buffs are good for sweeping, too.
Thus, we're left with Dragon Claw/Earthquake/Fire Punch/(Dragon Dance or Swords Dance), probably.
Auryn
Starmie
Attack isn't awful but this is still clearly meant to be a Special Attacker, especially with Bold nature
Current moveset: Surf/Psychic/Swift/Confuse Ray
Held item: Wise Glasses
Honestly, Auryn's job is to kill things weak to Surf and/or Psychic with Surf and/or Psychic; the other two moves are dressing and we forgot what they even were before doing this entry. That said, there is some room for improvement here. Swift could be replaced with something that provides weakness coverage--Signal Beam for incoming Dark and Grass types, perhaps. Too bad we didn't pick up Power Gem while it was still a Staryu, but I think it's probably too late to go back for that now. Smogon recommends Thunderbolt or Ice Beam but they're usually looking more at "this move lets this mon serve as a check against this one very specific other mon that's rampant in the meta right now" rather than a general-use PvE builds.
For the last move, Recover is the standard but, again, that's usually for the meta. In PvE, we can just use potions on it when it's hurt. The fourth slot is thus a filler move, but... I don't know, Confuse Ray might slow down a dangerous wall or something, maybe. Or, I guess the other option if both of the final moves are "eh, filler, put whatever here I guess" slots is that there is then room for a Substitute/Recover set, but, again, we can use items in single-player.
Surf/Psychic/Signal Beam/(Confuse Ray or Substitute) is probably fine.
Omnihunter
Scizor
Attack is more than twice the Special Attack and nature is Brave; this bug is very much for physical moves only
Current moveset: Bullet Punch/Slash/X-Scissor/False Swipe
Held item: Quick Claw
Maybe Omnihunter doesn't need the Quick Claw as much as some of the other slow mons if one of his moves has prioirity anyway, but ehhh.
So, this set is kind of a mess, but we are keeping False Swipe for field capturing purposes rather than going for a full four-move mon who's here to sweep gyms and nothing else. This is more a question of what to do with the other three moves in his case.
Bullet Punch is fine. Its 40 power doesn't sound like a lot, but after STAB and Technician, plus Omnihunter's rather absurd Attack stat, let's just say he knows how to make it hurt. And hey, it's even a priority move.
For his other STAB, it turns out that a Technician-boosted Bug Bite actually beats X-Scissor, 90 to 80. It even adds in that "eats your opponent's berry if they have one" effect, too, and it has more PP. So, that's not a pros-and-cons choice; that's just a straight up pure upgrade that we'll be pursuing at our earliest opportunity.
Scizor has exactly one weakness, but it's a big one: 4x to Fire. Omnihunter doesn't want to bother with counter-counter coverage. Omnihunter only has one counter, and when he runs into that counter, he wants to GTFO. He can get STAB on a U-Turn to that end, perhaps, and Bugsy even showed us how powerful that move could be. On the other hand, he'll also learn Swords Dance in a few levels. Running both of those as the final two moves would be ideal on a pure gym bug, but since we want to keep False Swipe for catching stuff, then we will have to decide between them.
Bullet Punch/Bug Bite/(U-Turn or Swords Dance)/False Swipe, in other words.
Badgertwo
Currently Shroomish, but will be a Breloom soon
Literally was bred in an attempt to create the ultimate physical-only super soldier, including Adamant nature and a 29 Attack stat IV
Current moveset: Stun Spore/Headbutt/Seed Bomb/Facade
Held item: Currently Exp. Share since he's growing and all; will be Toxic Orb when he's ready
Badgertwo is the one member of the new recruits whose moveset I didn't cover in his bio/introduction, which is a shame, because I'm very happy with it. He's already halfway there with Seed Bomb and Facade; the other two will be replaced by Spore (when he levels up high enough for Shroomish to learn it) and Focus Punch (as soon as he evolves into Breloom and thus becomes compatible with the TM, which will probably be mere seconds after he finally learns Spore. WHY DOES HE HAVE TO SHROOMISH SO MUCH, LEARN SPORE FASTER AND BRE A LOOM ALREADY)
Spore is a 100% accurate Sleep-inducer. Focus Punch is a negative priority (that is, it always goes last) Fighting STAB with a whopping 150 Power--that's comparable to Hyper Beam or Giga Impact, mind you, and it's going off Badgertwo's already obscene Attack stat plus STAB--with the catch that it fails if he's hit before it goes off. Charge, wait for opponent to move, FALCON PAWNCH if not interrupted. Of course, therein lies the synergy: He'll never be interrupted thanks to Spore. Once he uses Spore, he's guaranteed a free Focus Punch the next round. After all, what's the enemy going to do? It won't wake up and attack literally the next turn after being put to sleep, so that's a free turn with nothing to interrupt him. Even if a gym leader/Elite Four/whatever trainer uses a status cure or even switches out, hey, guess what, those are all things that don't attack Badgertwo that round so they still don't interrupt Focus Punch. Even in the Smogon meta, its only real counter is that it's so predictable (oh, a Breloom used Spore, I wonder what's it'll do next round) that one's opponent gets a free switch-in into something with a strong Fighting resistance or immunity, like a Ghost type. This, of course, does not happen in PvE. Nothing stops Spore Punching in PvE; it kind of breaks the single-player campaign in half, last we checked.
Seed Bomb is its other, Grassier STAB, so that, you know, he has STAB-fueled Grass coverage.
Facade is there for the same reason he's holding a Toxic Orb: Poison Heal. Thanks to his ability, Badgertwo regenerates HP instead of losing it when poisoned or badly poisoned. Thus, a Toxic Orb in Badgertwo's hands is essentially Leftovers with extra steps involved. Meanwhile, while he enjoys that free HP regen effect, the fact that he's technically poisoned also activates and doubles Facade's power, giving him another move in the quite frankly lewd 140s range. Not only that, it even makes him immune to paralysis, burns, freezing, and sleep, since one can only have one non-volatile status ailment at a time in Pokemon games. Sorry, no room to paralyze/burn/freeze/sleep him if he's already poisoned!
So, yeah, we've got plans for this guy. Spore/Focus Punch/Seed Bomb/Facade-shaped plans, to be precise. He just needs a little more time to grow into them.
Priscilla
Flygon
Special Attack isn't completely unusable but physical Attack is definitely the clear focus
Current moveset: Earthquake/Dragon Claw/Fire Punch/ThunderPunch
Held item: Muscle Band
The first three moves of her moveset are perfect. Earthquake and Dragon Claw for STABbing things to death, Fire Punch for Priscilla's Ice weakness (though at 4x, she might just prefer to get out of there anyway) and (more practically) for Steel types that have a way to cover their own Ground weakness with levitation or being half-Flying or something--Magnezone, Skarmory, Bronzong. The fourth and final move we weren't sure on at the time, and we ended up defaulting to ThunderPunch for "because it was right there" reasons more than anything else. At this point, I kind of like the idea I came up with when musing about Falkor's moveset. Falkor didn't end up having the extra slot in her moveset for an Old Reliable and Panic Button setup, but hey, guess what? Priscilla essentially has a fourth slot she's not using. She can put Outrage there.
So, Earthquake/Dragon Claw/Fire Punch/Outrage, probably. It's hard for her to run a fourth move when the first three are perfect and have everything covered, but that's the perfect opportunity to try an OR&PB setup out.
Rock Biter
Magnezone
More than twice as much Special Attack as Attack plus a Modest nature; this thing will never know a physical move
Current moveset: Charge Beam/Thunderbolt/Hidden Power (62 power, Grass type)/Thunder Wave
Held item: Currently Lucky Egg because we're leveling the thing. May switch to a Power Lens or something for further training. No idea what to do when it's time for the actual final beneficial accessory.
Rock Biter is going to learn Magnet Rise to counteract its otherwise crippling 4x Ground weakness once it's high enough level to do so. Magnet Rise will replace Thunder Wave when that happens. Other than that, this set is perfect.
Gmork
Houndour for now but will be a Houndoom someday
Most of this line are close enough Atk/SpA-wise to make a mixed set work but this one has gone all in on Special-only, complete with Modest nature
Currenet moveset: Fire Blast/Dark Pulse/SolarBeam/Sunny Day
Held item: Currently an Exp. Share because he's growing; unsure what will eventually go here
After a long discussion with![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
penguinmayhem, we narrowed Gen 4 Houndoom's set options down to (Fire Blast/Dark Pulse/SolarBeam/Sunny Day) for SunnyBeam shenanigans or (Fire Blast/Dark Pulse/Flamethrower/Nasty Plot) for an across the board special self-buff and three STABs said buff would boost. Running Old Reliable and Panic Button sets appears to be my new fetish, you see, judging from how Falkor almost got one and Priscilla did.
The thing about that is that, for the SunnyBeam set, that's what Gmork already has right now. For the Pure Dark Burnination set, though, he'll learn Flamethrower by level at 43 and Nasty Plot at 53, assuming we keep him in puppy form until then. As a full-grown Houndoom, those become 48 and 60, respectively.
Don't get me wrong; I think the latter set won out in the end, and I think that's going to be the moveset he's going to have. He just has some growing to do until he gets there, is all and I guess nothing to do but run plan A until he does.
---TIER 2: THE SEMI-RETIRED PARTY---
(These ones are effectively replaced from most day to day activities and probably won't be appearing in most sessions going forward. However, they're still there as reserve units if we're going against... I don't know... maybe a specific type gym where we'll want all units capable of facing X specific challenge? Something where the new units would be these guys' teammates rather than their replacements.)
Nimbly
Honchkrow
Attack is higher than better than Special Attack but not by a lot; either are fine and mixed builds would work
Current moveset: Night Slash/Astonish/Haze/Wing Attack
Held item: Currently none
Okay, this moveset is a mess, partly because I kind of knew Nimbly's days in Tier 1 were numbered anyway. I guess I didn't feel like it was worth investing TMs and such (especially one-of-a-kind ones) in her when all we needed to do was have something good enough to get past the Johto League and then we'd have Gmork from then on anyway. Still, there has to be something we can do for her. She's been so good and loyal, she's part of the Neverending Six, and God, she deserves it. Hell, maybe we can even rehabilitate her some--like, maybe she'd still be in Tier 1 if she had better moves. Of course she's not going to be the deadliest mon on our team when she's packing that set, you know? At least let her be viewed in her best light before we can make that judgment.
The problem with Honchkrow is that its best Flying STAB by far (like, to the point you could argue "best" is a euphemism for "only good") is Brave Bird or at least Drill Peck, both of which are breeding moves. We may be willing to cheat to get Battle Frontier TMs/move tutors and things like that, but if the best way to improve Nimbly is to breed her and raise an entirely new Honchkrow that isn't Nimbly, that's... uh... that's not what we're looking to accomplish, here. That said, we could be persuaded that "Just PKHeX Brave Bird/Drill Peck onto her" is no more heinous a cheat in response to bullshit than helping ourselves to the spoils of the Battle Frontier and Game Corner.
Barring that, her best physical Flying STAB is... uh... Pluck? Aerial Ace? Both have the same power as Wing Attack but at least have some extra effects (the berry-eating thing and always hitting, respectively.) If going Special, then... Air Cutter? Look, Honchkrow is crippled by what it can actually do as a Flying Type if you don't breed better moves onto it, okay.
Her other options are good, though, especially as someone who could make a mixed attacker. I think we were focused on giving her physical moves because her Attack is higher, but bear in mind that she learns Nasty Plot (but not Swords Dance.) That is more than enough to make up the seven points or so her SpA is currently behind. In fact, making her a pure Special Attacker would pair well with Nasty Plot powering up... well, everything, as opposed to a mixed set where Nasty Plot would only power up certain moves.
For her Dark STAB, Dark Pulse comes by level (no need for another TM,) has more power than Night Slash, and can be Nasty Plotted; easy upgrade there... unless we're staying physical. Physically, we can either keep Night Slash or try Payback, depending on how often we think Honchkrow will be outsped. (Maybe this would be a rare use for the Lagging Tail on a non-Fling/Trick/etc. set?) Or, conversely, Sucker Punch if we want to try to get the first word in instead, though that involves some guesswork since it fails if the opponent isn't using an actual attack.
As far as coverage options go, her weaknesses are Electric, Ice, and Rock (plus some notable ones she's only neutral to instead of resisting, like Bug and Fighting.) Her Hidden Power is 46/Ground, which is not terribly powerful but at least is a good element for incoming Electric and Rock types. Heat Wave has considerably more power and could help with Ice (and Bug). Steel Wing has modest power but covers Ice and Rock. Superpower has immense power and covers Ice and Rock, at the cost of it being a "lowers your stats when you use it" move. Psychic would handle Fighting and wait what excuse me she can learn Psychic?? Uh. Hmm. Wow.
So a pure physical set would look like (Night Slash, Payback, or Sucker Punch)/(Pluck, Aerial Ace, or Brave Bird if convinced cheating is okay in this case)/Superpower/(one of the ones not chosen earlier, possible OR&PB setup), maybe? A pure special set would be more like Dark Pulse/Air Cutter/(Hidden Power-Ground/Heat Wave/Psychic)/Nasty Plot. A mixed set would be... uh, a mix of those two, I guess. We're not actually sure what to do here, since we kind of just put this one off until the new Dark Type came in so we wouldn't have to do anything.
Atreyu
Machamp
Attack dramatically higher than Special Attack, even with Modest nature
Current moveset: Cross Chop/Low Kick/Revenge/Seismic Toss
Held item: Currently none
Wow, talk about a "you have literally one job" moveset. Another one that we didn't spend a lot of time on because we knew Badgertwo was coming, I suppose. Still, see above for what we said about Nimbly. Atreyu is our faithful champion and a proud member of our Hall of Fame team; we want to do right by him.
At least the Fighting STAB is an easy decision; Atreyu has No Guard and the plan has always been to get DynamicPunch to take advantage of that. I thought he just hadn't reached the level to learn it yet, but apparently he actually missed it. Oops. Welp. That's an easy Heart Scale fix, at least.
The rest of his moveset was just stuff we hadn't gotten around to replacing yet, for want of better options. Now that we look more closely, though, Machamp (especially No Guard Machamp) does have some good coverage moves. Its biggest incoming threats are Flying and Psychic. As far as its outgoing damage, Fighting moves are resisted by those two types plus Ghost (which is completely immune,) Bug, and Poison. To that end, Stone Edge answers Flying and Bug, Payback answers Psychic and Ghost, and Earthquake answers Poison. Smogon seems to like using that fourth move slot for Substitute or Rest/Sleep Talk builds instead, but Smogon likes a lot of meta-aimed things and, well, you know. I tend not to like getting too cute with gimmicky setup builds in PvE (Moonchild's screens are honestly the first time we've ever done anything besides pure "kill it with your strongest STABs") so DynamicPunch/Stone Edge/Payback/Earthquake sounds like a fine build to us.
Kracko
Ampharos
Special Attack dramatically higher than Attack, even with Brave nature
Current moveset: Discharge/Fire Punch/Signal Beam/Thunder Wave
Held item: Currently Magnet
Honestly, for someone that Rock Biter effectively replaced, this set... isn't bad? A bit messy but not unusable by any means.
As far as the Electric STAB option, Thunderbolt does more damage than Discharge in exchange for a lower paralysis chance and it being such a pain to get that TM, but Discharge is at least not a bad option in the meantime. Rock Biter proved the usefulness of having Charge Beam to set up self-buffs while continuing the offense, so that could be Kracko's second move.
For coverage, a pure Electric-type's biggest offensive and defensive obstacle is Ground, but Kracko doesn't have any options that are Super Effective against it without a good Hidden Power (which he regrettably lacks.) Signal Beam and Fire Punch at least do neutral to it, though having a mixed set on someone with a very clear Special Attack preference seems odd. As far as other Special-aligned options go, Focus Blast is by far the most powerful (not counting Hyper Beam,) though there are accuracy issues.
Meanwhile, thunder Wave is a good equalizer for his unimpressive Speed stat as well as something generally useful for capturing. We might take him along next time we need to paralyze a Legendary so it will get in the damn ball, you know? So that one can probably stay.
So I guess we're looking at (Discharge or Thunderbolt)/Charge Beam/(Focus Blast or Signal Beam)/Thunder Wave, then?
---TIER 3: THE HM USERS---
(They're here to use HMs.)
Drake
Golduck
Do Atk and SpA matter? He's an HM user.
Current moveset: Strength/Whirlpool/Waterfall/Surf
Held item: None
He's an HM user. I gave him Surf for now so that we can still Surf without needing Auryn in the party all the time, but eventually that will be replaced with Rock Climb when we obtain it.
Bladewings
Skarmory
See Drake
Current moveset: Fly/Cut/Rock Smash/Flash
Held item: None
She's also an HM user! Unlike Drake, this set is probably final.
Whew. And there you have it: a giant moveset text dump. Part of the reason I posted all this is because--as I said--I was kind of still in analysis mode and just wanted to give everyone the treatment that the newcomers got. The other part is that I felt like I might be able to speed up our streams a little more if we do more of this move maintenance type stuff behind the scenes. Between getting everyone's moves all set up and taking care of the people who'd called us for rematches, it was over an hour before Part 21's "At long last we actually get on the boat and go to Kanto" actually got on the boat and went to Kanto. I think, much like "oh yeah these mons are a few levels higher last time because Pokewalker" can just be assumed at this point, maybe this entry will serve as sufficient notice when we start next time with Moonchild already having Energy Ball, Omnihunter already having Bug Bite, etc. (Input still welcome and greatly appreciated, though!) We can probably take care of the rematches off screen, too.
So, see you next time in a state that will be more ready to go right from the start, hopefully!
I think half of it is that our options have expanded. We ran into a lot of issues where getting that move would involve being tutored from the Battle Frontier or getting a TM that's like 10,000 Coins in the Game Corner or something, and those systems are bullshit. Before, that meant settling for what we could get without them. However, as seen in part 21, I have now changed my mind on those two specific hurdles in particular; the Battle Frontier and 10K+ Coins in Voltorb Flip are such bullshit that I'm just cheating for them, because fuck that. Thus, those options are back on the table now. (Everything else--Pokewalker unlocks, even Pokeathlon points--we're still doing legitimately for now. Hell, even something like 4,000 Game Corner Coins for a Swords Dance TM isn't too bad; we could do that, maybe. But 10K for Thunderbolt? Fuck the you.)
So, the team has build options now that they didn't before, especially post-National Dex. Also, I'm just in a mood to analyze builds anyway, and... I dunno, maybe I made some move-based decisions back then that I just feel like we could do better on now. Whatever the reason, I just felt like now was the time to revisit everyone's builds with fresh eyes. join us as we now analyze the current movesets and possible changes we could make for the entire old guard party.
Listed in the form of:
Pokemon name
Pokemon species
Whether their Attack or Special Attack are significantly better (and thus whether build options should favor Physical or Special moves)
Current Moveset
Held Item
---TIER 1: THE ACTIVE PARTY---
(The ones we're still using first and foremost on the front lines; expect every session to start with forming a team of Drake and Bladewings plus any four of the following, depending on what we're up against/who needs to be leveled/etc.)
Her Imperial Majesty, Moonchild, the Chikoritalike Empress:
Meganium
Attack and Special Attack are basically identical
Current moveset: Magical Leaf/Safeguard/Reflect/Light Screen
Held item: Light Clay
Moonchild's whole deal for a good portion of the game now has been "set up whatever screens protect from the exact thing this trainer will be hammering us with--physical or special damage or status annoyance--and then switch to the sweepers." That part I'm still content with and plan to keep. The problem is Magical Leaf, which is her one STAB to defend herself, maybe for grinding and getting through long dungeons and such. That one was definitely a "best we could do" pick from a pool of options that are less limited now.
The best Grass move she can get not counting the ones with drawbacks that are too steep to be worth it (the windup turn on SolarBeam, the being-locked-into-it of Petal Dance) is Energy Ball, which we previously passed on because it was a Battle Frontier TM. The rest of her moveset is fine, but upgrading Magical Leaf to Energy Ball now that we stopped playing fair on that particular front is exactly the kind of overlooked stuff we expected to root out now that we're doing a closer review on everyone.
Energy Ball/Safeguard/Reflect/Light Screen, basically nothing's changing but finally getting the upgrade on that Grass move, still the best girl.
Oracle
Glaceon
Special Attack is literally double his Attack; obvious Special Specialist
Current moveset: Ice Beam/Hidden Power (Fighting)/Hail/Blizzard
Held item: Black Belt
We've explained the logic behind this moveset before, and honestly, it's fine and doesn't need adjusting at this time. The held item, maybe, but ehh.
Falkor
Dragonite
Special Attack isn't awful, but Attack is significantly better and physical moves are thus strongly preferred
Current moveset: Dragon Claw/Draco Meteor/Fire Punch/Dragon Dance
Held item: Currently none
The most obvious issue at this point is that someone with such a clear physical advantage (she currently has 172 Atk vs. 128 SpA) is running Draco Meteor, but... honestly, 128 SpA isn't a dump stat or anything. That's better than the actual primary stat of a lot of her teammates. 128 is more than enough to make a Draco Meteor hurt, possibly as much as Dragon Claw after accounting for how much more powerful the move itself is, even if it really looks like Falkor wants to make everything physical. That's probably why we ended up running it at first.
Dragon Claw probably is still the safest and most reliable "just Dragon something as hard as you can" STAB move that doesn't start getting into some serious drawbacks. Outrage was the "much much stronger, but at a cost" option with the locking-in and self-confusion effects that ultimately made it lose out to Dragon Claw... but if we're already running what I'm now calling the "Old Reliable and Panic Button" set (a weaker but more reliable/less drawback-y/higher PP/etc. STAB move for most of the time plus another STAB of the same type that's stronger and riskier for bosses and such,) then maybe we were looking at this setup wrong. Outrage isn't fighting Dragon Claw for the Old Reliable slot; it's fighting Draco Meteor for the Panic Button slot.
As far as Dragonite's other STAB... I'm sorry, but all of Dragonite's Flying options in Gen IV are awful. Like, Wing Attack is about the best it can do. Let's just not bother with these.
Falkor is very weak to Ice (4x) and normal-level weak to Dragon and Rock. As far as her outgoing damage, the only element in Gen 4 that resists Dragon-type attacks is Steel. Fire Punch is an obvious choice to cover the Ice and Steel, Dragon covers itself, and options for Rock include Superpower, Earthquake, Iron Tail/Steel Wing, and Aqua Tail. Falkor also happens to have a 51-power Grass Hidden Power, but... really, whenever you have a list like this and Earthquake is an option, especially on someone who prefers physical attacks, then it kind of doesn't matter what her Hidden Power looks like; someone said "Earthquake," say no more. Even though we were just talking about an Old Reliable and Panic Button setup on the Dragon side, and this would therefore be where Outrage goes... come on, it's Earthquake.
Falkor can learn Swords Dance, and a double-Attack-up boost on that already monstrous Attack stat with equally-monstrous physical moves is terrifying. On the other hand, she already has Dragon Dance. Is 2 Attack boosts better than 1 Attack and 1 Speed? It might not be; the Speed buffs are good for sweeping, too.
Thus, we're left with Dragon Claw/Earthquake/Fire Punch/(Dragon Dance or Swords Dance), probably.
Auryn
Starmie
Attack isn't awful but this is still clearly meant to be a Special Attacker, especially with Bold nature
Current moveset: Surf/Psychic/Swift/Confuse Ray
Held item: Wise Glasses
Honestly, Auryn's job is to kill things weak to Surf and/or Psychic with Surf and/or Psychic; the other two moves are dressing and we forgot what they even were before doing this entry. That said, there is some room for improvement here. Swift could be replaced with something that provides weakness coverage--Signal Beam for incoming Dark and Grass types, perhaps. Too bad we didn't pick up Power Gem while it was still a Staryu, but I think it's probably too late to go back for that now. Smogon recommends Thunderbolt or Ice Beam but they're usually looking more at "this move lets this mon serve as a check against this one very specific other mon that's rampant in the meta right now" rather than a general-use PvE builds.
For the last move, Recover is the standard but, again, that's usually for the meta. In PvE, we can just use potions on it when it's hurt. The fourth slot is thus a filler move, but... I don't know, Confuse Ray might slow down a dangerous wall or something, maybe. Or, I guess the other option if both of the final moves are "eh, filler, put whatever here I guess" slots is that there is then room for a Substitute/Recover set, but, again, we can use items in single-player.
Surf/Psychic/Signal Beam/(Confuse Ray or Substitute) is probably fine.
Omnihunter
Scizor
Attack is more than twice the Special Attack and nature is Brave; this bug is very much for physical moves only
Current moveset: Bullet Punch/Slash/X-Scissor/False Swipe
Held item: Quick Claw
Maybe Omnihunter doesn't need the Quick Claw as much as some of the other slow mons if one of his moves has prioirity anyway, but ehhh.
So, this set is kind of a mess, but we are keeping False Swipe for field capturing purposes rather than going for a full four-move mon who's here to sweep gyms and nothing else. This is more a question of what to do with the other three moves in his case.
Bullet Punch is fine. Its 40 power doesn't sound like a lot, but after STAB and Technician, plus Omnihunter's rather absurd Attack stat, let's just say he knows how to make it hurt. And hey, it's even a priority move.
For his other STAB, it turns out that a Technician-boosted Bug Bite actually beats X-Scissor, 90 to 80. It even adds in that "eats your opponent's berry if they have one" effect, too, and it has more PP. So, that's not a pros-and-cons choice; that's just a straight up pure upgrade that we'll be pursuing at our earliest opportunity.
Scizor has exactly one weakness, but it's a big one: 4x to Fire. Omnihunter doesn't want to bother with counter-counter coverage. Omnihunter only has one counter, and when he runs into that counter, he wants to GTFO. He can get STAB on a U-Turn to that end, perhaps, and Bugsy even showed us how powerful that move could be. On the other hand, he'll also learn Swords Dance in a few levels. Running both of those as the final two moves would be ideal on a pure gym bug, but since we want to keep False Swipe for catching stuff, then we will have to decide between them.
Bullet Punch/Bug Bite/(U-Turn or Swords Dance)/False Swipe, in other words.
Badgertwo
Currently Shroomish, but will be a Breloom soon
Literally was bred in an attempt to create the ultimate physical-only super soldier, including Adamant nature and a 29 Attack stat IV
Current moveset: Stun Spore/Headbutt/Seed Bomb/Facade
Held item: Currently Exp. Share since he's growing and all; will be Toxic Orb when he's ready
Badgertwo is the one member of the new recruits whose moveset I didn't cover in his bio/introduction, which is a shame, because I'm very happy with it. He's already halfway there with Seed Bomb and Facade; the other two will be replaced by Spore (when he levels up high enough for Shroomish to learn it) and Focus Punch (as soon as he evolves into Breloom and thus becomes compatible with the TM, which will probably be mere seconds after he finally learns Spore. WHY DOES HE HAVE TO SHROOMISH SO MUCH, LEARN SPORE FASTER AND BRE A LOOM ALREADY)
Spore is a 100% accurate Sleep-inducer. Focus Punch is a negative priority (that is, it always goes last) Fighting STAB with a whopping 150 Power--that's comparable to Hyper Beam or Giga Impact, mind you, and it's going off Badgertwo's already obscene Attack stat plus STAB--with the catch that it fails if he's hit before it goes off. Charge, wait for opponent to move, FALCON PAWNCH if not interrupted. Of course, therein lies the synergy: He'll never be interrupted thanks to Spore. Once he uses Spore, he's guaranteed a free Focus Punch the next round. After all, what's the enemy going to do? It won't wake up and attack literally the next turn after being put to sleep, so that's a free turn with nothing to interrupt him. Even if a gym leader/Elite Four/whatever trainer uses a status cure or even switches out, hey, guess what, those are all things that don't attack Badgertwo that round so they still don't interrupt Focus Punch. Even in the Smogon meta, its only real counter is that it's so predictable (oh, a Breloom used Spore, I wonder what's it'll do next round) that one's opponent gets a free switch-in into something with a strong Fighting resistance or immunity, like a Ghost type. This, of course, does not happen in PvE. Nothing stops Spore Punching in PvE; it kind of breaks the single-player campaign in half, last we checked.
Seed Bomb is its other, Grassier STAB, so that, you know, he has STAB-fueled Grass coverage.
Facade is there for the same reason he's holding a Toxic Orb: Poison Heal. Thanks to his ability, Badgertwo regenerates HP instead of losing it when poisoned or badly poisoned. Thus, a Toxic Orb in Badgertwo's hands is essentially Leftovers with extra steps involved. Meanwhile, while he enjoys that free HP regen effect, the fact that he's technically poisoned also activates and doubles Facade's power, giving him another move in the quite frankly lewd 140s range. Not only that, it even makes him immune to paralysis, burns, freezing, and sleep, since one can only have one non-volatile status ailment at a time in Pokemon games. Sorry, no room to paralyze/burn/freeze/sleep him if he's already poisoned!
So, yeah, we've got plans for this guy. Spore/Focus Punch/Seed Bomb/Facade-shaped plans, to be precise. He just needs a little more time to grow into them.
Priscilla
Flygon
Special Attack isn't completely unusable but physical Attack is definitely the clear focus
Current moveset: Earthquake/Dragon Claw/Fire Punch/ThunderPunch
Held item: Muscle Band
The first three moves of her moveset are perfect. Earthquake and Dragon Claw for STABbing things to death, Fire Punch for Priscilla's Ice weakness (though at 4x, she might just prefer to get out of there anyway) and (more practically) for Steel types that have a way to cover their own Ground weakness with levitation or being half-Flying or something--Magnezone, Skarmory, Bronzong. The fourth and final move we weren't sure on at the time, and we ended up defaulting to ThunderPunch for "because it was right there" reasons more than anything else. At this point, I kind of like the idea I came up with when musing about Falkor's moveset. Falkor didn't end up having the extra slot in her moveset for an Old Reliable and Panic Button setup, but hey, guess what? Priscilla essentially has a fourth slot she's not using. She can put Outrage there.
So, Earthquake/Dragon Claw/Fire Punch/Outrage, probably. It's hard for her to run a fourth move when the first three are perfect and have everything covered, but that's the perfect opportunity to try an OR&PB setup out.
Rock Biter
Magnezone
More than twice as much Special Attack as Attack plus a Modest nature; this thing will never know a physical move
Current moveset: Charge Beam/Thunderbolt/Hidden Power (62 power, Grass type)/Thunder Wave
Held item: Currently Lucky Egg because we're leveling the thing. May switch to a Power Lens or something for further training. No idea what to do when it's time for the actual final beneficial accessory.
Rock Biter is going to learn Magnet Rise to counteract its otherwise crippling 4x Ground weakness once it's high enough level to do so. Magnet Rise will replace Thunder Wave when that happens. Other than that, this set is perfect.
Gmork
Houndour for now but will be a Houndoom someday
Most of this line are close enough Atk/SpA-wise to make a mixed set work but this one has gone all in on Special-only, complete with Modest nature
Currenet moveset: Fire Blast/Dark Pulse/SolarBeam/Sunny Day
Held item: Currently an Exp. Share because he's growing; unsure what will eventually go here
After a long discussion with
penguinmayhem, we narrowed Gen 4 Houndoom's set options down to (Fire Blast/Dark Pulse/SolarBeam/Sunny Day) for SunnyBeam shenanigans or (Fire Blast/Dark Pulse/Flamethrower/Nasty Plot) for an across the board special self-buff and three STABs said buff would boost. Running Old Reliable and Panic Button sets appears to be my new fetish, you see, judging from how Falkor almost got one and Priscilla did.The thing about that is that, for the SunnyBeam set, that's what Gmork already has right now. For the Pure Dark Burnination set, though, he'll learn Flamethrower by level at 43 and Nasty Plot at 53, assuming we keep him in puppy form until then. As a full-grown Houndoom, those become 48 and 60, respectively.
Don't get me wrong; I think the latter set won out in the end, and I think that's going to be the moveset he's going to have. He just has some growing to do until he gets there, is all and I guess nothing to do but run plan A until he does.
---TIER 2: THE SEMI-RETIRED PARTY---
(These ones are effectively replaced from most day to day activities and probably won't be appearing in most sessions going forward. However, they're still there as reserve units if we're going against... I don't know... maybe a specific type gym where we'll want all units capable of facing X specific challenge? Something where the new units would be these guys' teammates rather than their replacements.)
Nimbly
Honchkrow
Attack is higher than better than Special Attack but not by a lot; either are fine and mixed builds would work
Current moveset: Night Slash/Astonish/Haze/Wing Attack
Held item: Currently none
Okay, this moveset is a mess, partly because I kind of knew Nimbly's days in Tier 1 were numbered anyway. I guess I didn't feel like it was worth investing TMs and such (especially one-of-a-kind ones) in her when all we needed to do was have something good enough to get past the Johto League and then we'd have Gmork from then on anyway. Still, there has to be something we can do for her. She's been so good and loyal, she's part of the Neverending Six, and God, she deserves it. Hell, maybe we can even rehabilitate her some--like, maybe she'd still be in Tier 1 if she had better moves. Of course she's not going to be the deadliest mon on our team when she's packing that set, you know? At least let her be viewed in her best light before we can make that judgment.
The problem with Honchkrow is that its best Flying STAB by far (like, to the point you could argue "best" is a euphemism for "only good") is Brave Bird or at least Drill Peck, both of which are breeding moves. We may be willing to cheat to get Battle Frontier TMs/move tutors and things like that, but if the best way to improve Nimbly is to breed her and raise an entirely new Honchkrow that isn't Nimbly, that's... uh... that's not what we're looking to accomplish, here. That said, we could be persuaded that "Just PKHeX Brave Bird/Drill Peck onto her" is no more heinous a cheat in response to bullshit than helping ourselves to the spoils of the Battle Frontier and Game Corner.
Barring that, her best physical Flying STAB is... uh... Pluck? Aerial Ace? Both have the same power as Wing Attack but at least have some extra effects (the berry-eating thing and always hitting, respectively.) If going Special, then... Air Cutter? Look, Honchkrow is crippled by what it can actually do as a Flying Type if you don't breed better moves onto it, okay.
Her other options are good, though, especially as someone who could make a mixed attacker. I think we were focused on giving her physical moves because her Attack is higher, but bear in mind that she learns Nasty Plot (but not Swords Dance.) That is more than enough to make up the seven points or so her SpA is currently behind. In fact, making her a pure Special Attacker would pair well with Nasty Plot powering up... well, everything, as opposed to a mixed set where Nasty Plot would only power up certain moves.
For her Dark STAB, Dark Pulse comes by level (no need for another TM,) has more power than Night Slash, and can be Nasty Plotted; easy upgrade there... unless we're staying physical. Physically, we can either keep Night Slash or try Payback, depending on how often we think Honchkrow will be outsped. (Maybe this would be a rare use for the Lagging Tail on a non-Fling/Trick/etc. set?) Or, conversely, Sucker Punch if we want to try to get the first word in instead, though that involves some guesswork since it fails if the opponent isn't using an actual attack.
As far as coverage options go, her weaknesses are Electric, Ice, and Rock (plus some notable ones she's only neutral to instead of resisting, like Bug and Fighting.) Her Hidden Power is 46/Ground, which is not terribly powerful but at least is a good element for incoming Electric and Rock types. Heat Wave has considerably more power and could help with Ice (and Bug). Steel Wing has modest power but covers Ice and Rock. Superpower has immense power and covers Ice and Rock, at the cost of it being a "lowers your stats when you use it" move. Psychic would handle Fighting and wait what excuse me she can learn Psychic?? Uh. Hmm. Wow.
So a pure physical set would look like (Night Slash, Payback, or Sucker Punch)/(Pluck, Aerial Ace, or Brave Bird if convinced cheating is okay in this case)/Superpower/(one of the ones not chosen earlier, possible OR&PB setup), maybe? A pure special set would be more like Dark Pulse/Air Cutter/(Hidden Power-Ground/Heat Wave/Psychic)/Nasty Plot. A mixed set would be... uh, a mix of those two, I guess. We're not actually sure what to do here, since we kind of just put this one off until the new Dark Type came in so we wouldn't have to do anything.
Atreyu
Machamp
Attack dramatically higher than Special Attack, even with Modest nature
Current moveset: Cross Chop/Low Kick/Revenge/Seismic Toss
Held item: Currently none
Wow, talk about a "you have literally one job" moveset. Another one that we didn't spend a lot of time on because we knew Badgertwo was coming, I suppose. Still, see above for what we said about Nimbly. Atreyu is our faithful champion and a proud member of our Hall of Fame team; we want to do right by him.
At least the Fighting STAB is an easy decision; Atreyu has No Guard and the plan has always been to get DynamicPunch to take advantage of that. I thought he just hadn't reached the level to learn it yet, but apparently he actually missed it. Oops. Welp. That's an easy Heart Scale fix, at least.
The rest of his moveset was just stuff we hadn't gotten around to replacing yet, for want of better options. Now that we look more closely, though, Machamp (especially No Guard Machamp) does have some good coverage moves. Its biggest incoming threats are Flying and Psychic. As far as its outgoing damage, Fighting moves are resisted by those two types plus Ghost (which is completely immune,) Bug, and Poison. To that end, Stone Edge answers Flying and Bug, Payback answers Psychic and Ghost, and Earthquake answers Poison. Smogon seems to like using that fourth move slot for Substitute or Rest/Sleep Talk builds instead, but Smogon likes a lot of meta-aimed things and, well, you know. I tend not to like getting too cute with gimmicky setup builds in PvE (Moonchild's screens are honestly the first time we've ever done anything besides pure "kill it with your strongest STABs") so DynamicPunch/Stone Edge/Payback/Earthquake sounds like a fine build to us.
Kracko
Ampharos
Special Attack dramatically higher than Attack, even with Brave nature
Current moveset: Discharge/Fire Punch/Signal Beam/Thunder Wave
Held item: Currently Magnet
Honestly, for someone that Rock Biter effectively replaced, this set... isn't bad? A bit messy but not unusable by any means.
As far as the Electric STAB option, Thunderbolt does more damage than Discharge in exchange for a lower paralysis chance and it being such a pain to get that TM, but Discharge is at least not a bad option in the meantime. Rock Biter proved the usefulness of having Charge Beam to set up self-buffs while continuing the offense, so that could be Kracko's second move.
For coverage, a pure Electric-type's biggest offensive and defensive obstacle is Ground, but Kracko doesn't have any options that are Super Effective against it without a good Hidden Power (which he regrettably lacks.) Signal Beam and Fire Punch at least do neutral to it, though having a mixed set on someone with a very clear Special Attack preference seems odd. As far as other Special-aligned options go, Focus Blast is by far the most powerful (not counting Hyper Beam,) though there are accuracy issues.
Meanwhile, thunder Wave is a good equalizer for his unimpressive Speed stat as well as something generally useful for capturing. We might take him along next time we need to paralyze a Legendary so it will get in the damn ball, you know? So that one can probably stay.
So I guess we're looking at (Discharge or Thunderbolt)/Charge Beam/(Focus Blast or Signal Beam)/Thunder Wave, then?
---TIER 3: THE HM USERS---
(They're here to use HMs.)
Drake
Golduck
Do Atk and SpA matter? He's an HM user.
Current moveset: Strength/Whirlpool/Waterfall/Surf
Held item: None
He's an HM user. I gave him Surf for now so that we can still Surf without needing Auryn in the party all the time, but eventually that will be replaced with Rock Climb when we obtain it.
Bladewings
Skarmory
See Drake
Current moveset: Fly/Cut/Rock Smash/Flash
Held item: None
She's also an HM user! Unlike Drake, this set is probably final.
Whew. And there you have it: a giant moveset text dump. Part of the reason I posted all this is because--as I said--I was kind of still in analysis mode and just wanted to give everyone the treatment that the newcomers got. The other part is that I felt like I might be able to speed up our streams a little more if we do more of this move maintenance type stuff behind the scenes. Between getting everyone's moves all set up and taking care of the people who'd called us for rematches, it was over an hour before Part 21's "At long last we actually get on the boat and go to Kanto" actually got on the boat and went to Kanto. I think, much like "oh yeah these mons are a few levels higher last time because Pokewalker" can just be assumed at this point, maybe this entry will serve as sufficient notice when we start next time with Moonchild already having Energy Ball, Omnihunter already having Bug Bite, etc. (Input still welcome and greatly appreciated, though!) We can probably take care of the rematches off screen, too.
So, see you next time in a state that will be more ready to go right from the start, hopefully!
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