"I got 5 Reese Cups!"
"I got a Snickers bar!"
"I got $20.00"
"I got a rock..."
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Shuppet/Banette
Type: Ghost
Ability(s): Insomnia
They say that Mt. Pyre is haunted and heavily polluted with ghosts, but
unless you're a coward like Usopp, it is one of the best places to catch
ghost types. In fact, it and the routes north and south of it are the
only places that have proper ghost types, for a lack of a better word.
Shuppet can be found in the mountain itself as well as both of those
routes I mentioned, and is a common sight in pretty much every place you
can find one. But are you willing to catch one?
Shuppet's starting combat isn't all that great, but it is passable with
Night Shade doing at least 26 damage a pop at base level, which pretty
much 3HKO's everything you come across. While I could call that decent,
the problem is that most Pokemon that you have at this point should be
2HKOing at worst, and Shuppet begs to learn Shadow Ball earlier than
Lv48. In fact, he doesn't learn another damaging attack until Lv37, so
it is probably worth it to use the Shadow Ball TM on him, seeing as with
75 base attack, it's his strongest option. Defensively, he's not so
hot, with only 44 HP/35 Def/33 SpD, so he gets 2HKO'd by most reasonably
strong attacks, and not helping matters is that he's as slow as Golem.
Immunities to normal and fighting and Lv32 Will-O-Wisp alleviate this
issue somewhat, but let's get something straight here: it hurts.
Evolution could happen a little earlier, but Lv37 evo means that Shuppet
should evolve just in time for the Mossdeep gym, where he pretty much
demolishes everything there with Shadow Ball, now backed up by a solid
115 attack. He's still on the frail side, but 65 speed means that at
least he has a glimmer of hope of outspeeding stuff that aren't like
Geodudes. 83 SpA, while not great compared to his attack, is still
serviceable, and allows Banette to make good use of the Thunderbolt TM
(you may have to shell out 80K if you did use the freebie), which makes
him a decent choice against Juan.
The ghost type, to be quite honest, isn't so hot against the elites.
While Sidney only has two guys that actually pack dark moves, you will
still want to steer clear of him because Shadow Ball is resisted and
even without dark moves, his Pokes hit hard enough to 2HKO him anyway.
Phoebe is hit or miss depending on whether or not he outspeeds the two
Banettes, but if he does, you're good to go. As for Glacia and Drake,
while he is technically hit neutral by their STABs, both of Glacia's
Glalies and Drake's Flygon and Salamence carry Crunch, which will at
best 2HKO him while he fails to either outspeed or OHKO them. And that's
always nice.
In a nutshell, Shuppet is only really good for two boss fights (though
he is a big help in those fights), and is a burden to the party early on
unless given the Shadow Ball TM, so as a result, the ends generally do
not justify the means.
4.5/10
Duskull/Dusclops
Type: Ghost
Ability(s): Levitate (Duskull), Pressure (Dusclops)
Like Shuppet, Duskull can be found in Mt. Pyre, this time restricted to
the top three floors with a 10% encounter rate. As a ghost type, pretty
much everything I said about Shuppet's combat can be applied to Duskull,
except that it's a lot fucking worse. His offense is a total joke with
only 40 Atk/30 SpA/25 Spe to his name, and considering that he starts
with Astonish and doesn't get Shadow Ball through level, teaching the TM
to him is practically mandatory, and even then, his combat is not
pretty to look at. While evolution can alleviate this issue somewhat,
Duskull has a long wait until he reaches Lv37, and even so, his attack
only gets a marginal boost and his speed doesn't improve.
Unlike Shuppet and pretty much every other ghost ever, Duskull's line
excels in tanking, with defensive stats of 130 apiece as Dusclops, which
combined with ghost's immunities to normal and fighting (neither of
which really matter at this point, unfortunately), make him a pretty
good mixed wall, though the 40 base HP is quite painful to look at. The
only thing hampering his durability at this point in the game is the
fact that every one of the elites has a dark or ghost move on at least
two of their Pokemon, with the first two elites getting STAB on dark and
ghost, respectively. Granted, thanks to said defenses, he can take at
least one shot and hit the opponent back or burn them, but let's face
the music here: it hurts.
Unlike Banette, whose physical movepool consisted of Shadow Ball and
normal moves, Dusclops is a little more broad in that regard, getting
access to things like Earthquake and Rock Tomb, the former of which has
the dubious honor of being the most contested move ever and the latter
of which probably doesn't exist anymore and even if it did, 50 might is
complete ass by this point in the game, especially on something with
Claydol-esque attack that doesn't get STAB. Also, he gets Ice Beam for
some weird reason, but hey, it can be used to kill Drake's dragons.
Basically, take everything I said about Shuppet not being worth it and
magnify it twofold. Duskull really wishes his final form existed in this
gen.
2.5/10
Vulpix/Ninetales
Type: Fire
Ability(s): Flash Fire
A fire type that joins right before a waterfest? Nice trolling, GameFreak.
Another denizen of the Mt. Pyre sub-area, this time in the grass just
outside, Vulpix is the very last fire type you will come across on your
journey. Coming between the levels of 25 and 29, she is at worst 4
levels away from Flamethrower, meaning that she needs relatively little
babying to get up to par with the rest of your party. Now, consider that
you will have obtained a fire stone in the Fiery Path before you even
got Surf, and you will find that Vulpix basically doesn't care about her
unevolved state, as she doesn't have to worry about high ass
evolutionary levels like the ghosts did.
Statwise, Ninetales is the fastest fire type obtainable in the Hoenn
dex, with 100 base speed, and while 81 SpA isn't exactly the best in the
world, she still hits hard enough considering STAB Flamethrower.
Defensively, she has 100 base special defense, which actually lets her
soak up even a moderately strong water hit (do not try this with the
water kings), and also helps against the specially biased late and
endgame. Too bad I can't say the same for her physical durability, which
is mediocre at 73 HP/75 Def, so do not expect Ninetales to take
Earthquakes very well (at least without burning them first), and
unfortunately, that move is relatively common in the lategame.
Once you look past that Lv29 Flamethrower, you will find that Ninetales
has severe movepool issues. The only damaging moves of note that she
gets other than fire moves are Secret Power, Iron Tail, and Dig (no
Strength :( ), which aren't doing a lot of damage coming off only 76 attack, not to
mention that Iron Tail shows up after Juan and can't hit the broad side of a space barn. At the very least, she does get access to Will-O-Wisp
and Confuse Ray, so if you need a fast 'Mon that can neuter physical
attackers, there you go.
While Vulpix comes late and joins right before a waterfest, she does
have her strong points, like being able to take water hits reasonably
well despite the weakness, as well as having access to WoW, both of
which securely put her above Numel in my opinion.
5/10
Chimecho
Type: Psychic
Ability(s): Levitate
The last pure psychic type to be found in the game, Chimecho can be best
described as "that rare collector's item that only greedy bastards like
Oliver go out of their way to obtain", which goes without saying. This
bastard is only found on the summit of Mt. Pyre, in grass that's tucked
quite a bit off the beaten path, with a 2%
chance of spawning. What this equates to is that you will be seeing a
LOT of Shuppet (and the occasional Duskull) before you even encounter
the shitten thing, and let's not forget that he also has a somewhat low
catch rate, making him a fairly hard snag. So, is Chimecho worth all the
aggravation?
Absolutely fucking not, considering this thing has a BST only 5 points
higher than Mightyena and Linoone. And I'm going to be perfectly fucking
honest, the only remotely good thing I can say about his stats is that
his special attack is respectable. But that's not saying much,
considering he's stuck with Confusion until Lv46 (when he gets Psychic),
which is complete ass when you factor in Alakazam getting the same move
10 levels earlier and Gardevior learning Psychic even before she fully
evolves. Not helping matters is that psychic is not the best defensive
typing to be having in the lategame (recall what I said about the elites
packing dark/ghost moves on a good portion of their Pokemon in
Ralts/Abra's ratings, then apply it to something that's far worse than
them), and 65/70/80 defenses just make the whole situation worse, and
he's not even all that fast either. And just to add another pile of shit
to an already foul review, the only special coverage he gets is Shock
Wave.
I suppose his niche amongst the psychics is Levitate, which grants him
immunity to Earthquake, which I will admit is kind of common during the
lategame, but unfortunately, it does not make up for his god awful stats
and extremely sparse movepool.
In a nutshell, use Ralts or Abra instead.
donotbotherwiththisfuckingpieceofshit.jpg
1.5/10
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Have a nice day.
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