I'm all fired up!
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Numel/Camerupt
Type: Fire/Ground
Ability(s): Oblivious (Numel), Magma Armor (Camerupt)
Numel wishes he wasn't burdened with fire/ground typing.
Available to you in Route 112 and the Fiery Path, Numel is one of the
four possible fire type replacements for those who didn't choose
Torchic. Catch one at Route 112 and go train him at the Cycling Road
where he Embers the Magnemites while no selling their Thundershocks.
Magnitude comes at Lv19, a little slower than Geodude's, but still
early, and has better initial offenses than the other fire types you can
find around here (100/105/40 as Camerupt vs Torkoal's 85/85/20 or
Magcargo's 50/80/30.) Numel's typing gives him an edge early on,
allowing him to smoke the grass, bug, fire, rock, or steel types that
inhabit the midgame, though it is a double edged sword as he is 4x weak
to water, which there are a few trainers that use that type.
While he does sadly miss out on Watson, he really shines in Mt. Chimney
and Lavaridge, what with all the fire types that can easily be gibbed
with Magnitude, and it makes him a great choice against Flannery, so he
gets points for that. However, everything after Norman is basically a
long and winding road of misery and type disadvantages.
Hoenn's lategame is not especially kind to Camerupt. While he does
alright against Winona thanks to gaining Rock Slide right after he
evolves (stay away from Pelipper and Altaria) and hitting Tropius and
Skarm hard with your fire move of choice (Flamethrower isn't out of the
question since you probably have enough money to get the TM), and does
great against the Magma grunts in Mt. Chimney thanks to Lv37 Earthquake,
his typing bites him in the ass once you set off from Lilycove.
Remember how I said that Golem gets fucked hard by all the
water types here? Well, the same applies to Camerupt. And on top of
that, he's slow and not exactly bulky. Not a good combination.
The remaining gyms aren't very kind to him either; the twins all have
Pokemon that are immune to Earthquake while Lunatone and Solrock resist his
fire as well, and the less said about Juan, the better. As for his elite
performance, he can smoke Sid's grass types as well as Glacia's Glalies,
and does ok against Phoebe, but overall, he's not so great here. And
Wallace handily destroys him.
Being a decent mixed attacker and getting some good moves make Numel an
appealing option, but his typing combined with his speed make him a
burden in the long run.
4/10
Slugma/Magcargo
Type: Fire, Fire/Rock (Magcargo)
Ability(s): Flame Body/Magma Armor
Another denizen of the Fiery Path, this time being a terrible excuse of a
fire slug that is in all honestly quite bad. Slugma's stats are just
disastrous, with all of them being at 40, except for speed, which is at
rock bottom and special attack, which is actually slightly higher than
Numel's. He has issues surviving most strong neutral attacks and gets
outsped by practically everything, but he can cause good damage to grass
and bug types, which aren't really big threats regardless. He does
become somewhat tanky once he evolves, but that happens quite late at
Lv38, and Magcargo is still quite slow.
Slugma's movepool is somewhat interesting, since he has Rock Throw at
base, allowing him to deal super effective damage to fire types, but it
will not do as much damage as you would like due to 40 base attack and
lack of STAB before evolution, not to mention most fire types you face
are Numels, which aren't rock weak and have Magnitude to hit you with
anyway. As well, he is one of the few Pokemon to get Yawn, which could
prove useful in fighting tough Pokemon or catching legendaries. He does,
however, wish he got stronger moves earlier. Flamethrower comes early
enough at Lv36 (probably just in time for Winona, most likely after),
but he has a long-ass wait for Rock Slide, gotten at Lv48.
If you are thinking about using Slugma in boss fights, forget it. While
he does resist Flannery's attacks, he will end up getting killed a lot
faster than he can kill them due to Rock Throw's generally shitty damage
and the fact that Overheat has 140 BP plus STAB and sun, and he's not doing much
against anyone else, except maybe Yawning Norman's Slaking and dying
afterwards. Every other gym he royally sucks against, and the rock
typing he gains on evolution is more of a curse than anything, giving
him a very unwanted fighting weakness as well as magnifying his water
and ground weaknesses. While the rock typing could theoretically help
out against Winona, he's not evolving by then since that happens at Lv38
and he's not being any higher than ~Lv33 (not to mention he can't face
Pelipper or Altaria), and he's not facing the twins or Juan ever. It
does not help that everything after Lilycove is water, water, water. And
forget about the elites, he sucks there.
What an awe-spiring joke.
1.5/10
Torkoal
Type: Fire
Ability(s): White Smoke
The last new fire type you'll see for a long
time, Torkoal is a more defensively oriented Pokemon, a nice change to
the fast, frail fire types that we are used to seeing. He is very
physically bulky with 70 HP/140 Def bases, actually tying Skarmory
in that regard, and 70 Sp. Defense isn't bad either, especially since
he's mono fire and doesn't have a double water weakness to worry about,
though you will not take the hit very well (he can take most ground/rock
moves just fine). Not only that, but he starts with Curse, allowing him
to boost his defense to insane levels, and gets Amnesia at Lv40, right
when special attackers start more prominent.
His offense leaves a little to be desired, but 85 in both attacking
stats is relatively good for a defensive Pokemon, and Torkoal isn't
hurting for good quality moves. Starting with Ember and Curse at ~Lv15,
he can easily take the Secret Power TM until Lv20, when he gets Body
Slam, and Flamethrower is learned at the low level of 30, which is
around when you fight Norman. It does suck that he really doesn't get
much other then normal moves and Sludge Bomb for physical offense, but
considering you get Curse and fire STAB, it isn't all that bad. 20 speed
is rather sad, which means that Torkoal gets outsped by virtually
everything, but thankfully, unlike Slugma, he has the bulk to not really
care about it.
While he's not so great against bosses type-wise, he can Curse up on
Flannery's Slugma, Norman's Spinda (confusion bites, but a dose of
yellow flute cures that) and Winona's Swablu (if it uses Perish Song,
switch out), and proceed to rape face while the rest of their Pokemon do
almost nothing to him. While you should not attempt this against Juan
(rain boosted Water Pulses hurt even after +2 SpD) or the
twins (normal/fire coverage isn't great here due to Lunatone and Solrock
resisting both), he can do pretty much the same thing against the Elite
Four (don't worry about Curse's relatively low PP for a setup move, you get more than enough Leppa
Berries to fuel it if you keep growing them), and is great against
Glacia as a whole outside of Walrein (and even then, two Amnesia buffs
will protect you against the brunt of Surf and a Cursed Body Slam will
take it out in 2 hits at worst. Watch out for Sheer Cold.) Obviously,
don't attempt this against Wallace.
Overall, Torkoal is a niche Pokemon that can set up on unsuspecting gym
leaders, but has some issues killing bulkier things before he's set up
and doesn't like lategame enemies very much, though not to the extent of
Camerupt and Magcargo.
6/10
Machop/Machoke/Machamp
Type: Fighting
Ability(s): Guts
Machop is basically Makuhita if he joined later, had higher attack and speed, but worse HP.
Being a fighting type means that most things that are applicable to
Makuhita, Breloom, and Combusken apply to Machop as well. While he does
miss out on Watson, where he would have been a big help against
Magneton, he is readily available for Norman, and does great against
Team Aqua with all their Carvanha being hideously weak to fighting. And
like most fighting types, Machop isn't short on physical muscle, with a
mind blowing 80 base attack at base and his final form getting an
astronomical 130 base attack, tying with Rhydon and Breloom, and beaten
by only Salamence, Metagross, Groudon, Rayquaza, and Slaking in the Hoenn Dex.
And to top things off, Machop gets Guts, turning him into the Terminator
if inflicted with any sort of status.
Like Makuhita, Machop wishes he were a little faster. 35 speed isn't all
that impressive considering we're no longer in earlygame where base
stats don't really come into play, and even as Machamp, 55 speed is
quite painful. Thankfully, Machop has very nice bulk, sporting 70/50/35
bulk in the first form, and can eventually gain 90/80/85 defenses,
making Machamp very difficult to kill unless the enemy has a psychic,
but that goes without saying.
Unlike Makuhita, Machop learns an arsenal of good fighting moves through
level. Starting with Low Kick and Karate Chop, Machop is already self
sufficient at base, and gains gems like Revenge (powers up if you get
hit) and Vital Throw (ignores accuracy and evasion modifiers) relatively early, though
these moves have the side effect of negative priority. While Cross Chop
is a serious nuke that has an increased chance of a critical hit, it comes after
Juan, and to top things off, its accuracy is shaky and has only 5 PP, but
100 power still isn't anything to scoff at. As for coverage, fighting
types in general were kind of shafted here. While Rock Tomb is nice
early on, Machamp does wish the Rock Slide tutor came a little earlier
than postgame. He can also take the Bulk Up TM and round off his set
that way or go with Earthquake (has some competition) or Flamethrower/Fire Blast (65
SpA isn't impressing anyone), but he really wishes he got a good way of
smacking ghosts.
Now, most of this rating was assuming you had the ability to trade, so
what if you don't? You will find that Machoke, while still decent
against Norman, is an inferior Hariyama at best, and his special
durability isn't so hot considering that lategame is full of powerful
special attackers that can easily prey on a 80/60 muscled lizard
(Machamp can take special attacks just fine with 90/85 special
durability) and 45 speed just plain sucks. While 100 attack combined
with Cross Chop and Bulk Up can still leave a dent in most things,
you'll still wish you were using Hari since he has 120 attack to abuse
and a much higher HP.
7.5/10 (6/10 w/o trade)
Koffing/Weezing
Type: Poison
Ability(s): Levitate
Another Poison type that you can collect on your quest, Koffing has a
rather middling start. Gotten at Lv15-16, he starts with Tackle and
Smog, neither of which are damaging much, especially since Smog actually
has worse BP than Tackle after factoring in
STAB. Lv17 Self Destruct can help with damage, but it will cause Koffing to
die, which deprives him of any exp. However, you can use it, and
later on, Explosion, to help take down problematic Pokemon like Norman's
Slaking or Juan's Kingdra, but Explosion is learned at Lv44. As for his
main form of damage, he doesn't get Sludge until Lv21, but he can take
the Secret Power TM conveniently placed a few steps outside the Fiery
Path's north exit until that happens.
The Koffing line has a rather interesting stat spread for a gas-filled
balloon. He is rather bulky on the physical end with 40 HP/95 Def, which
combined with Levitate nullifying his ground weakness, means that Koffing
is pretty bro at taking physical damage, and this trend continues after
evolution where Weezing gets 65/120 physical durability. Unfortunately,
45 (70 as Weezing) Sp. Def is kind of depressing, especially with the
huge special bias that lategame has.
On offense, he has very good 65/60 attacking stats, which combined with
his TM movepool and evolution giving him 90 Atk/85 SpA, means that
Weezing can do some great damage to most things, though 60 speed is
quite depressing. Speaking of his movepool, his level up movepool is
very uninteresting past Lv21 Sludge and a late Lv44 Explosion, mostly
consisting of stuff like Haze, Destiny Bond, and Memento. Thankfully,
his TM movepool his quite good. The Sludge Bomb TM comes around the time
your Koffing is ready to evolve, and he can take the Thunderbolt and
Flamethrower TMs to round off any coverage induced holes he may have,
the former making him quite good against Winona, Juan and Wallace.
Shadow Ball is another option to smack ghosts with, and it can do some
damage to the twins, but using Weezing in that battle is not a smart
idea, but it is still an option as a last resort.
Like a lot of mid-joining Pokemon, Koffing wishes he evolved sooner.
Lv35 evolution isn't all that late, but Koffing does wish he were able
to evolve before fighting Norman, because even with Self Destruct access,
65 base attack doesn't really cut it against Slaking, though
thankfully, he'll be able to evolve around the time you fight Winona, at
which point you can really notice his good 65 HP/120 Def.
While Koffing can fill a role as a kamikaze attacker against hugely
problematic Pokemon, he does have some issues getting started and
doesn't particularly like the lategame very much.
5/10
Grimer/Muk
Type: Poison
Ability(s): Stench/Sticky Hold
Another poison type found in the Fiery Path, this one a rarity with a 2%
encounter rate, and no way of isolating him through Repel usage, so you
may have to do a lot of searching. Once caught, you will be surprised
to know that Grimer is actually decent for a mid-joining Pokemon. Coming
with 80 base attack and Sludge at base, Grimer is actually doing better
for himself than Gulpin on offense, though 25 speed really hurts, and
unlike Gulpin, has a late Lv38 evolution, which is around when you head
off for Mossdeep, in which case his speed is still bad, but he gains a
monstrous 105 base attack as well as 105/75/100 defenses. Speaking of
which, he evolves right as special attackers get progressively more
common.
Everything that I said about Gulpin's boss performance is basically
applicable to Grimer, minus the utility against Drake due to a lack of
Ice Beam. As in, poison is a mediocre attack type offensively, and while
no one except Phoebe resists poison, the only things that poison hits super effectively are Winona's Tropius, Sid's Cacturne and Shiftry, and Wallace's
Ludicolo. And of course, Muk doesn't want anything to do with the twins,
though he is quite good against Juan due to his natural special bulk as
well as the fact that Juan is maining a 60 BP move as his STAB.
Taking a look at his learnset, it's not all that pretty, but what Grimer
does get is quite good. Getting Sludge right off the bat is like a
dream come true, but the wait for Sludge Bomb is a long one indeed; Muk
has to wait until Lv47 to get Sludge Bomb, which is late enough to
justify using the TM on him. His physical movepool is somewhat sparse,
with his coverage consisting of Dig, Rock Tomb, and Brick Break, which
either come too late to matter (BB) or are weak past midgame (the first
two). While his special movepool is quite good (gets Thunderbolt,
Flamethrower, and Giga Drain. Too bad he doesn't get Ice Beam like
Gulpin does), his special attack is too low to make good use of them. He
can also get Explosion from the move tutor in Pacifidlog, which allows
him to, once again, take out bullshit like Kingdra, but that comes very
late. As for anything else, an interesting option is Acid Armor, which
basically solves any issues Muk had with his physical durability,
turning him into a tank.
Grimer has the potential to be an ok tank/sweeper, but finding one is a
total pain in the ass and you will probably wish you were using
something that wasn't mono poison.
4.5/10
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