When Constructing Competetive Movesets :
we've all seen the "the best moves for kyogre are surf hydropump waterspout and water fall" hints. there are a number of ways to improve your movesets from these primitive ones. here are some hints.
1. if all of your moves are of the same type, you only cover so many things. take that kyogre for example. it can only cover three types using all four of its moves. give it a new set, say:
-surf
-thunder
-ice beam
-earthquake
it can now cover - what? roughly 9 types now.
theres another reason not to have more than one move of the same type. its that if you have surf, hydro pump, water spout, and waterfall, are you ever going to use waterfall while theres the superior surf? having waterfall when you already have surf is a waste of a slot.
2. try to value accuracy over power. this means that you should ditch hydro pump for surf, thunder for thunderbolt etc. because the greater accuracy not only means that the weaker equivalents are safer to use (it wont miss at a critical time), it also means that they actually do more damage in teh long run. ice beam and the like also have more PP.
note: there is one exception. fire blast does more damage in teh long run than flamthrower, since its accuracy is actually quite decent at 85%. but theres the fact that you lose PP even if you miss, and you could miss at any time but with flamethrower you can be sure of a hit. another exception is thunder - in rain, thunder's accuracy boosts to 100%.
best moves for each type:
-normal: return
-ground: earthquake
-fighting: brick break
-flying: drill peck (or aerial ace on those that cant learn it)
-ghost: shadow ball
-rock: rock slide
-poison: sludge bomb
-bug: silver wind (or megahorn for the select few that learn it)
-steel: steel wing
-water: surf
-fire: flamethrower (or fire blast if you must)
-grass: giga drain, magical leaf, solarbeam... there is no grass equivalent of flamethrower like there is with ice beam. these all depend on the situation (eg. solarbeam in conjunction with sunny day, giga drain in conjunction with leech seed, magical leaf when theres no other option...)
-ice: ice beam
-psychic: psychic
-dark: crunch
-dragon: dragon claw
3. Stat up moves. the easiest to understand is swords dance - doubling your attack one turn means you hit twice as hard not only the next turn but all the turns after that until you get hazed or switch out. amnesia when you're up against a special sweeper means you absorb half as much damage from then on until you get hazed or switch out. your 'wasted?' turn is more than paid for in the long run.
the likes of calm mind and bulk up are a little harder to understand - think of it as using swords dance one turn and barrier the next - except that this only takes up one slot in the moveset. upping two stats is usually as good as sharply raising one.
4. other non-attack moves. thunder wave and leech seed dont sound like much. this may be partly due to that fact that they are learned early on. but status inflictors and the likes are extremely useful. say i have an ampharos. ampharos is usually slower than its opponent, but when it thunderwaves, the opponent's speed drops so that it can attack first instead. its like getting a free move almost. an added bonus is that 1/4 of the time, the opponent will be unable to move! leech seed works wonders when combined with leftovers. sleep powder and things are so good that a clause prevented them from getting out of hand!
the sleep clause:
only one pokemon is to be asleep in a team at all times. this was mainly made to prevent the abuse of spore agility smeargle, which would be fast enough to send your entire team to sleep then decide what to do with them. it doesnt count when you use rest, or get put to sleep through effect spore.
toxic... ah toxic. it doubles in power each turn, so prevents things that dont have rest from stalling too long.
as for other non-attack moves, things like heal bell/aromatherapy (heals all status ailments of the whole team) are invaluable, rest, wish, moonlight, synthesis, morning sun and recover increase longevity. substitute when you anticipate the opponent inflicting a status on you - the sub blocks it. baton pass to help out another team member. whirlwind/roar/haze/psych up to stop baton passers and stat uppers in their tracks. and taunt against things that rely heavily on non-attack moves so they can just attack pitifully. confuse ray almost always pays off because its 100% accurate and gives the foe a 50/50 chance of hitting themselves. the list goes on...
5. Try to get your moves to fit your stats + types. the offensive move types that use the attack stat (physical moves) are normal, fighting, ground, rock, flying, poison, ghost, steel, and bug. the offensive move types that use the special attack stat (special moves) are fire, water, grass, electric, ice, psychic, dark and dragon. if your pokemon has a high attack stat but a low special attack, you'd be better off with the physical moves in your movesets. its the opposite for pokemon with high special attack - use grass, electric etc. moves for them.
pokemon get a boost if they use a move that is of their type. its called the same type attack bonus, or STAB. the boost is 50%, which is great.
eg. how about this hitmonchan set?
-thunderpunch
-ice punch
-fire punch
-mach punch
this set isn't very good, because the first three punches are SPECIAL attacks, and hitmonchan has one of the worst special attack stat imaginable. in addition to that, it gains no STAB on the three punches. conclusion? it can't even OHKO gyarados with thunderpunch. try some physical attacks on it, maybe earthquake and rock slide, and maybe a stat up move, bulk up, as well. mach punch isn't bad, its a fighting version of quick attack and foils endure reversalers.
another thing to keep in mind is how you can cover your weaknesses with your moves, eg solarbeam on a rapidash covers all three! however, trying to cover your quad weaknesses are a little foolish, since you shouldn't send out your pokemon against something like that anyway (eg. ice beam on a quagsire)
|