Team overhaul. Need help.

[Sieg12]

I'm currently about to challenge serra and since at that point of the game a lot of options become available I was considering revamping my team and having some backup members. I decided to take a huge break to get the overhaul done once and for all instead of one at a time. I'm planning on having one Pokémon for each type and for various roles(sweeper, wall breaker, stall, doubles, etc) so I can be prepared for everything the game throws at me.

Current team

Serperior- leaf storm, wring out,giga drain,nature power

Meowstic- psychic, light screen, signal beam, shadow ball

Manectric-discharge,flame burst, ice fang,wild charge

Hariyama- force palm,knock off,belly drum, strength

Camerupt- lava plume, rock slide,earth power

Nidoqueen-earth power, sludge wave,t spikes,body slam

In PC (notable mentions)- aromatisse,houndoom,archen,eevee,gardevoir,murkrow,roggenrolla,

Cottonee,cincinno

What I think(sorry if I seem rude for this)

1. Hariyama and camerupt need to go. Not cutting it.

2. A fighting type is needed(lucario?)

3. A fire type probably a wall breaker

4. A water type

5. Umbreon might as well be my main stall pokemon

Feel free to post suggestions since I am in need. Thank you in advance.

[Anvilicious]

I'll answer as far as my knowledge of Reborn and competitive battling allows, although only that far.

1. My personal experience with Camerupt compels you to agree with you.

2. Sadly, Lucario is not available to you at the current point in the game. You can't reach it for quite a few gyms yet, unless this had changed in the newest episode. I don't know enough about fighting types to comment on any good ones. I'll let someone with more experience give you suggestions here.

3. As for a fire type, Arcanine is a great teammate, and still a regular on my team as of completing the available episodes. It's Heat Wave is a good move to keep, even if it's trained more towards a physical moveset, given that it changes certain key fields in the near and far future. If you postpone evolving it, you can get Flare Blitz on it and/or Outrage on it, or reteach it Extreme Speed if you want priority. The last move's really dependent on how useful you find the egg move that comes with it. Mine had Close Combat, which I kept after considering the coverage moves of my other team mates, but I don't know what the other possibilities are.

4. Vaporeon is a sponge that can tank a lot of damage other water types can't, and has access to Aurora Beam. Muddy Water is my preferred choice for STAB move, since it's secondary effect saved my butt so often; although it's not the most accurate, and Hydro Pump is way stronger. Aqua Ring is helpful if you have a chance to set up against a foe that can't hit it hard, and keeps it in longer.

5. Umbreon is a beast when it comes to stalling. Good choice, not much to say there. Put Yawn and Confuse Ray on it, and few things can touch it.

I've found Gardevoir helpful as a special attacker with Moonblast, Psychic, and Calm Mind, but used it primarily to set up Misty Terrain to banish irritating field effects.

As someone still learning, I only gave the advice that I was capable of giving, but this should help some.

Edited July 21, 2015 by Anvilicious

[Sonikku]

Fighting coverage isn't really a necessity.

Important coverage: Fire, Water, Fairy or Ice, Ground and something to take ground moves etc. Everything else can be what you want but you want to be sure you have these. Grass would be useful as a ground resist.

If you have a Helix Fossil, Omastar is an amazing water type. Crawdaunt/Azumarill.

Litwick, Houndour and Darumaka are all great choices.

Toxicroak and Breloom are also good Fighting types. Toxicroak can smack fairies tho.

You'll find other amazing pokemon throughout the game so don't worry about this stuff too much. Your team is really good as is.

[Etesian]

For what you're saying about roles: completely unnecessary. I mean, you can do it, but I've yet to find anything on multiple playthroughs that can't be overpowered by 6 attackers with good coverage.

First off, the way I see it, you say you want to keep Serperior, Manectric and Nidoqueen? If that's so, I'd really say to get rid of them as well. Manectric is completely outclassed by Heliolisk, especially cause it has an actual movepool (notable mentions being Surf, Grass Knot, Dark Pulse), gets better abilities and has overall better stats (beside defense, but neither of these two can take hits). And for Nidoqueen, Toxic Spikes are unnecessary as your team will be pretty hard hitting anyways, the chip damage from poison will hardly matter. I'd say you use a Nidoking instead, with Ice Beam, Sludge Bomb/Wave, Earth Power, Thunderbolt/Flamethrower (to get the non-STAB moves, check the pinned guide in this section about breeding in E12 and prior).

Now, for a Fighting type, there's 5 really good ones in Reborn, Hitmonlee, Toxicroak, Mienshao, Hawlucha and Scarfty. The only ones of those you can get right now are Toxicroak, Machamp and Scrafty, though you'd have to wait a few gyms more and you can get all of them, but you'd need to wait almost as long to get their best moves, like Dragon Dance on Scrafty. For movesets, best would be:

-Unburden, Blaze Kick, High Jump Kick, Bullet/Mach Punch, Thief (TM later) for Hitmonlee. Another option would be Reversal and Endure instead of High Jump Kick and Blaze Kick or the priority, that option lets you get the Unburden boost easier, though Gems are a thing, so it's no big deal anyways.

-Poison Touch, Poison Jab, Drain Punch, Sucker Punch, Bulk Up (E12) for Toxicroak. The chain for both Drain Punch and Bulk Up is in the guide.

-Reckless, High Jump Kick, Knock Off, Acrobatics/Poison Jab/Rock Slide for Mienshao (Farfetch'd for Knock Off, Acrobatics and/or Poison Jab, Camerupt>Donphan>Mienfoo for Knock Off and Rock Slide(Acrobatics is a TM you get way later)).

-Unburden, High Jump Kick, Acrobatics, Swords Dance/Poison Jab/Rock Slide for Hawlucha (just continue the chain for Mienshao to get these moves onto Hawlucha) (Feather Dance is also an option to make setting up stupidly easy, which is why I'd say it's the best Fighting type in the game right now)

-Moxie, Dragon Dance, Ice Punch, High Jump Kick, Crunch for Scrafty. Since this one doesn't have Unburden, you can give it a Wide Lens to make High Jump Kick 99% accurate.

Next, if you want a Fire wall breaker, you need a Darmanitan, best wall breaker ever, especially cause Sheer Force negates Life Orb recoil, and we just so happen to have one.

Although there's another, overall-better option: Ninetales. Not only is it very strong on it's own (Nasty Plot, Flamethrower, Hidden Power Rock, Energy Ball (Energy Ball from E12) being it's best set), it also gives Heliolisk a 50% boost to it's Special Attack if it has Solar Power. The combo of these two is stupidly good. If you do breed for that specific Hidden Power (though Ground also works decently), look at my guide to see how passing down IVs is done (a.k.a go buy the Power Items), and don't bother with the right Nature, a nature changer can be found 2-3 gyms after Serra.

Not too many good Water types exist in the game, Kingler, Crawdaunt, Huntail, Clawitzer, Empoleon and Relicanth being the only ones that...do anything worthwhile, while Feraligatr, Empoleon and Gorebyss are the best Water types in the game IMO. Sets:

-Sheer Force, Agility, Waterfall, Rock Slide/X-Scissor/Brick Break/Knock Off for Kingler (Archen>Corphish>Krabby for RS and KO, Kricketune/Karrablast/Ninjask/Dwebble>Skorupi>Krabby for XS and KO, Corphish>Archen>Anorith>Krabby for all RS and XS or all three)

-Adaptability, Knock Off, Waterfall/Crabhammer, Swords Dance/Dragon Dance, Aqua Jet/Rock Slide/X-Scissor/Brick Break. Aqua Jet is pointless if you aren't using SD, chains for RS and XS are the same as for Krabby.

-Water Veil, Waterfall, Shell Smash, Ice Fang, Sucker Punch for Huntail.

-Mega Launcher, Water Pulse/Scald, Ice Beam/Dark Pulse/Dragon Pulse/Aura Sphere/Sludge Wave for Clawitzer, the chain for Ice Beam and Scald is in the guide.

-Rock Head/Sturdy, Head Smash, Waterfall, Earthquake, Zen Headbutt/Yawn for Relicanth (Whiscash for Zen Headbutt and EQ, Wooper or Whiscash for EQ).

-

-Any Ability, Surf, Ice Beam, Hidden Power Grass/Electric, Shell Smash for Gorebyss. Psychic is also an option for a 3rd attack if you're too lazy to get the right Hidden Power, but HP Grass/Electric works much better. You can also go Baton Pass.

-Torrent, Agility, Surf/Scald/Hydro Pump, Ice Beam, Grass Knot for Empoleon. Chain in the guide.

-Sheer Force, Waterfall, Ice Punch, Crunch, Dragon Dance for Feraligatr.

-

There's also the mystery egg from the police in the Jasper Ward, which can give you, for Water types, Tentacruel, Starmie and Azumarill. For those:

-Liquid Ooze, Sludge Wave, Scald/Surf, Ice Beam, Wring Out/Acid Spray. Or be a man and use SD, Waterfall, Poison Jab, Knock Off Tentacruel which is surprisingly fun.

-Natural Cure, Hydro Pump, Psychic, Power Gem, Icy Wind/Minimize.

-Huge Power, Belly Drum/Waterfall/Aqua Jet/Play Rough/Bounce/Superpower/Brick Break/Body Slam.

Nope. Umbreon has nothing beside good defensive stats as a wall. It can Toxic foes down, but anything can do that. Instead, I'd say either keep going with offense, or use a Gourgeist. Gourgeist is without a doubt the best physical wall in the game. Huge physical defense as is, Will-o-Wisp to boost that further, Leech Seed to heal you and to whittle down the foe's health (which, together with Will-o, takes 25% of a foe's health per turn), Protect and Phantom Force for a STAB and for the fact that those 2 moves together make you unhittable every 2 out of 3 turns, the foe loses 50% of their HP while you're not even hittable and they hardly leave a scratch when they do hit. Seriously, this thing soloed even Solaris Garchomp for me. To get Protect and Will-o, use Yamask in E12.

-Another alternative for a wall would be Encore, Toxic, Leech Seed, Infestation Whimsicott, but it's very luck-reliant. Either you come in and Encore the foe into a not-very-effective move or you die without putting up a fight.

[gryson]

how can u get archen before serra?

[Etesian]

how can u get archen before serra?

He can't. I just figured that, if he's reworking his team, I'd give the best possible advice I can regardless of when he can find the stuff he needs. Archeops is at the same locations as ever, the Agate Circus Tile Puzzle and that one museum event post-Serra.

[Sieg12]

how can u get archen before serra?

I did get archen before serra in the museum event. I'm pretty sure about it since i also bred that archen for head smash. It didn't strike me as odd since archeops doesn't fare all that well against a team with ice shard users and evasion boosts.

Wow, Etesian, that was beyond helpful. I've yet to read such an informative guide for teambuilding. That must have taken alot of effort. Thank you and if you don't mind I'd like to address some points.(Side Note: How did you guess I was keeping Manectric and Nidoqueen? Did you use mind reader?)

About the manectric vs heliolisk point, what you have said is true but heliolisk movepool is really dependant on TMs and most of the good ones are a bit far. Manectric has perfect IVs and EVs in speed and special attack along with a boosting nature and the two main moves(discharge and flame burst) were chosen to take advantage of terrains something I find myself resorting to when I can't just plow my way through some oppoinents. I do plan on replacing Nidoqueen since as you said there are bettter mons but it has proven pivotal in MANY battles. As a personal code of conduct I do not plan on doing e12 breeding for TMs until I finish upto the e15 since I have heard that the gym leaders have been nerfed and so do not want to trivialize them by over preparing. I hope you do not feel undermined by this since obviously you put alot of effort into helping people in need. I'll consider the switch from Queen to King.

Seeing the options regarding fighting and water types I've concluded that i should wait for some time until I can get the ones I need. Until then which water type is better between the three? Crawdaunt, Sharpedo or Whiscash?

Also a few questions I had. Is Typhlosion good? Also is Rhyperior useful since I plan on getting one for a certain gym leader?

As for umbreon I only considered it as a counter for certain enemies. I would be happy to stick 6 offensive pokemons and go on my merry journey bu with mutations out for my blood and trainers who don't like to keep their Garchomps restrained, I do find myself in need of a mon like Umbreon. The reason I thought of umbreon was cause my knowledge regarding stall is limited. I have yet to use Gourgeist but there's a first time for everything.

[Etesian]

(Well, you made it obvious Camerupt and Hariyama had to go without mentioning the other two, so i just guessed.)

Actually, it's not that reliant at all. What I use on mine is Thunderbolt via level-up, Grass Knot via late TM or breeding from wild Pansage in Jasper, Hidden Power Ice (cause sunlight weakens Water moves, so Surf isn't that great (it also gives coverage vs Dragons)) and Surf/Dark Pulse via TM although I never ever use the 4th move cause it doesn't need it. So you can get the non-level-up set even before Corey. About taking advantage of terrains, of course, not all fields let you do that and all the fields that affect Discharge also affect/boost Thunderbolt. You can also take a look here and see what fields affect Flame Burst, I can already tell you that no major fight happens in those fields after the point you're at (except for the obvious Fire gym, but you're not gonna spam fire there).

Actually, nothing was nerfed for E15. The AI took a dive with Essentials v15, but that's been like that since Reborn E14, you're already getting the full package. No line-ups have been changed either, except for Shade and Serra. Your game, your choices. I don't really see why not to use everything at your disposal, but hey, do what you will. Either way, throwing walls of text at people in this section is kinda my job, haha.

Well, Whiscash does the same things Crawduant does, just worse. Sharpedo is an option, but it just lacks power, and lets not talk about it's "bulk", so go Crawdaunt.

Typhlosion is good, but there's better. It suffers a great deal in the versatility department and it's stats aren't even that great. It has access to Eruption, sure, but I only consider 5 non-starter Fire types to be really worthwhile: Ninetales, Chandelure, Darmanitan, Delphox, Arcanine. The first 3 hit much harder than Typhlosion, Arcanine has impressive move-variety, Delphox is just really really solid and Magician comes in handy at times. Want sets?

I haven't used it yet since it only became available this episode, but I think it's safe to say Rhyperior is Rock Solid. Bad puns aside, it should be really good. I prefer Gigalith for being available way earlier, having Sturdy, having actually existing Sp.Def which makes a Curse set actually possible and because I'm biased as hell. You can use Rhyperior, but it's better with just 4 attacks. You can go Swords Dance and Rock Polish, but that really gimps your coverage and is less reliable. So if you wanna use it, just go with STABs and any coverage you may need, Hammer Arm, Fangs, maybe take a gamble with Metal Burst. I mentioned Gigalith, so I'll mention a set, EQ, whatever Rock STAB, Curse, Heavy Slam.

I only ever used one not-all-out-attacker and never had any problems, so I really don't think you need it, but that Gourgeist is really good, so, again, do what you will.