(Spoilers) My opinion on the team changes made for e17 on important trainers

[DarkMasterKendall]

I just beat the current episode on the new file that I started to see the main differences from e16 to 17, and I liked most of them. Here I’m going to give my opinions on them (If any information regarding the new teams is incorrect or incomplete PLEASE correct me, my memory sucks and I wrote most those based on it, and also sometimes I might not have had the chance to see the changes) (I tried to make this serious, but in the middle of it I started to meme a bit so please don’t hate me for any bad cringy jokes made)(I also dont english well so bare with me on this one).

Gym leaders:

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Julia's team was pretty much entirely changed, and to be honest it made her a LOT harder. Oricorio stepped up her game, because otherwise having a grass type would just wall her. Emolga was present on the original team, but let’s be real. Another thing worth noting was the unique selection of Pokémon (Plusle, Minun and Geodude-A) besides her standard Voltorb, Electrode and the bird. For her Team in the Meteor raid in Titania’s house she dropped the Pika-clones and Voltorb for Magnezone, Rotom-Fan and Bronzong.

 

Florinia didn’t have her team changed besides the Telluric Seed on Ferroseed, which made her team fit even more the stall role: Maractus lead for hazards, Ferroseed to complement them, even though the seed hindered it due to the Sand Tomb effect, Breloom weakens any potential threat for Cradily to Sandstorm and Stockpile up to invincibility.

 

Corey’s team, from what I’ve seen, changes every other episode or something close to that. This time he dumped Grimer for Mareanie to abuse the Merciless Critical Hits that the field provides. Otherwise nothing changed, meaning he still dead… for now. Who knows?

 

Shelly's Rain Dance strategy was complemented with Araquanid, which even having a special move to abuse the rain with only 50 base Special Attack still imposed a threat. And the Telluric Seed on Anorith was a surprising factor to a rather underwhelming team member that now with the attack boost; the one-turn spiky shield and the rain support had the potential to wipe any opponent due to outspeeding your team with Swift Swim, coverage and flinch hax. As for her Ametrine Mountain team, her new friends took over: She still kept Heather, Bugsy and Illumise and added Cain the Scolipede and Noel the Vivillon. Her change was Anna the ~Shiny~ Ribombee, which was previously a Venomoth. In my opinion, no reason for the Illumise to be there, that slot would be much better filled with either Volcarona, to represent Charlotte, or Heracross/Pinsir to represent us, the MC, you know, because we are always fighting and stuff. Also the choice could have been determined by which one you decided to pick in game, in this case she would choose the opposite. (I actually lost a battle because I kept fainting her pokemon to see them lol)

 

Shade had two members replaced: Trevenant for Dhelmise and, unfortunately, Chandelure for Mimikyu. One of the few changes I disliked, Chandelure fitted shade so much better in my opinion, not only as an offensive presence, but as an aesthetic one as well because of the Pokédex descriptions of its evolutionary line (Lampent, X and OR: "The spirits it absorbs fuel its baleful fire. It hangs around hospitals waiting for people to pass on." ; White, Y and AS: "It arrives near the moment of death and steals spirit from the body." and Chandelure, Black: "It absorbs a spirit, which it then burns. By waving the flames on its arms, it puts its foes into a hypnotic trance." ; BW2, Y and AS: "The spirits burned up in its ominous flame lose their way and wander this world forever."). The two first times you see him, he is there to claim the souls of the dead, which seems more fitting with Chandelure. Don't get me wrong, Mimikyu is a very strong Pokémon and his even has swords dance, but I liked Chandy on the team way more. Oh, also his Doublade holds the Synthetic Seed to boost Special Defense and become immune to Ground moves, but even with that boost, it is not taking a special hit well without an Eviolite

 

Kiki’s only change was the Telluric Seed on Medicham to give it the effects of Focus Energy and Laser Focus at once. That means she’s still dead, enjoy your Misdreavus.

 

Not really much to say about Aya, just the addition of Salazzle, which is perfect for her, and Toxapex to again abuse Merciless on the field. That thing has pretty much become a staple to any mono-poison/semi-stall/annoying team, hasn’t it? Also in the Route 3 teaming up she has Lycanroc Midday instead of her Nidoqueen.

 

Serra's team went to a completely out of the blue Ice strategy with small reliance in hail to a correlation between the Mirror Arena and the weather condition. Not only can she abuse the evasion buffs and move reflections, but also strengthen her Ice moves with hail. While the two Pokémon she possess to set it up, being Ninetales-A and Aurorus, can be seem as rather passive, the two prime abusers, Sandslash-A and Froslass will be destructive if you don’t play correctly. I like this version of her team a lot more, because it won’t just rely on hax to be difficult.

 

Noel got rid of his Guildmaster Wigglytuff to rise up big bad bear Bewear himself. This change helped him diversify his type coverage, since previously with 2 fairies his team was very susceptible to available Steel Types like Magneton and Steelix. Alongside that, his Clefable holds the Elemental Seed to give it a defense boost and apply Ingrain, which heals more in the Grassy Terrain.

 

The only change I could notice in Radomus’ team was the Synthetic Seed boosting Special Attack and applying Magic Coat to the Gardevoir. His Reuniclus could have been holding the Amplified Rock, but I didn’t have a chance to see it because I straight up bodied it. (Also if you are reading this to prepare for the new strategies for your next run of the game, do yourself a favor and get a Pinsir with Moxie, it destroys this team completely.)

 

Ah Luna, my second most adored person of the game, loses only to Cain because he is hilarious. Only change in her team is that March Hare the Sableye is now shiny. Also I noticed in this run that all her nicknames are from Alice in the Wonderland. I love clever nicknames with historical/cultural/literature references.

 

Samson too only had Seed changes, but with a step up from other leaders: two Synthetic Seeds! One was given to Hawlucha for the Unburden abuse and the other to Conkeldurr just for the power.

 

Charlotte is still as powerful as ever, and now her Ninetales has a chance to catch you off guard with the Telluric Seed, giving it a Defense boost and Shell Trap. She might have had the Elemental and Magical Seeds to adapt to the Burning and Rainbow Fields respectively, but I didn’t get a chance to see it. Only other info on her Pokémon that I got is that Rotom-H was scarfed and Typhlosion holds a Sitrus Berry, but I’m pretty sure this was the case in the previous episodes.

 

Terra’s new team is completely absolutely utterly TM 78 levels of BULLSHIT. I lost to it 3 times. Her Quagsire and the newly added Palossand now hold the Synthetic Seed, making them +1 in both defenses and type-less, with both also having Amnesia and recovery moves, and  you won’t even get to see Palossand until Hippowdon is sent out. Wanna know why? Cause it has Sand Veil. Half of her team is now stupidly bulky and 2 members won’t have weaknesses unless she switches them out. And if all of this just wasn’t enough, the Special Attack drops due to Draco Meteor on her Garchomp also don’t matter because it has an Assault Vest to abuse the unbreakable field mechanics. Your best bet to beat it will be a bulky Pokémon, and since it will most likely be a slow one, the Chomp will be landing Critical Hits 11 times out of 10. I am mentally hurt after this battle. If Samson actually deleted her on accident he is now my favorite character of this game.  

 

Ciel dropped her nerfed Smogon Birb for Oricorio-Baile and Archeops for Minior. The dancing bird holds the Synthetic Seed to make the Attack boost + Field boost + Acrobatics-power-boost-due-to-lack-of-item combo. Minior is most likely Shell Smash + White Herb, but I didn’t get the chance to see it. Personally, Going from CB Archeops that has Earthquake coverage to Smash Minior is a bit of a downgrade, but her team is still pretty powerful.

 

Adrienn didn’t change.

 

I played Titania when the public release came out and in both routes and didn’t notice any changes.

 

Now Amaria did change from the community to the public release, or at least her doubles team did. She dropped her Gastrodon for Primarina, which holds the Elemental Seed, and Quagsire for Mega Blastoise. Her previous team wasn’t offensive, the damage output was only big due to the field buffs, but now with the new members it actually has the pressure, especially with Primarina that can always just become a pure Water Type, and has a chance to boost her Special Defense, and the Blastoise also has a trick up its sleeve: Whirlpool to eliminate the Murkwater Field if you try to set it up. And a bit of a morbid detail, her Lapras has Perish song, which actually won me the battle.

Rivals:

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Cain is your first battle of the game, but you get to see the changes on his team later. His branch off of the poison typing is presented to you after he rescues Popplio. Originally, it would be an Oshawott, and he would just add it and have the other 5 members as Poison Types, now he diversifies with Cubone, to later become Marowak-A. At first glance, it doesn’t make sense, but for it to do, you need to progress in story, more specifically beat Aya. She mentions how he was supposed to assume the Poison Gym, but instead he fled from home leaving all his Pokémon behind, and when you meet him at the Railnet he talks about the problems he had with his mother. I interpreted this change as a way to try and forget the hurtful past, also I don’t think it was even mentioned if Cain wanted to become a Gym leader or not, so it may also be to stray away from this possibility. Later on he also adds Meowstic, as seen in the battle with him for the Byxbysion Key and Mimikyu when battled at Vanhanem Castle. Oh, also his Muk ate some trash and is all colorful and shit.

 

Victoria’s changes are also connected to someone from her past: Kiki. The way I saw this is that even though she is her apprentice, she doesn’t want to be a copy of Kiki. Having her own Pokémon, not following any guidelines to any type is her way of aiming to become a sensei as inspiring and wise as Kiki, but with her own distinct personality. Either that or Ame just wanted to introduce 7th gen Pokémon early, swapped hers, Cain’s and Fern’s starters and said “Fuck it, you only get to keep Togekiss, Gallade and Mienshao”. Her new Pokémon are: Incineroar, as seen when she picks the starter, and Raichu-A and Pangoro, both revealed in the Lapis Ward Battle but Pangoro is temporary, and Lucario, shown in the Devon Corp battle (Raichu holds a Synthetic Seed for this one).

 

Being completely honest, I don’t like Fern’s changes. His initial vibe was like “I’m gonna act like a jerk to you cause I have some sort of superiority complex even though I use this type that a lot of people think its weak, and guess what? I’m still gonna beat your ass with it”. And even when he changed his team for Aya, he had the snob attitude of “You only gave me trouble one time, when I worked around my weakness I COMPLETELY destroyed you lol git gud”. And also his starter: Fern and Serperior are a match made in heaven. Serperior SCREAMS SASS when you look at it, in most of the sprites, it is always looking down on you. And the Pokédex entry for White, Y and AS, “They raise their heads to intimidate opponents but only give it their all when fighting a powerful opponent.”, if it doesn’t think you are strong, it simply won’t even make any effort on battling. They are just way too perfect for each other. Now coming back to the changes, in the Route 1 battle Decidueye has the Elemental Seed giving it the same effect as Noel’s Clefable.

Team Meteor:

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For Solaris, Ame simply said “I’m tired of y’all trying to beat it and actually doing it so I’m just gonna make the fight on Pyrous Mountain even more difficult by giving it leftovers”. Other than that, no change.

 

From your first encounter Taka, you can see his team changing: dropping his Lileep for Exeggcute, which will later become Exeggutor-A. The other two swaps are Aerodactyl for Minior and Huntail for Komala. These changes made the offensive presence on his team huge: he leads with Klefki to support up Spikes and Thunder Wave, Gliscor provides the walling necessary and Komala and Minior won’t go down without taking a live or two with them, everything lining up perfectly for his Chatot to get the job done. With this new run I did, I realized how Taka was acting always like someone was forcing him to do that, he never wanted to join Team Meteor, it was his father who made him do everything. I kind of liked him after I noticed that, too bad I took the Reshiram path.

 

ZEL’s only change was, in the Devon Corp battle, the Synthetic Seed on both Espeon and Glaceon. Also RIP Eve and Lumi.

 

I guess global warming finally arrived in Reborn, huh? Blake’s team is not entirely composed of Ice Types anymore. His Jynx and Rotom-F were swapped for Mamoswine and Gyarados, he also replaced Vaniluxe and Froslass with Starmie and Sandslash-A, which is now his new ace. Just like Serra, I liked the change on his team (not only cause now is way easier lol) due to him stopping the reliance on hax to be a threat. He still abuses the Terrain and Weather with Walrein, Sandslash and Starmie, that has Thunder, but now you can actually use it against him on some of his Pokémon, like Gyarados, using Thunder, Mamoswine, with it being neutral to Ice attacks even though it can have Thick Fat, and the previously mentioned starfish.

 

Sirius’ team had a (wow I just realized how dumb that sounds) serious improvement. Almost an entire revamp if not for his two signature Pokémon, Seviper and Chandelure (At least one Chandy survived, yay). Good bye to Hitmontop, Manectric, Honchkrow and Probopass (really?), and welcome Golisopod, Toucannon, Tyrantrum and Minior! As much as I think that going from Honchkrow to Toucannon is a downgrade, just like Taka, the offensive presence is way more significant than it was on e16. I also noted that his levels were higher, was that just me or what? And is each of them gonna have a shiny and a Minior? I get that you are Team METEOR and all but…

 

What made Aster and Eclipse stand out was how they were always together and had the counterparts Solrock & Lunatone and Magmortar & Electivire. Now their teams seem to be composed entirely of counterparts, but so much… lamer. Solrock and Lunatone aren’t amazing Pokémon by themselves, but now alongside the two Lycanroc and Passimian & Oranguru its not impressive whatsoever. In the route 3 battle Aster kept his Golurk, but swapped Rhyperior for Krookodile, and Eclipse kept Vileplume and Milotic. They don’t have their respective Vespiquen and Aromatisse anymore, most likely dropped for the Lycanroc. About Aster’s standalone battle, his sixth member is Eclipse’s Lycanroc Midday. Although I don’t like this version of their teams, it could still be threatening if you let it. Kind of sad the ending they had, but it was a good sub-arc while it lasted.

Other Trainers:

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Cal’s new team, for his battle up in Pyrous Mountain that is, is… weird to say the least. He dropped Infernape for Barbaracle, Delphox for Turtonator and Blaziken for Hakamo-o. Now how tf do you want to best your brother if you just made your team weaker to it? Smh white people. Now seriously talking, his team in Ametrine is way better than this: He kept Charizard and Magmortar, evolved his Hakamo-o into Kommo-o and got 3 new members, being Arcanine, Medicham (Must be tough for him to battle with this) and Kingdra. This shows his personal growth, as he stepped aside from his childish “I need to beat my brother” attitude. (Gonna make a wild prediction right now: he is completely dumping the fire type, becomes a dragon trainer, Saphira dies and he takes over the gym, killing all the hype people had for battling her in the apparently broken Dragon’s Lair Field.)  

 

Bennett still sucks lol

 

Guess Ame wasn’t happy with the Electric Type Trainers, huh? Sigmund’s team was another one deeply changed with him swapping Luxray, Lanturn and Eelektross for Drampa, Musharna and Hypno and also sending his Raichu to have a vacation in Alola, with it returning all “Surf’s up”, levitating and shit. But this change makes sense though! Drampa is used to play with the small kids and Musharna to make them see their dreams and make them happy, but Hypno is to hypnotize the kids if they are not being obedient towards going into the “Therapy” room. From there Electivire can take over control.

It's long and maybe incomplete, but it took me 2 weeks to play the game and write the changes since I decided to do one gym per day. I hope y'all enjoy and dont kill me for bad opinions and jokes 

[HAWmaro]

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Yeah i like some of the changes but i feel some alolan mons replaced much better and stronger pokemon just because they're new and shiny. Also snivy was made specifically for Fern's smugass face, it fits him perfectly, i vote to bring it back!!

 

[FairFamily]

Well I only reached until e16 Luna and skipped a few things as a result. Still here are some remarks.

 

Ame told that while serperior was the better individual pokemon for Fern, she believed as a collective the gen 7 starters fit better.

 

Araquanid is also a decent burning field check. Water Bubble protects Araquanid from the burning fields residual damage. 

 

I don't like shade's chandelure replaced by mimikyu either, personally they could have swapped out trevenant/dhelmise for Chandelure. That to be said mimikyu might be thematically the better ace though.

 

For Aya I'm not too happy on Toxapex, it seems more like a singles mon rather then a doubles mon but I might be mistaken there. Also Corrosion is in the wasteland a very funny ability. 

 

For Sera you forget Aurora veil , I know Jynx and A-Ninetails have it.

 

The biggest danger with seeds though and especially with shelly (and Noel) is that a field change (like setting it on fire) will mess up the seed.

 

 

[DarkMasterKendall]

  On 12/26/2017 at 12:17 PM, HAWmaro said:

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Yeah i like some of the changes but i fell some alolan mons replaced much better and stronger pokemon just because they're new and shiny. Also snivy was made specifically for Fern's smugass face, it fits him perfectly, i vote to bring it back!!

 

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Yeah, people call that the "New toy syndrome", but in this case, I'd say 8/10 times it works

  On 12/26/2017 at 12:44 PM, FairFamily said:

For Sera you forget Aurora veil , I know Jynx and A-Ninetails have it.

 

The biggest danger with seeds though and especially with shelly (and Noel) is that a field change (like setting it on fire) will mess up the seed.

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Yeah, true Aurora Veil is kind of broken in this field cause it doesnt need the hail to work, almost lost to froslass cause of it.

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Mess up the field for the seed to fail/give a different effect is how I beat Amaria, besides her suiciding her last two members with perish song

 

[TheLuca]

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I cant resist, Komala fits Taka so much

 

[Lost Lore]

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So far as the rivals go... Incineroar fits Victoria about the same as Emboar did, Primarina fits Cain very well, and Decidueye doesn't fit Fern anywhere near as well as Serperior does. The only one who really gained anything from this was Cain. So I don't get the whole "Gen 7 starters fit them better as whole" thing. At all.

 

Though I also agree with the above, the Gen 7 additions smack a LOT of added because they're new and shiny. And I see them as incredibly excessive at times, being honest. Especially given how many random early game trainers have gotten them. Like, chill a little bit on those.

 

Also because relevant: Get that Minior OUT of the Mosswater Factory, what the hell. 100 in both defensive stats, then Shields Down triggers and you're facing 100 offenses instead, and base 120 Speed, which nothing can outspeed that early. Did I mention that it also has Rollout at that level? I know it's Team Meteor, and yes, Minior fits them, but save it for a later battle, imho. That alongside Crabrawler was significantly more threatening than Aster and Eclipse with the two doggos, and that's saying something.

 

/end dumb rant

 

[Paperblade]

Community->public release changes (according to running a diff on the trainer.txt file)

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Fern's Sandile in his first encounter now always has Moxie instead of a random ability. It also has Moxie instead of Intimidate when you team up with him. It still has a random ability in the battle at Onyx Trainer School, though. 

 

Sigmund's team at Yureyu HQ (when you can double battle him with Cain) received a difficulty boost. Musharna and Raichu-A gained 2 levels, the rest gained 3. Additionally, everything on his team now has 25IVs rather than a range of 15-23. The exception is Electivire, who still has 31. His Electivire is also a Jolly nature now (but only in this fight, it's still Adamant at Tanzan Cove).

 

Titania's Empoleon has Torrent instead of Defiant.

 

Amaria (Singles)

Azumarill replaced with Wishiwashi (which has an Elemental Seed). Kingdra now has Dragonium-Z on Zekrom route. On Reshiram route, Kingdra keeps its Life Orb and Swampert has its respective mega stone.

 

Amaria (Doubles)

Gastrodon and Quagsire replaced by Primarina (which has an Elemental Seed) and Blastoise. On Zekrom route, Blastoise has Fightinium-Z (used with Aura Sphere). On Reshiram, its mega stone

 

Other corrections/changes

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Charlotte's Rotom still has a Light Clay. As far as I can tell, almost all instances of Choice items are rebattleable grand hall trainers or Indra. The major exception would be

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The final fight in the Mega Ring questline runs Specs Manectric

 

In e17, all story important/boss character pokemon now have set genders. Previously it was random in most cases.

 

[DarkMasterKendall]

  On 12/27/2017 at 1:51 AM, Paperblade said:

Community->public release changes (according to running a diff on the trainer.txt file)

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Fern's Sandile in his first encounter now always has Moxie instead of a random ability. It also has Moxie instead of Intimidate when you team up with him. It still has a random ability in the battle at Onyx Trainer School, though. 

 

Sigmund's team at Yureyu HQ (when you can double battle him with Cain) received a difficulty boost. Musharna and Raichu-A gained 2 levels, the rest gained 3. Additionally, everything on his team now has 25IVs rather than a range of 15-23. The exception is Electivire, who still has 31. His Electivire is also a Jolly nature now (but only in this fight, it's still Adamant at Tanzan Cove).

 

Titania's Empoleon has Torrent instead of Defiant.

 

Amaria (Singles)

Azumarill replaced with Wishiwashi (which has an Elemental Seed). Kingdra now has Dragonium-Z on Zekrom route. On Reshiram route, Kingdra keeps its Life Orb and Swampert has its respective mega stone.

 

Amaria (Doubles)

Gastrodon and Quagsire replaced by Primarina (which has an Elemental Seed) and Blastoise. On Zekrom route, Blastoise has Fightinium-Z (used with Aura Sphere). On Reshiram, its mega stone

 

Other corrections/changes

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Charlotte's Rotom still has a Light Clay. As far as I can tell, almost all instances of Choice items are rebattleable grand hall trainers or Indra. The major exception would be

  Reveal hidden contents

The final fight in the Mega Ring questline runs Specs Manectric

 

In e17, all story important/boss character pokemon now have set genders. Previously it was random in most cases.

 

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Thanks for this info, I played amaria's singles in community, so wouldn't know that.

And for rotom, I thought it was scarfed cause it was the slowest thing under trick room and only used overheat

[fireheart4560]

I really didnt like fern getting sandile early on

 

I thought it was neat he changed mid game because he wanted to workout his issues

 

Now hes no longer just grass focused from the get go