Original Leaders or Their Reserves hit Harder?

[Abyssreaper99]

Hi guys as the title says, who did you find harder in terms of leaders where you battle the original and their reserve? So this would be you lot saying whether you found Corey or Aya harder and whether you found Kiki or Samson harder (guess you could include Victoria for fighting considering she is the reserve when Samson becomes the fighting leader). This is down to difficulty at the time you face them, not their levels.

 

Personally I find Kiki harder than Samson and Aya harder than Corey. Even Victoria is harder to beat than Samson.

 

 

[Zarc]

Simpson Samson harder than Kiki to me. I won't be so sure about Corey or Aya , because in the first look if Aya seems to be harder , you have at this point of the game more pokemons choices to make a good team and beat her , which it's not the case before facing Corey ( not really so much psychic or ground mons to catch ) 

[Tacos]

Samson was definitely harder than Kiki.  His team is more well-rounded and is capable of handling big type disadvantages with plenty of high-leveled mons and good coverage moves.  Not to mention, unfortunate RNG on the big top field can make this a lot harder.  Kiki just didn’t have much complexity to her team and I basically swept through with ease because of Alolan Raichu, utilizing nasty plot and psychic being boosted by ashen field.  

 

As for Corey vs Aya, I’ll have to give it to Aya.  The one reason being Aya uses doubles.  With Corey, I was able to set up growth on my Roselia since Nidorina didn’t have the strength to take it out, and from there I just swept with giga drain spam until crobat, which didn’t fair well against the rest of my team.  Aya, on the other hand, doesn’t give you the luxury of easy set ups.  Doubles makes it easy to target threats since she has two mons that can focus threats rather than just one.  To beat her you need to be able to utilize the strength of moves that can hit both of her Pokémon at the same time (Lycanroc with Rock Slide, or Alolan Raichu with Discharge for example).  

 

So to summarize, both reserves gave me more of a challenge than the originals.

[Dreamy]

I dunno about regular corey, but Corrosive mist corey was harder than Aya, at least when I last played, mostly due to pokemon availability. 

 

Samson was harder than Kiki for me because of how Ashen Beach boosts Psychic types quite a bit. it could maybe be reversed if you've got the right flying type to take advantage of Big Top. 

 

I've not played through in a version or two, and Gen 7 did change a lot of things up though

[Wolfox]

as I always say, to me Aya is where the game takes of the kid gloves and puts on it's big game pants. so I guess you can tell which I believe to be harder between her and Corey. though I find Kiki Harder than Samson

[Angelkitsune]

Corey is kinda easy for me after i use electric terrain and my speed boost combusken just one shot everything after holding a metronome as for Aya though hoo boy i remember the first time i battle her and got curbstomp so bad i have to change my team for the first time， i finally beat her after a couple of resets 

(ノへ￣、) Kiki is also easy for me since the field also boost psychic moves so i just spam psychic  with my super fast alolan raichu while Samson is harder for me since his mienshao and hawlucha always outspeed me not to mention they hit pretty hard too...damn acrobatics.

[Azeria]

Corey >>>>>>>>>>>>>> Aya. This has been a thing since Corey got his field.

 

Samson >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Kiki. Kiki is a joke.

[DevR]

Corey on Corrosive Mist Field is harder than Aya imo, especially in E.17 (her Tentacruel got replaced with a Toxapex). It's a lot easier to change her terrain and spam EQ now, so yeah.

 

I'll agree with the others on Samson being harder than Kiki. The Big Top Arena is pretty much the only reason for this, cause otherwise they're both easy fights.

[Abyssreaper99]

So we've all put our opinions up here, general consensus is that Aya is harder than Corey unless you rescue all the policemen prior to his battle (then he'll use his corrosive mist field). Also everyone seems to be saying that Samson is harder than Kiki (only because of the Big Top field) but they're both easy fights (In my opinion, Samson is one of the easiest leaders but not the absolute easiest due to Luna and Radomus' existence). 

[kithas]

I think it highly depends on the team you bring to them. For example with Samson, his field also boosts Acrobatics which helps against him. Corey vs Aya I can ony compare Mist Field vs regular Aya but I think the path to her gym has more pokémon and more options to get a better team, so... I usually find Julia one of the easiest leaders, but I know that's because I always get to bring a Ground-type or Volt-Absorb Pachirisu so it isn't entirely depending on the leader.

[enu]

For me Samson and Aya were both pushovers in every single playthough. Kiki and Corey always were much more difficult.

 

The reason why Kiki is much worse is that she has good defenses against both Psychic and Flying types. Samson can be beaten easily by just one decent psychic mon (such as Espeon).

 

So yeah, definitely original leaders are better. The reserves are just newbies without experience.

[Zander]

I fought Corey in episode 15. Was he easier then? Because I defeated him in two tries no problem. Aya on the other hand...now that's a tough battle. If I'm not mistaken she opens up directly with the king and queen of poison types (Nidoking and Nidoqueen). Absolutely no water type move at that point in the game is capable of one shotting both the Pokemon together. I had a Frogadier with water pulse which I had to rare candy into Greninja to actually do some damage. And she has op stuff like Gengar and super bulky poison types. Honestly it all came down to my Magneton not getting hit by a move on one turn so that I could do enough damage to kill her final pokemon. It was a truly tough battle which took me at least 10 tries no joke.

The easiest gym leader though definitely has to be Seirra. Get yourself a flash cannon Magneton and it one shots every single one of her pokemon. Kiki was easy because I had a Granbull while Samson was able to counter my Pokemon pretty easily. But having a hurricane Noivern,Granbull and an Emboar really did help me win so it wasn't that different from other gym leaders.

 

Side note, Luna is the best gym leader by far because of her pure offensive team. The battle was literally me one shotting her first pokemon, then she one shotting my first pokemon, me okoing her second and she immediately returning the favour. This kept on going till we had one pokemon each. Thus it was definitely the best battle I've ever had.

[Candy]

I think Corey hits harder than Aya but most peepos can agree Kiki hits harder than Samson (though I'll give him credit for using unburden hawlucha which many a time almost swept me )

[DevR]

1 hour ago, Zander said:

Aya on the other hand...now that's a tough battle. If I'm not mistaken she opens up directly with the king and queen of poison types (Nidoking and Nidoqueen).

As of episode 17, Aya actually leads with Toxapex + Nidoqueen, which makes her battle easier, since you can just target the other 'mon while leaving Toxapex until the end (it does very little damage)

[Zander]

@DevR

Oh that would explain why everyone is saying that she's easy. Looks like I had it pretty rough with her hyper offensive bulky combo. It's pretty bad when she kos all damage dealers in the start. Too bad that Ame had to nerf her a bit.

[Angelkitsune]

well i have to admit she got nerf so much i always beat her on first try after learning from my mistakes on my first playthrough. I watch some youtubers playing an earlier version and i think her tentacruel and gengar are more threating even muk that keep spamming minimize, her toxapex is a joke because it keep spamming toxic spikes even though you have a poison type and a steel type on the field.

[Abyssreaper99]

Aya was once the thing of nightmares, now she's weakening. Please hope she hasn't been nerfed again for E18.

[Winter]

I find Kiki to be one of the easiest leaders. While Samson isn't exactly hard either, he's a lot more challenging than Kiki for me.

 

Corey is a very hard leader for being so early. Aya's not that bad if you're prepared, but she can still be tough. I'm gonna go with Corey for this one though.

[DevR]

Honestly, that Toxapex on Aya's team could have been a buff if it wasn't a lead. Merciless + Venoshock on that terrain is scary, but a lead Toxapex just sapped her momentum, which was kinda disappointing. In previous versions her battle was definitely harder. On the other hand, this time I beat her with Clefable + Empoleon (all hail Cosmic Power Clefable).

[Maqqy]

Corey has been consistent of being the embodiment of suffering. Aya, E16 and back made Freddy Krueger Jobless with her Tentacruel being an actual and realistic nightmare. Kiki with Telluric Seed Medicham was you know, scarring. Samson was the only one I didn't have any trouble with since the Circus Field made flying types very op even Noibat can OHKO his team (this is a joke, cause Noibat can't do shiznit).

[Monochrome_Complex]

Samson is definitely harder than Kiki. His field is really annoying for that fight and hawlucha is freakin broke on it with the seed.

 

Corey is harder than aya by virtue of crobat literally being able to oneshot half the pokemon available to use up till that point. That venoshock HURTS. Like skuntank is challenge but crobat can easily sweep your entire team if nothing resists poison.

 

Charlotte is harder than Cal by far. Well Cal I think was a reserve at one point, no?

 

blake and serra is weird. Serra's difficulty has fluctuated so much between episodes it's hard to tell, and TBH Blake's new team is kind of unlikable, not liking his gyrados and starmie additions. There were times where I found him harder, but also times where I found serra harder, like in episode 17.

 

Previously fern was only really tough in his grand hall fight where he first used roserade. I'd say that fight could be tougher than Flora but now ehh not really. 

 

While he's no longer a reserve or was even an official leader(though apparently he was one in the actual league), sigmund was harder than Julia back when he was an electric specialist.

 

 

[Lorisaur]

I have personally found Aya very easy to beat like Shelly Radomus Charlotte and Amaria, give me doubles and for me it's much easier. Also, I've found Samson so easy to clear but I had a quiver dancing Volcarona, so it's not to be considered. Not that Kiki was so hard, however. Victoria gave me much more trouble, paradoxally

[Abyssreaper99]

@Monochrome_Complex I think Cal was the Fire leader but then retired so Charlotte got it (I think it went Char's mum (in the story only) -> Cal -> Char) Fun fact, Blake used to be the ice leader before Serra, this is hinted at by citizens of Ametrine.

 

@Lorisaur Radomus is considered one of the easiest leaders, Aya was hell back in the day until she was seriously nerfed (I would have struggle with her Gengar, Tentacruel and Muk than deal with her easy af Toxapex).

[Damashi The Kaotic]

Corey was significantly harder than Aya for me. Don't think she has even come closing to getting my mons below half before.

[dragonsbeat]

actually for me it's based in which team i used

i would say Samson hits harder than kiki based on my monodark run kiki was the easiest gym leader cause she likes using strenght on my skunktank

i would say aya wins against corey, cause i didn't know having a steel type makes crobate useless means the only probs would be skunktank, nidorina,croagunk and those are easy to deal with (except skunktank)

and with aya, she was a pushover scpecially since i am a master of double battles (this is sarcasme btw) i raged quit twice