Pancham or Mankey?

[TotallyNotLuck]

For somebody playing the game semi-competitively, which one is more useful to catch in Obsidia? Why? 

[Vinnie]

Mankey will evolve earlier by 4 levels and without the need of having a dark type in the party. Mankey's line has a much better natural move set as well, but you're stuck with iffy abilities in either anger point or defiant, both of which have niches but you won't get constant use out of them.

 

The Pancham line has a worse off move set but it has 3 amazing abilities in Iron Fist, Mold Breaker, or Scrappy. It's a toss up between Mold Breaker and Iron Fist since you will have dark STAB coverage to deal with ghost types, therefore making Scrappy obsolete. The issue here is that a lot of this line's good moves come late, either naturally or just as move tutor moves. The strongest STAB fighting move the Pangoro recieves naturally is Hammer Arm at level 70. Primeape gets Close Combat at level 39 instead. Useful moves for Pangoro come way too late in the game(Parting Shot-48, Taunt-65) and it's too slow to use those anyways.

 

Despite the amount of strong coverage the Pancham line can give you late game, I'd go with the Mankey line, just for your own sanity.

[Seel The Deal]

Seconding Mankey, in addition to what Vinnie said it gives some AMAZING egg moves to some Pokemon very early on, particularly Close Combat, Thrash, Outrage and Stomping Tantrum.