DPPt/HGSS Help wanted with Dugtrio moveset

[baratron]

Heya,

I need some help with my Dugtrio (currently level 40). At the moment I have decided on the following 3 moves:

1. Magnitude - to be replaced with Earthquake (pumped up with PP UPs) after level 51. A powerful Ground attack which'll get STAB.

2. Dig. Not as powerful as Earthquake, but takes the pkmn off screen for a turn, which has several uses (like if you see your opponent firing up a Fly or Solarbeam, or if you're running short of healthy pkmn and you want to be able to conserve your defences).

3. Slash. A reasonably powerful Normal attack, useful for those pkmn who aren't particularly vulnerable to Ground...

So, I am completely stuck on what the fourth move should be. Some of the thoughts I have had are:
- Tri Attack. Will require a mushroom as I replaced it with something else, but that's do-able. Normal attack, but with the possibility of extra effects (Frozen, Burn, Paralyse iirc).

- Toxic. Pretty much every pkmn on the planet can learn TM06 for some reason, but Toxic might actually be useful for a Ground pkmn. Not least of all because Poison is the other Super Effective type against Grass.

- Aerial Ace. Flying, never misses. I am amused by the possibility of teaching a Flying attack to a Ground pokemon, especially one whose icons show it clearly buried in the ground! Also, this will reduce the need to switch if my opponent sends out a Flying type against me.

Have I missed anything obvious? Which move should I pick? Can you think of anything better than Slash for the 3rd move? Etc, etc.

 

[NonAnalogue]

Rock Slide could be good. But, I would refrain from Toxic - Dugtrio is waaay to fragile to set up a Toxic and then do damage. Dugtrio is best used for hitting hard and fast, with attacks like EQ and Rock Slide.

 

[baratron]

Can you expand on what you mean by "Dugtrio is waaay to fragile to set up a Toxic and then do damage"? Do you mean that Toxic only works while the Pokemon that "issued" it is in battle?! Or just that Dugtrio, having crap Defence stats, needs to dispatch the enemy asap, not hang around waiting for effects?

I dunno about that - I do a LOT of switching. It doesn't help that I am seriously stingy about spending money on healing items (In most of my games, my character has >$100,000 and a bunch of Nuggets just sitting around, because I usually only use Soda Pops & Lemonades - Hyper Potions & Full Restores are for EMERGENCIES of the Legendary/Elite Four variety!), so I switch to avoid damage. Leech Seed + Leftovers makes a pretty good combination for keeping the Dugtrio alive .

I do wonder how my pkmn battle strategies would change if I ever got to fight human opponents, rather than just the AI .

 

[antisuperheroguy]

Dugtrio couldnt take the hits to use Toxic, and then try to attack. He means that you should take down any pokemon you see quickly with it. Plus since your using the game, most of the opponents you encounter, youll wanna take down quick as possible without having to worry about Toxic, especially the Elite Four since they have full heals and such.

And remember.. human opponents are about.. infinitive times smarter then the AI opponents, and you cant use healing items, and switching out is dangerous. But if you wanna ever try it, theres always this thing called Netbattling. You uh.. choose your evs, ivs, hidden power type, item, moves, gender, shiny, uhh... and a nickname XD. Its really fun though, its more strategic then any of the gameboy games ever were. Killing the elite 4 with one pokemon gets kinda old, especially when all of your pokemon are at level 100.. if you have any questions IM, or PM me.

 

[Yoshimitsu]

It depends on what you Dugtrio's ability is, really. If it's Sand Viel, I'd go for Sandstorm to keep Dugtrio alive. If not, I'd go for deadly powerful moves. Here's what mine was once:

Earthquake+PP UPs (14 pp)
Sand Attack
Rock Slide
SandStorm

Sandstorm made sure my Dugtrio didn't get hit that often, and repeated Sand Attacks almost guarranteed that I was kept alive. Earthquake and Rock Slide both kicked pokemon hard.

 

[Ash Is the best]

i would recomend:-
EQ
Tri attack
Rock Slide
Swagger/Dig

 

[StellarWind Elsydeon]

Whoa. Extreme necromancy there.

Read the rules, please. Reviving old thread is frowned upon majorly. Reviving threads from 2004 is an offense punishable by death.

Or at least a warning.

Topic locked.