• Welcome back to Pokécharms! We've recently launched a new site and upgraded forums, so there may be a few teething issues as everything settles in. Please see our Relaunch FAQs for more information.

PKMN White team help?

Status
Not open for further replies.
So I wanted some suggestions or ideas about my current competitive team for gen 5. I created this team with no one plan in mind, it was more or less picking poke's that I knew were decent by themselves and that I thought could work together. I use this team for single battles so keep that in mind.

Crobat @ Posion Barb
Jolly
Inner Focus
252 Attack 6 Special Defense 252 Speed

-Posion Fang
-Brave Bird
-Super Fang
-Confuse Ray

Breloom @ Toxic Orb
Jolly
Posion Heal
252 Attack 6 Special Defense 252 Speed

-Seed Bomb
-Drain Punch
-Stone Edge
-Spore

Ferrothorn @ Rocky Helmet
Brave
Iron Barbs
118 HP 252 Attack 8 Defense 128 Special Defense 4 Speed

-Power Whip
-Iron Head
-Posion Jab
-Explosion

Gallade @ Scope Lens
Jolly
Steadfast
252 Attack 6 Defense 252 Speed

-Psycho Cut
-Drain Punch
-Night Slash
-Leaf Blade

Gastrodon @ Quick Claw
Modest
Storm Drain
6 HP 252 Defense 252 Special Attack

-Scald
-Earth Power
-Ice Beam
-Recover

Salamence @ Wise Glasses
Timid
Intimidate
252 Special Attack 6 Special Defense 252 Speed

-Dragon Pulse
-Air Cutter
-Heat Wave
-Hydro Pump

I have a winning record and the team seems to work ok but if I can get any helpful input on how to better it I would be grateful. Thanks.
 
Let's break this down individually:

Crobat: For the most part, your Crobat is okay. You can go defensive and break some Stalling Pokemon, or offensive with Life Orb/Choice Band. You'll typically want a Jolly nature, although Adamant can work if you want some extra power. Remove Poison Barb as it's only helping one move - Poison Fang, and that move can go in lieu of Cross Poison. Confuse Ray is debatable. Roost is a nice option for healing, and it also removes your Flying weaknesses for one turn. Taunt is almost mandatory on something as fast as Crobat, stopping things from setting up either entry hazards or boosting stats. U-turn can work to scout some things, and Pursuit is always nice for catching frail Psychics and Ghosts that try to flee.

Breloom: looking pretty good here. Breloom gets the amazing ability of Technician through the Dream World(though I'm not sure it's released yet. You can still use it on Online Servers, though). Running Spore, which will either force a switch or they'll try to stay in and wake up, Swords Dance is an EXCELLENT addition, as you can boost on the switch or just dance in their face, taking your Attack to insane levels. Mach Punch is good STAB priority, and helps Breloom's less-than-stellar speed. Facade can also work with ToxicHeal, as its power is doubled to 140 since your poisoned. Should you go defensive: Protect, Substitute, and Leech Seed are very, very nice options. A Jolly or Adamant nature works best with this guy, and he can also run Life Orb, Choice Band/Scarf.

Ferrothorn: You seem to have taken an offensive route with him. This guy has a ton of moves to pick from. You'll really want Leftovers on him, unless you feel like going offensive all the way and using Choice Band. Defensively, use Relaxed; offensively - Brave. Ferro's speed isn't going to help him much, so you might as well just ignore it. Ferro is amazing at setting up Spikes and/or Stealth Rock, and entry hazards are your best friend. He can also run Leech Seed and Protect, which, combined with Leftovers, is a very nice form of recovery. Thunder Wave is good for crippling faster opponents, and should you choose not to, Gyro Ball takes advantage of your low speed as well as STAB. A set something like this:
Ferrothorn@Choice Band
Brave
Iron Barbs
248 HP, 252 Atk, 8 SpD
-Gyro Ball
-Power Whip
-Explosion
-Not really sure

or if you want more defensive and tank-ish:

Ferrothorn@Leftovers
Relaxed
Iron Barbs
252 HP, 88 Def, 168 SDef
-Spikes/Stealth Rock(you can run both, just replace something else)
-Leech Seed/Protect/Thunder Wave(you can run more than one)
-Gyro Ball/Power Whip(if running both, replace the last slot)
-Stealth Rock/Protect/Thunder Wave/Leech Seed

Gallade: gets Close Combat - use it. Coming off of his high attack, as well as getting a STAB boost, it's powerful. He gets priority in the form of Shadow Sneak, can Taunt, and boost up in either Swords Dance or Bulk Up. SD offers immediate power, while Bulk Up can give you good defense and abuse the hell out of Drain Punch. With his average-ish speed, Gallade can abuse a Choice Scarf, using Zen Headbutt for flinch. Adamant/Jolly is typically good, though Careful abuses his naturally good Special Defense if you use Bulk Up. Additionally, he gets Ice Punch and Stone Edge- very good to help score some hits against Dragons/Gliscor or Flying-types. Leftovers helps on Bulk Up, Life Orb is good offensively while allowing choice of your moves- also works well with Drain Punch.

Gastrodon: LEFTOVERS. Gastrodon can be a special tank, and boy, is it awesome. Toxic is great for stalling the hell out of things, while you sit back and Protect/Recover until they die. If you can catch a Storm Drain boost, you can also Choice Specs and hit back with a vengeance. Something like this, perhaps?:

Gastrodon@Leftovers
Sassy/Calm(less speed, or weaken attack you're not even using, unless you run Earthquake over Earth Power)
Storm Drain
252 HP, 4 SAtk, 252 SDef
-Recover
-Ice Beam/Toxic
-Scald
-Earth Power/Earthquake(protect can be thrown in somewhere if you want it)
~This is pretty Special Defensive, and Gastrodon can do it. If you go full Special Attack, just switch the SpDef and SpAtk EVs, and maybe shift a small handful of HP into SpDef.

Salamence: 'Mence doesn't commonly go all-Special in Gen V - usually it's Dragon Dancing or Mixing. Speaking of which...Moxie. An awesome ability, it also works super well with Dragon Dance. Air Cutter isn't really that useful, swap it out with something like Draco Meteor, which will put a huge dent in most things. Choice Specs gives you even more power, but you'll be restricted to one move. 'Mence can run a bunch of sets, and a bunch of items.

Overall, your team is mostly built right. I only put sets up for the 'mons whose EVs looked kinda funky to me. KoL will probably have more and better advice, though. So I'd wait for him to say anything before going around and changing anything.
 
Thanks for the reply, i'm happy to hear that it isn't totally broken. I like some of the EV spreads you mentioned and i'll take you advice and wait to see what KoL has to say before I change anything. I was wondering though how roost would get ride of the flying type weaknesses for a turn?
 
Roost makes it land, so ground moves are now able to hit it for the turn, but Rock, Ice, and Electric moves are no longer Super Effective for that turn.
 

KoL

Expert FPS Player
Staff member
Moderator
Right...

- Crobat's item is fail, get rid. Also a set like that is better off running full HP instead of full Attack. Crobat sets tend to run Taunt/U-Turn/Roost in combination with an attack (Acrobatics would be my recommendation) since it's the most effective way to shut opponents down. Flying Gem for the item with Acrobatics.

- Breloom's fine, consider full HP instead of full Speed with Adamant nature if you find you're still not quick enough with max Speed.

- Ferrothorn wants max HP, no Attack, more on Defense and nothing at all on Speed (also take Relaxed/Sassy nature instead, Ferrothorn really doesn't need the offensive power for his role.) Gyro Ball is far better than Iron Head here, Poison Jab is a waste of space and since the nerf Explosion is as well. Take Leech Seed/Thunder Wave and Spikes/Stealth Rock for those slots.

- Gallade is practically screaming for a Choice Band with a set like that. Drop Drain Punch for Close Combat (since your Gallade is running an offensive set and EV spread here) and you're good.

- Calm nature for Gastrodon, drop Quick Claw (seriously, this item is crap) for Leftovers and your EVs should be full HP/Sp.Defense to play to Gastrodon's strengths.

- Special Salamence is really not that great anymore especially with Latios and Hydreigon available, and since Salamence runs mixed sets exceptionally well there's little point in going full-Special anyway. Although your current team is very physically oriented anyway, Salamence is better off running a mixed set such as:

Salamence @ Life Orb
Hasty/Naive
Intimidate
200-252 Attack/0-58 Sp.Attack/252 Speed

- Outrage
- Brick Break/Earthquake
- Fire Blast
- Draco Meteor/Hydro Pump

Something like that. The EVs are more of a general example than anything else really, but the item and the moves are exactly what you should be aiming for.

Now, as you've probably figured out, your team is far too physically oriented right now. Skarmory alone would make quite a nuisance of itself against you especially since the only two Pokemon who can really do anything to it (Crobat with Taunt and Salamence) are both weak to Stealth Rock. Some changes to your team will be necessary to get around this problem since Skarmory appears everywhere you find the good players.
 
Thanks for the input KoL. I have faced many Skarmory and they do pose a great threat to my current team. I was wondering why you say I should pick up acrobatics rather then keep BB on Crobat? If it is because of the recoil? Would giving it a shell bell be good for countering that?
 
Shell Bell has nothing on Leftovers. Acrobatics is a good move because its power doubles if you don't have a hold item. With a Flying-type Pokemon and a Flying Gem, that's a lot of power. I believe it goes from base 55 to 110 using Flying Gem, doubling to 220 since you're no longer holding an item, then to 330 with STAB. That's 660 Super-Effective, and 4x Super Effective is just ridiculously powerful(my math right be wrong, though. I always get confused on the order in which this stuff takes place. Still insanely strong). Brave Bird only has about half to three-quarters of that power, and you have recoil to boot. Acrobatics stays strong at about 165 factoring in STAB(again, might be wrong on the math), while Brave Bird is 180 with recoil. Acrobatics stays strong and helps promote longevity.
 

KoL

Expert FPS Player
Staff member
Moderator
Flying Gem doesn't double the power, it increases it by 50%, which in this case works out as (55 x 2) + 55 with the 2 coming from you having no item and the extra 55 coming from the Gem itself for a total of 165 (without STAB.) The move then drops to 110 with the item used up, compared to 120 on Brave Bird, except Acrobatics doesn't have any recoil.

Because you do have STAB, an extra 50% goes onto each of these values, but you get the general idea.
 
tbh i'm the serious offence type so i will try to help by telling you the best pokemon moves for the pokemon. it may not be the best advice and may sound dumb to other pro's like KoL but this is me not him, ok?
Crobat: Air Slash/Sludge Bomb/Giga Drain/X-Scissor
Breeloom: Sky Uppercut/Stone Edge/Drain Punch/Focus Blast
Ferrothorn: Power Whip/Stealth Rock/Thunderbolt/Explosion?
Gallade: Leaf Blade/Night Slash/Psychic/Earthquake
Gastrodon: Muddy Water/Ice Beam/Rock Slide/Sludge Bomb
Salamence: Draco Meteor/Flamethrower/Aerial Ace/Dragon Pulse or Brick Break
P.S i focus on attack and have a wide range of different types of attacks to find at least one super effective move on basically any pokemon you face and i don't worry about raising stats just defeating them as quickly as i can. hope this helps ~:D~
 

KoL

Expert FPS Player
Staff member
Moderator
RennikS360 said:
tbh i'm the serious offence type so i will try to help by telling you the best pokemon moves for the pokemon. it may not be the best advice and may sound dumb to other pro's like KoL but this is me not him, ok?
Crobat: Air Slash/Sludge Bomb/Giga Drain/X-Scissor
Breeloom: Sky Uppercut/Stone Edge/Drain Punch/Focus Blast
Ferrothorn: Power Whip/Stealth Rock/Thunderbolt/Explosion?
Gallade: Leaf Blade/Night Slash/Psychic/Earthquake
Gastrodon: Muddy Water/Ice Beam/Rock Slide/Sludge Bomb
Salamence: Draco Meteor/Flamethrower/Aerial Ace/Dragon Pulse or Brick Break
P.S i focus on attack and have a wide range of different types of attacks to find at least one super effective move on basically any pokemon you face and i don't worry about raising stats just defeating them as quickly as i can. hope this helps ~:D~

This is beyond dumb for multiple reasons:

1. You gravedug a dead topic.
2. Your advice is terrible (Thunderbolt on Ferrothorn, Giga Drain on Crobat and Aerial Ace on Salamence just to name a few examples.)
3. Grammar. Punctuation. Use them.

Warned, topic locked.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top