Discussion: Resistance Berries

[kanak0]

Well, there's one catch about that Swampert though. Assuming Swampert takes some damage and doesn't heal some life at the end of the turn, wouldn't that already make the opponent suspicious that Swampert has equipped something fishy? I mean, who puts Focus Sash, Life Orb or Choice Items on their Swamperts?

Thats a fair point, but it is just an example. Either way I think some one might think it was a choice item or a life orb before resistance berry comes to mind.

 

[Robo Mike]

Well your example does work, ...maybe better on Dragonite, Dos and Salamence as opponents may suspect Life Orb equipped after a DD with no life recovery...

 

[Dragontamer]

Well, there's one catch about that Swampert though. Assuming Swampert takes some damage and doesn't heal some life at the end of the turn, wouldn't that already make the opponent suspicious that Swampert has equipped something fishy? I mean, who puts Focus Sash, Life Orb or Choice Items on their Swamperts?

Not necessarily. If you do not know the opponent's team, then for all you know he is sacrificing Swampert for some very strong revenge-kill threat. Maybe a SpecsMence Draco Meteor, or something. If his team doesn't have wish support, then these are all very possible options.

EDIT: lol. SpecsMence is 4x resist grass :-/ But let say that he doesn't want to risk a Sludge Bomb or something for simplicity's sake.

 

[Gardevoir]

Even in the standard environment where Pokemon switch every other turn, there is one other resistance berry that helps frail psychic types, the Colbur berry.

If your opponent tries to catch you with Pursuit, the Colbur berry could mean the difference between death and running to fight another day.

 

[flashfox]

These resistance berries will find their Niche I think sooner or later. Fighting resist berry counter Blissey I think was mentioned in one of the warstories, I find that really interesting...

We have Yache Berry Dragonite already, and we could find some interesting other pokemon that could run it. Chople Berry Ttar for the random focus blasters running around? Who knows...

 

[Tricky]

Sulca Berry Metagross seem to be slightly common I believe.

 

[Firestorm]

They are pretty useful in certain cases. I wouldn't say they're a replacement for leftovers in most cases, but they are definitely a useful thing to have around for some Pokemon - especially in an item clause environment.

 

[Lorspy]

After playing in the Wifi Battle Tower, especially in the Rank 3 4 5, the pokemon teams with Jap names commonly use berries. For myself i adopted using berries alot more than just the Lifeorb/Choiceband/spec/scarf and Pure killing.

yache berries saves my garchomp alot
Occa( The Ground one) are especially good for metagross/magnezone
Wacan for Gyarados.
Grass one for swampert only if it can kill the pokemon aka avalanche a Grasser

The berries usually allow enough hp left so a Quick attack, Ice shard, Vwave or w/e wont be able to kill it. I usually see Garchomp near the red/yellow borderline ish after a stab Icebeam. and StabEQ on Metagross does 1/4, unstab does 1/5 HP and allowing it to survive another EQ, with like 10 hp lol

For me, its good for those pokemon who are still fast enough after a DD/SD/Nasty plot and then sweep.

Not sure the potential of using berries in 2 vs 2 or Trick ROom team.
Seen too many people looking for pure power/Pwnage or leftovers here and there.

 

[Carl]

After sort of skimming this thread here's what I personally believe. I think Footnote got into this a bit but the use of these kinds of berries and others really depends on the battle format you're playing in. As he said, in a normal 1v1 battle with 6 pokemon you'd probably be best using Leftovers most of the time or a Life Orb/Choice item and some of the rare exceptions like Shed Shell and Expert Belt. For things like Battle Tower, I find Lum Berries and resistance berries much more handy. I also found that my Gamestop 2v2 team completely lacked Leftovers and that I had more berries than any other item. What I think makes these temporary or one turn use items more useful is amount of battle turns. Shorter battles benefit more from the one turn use but as the battle drags on an on it is more beneficial to use something like Leftovers which over a long stretch of time heals a lot of HP. I think these items in general are pretty viable, you just need the right environment for them.

 

[Nodoka]

Taking half damage seems much more important then a meager leftover recovery in the high paced DP metagame, for most non-walls. On my Empoleon (wall) I use a Shuca berry. It seems kind of useless, but against DDMence or Garchomp it is nice. They will expect a switch to get a free DD or an EQ to 1HKO, but it wont and I will 1HKO them instead with Ice beam. While this leaves Empoleon low on HP you take out a very large threat without them seeing it coming.

But maybe people have better examples.

 

[Shen]

I've found that Yache Berry is a good idea on Pokemon that like to stat up for a turn. My opponents often seem to have it on their Garchomps and Gliscors, and it would seriously wreak havoc on my team if it wasn't for the fact that I have Ice Punch (noir) Ice Beam (Milotic) Avalanche (Pert) and Ice Shard (Weavile) on my team, so it generally doesn't do them much good. I usually lose a Pokemon in the process however.

Intruiged by this development, I tried out a Rindo Berry on Swampert, to kill all the Pokemon that get sent in to take it out. Togekiss still one shotted me with Grass Knot, though I think it had used Nasty Plot (more fool me for not paying attention). Guess it would be good for Breloom and Tangrowth which is good, as Mach Punch Breloom is annoying for killing my Weavile.

 

[Footnote]

It (any resistance berry) is kinda useless if you are slower than the opponent. They hit you once on the switchin (or while you're already in, I guess) for less damage, then hit you again before you do something back.

That's why I wouldn't really consider outside of something that's able to increase its own speed with Dragon Dance, such as Salamence. Getting a Dragon Dance while they hit for less than 100% could be a big difference, especially if you can get 2 of them (1 as they switch to a counter, 2nd as they try to use Ice Beam or another Ice attack).

Otherwise, I wouldn't really use any of these. Even with Item Clause, there's usually better options.

Again, this assumes that you'll be switching in to take damage. If your previous Pokémon got KOed, Focus Sash and resistance berries become more useful. It depends on the kind of team you're building.

 

[Blastburner]

Those berries can be handy, but I only recommend them for fast sweepers in the late game. When item clause is in, they could be handy. focus sash can do the same thing and it works for different attacks. conclusion?

focus sash > resistance berries

 

[igottjam]

I use Shuca Berry on my Metagross and it saves my ass almost every battle.

Garchomp comes in; EQ, I Ice Punch.
Metagross comes in, thinks he can set up / EQ's. I Thunder Punch.

But then there was that time where I took out Gyarados, and then Garchomp came LOL.

 

[Footnote]

Those berries can be handy, but I only recommend them for fast sweepers in the late game. When item clause is in, they could be handy. focus sash can do the same thing and it works for different attacks. conclusion?

focus sash > resistance berries

This is an oversimplification. If your Pokémon is taking Poison, Burn, Leech Seed, Hail, or Sandstorm damage, Focus Sash means you faint at the end of the turn. Additionally, it can't be used if you take damage coming in, either from a move, Stealth Rock, Spikes, etc. With a Berry, you may have up to half your health left after taking an attack that would have KOed you and it works even if you're not at max health. Anything frail is usually better off with Focus Sash. Anything bulky with only one or two common weaknesses is probably better off with a berry.

 

[Tangerine]

I've been using Yache berry on my Gliscor who passes Rock Polish. It's been working rather well - considering it can eat a non stabbed Ice Beam or HP Ice (although Shoddy battle doesn't recognize it) and pass boosts to a Happy Togekiss/Lucario.