BW2 In-Game Tier List Discussion [Updated 7/24]

[R_N]

Doesn't the Subway already give 3 BP for a successful run pre-E4?

Subway, I imagine, is a lot more time-intensive than the PWT (7 rounds with a fair amount of time between each battle compared to 3) and you get nothing if you lose.
Grinding in the PWT is theoretically faster and at least if you lose you get an additional shard.

 

[Stellar]

I think we can assume that grinding of any sort is not conducive to an efficiency-oriented playthrough.

 

[chicobo329]

I think we can assume that grinding of any sort is not conducive to an efficiency-oriented playthrough.

Then it shall be so; no fun stuff like Brick Break and early evolution items for this thread. A shame, that Brick Break TM has wonderful and helpful distribution.

 

[Redtype]

Finished Black 2 some two weeks ago with the following team:

Arcanine - I braced myself for some painful grinding, but surprisingly enough Growlithe really managed to hold it's own weight. My final set was Flamethrower / Outrage / Dig / Flare Blitz, but looking back, it is really more beneficial to evolve it right after getting Flamethrower, and sticking to Flamethrower / Dig / Crunch / Thunder Fang (or Dragon Pulse if you're willing to spend some shards) for your final set. Moveset aside, it has near-legendary stats after evolution and Intimidate is just godly (also helps with annoying encounters should you run out of Repels). Mid / High-Mid tier for me.

Scrafty - this guy has been beaten to death already, but let me repeat. Amazing bulk. Dark/Fight STAB. Moxie. High Jump Kick. Crunch. And now Ice Punch for even better coverage and Drain Punch for secondary non-miss Fight STAB. Top tier easily.

Lilligant (traded one) - one of the best in-game Pokemon I have ever used. Great utility mon (Sleep Powder) and major powerhouse in one. Black 2 Petilil comes early, has an experience boost due to a different OT, and on top of that, a freaking Timid nature AND Own Tempo. It's coverage isn't an issue when you assravage everything in your path with a well placed Petal Dance. Top tier.

Sigilyph - pretty solid mon all-around. Fast, pretty powerful, relatively bulky. I wished it learned Air Slash and Psychic a bit earlier, since Psybeam and Air Cutter slow it down midgame. Shadow Ball or Signal Beam are good for coverage. Also great utility in Fly. High-Mid tier.

Cinccino (Technician) - I was hyped to use this thing after hearing so many good things about it in BW1 in-game tier list thread, and needless to say, it didn't disappoint. Return/Wake Up Slap/Bullet Seed/Rock Blast just flips everything's shit inside-out, period. It didn't have a single slow-down period, which is great too. Best Normal type this generation, right next to Lilipup. High tier, possibly even Top.

Seviper - I'm not going to lie, I included it because the one it the trailer just looked so freaking cool (dat hiss) (Arcanine too). I expected it to be shitty, but it came out better than I expected. Glare is a major boon to this mon usability, as it fixes it's speed issue and hits everything for almost guaranteed paralysis. You can teach it Venoshock for an early STAB move, and replace it with Poison Jab as you level-up. Those two, along with Dig and Night Slash, give you a decent freshman set. The moment it really starts to shine comes with Coil which, in combination with Shed Skin and Black Sludge, allows for some awesome sweeps. However, below avarage stats really hinder it's potential, as do the absolutely massive amounts of experience needed to level it up. Another downside comes from the fact that, aside from the early Venoshock, you don't really get the chance to use it's great Special Attack, which more-or-less forces you to use the physical set (Flamethrower comes too late, while Sludge Bomb is postgame). All things considered, I would place this one in Low-Mid.

 

[vandslaux]

Here are my experiences with Samurott/Skill Link Cincinno/N's Zoroark/Lucario/Houndoom/Gliscor in White Hollow. At the beginning they were about lv 62-65, and at the end about lv 83-87, most were lv 85, Lucario was lv 83, and Zoroark was lv 87.

+2 Gliscor's no item Acrobatics wipes 80% of it. Though I didn't have a Toxic Orb, as grinding for BP would make this inauthentic.

Zoroark could 2HKO/OHKO pretty much everything and make myself unhittable with a combination of Dark Pulse and Night Daze's flinching and accuracy lowering, respectively, or I could sweep with +2 Dark Pulse

Houndoom helped a lot, namely against Bajairou's Latias. Flamethrower/Dark Pulse/HP Grass/Sucker Punch took out pretty much everything barring Walrein, Occa Klinklang, and Lapras, and Gallade, and anything bulky.

Samurott got haxed at every corner, but I digress. I used Surf/Aqua Jet/Waterfall/Ice Beam with fair results.

Lucario.. I cannot begin to explain how amazing it was. Only real trouble was Drifblim, Slaking, and bulky Ground-types with EQ.

Cincinno was ok I guess. It 2HKOed most things, and was useful in outstalling Stockpile/Rest/Frost Breath/??? Walreins with Bullet Seed crits. Surprisingly survived a Slaking's Hammer Arm.

Are we tiering based on ingame or postgame as well?

 

[Manveru123]

First sentence in this topic answers that question... at least read that much? :x Main game only.

 

[KarkiZomage]

another thing. can tou get n's pokemon pre-elite 4? i was thinking of changing my team a bit, and scraggy seems to be a nice addition. and, n's pokemon have 30 IVS(almost perfect *-*), emit a gleam when coming out of the pokeball, and receive boosted exp. points. so can anyone explain this process to me?
edit2: ack, with scrafty my team gets two more weaknesses, leaving it vulnerable. i guess drapion stays then. its stats are pretty decent, and has some great abilities in battle armor and sniper(you never know when scoring a 3x critical hit wil save your life, or when not being hit by one will save you also!)

 

[Wyrms Eye]

edit: another thing. can tou get n's pokemon pre-elite 4? i was thinking of changing my team a bit, and scraggy seems to be a nice addition. and, n's pokemon have 30 IVS(almost perfect *-*), emit a gleam when coming out of the pokeball, and receive boosted exp. points. so can anyone explain this process to me?
edit2: ack, with scrafty my team gets two more weaknesses, leaving it vulnerable. i guess drapion stays then. its stats are pretty decent, and has some great abilities in battle armor and sniper(you never know when scoring a 3x critical hit wil save your life, or when not being hit by one will save you also!)

It is possible, but you do need to get the cutscenes via the link features, and most likely have beaten Black or White as well, as certain cutscenes require a certain amount of progress in the game. I've been actively hunting N's pokemon whilst playing the story through and some have gotten onto the team I'm using. Obviously these are not directly tierable because of the need to connect to another game to activate their appearance in the wild, but they certainly all have the same potential as their non-N counterparts, but do gain significantly in experience which makes them easy to catch up in levels to the team. You can also get ahold of a Lv. 35 Darmanitan prior to Elesa this way but even with the cruddy Zen Mode, it's still a cut above anything the game can through at you at that point. Serebii should have info on how it activates as well.

 

[TM13IceBeam]

yes you can
and yes it will not be tiered

@wyrms eye: iirc you need to get n's zorua first which is after elesa. so no darm before elesa for you.

also scrafty is itself an awesome pokemon to use ingame, it has moxie which is godly for boss battles, and shed skin is also pretty nice. its also fairly bulky for what its worth.

also all of N's pokemon are pretty bad except zorua, darumaka, and maybe klink. mostly because of bad abilities, fail natures, etc

 

[KarkiZomage]

i wish druddigon would be available pre-e4; i like it better than drapion :/
edit: crimgan is so much nicer, i think they shouldn't have changed it...

 

[Ondore]

It's available in one room pre-E4 in Victory Road, actually. Just found that out on a last run (the room with the Dragon Scale).

Still, it'd be a hard Bottom simply based on that limited availability.

 

[Wyrms Eye]

@tm13 - Yeah, I must've had a total brainfart moment earlier on because I recall now specifically having to backtrack to the desert for them after reaching Driftveil. I think though that the cutscene trigger for their appearance isn't the Zoroark in Driftveil encounter, but some NPC in a pokemon centre. Reason being is after viewing the cutscene after the Zoroark, I still got none of N's pokes to show up and randomly stumbled upon this NPC purely by chance. Either way, it probably still triggers after receiving Zorua.

Definitely agree though that Scrafty and Darmanitan are ingame monsters. Klink's line I'm not so sure of, but this is the first time I've tried to use one in any capacity so far. I'm trying to use the Feroseed line as well for the first time as well, so should be an interesting experience.

Bit bemused as well that Heatmor is Post-E4 now as well, having an in-depth look.

 

[TM13IceBeam]

yeah, some really good pokemon (durant, archen) are being kicked to postgame now which sucks. >.>

@Ondore: not to mention Zweilous is also available at the same time, making Druddigon completely obsolete (Zweilous has better speed and attack and can eviolite if you really want to go that far). That's not to say Zweilous will end up anywhere out of Bottom, but it's still worth a mention.

 

[Manveru123]

Hydreigon is not really relevant for the purpose of this thread.

@Ondore: not to mention Zweilous is also available at the same time, making Druddigon completely obsolete (Zweilous has better speed and attack and can eviolite if you really want to go that far). That's not to say Zweilous will end up anywhere out of Bottom, but it's still worth a mention.

Crunch+Work Up, sets up on and defeats both Shauntal and Caitlin (mummy removes stupid Hustle, which is fantastic - or you can tutor him Dark Pulse if you're worried about accuracy). Low imo, due to availablity.

 

[Count Serperior]

I'm considering a Mono Grass Challenge mode playthrough (first gym is gonna be HELL...)

Does anyone have any opinions on Deerling/Ferroseed?

I have never used a Sewaddle, but I am legitimately surprised that it's "just" mid tier. Leavanny's stats are't too shabby and it learns some pretty good moves by itself and through TMs : /

 

[Antihaxxer]

I played once Deerling, and he really wishes a physical grass STAB before evolution. It appears in the same time that he would be useful (against Clay), but doesn't have the useful SE Stab to handle it.

Late game, with high speed, decent power, nice recovery, he's a better. Something like Return / Horn Leech / Jump Kick and maybe ... Sword Dance ? (couldn't remember where we get that TM)

 

[Count Serperior]

I was thinking that STAB Return & Jump Kick would suffice until Horn Leech. There's also Megahorn once he evolves (via Heart Scale).


[If memory serves me right, in BW you get Swords Dance from one of the Plasma Sages; they usually handed out "double boosting" moves like SD, CM, Hone Claws. The one exception was DT I believe.]

 

[Chou Toshio]

God, BW just has the worst starter pokemon. I started with the water otter thing, but it sucked so bad, I ditched it around the round gym... I'd say all the starters are mid or worst-- who's with me???

 

[TM13IceBeam]

Swords Dance is at PWT for a fuckload of BP.

@ chou: yeah bw's starter pokemon are pretty stupid, but Oshawott is kind of ok imo for an ingame run (Snivy's hell but he makes the lategame battles a cakewalk, Emboar suffers from speed issues and needs to abuse Flame Charge often lategame)

 

[breh]

Oshawott I could see in mid simply because nothing good has water-type moves bar it, to be honest. Emboar is strong (at the very least) and Serperior, as much as I hate to admit it, does have its uses with Coil. Still, I agree that this game is the easiest one to drop the starters in.

And count serperior, sewaddle isn't awful, but it's weak to everything, I swear. I couldn't help but feel that it was consistently weak and always frail to the point that I wished I hadn't used it. The absence of millions upon millions of Liepard for free experience doesn't help.

 

[TM13IceBeam]

@breh: Starmie, Basculin and even Jellicent gives it a run for its money. I guess the unique thing is... it learns Megahorn?

yeah samurott is meh

 

[Chou Toshio]

jellicent is pretty easy to mix into a team level-wise, only problem is how late it appears in the game...

 

[Count Serperior]

Yeah it's been mentioned by a lot of players that the Unova starters are really rather "meh" sadly : [

Snivy has competition with Petilil (and now Roselia)
Tepig has competition with Darumaka (and Chandelure, but Darumakka!!)
Oshawott was better off in BW, but now there's Azurill/Psyduck/a lot of water type mid or end game


I do believe that Gen IV had the best ones for in-game. They had great stats all around and learned a lot of kick ass moves. And Starly. Just Starly.

 

[TM13IceBeam]

actually if we were to say about sewaddle it pretty much only got a pass in bw1 because you don't actually have to spend so much time as sewaddle (and if you want you can pick up swadloon in lostlorn so its not really so bad)

but still liepards going extinct are a point against it

Oshawott had pretty legit competition with Panpour and Jellicent imo but now it's outclassed by Azumarill, etc.

BTW is anyone interested in Panpour? it's a bitch to find and worthless against elesa but for what its worth having Scald is pretty useful since the scald tm comes really late now (but at best probably low, pansage/sear can honestly go fuck it)

 

[Stellar]

I don't want to be a party pooper, but I've noticed a trend in this thread lately. This thread isn't to ask questions about in-game BW2: unless it is related to the tiering of Pokemon found in the game (no egg trades, no event Pokemon, etc.), then you should probably talk about it in this thread.

Let's keep things on track, guys and gals. :)

P.S. Another reminder for everyone: remember to actually mention the tiers in your post. It doesn't really help if you type up a huge paragraph and then fail to mention the tier you think the Pokemon should be in!