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

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TM13IceBeam said:
Roggenrola [/B]- Comes before the 3rd gym which it theoretically beats (but lolno leavanny). Ok against 4th gym but seriously wishes it's a ground type. Meh against 5th gym, decent against the 6th (lolswanna), meh against the 7th, lol against the last.
really nothing noteworthy throughout, but it has stealth rock which helps a bit... kinda. Mid
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obviously I haven't played BW2 to really comment (idk how much it really changes things) but I think Sturdy helps against Leavanny quite a bit.
One nice rock blast in particular should take care of it

swanna not sure, i used different dudes for her in BW1. Seems Skarmory would be the bigger threat
 
IOS said:
Just started playing through (at Cheren) and man, Snivy is bad. Like...really bad. No offense or defense to speak of. My other Pokemon is Psyduck, who's at least competent so far. Snivy though....wow.
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Nurse! Get this man a Roselia, stat!

On a sidenote, the Snivy line are the only pokemon that piss me off just thinking about them. No pokemon this bad deserves to look so smug. I only picked Snivy (which lost to the rival >_>) just so the rival would have Emboar in the double battles you have with him. I released that sucker afterwards and never looked back.
 
I'm going to nominate Piloswine for High tier.

Basically, catch one on your way out of Giant Chasm, open the path back there from Lacunosa, and fly out to the PWT. Tutor AncientPower and Ice Fang with a couple of your Heart Scales, TM Dig onto it, and throw the Lucky Egg on. Fly back to Lacunosa, resume your trip to Victory Road. One level-up and it'll evolve, getting decent bulk/speed and a 130 Attack stat; this will let it largely hold its own on the way to Victory Road, while the Lucky Egg will allow it to get to level 50 in no time at all. It'll have Earthquake fairly fast, too! You should have Mamoswine at about par with the rest of your party (just a couple levels lower) by the time you enter Victory Road; it's incredibly strong, holds its own against all the Elite Four barring Marshal (don't let it fight Reuniclus or Cofagrigus and you're good) and can gut the Champion if you have something to take care of Lapras. The downside is that, as good as it is, it comes REALLY late. You could use it during the Giant Chasm events, too, but it really wouldn't help that much; ground STAB is okay against Plasma grunts and great against Achroma, but it'd be quite a bit slower to level without the sizable gap between itself and the opponents, and it's not doing much of anything against Kyurem or Ghetsis. Only reason it's not Top is that it does come REALLY late.

Other than that:

Zorua for High. Good mixed attacker (though the lack of Special STAB is a problem) with a fantastic ability and boosted EXP.

Riolu for High. Starts slightly slow, but gets to be perfectly serviceable once it learns Force Palm, and is absolutely unstoppable after evolution. Not helping much against the first few Gyms, though. (It can murder the later Gyms even without a type advantage due to its sheer power, though. Shizui's Gym pretty much involved spamming Aura Sphere until a Jellicent showed up, switching to Zoroark, Night Slash, switching back.) Murders Team Plasma with Fighting move+Dig.

Grumpig for Low. Can be caught fully-evolved and taught Psychic from an easily-obtained TM, which is nice, but it comes late, its offenses are just all right, and it doesn't get much beyond Psychic attacks and Power Gem. Doesn't do BADLY against any of the Gyms, but doesn't do well either, and is eaten alive by Team Plasma's many, many Dark-types. It's a decent Psychic-type, but Sigilyph is better and, frankly, you don't NEED a Psychic-type that much. Great against Marshal, but that's a rather long time to be lugging this Pokémon around for one endgame fight.
 
TM13, did you use normal roggenrola or did you use the traded Gigalith?

You can get it right before Skyla, too. It seems like a really cool deal.

@above: I'm playing through the game with the intention of teaching my Zorua Dark Pulse, which nobody seems to know exists. Do you think using it would have helped?
 
Definitely would've helped. I didn't even think about it, but it's a much better idea than relying on Night Slash all game.
 
You get Snarl before Zorua, so he does have a decent STAB to abuse.

Psychics are pretty terrible in BW2 because Sandiles and Scraggys exist in every literal corner of the universe (and seriously if you struggle against Trubbish you should go fix your team)

You don't need to toss Dig onto Piloswine, just toss a Rare Candy or two and it'll get it. Ice Fang is kind of... lame though (y u no icicle crash by level)

@breh: nope, no traded gigalith. mostly because i was trying out eviolite boldore
 
Yeah, fixed that. I'm very sorry!

And, yeah, Piloswine doesn't NEED Dig; it'll ditch it for Earthquake in a couple levels anyway. But it's a TM, and using TMs is free, so you may as well.
 
Afti said:
Grumpig for Low. Can be caught fully-evolved and taught Psychic from an easily-obtained TM, which is nice, but it comes late, its offenses are just all right, and it doesn't get much beyond Psychic attacks and Power Gem. Doesn't do BADLY against any of the Gyms, but doesn't do well either, and is eaten alive by Team Plasma's many, many Dark-types. It's a decent Psychic-type, but Sigilyph is better and, frankly, you don't NEED a Psychic-type that much. Great against Marshal, but that's a rather long time to be lugging this Pokémon around for one endgame fight.
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I'll admit this is just theorymoning, but from your description he sound more like a Low-Mid to me. Psychic isn't a great type offensively in B/W, but Grumpig has decent stats, two good in-game abilities, and a good coverage move in Rock Gem. He isn't exactly dead weight. I mean is it really as bad in B2/W2 as Corsola and Jigglypuff are in HG/SS (also Low Tier)?
 
Also on the note of riolu nobody seems to mention that it has utility in Counter spamming early on, pretty useful when 98% of attacks are all loltackle. it doesn't get face force palm until lv15 but its not really an issue, and chances are it should be evolved by the time you reach burgh anyway

@2s4u: grumpig isn't a bad psychic type. psychics just suck in this game.
 
2sly4u said:
I'll admit this is just theorymoning, but from your description he sound more like a Low-Mid to me. Psychic isn't a great type offensively in B/W, but Grumpig has decent stats, two good in-game abilities, and a good coverage move in Rock Gem. He isn't exactly dead weight. I mean is it really as bad in B2/W2 as Corsola and Jigglypuff are in HG/SS (also Low Tier)?
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HGSS has a Low-Mid Tier; this doesn't. I don't think Grumpig should be Bottom tier or anything, but it's hardly worth the experience points to keep it on par with the rest of your team.
 
Started a new game (Snivy and Psyduck were pissing me off) and came to the conclusion that Riolu's earlygame performance is being unfairly criticized.

This thing is ridiculously easy to train. I run from every single random battle in Pokemon games (except to catch stuff) and I still thought training him was a breeze. I wasn't even planning on using one at first actually. Was killing everything with Tepig, saw a Riolu in the wild, thought "eh why not" and caught it. Level 5 Modest Nature (yuck).

Basically, here's how the next few battles went:

Pansage trainer: Riolu leads. Switch out to Tepig, Ember 2HKOs. 2 levels immediately for Riolu. Learns Counter.

Panpour trainer: Riolu leads. Counter spam with a Quick Attack to finish it off. 2 more levels for Riolu.

1st gym: Riolu starts with a quick attack (trainers tend to use stat boosting moves on the first turn I find) then Counter spams. Maybe finishes with a quick attack. Rinse and repeat.

Just beat Cheren and sitting here with a Level 13 Riolu and Level 12 Tepig. No babying, no luck. Two Oran Berries and a Potion were the only resources it used. Participated only in trainer battles. It just levels so quickly, it's never a liability. Plus Force Palm is coming in two levels. So far it's much easier to train compared to Snivy and Psyduck.

So anyways, that's it earlygame. Counter spam is not a joke. It works. I'll see how it holds up throughout the rest of the game.

EDIT: Seems TM13IceBeam has already mentioned Counter spamming. In that case, this post shows I am in full agreement with him.
 
Level 5 Adamant Nature (yuck).
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that is actually a very good nature for a riolu unless you were wanting a special attacking one, which would do far worse since a good majority of lucario's special attacking moves come very late.
 
I've gotten past marlon and this is what I have to say:

Flareon: I don't think it comes as a surprise that this guy's weak. It's slow, dies to everything, and not overwhelmingly strong. Think a worse Emboar. It's not absolutely terrible, but deserves low at best. It's neat that you can get its final moveset at level 21.

Petilil: This thing's great; get it up to 26 and evolve it and get to 28 for Quiver Dance and you're set moveset wise for the rest of the game. There's very little that can stop it; hell, some resists have trouble with it with enough luck. If it's neutral, it just sets up and wins eventually. High.

Zoroark: I haven't gotten to try out Dark Pulse much, but getting it is a pain in the ass in the first place; the process of farming blue shards is not a fun one. As good as people say; it earns its levels very happily. High or Top.

Frillish: I was lucky enough to catch one at level 38 in Undella Bay; catching it lower isn't bad, but does slow down the game a bit. It's pretty neat, works as a good Zoroark disguise, and is nearly fully loaded when you are first able to get it not horribly underleveled (Shadow Ball, Will-o-wisp, and Surf are all TMs/HMs you get before it). It's strong due to its typing, basically. Mid for late arrival.

Nosepass: Not as shitty as you'd imagine. It evolves one level from when you get it. It actually walls quite a bit and, honestly, fears very little from most of the game. Thunder Wave has continuous utility, Power Gem is ok enough STAB, and it has nice coverage. Think miniature Magnezone. Mid tier.

Dunsparce: Although it may seem kind of shitty, it's actually quite good. Dunsparce is surprisingly good earlygame simply due to stats and then becomes good later due to movepool. I mean, god, this thing learns Coil, Roost, and Ground-type moves by level! How neat is that? Coil makes Dunsparce and it's actually decent as a result. Oh, and in the early game, if you have serene grace, Ancientpower will be a pretty neat move; it has a good chance for an all raise and is pretty spammable (if you don't have serene grace, you're not missing out; I'd even say it's worse given Dunsparce's shitty speed). Mid tier. This is not too relevant, but finding dunsparce is a pain in the arse to begin with. It has a 10% encounter in shaking grass on route 19, making it rare as fuck.

I'll post later on what happens when I beat the elite four.
 
Any one has any opinions on Staryu?
I hear that Water Stones are easy to get (Shards, right? or was it BP..?)

By the time you get it you should teach it Surf and go get TM Psychic. That's 2 stab moves once you evolve it.
Sounds good on paper but I still didn't try it. It faces competition from Golduck (you get Psyduck really early and it can use Psychic, though unSTABed) and from Floatzel (same base speed, physical, heart scale Crunch)

Thoughts?
 
Golduck is shitty and I'd assume Floatzel is equivalent (with no physical STAB until level 46 or 38 if you are a masochist, barring lolAquaJet). Staryu I'd assume is pretty ok, though; it has a nice tm learnset and gets two fantastic moves right off the bat, as you noted.
 
Water Stones are 3 BP at PWT so they aren't that hard to farm.

@breh: I find Dark Pulse to be unnecessary imo. Snarl Zoroark served me well throughout the game and the SpA drops are handy at times.

imo natures aren't exactly that important. Want to know something? My Magnezone, which I constantly rave about how godly it is, has an Adamant nature. Didn't stop it from wrecking the game though.

Floatzel is actually ok imo as an endgame filler if you are in need of a water type. You can reteach it Ice Fang/Crunch, then dump Waterfall onto it if you hate Aqua Tail or something. It's not something you'd want to drag around the entire game though.

Frillish... well... Jellicent is quite -meh- at the Elite 4, simply because its slow and its defense is retarded. It doesn't have the best SpA either.

also stupid question where do you get cottonee/petilil i can't find it omg >.>
 
Count Serperior said:
Any one has any opinions on Staryu?
I hear that Water Stones are easy to get (Shards, right? or was it BP..?)

By the time you get it you should teach it Surf and go get TM Psychic. That's 2 stab moves once you evolve it.
Sounds good on paper but I still didn't try it. It faces competition from Golduck (you get Psyduck really early and it can use Psychic, though unSTABed) and from Floatzel (same base speed, physical, heart scale Crunch)

Thoughts?
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Staryu is arguably the best water type you can get before post game. Nothing else comes close to its speed, power and moveset. It's very frail though, but you can't have everything right? Rating High, but only baaaarely because of frailty, and because it doesn't really have serious competition (except maybe Samurott, but I hate that thing with passion so I just use him as HM slave).

Gastrodon could in theory provide a competition, but I have no idea how fast can special Nimbasa trades be completed.

So could Lapras, but considering how hard it is to get him...
 
A bit further into the game and I'm starting to question the Magnemite love. He was excellent in the second gym of course, but ever since the Sonicboom honeymoon he's really slowed down.

Thundershock and Mirror Shot are kind of questionable offensively. Elesa's gym was a nightmare for it. I just got Volt Switch, but I'm not too keen on switching out every turn. Also, despite decent defensive stats, its low HP is starting to become an issue. It's dying more than it should.

Still better than Eevee (it needs a Water Stone bad, this thing is frustrating unevolved), but much worse than Lucario so far.

It's 3 levels away from evolving though, so we'll see if it picks up again.
 
I don't think this needs to be said, but I'm nominating Ditto for Bottom Tier. It needs to waste a turn to set up, and even then it's stuck with a horrible HP stat and a Speed tie every turn. I'll catch one in Giant Chasm for the sake of thoroughness, but I doubt it will surprise me.

EDIT: Bulbapedia says Ditto isn't in B2/W2. That's wrong, right?
 
IOS said:
A bit further into the game and I'm starting to question the Magnemite love. He was excellent in the second gym of course, but ever since the Sonicboom honeymoon he's really slowed down.

Thundershock and Mirror Shot are kind of questionable offensively. Elesa's gym was a nightmare for it. I just got Volt Switch, but I'm not too keen on switching out every turn. Also, despite decent defensive stats, its low HP is starting to become an issue. It's dying more than it should.

Still better than Eevee (it needs a Water Stone bad, this thing is frustrating unevolved), but much worse than Lucario so far.

It's 3 levels away from evolving though, so we'll see if it picks up again.
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You get Signal Beam tutor shortly after Elesa. He slaughters the last 3 gyms by himself :P
 
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