Can't believe you haven't tiered the fantastic Riolu (lucario) as a Top Tier Pokemon.
NOMINATION
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Name: Riolu.
Nomination: Top Tier
Availability: Floccesy Ranch (Rare)
Stats: Riolu being a Prevolution has pretty decent Stats. It's evolution being friendship based you can expect an evolution to Lucario pretty early (no seriously just run in circles for a few minutes and then level up if you're really impatient) which will give it access to those Fantastic
mixed attacking stats (110/115/90) for which it's so famous in BWOU
Typing:
Fighting is generally an
excellent STAB to have in the Unova region with so many Dark, Rock and Normal types we encounter In-Game, so it's easy to get it to grind. Plus as Lucario we get access to that
steel typing which is invaluable so early in the game. Considering you face a normal type gym right after Catching Riolu, with a little bit of training it'll be an useful addition to your team right away. It defeats two of the Elite four (Marshall and Champion Cynthia) by the virtue of it's typing alone. Which is bloody fantastic for so early in the game.
Movepool: You will have to wait till level 15 to get
Force Palm which is it's first STAB move with a decent Paralysis chance. Which shouldn't be that much of an extra grind considering your next Gym Battle has Pokemon levelled to 13~15. This preps you Immediately for Aspertia Gym which is up next.
From there your journey will be really easy.It can learn both
Calm Mind and
Swords Dance in-game so you have the flexibility to choose to make it a physical or a special powerhouse according to the needs of your team. Among it's other famous in-game level up moves we have the signature
Aura Sphere and
Close Combat.
Bone Rush is a decent Ground type STAB which is very useful early game, until you get your hands on it's TMs.
Should you choose to
Overlevel it a bit late-game it will learn the coveted
Dragon Pulse and
Extremespeed but IMHO they aren't really necessary ingame, unless you're solo-ing with a single pokemon or something like that.
Coming to
TMs and
Tutor Moves, it really gets access to the cream of the lot. It learns
Dig which is very handy ingame. In
Driftveil City, you can pick up either
Ice Punch or
ThunderPunch for 10 Red Shards each from the
Tutor. This gives it access to a
Physical BoltBeam combo which again just makes it more bloody useful and essentially makes it absurdly easy to level up. When you get to
Humilau City, a great move for Lucario is
Drain Punch for 10 Yellow Shards. While pricy, it hits for a solid 75 power and, most importantly, heals Lucario's HP by half of the damage dealt. That will ensure its HP remains high through long training sessions and while exploring new areas. This is also a great STAB if having your Stats dropped from Close Combat in middle of a match sound unappealing to you. (Aura Sphere is still better IMHO if you're not averse to it having a special move)
Other Notable Moves include
Zen Headbutt, Work Up, Iron Tail, Rock Smash and Psychic so you're not short of options at all.
Major Battles: As mentioned earlier. By the virtue of it's typing alone it can
single handedly defeat both Marshall and Champion Cynthia due to the prevalence of Dark, Steel, Ice and Rock types in their teams. It's STAB plus the BoltBeam combo just rips them apart.
Gym battles are also a breeze. Especially since you face Aspertia (Normal) gym after capturing it.Burgh's super troublesome Crustle is now longer a problem. And you can just smash thorugh Driftveil, Opelucid, Mistralton (should you care to teach it Ice Punch) and Himalu city. All in all There will hardly be a major Battle where it doesn't take part.
Team Plasma is a joke now considering they almost exclusively use
Dark, Ice and Steel types so you can just plain out Spam your STAB moves and move on. I won't even list the individual battles. Not worth it.
Rival Hugh though isn't particularly threatened by your team early on but just before the Elite four, in your final fight it's invaluable against that troublesome Bouffalant, which can potentially 6-0 your team if you're not ready.
Additional Comments: It's abilities
Steadfast and Inner Focus are both valuable in a game infested with Liepards (plasma grunts *sigh*) using fake-out. Apart from that not much to be said.
All things considered, Riolu is one of those Pokemon you should absolutely consider for your team if you are fortunate enough to find one. Make sure you evolve it as soon as possible. But really, Lucario is just so amazingly good that it's hard to compare it to anything else. It is one of the best Pokemon out there and has no real flaws to it, other than a rather medium power STAB move until the later part of the game, which is what holds it back from its perfect rating. Trust me, it matters, but after that point, it is easily a perfect 5/5.