Pokemon Black 2 and White 2 In-Game Tiers [QUALITY CONTROL]

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TCTphantom

formerly MX42
Its_A_Random, i haven't actually played b2w2 (only the originals) but out of curiosity, how long does it take to evolve riolu into lucario?

if you can get lucario before the first or second gym, should that not be like s-tier levels of insane power?
Speaking from experience, so long as you don’t walk around aimlessly grinding happiness for a while (which while far from optimal I have done, just zone out watching a movie or show and walk back and forth, harder without the bike though), you should get a Lucario at the earliest before Burgh. I have not personally gotten one from my playthroughs before Roxie.

Even then, I find Lucario does have some hiccups due to being forced to rely on Force Palm for fighting stab for a while. While it could always be worse, it is a noticeable gap that shows before you get better fighting stab to use. Even by the reversal mountain Lucario is left wanting for a better fighting stab from my experience.
 
Speaking from experience, so long as you don’t walk around aimlessly grinding happiness for a while (which while far from optimal I have done, just zone out watching a movie or show and walk back and forth, harder without the bike though), you should get a Lucario at the earliest before Burgh. I have not personally gotten one from my playthroughs before Roxie.

Even then, I find Lucario does have some hiccups due to being forced to rely on Force Palm for fighting stab for a while. While it could always be worse, it is a noticeable gap that shows before you get better fighting stab to use. Even by the reversal mountain Lucario is left wanting for a better fighting stab from my experience.
interesting, thank you!

imagine if i could get lucario before cheren...
 
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I happened to see this discussion and I just wanted to chime in with my experience of using Riolu/Lucario on my in-game team in White 2. During my playthrough, my Riolu evolved quite early. It happened after I beat a Plasma Grunt on Route 20 (after beating Roxie), not sure at exactly which level it was, but probably around 20 or so. I should mention that it was the only member of my team at that point and therefore also the only one I trained, so it got quite a lot of training in the earliest points of the game, all the way up to Castelia (where I got my next team members). But as MX42 said, it is probably possible to get a Lucario before Roxie if you grind it's Friendship level a bit. I think it will be very hard to get a Lucario before Cheren though.

As for my overall experience with Lucario in White 2, I remember that it was good but not super ultra amazing. I'd personally say it is A-rank. Note that it has been 8 years since my playthrough, so my opinion about it should not be taken into consideration for the final list here.
 
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TCTphantom

formerly MX42
I staunchly support Riolu staying A. Simply put, it is too much of a hassle to get it to be a Lucario before Roxie and as a result its early game is really weak. It's Cheren matchup is not great which should surprise people since it doesn't learn Force Palm until Level 15 which odds are it won't hit by the first gym. I can't stress enough that Riolu sucks until it becomes Lucario outside of like 1-2 levels where it has Force Palm where its stats don't fall off yet.

Even in the ideal scenario where you do get Bone Rush at 19 when it evolves, Lucario is still honestly not game breakingly powerful until the late game. Your level up movepool sucks until Swords Dance, so for the mid game without Shard Hunting or grinding the PWT for Brick Break (which tbh I highly recommend for Lucario), you are stuck using Bone Rush, Return, and Force Palm. It doesn't help that until it gets SD, Lucario's gym matchups are just...ok. Like it doesn't hard lose to anything except Clay, but outside of Corless and Hugh it does only ok in most major fights until it gets SD. Once it gets SD it is one of the best mons out there, and cleans up the late game and most fights after that point. With more TMS available, SD Lucario becomes a beast. But the road to get there is rocky as heck and I can not say it is S tier in good confidence.
 

TCTphantom

formerly MX42
You can teach him Ice Punch with the free Shards, no ?
While the free shards help, you won’t get enough for Lucario to learn Ice Punch until way later. If you want Ice Punch at around the 5th gym instead of around the 8th free shards won’t cut it. It also doesn’t help that one free shard is locked away in White 2, so black 2 players are gonna have to shard grind a little bit anyway.
 
While the free shards help, you won’t get enough for Lucario to learn Ice Punch until way later. If you want Ice Punch at around the 5th gym instead of around the 8th free shards won’t cut it. It also doesn’t help that one free shard is locked away in White 2, so black 2 players are gonna have to shard grind a little bit anyway.
Eh? It costs 10 red shards and you can get that for free by talking to a guy in Driftveil's Poke Center. It locks you out of other moves, but that or Iron Head is readily available by the fifth gym.

I don't really have a dog in this fight (hah), but Ice Punch is probably enough to beat Krokorok and Sandslash through Intimidate (though Bulldozes aren't fun), gets you a great matchup against Skyla with Swords Dance and you can wreck Drayden if Druddigon's Revenge isn't a one hit KO. It'd have to be tested cause I can't find my DS to test it, but you can get either Ice Punch or Iron Head very easily.

Also, it is not efficient at all to run around grinding friendship for either Cheren or Roxie.
 

TCTphantom

formerly MX42
Eh? It costs 10 red shards and you can get that for free by talking to a guy in Driftveil's Poke Center. It locks you out of other moves, but that or Iron Head is readily available by the fifth gym.

I don't really have a dog in this fight (hah), but Ice Punch is probably enough to beat Krokorok and Sandslash through Intimidate (though Bulldozes aren't fun), gets you a great matchup against Skyla with Swords Dance and you can wreck Drayden if Druddigon's Revenge isn't a one hit KO. It'd have to be tested cause I can't find my DS to test it, but you can get either Ice Punch or Iron Head very easily.

Also, it is not efficient at all to run around grinding friendship for either Cheren or Roxie.
Oh I missed those lol, I was going by the ones you have in the overworld. Either way, I did end up grinding for shards and can say that having SD for Skyla is doubtful and even then Ice Punch really only matters for Swoobat so it does not help there. I ended up grinding the shards anyway and can attest Ice Punch is not a game changer for Clay because after Intimidate you are not OHKOing them from my experience and Bulldoze is not fun. For Drayden though SD Ice Punch makes it a great matchup. Though Lucario does not get Iron Head in Gen 5 which sucks because it would be a great choice to fill out its moveset.

And yeah, it is not efficient at all to do that, I was mainly saying it is theoretically possible but a very very bad idea. Even then, it would really only help for Roxie just for an immunity.
 
Riolu is also one of the mons I'm currently testing, so I'll give my thoughts as well

Simply put, it is too much of a hassle to get it to be a Lucario before Roxie and as a result its early game is really weak. It's Cheren matchup is not great which should surprise people since it doesn't learn Force Palm until Level 15 which odds are it won't hit by the first gym. I can't stress enough that Riolu sucks until it becomes Lucario outside of like 1-2 levels where it has Force Palm where its stats don't fall off yet.
I agree that Lucario is pretty much impossible to get for Roxie and as such it sucks really bad against her, but I wouldn't say that makes its early game bad at all. It's actually one of the better answers to Cheren thanks to Counter, when testing I found it was very easy to game Cheren into attacking (using Frustration turn 1 as they set up and then Countering on the Tackle). You can't do this to both mons without healing, but considering how Cheren mus mostly come down to just spamming attacks, the utility is enough to consider this mu good in my eyes. In any case, you should most definitely have Lucario at Burgh so its earlygame redeems itself easily.
Even in the ideal scenario where you do get Bone Rush at 19 when it evolves, Lucario is still honestly not game breakingly powerful until the late game. Your level up movepool sucks until Swords Dance, so for the mid game without Shard Hunting or grinding the PWT for Brick Break (which tbh I highly recommend for Lucario), you are stuck using Bone Rush, Return, and Force Palm.
Bone Rush really isn't worth aiming for on Lucario, Dig comes at the same time you'd need Bone Rush and is mostly better than it anyways. Movepool itself I also found to not be a major issue, as Lucario is coming with a nearly full-power Return and an attack stat way higher than the rest of the game at that point, and with Work Up you can easily boost up. In any case, the old man in the Nimbasa poke-center gives you ten red shards for free, so you can give him an elemental punch or even Low Kick if you so desired. I found Lucario to sweep both Burgh and Elesa with ease, and thus far that's been its peak for me, so I wouldn't say it's only strong at the end of the game.
gets you a great matchup against Skyla with Swords Dance
Having recently tested for Skyla I can attest Lucario does not have a great mu whatsoever. Lucario is too slow and frail to successfully sweep here, as both Swoobat and Swanna outspeed and do lots of damage. Their support moves also cuck you hard. You can beat Skarm since you have SD and well, it's Skarm, but that's about it honestly.

With the experience I have thus far I would agree with Riolu staying in A, although it may have the power to impress later in the game. The rest of the game seems solid but the amount of super-effective coverage against steels in the late-game and the amount of mons that juuuuust outspeed it make it seem a fair bit unreliable, only time will tell tho.
 

TCTphantom

formerly MX42
I might do another run if I get around to getting a ROM on my laptop. The two mons that are in A rank that I think *might* be worth testing for S in my opinion are Azurill and Scraggy. Granted, this is pure theorymonning but I do know Scraggy is absolutely insane in og BW. Outside of those two, idk who my team will be. What is the optimal number of teammates in this game?
 
I might do another run if I get around to getting a ROM on my laptop. The two mons that are in A rank that I think *might* be worth testing for S in my opinion are Azurill and Scraggy. Granted, this is pure theorymonning but I do know Scraggy is absolutely insane in og BW. Outside of those two, idk who my team will be. What is the optimal number of teammates in this game?
The optimal amount would be about 4-5. I prefer five since it means more mons to test but 4 would be quicker and gives you an extra slot for hms if you need em. Six is probably pushing it even with the large amount of experience available in this game.

As for the two mons you mentioned, I already gave my opinion on Azu if you're curious, and Scraggy I am also interested in seeing, will probably test it myself once I'm done with my current test. I expect the speed to be a death knell, since being slow reallllyyyy sucks in this game, but it might be close.
 
I dunno why Zorua is placed so high in A tier. I think it should for sure drop.

I mean, what does this mon actually provide beyond boosted EXP and good IVs and Nature? Yes, it's a good Pokemon, but it doesn't feel A tier good to me, not even remotely. Let's start with the availability: about halfway through the game - that's alright I guess, plenty of other high tier mons come in around the same time. But to be an A tier around Driftveil you need to demolish like 70% of the remaining game and Zorua simply does not do that.

The matchups...what does it actually do in them? Literally every gym left it is neutral for. Hone Claws and U-Turn via relearner help, but it simply lacks inherent advantages until Shauntal and Caitlin in the Elite Four. Not to mention that you pretty much have to abuse Scope Lens Night Slash to do any respectable damage via critical hits, because again, it commonly lacks type advantages outside of occasional targets like Skyla's Swoobat, Marlon's Jellicent, Colress's Beheeyem, or Ghetsis's Cofagrigus (far from the hardest boss mons, I might add). It just lacks matchups where it outright sweeps.

Illusion is overrated too. Sure, you can screw up Shauntal and Caitlin's Ai with them but you're sweeping them anyway so who cares. I think Scraggy and Sandile are way more deserving of their A tier placements with Moxie and STAB variety compared to Zorua who gets Dark STAB and Flamethrower which really isn't all that helpful. Add in the fact you can't actually use your higher Special Attack unless you drop 10 Blue Shards and you have a Pokemon who on paper looks like a solid choice but in practice is only slightly better than average.

TLDR: I think N's Zorua is more at home in B at best.
 

Its_A_Random

A distant memory
is a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnus
I guess I'll make a post since no one else has much to say right now.

Since I want to prioritise dealing with S-Ranks, I'll post each mon and ask a few questions for you all:

Name: Braviary
Availability: Braviary can be found on Route 4 as an interactive encounter on Mondays [White 2].
Stats: Braviary has very high attack from the start with good Speed to back it up. Its bulk, while not amazing, is passable.
Typing: Normal / Flying gives it very decent STAB's offensively. Defensively the weaknesses become more common late-game but otherwise are not bad.
Movepool: Aerial Ace and Slash are good early powerful STAB moves for Braviary to use, while Hone Claws gives it set-up potential. Later on, Slash can be replaced with Return as Braviary's happiness rises. Braviary has access to Fly for HM purposes as well as being a good STAB for the rest of the game, while Superpower and Shadow Claw provide coverage.
Major battles: Braviary does not have any major fights where it easily breezes through (save Undella Hugh), but can find a way to make healthy contributions throughout these fights. It can definitely sweep some fights, but oftentimes relies on setup to do so.

-Placing: S-Rank or lower? Why?
-Write-Up Quality: Is this write-up fine as it is? Does it need a few changes? Or does it need a complete re-write? If you think it needs changes, what changes would you make?
-Other: Is there anything else about that hasn't been mentioned that you would like to bring to light?

Name: Darumaka
Availability: Darumaka can be found in Route 4 with a 30% chance.
Stats: It has a high Attack stat and good Speed upon evolution. Despite a decent HP stat, low defenses make it quite frail defensively.
Typing: Fire doesn't hit a lot of things super effectively, but it can prove to be useful in some major battles like against Burgh. Defensively however, its weaknesses show up quite a bit throughout the game, resulting in some matchup issues.
Movepool: It has a lot of good physical attacks. Fire Fang, Fire Punch, and Flare Blitz give it good STAB moves. Dig, Rock Slide and Superpower provide relevant coverage.
Major battles: Darumaka is available right before Burgh and can help get through that gym quickly though Dwebble can prove troublesome. Clay and Marlon are bad matchups. Champion aside, its hard-hitting prowess is a valuable asset for most other major fights.
Additional Comments: Darumaka is stuck with the Hustle ability until it evolves. While this helps give Darumaka good physical power, the accuracy penalty will often come into play and can result in setback-inducing misses. Wide Lens can help remedy this [Black 2 Only].

-Placing: S-Rank or lower? Why?
-Write-Up Quality: Is this write-up fine as it is? Does it need a few changes? Or does it need a complete re-write? If you think it needs changes, what changes would you make?
-Other: Is there anything else about that hasn't been mentioned that you would like to bring to light?

Name: Drilbur
Availability: Drilbur can first be found in Relic Passage Dust Clouds with an 80% chance.
Stats: Great Attack coupled with good Speed. Gains nice bulk upon evolving.
Typing: Starts out as a pure Ground-type, which gives a good STAB to work with. An additional Steel typing upon evolution grants more resistances and better matchups.
Movepool: Will start out with Dig or learn it soon after capture. It also has access to Metal Claw, and later, Rock Slide and Swords Dance. Waiting two levels before evolving gives it Earthquake early. Outside of this, Drilbur doesnt have much in the way of coverage (that isn't outclassed).
Major battles: Won't do extremely well against Burgh, but can beat Dwebble. Elesa is child's play for it, but needs to be careful around Emolga. Clay's Excadrill is beaten easily if evolved with early Earthquake. Due to its good offensive capabilities, most major battles should not be tough for it. However, stay away from Pokemon with potential super effective moves such as Humilau Gym.

-Placing: S-Rank or lower? Why?
-Write-Up Quality: Is this write-up fine as it is? Does it need a few changes? Or does it need a complete re-write? If you think it needs changes, what changes would you make?
-Other: Is there anything else about that hasn't been mentioned that you would like to bring to light?

Name: Heracross
Availability: Heracross can be found in Lostlorn Forest with a 5% chance [Black 2].
Stats: Heracross has a high Attack stat, which allows to tear teams apart; 85 Speed is good enough to outrun the majority of Pokemon. Its special bulk is decent enough to take advantage of, and the other stats are decent.
Typing: Offensively, STAB Bug/Fighting coverage hits a lot of relevant typings super effectively (Dark-, Psychic-, and Steel-types in particular). Defensively, the weaknesses to Fire, Flying, and Psychic trouble Heracross throughout the game.
Movepool: It gets Brick Break one level after you catch it, while Close Combat at Lv34 and Megahorn at Lv46 make up its best STAB coverage. TM-wise, Heracross only really would like Rock Slide, while Shadow Claw (or Night Slash from the relearner) can be useful for Ghost-types (and Psychic-types before Megahorn).
Major Battles: Heracross beats Clay easily. It can take on Marlon's Carracosta, as well as some of Drayden’s frailer Dragon-types due to its sheer power. Heracross can take on Ghetsis's Hydreigon and Colress' team with relative ease, as well as Kyurem. Heracross has an excellent showing during the Elite Four with it's combination of coverage and resists, beating Grimsley's whole crew (Watch out for Liepard) and most of Caitilin's crew, and can defeat Iris' Aggron and Lapras.

-Placing: S-Rank or lower? Why?
-Write-Up Quality: Is this write-up fine as it is? Does it need a few changes? Or does it need a complete re-write? If you think it needs changes, what changes would you make?
-Other: Is there anything else about that hasn't been mentioned that you would like to bring to light?

Name: Magnemite
Availability: Magnemite can be found in the Virbank Complex interior with a 25% chance.
Stats: Has a great Special Attack stat, with decent physical bulk to back it up. Its special bulk is passable, but not amazing.
Typing: Steel/Electric is arguably the holy grail of defensive typings, with resistances to everything bar four types, though its Ground- and Fighting-type weaknesses are fairly common. Offensively, this typing is adequate and is complimented by Magnemite's stats and movepool.
Movepool: Magnemite comes with Sonicboom, a godsend earlygame that can 2HKO everything. Aside from that, it has Thundershock, and later Mirror Shot. Magnemite doesn't get any good STAB moves until Flash Cannon, but it can hold on with STAB Volt Switch, Thunder, and a tutored Signal Beam. Thunder Wave can provide nice utility if you need to cripple a threat.
Major Battles: Magnemite steamrolls over Roxie, Burgh, Skyla, and Marlon by virtue of its typing alone. It helps a lot against Drayden, but needs to watch out for coverage moves such as Earth Power. Its Pokemon League performance is acceptable where it easily beats Pokemon weak to its STAB coverage and walls a lot of others, but should keep away from Marshall and other Pokemon with SE coverage.
Additional Comments: Sturdy is the better ability as it guarantees that Magnemite can survive attacks to respond, while Magnet Pull hardly ever comes into play.

-Placing: S-Rank or lower? Why?
-Write-Up Quality: Is this write-up fine as it is? Does it need a few changes? Or does it need a complete re-write? If you think it needs changes, what changes would you make?
-Other: Is there anything else about that hasn't been mentioned that you would like to bring to light?

Name: Minccino
Availability: Minccino is a guaranteed encounter in the Route 5 Hidden Grotto on the first visit.
Stats: Minncino has average stats, with a slightly above average speed. Upon evolving into a Cinccino, it has a very high speed and slightly above average attack. All its other stats are below average, so it shouldn't be taking many hits.
Typing: Both Minccino and Cinccino are of the Normal-type which isn't great, but gives it neutral STAB coverage on most Pokemon alongside one weakness and one immunity defensively.
Movepool: It may have a shallow movepool, but it has what it needs to function. It starts with Double Slap and learns Tail Slap at level 25. After evolving, it can relearn Bullet Seed and Rock Blast, giving it much needed coverage that works with Skill Link. Dig and Work Up are the only TM's worth teaching, though Return can provide a reliable alternative to Tail Slap.
Major Battles: It struggles against any Steel- or Fighting-type that can hit hard if they get a chance to attack. Other than that, it does just fine and will pull its own weight and more against anything else, bar Rock- or Ghost-types before getting the fifth gym badge.
Additional Comments: Skill Link Minccino is required for its top tier placement, and Cinccino needs Tail Slap, Bullet Seed, and Rock Blast to function. Shiny Stone can be found as early as Route 6.

-Placing: S-Rank or lower? Why?
-Write-Up Quality: Is this write-up fine as it is? Does it need a few changes? Or does it need a complete re-write? If you think it needs changes, what changes would you make?
-Other: Is there anything else about that hasn't been mentioned that you would like to bring to light?

Remember when looking at the rankings to look at them from an efficiency perspective.

---

I'll post my own answers to these in due time, but I would like to know definitively what needs chopping and changing. I would also appreciate the input of anyone who has used Heracross since I don't have plans to do test runs on Black 2. Also I am not ignoring those talking about those not in S-Rank right now; your input is being appreciated and taken into account. It's just that my priorities are elsewhere at this moment.

Also I plan to do a run shortly. I will be giving Wailmer and Mantyke the tests they require since they are not tiered at the moment. I also promised DrumstickGaming that I would look at Zorua so I'll have my thoughts on that as well. I'll figure out what else I'll try while I am at it (if I try something else, that is).
 
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I guess I'll make a post since no one else has much to say right now.

Since I want to prioritise dealing with S-Ranks, I'll post each mon and ask a few questions for you all:

Name: Braviary
Availability: Braviary can be found on Route 4 as an interactive encounter on Mondays [White 2].
Stats: Braviary has very high attack from the start with good Speed to back it up. Its bulk, while not amazing, is passable.
Typing: Normal / Flying gives it very decent STAB's offensively. Defensively the weaknesses become more common late-game but otherwise are not bad.
Movepool: Aerial Ace and Slash are good early powerful STAB moves for Braviary to use, while Hone Claws gives it set-up potential. Later on, Slash can be replaced with Return as Braviary's happiness rises. Braviary has access to Fly for HM purposes as well as being a good STAB for the rest of the game, while Superpower and Shadow Claw provide coverage.
Major battles: Braviary does not have any major fights where it easily breezes through (save Undella Hugh), but can find a way to make healthy contributions throughout these fights. It can definitely sweep some fights, but oftentimes relies on setup to do so.

-Placing: S-Rank or lower? Why?
-Write-Up Quality: Is this write-up fine as it is? Does it need a few changes? Or does it need a complete re-write? If you think it needs changes, what changes would you make?
-Other: Is there anything else about that hasn't been mentioned that you would like to bring to light?

Name: Darumaka
Availability: Darumaka can be found in Route 4 with a 30% chance.
Stats: It has a high Attack stat and good Speed upon evolution. Despite a decent HP stat, low defenses make it quite frail defensively.
Typing: Fire doesn't hit a lot of things super effectively, but it can prove to be useful in some major battles like against Burgh. Defensively however, its weaknesses show up quite a bit throughout the game, resulting in some matchup issues.
Movepool: It has a lot of good physical attacks. Fire Fang, Fire Punch, and Flare Blitz give it good STAB moves. Dig, Rock Slide and Superpower provide relevant coverage.
Major battles: Darumaka is available right before Burgh and can help get through that gym quickly though Dwebble can prove troublesome. Clay and Marlon are bad matchups. Champion aside, its hard-hitting prowess is a valuable asset for most other major fights.
Additional Comments: Darumaka is stuck with the Hustle ability until it evolves. While this helps give Darumaka good physical power, the accuracy penalty will often come into play and can result in setback-inducing misses. Wide Lens can help remedy this [Black 2 Only].

-Placing: S-Rank or lower? Why?
-Write-Up Quality: Is this write-up fine as it is? Does it need a few changes? Or does it need a complete re-write? If you think it needs changes, what changes would you make?
-Other: Is there anything else about that hasn't been mentioned that you would like to bring to light?

Name: Drilbur
Availability: Drilbur can first be found in Relic Passage Dust Clouds with an 80% chance.
Stats: Great Attack coupled with good Speed. Gains nice bulk upon evolving.
Typing: Starts out as a pure Ground-type, which gives a good STAB to work with. An additional Steel typing upon evolution grants more resistances and better matchups.
Movepool: Will start out with Dig or learn it soon after capture. It also has access to Metal Claw, and later, Rock Slide and Swords Dance. Waiting two levels before evolving gives it Earthquake early. Outside of this, Drilbur doesnt have much in the way of coverage (that isn't outclassed).
Major battles: Won't do extremely well against Burgh, but can beat Dwebble. Elesa is child's play for it, but needs to be careful around Emolga. Clay's Excadrill is beaten easily if evolved with early Earthquake. Due to its good offensive capabilities, most major battles should not be tough for it. However, stay away from Pokemon with potential super effective moves such as Humilau Gym.

-Placing: S-Rank or lower? Why?
-Write-Up Quality: Is this write-up fine as it is? Does it need a few changes? Or does it need a complete re-write? If you think it needs changes, what changes would you make?
-Other: Is there anything else about that hasn't been mentioned that you would like to bring to light?

Name: Heracross
Availability: Heracross can be found in Lostlorn Forest with a 5% chance [Black 2].
Stats: Heracross has a high Attack stat, which allows to tear teams apart; 85 Speed is good enough to outrun the majority of Pokemon. Its special bulk is decent enough to take advantage of, and the other stats are decent.
Typing: Offensively, STAB Bug/Fighting coverage hits a lot of relevant typings super effectively (Dark-, Psychic-, and Steel-types in particular). Defensively, the weaknesses to Fire, Flying, and Psychic trouble Heracross throughout the game.
Movepool: It gets Brick Break one level after you catch it, while Close Combat at Lv34 and Megahorn at Lv46 make up its best STAB coverage. TM-wise, Heracross only really would like Rock Slide, while Shadow Claw (or Night Slash from the relearner) can be useful for Ghost-types (and Psychic-types before Megahorn).
Major Battles: Heracross beats Clay easily. It can take on Marlon's Carracosta, as well as some of Drayden’s frailer Dragon-types due to its sheer power. Heracross can take on Ghetsis's Hydreigon and Colress' team with relative ease, as well as Kyurem. Heracross has an excellent showing during the Elite Four with it's combination of coverage and resists, beating Grimsley's whole crew (Watch out for Liepard) and most of Caitilin's crew, and can defeat Iris' Aggron and Lapras.

-Placing: S-Rank or lower? Why?
-Write-Up Quality: Is this write-up fine as it is? Does it need a few changes? Or does it need a complete re-write? If you think it needs changes, what changes would you make?
-Other: Is there anything else about that hasn't been mentioned that you would like to bring to light?

Name: Magnemite
Availability: Magnemite can be found in the Virbank Complex interior with a 25% chance.
Stats: Has a great Special Attack stat, with decent physical bulk to back it up. Its special bulk is passable, but not amazing.
Typing: Steel/Electric is arguably the holy grail of defensive typings, with resistances to everything bar four types, though its Ground- and Fighting-type weaknesses are fairly common. Offensively, this typing is adequate and is complimented by Magnemite's stats and movepool.
Movepool: Magnemite comes with Sonicboom, a godsend earlygame that can 2HKO everything. Aside from that, it has Thundershock, and later Mirror Shot. Magnemite doesn't get any good STAB moves until Flash Cannon, but it can hold on with STAB Volt Switch, Thunder, and a tutored Signal Beam. Thunder Wave can provide nice utility if you need to cripple a threat.
Major Battles: Magnemite steamrolls over Roxie, Burgh, Skyla, and Marlon by virtue of its typing alone. It helps a lot against Drayden, but needs to watch out for coverage moves such as Earth Power. Its Pokemon League performance is acceptable where it easily beats Pokemon weak to its STAB coverage and walls a lot of others, but should keep away from Marshall and other Pokemon with SE coverage.
Additional Comments: Sturdy is the better ability as it guarantees that Magnemite can survive attacks to respond, while Magnet Pull hardly ever comes into play.

-Placing: S-Rank or lower? Why?
-Write-Up Quality: Is this write-up fine as it is? Does it need a few changes? Or does it need a complete re-write? If you think it needs changes, what changes would you make?
-Other: Is there anything else about that hasn't been mentioned that you would like to bring to light?

Name: Minccino
Availability: Minccino is a guaranteed encounter in the Route 5 Hidden Grotto on the first visit.
Stats: Minncino has average stats, with a slightly above average speed. Upon evolving into a Cinccino, it has a very high speed and slightly above average attack. All its other stats are below average, so it shouldn't be taking many hits.
Typing: Both Minccino and Cinccino are of the Normal-type which isn't great, but gives it neutral STAB coverage on most Pokemon alongside one weakness and one immunity defensively.
Movepool: It may have a shallow movepool, but it has what it needs to function. It starts with Double Slap and learns Tail Slap at level 25. After evolving, it can relearn Bullet Seed and Rock Blast, giving it much needed coverage that works with Skill Link. Dig and Work Up are the only TM's worth teaching, though Return can provide a reliable alternative to Tail Slap.
Major Battles: It struggles against any Steel- or Fighting-type that can hit hard if they get a chance to attack. Other than that, it does just fine and will pull its own weight and more against anything else, bar Rock- or Ghost-types before getting the fifth gym badge.
Additional Comments: Skill Link Minccino is required for its top tier placement, and Cinccino needs Tail Slap, Bullet Seed, and Rock Blast to function. Shiny Stone can be found as early as Route 6.

-Placing: S-Rank or lower? Why?
-Write-Up Quality: Is this write-up fine as it is? Does it need a few changes? Or does it need a complete re-write? If you think it needs changes, what changes would you make?
-Other: Is there anything else about that hasn't been mentioned that you would like to bring to light?

Remember when looking at the rankings to look at them from an efficiency perspective.

---

I'll post my own answers to these in due time, but I would like to know definitively what needs chopping and changing. I would also appreciate the input of anyone who has used Heracross since I don't have plans to do test runs on Black 2. Also I am not ignoring those talking about those not in S-Rank right now; your input is being appreciated and taken into account. It's just that my priorities are elsewhere at this moment.

Also I plan to do a run shortly. I will be giving Wailmer and Mantyke the tests they require since they are not tiered at the moment. I also promised DrumstickGaming that I would look at Zorua so I'll have my thoughts on that as well. I'll figure out what else I'll try while I am at it (if I try something else, that is).
Braviary: I agree with S tier ranking. I would change the line about its defensive capabilities in the write-up. Passable is a little too negative of a word for a 100/75/75 bulk. I would describe it as above average/good (even great for midgame). For a comparison - Stoutland has a similar overall tanking potential.
Darumaka: Definitely agree with S tier ranking. Again, I would change stats' description. 105 HP is amazing while its defences are low so the overall bulk is more average than frail (comparable to Sawk). It's especially jarring to read this considering Excadrill's bulk is described as "nice" despite it being almost identical. I think it is also noteworthy to mention Darumaka's ability to learn its STABs quickly (Flare Blitz at 33 is especially insane).
Drilbur: Pretty much agree on S once again. In stats, I would add a line about its below average defences which are offset by great HP. In movepool, I would add a line about it learning Hone Claws soon after capture (since Drilbur needs to wait a while before gaining Swords Dance).

I have not used the rest of S tier Pokemon but I would like to mention two things.
Minccino: 95 attack is not "slightly above average". I would change it to just "good".
Magnemite: Just want to ask - does it really steamroll Marlon (having Challenge Mode in mind)? Magnezone is not particularly fast and it does not resist water attacks. There is also an issue of Wailord having Earthquake and Mantine having Confuse Ray. If this tier list ignores Challenge Mode then feel free to ignore this question as well.

Hope I am not too nitpicky with my suggestions. I remember having a blast reading these write-ups before my first White 2 run a few years ago.
 

Its_A_Random

A distant memory
is a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnus
While I am at it, here's a couple of resources that I am going to put into the OP:

Black 2 / White 2 TM / Tutor Availability
TM21 Frustration (Floccesy Ranch, Plasma Grunt)
--GYM 1--
TM83 Work Up (Gym 1 Prize)
TM27 Return (Aspertia City, Bianca)
TM46 Thief (Virbank Complex)
TM94 Rock Smash (Virbank Complex, Beat three Workers)
--GYM 2--
TM09 Venoshock (Gym 2 Prize)
HM01 Cut (Roxie, Beat Plasma Grunt)
TM44 Rest (Castelia City [Castelia Street], 11th Floor of western building)
TM45 Attract (Castelia City [Route 4 Street], 47th Floor of southeastern building)
TM70 Flash (Castelia City [Narrow Street], Man behind Dumpster)
HM04 Strength (Castelia Sewers, Hugh)
--GYM 3--
TM70 Struggle Bug (Gym 3 Prize)
TM28 Dig (Route 4)
TM66 Payback (Route 16 [Strength])
TM95 Snarl (Lostlorn Forest [Zoroark / Backpacker])
HM02 Fly (Route 5, Bianca)
--GYM 4--
TM72 Volt Switch (Gym 4 Prize)
TM63 Embargo (Driftveil City)
Driftveil Tutor (Driftveil City, 10 Free Red Shards in Nimbasa)
->Covet, Bug Bite, Drill Run, Bounce, Signal Beam, Iron Head, Super Fang, Uproar, Seed Bomb, Dual Chop, Lock Kick, Gunk Shot, Fire Punch, Thunder Punch, Ice Punch
--GYM 5--
TM78 Bulldoze (Gym 5 Prize)
TM39 Rock Tomb (Relic Castle B1F)
HM03 Surf (Route 6, Cheren)
--SURF--
TM53 Energy Ball (Aspertia City [Surf])
TM41 Torment (Castelia Sewers [Spring/Summer, Surf])
TM56 Fling (Route 6 [Surf])
TM80 Rock Slide (Mistralton Cave, 3F [Surf, Strength])
TM07 Hail (Mistralton City, $50,000)
TM11 Sunny Day (Mistralton City, $50,000)
TM18 Rain Dance (Mistralton City, $50,000)
TM37 Sandstorm (Mistralton City, $50,000)
TM58 Sky Drop (Mistralton City)
TM81 X-Scissor (Route 7)
TM61 Will-O-Wisp (Celestial Tower, 2F)
TM65 Shadow Claw (Celestial Tower, 4F)
--GYM 6--
TM11 Acrobatics (Gym 6 Prize)
TM40 Aerial Ace (Mistralton City)
TM57 Charge Beam (Lentimas Town)
TM30 Shadow Ball (Reversal Mountain Exterior)
TM54 False Swipe (Reversal Mountain Interior, Fill Habitat List)
TM69 Rock Polish (Reversal Mountain Interior)
TM29 Psychic (Route 13 [Surf])
TM14 Blizzard (Lacunosa Town, $70,000)
TM25 Thunder (Lacunosa Town, $70,000)
TM38 Fire Blast (Lacunosa Town, $70,000)
TM15 Hyper Beam (Shopping Mall Nine, $90,000)
TM68 Giga Impact (Shopping Mall Nine, $90,000)
--GYM 7--
TM82 Dragon Tail (Gym 7 Prize)
Draco Meteor Tutor (Opelucid City, Drayden)
TM42 Facade (Marine Tube, Humilau Side)
TM06 Toxic (Seaside Cave)
--GYM 8--
TM55 Scald (Gym 8 Prize)
TM67 Retaliate (Plasma Frigate)
TM13 Ice Beam (Giant Chasm Cave [Surf])
TM03 Psyshock (Giant Chasm Crater, Beat Ghetsis)
TM05 Roar (Route 23)
TM12 Taunt (Route 23 [Cut, Strength])
TM35 Flamethrower (Route 23 [Surf])
--WATERFALL--
TM92 Trick Room (Abundant Shrine [Surf, Waterfall])
TM01 Hone Claws (Victory Road Entrance)
TM24 Thunderbolt (Victory Road, Beat Hugh)
TM93 Wild Charge (Victory Road [Surf, Waterfall])
---
INEFFICIENT TO GET
Battle Subway/PWT TM's [Requires BP]: TM10 Hidden Power TM17 Protect, TM20 Safeguard, TM23 Smack Down, TM31 Brick Break, TM32 Double Team, TM34 Sludge Wave, TM48 Round, TM51 Ally Switch, TM59 Incinerate, TM60 Quash, TM64 Explosion, TM75 Swords Dance, TM77 Psych Up, TM79 Frost Breath, TM87 Swagger, TM88 Pluck, TM89 U-Turn
Lentimas Town Tutor [No Easy Blue Shards]
Humilau City Tutor [No Easy Yellow Shards]

POSTGAME ONLY
TM03 Dragon Claw (Dragonspiral Tower)
TM04 Calm Mind (Striaton City, $80,000)
TM08 Bulk Up (Striaton City, $80,000)
TM19 Telekinesis (Route 18)
TM22 Solar Beam (Pinwheel Forest)
TM26 Earthquake (Route 15)
TM36 Sludge Bomb (Route 8)
TM43 Flame Charge (Tubeline Bridge)
TM52 Focus Blast (Wellspring Cave [Surf])
TM71 Stone Edge (Twist Mountain)
TM84 Poison Jab (Moor of Icirrus)
TM85 Dream Eater (Dreamyard)
TM86 Grass Knot (Pinwheel Forest)
TM90 Substitute (Twist Mountain)
TM91 Flash Cannon (Twist Mountain)
HM06 Dive (Undella Town, Hugh)
Nacrene City Tutor
Black 2 / White 2 Useful Items Availability
X Speed (Floccesy Town)
X Attack (Floccesy Ranch)
--GYM 1--
Dire Hit (Route 20)
Ether (Virbank Complex, Talk to Scientist three times)
Silk Scarf (Virbank Complex)
X Accuracy (Virbank Complex)
--GYM 2--
Amulet Coin (Castelia City, Route 4 Street)
Bicycle (Castelia City, Entrance)
Charcoal / Miracle Seed / Mystic Water (Castelia City, Battle Company)
Destiny Knot (Castelia City, Unity Pier)
Ether (Castelia City, Battle Company)
Eviolite (Castelia City, Route 4 Street, 40+ Pokémon Seen)
Exp. Share (Castelia City, Battle Company)
Guard Spec. (Castelia City, Battle Company)
Heart Scale (Castelia City, Prime Pier)
Miracle Seed (Castelia City, Castelia Park)
Quick Claw (Castelia City, Skyarrow Bridge Gate)
Rare Candy (Castelia City, Find the Harlequins)
Scope Lens (Castelia City, Battle Company)
Heart Scale (Castelia Sewers [Spring/Summer])
Leftovers (Castelia Sewers)
Rare Bone (Castelia Sewers)
Twisted Spoon (Castelia Sewers)
X Sp. Atk (Castelia Sewers)
X Sp. Def (Castelia Sewers)
Hard Stone (Relic Passage)
Mystic Water (Route 4)
--GYM 3--
Bright Powder (Route 4) [White 2]
Grip Claw (Route 4) [Black 2]
Light Clay (Route 4) [White 2]
Power Anklet (Route 4, Trade) [Black 2]
Power Weight (Route 4, Trade) [White 2]
Wide Lens (Route 4) [Black 2]
Fire Stone (Desert Resort)
Ground Gem (Desert Resort)
Heart Scale (Desert Resort)
Max Ether (Desert Resort)
Soft Sand (Desert Resort)
Macho Brace (Nimbasa City)
10x Red Shard (Nimbasa City)
Soothe Bell (Nimbasa City)
Sun Stone (Nimbasa City)
Thunder Stone (Nimbasa City)
Leaf Stone (Lostlorn Forest)
--GYM 4--
Air Balloon (Driftveil City)
Big Root (Driftveil City)
Everstone (Driftveil City)
Expert Belt (Driftveil City, Lv30+)
Incenses (Driftveil City, $9,600)
Shell Bell (Driftveil City, 70+ Pokémon Seen)
Moon Stone (Route 6)
Shiny Stone (Route 6)
--GYM 5--
Ether (Pokémon World Tournament)
PP Up (Pokémon World Tournament)
Rare Candy (Relic Passage [Strength])
Rock Gem (Relic Passage [Strength])
Rocky Helmet (Pokémon World Tournament, Relic Passage [Strength])
--SURF--
Expert Belt (Route 19 [Surf])
Water Stone (Route 19 [Surf])
Heart Scale (Route 20 [Surf], Route 6 [Surf])
Rare Candy (Route 20 [Surf, Autumn], Virbank City [Surf])
Black Glasses (Castelia City, Back Alley [Surf])
Black Sludge (Castelia Sewers [Surf, Spring/Summer])
Boison Gem (Castelia Sewers [Surf, Spring/Summer])
PP Up (Route 6 [Surf], Celestial Tower)
Dragon Gem (Mistralton Cave)
Electric Gem (Chargestone Cave)
Magnet (Chargestone Cave)
Metal Coat (Chargestone Cave)
Thunder Stone (Chargestone Cave)
Flying Gem (Mistralton City)
Master Ball (Mistralton City)
Sharp Beak (Mistralton City)
Elixir (Route 7)
Leaf Stone (Route 7)
Ghost Gem (Celestial Tower)
Lucky Egg (Celestial Tower)
--GYM 6--
Fire Stone (Lentimas Town)
Spell Tag (Lentimas Town)
Dusk Stone (Strange House)
Rare Candy (Strange House, Route 12)
Fire Gem (Reversal Mountain) [White 2]
Flame Orb (Reversal Mountain) [White 2]
PP Up (Reversal Mountain, Route 12, Village Bridge)
Smoke Ball (Reversal Mountain)
Toxic Orb (Reversal Mountain) [Black 2]
Water Gem (Reversal Mountain) [Black 2]
Heart Scale (Undella Town, Undella Bay, Route 14 [Surf], Village Bridge [Surf])
Prism Scale (Undella Town)
Shiny Stone (Undella Town)
Draco Plate (Undella Bay)
Splash Plate (Undella Bay)]
Max Ether (Route 13, Village Bridge)
Power Lens (Route 13) [Black 2]
Power Band (Route 13) [White 2]
Metronome (Lacunosa Town)
Float Stone (Opelucid City)
Ring Target (Opelucid City)
Smoke Ball (Opelucid City)
Dark Gem (Route 9)
Elixir (Route 9)
X Item Shop (Shopping Mall Nine)
--GYM 7--
Black Sludge (Marine Tube, Poison Barb)
7x Heart Scale (Humilau City, Luvdisc needed for five)
Shell Bell (Humilau City)
PP Up (Route 21, Route 22)
Heart Scale (Seaside Cave)
Rare Candy (Seaside Cave [Strength], Route 22)
Poison Barb (Route 22)
--GYM 8--
Electirizer (Plasma Frigate) [White 2]
Magmarizer (Plasma Frigate) [Black 2]
Max Elixir (Plasma Frigate, Giant Chasm Crater Forest)
Power Band (Plasma Frigate) [Black 2]
Power Belt (Plasma Frigate) [White 2]
Ice Gem (Giant Chasm Cave [Strength])
Moon Stone (Giant Chasm Cave, Giant Chasm Crater Forest)
PP Up (Giant Chasm Crater Forest, Route 23 [Cut, Strength])
Razor Claw (Giant Chasm Crater Forest)
Sun Stone (Giant Chasm Crater Forest)
Heart Scale (Route 23 [Cut / Surf])
Rare Candy (Route 23)
--WATERFALL--
Grass Gem (Lostlorn Forest [Surf, Waterfall])
Rare Candy (Lostlorn Forest [Surf, Waterfall], Abundant Shrine [Surf, Waterfall], Victory Road [x2])
PP Max (Abundant Shrine [Surf, Waterfall], Victory Road)
Shiny Stone (Abundant Shrine [Surf, Waterfall])
Razor Fang (Route 11 [Surf, Waterfall])
Dragon Fang (Victory Road)
Dragon Scale (Victory Road)
Dusk Stone (Victory Road)
Max Elixir (Victory Road [x2])
Normal Gem (Victory Road)
PP Up (Victory Road)


These are useful because they give you a good idea of when TM's or Items Pokémon benefit from become available. Let me know if I missed any, and I will add to the OP.

Now back to work.
 

Its_A_Random

A distant memory
is a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnus
Okay, this is going to be a pretty long post, so buckle up.

First up, write-ups for our forgotten two.


Name: Wailmer
Availability: Wailmer can be found in Undella Bay shaking spots with a 30% chance (60% in Winter). Its evolution can be found in the same shaking spots with a 5% chance.
Stats: Wailmer and its evolution have a large HP pool counterbalanced by its poor defenses. Their attacking stats are decent, but its base 60 Speed as a Wailord is its weakness.
Typing: Its Water-typing is good for giving STAB to its best moves, helping it make up for its average offenses. However, there are a few Electric-types in the lategame that it must watch out for.
Movepool: Water Spout is its biggest asset, giving it the ability to punch holes in most opponents. Brine and Surf are also solid moves that compliment Water Spout's downsides. In terms of coverage, Blizzard, Hyper Beam, and Ice Beam round its Special attacking pool, while its Physical coverage is limited to Bulldoze, Rock Tomb, Dive and Waterfall, Iron Head, and Return. Heavy Slam is not worth ten extra Wailmer levels.
Major Battles: Its Hugh matchups are not very stellar, it needs Blizzard for Drayden, and Marlon is a slow matchup. It is mediocre overall against the major Team Plasma fights, but it has a rather solid Pokémon League with some soloable fights and all-around great hole-punching.
Additional Comments: Ability does not matter too much. The main thing is that X Speeds are quite important to Wailord as its low Speed stops it from getting off full power Water Spouts most of the time.


Name: Mantyke
Availability: Mantyke can be found in Undella Bay with a 30% chance. Its evolution can be found in Undella Bay's shaking spots with a 5% chance.
Stats: Mantyke possesses excellent special bulk though its physical bulk is quite bad. Its offenses are mediocre overall, being more specially based, while base 70 speed is mediocre at the point you get it.
Typing: Water / Flying-typing can help at times, but is overall mediocre. STAB Air Slash is a boon, but it often finds itself falling to the myriad of Electric- and Rock-type moves in the endgame.
Movepool: Surf, Hydro Pump, and Air Slash are its best STAB moves. Agility helps patch its speed issues. The only coverage moves worth looking at are Psybeam, Signal Beam, Ice Beam, and Blizzard.
Major Battles: It starts out solidly, but starts to struggle after Drayden (where Blizzard is important). Marlon is a bad matchup, and its Team Plasma matchups are rather bad. Shauntal and Grimsley are decent, but the rest of the league is a struggle, even Caitlin.
Additional Comments: Water Absorb is preferred for the ability to deal with some Pokémon, such as Hugh's Samurott and the Humilau Gym, but is not that important otherwise. The Remoraid required for evolution can be found in Undella Bay.

I am going to be putting these two provisionally in C-Rank. They are just not that great overall. Mantine starts out alright, but drops off. Wailord is okay, but has a decent enough Pokémon League.

If anyone wants some analysis of fights from Undella Hugh onwards, I can post them here though they are on #pummelo_island in the OI Discord. As for some other things I tested:

Drilbur [Quiet]
11 / 25 / 21 / 30 / 25 / 31

Zorua [Hasty]
30 / 30 / 30 / 30 / 30 / 30

Wailord [Timid]
4 / 8 / 23 / 26 / 5 / 30

Mantyke [Calm]
28 / 17 / 15 / 6 / 19 / 25

Throh [Adamant]
2-3 / 7-8 / 12-13 / 24-25 / 18-19 / 31


Drilbur
Very solid S-Rank. Its bad matchups are few and far between and even with my bad nature, it was still capable of delivering the goods. Iron Head is worth mentioning in the write-up as it is quite cheap on the Red Shards, and Marlon itself is a good matchup due to Carracosta prioritising Shell Smash and being slower anyway (unless you have really horrible Speed, like -Speed and low IV horrible, you want 87 speed minimum), and having the bulk to take one Scald (enough to SD and sweep) Marshal and Iris aren't great matchups on an equal footing for soloing, but there's still some places where it can contribute.

Zorua
Sorry Drumstick, but it is a clear cut A-Rank in my eyes and is probably closer to S-Rank than it is B-Rank. Flat 30's for IV's, Hasty, and boosted Exp are boons, especially the latter as it helps the party out in the long run for levels, but it is a Pokémon that has the capabilities to sweep the rest of the game. The boosted Exp. alone helps it evolve into Zoroark just off the Driftveil Gym trainers, though the fights can be somewhat slow.

Illusion matters, Illusion matters, Illusion matters. Not just for the "lol I am a Fighting-type come hit me with your Psychic-type attacks", but other things alongside it. Magnemite is one of the best Illusion targets for Zoroark since it is 4x weak to Ground-type attacks. This is important since you can exploit this with an Air Balloon that you pick up in Driftveil City. And some AI quirks exist where they will often tend to go for the attack if there is a 4x weakness. So you can just plop the Air Balloon on Zoroark and laugh while the opponent spams Bulldoze and then win. You can solo Clay this way (About 9/10 turns with Snarl and Foul Play), and Marshal if you bothered to use enough X Defends to avoid getting one shot by Sawk after Sturdy. There are a couple of oddities for the Clay matchup that I didn't check though, and that's the Bulldoze / Dig interaction with Air Balloon, and whether or not Zorua can do it considering it's slower than Excadrill (and Krokorok). I should check them next time around... but ehhh. Also things like Mareep do not work as although Krokorok and Sandslash are railroaded, Excadrill can just randomly use Slash and ruin your strategy.

Even in general, good Illusion targets can alter the trajectory of a matchup. Feign Excadrill on Marlon, watch for the Shell Smash and punish with Foul Play. A pure Water-type on the Zinzolin double fights can see the AI target Samurott instead and allow for a lot of carnage. Things like that.

Worst gym for it is probably Drayden but even then, Zoroark does not struggle too badly. The outright worst matchup is Colress where it is reliant on Dig to do much and Sturdy Magnets just hit like a truck, not to mention the Air Balloon Klinklang. Ghetsis is okay, the Zinzolin fights are okay, Hugh 4 is bad, Shauntal and Caitlin are foregone conclusions. Grimsley I can deal with at +4 SpA and a Charcoal equipped for Flamethrower spam (it's okay outside of solos), and we talked about Marshal already (just adding that it's awful if you don't intend on the solo strat). Iris there is a glimmer of hope for soloing with Snarls to soften Hydreigon, setting up, and a couple of X Defends for X-Scissor from Haxorus (and maybe an X Speed), the non-solo outlook isn't too great.

Outside of that, there's Rock Smash that can be helpful, but I didn't grab it. Fling shenanigans with the Rare Bone is good for the mid-lategame, Foul Play has its uses, and U-Turn is a thing though I didn't bother with it. Black Glasses is a bit of a detour and has three mandatory fights, but the boost can make quite a difference. But the point is it can do quite a lot, and I think it does enough to stay above B-Rank. Really, it has not that many duds at all.

"But Random, you are arguing that it's A-Rank because you mentioned specific Pokémon for Illusion targets making this sound really specific!" Good thing we assume that the player knows what they are doing on these lists. Elite tweaking is never a bad thing, competition for things like Black Glasses and Air Balloon and the like isn't that much of a thing.

Throh
Yeah I tested an endgame Pokémon out, and it's not too bad. The big problem is its speed, but it's workable. One thing I liked doing was using the Flame Orb to pre-burn Throh (on a wild encounter) to trigger Guts and free it to use something like an Expert Belt, which is nice. There are routes to solo each fight outside of Shauntal with Iris being the biggest long shot due to how long you need to go without being crit (2 X Sp Defs, 1/2 X Speeds, four Bulk Ups for Archeops, all while healing off every other turn), and it is capable of throwing (heh) its weight in each fight (save Caitlin, who is terrible outside of soloing via exploiting Musharna). Bulk Up, Storm Throw, Facade, Superpower, and Payback are all good moves for it. I don't know if it's worth moving up to B-Rank, but the speed is its biggest achilles heel, so C-Rank is fine enough considering it's an endgame Pokémon.

---

As for the other Pokémon mentioned a few posts above:

Braviary
It's borderline S/A. It just seems like a solid, good Pokémon, but isn't really on the same plane as Darumaka and Drilbur. Major Battles seems about right, there is not much else to add.

Darumaka
Not much to be said really, you could mention Work Up / Belly Drum. I don't expect Darmanitan before Clay so that's fine where it is. It is solidly S-Rank.

Magnemite
This is A-Rank, personally. The problem is that its early matchups outside of Roxie are slow, and it takes a little too long to get good moves. Later on, you get the choice of a defensive tank on wheels (Eviolite Magneton), or a low speed beatstick (Magnezone). It can steamroll a few fights, but the best defence is a good offence. And Magnemite takes a little too long to get there; it's A-Rank for similar reasons to why I thought Ralts was A-Rank in RSE. Should probably not call Sonic Boom a godsend, really.

Minccino
Borderline S/A-Rank. The main issues are its frailty and its reliance on moves that are 85-90% accurate. I don't have much to add at the moment, other than the accuracy things.

---

That's pretty much it, I'll take a bit of a break from testing for now (especially with the new semester starting next week for me). When I feel like another test, I might look into emulating Black 2 and looking at some exclusives? Not too sure just yet. But long and short:

-Preliminary write-ups for Wailmer and Mantyke now that I tested them. Did not present much thoughts, but preliminarily ranking them in C. May want to concise?
-Personally, Drilbur is S, Zorua is A, Throh is probably C.
-Some comments on some of the S-Rank Pokémon I have used.
-A little bit of looking ahead.
 
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Nominating Pelipper:

Availability: Route 13. This is quite late since it only has two gyms left.
Stats: Pelipper's physical bulk is good, but that's about it. Base 85 special attack isn't too bad at this stage, but it drops off quickly. With base 60 HP and 70 special defense, as well as base 65 speed, it is easy prey for special attackers.
Movepool: Disappointing. Surf is nice, but it doesn't really have anything else worthwhile. Sadly, it doesn’t have a special flying type STAB, and Fly hits like a wet paper bag due to base 50 attack. Hydro pump comes at level 58, while Hurricane is at level 63, so you have to tolerate Fly or Wing Attack.
Typing: Water/Flying is good, granting Pelipper an immunity to ground types, as well as resistances to steel, fire, water bug and fighting. Stay away from electric types, though.
Major Battles: Mostly neutral. Decent against Ghetsis, capable of taking out Seismitoad and Toxicroak, and can sneak a few KOs in elite 4 battles, such as Golurk and Chandelure. Marshall is a bad idea due to the aforementioned lack of special flying STAB and his rock type coverage.
Additional comments: No, Pelipper doesn't have Drizzle this gen, so you have the useless Keen Eye.

Overall, I think ranking Pelipper B is a mistake. Besides a good typing, it is either average, mediocre or just bad in every other category, with its movepool and late arrival being the main things holding it back. Thus, I nominate for Pelipper to drop to C rank.

EDIT: I noticed Ghetsis' Bouffalant is mentioned in the write up in the first page. Ghetsis doesn't have a Bouffalant is B2W2, it does have one in Black/White though.
 
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Hi, I was looking at this thread and was wondering why is Vaporeon at A rank? Eevee comes at Lv18 and it will not learn a Water type move until Lv37. You only get Surf at Route 6. Am I missing something here?
While on paper, lacking a Water STAB until after Clay seems terrible, in practice Vaporeon manages just well with Aurora Beam up until that point. Aurora Beam provides similar coverage against grounds (though it is unfortunately neutral against Excadrill), and thanks to Vaporeon’s great stats and set up moves (Work Up and Acid Armor, even Aqua Ring + Leftovers can be utilized at this point if you desire), it actually doesn’t struggle vs Clay (or any of the routes before Clay) at all. Having used Vaporeon before, and 100% agreeing with it being in A, I don’t think Surf is it’s biggest draw; water coverage is kinda sucky in BW2, especially after Clay is done. Vaporeon is just so well-rounded that a strong STAB option is the icing on the cake, more or less. If you’re at all interested in testing for BW2 Vaporeon is definitely a great mon to go for, the only real downside it has IMO is the necessity to grind at the Battle Subway for a Water Stone, which, combined with Eevee’s already scarce availability, makes it a pain to actually get to. Once you do have it though, it performs really well throughout the game based on its boosting strategies (Elesa is pretty tough tho for obvious reasons). Hope this helps!
 

DHR-107

Robot from the Future
is a Member of Senior Staffis a Community Contributoris a Smogon Discord Contributoris a Pokemon Researcheris a Smogon Media Contributor
Orange Islands
Doing a run through of these cause I haven't played BW2 in forever and felt like a change.

Currently running Tepig/Pidove/Elekid/Azurill. Super Luck on Pidove and Huge Power Azurill (ofc). Took me around 10 minutes to find an Elekid at all, let alone a max level one so I was surprised by that, also did a couple of Audino to get nearer Roxie.

Just in front of Burgh, but the first two gyms really weren't too much of an issue.

Cheren - Tepig easily wins this with 1-2 Defence Curls, Pidove and Azurill are a bit shakier, but Charm for Azurill also works well with Frustration.
Roxie - Tepig can win this, but needs to be careful of Venoshocks, but Pignite will rip through this gym with Return/Flame Charge. Azurill works fine against the Koffing (but what doesn't) and can aid another mon in Charming Whirlipede, but it doesn't like repeated Venoshocks at all. Pidove can also do work here too.
Burgh - Pignite easily strolls through this battle with 1-2 Defence Curls, Flame Charge mitigates the speed drops from Swadloon and Dwebble doesn't really pose a threat either. Leavanny is easily 2HKO'd with Flame Charge even including the Sitrus Berry (I was level 20 here). Pidove's main problem is if it loses any speed via a String Shot, its dead to Dwebble anyway (and struggles to hit it for decent damage even with 1-2 Workups). If you have Tranquil however, it's probably a different story. Elekid and Azurill are non starters here as even Swadloon can beat them.

I am slightly worried that I am not going to get Azurill to evolve for Aqua Tail, but if I can't it means I get bounce instead so YMMV. So far, Tepig is easy A, Pidove B, Azurill A and Elekid A. Elekid is really nice for dealing with the Grunts with all the Zubat, but I foresee an issue with who learns Ice Punch later on.

EDIT: Went back to get Tranquil to fight Burgh, you need to Work Up to +3 to deal with Dwebble (Air Cutter -> Quick Attack) otherwise it molests you with Smack Down. Probably possible to win against Leavanny with a heal as I think it should just try to Cut you, and you one shot with Air Cutter. Scope Lens might let you hax your way out of the Dwebble issue, but that's Super Luck dependent :blobshrug:
 
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