For the purpose of this post, I think I can reasonably assume that WaterBomb got Torchic and Ralts at level 5, Oddish and Electrike at level 13, and Staryu at level 30. Torchic and Oddish grow medium slowly, and the other three grow slowly. Based on this information,I don't remember exactly, but I'm about 80% sure I was 45 across the board when I faced the first of the e4 members.
For the purpose of this post, I think I can reasonably assume that WaterBomb got Torchic and Ralts at level 5, Oddish and Electrike at level 13, and Staryu at level 30. Torchic and Oddish grow medium slowly, and the other three grow slowly. Based on this information,
Torchic was given around 83200 experience.
Ralts was given around 112940 experience.
Oddish was given around 82074 experience.
Electrike was given around 110350 experience.
Staryu was given around 79346 experience.
If WaterBomb's party was around level 35 when he/she/it caught Staryu, then while WaterBomb had Staryu, Torchic and Oddish gained about 46900 experience, and Ralts and Electrike gained about 60313 experience. This means Torchic and Oddish were given about 3/4 of the experience that Ralts and Electrike got. Additionally, while WaterBomb had Staryu, the medium slow Pokemon got only 3/5 of the experience that Staryu got. I wouldn't call it a fair test when the Pokemon were given such different amounts of investment.
I don't really get this part. If Seafloor Cavern and Victory Road had mostly stuff that Blaziken can sweep, then why didn't Blaziken gain some extra experience from these two areas?Of those, Victory Road and arguably Team Aqua underwater is a good matchup overall for Blaziken, so I can't really say I blame Torchic not getting much exp.
How is it only decent when every major opponent (except maybe the antagonist leaders, Tate and Liza, and Phoebe) has setup fodder that lets Makuhita use a bunch of bulk ups and sweep?Makuhita is a Pokémon that gets an extremely strong start thanks to a very early Vital Throw and an extremely good Exp gain group in Fluctuating, allowing it to effortlessly offset any fight it's not useful by making almost double the exp any of your other team members are early game. This combined with evolving right as it's starting to feel a little weak contribute to a solid performance mid-game, but it slowly starts to show problems -- it is a slow Pokémon, and that is not helped that its best STAB and hence the move you are using the most until Brick Break (ie until after gym 7 at the earliest) is one that makes you go last every turn. This is offset to a great extent by a very strong Fake Out and a lot of survivability, but unfortunately it just ends up being a decent, reliable Pokémon with no particularly good matchups outside of Norman. C is a very good place for it.
0 SpA (level 29) Torkoal Overheat vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Thick Fat (level 28) Hariyama: 33-39 (25.9 - 30.7%)I admit I just didn't use Bulk Up on Hariyama -- I didn't mention this but it was the Pokémon I found most stressed for extra moveslots. Vital Throw, Fake Out and Secret Power were all simply too important for me to give up so I just didn't go for it. If it was the smarter move then, yeah, that's totally on me; Bulk Up just wasn't something I'd considered. It seems like it wouldn't be very useful against more opponents than you mentioned, though -- Drake and Winona still have a huge advantage over you while I can't see a particularly decent opening in Wallace's team. You also don't have Bulk Up before Brawly while Flannery's Torkoal certainly seems like it could break through you with Overheat. Still; it certainly seems effective for Wattson, Norman, Juan, Sidney and Glacia so you have me there at least.
Shelgon is absolutely set-up bait, I just meant the rest of his team is powerful enough to not care about Hariyama no matter how much it set up.0 SpA (level 29) Torkoal Overheat vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Thick Fat (level 28) Hariyama: 33-39 (25.9 - 30.7%)
So Flannery is absolutely no problem for Hariyama if it has thick fat. If you want to use Hariyama against Drake, then you can try to set up on his Shelgon.
Hariyama gets the 2HKO on everything except his Salamence after using bulk up twice. His Flygons and Altaria are pretty reliant on physical attacks, so the physical defense boost from bulk up also helps there.Shelgon is absolutely set-up bait, I just meant the rest of his team is powerful enough to not care about Hariyama no matter how much it set up.
I don't know why you'd even want to use Hariyama against Drake when you can grab literally any Water-type ever and give them Ice Beam. Far more clean of a sweep.
My point is that using Hariyama against Drake is just a waste of time since Drake has 2 Flying-types. This means you need to use Rock Tomb and nab a bunch of buffs since RT is weak, and you're taking Dragon STAB attacks from most everything against an unbuffed SpD while also being way slower. At that point I question how much of an efficient matchup this actually is and whether it's worth noting at all.While true, Hariyama should still get credit for opponents it's able to defeat. It's also 100% more efficient to grab Rayquaza in Emerald and sweep the rest of the game than to use literally anything else, but you wouldn't take away Sceptile's positive matchup against Juan because of this for example.
I don't remember exactly, but I'm about 80% sure I was 45 across the board when I faced the first of the e4 members.
Fireburn see, in your own post you described some of the reasons I felt emerald Torchic should drop to A. Needing X items and potions to contribute to some important battles is not something I'd expect from an S Rank Pokemon. Additionally, being completely useless against 40% of the Elite 5 (and struggling against EQ Dusclops and Walrein) is a pretty big deal. S Rank, to me, should be reserved for the rare few Pokemon that can handle every trainer in the game with almost no exceptions. Almost half the e5 is too many exceptions for my taste. As I stated in my post, I believe it is more than worthy of A Rank, which is still great.
Totally get the Claydol and Steven part (though I can't comment on the latter since I played Emerald), but I don't understand how Electrike beats it in availability at all. If we're talking percentages, both Pokémon are common in the areas they're caught.I could see the argument for B but it does have some problems vs lategame major fights (not super great vs Steven, Emerald!Tate&Liza leads EQ Claydol) and Electrike still beats it considerably in availability so I'm not 100% sure.
Electrike can't 1v1 much of anything, but having a thunder wave user on the team is usually nice.There are no major battles between Electrike's first capture and Magnemite's capture in which Manectric could be considered a great asset aside from Archie's Mt. Chimney battle in Sapphire. It can't do much of anything against Wattson, it's neutral at best against Flannery and Norman (though both have incredibly strong main Pokémon which can easily OHKO you), and the big thing of note in the route 110 Rival battle is their starter; none of which Manectric has a good advantage against. It of course only gets worse in Ruby and Emerald where Maxie replaces Archie on Mt. Chimney.
This is true, I won't deny that support element; but it's not exactly helping a whole lot outside of that.Electrike can't 1v1 much of anything, but having a thunder wave user on the team is usually nice.