Finished her off, game play summary of remainder
Quick note that the only items I bought in the entire game prior to the E4 was roughly 40 Max repels for the water routes and victory road (did not notice when redoing the post-Lilycove that I didn't get a Volt Absorb Chinchou but instead an Illuminate one. Swear I thought my emulator was broken with how many fucking Pokemon I was running into). I purchased 40 Hyper Potions and 25 Revives, roughly standard for my runs, and had enough money left over to buy that amount 1.5 times over again.
Aqua Grunts and Archie were handled by the usual cast of rotating crew, in this case Beautifly, Absol, and Lanturn. Beautifly was surprisingly effective as the point man in clearing out this area. Next up was Sootopolis with some catch up grinding on Breloom (who I'd been keeping underleveled relative to the team), I'd intended to set up Loom on Luvdisc and sweep but I left Lanturn in the lead by accident so I did it on Whiscash instead, correctly figuring I'd only need 2 Bulk Ups to sweep. Unfortunately I missed my first Sky Uppercut vs Sealeo and so while Breloom tanked the ensuing Ice Beam it lost too much health to survive the follow up Ice Beam from the outspeeding Kingdra. Kingdra was a stall fest of me sitting Lanturn in front of it and missing attacks because of Double Team waiting for it to burn out it's Ice Beam, at which point I brought in Altaria for the sweep. Victory Road was business as usual but with one exception, Beautifly performed very well against the trainers it faced (~30% as lead, teaching it the Psychic team in Victory Road which was very helpful in giving it a comparable nuke vs things like the end area Slakings) and, surprisingly, Absol
dominated. It had been quietly effective since it finalized its moveset but it was at this point that it really shined which it would carry through the E4. I'll note that I didn't end up using Claydol much because I kept feeding it Rare Candies that I found but when I did use it, and from the spread of enemies, Ground/Psychic typing and stab is
fantastic here
.
Sidney was straightforward, Breloom OHKOed Mightyena, Lanturn 2HKOed Absol, Beautifly OHKOed both Shiftry and Cacturne and 2HKOed Crawdaunt. I did not use any healing items post fight.
Phoebe was another area where Absol shone, 2HKOing the first Duslops and OHKOing the first Banette, Beautifly was surprisingly the choice to take on Sableye despite losing in a straight damage race because this Sableye likes to use Double Team a lot which plays right into Beautifly's Aerial Ace, Absol 1v1ed the second Dusclops at this point but was weakened and thus surprisingly KOed when the second Banette survived a Shadow Ball (rip Timid nature), Beautifly coming in to clean up. I did not use any healing items post fight.
Glacia could have
easily been a Breloom clean sweep if I bothered to give it an X Speed or if I'd brought it in above level 47. As it was, it set up a Bulk Up and KOed both Sealeo before Walrein came in an KOed with an outspeeding Ice Beam. Lanturn finished off the remainder with its bulk and type advantage using a couple Hyper Potions to tank Glalie attacks with the rest of my team out of commission. I fully healed the team at this point.
Breloom had another opportunity to clean sweep had I bothered to use an X Speed (fuck that noise) as it was easily able to set up to +6 on Shelgon before being KOed by Flygon (remember, still at level 47). I decided Claydol was the best choice to handle Flyong before getting smacked by a Crunch, at which point I decided to troll and Flash it to -6. Thus followed the epitome of why Altaria is simultaneously great and blows ass, setting up to +6 on Flygon (see: any Pokemon that can't particularly touch it of which there are many) and subsequently failing to OHKO it with Fly. Conversely however, it was able to get two attacks off vs the following Salamence as it lived a Dragon Claw from roughly 90% and would have been capable of 2HKOing if not for the Sitrus Berry. (Also Drake's Altaria exists although I legitimately forgot about it weith how quickly it died to my own Altaria.) Thus, it fell to Absol to demonstrate its worth once again, surviving the Salamence Dragon Claw and using Ice Beam to KO the biggest threat in da lee. The second Kingdra of the way was next and posed a much more significant threat with Dragon Dance boosted Body Slams and Lanturn's Thunderbolt baaaaaarely missing out on a 3HKO (pretty sure I low rolled the damage roll rng twice!) but managed a paralysis on the fifth Thunderbolt to secure the win, Beautifly serving as death fodder to Max Revive the fish when the first DDed Body Slam caught me off guard. Drake was down and the team fully restored before the Champion fight.
I lead Absol vs Wallace intending to Thunderbolt it quickly and devalue the Water Spout, a strategy that went to plan as Absol outsped, damaging for about 40% and surviving the ensuing Spout. Not wanting to trigger a Hyper Potion and thinking ahead, I elected to Shadow Ball instead of Thunderbolting as a follow up which backfired as I critical hit driving Wailord into the red, thus triggering a Full Restore, but then benefitting me as it also procced a Special Defense drop, allowing Lanturn to come in and OHKO Wailord on the Full Restore. Surprisingly, Wallace chose to follow up with Gyarados instead of Whiscash (desirable) or Ludicolo (target #2) as follow up. Fortunately a full health Lanturn was my secondary response to this (Absol being first) and it was able to live an Earthquake (barely) and OHKO the biggest enemy threat with Thunderbolt. Ludicolo then made an appearance, responded to by Altaria. You can imagine how this went. Double Team Leech Seed staller vs DDer with inaccurate SE STAB but vs enemy with only NVE attacks. DDed four times then went to attacks to minimize exposure to seeds, but Ludicolo mostly elected to attack instead at first (Surf did marginal damage, 5HKO). Altaria almost ended up dying without getting a hit because 1/8 per turn is kind of a lot when your STAB takes two turns to use but survived to OHKO on the 5th attempt. Tentacruel followed, survived the Fly (~65%), and killed Altaria. Such is bird life. Claydol made its first entrance here to clean up but was summarily killed by a crit Hydro Pump (I think it would have killed anyway). Breloom was selected as death fodder for a Hyper Potion on Lanturn (leaving Beautifly alive) and was not OHKOed by Ice Beam which Tentacruel decided to use for some reason instead of Sludge Bomb. C'est la vie. The Lanturn show returned to finish off Tentacruel, taking a Sludge Bomb (33%) in the process (also first level 50 here!). It was at this point that I remembered why I wanted Breloom alive when Wallace sent out Whiscash and so I trade off the live of Beautifly for Breloom (Fly would have 2HKOed with Giga Drain, pending choice of move. Did live a Surf, would probably not have survived Hyper Beam). Thus, I set up Breloom for the last time fully expecting it to die to Milotic. Whiscash was quickly dispatched, being slow enough that only a critical Hyper Beam (or Surf) was a threat, barely 2HKOing even at +0 (damage roll), and then Milotic appeared, confiming my suspicions and OHKOing the (still level 47) Breloom. And so, it fell to Lanturn to finish off a commendable late game performance, winning the war of attrition vs the inferior fish with its (Ether replenished) Thunderbolts driving the Milotic to the ground.
I may or may not have gotten home to my computer in the middle of the Drake battle.
And so, the final results (incl. HMs because I'm lazy and don't like wasting exp opportunities in Victory Road):
Breloom, level 47, Impish nature @ Miracle Seed
HP: 130 / Atk: 153 / Def: 99 / SpA: 71 / SpD: 67 / Spe: 89
Sky Uppercut / Strength / Rock Smash / Bulk Up
- I maintain my assertion that this should be S.
Dominating early and mid game,
very strong late game with the capacity to clean sweep 4 members of the Elite Four with either overlevelling or X Speed support, and ability to OHKO approximately 25% of the E4 without either of those things. A
far better choice than Blaziken in my opinion who suffers from much weaker performance in the early-to-middle of the game.
Beautifly, level 49, Bold nature @ Lax Incense
HP: 138 / Atk: 86 / Def: 71 / SpA: 107 / SpD: 62 / Spe: 90
Silver Wind / Aerial Ace / Giga Drain / Psychic
- In my opinion, a clear D rank. Much better than given credit for despite its flaws. As mentioned before, excellent route cleaned which will consistently 2HKO enemies or OHKO them in the right matchup and will rarely by threatened by opposing attacks due to decent bulk. Limited major fight capability, dominating Brawly and the Team Aqua fights, and providing support vs Tate/Liza and Juan, capacity as primary fighter vs Sidney. Underrated component is how fast it grows, means its able to pick and choose spots much more easily without falling behind. Questions arose over its late game performance, but I found it to be more than capable with Silver Wind and Aerial Ace finding plenty of targets from the Team Aqua cavern and Victory Road. I expect its performance would have been even stronger had I given it my Psychic TM after Flannery pre-Norman, as there was a very noticeable power spike when I gave it the Victory Road Psychic.
Claydol, level 48, Quirky nature @ Hard Stone
HP: 121 / Atk: 87 / Def: 115 / SpA: 87 / SpD: 128 / Spe: 86
Psychic / Dig / Ancientpower / Flash
- Definition of consistently OK. As before, fat, hits good enough, good typing, awful initial training period, has limited ability to contribute in late game major fights. I still think it's a comfortable D but there's an argument to be made that's its E on basis of the awful Baltoy stage and it doing nothing vs team Aqua / Juan / Sidney / Glacia / Drake / Wallace. Rocks Victory Road though.
Altaria, level 47, Hasty nature @ Quick Claw
HP: 147 / Atk: 81 / Def: 85 / SpA: 84 / SpD: 116 / Spe: 95
Fly / Steel Wing / Dragonbreath / Dragon Dance
- Nothing more to say about this. It has its niche of being fat with a good typing that lets it set up Dragon Dances while also being pretty fuckin' weak. Stick in C or D, I don't really care. I guess a partial selling point is that you don't really have to train it much after Level 40 because it will do exactly the same at 45 vs 55, if something can't touch it it's still going to set up at either level and so more or less the same give or take a KO or two (Flygon). Sad thing to note is that Dragonbreath was noticeably stronger vs most of the late game enemies than Fly.
Absol, level 49, Timid nature @ King's Rock
HP: 141 / Atk: 131 / Def: 76 / SpA: 91 / SpD: 75 / Spe: 93
Shadow Ball / Ice Beam / Slash / Thunderbolt
- No longer unsure about the placing here, this is definitively C with a strong argument for
B. It does require heavy TM investment but with Shadow Ball / Ice Beam / Thunderbolt it takes off and never looks back. I spoke about how it has an immediately accessible training platform in Fortree gym, and nothing else in the game can really stand up to Absol, with Slash or Strength for Normals. Fantastic type coverage for route cleaning, fantastic movepool for hit and run sniping of dangerous enemies with Ice Beam and Thunderbolt in particular (Gyarados, Salamence, etc), and with Shadow Ball a terrifically strong STAB that can pretty much invalidate Phoebe on its own, to say nothing of its strength that I demonstrated vs Tate and Liza. I alluded to this earlier, I was mostly unsure of Absol's placement because it went very unnoticed in how quietly effective it would cut through matchups and it was only when I got to Victory Road and starting facing consistently strong enemies that I could see first hand just how effortlessly it was cutting through things. So considering it's fairly readily available just before the 5th gym and has a ready made training spot, I think the only question to be answered here is does the high TM investment (3 TMs in high demand, albeit ones with multiples) factor as enough of a cost to keep Absol out of B?
Lanturn, level 50, Rash nature @ Sea Incence
HP: 199 / Atk: 69 / Def: 78 / SpA: 105 / SpD: 81 / Spe: 91
Surf / Thunderbolt / Waterfall / Dive (Spark prior to Waterfall)
- I said before that Chinchou and Lanturn should probably be C rank. I could not have been more catastrophically wrong. I don't care how late you get this thing,
it is definitively an A rank because this is the single best end game Pokemon available, bar none. It has literally everything you could ever ask for from every standpoint. Incredible bulk. Incredible typing. Fantastic ability (assuming you get Volt Absorb...). Amazing STAB combo. No less than 5 separate routes immediately available to it solely existing for easy, efficient catch up training; ergo zero grind period. Incredible matchups vs the following: Team Aqua, Team Magma, Juan, Victory Road, Glacia, Wallace, and good to great matchups (depending on if you teach it Ice Beam) vs Sidney, Phoebe and Drake (bulk and typing to 1v1 one or two Pokemon per enemy on typing and bulk alone, i.e. Absol, Kingdra, Duslops, Banette, Crawdaunt, other Dragons if given Ice Beam). And as the final cherry on top it even serves as an incredibly efficient HM slave
at the same time as being an incredible fighter, taking on the crucial Surf and the two most difficult HMs to fit in Dive and Waterfall. This was my first time using Lanturn and I could not have asked for a better, more dominating performance, outperforming even a Starmie on basis of its incredible bulk. The single factor holding this back from being among the very best Pokemon is its severely delayed acquiring, and even then just barely. It's that good.
tl;dr: some fairly radical suggestions but ones that I think well reflect their performance
- Breloom to S (100%)
- Lanturn to A (1000%)
- Altaria to C/D (50%)
- Claydol to D (70%)
- Beautifly to D (90%)
- Absol to B (80%, 20% to C)