ITT I Rate Pokemon Emerald

[a.f.k.a. Howard Hughes]

and for that it has superior score to Swablu. only 0.5 because when you get something at victory road you can give it points for only so much

[Espinosa]

Secret Power sounds like a good move for Trapinch...

[Smiley Jim]

Baltoy/Claydol

Type: Ground/Psychic
Ability(s): Levitate

Baltoy is like Swablu, if Swablu had worse defensive lategame typing, but had access to suicide moves and had better overall defenses post evolution.

First of all, Baltoy already comes with Self Destruct, so if you don't have something that can put him to sleep (Damp is inaccessible until Psyduck shows up), I recommend just chucking Great Balls at him (the catch rate is 255, so you have a pretty good shot at catching him from full HP.) Once you have caught your Baltoy, besides Self Destruct, he'll have Psybeam, Rock Tomb, and Mud-Slap, which besides the last one, is actually a pretty good selection of moves (replace Mud-Slap with Dig ASAP.) However, even with a good selection of moves, you will find that Baltoy's offenses are shit. With 40/40 offenses and typing that isn't great after midgame (though being able to smoke Numels in the Magma Hideout is pretty sweet), he will wait a loooong time before his Lv36 evolution, at which point his offenses will increase to a still crappy 70/70, which isn't what you want to be seeing lategame.

What Baltoy lacks in offense, he makes up for in durability, or so it seems. While 40/55/70 defenses are pretty cool for something that is unevolved, they do not help much when Routes 119 and 120 are full of grass trainers that hit him for super effective, not to mention that everything after Lilycove is a massive waterfest (granted, it's not AS bad as what Golem goes through, since 120 SpD is actually quite good), though resisting the twins' main form of offense is quite cool. Too bad Claydol is doing fuck all to them in return. Not helping matters is the fact that the elites all have ways of killing psychic types, not to mention that Glacia and Wallace target Claydol's ground type.

Another thing in Claydol's favor is Self Destruct with its 400 effective base power. While he won't reap the exp from killing whatever the hell he blows up, it is nonetheless a great option to take out or at absolute worst weaken something (Norman's Slaking, anyone? Juan's Kingdra is another obvious target.) Explosion is even stronger with a heart stopping 500 power, but it comes way too late.

While Claydol's offenses suck, he isn't hurting for good moves, which is a plus. While he starts out rocking Dig and Psybeam, he later picks up Earthquake from the Seafloor Cavern and Psychic from either Victory Road (too late to matter) or the Game Corner (better availability, but costs 70K.) Ice Beam is another move worth considering on Claydol, allowing him to pick off Drake's dragons as well as giving him something to use against Winona (by the way, not a good idea since you aren't OHKOing Tropius or Altaria with 40 SpA and Tropius will sunnybeam your ass, not to mention Pelipper and Skarm basically laugh at you). If you are dead set on using him against the twins, Shadow Ball is a must, but there are far better users out there, so blegh.

Another thing worth mentioning is that you can find Lv38 Claydol in the sky tower, thus bypassing the ubermassive suck phase that Baltoy goes through, but at this point, his contributions are limited to Juan and the elites, which, as I've mentioned, he's not doing much in other than committing suicide, except against Drake due to Ice Beam.

Basically, while Claydol has a notable niche, he is partially outclassed by Weezing and Golem in that niche, and his offenses suck too much to be of much use elsewhere. Not to mention the downsides of being ground typed during lategame.

2.5

Edited October 30, 2014 by James the Salamander

[Smiley Jim]

Cacnea/Cacturne

Type: Grass, Grass/Dark (Cacturne)
Ability(s): Sand Veil

The last wild Pokemon to be found in the Route 111 desert, Cacnea is different from the rest of the desert denizens in that he's a grass type that lives in groundville. Coming at Lv20-22, he's of a decent enough level to not lag behind and face the trainers here for easy exp, especially considering you hit them super effectively and you are immune to sandstorm by courtesy of Sand Veil. Lack of a grass STAB until Lv41 hurts, but that is what the Bullet Seed TM is for.

Like with most grass types, Cacnea's utility stems from lategame, where pretty much everything after Lilycove is ocean. While Cacnea isn't very helpful against Norman outside of maybe seeding Slaking and is doing jack shit against Winona, he really starts showing his worth once you set out from Mossdeep, where he can easily take out the hordes of water types as well as the water kings, and helping matters is the Dark typing that Cacturne gets upon evolution (which should happen soon after Winona considering Lv32 is pretty reasonable and he learns Faint Attack 3 levels before that, immediately giving him STAB on that type), allowing him to easily deal with the twins since their primary attack option doesn't work against him. As you can probably imagine, this makes him very handy against Phoebe as well.

Like Treecko, Cacnea is more geared towards offense, though he wishes he were a bit faster since 55 speed coupled with 70/60/60 defenses means that Cacturne has some issues surviving shit that he doesn't resist, which is basically the entirety of the Magma Hideout and both Glacia and Drake, though thankfully, he resists water and is immune to psychic. However, 115s in both attacking stats are downright scary, especially considering that grass is one of the best types to have in the lategame, with dark not being too far behind. Even as Cacnea, 85's in either offense are no joke.

While I would mention that Cacturne's movepool is sparser than the hairs on FE7!Wallace's head, the truth is that he gets by just fine with the moves he does get. While Lv29 Faint Attack is certainly welcome indeed, he does wish he learned Needle Arm earlier than Lv41 (though you'll still have it before you face Juan), though once again, he can make use of Bullet Seed and perhaps Giga Drain to pass the time. Unfortunately, his physical movepool isn't as good, but at the very least, he can use either the Secret Power TM or the Strength HM, and if you are really anal about using him against steel types (which aren't even all that common), he can pick up Focus Punch.

In a nutshell, Cacnea is a lot more useful to an efficient player than the other desert mons, and has great boss matchups thanks to his dual Grass/Dark typing post-evo.

6.5

Edited October 30, 2014 by James the Salamander

[Smiley Jim]

Lileep/Cradily

Type: Rock/Grass
Ability(s): Suction Cups

If you chat with the fossil maniac who lives in the shanty just west of Fallarbor Town, he will tell a tale of a mysterious tower that randomly spawns in the Route 111 desert. Scale this tower (you will need Rock Smash and the mach bike to get to the top), and at the very top, you will find two fossils, each one waiting for the budding trainer to pick up and take to the Devon Corporation building for resurrection, but you can only obtain one of them before the credits. This rating covers the Pokemon that you can get if you took the root fossil from that tower.

Lileep has one of the worst starts out of the Pokemon that join during this point in the game, sporting 41 Atk/61 SpA/23 Spe offenses and a very unhelpful natural movepool. While the Bullet Seed TM can be helpful in giving him some much needed STAB, a natural offensive movepool consisting of Astonish, Constrict, and Acid until Lv48 Ancient Power is completely fucking disgusting. Not helping matters is the fact that he is Lv20, which is around 8-10 levels below your team, though thankfully, you can return to the desert to train him (though if you're in Rustboro, why even go back to the damn desert when Petalburg is just a parsec away) since Grass hits everything and their grandfather super effective there.

Evolution is another pain in the ass for Lileep. Like with the original Kanto fossils, Lileep feels the need to wait until Lv40 to evolve, which is quite late considering that Lileep's combat is pretty unimpressive as a whole, and he'd really like to be evolved before facing the ocean. Thankfully, the evolution is somewhat worth it since Cradily gets something resembling decent offense as well as 86/97/107 defenses, though he is still slower than molasses in January.

So, with his fancy Rock/Grass typing (which is quite bad defensively tbqh), how does Lileep fare against the various boss fights that are left? While he can certainly survive Norman's onslaught, he's not doing much there due to a lack of offense, and while he's certainly a lot better than Winona than other grass types due to his Rock typing, he's not doing a whole hell of a lot there due to not being able to learn Rock Tomb. Against the twins, Cradily is actually pretty good here, hitting Claydol, Lunatone, and Solrock super effectively with STAB Giga Drain and easily tanking their attacks since everybody except Claydol targets his 107 SpD, and while he doesn't resist water like other grass types, he is pretty comfortable against the water kings due to hitting them SE with Giga Drain and having 107 SpD to soak up their hits. Outside of Wallace, he's not doing anything significant against the elites due to not having sufficient offenses for sweeping, though he does hit all of Glacia's Pokes super effectively with Ancient Power (btw, his late/endgame STABs both have 5 PP, so he will end up eating through your Leppa berry supply), but is getting iced in return.

Like with a lot of grass Pokemon, Lileep has some movepool issues. I already mentioned that his level up movepool is absolutely disgusting outside of Ancient Power... which is learned while going through Victory Road. Another thing that is fucked up is the lack of a damaging grass move in his level up arsenal, necessitating the Bullet Seed and Giga Drain TMs. But even looking through his TM and move tutor movepool, it isn't all that pretty before evolution, either. While I would normally never consider a Poison move on something that doesn't get STAB on it, Sludge Bomb is nonetheless Lileep's best option of dealing good (a bit of an oxymoron due to Swablu level attack) damage to things that resist Grass before evolution, and later on, he can use Earthquake for more or less the same role (though that shit is the most contested thing ever and there are far better things to spend your only TM26 on.)

In a nutshell, if you picked up the root fossil from the Mirage tower, you probably just made a mistake that you will later regret.

3

Edited October 30, 2014 by James the Salamander

[Esaka]

Hate to sound petty or anything, but just for the fun of it, could you do Zangoose? I know he's not in Emerald, but I actually enjoy these reviews a lot :P. Plus Ruby is still cool... amirite?

[Smiley Jim]

Anorith/Armaldo

Type: Rock/Bug
Ability(s): Battle Armor

The other fossil Pokemon you can obtain by taking a fossil (in this case, the claw fossil) to the Devon Corp scientist for resurrection, Anorith is very much Lileep's polar opposite: While Lileep specializes in tanking hits, Anorith excels in killing things. 95 Atk/75 Spe is completely insane for a first form, and it helps that he joins during a time when rock is still relevant offensively (and defensively, though 45/50/50 defenses aren't exactly great for tanking hits from Norman) However, Anorith's starting moveset kind of sucks, though Water Gun is kind of cool against ground types (though it will not do much off 40 SpA.) Unlike Lileep, Anorith is fully compatible with the Rock Tomb TM right from the get go, so he has usable STAB. Even without the Rock Tomb TM, he gets Ancient Power at Lv37, which is far more reasonable than when Lileep gets it. While Rock Blast is an even stronger option, and has the benefit of hitting multiple times, that is learned at Lv64, so forget about it for ingame purposes.

Like Lileep, Anorith wishes he evolved sooner than Lv40. Unlike Lileep, Anorith's unevolved phase isn't shitty, just unspectacular due to being a total glass cannon, and he really wishes he evolved before fighting Winona (since he's good there offensively). However, when he does evolve, Armaldo becomes a complete wrecking ball with 125 base attack, and is quite tanky to boot, with 75/100/80 defenses (but a mediocre defensive typing.) However, his speed takes a big dip, going from 75 to 45, which I will admit sucks, considering that a lot of enemies are faster than this, but with attack and overall bulk this good, he cares very little (the occasional flinch sucks, though).

Anorith's boss performance isn't all that great, to be perfectly honest. While he does resist Norman's STAB, his subpar durability almost makes the resistance not matter, and against Winona, he's tearing shit up with Rock Tomb, though he wants nothing to do with Pelipper or Skarm, not to mention that Rock Tomb's base power kind of sucks at this point, so you won't be doing as much damage as you would like. As for the lategame gym leaders, while Armaldo would theoretically be awesome against the twins due to bug typing, the problem is that the only bug move he gets prior to generation 4 is Fury Cutter, which you shouldn't even bother with, and he is avoiding Juan at all costs. His elite performance is also certainly better than Cradily's by a long shot (other than Wallace), mainly due to the fact that Armaldo has an offensive presence. Another thing in his favor is that against Glacia, Armaldo isn't hit super effectively by ice while hitting hard with Ancient Power in return, only really fearing Walrein due to it being the only thing on her team that even HAS a water move. Speaking of water, while the ocean isn't especially kind to Armaldo, he can actually absorb weaker hits just fine thanks to his actually decent SpD.

Like Cradily, Armaldo kind of gets shafted in his level up movepool, though it's a lot better considering he gets his best ingame move 11 levels earlier than when Cradily gets the same move, not to mention that Lv25 Metal Claw is a lot more useful than fucking Acid. I would mention Rock Blast, as that's his actual best move, but good fucking luck learning it before the credits since that's learned at Lv64. As for TMs, Armaldo is actually quite a bit better off than his counterpart, getting some pretty cool stuff like Aerial Ace and Brick Break, not to mention the highly contested Earthquake (though at least he actually has a good claim on it, unlike Cradily.)

All in all, a decent sweeper who is only really hindered by a high evolutionary level and a low speed stat after the fact. That and ocean.

5.5

Edited October 30, 2014 by James the Salamander

[Smiley Jim]

Jigglypuff/Wigglytuff

Type: Normal
Ability(s): Cute Charm

Jigglypuff wishes she was as good as she was in Super Smash Bros. Melee.

Available to players who bother to backtrack to Route 115 (presumably to get TM01), Jigglypuff can be best described as a poor man's version of Whismur. Like Whismur, JP has Normal typing and a very good TM movepool (compared to Whismur's line, JP's line gets Thunderbolt and Psychic, but lacks Earthquake), but her stats are quite a bit worse than his, as I'll get to in the next paragraph. Obviously, Normal typing is usually beneficial to any Pokemon's offense (who doesn't like STAB Return/Secret Power/Strength?), and defensively, it's not too special, only having an immunity to a type that's only significant in one endgame boss fight, and a single weakness that, thankfully, isn't common at this point.

Besides that massive 115 HP stat (in and out of itself awesome for something that isn't fully evolved), JP's stats are pretty much a bigger joke than Shaq Fu; 45/45 offenses are pretty pitiful at this point in the game, while 20/25 defenses coupled with 20 speed is absolutely fucking disgusting. While evolution does improve this somewhat (and you can evolve JP as soon as you catch her too, assuming you didn't waste your only Moon Stone on a Skitty), you're still dealing with a Pokemon with Linoone level attack (special attack being five points higher), Ninjask grade defenses, and a speed stat equivalent to Golem's. At least 140 HP is kind of cool, but all that equates to is the ability to soak hits better, but at the same time, eating up potions faster than you can say 'fuck'.

While most players could say that what WT does at least decently is being a mixed attacker with STAB Strength, Boltbeam, and maybe something like Shadow Ball for ghosts, but she's not doing anything of significance in most boss fights that someone else is doing better (e.g. Water kings are better dealt with by an electric/grass type or something that resists water.) Still, she's decent at what she does, though she does beg for a little more speed so she doesn't get victimized by assholes who use flinching/accuracy dropping moves.

Another thing worth considering is Sing, though you'll need a heart scale to get it, since it is overridden a long time ago. It is inaccurate as all hell (only +5% more accurate than a Dynamic Punch), but the fact that it puts things to sleep can be very helpful for catching the Regis. It's not the best option available, but it is there if you need a sleeper or something.

Basically, a slightly bulkier, but weaker and slower Exploud that has the benefit of evolving as soon as she's caught, but isn't very spectacular outside of base 140 HP. If only she was as good as she was in Melee, because if she was, she'd get a top score, but unfortunately, this is not the case.

4

Edited October 30, 2014 by James the Salamander

[MacLovin]

Continue?

[Smiley Jim]

Magnemite/Magneton

Type: Electric/Steel
Ability(s): Sturdy/Magnet Pull

Magnemite is one of the two new Pokemon that can be caught in New Mauville, and this thing is like Electrike with better special offense and physical durability, as well as extra steel typing. Unlike Electrike, Magnemite's beginnings are quite good, coming at Lv22-26 and being at worst 4 levels from STAB Spark (at best, he will have it already), and a fairly early Lv30 evolution on top of that. It also helps that Magnemite joins right before a flying gym, so he can earn extremely easy exp from there (be very mindful of Altaria.)

In a stark contrast to other electric types (who tend to be of the glass cannon type), Magneton is quite durable, sporting 50/95/70 defenses and steel typing, allowing him to take on the likes of the twins and Sid quite comfortably, and making the Winona battle even more of a joke (sans Altaria.) Now, this isn't to say Magneton is offensively inept either, since he sports an incredible 120 base SpA (which is what Kadabra has), giving him a better offensive game than any of the other electrics (hell, it's actually enough for him to justify using Spark as his STAB instead of gobbling up the only free Thunderbolt TM), though 70 speed is a bit of a disappointment. Thankfully, 70 speed is still enough to outspeed most Pokemon you face.

What Magneton has in stats, he lacks in movepool, and let's face it; his movepool is among the worst in the game. Lv26 Spark is pretty much the highlight of his level up movepool, and the only other really useful move is Lv44 Tri Attack, but that isn't going to do a whole hell of a lot off 60 attack, not to mention that Lv44 is around when you fight Juan. As for his TM movepool, you're joking, rite? All he gets through TM are Electric and Normal moves, and as a lot of guys on Smogon put it, he is very reliant on Hidden Power for coverage, making it a somewhat notable, but risky option, though your chances of getting HP Water/Grass/Ice with 60+ BP are up a rat's ass.

It should be noted that while it is possible to catch a pre-evolved Magneton in New Mauville, the encounter rate is the same as Seedot's, so don't bother.

Good, but not as good as BW2 Magnemite.

7

Edited October 30, 2014 by James the Salamander

[Smiley Jim]

Voltorb/Electrode

Type: Electric
Ability(s): Static/Soundproof

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihQIEXZoDjI

Don't you hate it when this shit happens?

Voltorb is like Magnemite if he was significantly faster and could explode, but worse everywhere else.

Found in the same area as Magnemite, Voltorb looks like a promising Pokemon to train, considering that he comes at the same level as Magnemite with the same chance of encounter. Also helping his case is showing up before a flying gym and waterfest. Unfortunately, he isn't as good as Magnemite at killing things, despite coming with Spark regardless of level. I'm going to be perfectly fucking honest with you, 50 SpA is pretty underwhelming at this point in the game, and even with an early Lv30 evolution, it isn't a whole lot better than Minun's (and it's actually slightly worse than Plusle's.) 140 speed as Electrode is cute and all, but he begs for more attack power and maybe some better durability as 60/70/80 defenses are mediocre at best.

Like Magnemite, Voltorb has some severe movepool issues, with his TM movepool being just as bad as Magnemite's. Outside of Lv21 Spark, he gets no other Electric moves through level (HINT: Use the Thunderbolt TM as his SpA isn't high enough to get away with using Spark), and everything else other than Lv27 Self Destruct and Lv54 Explosion is pretty much not worth jack shit about. Speaking of those moves, that is pretty much Voltorb's niche amongst electric types, and since he's insanely fast (out of the Pokemon in the entire National Dex up to the point when Emerald was released, only Deoxys and Ninjask are faster), he can easily blow himself up before the opponent can act, though with only 50 attack, you will find that Self Destruct might fall short on bulkier opponents. Explosion is a stronger version, but that shows up at Lv54, a level which I doubt you will be reaching ingame.

Unlike Magnemite (who you have a 1% chance of finding a wild Magneton in New Mauville; Electrode has the same odds), it is entirely possible to find wild Electrode in the Aqua Hideout at Lv30, thus allowing you to skip the massive suck phase that is Voltorb, though you will want to save before catching them as they have Self Destruct already learned (and the catch rate fucking sucks, so you will need to weaken them, increasing the risk of them committing suicide.) The only con to this is that he misses out on Winona.

Basically, Electrode is a mediocre excuse of an electric type, but at least he gets points for being able to commit suicide, which puts him above the rats in my opinion.

5 Edited October 30, 2014 by James the Salamander

[MacLovin]

Continue?

[Smiley Jim]

Carvanha/Sharpedo

Type: Water/Dark
Ability(s): Rough Skin

The first Pokemon you can catch using the Route 118 good rod, Carvanha can be best described as Cacnea with water typing and higher speed, but worse defenses. Catch one at ~Lv25 (the levels range from 10-30, so I highly recommend running away from anything that is less than Lv25), and he can begin pulling his weight almost immediately with STAB Surf/Crunch and with evolution a mere ~5 levels away. Unfortunately, Carvanha comes at a somewhat inconvenient time since Routes 119 and 120 are full of grass and bug trainers that hit him super effectively as well as the former resisting Surf, plus most of the gyms that he'd be great in earlygame are but a distant memory, though the psychic gym is just around the corner.

As soon as you get the good rod, being a water type isn't anything special if you decided that you didn't liek Mudkipz or ignored the opportunity to catch any one of the other water types found in the western half of Hoenn. Carvanha is one of four new Pokemon that you can scoop up using your fancy new good rod before you set out for Fortree, so what's so special about him, when any of the others can make good Surf bots/Dragon killers?

For starters, Sharpedo has Water/Dark typing in his favor, the typing of which is only shared by one other Pokemon as of Generation V (let alone just Generation III). While it certainly does him very few favors defensively (doesn't lose electric/grass weaknesses and gets fighting and bug tacked on, though you gain a psychic immunity), it is offensively beneficial against the twins and Phoebe, as well as the clusterfuck of psychics and hex maniacs inside Mt. Pyre. While the added fighting weak is a shame, thankfully Brawly is but a distant memory and black belts are rare lategame.

Statwise, Sharpedo can be best described as a glass cannon. This thing boasts better offensive bases than Swampert with 10 higher Atk/SpA and a whopping 35 higher speed, meaning that Sharpedo is consistently hitting hard and fast. And thank god he does because his durability is the equivalent of papier mache. With only 70/40/40 in his defenses, Sharpedo is hard pressed to take any reasonably strong STAB move, and he is not taking any sort of super effective move like ever. And it is a shame that his Rough Skin ability is wasted on shit-tastic defenses, since it would be pretty fucking funny to see the enemy die of self-inflicted chip damage.

Once you look past that Lv22 Crunch, Sharpedo's level up movepool is nothing to brag about, and he doesn't get any water moves through level up, but considering that you will have Surf by this point (you can't even get the good rod without Surf), this isn't all that big a problem. His TM movepool could certainly be a bit better, but getting Earthquake is a plus considering his attack stat, and Ice Beam is readily available for all your dragon killing needs. Other than that, he can make a pretty damn good HM slave just in case you needed one (he learns 5 of 8 HMs, the only ones he can't learn being Cut, Fly, and Flash).

Not much more to say, other than being a stronger, faster Swampert with less than half his durability and no electric immunity.

7.5

Edited October 30, 2014 by James the Salamander

[Gone2Ground]

...continue?

JK, this is actually really helpful for those of us who hate EV training and just want to get decent pokemon. Thanks!

Edited December 16, 2012 by Gone2Ground

[Smiley Jim]

Corphish/Crawdaunt

Type: Water, Water/Dark (Crawdaunt)
Ability(s): Shell Armor/Hyper Cutter

Caught on Route 117 using the good rod, Corphish is basically Carvanha that is slightly more geared towards defense, but has worse offensive parameters as a result. Like Carvanha, he can be caught at a relatively high level, and with a Lv30 evolution right around the corner, Corphish can contribute to fights in virtually the same way as Carvanha, though statwise, he isn't nearly as fast as Sharpedo (actually, he's slower than Sharpedo by a full 40 points), but has around the same attacking stats with noticeably better bulk, meaning that he won't die if something looks at him funny (keep him away from anything packing an electric/grass attack, though.)

Everything that I said about Sharpedo's boss performance is pretty much applicable to Crawdaunt (both have the same type and everything), but with one major difference: Crawdaunt does not learn any damaging dark moves through level up outside of Lv25 Knock Off (which we aren't running since lol20BP) , meaning that his advantages against the twins and Phoebe are only defensive. Granted, STAB Surf still rips the twins apart, and Ice Beam still gets Drake's dragons, but face it: Not getting proper STAB on your secondary type hurts. Even if Crawdaunt could learn Crunch like he could in FR/LG, he gets it at Lv51.

So what does Crawdaunt have on Sharpedo, aside from better bulk? For starters, he has a better physical movepool and the ability to set up. While not getting Earthquake does kind of bite, he does get Brick Break and Aerial Ace to make up for the fact that he's lacking dark STAB, the former of which makes him pretty boss in the Sid and Glacia fights and the latter covering 3 of his 4 weaknesses all in one move, with the icing on the cake being Lv44 Swords Dance, which allows him to set up on bosses and pretty much annihilate them after a few boosts.

Basically, Crawdaunt is a solid water type who wishes that he got a stronger fucking Dark STAB than fucking Knock Off and was a bit faster, since 55 speed is pretty fucking depressing to look at.

6.5

Edited October 30, 2014 by James the Salamander

[Smiley Jim]

Wailmer/Wailord

Type: Water
Ability(s): Water Veil/Oblivious

Another water type you can catch using the good rod, this time on Route 110, Wailmer is somewhat interesting to look at. Unevolved, he has... 130 HP (5 more than what Lanturn has, and the only Pokemon in the Hoenn dex that have higher, besides its evolved form, are Wigglytuff, Hariyama, Slaking, and Wobbuffet), which I have to say is very impressive, and a lot of fully evolved Pokemon wouldn't mind having that much HP. However, I can't exactly say the same for his other stats. 70's in either offense with mono water are serviceable at best, but what drags this tub of shit down is his durability. 35's in either of his defenses are god fucking awful for this point in the game, and despite having a high HP buffer to mitigate this somewhat, you will find that he still gets 2HKO'd by any reasonably strong STAB attack (super effective hits pretty much kill you in at least 2 hits no matter what.) 60 speed is also piss poor by this point, and you will also find that he's getting outsped by basically any reasonably fast opponent.

Unfortunately, unlike the other three water types you can get using the good rod, Wailmer evolves at the high level of 40, which is the same as Loudred and the fossils. What this equates to is that Wailmer's contributions are quite worse than Sharpedo or Crawdaunt's since they get their evolution bonuses earlier. And even once he does evolve, he still happens to be worse than them. Evolution gives him 170 HP and 90/90 offenses, which are good in and out of themselves, but his speed doesn't improve and his defenses are only 5 points higher than Sharpedo's. And unlike the last two good rod Pokemon I rated, he doesn't get either dark STAB or a good physical movepool, but at the very least, he does get Surf, Ice Beam, and Strength. Earthquake is an option as well, but too bad everyone and their fucking great-grandmother wants that. However, one move of note in his movepool is Lv44 Water Spout, which is basically a reverse Flail that gets weaker as your HP diminishes, which considering your speed, or lack thereof, will be happening a lot.

Basically, Wailord can do mostly the same things as other water types can do with Surf, and is decently bulky (those defenses can only do so much, high HP or no), but it wishes it were about 20 points faster and perhaps had 20 more defenses. Until that happens, Wailmer isn't something I would highly recommend to an efficient player.

6

Edited October 30, 2014 by James the Salamander

[Smiley Jim]

Barboach/Whiscash

Type: Water/Ground
Ability(s): Oblivious

Barboach is like Mudkip if he had worse overall stats except HP, but got crucial moves earlier.

Caught using the good rod on Route 111 in the pond just outside of the Winstrate's house, Barboach is probably the last new water type you'll see for a while before you get Dive and the super rod. Coming at the same level as the other good rod joiners, Barboach is already dressed to kill with STAB Surf and Magnitude right off the bat and evolution happening at Lv30, the same as Carvanha and Corphish, which means that like the rest of them, he's already positively contributing.

However, his unevolved phase is somewhat worse than theirs due to overall crappy base stats as Barboach, because let's face it, 48/46/60 offenses just plain suck at this point and 50/43/41 defenses hold up a lot worse than Wailmer's. Evolution does wonders for Whiscash, giving him better attacking and defending stats (they are still pretty modest in comparison to the hard hitters/defenders) as well as a massive increase in HP, though his speed does not improve as Whiscash, so expect to be outsped a lot. Granted, this doesn't bug him as much as, say, Wigglytuff, since his defenses are actually decent and he only has one weakness to contend with.

Speaking of weaknesses, the big thing he has going for him is the water/ground typing he shares with Mudkip's evolved forms. Like I mentioned with Mudkip's rating, this typing renders Whiscash immune to electricity and gives him one solitary weakness to a rare type. Unfortunately, the areas around Fortree are littered with Pokemon Rangers that specialize in grass, so Routes 119 and 120 might not be the best places in the world to do your training. You also have resistances to poison and rock, which quite frankly, do not really matter at this point, but you don't have the same resistance to water that your brethren have.

Whiscash has pretty much no issues with movepool whatsoever. He already has two good moves in Surf and Magnitude, with Earthquake coming as early as Lv31 if you postpone Barboach's evolution, which means that he's pretty much set for STABs. This, along with the Ice Beam TM to smack grass and dragon types around, means that he has no issues with coverage whatsoever. This also allows him to run something like Amnesia to combat special heavy bosses better (READ: twins, Juan, Glacia, and Wallace).

Whiscash, while not bad, is in the unfortunate position of being inferior to Swampert. But then again, I could say the same for any water type that wasn't Swampert, so I'm not going to hold that against him.

7

Edited October 30, 2014 by James the Salamander

[Gone2Ground]

Hey, he's a good plan if you went Torchic instead of Mudkip though.

[Smiley Jim]

Feebas/Milotic

Type: Water
Ability(s): Swift Swim (Feebas), Marvel Scale (Milotic)

Feebas is like Magikarp if he could use TM moves, but was over 9000 times harder to find and had a convoluted evolution method.

Another Pokemon that you can get via fishing, Feebas is one of those things that GameFreak made to troll unsuspecting players. The first issue with Feebas is how insanely rare he is. You know how some Pokemon in this game have like a 2% chance or less of spawning? Well, Feebas is nothing like that. In order to find one, you need to fish in one of six random tiles... on Route 119, which is probably the longest fucking stretch of water this side of the ocean. What? The? Fuck? Are you fucking telling me that in order to single out the tiles that contain Feebas on this route, you have to fish in literally every single fucking tile on the route, which can take anywhere from a minute to an hour, depending on how lucky you are? Oh, and guess what determines which tiles have Feebas? The fucking trendy phrase all the way back in Dewford Town, that's what. And it is not like entering a certain phrase will cause Feebas to spawn in a specific spot either. No, instead, the fucking tiles re-randomize every time you change the fucking phase! So yeah, it is a big guessing game as to where the Feebas tiles are in your file.

Once you somehow get yourself a Feebas, do not even get me fucking started on how to evolve him, because leveling him up sure as hell will not work. So, how do we evolve Feebas, you ask? I'll tell you: max out his beauty stat (or get it to 170). To begin with, that's a pain in the ass, as you need to make blue or indigo PokeBlocks that are sufficient to raise his beauty. Now, this wouldn't bother me so fucking much if you could make PokeBlocks before setting out for Fortree, but no. Of course not. Instead, you have to wait until you get your ass over to Lilycove before you get the damn PokeBlock case, which equates to Feebas essentially being dead weight against Winona due to Magikarp like base stats. And what makes this even worse is that you can only feed him ten PokeBlocks, and if you miss the 170 threshold, you can't evolve him and will have to do that shit all over again. And if your Feebas has one of these natures (Adamant, Impish, Careful, Jolly), don't even bother.

Now, let's ask ourselves, is Milotic worth all the crap we went through to locate one of those fucking tiles, then force feeding the bastard candy that probably tastes like shit? Statwise, Milotic is VERY specially bulky with 95/125 special bulk making him very hard to kill with special attackers, even with something like a STAB Thunderbolt. It's no slouch on the physical end of the defensive spectrum either, with 79 defense and access to Recover at Lv30, as well as Marvel Scale boosting that by 50% if he is afflicted by a status condition. On offense, he has 100 SpA/81 Spe, which is actually rather good despite his special offense consisting of Surf and Ice Beam (as well as unSTAB'd Twister...). However, this isn't anything special as pretty much all the other water types you can get up to this point have something other than lolSurf/IB (Sharpedo is maining STAB Crunch against psychics, Swampert and Whiscash have STAB ground moves, Crawdaunt can pull off a Swords Dance sweep, etc, etc), so Milotic is basically left in the dust.

In other words, Feebas sucks.

0

Edited October 30, 2014 by James the Salamander

[Gone2Ground]

...I detect much anger in you. While I agree with the summary, it's like Feebas killed your mother or something.

[a.f.k.a. Howard Hughes]

Its called trusting pokedex about feebas' area data...

[MacLovin]

Its called trusting pokedex about feebas' area data...

I used to think I could get Bagon in mid-game!

[Smiley Jim]

...I detect much anger in you. While I agree with the summary, it's like Feebas killed your mother or something.

You know right that this summary was written by someone who painstakingly spent just about two hours searching for Feebas in his first playthrough of Emerald. And that time does include the time wasted after not fishing up something due to either not getting a bite or the Pokemon in question getting away(the latter reason was due to my attention span fading because searching EVERY SINGLE FUCKING TILE on that route was the most boring experience I ever went through in a Pokemon game.), so I have a damn good reason to compose a negatively biased rating for Feebas.

The only consolation I will ever get from that experience is that finding Feebas tiles in RSE is slightly easier than it is in DPPt. I'll explain in more detail when I get the Platinum ratings thread up, but to summarize, Feebas can only be found in FOUR random tiles in that game, and those tiles RE-RANDOMIZE every 24 hours.

I think this is irrefutable proof that GameFreak hates us all.

[Shadow Mir]

You know right that this summary was written by someone who painstakingly spent just about two hours searching for Feebas in his first playthrough of Emerald. And that time does include the time wasted after not fishing up something due to either not getting a bite or the Pokemon in question getting away(the latter reason was due to my attention span fading because searching EVERY SINGLE FUCKING TILE on that route was the most boring experience I ever went through in a Pokemon game.), so I have a damn good reason to compose a negatively biased rating for Feebas.

The only consolation I will ever get from that experience is that finding Feebas tiles in RSE is slightly easier than it is in DPPt. I'll explain in more detail when I get the Platinum ratings thread up, but to summarize, Feebas can only be found in FOUR random tiles in that game, and those tiles RE-RANDOMIZE every 24 hours.

I think this is irrefutable proof that GameFreak hates us all.

I suppose I can understand your pain. But I'd say DPPt has something even worse than finding Feebas - finding Munchlax.

[MacLovin]

At least finding feebas nets you something that turns decent.

Now GSC Shuckle on the other hand >_>