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Growl (or any other move that only raises/lowers one stat one stage) is indeed useless. Moves that raise one stat two stages (or two stats one stage each) are VERY useful. For example, Lucario wouldn't be NEARLY as dangerous without Swords Dance, which doubles his attack in one turn. It may seem like "Why spend one turn upping my stats when I could have attacked that turn and done the same amount of damage over the two turns?" The reason you would is that you're fighting a whole team of Pokémon, and the Attack increase from Swords Dance helps you KO a lot of Pokémon before they can damage or KO you.

Status moves like Thunderwave and Toxic (ebec11, ALWAYS use Toxic over PoisonPowder or any other move that poisons only) are also very useful. Thunderwave can be used for a number of different strategies. One is to slow down what would otherwise be a faster Pokémon, as Paralysis cuts a Pokémon's speed to one-fourth of what it normally would be. For example, say a fast, strong Pokémon is threatening to take out your whole team, as all the Pokémon on your team that can do enough damage to it are slightly slower than it, so it will attack and knock them out before they can do the same. You can switch in a support Pokémon (like Dragonite trained to take hits), and Paralyze it. Now, it is slower than quite possibly every Pokémon on your team AND it has a 25% chance of not being able to do anything at all.

Burn is another status that is very useable. Did your opponent switch in something with high Attack like Tauros? No problem, just switch in a Pokémon like Dusknoir (high Defense, access to Will-O-Wisp), and burn Tauros. Now, Tauros's attack is cut in half and it's losing an eighth of its health every turn. MUCH less dangerous now.

Other support moves can help a lot too. One of the most common is Stealth Rock. This damages every single Pokémon who switches in (except for Clefable with Magic Guard) according to their typing. If they aren't weak or resistant to Rock, they lose 1/8 of their health switching in. If they resist Rock, they lose 1/16 (double resist: 1/32). If they are weak to Rock, they lose 1/4 (double weakness: 1/2). This move helps a lot of Pokémon who can't quite do enough damage to take something out in one shot get that OHKO. It is a VERY useful move, and it helps keep some very dangerous Pokémon with a Rock weakness, such as Gyarados and Salamence, in check. They can't switch in, take a huge chunk of health from one of your Pokémon, and switch out when they lose a fourth of their HP just doing that.

Reflect and Light Screen are two other useful support options. Diamond and Pearl introduced the item Light Clay, which extends the duration of these screens from five to eight turns. They halve damage taken from Physical and Special attacks, respectively. This allows a set-up sweeper (a Pokémon who relies on stat boosts to KO a large portion of the opposing team; i.e. Dragon Dance Gyarados or Calm Mind Alakazam) to get one or two extra boosts in before being forced to attack.

Good information.

Don't forget Confuse Ray, has a high chance of hitting/confusing which gives a chance your opponent wont be able to attack and instead hurt itself. A favirout of mine is to both confuse and also either paralyse or lower your opponent's chance of hitting, if you can stand being hit a few turns to achieve it, you can reduce the chance of your opponent hitting you. Don't underestermate what a few turns of double team can do.

Ah, the "parafusion" strategy. A good Pokémon to use this is Lanturn, who has access to Thunder Wave and Confuse Ray, a unique typing, good stats for absorbing Special hits, and almost perfect type coverage with only two attacking moves. The opponent only has a 37% chance of attacking (you, they have a 50% chance of attacking themselves).

A similar strategy is "paraflinch." A good Pokémon to use this strategy is Togekiss. It can use Thunder Wave (or Body Slam, which has a 60% paralysis chance due to the Serene Grace ability) to paralyze, and then Air Slash to flinch. The opponent will only have a 32% chance of attacking due to flinching and being fully paralyzed.

I usually have at least 1 psychic, grass and fire pokemon.

For me it's all about theme builds. I like making Pokemon that are one-shot wonders, which (theoretically) dominate in certain situations but get served on a platter of fail in many others.

I just finished my "Critmonlee," with Body Slam, Focus Energy, High Jump Kick, and Stone Edge. His item increases his critical hit ratio, and Stone Edge also has a high critical hit ratio, and after Focus Energy is used, it's about a 30% chance of double damage. His ability is Reckless, which doubles the damage of moves that have recoil, and the "missed" recoil from High Jump Kick is included in that.

So with HJK having base attack of 100, that doubles to 200 because of the Reckless ability. If I score a critical, it's 400 damage. Awesome.

Of course, if I miss, I die, since I break my femur on a tree or something. I should probably use a substitute, but why would I substitute when I can kick you in the face? That's not reckless. That's not critical damage. That's not what my Critmonlee does.

My style when it comes to Pokemon games is hand to hand combat. My style is more of a fighting style, get your hands dirty, plus you deal out more damage that way, if you got fighting type pokmons in your inventory that is. Too bad for me, i hardly ever find fighting type pokemons when i play pokemon dx gale of darkness, but still, i am more of a fighting type person than any of the other types that are in the pokemon games.

Fighting pokemon are okay, but I love it when I have pokemon like Psychics and Electric that have a lot of really offensive attacks that sometimes have after effects as well

I'll reply to people later, I'm about to go to bed, but I'm hearing some possible rumors on the Smogon forums of an upcoming new game! Sounds very possible that it's Generation 5!

I once tried using only 1 pokémon in Gold (the starter Cyndaquil) to do all my battles for me. I was also giving it all the "special" upgrades in could find. Eventually he could one shot most pokémons from the elite four. <.<

Morning update: it is without a doubt Generation V! There will be new Pokemon introduced in this game. I'll post a translation of the announcement once I get back to my dorm (I'm in Econ class on my Blackberry right now).

EDIT: Here is the translation.

I am incredibly excited about this; I really hope there are some awesome new Pokemon.

Speculation time: Game Freak is reportedly looking for new employees to do 3D modeling work. To me that sounds like this game will have 3D Pokemon like the console games instead of sprites like the previous handheld games.

Last edited by pat2rome on 29 Jan 2010, 11:33 am, edited 1 time in total.

That is exciting information pat2rome, though I will still have to get heartgold first. I wonder what new pokemon there are, I always get excited over the new ones.

Yeah, I'm pretty psyched over this. I can't wait to hear more about this; this will be the first time a new generation has come out when I've been into Pokémon in ten years. I got back into Pokémon around a year ago, and it's now an obsession (obviously).

I remember looking at a Pokémon magazine with the new Pokémon from Gold/Silver before they even had English names and getting ridiculously excited.

Wow, that's fantastic, a totally new generation. I was fairly sure Nintendo once said they had no plans to make any more Pokemon (having made Arceus, they've already created "Pokemon God) but wish it being such a cash cow--and great games to boot--I hardly see them ever stopping.

Plus, since they're still running the DS hardware, a new generation for the DS would help keep sales strong. I love my old Phat blue DS, but since HG/SS have phased out Pal Park, I might upgrade to a DSi, or possibly XL, just for fun.

Anyway, if I may make a tangent... I need pat2rome's opinion on the Steelix I'm training. I'm working on teams for Platinum to attempt the battle tower, and I quickly learned that the game cheats against you, setting you up against CPU teams with resistances to your teams and stronger attacks. Since I lead with Gyarados, I needed a ground type to mow down those electric sons of mothers, and those Porygon Z's, who can trace my Sturdy all they want.

"Flinchlinx" Steelix
Rock Slide
Earthquake
Rock Polish
Thunder Fang/Ice Fang
Item: King's Rock
Jolly Nature

EV Trained in Speed (duh) and... Special Defense! No, seriously! I figured the only way to really beat down a Steelix is to burn it or wash it away, and most fire/water moves are special based. If they're attack based, Steelix's base Defense of 200 should absorb the hit anyway, letting me ROCK POLISH. This doubles my speed and... hopefully... let's me outspeed the toadbag for a surprise counterattack. Steelix is pretty slow anyway, so I'm not going to outspeed everyone, but it could save me in a pinch.

Rock slide is there for the big flinch bonus of 30%, so with a King's Rock, I believe it goes up to 50%, though I could be wrong on that one, since not every move can "connect" with the King's Rock. At worst I'll have two dice rolls in one turn, one for 30% and one for 20%, which averages somewhere in the 40's. Ice Fang is tempting, but I decided Thunder Fang's ability to hurt water types and possibly flinch or paralyze was better. Earthquake is there to finish things with a vengeance.

What do you think?

At first, I was a little leery of that idea, but after looking at some speed stats, it looks good. After a Rock Polish, you outspeed all Pokémon with a base 110 speed or lower (and tie with Purugly, but it can't do anything to you regardless). This means you outspeed a HUGE number of Pokémon.

Special Defense investment on Steelix is a solid idea; nothing's going to scratch it physically with 200 base Defense. It also has very good type synergy with Gyarados, since it doubly resists Rock and is immune to Electric while Gyarados resists Fire and Fighting and is immune to Ground.

I suggest Ice Fang in the final slot, as it destroys all but one of the Pokémon (Bronzong) who resist Rock/Ground. It also has the slight flinch chance, and a slight Freeze chance. To me, this is better than Paralysis, as with Rock Polish the speed drop won't matter as much.

Good Pokémon, you have my approval . What are you running on Gyarados?

I haven't played Pokémon since Silver but for any turn-based RPG I combine stall and full offensive. I use my weaker characters to defend or heal a team mate and one to stall the opponent. Then I attack with all characters full force. Though I always try to preserve as much resources as necessary. If it's a weaker opponent I'll use weaker attacks to preserve MP. But I'm sure anyone who has played Pokemon or any turn based RPG would do that.

Finally got around to catching a Pikachu holding Light Ball.
I'm going to use a Clefairy as the male parent. I want to get Encore as an eggmove, just for fun. It can be an annoying surprise when the opposition uses a non-damaging move.

I think I'm going to complement Volt Tackle with Brick Break, but a few other moves are tempting. Magnet Rise, for example.
Not sure if I should use Quick Attack. It's a bit weak, but I do like having an increased priority move available.

EVs will be spent on Attack and Speed. A Pikachu isn't going to last for many hits even if I work on its defences.

I don't compete much, so it will be fine either way.