Sunday, January 12, 2014

My Favorite Pokemon Types

I've been on and off playing Pokemon Y- stupidly restarted because I din't know there was 3 Pokemon centers in Lumiose City and with that stupid Looker Ticket mission that broke my will to play for a week- well I've been trying to actually get back to the Elite Four. And with the continued confusion that connecting to the Online features of Pokemon X and Y hyped up a lot. I want to Wonder Trade but I can't figure out how to connect. Oh well. Now on to my favorite types of Pokemon. 17-1. (For this list I do not count the ??? typing since no Pokemon actually kept the typing (Arceus glitched into the games with this typing doesn't count since the developers added in that code so if somebody did glitch it in- the game wouldn't break. And since the Eggs and the move Curse were the only things that used it for any generational span of time. . .and that Game Freak retired the type- I don't count it. And these are my personal picks so if there is a difference in opinion- that's why. And all of these types do have merits and this is just how I rank them in terms of sheer staying power in my six man band.

 So Number 17- Ice Type This is my least used type and for good reason. It's one of the rarest types around. They are weak to Fire, Fighting, Rock, and Steel (which are very common in both powerful moves/ secondary type combinations in double-typed Pokemon. And finding/ catching some of the forms were stupidly hard. I just don't like how easily Ice types can be taken out by nearly any Pokemon type. They only resist the Frozen status ailment (which is barely used by anybody.) and they are only really good against Dragon types- even though water types can easily kill Dragons because of the easily taught Ice Beam TM. Now there are a few Ice types I do use on my team (through six generations of Pokemon.) I love the Vanillite/ Vanillish/ Vanilluxe even though many players call it the stupid ice cream cone. (Do they forget Geodude, Voltorb, Electrode, Muk, Gastly. etc. which are all blobs of goo, floating spirit balls, rocks with arms, and possessed Poke Balls?) So I came to terms that it looks stupid. Actually I like it because it looks cute and harmless. And then it kills you. I also have an Amaura which is one of Gen 6's Fossil Pokemon and it's been doing well for me too- I haven't used it much because for 95% of the game I don't need an Ice Type Pokemon because there is no real Dragon type threat. And with the Exp All- I barely need my other Pokemon. So while Ice moves are fairly powerful- I just never need them because of how most Ice type Pokemon are found mid to late game. Combine that with how, with my three favorites, Frostlass, Weavile, and Mamoswine that you have to do a special evolutionary thing to make them evolve and sometimes it can be frustrating- especially with Frostlass to evolve them.

 Number 16 is the Bug Type. Now here's one of the first types you encounter in the games.Outside of the Flying type and your starter of course. I always see them as that one Gym which isn't all that difficult and just is annoying if your starter's a Grass type (because the Grass starters can be underwhelming.) And offensively they can have good moves (X-Scissor, Megahorn, Bug Bite, Infestation) and status causing moves (Stun Spore, Sleep Powder, etc.) yet they just don't usually have good Attack or Defense to take hits. Not to mention that quite a few of the members of this type evolve early and lose that staying power that is so crucial late game. Add in the weaknesses to fire, and the common second typings of poison or flying and both Psychic and Electric moves slaughter these things. Personally I almost never use Bug moves or Bug type Pokemon. Gen 5 never hooked me like the others did so I never got Larvesta or Volcarona (which is sad because I really liked their type combo and design.) Outside of Heracross, Scyther (not Scizor because I had no friends to trade- Trade Evolution the true test of a Forever Alone Gamer.), the Anorith Line which I loved late game because it slaughtered everything, and Forretress which served me well in every game I had it in (which was every game that had it and I did use walkthroughs to find Pineco- I love Forretress.) I don't touch the type often.

 Number 15 is surprising- the Flying Type. I love the Flying type legendaries. Yvetal is now my favorite legendary beside Ho-oh. But that doesn't mean I like their power. A lot are found early game (Pidgey, Pidove, Tailow etc.) and can get hit hard by Rock and Electric types while slaughtering Grass and Fighting types. But here is where I have an issue. I do not usually need a Flying type Pokemon because my starter usually is so high leveled mid game- that unless I get hit by a one hit Knockout move I can take a beating. And I almost always have a Psychic type on my team, which easily handles Fighting Types and Grass types usually are weak defensively so necessity just doesn't call. And then I always have to have a spot with a Flying type just so I can use Fly, the addition of Sky Battles threw this type further down the list because the Pokemon that can Sky Battle is just counter intuitive sometimes. I do personally love Crobat, Gyrados, Noctow;, Togekiss (when I can get a Togepi without Trading- again a pain), Ho-oh, and Yvetal. Still they can be easily killed by secondary type weaknesses, Electric, and Rock types. So they have their own issues, 

Number 14- Normal Type, the type that doesn't resist anything and just has a lot of overall health. So this type is only at this spot in my list because of the amount of moves that some Pokemon can learn. They can learn quite a few powerful moves that make them versatile in battle. But what they are well known for are HM slaves. An HM Slave is that one Pokemon that can learn a lot of HMs- which are nearly impossible to forget and in some people's eyes just wastes a good and ready move slot with its necessary evil to progress on the journey. Notable HM Slaves are Zigzagoon, Patrat, and Bidoof- which are found early in the game, thankfully evolve, and are able to be taught 3-6 HM moves. And Normal types that learn Fly can also be useful as well. Thankfully Gen 4 seemed to have the worst amount of HM moves with eight and they were all necessary and awful. So thanks to the lessening of HMs and the moving around of old HMs into Technical machines that can be taught over and over against to different and not just a single use- the Normal Type isn't at number 17. I also like the least Pokemon with this type- with the shuffling around that the addition of the Fairy type did to Pokemon- many Normal types I like have been moved to being Fairy types. So with that in mind, the Pokemon that are still Normal types that I like are Eevee (because of it's ridiculous number of evolutions), Snorlax, and Porygon Z (which was nearly impossible for me to get so when I got one I was ecstatic. And it was really overpowered. I took down Giratina with a Porygon Z with Signal Beam. . .) 

Number 13- Ground Type This is a very powerful type with some of the most powerful Pokemon on this list. The problem is that a lot of Pokemon can hurt it with how type coverage can be. Many Pokemon nowadays can learn Water, Grass, and Ice moves and so the typing does have some flaws but offensively the Ground type kills. But with the Flying type being immune to Ground types and the Ability of Levitate which also make Pokemon immune to Ground- it has the most resistances. There aren't many Pokemon that I keep on my team consistently- Outside of Claydol in Gen 3, Golurk, and finally after 10 years of not being able to evolve Onix and never having the Gen 4 remakes- Steelix which is my favorite Ground type. Still think that Steelix should have got a Mega Evolution in the Kalos region.

 Number 12- The Fighting type- I almost never use these Pokemon because I just never have the need to. A few need Trade Evolution to get to their final forms, the Fire- Fighting type combination is overdone with half of the starter Fire types evolving to have a secondary fighting type- so that is overdone, and their only being so many other secondary types in the whole set that it just seems boring. Now the whole set is pretty strong and useful- but outside of Lucario, Gallade, Blaziken, and Breloom I haven't used much in the way of Fighting types. My team is more focused on Special Attackers so Fighting types just don't fit in my team building activities.

 Number 11- Water Type This is where I start having issues with ordering the types. I love the Water starters (especially Blastoise, Empoleon, and Greninja.) but much of the other Pokemon I don't care much about- except for the Fossils that are partially water (because I love the Fossil Pokemon) I never like the water type gyms- I had to restart Pokemon Platinum because I never got a grass or electric type Pokemon that could handle Gym 5. So I see this type as "that one Gym" outside of Whitney's Normal type gym that I hated in Gen 2 and the remakes. And other than Normal type ones- the Water type has the most HM moves making many a Water type an HM slave for water routes- Dive, Surf, Waterfall and Whirlpool have all been HMs and while Surf and Waterfall have been the most constant- that still means that a Water type could still have two spots filled with HMs and that doesn't count any others it could be able to learn. Personally my favorite water types are Gyrados, Blasttoise, the fossil Pokemon that are part water, Greninja, Empoleon, and Feraligatr. So I don't mind the type its more of what I am forced to sometimes teach my team to get further in my journey.

 Number 10- The Rock Type This type has every fossil Pokemon from every generation and since I love the fossil Pokemon I love this type. It has a decent amount of Pokemon that are secondary typed to be a Powerful thing to fight against. They also have very good attack and defense and can be hard to take down without super effective moves- with the secondary types that give them their weaknesses. They are all either weak to Grass and/or Water and have some bad Special Defense to actually make up for the death that comes usually in one hit. What sometimes make up for that is the Ability Sturdy that many Pokemon of this type have to alleviate the issue of One Hit Knockouts. Personal favorites of mine of this type are the Fossil Pokemon,Tyranitar, and Aggron. Pure power all of the time.

 Number 9- Fire Type This is mainly because of the easily killed Pokemon because of weaknesses to Ground, Rock, and Water which are all common types in playthroughs. The type make up for this with powerful special attack and some heavy hitters in Attack as well so they can sweep through their weaknesses. What brings this type down to this level is that many Fire Type starters (your most used Pokemon and the one you have to stare at the most) had been for half of the games- part Fighting type- piling on more weaknesses that just made it less fun to play with and just boring when guessing the new types of the Starter Pokemon. In Generations 3-5 I played more with Water Types because of how boring and unsurprising the final evolution was for so many Fire Types- combine that with some problems with how slow some Fire types were and they just weren't as useful in previous years. Favorites include Arcanine, Magmortar, Ho-oh, Delphox, Chandelure, and Volcarona- most of these are two-types and not part fighting types so they are less boring to me and just more cool looking.

Number 9- Dark, one of the two types introduced Generation 2. I like the type because of how cool the designs usually are. I almost never use the type because of their weakness to Fighting (and now Fairy) types and how common that type is in play throughs- not to mention competitive play. They aren't always the most powerful Pokemon but they can pack a punch if you want them to. Not much to say about them except that they are just fun to play with- and that outside of the Elite Four and the evil Teams- no Pokemon Gym has specialized in Dark Types- I wish they would because even the Fairy type has a Gym. Really? No Dark Gym when you have so many cool Pokemon to choose from and the Fairy type has a Gym in its first appearance? The Pokemon I like of this type are Umbreon, Sableye, Weavile, Bisharp, Hydreigon, Malamar, and Yvetal \

Number 8- Ghost This type is hard to find (like the Ice, and Fairy types) and aren't that strong physically. I never liked the Ghost type until Gen 5 so this is a recent development. I also don't like Trade Evolutions so while I want Gengar, Trevenant, and Phantump I can't because issues with internet. And have not many friends that had the game and could locally trade. This has personally formed my favorites of the Ghost type because of that. My favorites all evolve either by leveling up- or more commonly Evolutionary Stones. So it'd be common to see me have Banette instead of Gengar and a Frostlass, Chandelure, or Aegislash because I like their designs and I personally love Evolutionary stones.

Number 7- Dragon types Now I love dragons in literature and movies but with the mythical beasts inhabiting the world of Pokemoon I am disappoint. This is a very powerful type and (besides Fairy, Ice, or Dragon) not many moves are super effective against these things. Now that would make it very nice-except it has 5 of the 7 pseudo legendary pokemon which is unfair/ okay- and nearlt all the rest are true legendary Pokemon that are hard to catch and ridiculously powerful. So I don't like using them often because they just seem overpowered. My personal favorites are Goodra and Salamence.

 Number 6- Electric This type has a lot of advantages- it is powerful against flying and water, and is only weak against ground types- not counting if they have two types and so some Pokemon of this type could have more weaknesses. I have always had (or very nearly had) a Pikachu on every team in every game that had a Pikachu- I have never completed Pokemon Yellow for one reason only- I don't like Pikachu. What Pokemon I love is Raichu. I very nearly despise Pikachu but it evolves into one of my favorites through a Thunderstone- which fulfills the evolve via an Evolutionary stone which I love. Add to this that Electic types are usually high Speed and Special Attack can take out whole teams of Pokemon easily without breaking a sweat. My favorites are Raichu, Electivire, Ampharos, Dedenne, and Gavantula who all helped me finish each game that they appeared in.

 Now my Top 5 Pokemon types are what I would call "Gym Leader" types as in if I wanted to I would be totally fine of running an entire Gym with just that type of Pokemon. Which limiting- it is also freeing with the idea that you choose weakness covering moves and type matchups that give your team a defensive boost and a idea of control. Or if I wanted to I could totally goof around with friends and play competitively for fun with a team I raised with loving care. Also known as "I thought long and hard on how a team comprised of one type would run." And this is where I can barely decide on what my favorite Pokemon are- as we go go more towards number 1 I have longer and longer lists of Favorites because I can't choose between anything when they all have reasons to be amazing.

 Number 5 Steel- also introduced Gen 2 Like the Rock and Ground types, Steel is Pure Power (Special Attack can also be high as well, defense is stellar.) I love this type mainly because I loved the Steel gym in Generation 2- mainly because your only opponent was Jasmine who has taken on this status as a traveler because she's been in the remakes , Sinnoh Gen4, and Gen 5's Pokemon World tournament. And with that introduction to the Steel type, it's in my top 5. Favorite Pokemon- Steelix, Mawile, Aggron, Metagross, Aegislash, Forretress, Empoleon, Lucario, Ferrothorn, and Bisharp.

 Number 4- Psychic This type is very powerful with Special Attack and S.Defense This was also the type that caused Dark and Steel to enter in Gen 2 because Psychic types used to be super broken with how Bug and Ghost Moves were weak and how most of the Pokemon of said types were part Poison type which made them weak to Psychic types. I've loved this type since it was fixed in Gen 2 (I've played Gen 1 game mechanics and its a little bit more difficult. And the amount of usable moves throughout the 1st and 2nd Gens of Pokemon is tiny.)And yet they've been a crucial part of my team ever since them. Favorite Pokemon- Espeon, Grumpig, Gothitelle, Reuniclus, Mr. Mime, Gardevoir (which like Forretress I've had in every team that I could), Swoobat, Claydol, Metagross, Delphox, and Malamar. So I really know my Psychic types. 

Number 3- and if not the fact that there is almost no Pokemon in this typing, it would totally be number 1- Fairy. Yes this type that just showed up in Gen 6 and threw a wrench some people's teams is one of my favorites. It would be number one if not for the fact that there is only 34 Pokemon in the Group (which ties it with Ghost as the rarest type) These things are ridiculous to kill with it being very strong and defensively decent with enough resistances to be good. Also everything that they are weak against are weak against Ground types so a Fairy type knowing Earthquake and things are deader than dead. Its one of those types that (unlike Ice) is not bogged down by Speed deficiencies and don't have gimmick Pokemon- I'm looking at you Smeargle, Delibird, Shuckle, etc- and with its resistances to popular types suich as Steel, Bug, and Dark , and a complete immunity to Dragon which makes them terrifying- they jumped into my top 5 and almost top spot if not for the fact that the next two types that I like more have more Pokemon- and therefore- more type combinations. Favorite Pokemon- Togekiss (yet again it is not in X and Y without possibly Friend Safari or trading via a Gen 5 game. And with Pokebank down because of an awful launch and issues with hacked Pokemon that could never happen legally, and my reluctance to pay for a monthly service that is not necessary- I have to learn to not mind not having a Togekiss- unless I figure out how to get on PSS and Wonder Trade some stuff I collected/ breeded.), Florges (which is a terifying thing), Aromatisse and Slurpuff- which both are Trade Evos with held items, Sylveon, Xerneas-if I had X Version or traded, Mr. Mime, Azumarill, Gardevoir,Mawile, Whimsicott, Dedenne, Carbink, Klefki- and outside of a few that I din't say - I just named all the Fairy types and they are all fantastic- especially the Psychic/Fairy Combo which resists Dark type moves making Gardevoir and Mr. Mime relevant again- not to mention Mega Gardevoir. 

Number 2- Poison It isn't the best offensively but it isn't half bad defensively. And it resists Poison status effects which I love because I always lose a Pokemon to Poison- especially before it was changed in Gen 4 to where Pison stopped working on the overworld when your Pkemon with Poison was a 1 Hit Point. Add to the fact that the Poison effect can be annoying, if not deadly to other Pokemon and the types of surprising moves that Poison types can learn via TMs can mitigate some of their weaknesses and can surprise some people. My Favorite Pokemon- Arbok, Muk, Swalot, Garbodor, Crobat, Skuntank, Nidoking, Nidoqueen, Drapion, Dragalge (and since it is in Pokemon Y- I can catch it's pre-evolution.), Venusaur, Vileplume, Ariados, Dustox, Roserade, Scolipede, Toxicroak

 Number 1- Grass While I absolutely dislike the starter Pokemon with how slow they usually are and that they are weak against so many things I love the type nonetheless. They are affected by weather conditions and outside of Normal and Grass type moves- can't learn much via leveling up. Now I still love the Grass types because they are so diverse- similar to the Earth with things that look like animals, plants, Evolve via Evlutionary stones, Evolve via a Moss Rock, etc. altogether it is a cool evolution filled place. And as I've said before, I mainly use Special Attack Sweepers in my team so Grass with such a focus on either strong Normal type Physical attacks, Special Attack focused Grass moves, and the array of HM and, more importantly, TMs that give type coverage against Grass type Pokemon's weaknesses. Altogether they are one of my favorite types to use. Favorite Pokemon- Venusaur, Meganium, Bellossom, Leafeon, Simisage, Lilligant (sadly I don't have a Gen 5 game so I can't get Lilligant but if I could I would throw it on my team so hard it would break the sound barrier and because I love it's design and it was so deadly in Gen 5.), Vileplume, Jumpluff, Roserade, Whimsicott, Ferrothorn.

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