Walking Wake just isn't very hard at all. I soloed it first try, sight unseen, with my standard Belly Drum Azumarill. And I've heard stories of tons of other mons working fine against Wake. Even with the normal random stupid teammates you get in public raids, it's not hard to beat this 5* Walking Wake raid.
Iron Leaves is another matter entirely!
Iron Leaves is harder than any other 7* raid I've seen, which is saying a lot. It's a very, very difficult raid. It has great coverage with its moves, and when it gets a Swords Dance or two under its belt, it hits like a truck even when resisted by a fully trained and leveled mon. If you're thinking you can just cruise into this raid with anything and do ok, because you are level 100 and trained, and it's level 75 with no EVs -- you are sorely mistaken. Iron Leaves needs very specific counters, just like, or even moreso, than past 7* event raids.
I've heard that soloing Iron Leaves is not so difficult with the right pokemon, but I haven't done it myself. It makes sense it would be easier to solo, because honestly the biggest problem with Iron Leaves public raids is the near-unbelievable level of stupidity of teammates in their pokemon selections!
To start off, people seem to be very proud of these Walking Wakes they caught previously, because I see tons of them in every Iron Leaves lobby. And, of course, they get fainted easily and often. Even worse on the stupidity meter is all the Meowscaradas being used in this raid. I guess people see what looks like a Virizion with a Psychic Tera type and they assume Meowscarada is a good choice. And they quickly discover that when Leaves busts out 4x SE Megahorn on their ass -- magic kitty fall down and go boom.
It's ridiculous.
Then you have the normal shiny flexing that seems more rampant in this raid than normal. "Look at my shiny Drifblim!" - dead. "Look at my shiny Gardevoir!" - dead. "Look at my shiny Toxicroak!"... yes, you read that right, TOXICROAK against a raid boss with a signature nuclear Psychic attack boosted by the terrain and by Tera for crissakes --- Dead, dead, DOUBLE-DEAD!
Here's the three mons that I have used personally in the Iron Leaves raid, and all three of them have great survivability. One is pure offense, one is pure support, and the other is a mix of offense and support. I like using all three equally, depending on my mood.
Kingambit @ Leftovers
Ability: Defiant
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def
Adamant Nature
- Kowtow Cleave / Foul Play
- Iron Head
- Iron Defense
- Swords Dance
Fully defensive Kingambit pretty much giggles at everything Iron Leaves does. Yes, if it gets +6 and crits with Megahorn or something, it hurts. But for most raids, I Swords Dance up and Lefties keeps me in green health by the time I start landing Kowtow haymakers. If a teammate gives a Go All Out cheer, I have done 70% to Iron Leaves in one shot from near-full.
I had Foul Play for a while, and it worked fine, using IL's swords dances against itself. But personally, I like the control of my own setup, and not relying on IL to do anything to help me. But it's not like Leaves is shy about Swords Dancing. In fact, it does "hidden sword dances" all the time, where it doesn't show any animation or message display about its attack raising. But, if you look at its status, you see it at +4 or whatever, and soil yourself...
Kingambit is pretty popular in this raid, with good reason. I highly recommend it if you like to go in and attack. Just make sure to adjust your EV's to be bulky, because it makes a big difference.
Torkoal @ Leftovers
Ability: Shell Armor
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def
Bold Nature
- Lava Plume
- Will-O-Wisp
- Clear Smog
- Iron Defense
I love using this because it barely gets scratched by Leaves, even when it has a full complement of Swords Dances under its belt. The sheer joy of having Shell Armor and knowing your Iron Defenses will not be bypassed by a crit cannot be understated. It is a little slice of stall-battler heaven, I tell you. ;-)
Lead off with Will-O-Wisp and your frail idiot teammates will thank you later. Clear Smog when Iron Leaves is getting a little too hyperactive with the Swords Dancing and cut it back down to size. Again, another massive help to teammates that had no clue how much of a punch this robot Virizion packs. Lava Plume is mainly to fish for burns post-shield and do chip damage. And, if you're lucky enough to get a team that isn't filled with fainting noobs and the battle lasts a while, you can Tera freely and take bigger chunks out of the shield.
I haven't seen any other Torkoal's out there, and
DHR-107 is the only other person to talk about using it on Discord. But honestly, for people that like running support mons, Torkoal is a hidden gem.
Skeledirge @ Leftovers
Ability: Unaware
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def
Modest Nature
- Torch Song
- Shadow Ball
- Will-O-Wisp
- Slack Off
Adjusted my EVs to go full defensive for this specific raid, but the moveset is pretty standard. Burn the boss at the start, and then start boosting with Torch Song and hitting SE with Shadow Ball. Slack Off as necessary. The great thing about Dirge is that it doesn't care about how many SD's Leaves has done, hidden or otherwise. Unaware makes life so much calmer in the game of pokemon.
Skeledirge is also pretty popular in this raid, but you need to be careful in assuming they are well-built. Since it's a starter mon, there are tons of noobs using their normal ingame Dirge -- complete with that worthless Blaze ability and probably underleveled to boot. Also because the fire crocodile has such an awesome pink shiny, expect lots of shiny flexing with this mon too, ugh...