Pokémon BW2 In-game Tier List Mark II [See Post #840]

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Punchshroom

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Name:
Scraggy
Availability: Early, before the third gym at Route 4.
Stats: Scraggy has solid Attack and defenses, the latter of which can be further boosted by Eviolite. Upon evolution, its defenses overtake its Attack, meaning it remains bulky before and after evolution. It is fairly slow though, meaning it often has to take hits (which it does well) before it can attack.
Typing: Dark + Fighting make a great combo, as only Heracross and Toxicroak resist them, both of which are only seen like once. The typing also grants it only 2 weaknesses in exchange for very relevant resistances to Ghost and Dark as well as a Psychic immunity.
Movepool: Scraggy starts off with Faint Attack and Headbutt, then promptly gets Brick Break at level 20. It's pretty smooth sailing from there as Scraggy can single-handedly take on almost any opponent. It gets Payback, Hi Jump Kick, and finally Crunch right before evolution. Scraggy's movepool consists of high power moves and is incredibly self-sufficient, meaning it doesn't really need TMs or tutored moves (though Drain Punch is an incredible move for Scraggy/Scrafty to learn), but you can teach it some temporarily useful moves like Rock Smash before getting Brick Break, Dig, Rock Tomb and even Ice Punch.
Major Battles: With access to Dig and Rock Tomb, Scraggy can take on Elesa easily. Its Fighting attacks do well against Clay's Krokorok and Excadrill. Crunch can take out Skyla's Swoobat but otherwise try to steer clear of Flying-type moves. With its bulk and strong attacks, Scraggy can go head-to-head to Drayden, only fearing Druddigon's Revenge. Scraggy manhandles Marlon's Jellicent and stomps both Zinzolin and Colress, while taking on any of Ghetsis's team bar Toxicroak. Scraggy has a positive matchup against 3/4 of the Elite Four and take on most of Iris's team.
Additional Comments: Scraggy may be able to tank well, but its low speed means it can't exactly do this forever, but it is still one of the best in one-on-one fights. As for abilities, either Shed Skin or Moxie can work on Scraggy: the former wards off status conditions (most commonly seen by Colress), while the latter is generally better as it allows Scraggy to truck through trainers with large parties, which are the more important fights.
 
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Its_A_Random

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Punchshroom: I would recommend cutting down the length of that Scraggy entry, given concise entries are preferred. For example, try to just mention relevant moves with its movepool, & the Major Battles could be shortened a fair bit, like for example, "With access to Dig and Rock Tomb, Scraggy is one of the best non Ground-types to take on Elesa." could be shortened to "Scraggy can deal with Elesa easily with Dig and Rock Tomb."
Another example: "With its bulk and strong attacks, Scraggy is one of the few Pokemon that can take on Drayden's Dragon-types in a neutral head-on matchup (though it could pack Ice Punch to gain the advantage), only having to watch out for Druddigon's Revenge." could be shortened to "Scraggy can handle Drayden very well, only fearing Druddigon's Revenge." (Note that Ice Punch is not mentioned, since Hi Jump Kick is far stronger than Ice Punch against Drayden bar Flygon) There are a few more examples where you can concise.
Also, I think you should mention Wide Lens in AC, as it is obtainable early in the game (Route 4), & it greatly improves the reliability of Hi Jump Kick (1% Miss Chance > 10% Miss Chance).

That said, I am going to reserve Klink.

EDIT:

Name: Klink
Availability: Mid-Game (Chargestone Cave, 24% 1F and B1F, 21% B2F)
Stats: Klink suffers from low speed until it hits its final form, but it does make up for very decent bulk. Its attacking stats are competent, though unspectacular, and its Base HP is below average.
Typing: Steel-typing blesses Klink with many resistances and an immunity to Poison-types, but three weaknesses to common types in the game leave it much to be desired. The STAB coverage offered is also rather unspectacular.
Movepool: Klink is a case where its movepool is so shallow, yet so precise. It is gifted with its signature Shift Gear and Gear Grind by Level-up which grants it amazing sweeping capabilities as well as the ability to pierce Sturdy and Focus Sash, and it is complemented by Electric and Normal Coverage (And Rock Smash), which is all it needs to do well. Wild Charge can come in handy as well for the end-game.
Major Battles: Klink handles Skyla very well (except Swanna to an extent), while Marlon, Zinzolin, Caitilin, Grimsley, and Shauntal are all handled by Klink very well to a degree, especially once you get Shift Gear. Klink should stay away from Marshal, but other than that, the rest of the match-ups are fairly neutral for Klink to a degree.
Additional Comments: Eviolite Klang can be used over Klinklang if you prefer bulk, but the loss in Speed and Attack hurts without any Shift Gear boosts. Wide Lens could also be used to help patch up Gear Grind's shaky accuracy to a degree. Take note that its late evolutions (Level 38, then 49) mean it is more likely to struggle in the levels before it evolves.
 
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atsync

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I'd like to propose Rattata for Low tier. I tested it during the same run as Venipede, Zebstrika, etc., and unfortunately I found it wasn't really strong enough. Its power was ok early on, but later on it was just dead-weight (and fairly unhelpful against gym leaders/elite 4 members). And no, guts does not boost it up to higher tiers. The power boost is welcome, but it still isn't strong enough, and it just makes it die sooner.

It's above Bottom because of its decent early-game availability and performance, and acceptable movepool. But it shouldn't be any higher than Low in my opinion.

If this is fine, I'll reserve Rattata and Venipede.

EDIT:

Name: Rattata
Availability: Early (Castelia Sewers; 45% encounter rate).
Stats: Rattata's stats aren't great but they are well distributed. 81 Attack and 97 Speed are decent, but it has poor defenses.
Typing: Normal-type is bland offensively and defensively. However, it has wide neutral coverage so it works well for cleaning up regular routes.
Movepool: Rattata starts with Hyper Fang for STAB, and Return can replace it once you get its happiness up. Facade is a good option late-game because it works well with Guts. Crunch and Dig both arrive early for coverage. Super Fang has some use for weakening wild Pokemon for capture.
Major Battles: It's not particularly useful in Gyms. Early-game, it can beat the weaker Pokemon just as well as anything, but late-game it just isn't strong enough.
Additional Comments: Guts is the preferred ability. Note that there is a Toxic Orb (B2)/Flame Orb (W2) in Reversal Mountain so that can be used with Guts.

Name: Venipede
Availability: Early (Route 20 dark grass; 20% encounter rate). Note that you need to beat the first gym to reach the dark grass.
Stats: Venipede doesn't stand out in any category before evolving. As Whirlipede, it gains solid defenses in exchange for some Speed. When it evolves to Scolipede, it carries 112 Speed and 90 Attack, but loses some bulk.
Typing: Bug/Poison provides decent, albeit redundant, coverage. The type has a few nasty weaknesses but 4x Fighting- and Grass-type resistances are useful.
Movepool: Venipede doesn't start out with much but it quickly learns Poison Tail and Bug Bite. Scolipede gets Megahorn via the move relearner. Dig is learnable as Scolipede and is useful for coverage against Poison- and Steel-types.
Major Battles: Scolipede can contribute against most important trainers thanks to its Speed, but the fact that every Gym Leader and Elite 4 member has at least 1 super-effective move against Bug/Poison hurts it. Burgh is the closest it'll get to a full sweep.
 
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Punchshroom

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Name:
Skarmory
Availability: Late, in the grass outside Reversal Mountain.
Stats: Skarmory possess fantastic physical defense, and workable Attack and Speed. Its special attack is pathetic so don't bother using its level-up Flying-type moves.
Typing: From a defensive standpoint, 9 resistances and 2 immunties in exchange for 2 weaknesses is nothing short of amazing. Offensively though it doesn't cover as much, though Steel at least hits Rock-types that resist Flying
Movepool: Adequate. It starts off with Steel Wing as its best move, though that should be quickly replaced with the much better Iron Head from Driftveil's move tutor. Skarmory is one of those Flying-types that actually needs Fly for good STAB, but it makes use of it decently. Other options include Spikes and Night Slash via level up, Roost via Humilau's move tutor, Toxic, X-Scissor, and Rock Slide via TM, and Swords Dance via PWT.
Major Battles: Skarmory's Dragon resist allows it to perform marvelously against Drayden and later Iris. It also wastes literally every Plasma Grunt you see prior to obtaining Skarmory, and does well in the Elite Four provided you avoid Thunder/bolts and Fire Blasts.
Additional Comments: Skarmory is the only Pokemon you can find with access to Spikes. While this doesn't amount to much in-game, it can be used to nullify OHKO-preventers, such as the Roggenrola trainer, Colress's Magneton (if it has used Volt Switch) and Magnezone, Marshall's Sawk and Iris's Haxorus.
 
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I think I'll reserve Pidove for me to do.

EDIT:


Name: Pidove
Availability: Route 20. You can get it before your second rival battle. Note that is very rare in summer, though.
Stats: Above average attack and speed, low Special Attack and Special Defense, average everywhere else.
Typing: Your early-game Normal/Flying type. Offensively, strong against Fight, Bug, and Grass, while weak to Rock and Steel. Defensively, strong against Bug, Ghost, and Grass, with an immunity to Ghost, while weak to Rock, Ice, and Electric.
Movepool: What it needs, and nothing more. It gets STAB return before the first gym, and then doesn't get a physical Flying-type move until Fly (unless you buy TM Pluck for 18BP) in Driftveil City. The only other notable moves it gets are U-turn (another TM bought for some BP) and Sky Attack. It can also learn roost and taunt to help out its team, but its bad bulk makes it a bad choice for team support.
Major Battles: It is strong against Burgh and Marshall, although it doesn't get any good options against Bug-type by Burgh. It is weak against Elesa and Colress.
Additional Comments: It has what it needs to function, and nothing more. Play it to its strengths and it will help out against most trainers.
 
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DHR-107

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Name: Trubbish
Availability: Mid Game - Route 4 (B2 25%)/5/16 (BW2 20%)
Stats: Average. Decent defenses let it take attacks well. Garbodor has usable Attack, but not a lot to use it with.
Typing: Poison. Pretty solid defensive typing. Decent match ups throughout the game.
Movepool: Poor. For being a physical orientated Pokemon, it has very few good physical moves. Body Slam helps out your team, as does Acid Spray (making its low Special Attack usable).
Major Battles: Its solid defenses in partnership with Stockpile allow it pull of a good defensive role against most of the Gym Leaders (Avoiding Clay). Toxic Spikes can aid you in longer matches, especially against Ghetsis and Iris.
Additional Comments: It can get Drain Punch in Humilau for added coverage and for hitting Steels which otherwise wall it.



Name: Throh
Availability: Very Late (Route 23 [Rarer in Black])
Stats: Exceptionally Bulky. 120/85/85 Defenses are incredibly robust and 100 Attack really lets it put on the hurt.
Typing: Fighting. Not great being so late in the game, but it still sweeps Grimsley easily.
Movepool: Average. You will likely need to spend some time teaching TMs or using Heart Scales. Ice Punch is available from the Driftveil Tutor.
Major Battles: Defeats Grimsley easily with Fighting STAB and should even be able to tank Aerial Aces from his Pokemon. With Bulk Up he can try and set up against Marshall too.
Additional Comments: It comes way too late to be of much use.
 

Name: Joltik
Availability: Chargestone Cave, extremely common
Stats: Decent Special Attack and high Speed. It has poor defenses and Attack
Typing: Bug/Electric gives it a neutrality to Ground, but keeps an unfortunate weakness to Rock and Fire. It loses the helpful Flying resistance as well. Offensively, its STABs hit most things for decent damage.
Movepool: Shallow. Joltik relies on Electro Ball and Volt Switch to do any notable damage at first. Signal Beam comes a short while later for Bug STAB. The biggest win for Joltik, however, is access to 93% accurate Thunder (if Compoundeyes) which smacks late-game opponents for heavy damage and possible paralysis. Energy Ball and Giga Drain are viable options for Grass coverage. If Joltik has Unnerve, Discharge and Thunderbolt are both acceptable options, but they come very late. Bug Buzz is Joltik's most powerful Bug STAB and can come in handy for the E4. Joltik has two decent physical STABs but its mediocre Attack holds it back.
Major Battles: Joltik grinds cleanly through Skyla's gym, although powerful Acrobatics and Air Slashes can put it down. The EleSpider bounces back against Marlon, frying everything on his team (heads up for Carracosta). Galvantula (post-evolution) can take down the myriad Dark- and Flying- types on Team Plasma with ease. However, he performs Against the Elite 4, Caitlin and Grimsley will go down to Bug Buzz and Thunder.
Additional Comments:
Compoundeyes is always the superior ability (although Unnerve can deactivate annoying Sitrus Berries) and Compoundeyes Joltik is easily found due to not having a visual cue before the battle.

Updated and cut down on extra stuff
 
Zubat is being done on the previous page... I'll Res up Throh and Trubbish. And generally start on the lower ranked mons.
Derp.

Name: Terrakion
Availability: Route 22, fixed encounter (after Marlon)
Stats: Great Attack for in-game with above-average Speed.
Typing: Rock/Fighting hits everything in-game neutrally, save Golurk.
Movepool: Comes with workable STABs in Rock Slide and Sacred Sword, both of which can last through the game. Teaching Earthquake or tutoring Zen Headbutt are options for beating Golurk.
Major battles: Terrakion can cheese Corless and Grimsley easily, and is a good option against Ghetsis and Iris. It suffers against Shauntal, Caitlin and Marshal on basis of type advantages, but can still contribute through options such as Rock Slide and Zen Headbutt.
 
image.jpg

Name: Staryu
Availability: Late. You can catch it at Undella Town, Route 13 or Humilau City, and it's pretty common.
Stats: Staryu and Starmie have an enormous amount of Speed, amazing Special Attack, and everything else is ok, at best.
Typing: Water/Psychic is good typing, allowing for a lot of powerful moves, but it has a lot of weaknesses.
Movepool: Bordering on shallow. It relies on TMs to function well, but if you have Surf and Psychic, you can dish out some serious damage. Moves like Ice Beam, Blizzard, Thunder(bolt), and Psyshock are also pretty good.
Major Battles: It has heaps of trouble with Drayden, Marlon (bar Electric moves) and Colress, is great against Ghetsis' Toxicroak, performs alright against Hugh, but that depends on the starter you chose, may be able to solo Marshal (watch out for Sawk and Throh), does pretty badly against the rest of the Elite 4.
Additional Comments: Definitely evolve as soon as possible. It has nothing worth learning naturally anyway.
 
In Zorua's analysis, I think it would be worth mentioning that it can sweep Caitlin without taking any damage, if you make it look like a pokemon weak to Psychic-type moves (Heracross, Roserade, Scraggy, Emboar, Virizion, Drapion, Conkeldurr, Scolipede, Crobat, and others that failed to reach Middle-tier or above could work).
 

JockeMS

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Well, since this got posted in, I might as well post.

I am finishing this up as we speak. I actually wanted to start last weekend but I got sick. If you want to write about a Pokémon that you've used in your game that hasn't been written about yet, please post ASAP. I will go through each tier myself, and I'm already done with the top tier; working on high tier right now.

Look at this post to see what you can do.

Also, the Pokémon who were untiered before have been tiered by me and DHR, so all Pokémon can now be found in the OP.

I also wanna thank DHR and IAR for their work on some of the lower tiered Pokémon if I haven't before, especially to DHR for his huge ammount of work, it helps me out a lot in doing this. Thanks guys.
 

DHR-107

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Well, since this got posted in, I might as well post.

I am finishing this up as we speak. I actually wanted to start last weekend but I got sick. If you want to write about a Pokémon that you've used in your game that hasn't been written about yet, please post ASAP. I will go through each tier myself, and I'm already done with the top tier; working on high tier right now.

Look at this post to see what you can do.

Also, the Pokémon who were untiered before have been tiered by me and DHR, so all Pokémon can now be found in the OP.

I also wanna thank DHR and IAR for their work on some of the lower tiered Pokémon if I haven't before, especially to DHR for his huge ammount of work, it helps me out a lot in doing this. Thanks guys.
Lets be honest, I have probably more ingame run through experience than anyone else on Smogon :P (Maybe even the world). I'll take a look back through and get my head on, I think i completed some in a note pad on my desktop a few weeks ago with a view to doing a huge ass post. I'll check when I get home and get some of this stuff done :)

ty SuperJocke for running this :) Let's get this sorted and wrapped up!
 
I'm willing to restart either my black 2 or white 2 to help get some very underused mons tiered. If you'd like to propose 3-6 mons that you genuinely aren't sure on, i should be able to run through to the e4 in a day or two and give some write ups.

any suggestions?
 

JockeMS

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I'm willing to restart either my black 2 or white 2 to help get some very underused mons tiered. If you'd like to propose 3-6 mons that you genuinely aren't sure on, i should be able to run through to the e4 in a day or two and give some write ups.

any suggestions?
Basically, take your pick from the Pokémon in Low Tier list. Banette, Grimer, Panpour, Tynamo would be great if you can't decide. But it needs to happen fast, because I want this done by the end of this week at least.
 
Basically, take your pick from the Pokémon in Low Tier list. Banette, Grimer, Panpour, Tynamo would be great if you can't decide. But it needs to happen fast, because I want this done by the end of this week at least.
No problemo. I'll restart my white 2 when I get home from work. :) see how quick I can get a good idea of how they fair.
 

Celever

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Banette: - Tier
Availability:
Pretty late - after Skyla, the 6th gym and in the Strange House just off the path to reversal mountain, Lentimas side. Banette is pretty common there.
Stats: Banette has rather awkward stats. Its Attack is the highest stat by far, which isn't great for a Ghost-Type Pokemon. It is rather slow and quite frail, but for in-game purposes it's bulk isn't that bad. It's Special Attack is also quite good, with base 83.
Typing: Ghost-Types are interesting. They usually use Shadow Ball and some Dark-Type moves such as Dark Pulse and you can call it a day, however Banette is not like that. He is unique in this way. If you want to use a Ghost-Type Pokemon but are tired of the frail but hard hitters Banette is who you go to... but other than that the type is pretty bad.
Movepool: Like I said before you usually just throw Shadow Ball and Dark Pulse on Ghost-Type Pokemon and call it a day. Not with Banette, though. Due to him having a much higher attack you should teach him Shadow Sneak or Shadow Claw, Faint Attack and Return for powerful moves and Trick Room because he is honestly that slow. Will-O-Wisp can be used for some gym battles, particularly against Drayden, as can Thunder Wave. He doesn't have many other good options, to be honest.
Major Battles: You can him late, so he is only around for:
Drayden - Provides some good utility with Trick Room and Will-O-Wisp, it can hit really hard with Shadow Claw against his weaker Dragons.
Team Plasma Shadows - Seriously. No.
Marlon - Can take care of Jellicent with Sucker Punch. Carracosta wrecks him with Crunch, though.
Team Plasma - Fairly normal to be honest. Use him if you want to, he's not particularly good though.
Additional Comments: Is unique so is good if you want a change of pace.
 
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