Building The Team
A Guide on Making an Efficient In Game Team
By Agunimon
Introduction
“Should I go with a Raichu or Manectric? Wait, how about Electivire? This makes my head hurt!”
We"ve all probably experienced that moment of confusion, rage and mind boggling thoughts before. Making that one special team of Pokemon is harder than you thought. Your favorite Pokemon are just not cutting it with the bosses and other players. You need an efficient, balanced, and powerful team -not to mention Pokemon with wonderful personalities- to secure your rank among the top players.
Here"s where this guide comes in.
This guide will help you create and plan out that efficient, balanced, and powerful team.
Change Log
2-20-12: Started working on the guide and finished it.
3-3-12: Added “A Closer Look - Movesets” section.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Basic Battling Terms
Strategies and Approaches
Choosing Pokemon - The Synergy Factor
Choosing Pokemon - Roles and Moves
A Closer Look - Movesets
The Example Team
Useful Tools
Basic Battling Terms
In the Competitive Battling field and the PMU Battling field, there are a few basic terms you should know.
Physical Moves - The strength of these moves are based on your Attack stat.
Special Moves - The strength of these moves are based on your Special Attack stat.
Sweeper - The classic all out attacker. There are three sub types: The Physical Sweeper the Special Sweeper and the Mixed Sweeper.
The Physical Sweeper focuses on using Physical attacks.
The Special Sweeper focuses on using Special attacks.
The Mixed Sweeper uses both.
Wall - The unbreakable defense. There are three sub types: The Physical Wall, the Special Wall, and the Mixed Wall.
The Physical Wall has high Defense to resist Physical attacks.
The Special Wall has high Special Defense to resist Special Attacks.
The Mixed Wall has a good amount of Defense and Special Defense to resist both.
Tank - The sturdy, strong yet slow Pokemon.
Cleric - The Pokemon that heals and heals status conditions.
Base Stats - The important defining characteristic that varies from Pokemon to Pokemon.
Offensive Synergy - How well each of your team members lure out and eliminate each others" counters.
Defensive Synergy - How well each of your team members resist the other member"s weakness.
STAB - This stands for “Same Type Attack Bonus” which means you get a bonus if you use a move of the same type as your Pokemon.
Boosts - This term is used to describe stat boosting moves such as Swords Dance, Agility, Iron Defense or items such as the Elemental Dusts and Pokemon Family Items.
LoS - This stands for “Line of Sight”. The move"s range is straight ahead of you.
Spray - The range of this move is in a “spray” like form.
AoE - This stands for “Area of Effect”. The move"s hits the Pokemon surrounding you.
Strategies and Approaches
There are many strategies, items, moves and other ideas you can base your team on. In PMU, we mainly follow the status quo and try to make a team with Defensive Synergy. (Hint: Check the Basic Battling Terms section for definitions.)
To start out on making the team, you have to first figure out one Pokemon that you will start off as, assign roles, and build from there. For a balanced team, I recommend you find Pokemon that fit these roles:
1 Physical Sweeper
1 Special Sweeper
1 Wall
1 Tank
Choosing Pokemon - The Synergy Factor
Synergy whether it"s Offensive or Defensive, is a crucial thing to consider in every team. Without it, your team would be a mess of Pokemon that would not support each other.
Ex: Pairing up a Ninetales with a Politoed would be terrible because Drought and Drizzle don"t go along very well.
Defensive Synergy is all about type and how well your team supports one another. Think of the classic trio of types: Grass, Fire, Water. These types support each other"s weaknesses and creates an barrier that is almost impossible to break. You have to find Pokemon with roles that support each other while their types support each other as well.
Offensive Synergy is a bit more tricky. Whereas Defensive Synergy talks about Pokemon types, this Synergy talks about move types and Pokemon power. You"re going to try to cover every type of move with this team so you can use “Super Effective” moves against any Pokemon you face and just with that - you have a clear advantage. For example, Manectric has a wonderful movepool. Here"s an example moveset:
Flamethrower
Hidden Power (Grass)
Thunderbolt
Charge Beam
With this moveset, Manectric can tackle most types of Pokemon with “Super Effective” moves and perhaps with a boost from Charge Beam.
Choosing Pokemon - Roles and Moves
When you"re choosing Pokemon and trying to make a balanced team, you also have to consider the Roles your Pokemon are going to play and their moves.
Roles are based on a Pokemon"s movepool, base stats and their typing.
A Pokemon with good HP and Defensive stats and supporting moves would be helpful as a Wall.
A Pokemon with good Attack stats and attacking moves would be great at being a Sweeper.
Moves also depend on a Pokemon"s role.
For example, Latias can serve as a Calm Mind sweeper and a Supporting Pokemon. Her moves, Refresh, Wish, ect lean towards her supportive role whereas Calm Mind and Draco Metor lean towards her attacking role.
Consider the Pokemon you are using and their movepools and see how they can work together. It"s like piecing together a jigsaw puzzle. If they don"t work, try experimenting with different Pokemon and see if those pieces fit.
A Closer Look - Movesets
You might have a solid team when it comes to types but if you don"t know how to attack, how is your team supposed to make it through a dungeon? A good team should have some balanced attack and defense.
Here are some things to look at when you are trying to find the right moveset for a Pokemon:
Pokemon Related
•A Pokemon"s Base Stats
•The Pokemon"s Role
•The Pokemon"s Type
•A Pokemon"s Ability
Move Related
•The Range of the Moves
•The Move"s Type
•The Type of Move (Physical, Special, ect.)
Example
Introducing the ever so adorable Azumarill.
Base Stats:
HP: 100
Attack: 50
Defense: 80
Spcl. Attack: 50
Spcl. Defense: 80
Speed: 50
Looking at Azumarill"s Base Stats, it looks like Azumarill"s bulky and it can take some hits well. Its abilities:
•Thick Fat Reduces the damage of Ice and Fire type moves by 50%.
•Huge Power Multiplies the Pokemon"s Attack stat by 2.
•Sap Sipper When hit by a Grass Type move, the move has no effect and the Pokemon"s Attack goes up by 1.
This now leaves Azumarill only one weakness, Electric. Azumarill seems to be geared towards a Tanking role with these abilities and stats and some Physical moves that use its stats and abilities to their fullest. Let"s look at some notable moves:
•Double Edge (Normal, BP 120, Acc 100, Physical)
•Aqua Tail (Water, BP 90, Acc 90, Physical)
•Brick Break (Fighting, BP 75, Acc 100, Physical)
•Bulldoze (Ground, BP 60, Acc 100, Physical)
•Waterfall (Water, BP 80, Acc 100, Physical)
•Aqua Jet (Water, BP 40, Acc 100, Physical)
•Superpower (Fighting, BP 120, Acc 100, Physical)
•Refresh (Normal, Other)
•Ice Punch (Ice, BP 75, Acc 100, Physical)
Azumarill as a Tank could also help its teammates against Status Conditions if needed. First let"s design a Tank then add on to make a more versatile Tank.
Tank
•Aqua Tail (Water, BP 90, Acc 90, Physical)
This move is a decently ranged Spray and it uses Azumarill"s ability Huge Power and could get a boost from Sap Sipper.
•Bulldoze (Ground, BP 60, Acc 100, Physical)
This move takes care of Azumarill"s Electric Type weakness. Also a decently ranged move.
•Ice Punch (Ice, BP 75, Acc 100, Physical)
This move gives Azumarill more variety and so Azumarill can hit more Pokemon with a Super Effective move. Not good range, but better than Ice Beam when it comes to power in this situation.
•Brick Break (Fighting, BP 75, Acc 100, Physical) or Superpower (Fighting, BP 120, Acc 100, Physical)
Both are Fighting type moves which lets Azumarill deal with Steel types. Although Superpower might be stronger you must note that it decreases one Attack and Defense level. Brick Break is easier to obtain and might be better for a long wait.
Other Options
For a more versatile Azumarill these moves can be used:
•Refresh (Normal, Other)
Heals your teammates" Status Conditions.
•Belly Drum (Normal, Other)
This one gives you a give or take Azumarill. Belly Drum cuts your HP in half to increase your Attack level by 6. Make sure if you"re using this move, stay in a safe place until your HP regenerates.
•Aqua Ring (Water, Other)
This is an HP Regenerator move. If your Azumarill will lean towards the “Wall” side, you can add this move for some HP Bonus.
The Example Team
In here I will show you step by step how I decide on the Pokemon I use for a team. I will be using my alternate account, Regal"s future team. (Credit to Tornado / Zappeh for helping me decide and giving me pointers. Wuv you.)
As a careful player I decided on making a balanced team and focused on the Defensive Synergy.
I started out with one sweeper with a great movepool, Manectric.
Manectric doesn"t have great Defensive stats but has a great offensive move pool and base stats.
The Team So Far
- Manectric (Special Sweeper)
Using a type chart and a calculator of sorts, I tried to figure out what would cover Manectric"s Ground type weakness and lack of defense. The first Pokemon that came to mind was: Bronzong.
The Team So Far
- Manectric (Special Sweeper)
- Bronzong (Wall)
Now even though Bronzong can defend against Ground types, it can"t hurt them effectively and there are also Fire Type weaknesses. Manectric can easily defend against Electric Types so a Water Type would fit this team perfectly. A sturdy water type like: Azumarill.
The Team So Far
- Manectric (Special Sweeper)
- Bronzong (Wall)
- Azumarill (Tank)
Now there is one spot left for a final team member and there is one flaw left. Azumarill has a Grass type weakness and Bronzong isn"t really much of a hard hitter. A Fire Type seems necessary here. Since we have a special sweeper, a Physically Based Fire Type Sweeper would be of best interest. Infernape might seem like a good idea, but we don"t have the Psychic Type covered well so a pure Fire Type would be more usable. So we came up with: Rapidash.
The Final Team
- Manectric (Special Sweeper)
- Bronzong (Wall)
- Azumarill (Tank)
- Rapidash (Physical Sweeper)
The Pokemon here cover each other"s weaknesses and also have roles that support each other. :3
Useful Tools
With Credit To . . .
Tornado for helping me make the Example Team.
Charticuno for being “gramar-tastic”. 8"D
Beldum"s Synergy Calculator for making teams so much easier.
You for reading and commenting. c:
Thanks for reading,
Agun.
