Just as a general query, does anyone even bother with Great/Ultra/Master Balls these days, or the other modifier(Dusk/Dive/Timer/Quick etc) Balls?

I've been wondering for a while now if I'm just being weird for using only Poke Balls for everything I encounter, aside from the satisfaction of catching the Legendaries that way.

 

I definitely phase out the weaker pokeballs as I go along. By the endgame I generally keep a solid stock of Ultra Balls and Quick Balls with a few other modifier balls.

 

Completely the same way, though I much prefer the satisfaction of using Premier Balls.
Same capture rate as a Poke Ball with twice the class.

 

I carry duskballs around in case I don't have a status-afflicting pokemon on me and I find something I want to catch, but I too catch legendaries only with pokeballs. Not that it's a challenge with Gen IV/V legendaries. >:|

And am I the only one who really liked the dual typing in Gen IV? I thought that the Gen IV starters as a whole were the best group of any generation.

Infernape, while not a Charizard, was definitely the best looking of the three fire/fighting starters even if he wasn't the strongest. The Kung-Fu chicken was ridiculous and the fire-pig even more so. Gen V was when they gave up and started drawing stupid patterns on the pokemon instead of making them interesting. Infernape's weird equalized attack/special attack makes him super weak as a starter. He doesn't have the high attack to capitalize on his fighting moves and he doesn't learn any special moves to make use of his special attack either, leaving him kinda SOL. Still though, you could look at him and not be facepalming for having a retarded looking starter like the fires in GenIII/V. Also, he isn't so terrible that having him around for rocksmash/cut/strength/rockclimb later isn't worth it.

Empoleon's type combination and general design was one I really liked. Steel sucks for everything offensive, but the 11 resistances and 1 immunity made him a great all around choice. He's no Blastoise, and Swampert's Earthquake and electric immunity made him more useful for most of the game, but Empoleon is still a very cool-looking pokemon that make having piplup/prinlup worth it. He also has a strong special attack and a decent moveset. Once you get to the steel-gym, he gets the steel version of psychic, surf, brine, and whatever you want here. He can't fly, but can pickup a lot of flying TMs to type-advantage against fighting and bug types, or just get an ice beam.

And Torterra is hands-down my favorite grass starter. Venasaur never really did it for me. When I played Gen I back in the day, having the stupid looking plantasaur thing wasn't nearly as cool as cannon turtle or fucking dragon monster. That just kind of carried over. You need help if you think Meganium was anything but a reallllly lame venasaur that the artist took around 2 seconds to draw (seriously chikorita is a blob with features and the artists probably spent more time on Ditto). Serperior/Sceptile were cooler and I used both of them on my Emerald/Black playthroughs. But Torterra, to me, is everything that Venasaur and Meganium could have been. He's not nearly as good of a waller, but he can still take a hit and keep going, plus he has the brute force of earthquake on his side with a strong attack to back it up. Plus he's just so much cooler. It's an ankliosaur with a fucking ecosystem growing on its back, rather than a brontosaur with a leaf on its neck or a kannemeyeria with a flower on its back. It's the same idea for all three pokemon really (dinosaur+plant), but Torterra pulls it off best for sure.

That being said, the three-typing really doesn't matter. The starters are all strong, no matter what you choose. Torterra did give you the easy mode run-through, while the Empoleon was more of an intermediate and the Infernape was the closest you got to "challenging," but all three of them were plenty strong enough, and you never had to actually deal with the issue of facing someone with an "OP" combo. Your rival has always TA'd you, but now Grass can earthquake Fire, Fire can close-combat Water, and Water can get fucked really, but at least do normal damage to Grass (worth noting that Prinlup does get peck and can pickup aerial ace or pluck decently early and still mess up Grotle). Even then though, I know that if I played like I was still twelve and leveled my starter up only, I would end up Solar Beaming the fire type just be-fucking-cause.

The challenge in the game was never really in that your rival got your counter type. If you are battling other players, you shouldn't rely on your starter so much as build a team that has great type-coverage, and in those cases the starters rarely fit as well as others could anyway. A drought-pix+ chlorophyll sweeper or some other special combination will work better than OPstarter+anyone else anyway, so what do the starter's type combo matter in relation to eachother anyway? Plus, the dual typing comes with its own weaknesses. Torterra can get 1HKO by ice. Chespin would probably need a few trips to the pokemon center and a bit of grinding just to make it through the first forest if he is dark-grass. Not to mention the Zubats. The 80 damage leech-lifes that heal for 50% would make that shit super difficult. Anyway, too much speculation, but it's not like the Pokemon series is a game of balance anyway. Let's see some interesting starter combinations this time around.

Dunno why pokemon gets me ranting but TLDR: I liked the Gen IV dual-typing and I would really like to see it in Gen VI.

Also: http://imgur.com/a/ueQUI
Sauce: http://wiiudaily.com/2013/01/heres-what-a-pokemon-game-on-wii-u-could-look-like/

 

This actually got me looking for some more Pokemon news, which I found!

Nintendo Force

A spiritual successor to Nintendo Power, what with it going belly up quite recently, released its first issue. Well I got the pdf and went straight to the pokemon page to find this:

http://i.imgur.com/Ltbp0.png

Definitely more food for thought on the starters types right there.

I've got the .pdf file if anyone doesn't want to bother with the $5 price tag for the download.

Now that looks amazing...

 

Grass-dark... What the fuck? Yo dawg, I heard you like sunlight to grow, here is the complete absence of light to help round you out!

At least I can name my Froakie Spike and feel like a bawse. Every time he uses a fighting move I will hear Spike saying "flow like water".

Fire-Psychic.... Oh joy an evolving Victini, just what I wanted.

Would play Raine's pokemon MMO, but only if I could pick a starter from an egg I hatched in my prestige run through. Nidoran (M) is the best pokemon OF ALL TIME! Even if he is completely ridiculous. Poison/ground. Wat.

 

But Nidoran is just pure poison. Even Nidorino is pure poison.

 

While true and I suppose it could have been phrased better, both Nidoking and Nidoqueen are Poison/Ground, so it works out in the end.

 

Though the basic balls are the weakest, I generally use them above the others unless I absolutely have to use another (like only when I run out of the basics and am stuck with the odd great and ultra ball). I'm OCD like that and when you release a pokemon for battle in the new games they come out of the ball you captured it in, so seeing like one pokemon you have just pop out of a yellow and black ball just annoys the shit out of me. And they're cheap, so having to spam a few to catch the harder pokemon isn't a big deal.

They also look the coolest. You just can't top the red and white.

 

This, so much.

I especially dislike the extra animations, like the net springing up on a net ball. But trying to catch that one pokemon for my team that is close to my heart and I plan to use as my partner4lyf...then, I will use a premier ball. :3

 

Imo, both Infernape and Empoleon are a bit broken in Diamond/Pearl/Platinum. Either one can utterly obliterate the endgame by themselves if you have the right moves as I recall.

Infernape's just more useful in the context of competitive battling.

Torterra isn't bad, but it's a bit overshadowed.

All that said; didn't mind g4 dual-typing the starters at all. Making starters better is fine by me.

I tend to just stop buying Poke Balls about the 3rd or 4th gym and eventually run out and swap over completely to Great/Ultra. Dusk Balls are lovely since I tend to play during the evenings. The rest I just keep some in case I need 'em.

 

When I'm battling a legendary I usually rock up with my most annoying stall team and 99 Timer balls.

 

That's pretty much the best strategy for immobile Legendaries, yes. Stall like a motherfucker, and pray to god that it doesn't Struggle itself to death.

But it doesn't work on Legendaries that aren't immobile. I'd sacrifice a thousand virgin baby seals to Khorne if there was a ball that increased odds relative to the target's likelihood of attempting to flee.

I'd it the FFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU- Ball.

 

You do that in all of your fights. Because you're an ass.

...fucking Shuckle...

 

Just get a relatively high leveled Crobat with Mean Look. After that it's a matter of hoping not to be Roared out of the battle or otherwise given the slip by a move - worked out well in all of Gen IV and Gen V.

 

Mean Look+Taunt

 

Crobat works for everything that can't typematch against it. For everything else, use Haunter/Gengar.

There are other Pokemon that have Mean Look, and others with Taunt as well, but none of them are as good at sapping and stalling as Haunter and Crobat.

Which is part of why Latias and Latios are such bitches to catch. Psychic attacks. Psychic attacks everywhere.

 

Wynat/Wobbufet?

 

They work just fine, but I'm not fans of them, because the Wobbufet line isn't very versatile. It does one thing, and it does that thing well. I like Pokemon that can multitask.

 

Things I want to see in X/Y:

-Dual type moves
-Evolutionary lines that extend beyond 3. We have quite a few with "alternate" evolutions (slowking/bro, poliwrath/politoed) but nothing that have a 4 stage evolutionary line.
-A new dark/ghost that isn't as weak as sableye and as poorly drawn/difficult to get as spiritomb.