Just beat the elite four with this team fully EV trained...

Talonflame (physical lead)
Delphox (SpD wall)
Charizard Y (Bulky SpA)
Flareon (Max defense with flare blitz [fucking finally!])
Chandelure (SpD wall)
Blazekin (physical sweeper)

In some ways, there's a few frustrating things they could have done so much better, but I think this was a pretty good iteration. Liked this more than B&W and B&W2. The lack of new pokemon really kills things - but I'm really excited for some of the changes to old pokemon, it seems even Beedrill is getting a small tuneup.

I don't know if I like all the special moves going down from 120 to 110 and 95 to 90 power though... that makes a lot of wally pokemon like Ferrothorn even more wall-y. It also makes surf seem like a joke compared to scald.

 

Are there any electric pokemon besides helioptile available?

 

You can get a Pikachu in the early forest area. And after badge 6, there's an area where I found some Magneton.

 

You can find Mareep hoards in the route you get Lapras. You can also evolve an Eevee into a Jolteon, and if you don't want any of those, the ice dino and the seahorse poison-type learn Thunderbolt.

 

Poop on all those options.

I'll just stick with thunderbolt on Goodra. Thanks though, I was hoping for Tynamo or Electabuzz

 

Finally got my 3DS, and god this game is awesome. It's not like I'm far into the game so far, just in the forest near the beginning, but damn it's beautiful. Can't wait to see what my Vivillon turns into - probably the high plains version.

Edit: Spewpa just evolved and my Vivillon version is the modern one. Rad as fuck

 

Vivillion is like the only beginner bug I'd ever consider using past the start. It's pretty awesome.

 

This is a great game. I haven't played Pokemon since Silver and I don't regret picking this up in the least. Mega-Gengar and Mega-Absol are Boss! Shame you can only use one evolution in battle.

Has anybody else completed the Looker Bureau storyline in Lumiose? I won't spoil it but it's pretty damn cool and adds some real depth to the Pokemon word.

 

Man, I think I'm gonna go out and buy 3DS soon. I only bought a DS a few months back to catch up on three out of the last four pokemon games.

 

Per serebii, "if you have one of the parents hold the Destiny Knot item, then 5 IVs total from either parent will be guaranteed to be transferred"

Also, Nintendo released a map of where NOT to save in Luminose City and said they're working on it.

http://www.serebii.net/lumiosemap.jpg

 

Males being able to transfer over their hidden ability sometimes will be very useful as well, even if that chance is small.

So now we'll have the everstone+destiny knot combo for breeding. Makes it less time consuming at least.

 

So I actually beat the League a few days ago, but I've just now booted the game up again. Here's the winning team:

Greninja (Lv71)
Surf
Hydro Pump
Night Slash
Quick Attack

MY NINJA. I don't think I've been this happy with a starter since I evolved my first Grottle in Pearl. Great Attack, Great Sp. Atk, and ridiculous Speed. He had a +Defense/-Sp. Def nature, which was fine since it didn't take away any of its attacking power. Attacking power which I abused the hell out of as soon as I got Surf and found the Move Relearner (they just gave me Night Slash for free). Good starter. Best friend.

Charizard (Lv73)
Dragon Claw
Flamethrower
Fly
Flare Blitz

SO OP. MY GOD. I got Fly and the megavolution (X) and I thought my lizard was good for the E4. But no, the Dragon typing and Tough Claws ability wasn't good enough for GameFreak. No, they had to make him stronger. So they gave the Move Relearner Flare Blitz and Dragon Claw. Flare Blitz and Dragon Claw. This douchebag would have swept the champion by himself if I'd have let him.

Goodra (Lv70)
Thunderbolt
Muddy Water
Dragon Pulse
Draco Meteor

GOODRA PLS. There isn't much for me to say about this thing except she's a re-goddamn-diculous wall, even with the -Sp. Def nature, and she was also probably the biggest pain for me to get. I got her as a little babby Goomy, around level 32, and somebody told me that I had to get her up to level 65 to evolve her into a Goodra. Since the game had just come out, Serebii and the like didn't have anything to say on the matter, so I went with that. TURNS OUT Sliggoo evolves in the rain, and I ended up leveling mine past Power Whip and Outrage, which is why neither of those are up there. Ugh.

Toxicroak (Lv67)
Sludge Bomb
Revenge
Strength
Cut

Uh... Yeah. This is my third oldest 'mon in the party, but he never ended up blooming like I thought he would. Somehow I never ran into the TMs for Drain Punch or Brick Break, and this guy doesn't learn anything good on his own, thus HM slave. He's still pretty cool, I guess.

Abomasnow (Lv58 )
Blizzard
Ice Shard
Ingrain
Wood Hammer

I caught this girl right after I got the relevant megastone, but I could never quite decide if I wanted to use her or not. I hadn't realized you could only use one megavolution per battle, and since using hers would mean I couldn't use Charizard's... Well.

Jolteon (Lv52)
Baby-Doll Eyes
Thunderbolt
Quick Attack
Thunder

Woo, filler! I got this little dude right after I beat the eighth gym, because I wanted to have a full team before I hit the League. But I also didn't want to grind at all. This was the result. He took out one of the water pokemon, at least. >_>

Had a bunch of fun, though I think I'm going to change two things for my second run. First: Turn off the EXP Share. I told myself I would do it as soon as I got it, got frustrated with a couple battles around the third gym, turned it back on, and proceeded to destroy everything. It really, really isn't fair. Also it made the League run kind of boring, considering I could have beaten the whole place with Greninja and Charizard if I really wanted to.

Second: Slow the hell down. I put all my focus into beating the Gyms + League, but I've heard about all these cool bonus features that I'd like to try out when things are still happening in the story. The grinding I'll have to do without the EXP Share will probably help with this.

Also thinking of making my next run a Nuzlocke. Not sure about that, though.

 

God. Somehow I'm only now noticing that Inkay/Malamar get Contrary for an ability. And it learns Superpower. Be still my beating heart.

 

Welp, I just beat the champion. Not bad, all in all. I followed through with a tenancy I have to grind a bit more than is reasonable, but I still actually had a few Pokemon faint during the elite four battles.

My Team:

Dragonite Lvl 83
I love Dragonite. My favorite Pokemon ever, except maybe for Ditto. I have a team of six Dragonites in my Soul Silver, I love this Pokemon so much. Would it win any competitive event? Absolutely not. But I can't bring myself to care. They is just so adorably derpy.

Sylveon Lvl 79
This actually took a while for me to get. Those mini games to make Eevee happy can be a bit tedious, and I went through at least three Eevees before I got one that evolved just as it got the level 10 fairy move. Teary Eyes or something.

Garchomp Lvl 73
He is a giant shark dragon, plus his base stats are just silly. I still have a pile of adamant Gibles after breeding mine.

Greninja Lvl 80
Ninja frog is a boss. Menace covered this already, though.

Gengar Lvl 72
Gengar is one of the creepiest Pokemon in my opinion. He is pretty awesome though, and I would be lying if I said that Mega Gengar is not pretty cool.

Blaziken Lvl 68
My favorite starter of the past three generations, by far. A fighting chicken is just a glorious concept. Took way to long to breed one with a decent nature and speed boost though.

The last two are way under the levels of the other four because they were bred and plopped into my team right before the seventh badge, while the others were bred just after I found my first Gible. I used the GTS to get a Dratini, but the others were caught/bred independently. The Blazekin came from the promotional Torchic, although I had to breed a second because the one I received was modest -_-

Anyone want any starters, by the way? If so, let me know, i have extras of all of them.

 

I'm surprised you didn't include Blaziken in your lineup Menace. 160 base attack, 100 speed, and speed boost ability? If you can setup sun (*wonders how hard it is to find a Drought Ninetails*), that's it though overkill for Elite 4

 

@Menace and anyone else with a Goodra: Powerwhip is amazing. It wasn't particularly strong or useful (because who needs grass for coverage and Goodra is skewed towards SPA instead of ATK) but fuck if it doesn't look amazing.

Goodra whips his head forward flinging its tendrils forward. Scene cuts to the opposing pokemon and turns into a green background with black silhouettes, when fifty black-silhouettes of tentacles fly out and lash at the enemy. It's straight cthulu-esque amazingness.

Love my Goodra but mine is -defense natured which makes him really fall over to physical attackers.

 

Just beat the champion a little bit ago. I won't go into too much detail, but my final party was: Chesnaught, Hawlucha, Mantine, Chandelure, Bisharp, Nidoking, listed in order of when I got it.

I'm pretty disappointed in my Bisharp this time around. It didn't really carry its weight once I hit the Elite Four. During gen 5 it was one of my stronger dudes. Oh well, I'll need to figure something out once I get a Tyranitar anyway.

 

Charizard X looks the best, so I want it X purely cus of that. Might go buy myself the game & console later.

Also - http://www.geekosystem.com/lumiose-city-glitch/

 

Just a note for anyone using honedge/doublade...

Don't go through special training with it, as the stat change during evolution to Aegislash can muck everything up. Doublade was one of my most dependable, but due to the drop in attack and then the ability change, the fact I'd done a bit of speed training means he dies to basically any- and everything. If I get a reset bag whilst training up my Helioptile, I may switch it back out. But currently, it's looking like I may not get to use a sword to beat the E4.

 

Aegislash is awesome, and a little tactical to use. What his form switching does is swap his BASE stats, nothing else. He's got 150/150 defenses while in shield form, and 150/150 attacks while in attack form. He's purposefully slow, so you're supposed to take a hit in your shield form awesome defenses, then attack with the attack form attack stat. Now he's frail... but next turn, use your priority protect enemy attack -2 move, King's Shield, and lol, the enemy attacks when you're in shield form again. You can also set up with Swords Dance easily.

But yeah, Brave nature, Attack/HP EVs. Wreck shit.