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What do you take in to account when picking pokemon for a party?

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bajuwa

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This applies to just about anything: looks, moves, types, EVs, abilities, etc...
Tell me ANYTHING that helps you pick a pokemon for your party.

If you want to know why I'm asking, here's a quick blurp:
I'm making a program that will aide in the party planning process, as well as 'analyzing' a party if you've already picked one out.
For more information, check out the project blog: http://pokepp.wikidot.com
The latest version ready for download is: http://pokepp.wikidot.com/blog:7
If you've got a suggestion you can also post it as a 'wish' here: http://pokepp-feedback.wikidot.com

Thanks everyone! The more I know, the better I can make this program (which is almost ready for its beta release~)
 
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I used to be into EV training but it started to suck the fun out a little for me and turned Pokemon more into a grinding game, so I don't really pay attention to it anymore. I do try to have a balanced team type-wise, and I normally look for a fire-type, grass-type, flying-type, and water-type as staples for my team. I also look for rock or ground-types, normal-types and also a psychic, ghost or dark-type. Pokemon types I DON'T look for are probably electric, steel, and dragon, although if their stats or their looks are awesome I'll definitely consider it. So yeah, looks are definitely a big thing when it comes to filtering out Pokemon for my team, but I'll pick the more useful less-interesting Pokemon over the really weak or useless cute Pokemon. I generally try to make sure each Pokemon has a role, like I'd have an attacker, an annoyer, a special attacker, and so forth. I don't stick purely to that but it's a useful guideline for when I'm trying to develop a team.
 
The most important aspects when choosing a Pokémon are their designs and types to me. I don't really care about this "balanced team" stuff, I prefer to have an "unbalanced team" and use the Pokémon I like the designs and types. For example, my current Platinum team has three Steel-types (Empoleon, Scizor, Lucario) and I would have four, should Mawile be available in the game. As you see, I don't have a single Grass- or Fire-type, yet I am yet to lose to any trainer in the games. Also, my Pokémon Y team will probably have tons of Dark-types (Malamar, Pangoro and probably Chespin's evo). I think playing this way is more fun than over-analyzing and having always the same default types in a team (one Fire, one Grass, one Water, one Flying, etc).

Of course, I am aware that my way of playing the games isn't suitable for the competitive scene.
 
^ Yeah I'd probably falter pretty quickly in a competitive battle too.

I agree that too much overanalyzing ruins the game for me, but I like having the default types since those generally are Pokemon I really like (ie, Lilligant for grass, Swanna for water/flying, etc). The deepest I go is the stats the game presents to me forthright and that's it. I know a lot of people do IV and EV training though, so that might be good to put into that program you're making. Don't forget to provide a link here, I'd be really interested in taking a look at how my team is analyzed. :)
 
I pretty much only choose based on designs and types. I like having a balanced-type team for more coverage. I don't EV train so I tend not to care that much about stats, as long as they aren't completely terrible.
 
I just catch whatever looks interesting, and leave room for an HM slave.
 
I take design, types, and Natures/Abilities into account.

I normally pick Pokemon whose design I really like or if it's just a Pokemon I like in general. For example, half of my White team is pretty laughable statwise (Emolga, Cinccino, Liepard), but I found Pokemon cute. This is a problem for me, sometimes, since some of them don't evolve (Mawile, Chatot, Emolga, Corsola) which makes them weaker than average Pokes.

There have been times when I don't think a Pokemon looks the absolute best (Excadrill in Black 2), but I used it for it's type and power (plus Excadrill is cool). Or, I just happen to come across a Pokemon that could be useful later on (Dugtrio in LeafGreen, Golduck in White 2) so I just use them.

I think it's important to have good attacking type coverage, so I don't use two Pokemon of the same type unless one of them is dual-typed, since it seems redundant (except in Crystal when I used Togetic, Jumpluff, Xatu, and Pidgeot; dual-types, yes, but caught because I thought they would be neat to use). Defending type coverage is important, too, but something I failed epically in Black 2 (Lucario, Weavile, and Excadrill all weak to Fighting) and somewhat in Crystal and LeafGreen when I used too many Flying-types.

Speaking of which, I also try to always have a Water-type and a Flying-type for Surf and Fly since it's a pain to run to a PC every time I need those moves, plus having to leave a Pokemon behind.

Finally, Natures and Abilities. For an in-game team (specifically after Gen III), I'm not too picky on Natures. But I'm not going to use an Adamant Starmie (which I, ironically, have in LeafGreen) or something like that. I don't even EV train until after the main game, when my team will already have gotten all their EVs anyway, so there's no point in being super picky about them.

Abilities are more important, though. This was a big issue I had in White, especially since I kept getting the nature I didn't want on the first Pokemon I caught (Technician Minccino, Unburden Purrloin, Overcoat Solosis). Abilities often override Natures for me. The best example I have is also in White when I caught a Modest Petilil, but it had Chlorophyll and a Lax Petilil with Own Tempo. I HATE Lax Nature more than any other Nature, but I had to use it so I could spam Petal Dance with Own Tempo.

So yeah, it may seem like a lot, but most of it is just coverage in combination with having some quality that I like about it.
 
For me, I always try to diversify my stats, I want at least one Pokemon with balanced stats, one with high attack, one with high special attack, one who can take physical hits, and one who can take lot's of special attacks. I then try to line that up with my type selection: one grass, one fire, one water, one flying, and two "Wild cards", usually either electric type or psychic. Oh, and having a pokemon with Dual screens is nice for later in the game.
 
The most important stat for me is the Exp Gain rate. Sure, Snorlax is going to have better stats than Ledian, but Ledian also requires 1/3 less Exp than Snorlax. I would NEVER take more than 1 pokemon from the slow exp group.

If you're going to fight a level 40 Xatu in the Elite Four, would you rather fight it with a level 35 Snorlax or a level 45 Ledian? There are arguments for both.
 
These are mosly ordered not by prefference, but rather at which point of the playthrough am I at.


Early on as I start the game, the design and concept: What IS the pokémon? Do I like it, and its resulting design? Does it have concepts and theming I feel like using?

Then my playthrough history: Have I used something like that before? Do I want to? Is it something that could be interesting to play with?

Then, as I am already planning a team better and not just picking random stuff in-testing, I think of team cohesion and strategy: How does this pokémon interact with the rest of the team? What roles would it have? What can it provide, and what can I do supporting it? Would it have a fun strategy along the rest of the team?

Later on only particular pokémon really get an spot on the stablished team, I think if there's some particular miscelaneous reason I'd want it: Is there something on the pokémon that makes it so I want to replace a team member with it?

Finally, if I am catching the pokémon, or have it already, I look at its stats and nature. This includes waiting for a wild that seems more suitable for what I want it than the others, or if I'm on the edge on whether to take or not something these details become the deciding factor.


It's not really as mechanical as I made it look like, just a deconstruction of "picking up what I feel like". Which is really followed in different ways deppending on what am I even playing in the first place. (A re-run, my "main" playthrough, etc)

Furthemore, I consider a "party" not just the "active" six pokémon, generally I suffle around like 10 for a main, and then have a secondary less trained party. But this also applies to arranging a party for an specific purpose.
 
Karpi said:
The most important stat for me is the Exp Gain rate. Sure, Snorlax is going to have better stats than Ledian, but Ledian also requires 1/3 less Exp than Snorlax. I would NEVER take more than 1 pokemon from the slow exp group.

If you're going to fight a level 40 Xatu in the Elite Four, would you rather fight it with a level 35 Snorlax or a level 45 Ledian? There are arguments for both.
Click to expand...

Wow, I had actually never thought of that before, but it makes sense especially if you're introducing a new pokemon to the party at a late stage (or need to quickly train a replacement for a gym leader)
I'm going to add that to one of the project suggestions, hopefully I'll be able to work on that feature soon X)
 
Since the person above elaborated on the structure of their team, I'll explain mine since it's kind of formulaic (for my modern teams, that is. I completely concede that in my 2nd and 3rd gen games my team compositions were 100% random with no logic).

I have a powerful pokemon that is either grass or water type (I especially like to go for the water/ground ones), and then 2 more powerful pokemon that complete my type coverage and cover my weaknesses. Usually I have a non-fire type with a fire move, but lately I've just been going straight to fire types themselves.

Then I have a cutesy/sentimental pokemon that's on my team to give it character, and this pokemon usually has a backstory. Right now I'm using a Purugly, for an example. On one of my other teams, I used Shedinja for a challenge.

The rest of the spots are intentionally left open for anything I might see that looks interesting that I haven't used before.
 
Wellspring Station said:
^ Yeah I'd probably falter pretty quickly in a competitive battle too.

I agree that too much overanalyzing ruins the game for me, but I like having the default types since those generally are Pokemon I really like (ie, Lilligant for grass, Swanna for water/flying, etc). The deepest I go is the stats the game presents to me forthright and that's it. I know a lot of people do IV and EV training though, so that might be good to put into that program you're making. Don't forget to provide a link here, I'd be really interested in taking a look at how my team is analyzed. :)
Click to expand...

Yup, EV/IV is something I'm going to incorporate once I've got the basics. Right now it only really includes pokemon and their moves, and everything is focused on 'types' (which thankfully seems like a common thing for everyone here to consider!) Natures and abilities will be including in the next couple releases, along with bug fixes and minor tweaks,

As for checking it out, I posted the blog link in the first post, but here it is again for better reference: pokepp.wikidot.com

Sorry it can't be a link (I don't have enough posts yet i think), and also sorry the program itself is not very expansive yet. I released it yesterday and will keep working on all the bugs/lack of features I know it has, but I want to try and get at least a few people to try and get some initial feedback XD
Also, it's an excel based program so hopefully that isn't a hindrance to too many people
I know Microsoft Word is common enough, either through legitimate means or not, so I'm hoping the same extends for Microsoft Excel XD
And also: No, you don't have to know ANYTHING about how to use excel, that's all hidden from the user anyways =)
 
I use Pokemon that I like rather than ones that are just strong. For example, I love Eevee and its Eevolutions, so each game Eevee is available in, I use it. Also I pick Chimchar every time I play DPPt.
 
I like to build it depending on whether I've used them or not and how good they are. I swear I can never take someone who uses, say, a Pikachu (without a Light Ball) seriously, because it's so bad. But I would use Serperior because I've never used one before. Also, I usually use the version mascot (Except for Lugia in SoulSilver because I was lazy and didn't want to buy Ultra Balls), and usually have two steels. I also sometimes have a large flaw in my team, making it that much more fun and challenging. It is usually underleveling, but in SoulSilver, I only chose slow Pokemon for my team (Feraligater, Ampharos, Sudowoodo, Magmortar, Scizor, Dragonite). I didn't even notice this flaw until post-game, where gym leaders began kicking my butt multiple times, due to my slowness and underleveling. Finally, I usually have the elemental trio (Water, Grass, Fire)
 
How cool they look always comes first. After that, I look at nature and base stats, and sometimes IVs. So, I'll maybe catch a few of them and release the ones that aren't as good.

The only exception to that is when I'm Gym battling, and I'll try and have one Pokemon in my team which is super effective against the Gym. But, still, out of the super effective Pokemon, it's always the best looking one.
 
First: if it looks cool. Second: what movepool it has. I usally pick one flyer and one surfer in the team. And I have a preference for 3-stage Pokémon, but this is not necessary.

I've never cared about IV's, EV's etc. (because I rarely battle online and it kills all the fun for me) so I don't consider final stats and natures or anything.
 
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