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your personal battle style (discussion)

Greninjaman

Greninjaman

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While everyone battles with Pokemon, how they go about doing it is different for each person. For example, there might be someone who relies on status moves to buff their Pokemon's stats, while another would go right for brute force. What do you do?

I personally go for the offense, using paralysis and poison to back me up. I like those two status conditions since they are permanent until cured. I also use protect.
 
I'm a fan of buffing up then promptly sweeping, so a combination of buffs and brute force. Imo unlike most rpgs, status moves aren't that important in Pokemon's story mode. They're still useful to have though - like Swords Dance on a Technician Scizor. Mine carried my party through SoulSilver.
 
Going for offense is always easy, but as I like to have my team roughly level-matched to the corresponding portion of story mode, most of my Pokemon keep at least one status move so I can dig in for the occasional long fight.

My yellow Oricorio in Sun, though ... status move city. By the end she only had one attack in her set, everything else was to debuff opponents and stall for time.
 
I’m an offensive sweeper. I really don’t have the patience for long, drawn out battles. It’s just a preference, but pokémon such as Snorlax really annoy me to no end. :p
 
OFFENSIVE CURB STOMP. THERE'S NO KILL LIKE OVERKILL.

Though I have been somewhat interested in developing unique strategies for pokemon. Though since I'm not really the type to play against anything but the AI my usual offensive is the most effective method of battle.
 
I like to surprise my oponet
like using Pyukumuku/Buizel
to Baton pass Aqua Ring and other stats to Wishiwashi with Leftovers.

or Pluck/Bug bite with pokemon that normally not learn it /from not the type of the move and use quite good.
(both moves should also steal items if you think about it)
 
Depends. I always carry setup sweepers and some bulky pivots. I definitely don't qualify under the hyper offensive rank, but maybe a mixture. I prefer to weaken my opponent with traps and statuses and safely setup on them, or just generally take advantage of type effectiveness.
 
I'm a simple person. I have strong Pokémon, I use brute force.

Sometimes I'll pull out a strong attack buffing move, occasionally I'll use sleep status effect, but most of the time I'm just having my Pokémon punch and ram the bologna out of everyone.
 
My style varies depending on the game, but I guess I could be generally classified as a causal balanced player. By that I mean I tend to strike a balance between overkill offense and moderate-paced defense with a casual approach, again depending on the game and available Mons. I don't just muscle my way through nor do I draw out the battle, but I do try to end the battle decently quickly for simplicity sake. I never go into competitive battling as a result, plus I just feel that competitive-bred Mons (and their trainers) are heartless killers who have the variety of vanilla yogurt and take the game too seriously. Though in some games I can enter the "no kill like overkill" mentality, like my first playthrough in Y, where all of my team except Gogoat were sweepers with high-powered and fast moves (Gogoat, again, was the exception, playing a more tankish role).

I also always have a variety of Mons on hand of many different types, and I'm shrewd enough to try to think like the opponent before a battle starts, though I'm not always successful, bar some lucky breaks (for example, my non-IV/EV neutral natured, aka: causal Greninja outsped a IV/EV Gale Wings Talonflame and KOed it with one use of Water Shuriken, which hit 5 times, helping me win that battle). Gen V is where I tend to shine the best, as I can generally find a very good balance with the Mons I choose, varying from the tankish Emboar to the speedy Galvantula and everything in between. It's one of the reasons I like Gen V the best (well, the first half more than the second half), and by far my largest and most successful online win record compared to other gens (to compare, out of roughly 100 online battles, I only lost 6 in Gen V, where in Gen VI, out of roughly 100 battles, I lost 75% of the time). That gen also helped me experiment more, mainly thanks to the infinite TMs and wider range of choices. I also try to avoid having too many common weaknesses, but I'm not always successful (said Y run, I had three Mons weak to Ghost, and various pairs were weak to Poison, Dark, and Fairy, so that hampered effectiveness a bit).

My need for buffing and status ailments varies, but I do like Burn and Paralysis the best, as they're constant and help me gain the upperhand (especially since I almost always start with a Fire starter, so Burn kinda comes with the package, though I know moves like Scald and Will-O-Wisp are more reliable there). I hate Toxic due to how insanely common it is to the point I don't recognize it as an actual "strategy" and see it more as a "cheater's move", so I never use it out of spite, despite knowing how powerful it is. In terms of buffing, it depends on what the Mon has available, though I prefer moves like Bulk Up or Hone Claws over Swords Dance and such (in short, I like moves that buff multiple stats at once VS a single stat sharply). It just feels more comfortable to me that way, especially since moves like Swords Dance have backfired on me horribly in the past, so I would rather take a passive approach to buffing than a quick one, since it's all I generally need. I'm also not big on weather or trapping moves, since they never really play into my favor much, though I do occasionally, but otherwise rarely, use Stealth Rock if the situation calls for it. But, again, weather and trapping moves aren't my thing (if this was Yugioh, however, Traps would be high on my list, as I love a good Trap Card, but that's another story).

Whew, sorry for the long-winded post, but I had a lot to explain on how my mind works in battles. Complex, isn't it? Though my mind is a strange place, even to me, so something like this isn't unheard of with me.
 
Are we just talking about the story mode? Because that makes a difference. Going through the game I enerally rely on type advantage, faulty AI, and the occasional status move depending on my current team to win.

If we’re talking about competitive (or rather, playing online with other people), my strategy is different. Not that I’m very good, but I AM more careful about choosing specific Pokémon and team combos.
I like to play doubles and I usually use Pokémon that others would see and write off as a non-threat. My favorite is pretty obvious by looking at my profile, eh? Jk, it’s actually Plusle. In gen 6 I used Plusle as the lead on my legendary killer team. Getting so fed up with seeing the primals and mega rayquaza, using Plusle to nuzzle and grass knot its way to victory was always extremely satisfying. It’s a little different now I’m gen 7, but the addition of drizzle Pelipper sure helps little Lord Plusle out ;)

I guess other than that, I like using somewhat gimmicky strategies. It’s not always successful, and as I’ve said I’m not too good, but it’s always satisfying to win by topsy-turvy-ing a belly drummer or the old TerraCott trick.
 
I really like using balanced Pokemon who are capable of taking hits, but this is usually incompatible with my eccentric tastes... weak, odd Pokemon who people claim are useless. I like proving them wrong, so that's why in Fire Emblem I always get the crap players and make men out of them. I'm like Li Shang from Mulan.

You're a spineless, pale, pathetic lot
And you haven't got a clue
Somehow I'll make a man out of you

Yup. That's my method of support. No group hugs here.
I prefer not to be overpowered or faint my enemies with the first move - I prefer to drag out my battles. And I can't abide slow Pokemon. So I try and have crappy weaklings who are fast, and I always use a lot of status moves and MooMoo Milks and Revives. That's why I can never afford shirts. Its a cruel cycle but hey, I'm happy with it.

I don't do competitive. I used to, and back then I'd just panic and throw the most powerful move forward. I didn't enjoy it much, really, and I like being able to use Bug types and Rocks and Normals.
 
I wish I could say I fought online at least once but I can't, for technical reasons (you'll figure it out if you'll think hard enough. Ahem. No, NOT because I am that bad). So I can only speak about the game story battles and they've been TOO f*cking easy for me lately so take it the way you want...

When it comes to battling, I have two kinds of strategy - the one I hope to achieve (it usually fails) and the one that actually works for me. I wanted to master slow, wall-like pokemon - and I failed. I wanted to master gimmicks to stylishly confuse my opponent - and I failed, too. I wanted to take underrated pokemon and make them work - and failed spectacularly.

It turned out I am good at: finding good type balance, mastering one type, avoiding common mistakes, quick pokemon like flying, electric or sturdy pokemon like steel (but preferably quick, too). I guess I am good at flexibility, I loved fighting with borrowed pokemon in Platinum because my choice of pokemon usually worked and the variety of types trainers used was really to my liking. I don't think I could ever be a competitive player because you have to put a lot of effort into training your pokemon and then battle the endless stream of same teams that exploit some gimmick. It would just bore me so much. But the games lately are so easy I don't even have to use my famed flexibility to defeat leaders.
 
When I was relatively new to the games, I tended to be plain offensive to win a battle, generally not relying on status moves for their powerful and, sometimes game changing, effects. As I watched other people battle and as my personal experience grew, I fully understood the impact that these moves may have in a given battle, and have changed my battle style to using status moves as well. Needless to say, this has really worked wonders for me.

When it comes to selecting moves for my Pokémon... Eh, in a similar vein to the anime, I tend to have a variety of moves on my party (which usually consists of 20-30 Pokémon per game), so one may not always find the best move on a select Pokémon's moveset on my team. As quirky it might sound, it is what it is... :p;) Nah, it is actually an attempt to not be overpowered or faint my opponent with the first move - I prefer to drag out my battles than just six turns per battle. :)

Obviously, no strategy works perfectly for all Pokémon out there, so improvising is very important. That is an important lesson I have learnt on my way, to be the best, like one ever was. :whistle:(y)
 
Fast offense is how I usually like to go about in Pokémon battles but I have been making recent efforts to shake things up and insert more variety. Nowadays, most of my teams have at least one member who's bulky and/or slow as dirt, like the Dusknoir I've added to my Platinum team during the last weekend.
 
I guess it really depends on whether we're talking the story or PVP.

In the story I generally just brute force my way through, while keeping a status move like Swords Dance or Toxic or something if the battle really calls for it. Because, let's face it, the story hasn't been hard since XY (I've heard USUM gets tough later on but I haven't gotten that far), you can basically do whatever you want, and even when they were difficult brute forcing it tends to get the result you need pretty well (though I admit that I'm totally gonna cheese Ultra Necrozma with my Zoroark).

In PVP, I actually put a lot more thought into things. I wouldn't say I really have a "style", beyond picking Pokemon I like and taking them to their peak potential. I tend to have a pretty standard formatting to my teams: Set-up 'mon (rocks, spikes, etc.), wall, physical sweeper, special sweeper, physical tank, special tank. Sweepers will have moves like Swords Dance or Nasty Plot in case I can pick out a good moment, and walls and set-up 'mons will always have attacking moves to avoid being completely locked by Taunts. This way I should (in theory) be able to handle most of whatever I have to deal with.
 
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