So I play one of the newer pokemon games since I recently got a 3ds, if you call soul silver "new", and I get obliterated by the Elite 4. I haven't played a pokemon game in years. Any one got any useful tips? =D
Excuses. Red is the badass champion Ash is supposed to be based off of, except Ash sucks and Red doesn't.
I'm going on info based on my knowledge from the 3rd gen games. My team consists of: A lv 46 Feraligatr It has a rash nature and its ability is torrent Its moves are ice fang, crunch, surf, and slash. lv 43 Fearow Its has a mild nature and its ability is keen eye. Its moves are aerial ace, fly, pursuit, and fury attack. lv 46 Ampharos It has a sassy nature and its ability is static Its moves are thunderpunch(looking to replace), charge, discharge, and thunderwave lv 40 Kangaskhan It has a quit nature and its ability is Early Bird Its moves are Strength, Outrage, Earthquake, and Crunch lv 40 Dragonair It has a naive nature and its ability is shed skin Its moves are extreme speed, thunder wave, aqua tail, and dragon pulse lv 46 Alakazam It has a naive nature and its ability is Inner focus Its moves are Psychic, shadow ball, calm mind, and reflect. I'm slowly training them all to at least 46 before I try to take on the Elite 4 again. Any improvements I should consider?
You could beat the league with that team almost no problem, the only think you'd have trouble with is the Dark League member, and even then the first time she's pretty pathetic. Seems like none of your pokemon are good against dark pokemon though, so you'll have some issues with her. But be careful of Lance's pokemon, because even though they're dragon and weak to ice, a lot of them have ridiculous attack stats
Yeah I lost to him on my first run with my pokemon at lv 40. Should I replace thunderpunch with signal beam? I'm not sure if that's a good move or not.
Natures for Feraligatr, Fearow, and Kangaskhan aren't that good. Though I guess with the first, that's excusable, since otherwise you'd have to keep restarting the game to get a good nature. Move sets are alright, but you really should be giving Ampharos Thunderbolt. One of the best Electric moves, and it works well with the naturally high Sp. Atk. Fearow shouldn't have a horrible move like Fury Attack. Drop Fearow. Evolve Dragonair. He can take the place for Flying type, if you don't just find another suitable replacement. Kangaskhan is eh. I'd say switch him for a good Ground type, like Nidoking or Gliscor (takes care of Koga) I'm also seeing a distinct lack of quite a few types of moves. Fire is great for coverage, and Fighting is really good to take care of Karen's Dark team. You can also add a few more Ice users, for taking care of Lance.
He's fine keeping Kengaskhan as long as it has a fighting type, because than it would actually be a great fighter against Karen will be much easier. And it doesn't matter too much about the Natures if he's not going competative. I've always been able to beat my way through every pokemon game without worrying about the Natures. Only when I started doing the Battle Frontier and over wifi did I really need to worry about the Natures all that much. And while Fearow isn't that great of a pokemon, it does have the necessary attack to do what's needed, especially since it's the attacker while pidgeot is the defender in that game. If it learned Drill Peck though it'd be much easier since it's one of the better moves for it, probably replace Fury Attack with it. And it'll take a while to evolve Dragonair, so you gotta give him a break on that one. But it'll be good to have 2 pokemon to work with flying attacks, because there's weakness both have that both will have to deal with in the League that the other can take care of. And while a ground type is good, he doesn't really need it, it would just make it easier. He could probably teach Kengaskhan earthquake if he has it, which he should since it's found in Victory Road. It might help a little. Then you can deal with the Psychic and Dark type pokemon. You're probably better of teaching Thunderbolt in place of Thunderpunch, depending on which stat is higher. Although I think in the long-run Thunderbolt might be better, since Ampharos is a Sp. Attacker. What you really need though is stronger pokemon, or a lot of revives and full restores/hyper potions (depends if you want to go for the more expensive, but stat-healing item as well. I do, since you're bound to deal with a lot of stat afflictions) Even still, make your pokemon all at least lv47-48, and it might make things a little easier. Some people win with weaker pokemon, but they make use of stat-boosting moves and such, and you don't have a team for that, so you need higher levels, which might be better at the moment
I'm taking my time with the game, if I were to level up dragonair to lv 55 for dragonite I'd have a pokemon that could probably partially sweep through Vance's team with little challenge. Thunderbolt is annoying to obtain since the only place I know where to get it is the game corner. I'm also having the same problem getting a decent fire move because flamethrower is also only available through the game cornor. The only reason why I'm keeping kangaskhan is because of its physical attack power its decent enough for me. The one thing I will agree with is that fury attack is a horrible move, Fearow just hasn't learned anything useful to replace it. I'll probably just use a tm for that.
Kangaskahn is alright, but I'd rather he had a Ground or Fighting type that will get the Same Type Attack Bonus. I still wanted to detail how his natures for them are. Fearow's ATK is alright, but his move pool and other stats are just too little for a slot that could be filled by something much more adaptable and overall balanced. Yeah, evolving him is a given. Earthquake is a godly move.
While I always use a Pidgeot, a moveset you could use for Fearow might be: Drill Peck/Aerial Ace, Return, U-Turn, and Fly. But that's just something I might do. Fearow doesn't have a great movepool, so you gotta make do with TMs. You don't really need a fire move either. It could help against Koga, but it's not necessary. You'd rather he had one, but you are not him. Besides, it would take more time to train a Nidoking/Nidoqueen than just improve his already strong Kengaskhan. If he gave it Return, then the STAB would be killer right there. Not too mention it would help against most pokemon. And he could teach it Brick Break, Earthquake, and a filler move for the fourth and he'd have a decent Kengaskhan right there.