Sunday, June 24, 2012

BW2 info - Going forth

We're still getting more info, it's just not stopping! This game looks massive! As usual, check out whatever you may have missed in yesterday's post.

- Completing the Unova Dex gives you two rewards: the new fertility item discovered a few days ago, and access by plane to a new area, the Nature Sanctuary, where a shiny Haxorus lurks. They're just giving out shinies like candy, huh? At least they make you jump through hoops for this thing, instead of being there for the taking without having to do a thing. (Edit 11:11: On another page, Serebii says that you only need to see them all. Poor guy's been awake so long lately, he has all the consistency of water.)

- Completing the National Dex (are events required? I doubt it) gives you the item that increases the chances of finding a shiny. I don't think many players will be getting this... I'll be honest: it's probably the best way they could handle that item. It has to be really, really hard to get, otherwise shinies will be even more worthless than they already are. It's also a really nice reward for sinking so many hours into filling the National Dex... so much better than a diploma.

- Confirmed: Resolution Keldeo still has Justified. At this point I don't think it's even worth calling a form as far as gameplay goes, just an extra cosmetic thing.

- We now know the Pokémon that can appear in the Icy Hole, the new Dream World area! It's going to be the moment of truth for Sandslash, who finally gets Sand Rush. If it doesn't become useful now, it never will. Golem gets Sand Veil, which is a major improvement over Sturdy and Rock Head. Steelix gets a major boost with Sheer Force as well. Aftermath Electrode? Pass. Battle Armor Marowak isn't so good, but it's still better than Rock Head and Lightningrod. Rattled Dunsparce? Bleh, Serene Grace is its main thing. Contrary is a waste on Shuckle, Pickpocket Weavile sucks because you need to not have an item for it to work, Scrappy Exploud is actually sort of cool... As for Sand Force Probopass, Magnet Pull is its big thing, and it's not an offensive Pokémon to begin with. Heavy Metal Aggron is lame, because it's so heavy to start with that its Heavy Slam is already at maximum power, as well as opposing Low Kicks and Grass Knots. Moody Glalie is banned, no comment on that, while Cursed Body on Froslass is questionable at best. Oblivious Spheal and Soundproof Bastiodon suck, and the two gen 5 Pokémon available are Mold Breaker Excadrill and Mold Breaker Druddigon, which have much better choices available.

- In addition, some gen 5 Pokémon are found in the Sparkling Sea. Namely, Mold Breaker Basculin (interesting, but Adaptability is more consistently good), Regenerator Alomomola (best ability by far) and Sand Veil Stunfisk (use on sand teams, Static otherwise).

- Have you ever heard of a game abusing its own bugs? I haven't... until now. You know that bug where you don't take Life Orb recoil on a move affected by Sheer Force? Iris' Druddigon has Sheer Force and a Life Orb. Yeah, they went there.

- The E4 rematches will pit you against quite a few held items. For instance, Grimsley's Liepard has a Normal Gem, in order to upgrade its Fake Out into a HUUUUUGE FAKE OUT. Iris herself uses six items, in the same fashion Cheren did in the final battle against him in BW1.

- In his gym leader page, Serebii reports that Elesa has a Joltik, whereas she didn't have one in the previously leaked lineup. If accurate, Elesa becomes the only gym leader to have four Pokémon. (Edit 11:05: It's not accurate, it comes from another lineup Elesa has, presumably a double battle roster for the Fanservice Tournament.)

- The Icy Cave allegedly also contains Diglett, Gible, Snover, Cranidos and Cleffa. Unaware Clefable will provide a good alternative to Quagsire, but you'll have to let go of Magic Guard in the process. Tough choice... As for Dugtrio, Sand Force just isn't good enough. If it weren't for Arena Trap, it would've required an evolution a long time ago. Sheer Force Rampardos... no comment. Because it didn't have enough attack power. (To be fair, it could have a lot more and it would still suck. That speed, man.) And I can't see anyone get excited for Rough Skin Garchomp and Soundproof Abomasnow. Bleck.

- Two new pairs of version exclusives: Sudowoodo and Plusle are in Black 2, while Mr. Mime and Minun are in White 2. Meh, the only one that even approaches being decent is Mr. Mime. (Edit 17:13: Volbeat is also in Black 2, and Illumise in White 2. Obviously, the former wins out.)

- There's a dozen hidden areas throughout Unova called Hidden Hollows that can contain Pokémon with their DW ability. So far, Liepard, Minccino and Foongus have been found. Prankster Liepard... could be interesting, not because Liepard's any good (it isn't), but because Prankster is so good. (Edit 19:09: Zebstrika and Marill were found as well. Azumarill already had Sap Sipper, so no difference there, but Zebstrika didn't. Whether you want to use it or Motor Drive is your call. Personally I prefer Sap Sipper, because Zebstrika is already really fast, and it already resists Electric anyway, so the Grass immunity is more welcome.)

- Speaking of Liepard, seems like some TM compatibility lists have been changed, because Liepard can now use U-Turn! Please, tell me if you find something interesting in there. (Edit 18:19: Massive improvement for Klinklang, who gets Wild Charge.)

- I don't want to over-rush things, but it seems like everything in the Dream World has been accounted for, with only three new Pokémon in old areas, all in the Sparkling Sea. Why nowhere else? The Windswept Sky has always been by far the most boring area, surely they could've thrown in Pidove, Woobat, Ducklett, Rufflet, whatever? I could've even settled for Venomoth, Beautifly, anything but NOTHING!

11 comments:

  1. I think Serebii saying Joltik was in Elesa's team is just an accident, seeing as every other Unova Gym Leader except for the first and second gym leaders of each game only have three Pokemon.

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    1. I think I found out why. I'll update that bullet point right away.

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  2. You forget to mention that Swinub is available which Means Thick Fat Mamoswine can have Ice Shard.

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  3. On the note of new TM compatability, Klinklang now gets Wild Charge in Black 2 and White 2

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  4. Talking competitively for a moment, after spending the afternoon laddering on Pokemon Showdown (finishing ~87 and facing a few big names on the way), I have to say that a Heatran/Slowbro/Amoonguss fwg core is amazing in this meta. Heatran destroyed the few sun teams that I faced, and Slowbro + Amoonguss provides a solid defensive backbone for my team. My friend recommended Bronzong for the team, and it complements the core nicely, absorbing ground moves and solidly checking Tornadus-T, which is THE rain sweeper at the moment. Scarf Thundurus-T is also fantastic - 145 base SpA is nothing to mess with, and with Timid and a scarf Thundurus outspeeds threats like standard DDnite at +2. I haven't seen too many Landorus-Ts, but the ones I have seen have been generally underwhelming. It's sort of like Swampert in a respect, and Landorus-I can generally do it's job better if it's in sand.

    About Prankster Liepard... I never thought i would ever say this, but it might pierce to boundaries of the upper tiers. There was a DW warstory on Smogon a while back, and Liepard was just omg in the battle. Granted, I thought Whimsicott would still be OU by this point too, so you never know.

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    1. I remember shilling a warstory that hardcore Smogonites took a ferocious dump on in one of my LP videos, I wonder if it was that one...?

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    2. Probably, but it would be very hard to find now, since a lot of old threads (especially warstories) got deleted when they rearranged their forums. I'm not sure about the negative response, I read the warstory when it was first posted, but I saw a couple DW battles on PO where someone was using that team, and the opponent would always say something like "fag team" or "wow."

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    3. Was it this?

      http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3456840

      I turned out to be trolled for this by either the Smogon Thought Police, or someone pretending to be it. Multiple accounts, for what it's worth.

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    4. Yeah, that was it. I didn't know they still kept those in Socialization. And yeah, it obviously wasn't a serious team or warstory, so the hate for it (and subsequently, you) is really uncalled for.

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  5. Even though they are very far behind Serebii concerning news about the games themselves, the Pokémon Database classified all the move tutors and updated every Pokemon's learnset quite fast.

    Here are a good bunch of things I found interesting, sorry if it's crazy long. :

    - Serperior gets Outrage(I think it's funny how the only Starter type to get it in every Gen is Grass)
    - Arcanine gets Outrage too. (Which it didn't have before)
    - Idem for Scrafty, along with Dragon Pulse and Dual Chop. (Why do they keep giving it Dragon attributes ?)
    - Archeops also gets it... Along with Roost. I don't know if it will impact the metagame or not, but I think it's scary...
    - All the Elemental Monkeys got Gunk Shot for some obscure reasons. (Probably to emphasize on how they're garbage.)
    - Musharna got Heal Bell and Pain Split, thus expanding its support options a little.
    - For all the fans of the Special Sweeping Gigalith, I announce it gets Earth Power now. Oh, and also Superpower, yay. (XD)
    - Excadrill finally has the possibility to use its Steel STAB with Iron Head... and also gets Stealth Rock.
    - As predicted, Conkeldurr got all the Elemental Punches.
    - For some reasons, Krookodile gets a shit-ton of useless Special moves, along with Low Kick, Stealth Rock and Superpower.
    - Maractus can now apparently learn Drain Punch. I won't even try to question that logic.
    - Sigilyph should be able to make good use of Heat Wave.
    - Cofagrigus gets Pain Split as a "better than nothing" mean of recovery.
    - Garbodor gained Drain Punch, which should upgrade its durability a little. (But not enough to make it good)
    - Reuniclus gets the Elemental Punches along with many other physical moves... Yay ?
    - Jellicent wants to learn Giga Drain. Delete Energy Ball for Giga Drain ?
    - I don't know how the hell it's possible, but Galvantula can now learn Magnet Rise. Not that it actually needs it... Oh, and also, Giga Drain.
    - Eelektross got a pretty big expansion of its physical movepool.
    - Beheeyem can now actually do something against Dark types with Signal Beam.
    - Stunfisk gets Stealth Rock.
    - Druddigon actually has somewhat of a movepool to abuse Sheer Force with now. Not that it really matters.
    - Golurk got all the punches it didn't had yet.
    - Hydreigon can now learn Roost.
    - Thundurus apparently DIDN'T get Heat Wave while Tornadus did. Oh.
    - Reshiram can now bring a whole new meaning to overkilling Rock types with Earth Power.
    - All the Gen 5 legendary Dragons got Roost as a mean of recovery. Dunno why they did that.

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  6. S-soundproof Abomasnow..? I need to go and lie down. For a very long time.

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