Venomoth or Ariados

[Kingfrost78]

So I just caught a shiny Venonat but on my team I got an Ariados so who should I use and also I'm about to face Florinia so which one would be good against her.

[Animefan666]

Based solely on stats, Ariados is stronger than Venomoth.

[Swampellow]

I would disregard the above comment if you are going by just a stat standpoint, as Venomoth has BST of 450 and Ariados is only 390

 

Plus Venomoth is much better anyway.

[lifesapity]

Venomoth is prob better until Aridos gets Sticky Web at least (even if I would use gavatuala instead)

[Maltor]

You've also got to take into accout their IV's and their (potential) movesets. But if you place aesthetics above an easier time in the game, then go for the shiny venomoth (assuming his IVs are worse than the Ariados).

[Gentleman Jaggi]

Their Offenses are about equal, with Venomoth having 90 Base SpAtk and Ariados 90 Base Atk and their other attacking stat at 65 (Venomoth) and 60 (Ariados). Their defenses are also very similar. Venomoth is however more than twice as fast as Ariados (90 Base Speed vs 40).

Their natural movepools both aren't shabby, getting some nice STABs of their chosen Attack stat and Coverage Moves, although Venomoth doesn't get any special Poison Moves via Level Up with its only choice being the rather out of the way Venoshock TM and both of them take quite some time to get their good moves. Venomoth's biggest asset is Quiver Dance, but by the time it learns that (Lv. 63 or Move Relearner) it likely might not even survive long enough to get the chance to boost itself. Ariados's only boost move right now is Fell Stinger; Ep17 should add Sword dance to its LevelUp pool, but that's still quite some time off.

Venomoth's three abilities (Shield Dust, Tinted Lens and Wonder Skin) probably all have some limited usage, but none of them are articularly good. Ariados gets Sniper, but only has a single attack that can abuse it; Insomnia and Swarm also have limited usage.

 

Ariados gets some useful attacks earlier than Venomoth, so it should be more useful against Florinia, but Venomoth's Quiver Dance gives it some better options later on.

They'll probably both start falling behind around the halfway point of the game; Ariados has practically nothing to raise its damage or survivability and Venomoth would rely on Quiver Dance to keep itself afloat, but there's little opportunity to even get some boosts.

 

[Fabled Asian]

Honestly it comes down to which you need more, a Physical Attacker or Special.

Ariados later in the game gets great utility like Toxic Spikes and Sticky Web and Priority moves like Sucker Punch and Shadow Sneak. It would be great on your team to take down fast psychic and ghost types that are low in health, and sticky web + toxic spikes will hinder some of the tanky and fast 'mons you will encounter. The downside is Ariados is very slow and you might not find too much use of Swarm and Insomnia, Sniper is great if you can increase his crit% for those clutch Sucker Punches and Shadow Sneak. I believe Reborn is still in GenVI so Leech Life may still be Base 20, but if I'm wrong then you have a Base 80 Move with Base 90 Attack with sustain.

Venomoth is faster than Ariados and is good in Special Attack and Defense. I would say Venomoth is more made for sweeping if you're lacking fast damage since it gets Quiver Dance. While the TM for Sludge Bomb is not currently in the game, Venomoth does get Psychic for mirror Poison and Fighting types.

Edited February 14, 2017 by Fabled Asian

[Simon]

As Fabled Asian mentioned, depends on what attacker you need for your team.

 

I prefer Venomoth though as it has access to Quiver Dance + Sleep Powder so you can set up with ease and a great ability in Tinted Lens that doubles the damage of moves that are not very effective. 

 

With Ariados, you do have some great moves in Swords Dance, Shadow Sneak, Sucker Punch, Cross Poison/Poison Jab, Sticky Web and its Egg Moves to back it up, it's low speed with not so great HP and Defenses makes it really vulnerable.