Any tips on my team?

[damurdara]

So after trying (and failing) to defeat Ciel so many times, I've decided to come to you guys for help xD. Anyway this is my Pokemon team , The first one being my current set up and the second being the one I plan on using. Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

[ArmoredGuardian]

Nice team!! But can you provide the movesets??

Edit: Oh god am I the only person who needs to know what I'm working with to help out @_@

Edited October 27, 2015 by ArmoredGuardian

[damurdara]

Sure Blaziken (with Black Belt): Flare Blitz, Blaze Kick, Fire Pledge, Sky Uppercut

Blastoise: (With choice band)(my TM dump) Strength, Dive, Waterfall, Surf.

Meowstic(With Twisted Spoon.) Flash, Trick Room, Psychic, Future Sight.

Zebstrika: Charge Beam, Wild Charge, Discharge, Thrash.

Darmantian: Flare Blitz, Superpower, Overheat, Rock Smash.

Swalot: Gunk Shot, Sludge Bomb, Gastro Acid, Belch.

(The other 2 along with Blastoise are expendable, as in I can switch them for stronger pokemon.)

[BIGJRA]

Be careful with your general team composition. While you certainly have a few powerhouses here, you are bogged down by a lot of redundancy.

Darmanitan and Blaziken are both great for fire physical sweepers, but you have only fire and fighting type moves on them. I recommend axing Darmanitan entirely. Furthermore, Meowstic, while I know it is a godsend early game, really underperforms at this point.

Consider replacing Meowstic with Ralts/Abra, or if you can't go back to access those two, consider Lapras to cover your special attacking side, as it can get psychic, surf, and ice beam, all of which are objectively useful for Ciel. Although I'm sure you don't want to do so much training, this eliminates the need for a weak blastoise (that really doesn't have use for choice band/physical attacks).

Swalot and Zebstrika I can't really say too much about.

The only other thing I think you should do is certainly diversify with some TM composition! You have a lot of physical and special STAB moves but I recommend you consider toying around with some other moves. (Some people will crucify me for saying this, but I don't think you need to waste your time learning IV's or the complicated Ep 12 breeding for egg moves system, just work with what you have and don't be afraid to try new Pokemon from post-Agate City!)

EDIT: Some Pokemon that I recommend you consider picking up that you can at this point for this gym:

Walrein

Rhyperior

Abomasnow

Weavile

Lapras

Electabuzz?

Milotic

Edited October 27, 2015 by BIGJRA

[Wolfram2700]

Blaziken could have a hard time in there, as he's part fighting and you're against flying. Her togekiss can be a pain, but if you take it out quickly it shouldn't be a problem; zebstrika should be able to take togekiss quickly. (if you can make her potion spam, even better.) then she sends her archeops, which has a choice band (at least i think it does, it always kept using earthquake on my pelipper). If your zebstrika is fast and strong enough, you should be able to sweep it, if not he'll surely kill you with earthquake: if he does send something strong or inmune to ground, as it'll keep spamming earthquake. Her noivern was a pain in the ass; i had to destiny bond it, so can't help you there. Try ice attacks if you have any, they are your best bet. Her talonflame should go down to a strong water attack, so no problem there, as your blastoise covers that. Her gliscor was easy to me, a critical fire blast from my delphox set it to sleep, but it was a lucky hit. As he's part ground, i'd suggest some ice attacks too, and same with mega altaria: use ice attacks, fairy, dragon, everything you have. I had no choice but to revive my weezing and use a second destiny bond, but i'm sure you can make it, as i believe your team to be better balanced for this fight.

Just keep trying, i'm sure you'll succeed!

[dead account]

My advice is more in general than just for Ciel's battle, so feel free to ignore this if you don't really care about how you're playing the game in general.

While having Same Type Attack Bonus is great, having 3 or 4 attacks of the same type on a pokemon is redundant. 2 of the same type should be the max on a pokemon(and if you have to have 2 of the same type, at least have them be useful in different situations), while the others should be for stat boosts or coverage.

Does Swalot really need to have 3 poison type attacks? I understand Swalot doesn't have much in the way of move diversity to begin with, but you could've tried to give it something else to work with, like Yawn.

Ampharos is a really good pokemon, I'm not sure why you would consider it expendable. While it's slow, its special attacks can certainly hit harder than Zebstrika's, and it gets a bit more variety in moves without needing tms. You really should consider using it.

You really should avoid teaching your main team HMs. Luckily, there is a move deleter in the Agate Circus so you can get rid of the useless ones(like Rock Smash and Dive). Consider getting another "HM slave". Using Blastoise as a HM slave seems like a huge waste, especially when you are leveling it up with the rest of your team anyway.

[Akiyama]

With your team I would recommend catching 1 or 2 more pokemon to help with ciel. Blaziken might not end up doing much but I would recommend replacing fire pledge with bulk up probably.

Ampharos is a definite choice especially with discharge since the paralysis chance could end up being you winning or losing.

I don't remember if you can have access to move deleter but get rid of dive and put something like icy wind on blastoise if possible.

Your cubchoo into beartic seems to be your best chance at beating her ace and it would be even better if you can manage to get rain dance set up, preferably by blastoise to make use of swift swim that beartic gets. I also feel you might want to keep zebstrika just for this fight due to it being so high in level and type advantage.

If possible try to get a rock type on the way to calcenon like rhydon, golem or gigalith?

[Komodojoe]

While I do admit that you have some strong pokemon on your team, it is, as mentioned a couple of times already, dragged down by a narrow moveset. Diversity is going to be your main key more often than not. I don't think any pokemon needs three attacks of the same type (granted, there are a few exceptions, but only when they're recommended). I would also recommend trying to use the field to your advantage. There are quite a few moves here that you can use that may help. Just a heads up though, you may need a bit of luck if you decide to do so. If there's something about the field that you're not sure of try looking here to get a refresher. If I remember correctly, there is also someone in Agate that can teach your pokemon bounce and I do believe Blaziken can learn it (... don't take my word for it). She's not Samson, but it can help a bit, since it actually uses the field effects.

... And I do believe that's it. Everyone else has covered everything else I can think of. Good luck.

[wytch_doctr]

Sure Blaziken (with Black Belt): Flare Blitz, Blaze Kick, Fire Pledge, Sky Uppercut

Blastoise: (With choice band)(my TM dump) Strength, Dive, Waterfall, Surf.

Meowstic(With Twisted Spoon.) Flash, Trick Room, Psychic, Future Sight.

Zebstrika: Charge Beam, Wild Charge, Discharge, Thrash.

Darmantian: Flare Blitz, Superpower, Overheat, Rock Smash.

Swalot: Gunk Shot, Sludge Bomb, Gastro Acid, Belch.

(The other 2 along with Blastoise are expendable, as in I can switch them for stronger pokemon.)

Zebstrika is a pure physical attacker, so Charge Beam and Discharge are useless. Ampharos is a good replacement for it.

Tms are replacable so there really is no use to have a mon specifically for TMs. If worst comes to worst an HM slave won't ruin your gameplay since before most major battles you have access to a PC.

Is fire pledge really needed on blaziken? I would swap with Brave Bird. You already have 2 fire moves.

Replace Meowstic with Ralts if possible. It's moveset isn't as good as Gardevoir's, and a Fairy type would be good.

Swalot really lacks diversity. All poison moves will hinder you greatly. A good Poison type can be Drapion whose only weakness is ground.

Again, Darmanitan is a physical attacker, so Overheat is redundant. Give him bulldoze as Sheer force boosts it to almost EQ level power.

These are just really general suggestions. Can we see your PC Box to give suggestions specific to Ciel?

A good stealth Rocks user will damage Ciel's team. I can't remember off the top of my head but there are lots of Rock types around the mountains so I'd look into those.

[Exalted]

Alright ill give you a straight forward on what to do drop almost everything that is not blaziken as most are kinda underwhelping at this point there is dramanitan but blaziken can do his job but better you can keep them around but give youre team a bit more diversity i recommend geting these follwing pokemon pick one from each set i recomend

metagross/agron/magnezone or excadrill

,feraligator(much better that blastoise if it has dragon dance in my opinion anyway)/walrein/lapras,

lucario/conkeldurr/mienshow ,

Alakazam(try geting one with magic guard with life orb)/gardivoir can be ever helpfull

last one honestly can keep what you want there many filler options including anyone from above if you want electric magnezone galvantula and electross are prety good can go with adaptability dragalgae as a posion type

also change blazikens moveset i recomend hi jump kick blaze kick brave bird and bulk up with wide lens you can drop bulk up for a straight offensive set and blaze kick for flare blitz(for more power and natural acuracy) but to be honest nothing is gonna survive a hit in this without sturdy or an item intervention with about 3 to 4 bulk ups off and you get a great opportunity to do this if you manage to get rid of ciels potions(around 3 of em) and leaving archeops with less than halp health by the help of a steel type which can mostly ohko the togekiss mostly switch into bliziken after defeatist set up a few bulk ups and spam hi jump kicks(gets a boost in this gym to boot)

Edit:yeah forgot earlier try geting gigalith or golem with sturdy and stealth rock as setup pokemon can easily get these at high lvl at the stage youre at

Edited October 27, 2015 by NovaKnight

[wytch_doctr]

Alright ill give you a straight forward on what to do drop almost everything that is not blaziken as most are kinda underwhelping at this point there is dramanitan but blaziken can do his job but better you can keep them around but give youre team a bit more diversity i recommend geting these follwing pokemon pick one from each set i recomend

metagross/agron/magnezone or excadrill

,feraligator(much better that blastoise if it has dragon dance in my opinion anyway)/walrein/lapras,

lucario/conkeldurr/mienshow ,

Alakazam(try geting one with magic guard with life orb)/gardivoir can be ever helpfull

last one honestly can keep what you want there many filler options including anyone from above if you want electric magnezone galvantula and electross are prety good can go with adaptability dragalgae as a posion type

also change blazikens moveset i recomend hi jump kick blaze kick brave bird and bulk up with wide lens you can drop bulk up for a straight offensive set and blaze kick for flare blitz(for more power and natural acuracy) but to be honest nothing is gonna survive a hit in this without sturdy or an item intervention with about 3 to 4 bulk ups off and you get a great opportunity to do this if you manage to get rid of ciels potions(around 3 of em) and leaving archeops with less than halp health by the help of a steel type which can mostly ohko the togekiss mostly switch into bliziken after defeatist set up a few bulk ups and spam hi jump kicks(gets a boost in this gym to boot)

Edit:yeah forgot earlier try geting gigalith or golem with sturdy and stealth rock as setup pokemon can easily get these at high lvl at the stage youre at

A lot of the pokemon you suggest aren't available at his point in the game. Alakazam, Metagross, Aggron, Excadrill, Magnezone, Dragalgae etc etc.

You can get the suggested Ice types though. they're easily available in the Ametrine/Citrine mountains

[mde2001]

You really should avoid teaching your main team HMs. Luckily, there is a move deleter in the Agate Circus so you can get rid of the useless ones(like Rock Smash and Dive). Consider getting another "HM slave". Using Blastoise as a HM slave seems like a huge waste, especially when you are leveling it up with the rest of your team anyway.

Not really needed anymore now that they are TMXs not HMs. You can delete TMXs at any time so an HM slave isn't needed.

I agree don't bother keeping rock smash for things like gym battles though.

Edited October 27, 2015 by mde2001

[Exalted]

oh yeah forgot about that you need ciels badge to return to the main city my stupidity all in that case mostly depends on youre box mostly now.

walrein and wevile(if you have razor claw) is a great addition as it ice type attacks hits practically everything in her team supereffective and lucario if you can get the riolu with egg moves on the get go(there are plenty of those in game but never checked for riolu on ep 15) to get bullet punch to be honest most steel type in this gym are miracle workers as the best counter here for them is archeops earthquake which if it enters defeatist is a dead bird cryogynal is also a fairly decent option as a speicial wall for her team and avalugg if no alternative is here for you get this guy with avalache and study one of the best counters for archops and can oh ko most others on ceils team and as for her talonflame literally just any rock type found up here and if stealth rock setup its half dead to begin with and as for the last major threat its togekiss or altaria just 2 words gunk shot from swalot and if one of em still lives have a sacrifice filler sturdy + explosion that will shoot her out of the sky

[Lyra]

A lot of the pokemon you suggest aren't available at his point in the game. Alakazam, Metagross, Aggron, Excadrill, Magnezone, Dragalgae etc etc.

You can get the suggested Ice types though. they're easily available in the Ametrine/Citrine mountains

Am I the only person around here that catches most new pokemons when I get into new area? Maybe OP has those mons in his pc, you never know. Or they can just revert to previous ep and get access to the rest of the game (I think Ciel was the ending to ep15, right?)

If you already revived sail fossil, I'd suggest to get aurorus. It's rock/ice and later it learns freeze dry, so that also covers water type pokemon. It has two great abilities, but I'd suggest that you stick with Snow Warning for now / blizzard set for now, since unfortunately the only strong normal type attack he has is hyper beam, and blizzard for now is still better.

[wytch_doctr]

Am I the only person around here that catches most new pokemons when I get into new area? Maybe OP has those mons in his pc, you never know. Or they can just revert to previous ep and get access to the rest of the game (I think Ciel was the ending to ep15, right?)

I meant that if he hadn't gotten them already he can't anymore. If he does have them, great! But if not, there isn't any way to get back.

Also, Ciel is the end of E15.

walrein and wevile(if you have razor claw) is a great addition as it ice type attacks hits practically everything in her team supereffective

I don't think you can get Weavile in E15. Razor Claw isn't an obtainable item yet, at least not in E15. We can get it when we return to Reborn City in E16 when we can access the upper department store though.

Any ice type does the trick though, but Priority with Ice Shard helps more.

[Exalted]

actually there is one way for razor fang but its a bit to long for my taste normally anyhow ice shards needs a solid attack backup to put a real dent there or just sturdy explosion everything on ciels team with a little cotton candy support( ahh bomber team memories for me) anyway a team with one or 2 pokemon that can counter each pokemon on ciel team can easily KO her only problem her mega and healing items best strategy teach blaziken bulk up and it has to have speed boost get archeops to near ko with no healing items left bulk up speed defense attk off the blody charts and just recover its health with ultra potion a few times thats it

[wytch_doctr]

actually there is one way for razor fang but its a bit to long for my taste normally anyhow ice shards needs a solid attack backup to put a real dent there or just sturdy explosion everything on ciels team with a little cotton candy support( ahh bomber team memories for me) anyway a team with one or 2 pokemon that can counter each pokemon on ciel team can easily KO her only problem her mega and healing items best strategy teach blaziken bulk up and it has to have speed boost get archeops to near ko with no healing items left bulk up speed defense attk off the blody charts and just recover its health with ultra potion a few times thats it

Revives are kinda cheap in my opinion. It somehow ruins the fun since you are basically adding more than 6 pokemon on your team.

Also, how to get the Razor Claw? because it's not in any guide I know of

[Exalted]

cotton candy recovers full health while revives only half so more efficient in gym battles

and as for the razor claw stay with me to the end for it

1.get all the department store tickets

2.get episode 13

3.make a backup as there's a chance you may corrupt you're game

4.shift to said episode

5.go to the department store the evolution floor is unlocked in this episode

also fair warning if you have the new sprites for the chars not in ep 13 you may not see yourself and may go in blind though dose turn back normal if you go back to ep 14 or 15

[damurdara]

Thanks to everyone for your help Unfortunately I beat Ciel before I could read all of your great tips. All I needed was an Abomasnow with sound proof and I basically wiped the floor with Ciel.