NPC Raid partners

[bobandbill]

What do you think of the NPC raid partners? Which ones do you find the most useful, and are there any which you feel are worse than Martin and his Solrock?

 

[Prince Amrod]

Torkoal can be very invaluable with its clear smog attack. Nothing like a stat clearer to limit damage. The clerics of togepi and clefairy are useful though I'd prefer the latter didn't have follow me. Slowbro I like, weavile too. Both reasonable attackers with reliable movesets.
On the other hand, solrock, hawlucha, magikarp all rank at the bottom. Risky moves or stat moves instead of just simply attacking. Also throh, only carries fighting moves. Not useful in ghost raids.

 

[Requiem Aeternam]

I find Weavile to be the most useful of the NPC Pokémon. It only knows attacking moves, has decent coverage to hit multiple types, and a priority move it can sometimes sneak in to potentially break a barrier before your D-Max/G-Max Pokémon attacks so you can deal more damage. Slowbro is also really good although I find it gets rather unlucky with Focus Blast missing.

Wobbuffet is the most useless of the NPC Pokémon. It does nothing and always seems to pick the wrong move when it is attacked (Counter on special moves, Mirror Coat on physical ones). Safeguard is rarely helpful as D-Max moves don’t inflict status conditions and its special defence buffs from Amnesia get nullified within a turn or two of it getting them. Solrock is also useless most of the time but at least it has attacking moves that actually do something.

 

[Mr. Reloaded]

and are there any which you feel are worse than Martin and his Solrock?

Wobbuffet.

Solrock's ai is obviously bad, but he doesn't need to be hit to actually use attacking moves.

Safeguard is the only thing Wobbuffet does that's not crap.

 

[Tsukuyomi56]

Going to agree that Wobbuffet is a worse AI partner than the Solrock guy. Solrock has the occasional movements where it uses an attacking move but 90% of the time Wobbuffet hardly ever contributes. Either it gets the countering move wrong or the Raid Pokemon never attacks it making said moves useless.

 

[Ignition]

I don’t like any of them. There’s no reason why the supporting cast of Galar (Gym Leaders, rivals, Leon) couldn’t be recruitable. Gen 6’s Battle Masion had your rivals, ORAS’s antagonists, & Steven. Gen 7 had so many choices from Mallow/Kiawe & Guzma/Plumeria to Cynthia as tag team partners in the Battle Tree. I know it’s to promote online play but better AI should be available

 

[Shinruna]

I styled a personal Top 5 about who are both the worst and the best among this bunch of trainers, in my humble opinion. Eh, I know, boredom does very often play bad jokes with my mind.

Worst ones:
- Gentleman Martin and his Solrock.
- Madame Sophie and her Maractus.
- Cabbie Alfie and his Wobbuffet.
- Backpacker Amelia and her Clefairy.
- Schoolgirl Isabella and her Magikarp.

Best ones:
- Schoolboy William and his Mudbray.
- Lass Ivy and her Weavile.
- Model Nicki and her Jolteon.
- Doctor Janet and her Snorlax.
- Musician Arthur and his Salazzle.

 

[janejane6178]

The npc partners are so bad.

 

[Ophie]

I styled a personal Top 5 about who are both the worst and the best among this bunch of trainers, in my humble opinion. Eh, I know, boredom does very often play bad jokes with my mind.

Worst ones:
- Gentleman Martin and his Solrock.
- Madame Sophie and her Maractus.
- Cabbie Alfie and his Wobbuffet.
- Backpacker Amelia and her Clefairy.
- Schoolgirl Isabella and her Magikarp.

Best ones:
- Schoolboy William and his Mudbray.
- Lass Ivy and her Weavile.
- Model Nicki and her Jolteon.
- Doctor Janet and her Snorlax.
- Musician Arthur and his Salazzle.

I would put Isabella and her Magikarp among the better ones, honestly. Magikarp is a consistent attacker and has multi-type options, which almost guarantees it will help break through the barriers every turn. It also has a Focus Sash to ensure the giant Pokémon needs at least two attacks to bring it down. Water Absorb Jellicent is, I believe, the only Pokémon immune to all of Magikarp's moves. Isabella also has some pretty aggressive AI, able to pick a move that will do at least some damage.

 

[KillerDraco]

Honestly, I have two criteria for what constitutes a useful partner; ability to survive, and ability to attack. What makes Martin's Solrock so hated is the latter, since its AI seems to prioritize boosting over attacking. But when it comes to the heavier hitters, such as GMax Snorlax, the ability to survive becomes more important, and it's there that things like Weavile, Salazzle, and Jolteon have struggled for me.

With that in mind, an underrated partner I haven't seen mentioned here is Youngster Noah and his Qwilfish. It's got a lot going for it; the ever useful Intimidate helps to weaken physical attackers, it's got four attacks and 3 different type options for attacks so it'll consistently break bars of the barrier, and it packs a Focus Sash to ward off a would-be-lethal hit. For me, it not only has decent ability to survive and attack, but that aforementioned Intimidate can also help the rest of the team survive as well.

 

[Pokefan_1987]

There are a few more unmentioned

Poke Kid trainer whose Eevee only knows Helping Hand
Backpacker with a Pikachu that can barely survive

Wobbuffet is below average for a defender at best. It occasionally gets a lucky counter or safeguard and manages to finish the opponent.
But Martin's Solrock just loves using Rock Polish and Cosmic Power and if he decides to attack its usually too late

 

[Litleonid]

The worst of the worst are probably Alfie and his Wobbuffet, and Martin and his Solrock.

 

[Prince Amrod]

Gotta give a shout out to Torkoal. One of the ones I would choose to include if we could. Clear Smog has proven very useful in the past to remove the various stat boosts.

 

[MagicEspeon]

Eevee is the bane of my existence. I know some of my friends have told me that for them Eevee pulls their weight during raids, but for me all it does it spam Helping Hand when it could be helping to take down shields. I dread seeing Eevee just as much as I dread seeing Wobbuffet and Solrock.
The only thing it has going for it is having a focus sash, but frankly I'd rather see any of the other Pokemon who have one equipped.

Otherwise I'm happy to see most of the other raid partners unless they have a bad matchup against the raid pokemon. Also I'm always happy to see Torkoal for the most part but ya'lls Torkoal are using Clear Smog?? It never does that for me! My luck is truly terrible.

 

[Requiem Aeternam]

Martin still holds the title of one of the worst AI partners in Dynamax Adventures. Every time I’ve lost it’s because he did something stupid. Had Storm Drain Maractus when I had a water type partner against Pokémon weak to water, using water moves on a Water Absorb Pokémon, spamming status moves only for them to be nullified the next turn, choosing the worst option at the start and either keeping it the entire run or swapping it for something worse. Given that even the official Pokémon website talks smack about him I think GameFreak deliberately programmed him to be terrible.

 

[Reinhardt]

Martin still holds the title of one of the worst AI partners in Dynamax Adventures. Every time I’ve lost it’s because he did something stupid. Had Storm Drain Maractus when I had a water type partner against Pokémon weak to water, using water moves on a Water Absorb Pokémon, spamming status moves only for them to be nullified the next turn, choosing the worst option at the start and either keeping it the entire run or swapping it for something worse. Given that even the official Pokémon website talks smack about him I think GameFreak deliberately programmed him to be terrible.

Imagine if there was an episode of the anime featuring Martin as a notoriously bad trainer who's just hilariously overconfident. In fact, Martin should be one of Ash's travelling companions and constantly get the protagonists into trouble with his bad decisions.