Starter Discussion & Thread

[Fairy Queen]

I hope Primarina doesn't suffer in usage due to Tapu Fini

 

[Popplino]

I just realized Primarina's name is a play on "primadonna" and that slays Decidueye's and Incineroar's names even more so. My brain slows down spelling the latter two.

I thought it was more, Primaballerina, the highest stage of being a professional Ballerina

 

[john90]

Quick defensive breakdown to show how Grass/Ghost is better defensive typing than Grass/Flying.

Grass/Flying resistances: Ground (immune), Grass (x1/4), Fighting (x1/2), Water (x1/2)
Grass/Flying weaknesses: Ice (x4), Rock (x2), Flying (x2), Poison (x2), Fire (x2)
TOTAL RESISTANCES: 1 immunity, 1 x1/4 resistance, and 2 x1/2 resistances
TOTAL WEAKNESSES: 1 x4 weakness, 3 x2 weaknesses (includes weakness to Stealth Rocks)

Grass/Ghost resistances: Normal (immune), Fighting (immune), Ground (x1/2), Water (x1/2), Grass (x1/2), Electric (x1/2)
Grass/Ghost weaknesses: Fire (x2), Ice (x2), Flying (x2), Ghost (x2), Dark (x2)
As far as resistances go, Grass/Ghost is clearly an upgrade over Grass/Flying. Its no longer immune to
TOTAL RESISTANCES: 2 immunities, 4 x1/2 resistances
TOTAL WEAKNESSES: 5 x2 weaknesses
Ground, but in exchange it becomes immune to both Fighting and Normal while still resisting Ground. Without Flying it also gains an extra resistance to Electric.

As far as weaknesses go, it's a bit of a mixed bag. It gains 2 unfortunate weaknesses against Dark and Ghosts (Knock Off and Pursuit will be a pain), but in exchange it is no longer weak against Rock moves (no SR weakness is huge) and Poison moves. It also downgrades its 4x weakness against Ice moves to just 2x, which means it can actually take some Ice attacks against Water types without instantly being OHKOed.

But before its real problem were ice shard and ice beam. Now it's weak to shadow sneak, knock off, pursuit, sucher punch and ice shard...and gale wings Talonflame is always out there

 

[BlitzGirl41]

I didn't think they'd go Dark, Ghost, Fairy.

I expected Dark and Fairy, but not Ghost.

So now it seems that the typing give Litten an extra advantage against Rowlet (I'm already forgetting the names of the final evos lol).

Don't mind me, im just a dying bear in the corner...

But why would you ever want to pit Decidueye against Incineroar? That's suicide. Get a Water or Fighting type instead to fight it.

 

[MagicianPokes]

Gotta love Decidueye's typing, Grass/Ghost isn't a typing you see all that often.

Even though I'm not planning on using Incineroar, glad the typing wasn't the standard Fire/Fightning. Still not a big fan of the design, but still it's okay, I could see using Incineroar if I decide to pick up a second version.

Primarina's typing was expected, it looked too much of a mermaid to not be part Fairy (or at least Psychic). Overall impressed with the typings they put for all the starters' final evos.

 

[JVLightningLover]

I thought it was more, Primaballerina, the highest stage of being a professional Ballerina

It's likely both, and "sirene" meaning siren, as well as Selene, Greek Goddess of the Moon, and "marina". Definitely the best name I've seen so far this Gen.

 

[john90]

Gotta love Decidueye's typing, Grass/Ghost isn't a typing you see all that often.

Even though I'm not planning on using Incineroar, glad the typing wasn't the standard Fire/Fightning. Still not a big fan of the design, but still it's okay, I could see using Incineroar if I decide to pick up a second version.

Primarina's typing was expected, it looked too much of a mermaid to not be part Fairy (or at least Psychic). Overall impressed with the typings they put for all the starters' final evos.

Grass/Ghost. Yeah, not that often, we had 4 last generation.

 

[Popplino]

It's likely both, and "sirene" meaning siren, as well as Selene, Greek Goddess of the Moon, and "marina". Definitely the best name I've seen so far this Gen.

Yeah its a good name, my first thoughts were Marine and Primaballerina, especially Ballerina when you take in Brionnes passion to dance

 

[john90]

Yeah its a good name, my first thoughts were Marine and Primaballerina, especially Ballerina when you take in Brionnes passion to dance

Am I the only one who thought of prince/ss and marina?

 

[glacialcat]

As a side-note (and not directed at any specific person), I don't fully understand why people say that "x Pokemon should be able to learn x type of move in order to handle x type that is SE against itself". Because why would you pit a Water type against a Grass or Electric type? Or a Fire against a Water type? That's suicidal, IMO. I use the six Pokemon slots as a way to get coverage against most if not all types, instead of putting all my "eggs in one basket".

Obviously you don't count on your Water-type to be your hard counter to Grass-types or Electric-types. But a Water-type that learns Ice Beam can score an easy KO on a Grass-type that switches in. A Dragon-type with Iron Tail might be able to 2HKO a Fairy type, meaning if you predict the switch in correctly you can win a 1v1 fight if you outspeed it. And if you're fast enough to outspeed and strong enough to OHKO (or your opponent is x4 weak) you don't even need to switch out. There's strategic advantage in being able to defeat your counters with a prediction. It's certainly better than being forced to switch out at the sight of them.

Put another way, what if your Decidueye is in red HP and your opponent sends in a Incineroar. You have Stealth Rocks on your field, and if you remove Decidueye from battle it'll just be KO'd by the Stealth Rocks the moment you send it back in. Isn't it better to be able to use Low Kick to score SE damage and then get KO'd than just accept you lost the type advantage match-up and go down doing pitiful damage? Perhaps the Incineroar has Pursuit and will KO you if you try to switch anyway, so you'd be better off doing any damage you could.

 

[BlitzGirl41]

Obviously you don't count on your Water-type to be your hard counter to Grass-types or Electric-types. But a Water-type that learns Ice Beam can score an easy KO on a Grass-type that switches in. A Dragon-type with Iron Tail might be able to 2HKO a Fairy type, meaning if you predict the switch in correctly you can win a 1v1 fight if you outspeed it. And if you're fast enough to outspeed and strong enough to OHKO (or your opponent is x4 weak) you don't even need to switch out. There's strategic advantage in being able to defeat your counters with a prediction. It's certainly better than being forced to switch out at the sight of them.

Put another way, what if your Decidueye is in red HP and your opponent sends in a Incineroar. You have Stealth Rocks on your field, and if you remove Decidueye from battle it'll just be KO'd by the Stealth Rocks the moment you send it back in. Isn't it better to be able to use Low Kick to score SE damage and then get KO'd than just accept you lost the type advantage match-up and go down doing pitiful damage?

Never had this issue. Always had Pokemon in my team I could switch in and defeat the opposing Pokemon in one hit. And Stealth Rock has never ever ever killed any of my Pokemon in one hit.

Also, I never fight against other players. I'm not competitive. I just play the story and enjoy myself.

 

[Shneak]

I thought it was more, Primaballerina, the highest stage of being a professional Ballerina

It's certainly a name that can be interpreted in multiple ways but she's based off of Japanese pop idols. Incineroar one-ups her in the pirouette performance.

 

[TRG]

But before its real problem were ice shard and ice beam. Now it's weak to shadow sneak, knock off, pursuit, sucher punch and ice shard...and gale wings Talonflame is always out there

And you're also neglecting the fact that it no longer has a weakness to Stealth Rocks, which is the most important upgrade it gets. It being Flying or Ghost doesn't change anything against Talonflame so I'm not sure what you're getting with that.

 

[john90]

Never had this issue. Always had Pokemon in my team I could switch in and defeat the opposing Pokemon in one hit. And Stealth Rock has never ever ever killed any of my Pokemon in one hit.

Also, I never fight against other players. I'm not competitive. I just play the story and enjoy myself.

Swith to Yanmega on stealth rocks. It will lose half of its life and the hit it will take switching in will destroy it completly.

 

[glacialcat]

Never had this issue. Always had Pokemon in my team I could switch in and defeat the opposing Pokemon in one hit. And Stealth Rock has never ever ever killed any of my Pokemon in one hit.

Also, I never fight against other players. I'm not competitive. I just play the story and enjoy myself.

Well I specified the Decidueye was in red HP. Low enough that the 12.5% it would take from Stealth Rocks would KO it. Not killed in one hit (which is not possible).

But that's your answer. It might not be important to you, but coverage has extremely important use in competitive battling. That's why people want lots of coverage options, and specifically want coverage that helps counter their own weaknesses.

edit:
And personally for the purpose of 'playing for the story and to enjoy yourself', I appreciate when my starter can counter the opposing starter as well. I always try to go into rival fights with the intention of having my starter vs. the opposing rival's starter. It's kind of just appropriate to me that we finish our battles with our starters, so it's useful to be able to defeat them with coverage moves.

 

[PrinceOfFacade]

See, now I'm terribly torn.

I don't know if I want Primarina or Decidueye. On one hand, I am a Ghost-type user and I've always wanted a Ghost starter. One the other hand, I love Primarina's design a lot more than Decidueye's, and Primarina reminds me a lot more of the moon, which is the version I'm getting.

I guess I'll decide when I get the game.

 

[Mr.Munchlax]

I'm definitely planning on getting Primarina for Sun & Decidueye for Moon, they both seem like amazing pokémon in every possible aspect.

Incineroar's cool, but I'd still would've preferred it to have stayed a quadruped

 

[Oni Dekopin]

Those starters never clicked with me, so I'm going starter-less for the first time.

The only decent one is the owl.

 

[*PKMN Trainer Paddy*]

Now that we have seen official art for the starters, I'm sticking with Rowlett as Decidueye is clean . When these were leaked, I thought it would remain Grass/Flying. Its new move is cool too damage+trapping=nice. I cant wait to see what hidden ability it gets (inb4 keen eye lol)

 

[Paul1985]

I wonder what Fairy type moves Primarina might learn we know Popplio learns Disarming Voice so I guess it will mostly learn the other major special type moves like Fairy Wind, Moonblast, Dazzling Gleam and Draining Kiss.

It might learn the only physical type move Play Rough and maybe some status moves like Moonlight and Sweet Kiss as well.