• We are currently experiencing a flood of requests from bots scraping the forums. Unfortunately it has gotten to the point where it is negatively impacting the site. As a result the forums may be slow and you may periodically experiance an error message. We are aware of the problem and apologize for the inconvenience.
  • Be sure to join the discussion on our discord at: Discord.gg/serebii
  • If you're still waiting for the e-mail, be sure to check your junk/spam e-mail folders

Team help?

TheRealScizor

New Member
So I just beat victory road in platinum, and after all the times I lost, I realized how badly my team needed changing. My team consists of the following:

Empoleon
Ice beam
Surf
Waterfall
Rock smash

Roselia (soon to be roserade, once it learns petal dance)
Giga drain
Sludge bomb
Toxic spikes
Protect(going to be replaced with petal dance)

Weavile
Cut
Focus punch
Iron tail
Poison jab

Altaria
Sing
Fly
Dragon claw
Dragon dance

Gallade
Double team
Brick break
Leaf blade
Swords dance

Empty slot, and the reason for this thread


So with that in mind, here are some Pokémon I’ve thought of adding to the squad.

Blissey

Lopunny

Togekiss (replace Altaria)

Luxray

Staraptor(replace Altaria)

Any help on move sets and Pokémon would be much appreciated, thx in advance!
 

Ishiftyounot

The Meme Supreme
Your mileage may vary with Platinum - some people find the Pokemon League quite challenging, some find it fairly easy. I beat it with a team of 6 at Level 50 (Empoleon, Lucario, Luxray, Glaceon, Togekiss and Garchomp) and didn't have major issues, but if you're struggling now before this point you may want to first get your levels up to scratch. Level 55 should be fine for taking on the Elite 4 - rematches using the Vs. Seeker, taking on the Elite 4 early and using their levels/Pokemon for experience before losing or spamming wild Pokemon in Victory Road should make that a fairly smooth (albeit boring) process.

You'll probably want a sixth Pokemon, Altaria honestly isn't that bad a Pokemon so if you wanted to keep it because you like it I definitely would! Otherwise I'd suggest adding Luxray to your squad if only for Cynthia's Togekiss. Luxio can be caught on the route before Sunyshore City in the early 40s I believe? A moveset of Thunderbolt, Crunch and two other moves should suffice (Charge + Strength are decent options, although you may need a Heart Scale for Charge). Try getting one with Intimidate! If you're set on replacing Altaria I think Staraptor is the best choice here - Close Combat + Fly + Normal STAB (Return with high enough friendship, or Strength) is all you really need.

Anyway, here's my moveset changes/recommendations!

Empoleon:
- Mostly fine
- Delete Rock Smash in Canalave City and replace with Flash Cannon or Grass Knot

Roserade:
- Also mostly fine
- Replace Toxic Spikes with Shadow Ball (if possible)

Weavile:
- Cut needs to go, as does Focus Punch - the former is super weak and the latter requires you to not be hit whilst focusing, which is never going to happen
- Teach it Night Slash (Heart Scale required, Serebii lists locations to find them without requiring the Underground: https://www.serebii.net/itemdex/heartscale.shtml)
- Teach it Ice Punch (requires 6 Blue Shards and 2 Red Shards - these should all be available before the post-game? You can trade Star Pieces for shards at the Fuego Ironworks if you have any to hand)

Altaria:
- Is fine, no issues here really
- Consider replacing Sing with Earthquake or Flamethrower? It's not necessary though!

Gallade:
- Needs Psycho Cut (Heart Scale required, see above)
- If you have spare Shards you could give it an elemental punch? Ice Punch would be my choice! Could replace Swords Dance then
- Close Combat over Brick Break once you reach that level

I'll even throw in some advice for the Elite 4:
- Buy plenty of Hyper Potions and Revives! Full Restores or Full Heals are also advised
- Save before every fight, let's you test what is and isn't possible
- Aaron is pretty easy - Empoleon can beat everything aside from Heracross and Drapion? Altaria handles Heracross (be careful of Stone Edge) whilst Gallade can likely 2HKO Drapion with Close Combat (if not, the rest of your team handles it)
- Bertha is actually quite challenging I've found - Roserade should one-shot Whiscash and handle Hippowdon, Golem and Rhyperior pretty well (Empoleon covering where Roserade falters) with Weavile taking down Gliscor with a speedy Ice Punch
- Flint can be tough, but a combination of Altaria + Empoleon + Gallade should see you through it - try out setting up Dragon Dance with Altaria versus Houndoom and then KOing everything with Earthquake
- Lucian is a pain - Weavile handles the scary threats in Espeon and Alakazam and might even beat Mr. Mime? Bronzong will take a team effort and his Gallade might give you some trouble, but Altaria + Luxray + your own Gallade should prevail
- Cynthia is scary - you could try setting up Dragon Dance with Altaria and sweeping but I suspect her Milotic + Togekiss ruin that for you (maybe give it a go?). Spiritomb is walled by Empoleon, Roserade goes down to Altaria, Lucario falls to Gallade, Luxray would be solid for Togekiss + Milotic, Garchomp gets hopefully outsped and KOed by Weavile? Other teammates of yours can handle other threats as necessary.

Good luck!
 
Top