Sorry that this chapter is so short. The next one will be longer
"Hmm, should I skip the review and start watching the actual adventure?" I asked myself, staring thoughtfully at the screen. Aside from Tedd's recorded stream there were loads of others with already chosen starters on the previews.
It's been two days since the last time I watched that review, and I already knew almost everything about the starters. Holy wars, that raged in the poke-community online, provided me with lots of spoilers about their moves and abilities.
My personal favourite was Rockruff. Decent stats, Bite, Rock Tomb, Scary Face and Stone Edge made it a formidable physical attacker with both melee and ranged capabilities, that outpaces most opponents. And because of Keen Eye, its first available ability, this little doggo can't be foiled by accuracy decreasing moves.
But the best part was the branched evolution with equally valuable variants. If alolan Raichu is definitely better than the normal one, then Midday and Midnight Lycanrock are equally good.
The first one is used with Crunch, Rock Slide, Roar and Stone Edge. These moves let him deal massive damage in both melee and at range. Though, it's preferable to keep your distance with Roar and spam Rock Slide every ten seconds. The boulders that materialize over the enemies crush everyone underneath and trap them for a few seconds.
That gives you the opportunity to safely utilize Crunch when the survivors get free. Especially if they belong to different species with varying sizes. While the smallest were trapped for five seconds, the biggest got free after only one. That lets you to fight them individually.
The Midnight Lycanrock is restricted to melee only, but Accelerock lets him slash everyone very fast. Crush Claw helps to soften bulky opponents, and Stealth Rock makes sure only you can safely move around. The minefield of floating rocks, that lasts fifteen seconds, quickly kills all mobs that try to get through.
And you can climb on the rocks, to jump from one to another. That gives you insane maneuverability both on the battlefield and in normal traveling. Stealth Rock alone made the midnight variant as useful as the midday one. It could use that move too, but without the climbing it wasn't as effective.
Thus, if the midday variant is a fast runner with crushing ranged moves, then the midnight one was good at stealth, overcoming obstacles and dealing frequent critical hits with its claws.
And Tedd, unfortunately, was the only relatively decent streamer that chose Rockruff as his starter. Everyone else preferred popular options like Pikachu, Charmander, Riolu, Axew... or Alolan Vulpix.
Though, the last one was chosen mostly by female streamers, because it's super cute. The guys preferred more reliable types. So Ice and Bug were ignored, even if the starters themselves were pretty cool.
For example, Vulpix with Powder Snow, Aurora Beam, Mist and Blizzard and was a pretty decent ranged/stealth fighter. And Ninetails with Freeze Dry, Ice Beam, Aurora Veil and Dazzling Gleam was almost god-tier.
Why should I care that ice types don't have resistances, if it's: 1) good offensively; 2) isn't participating in melee; 3) Snow Cloak and Snow Warning provide good evasion/weather hazard; 4) Mist shrouds you from ranged attacks; and 5) Aurora Veil cuts all damage in half?!
And let's not forget that freezing works a little differently here. Like in Genshin Impact, you can trap opponents in ice. Ten percent chance if it's dry, and ninety if it's wet. If the foes physical strength is lower than your special attack, it isn't hit with a powerful non-ice move, then it could be trapped for up to twelve seconds.
That was absolutely broken, and still Vulpix wasn't as popular as boring old Pikachus or Charmanders. My only theory was that the ice types required support from water to get opponents wet, and that was a big enough drawback.
Bugs, on the other hand, were traditionally unpopular with sparse exceptions like Scyther, Scizor, Heracross, Volcarona and others. And the gamedev's didn't choose one of those popular bugs as a starter.
No, instead they picked Pineco with Rapid Spin, Pin Missile, Bide and Self-Destruct, and made an amazing tank out of Forretress with Magnet Bomb, Gyro Ball, Iron Defense and Explosion. Yep, a bug starter evolution without bug type moves…
Though, to be honest, it could learn Signal Beam. But the efficiency will drop tenfold. Gyro Ball is just way more powerful as a charged move...
I scrolled the search list, looking up alternatives for Tedd. "Cubone... Ekans... Clefairy… Cufant… Zorua..." – neither of these starters… or the streamers that chose them... looked interesting enough.
Though, Cubone was promising. A ground type that's capable of damaging flying opponents with its "E" move – Bonemerang… With Earth Power or Earthquake as the "burst" and Bone Club/Bone Rush as the normal/charged attacks…
That was Tempting, especially if you consider his evolutions. The ordinary Marowak had the same moveset, except for a double-powered Stomping Tantrum as the "burst". And Alolan Marowak was a fire/ghost with Earthquake as the "burst" and STABs like Shadow Bone and Sacred Fire. If you combine either variant with Lightning Rod, Battle Armor and Technician… Tempting indeed...
I'd like to see how that works with my own eyes, but the streamers that chose Cubone were even worse than Tedd.
Ekans was a no-brainer. He and Arbok were buffed a little, but their gameplay was better suited for stealth: slithering in tall grass or between rocks, quick poisonous bites (Bite/Poison Fang/Jab) or needles (Poison Sting/Toxic); obscuring the battlefield with smoke (Haze); petrification of foes (Glare) so they move sluggishly and don't fight effectively.
If Greninjas stealth looked cool in a ninja-like fashion, then Arboks was too sinister, too Slytherin for my Gryffindor soul…
Zorua had the same problem. Unlike Ekans, he was very popular. Great stats, good moves, interesting ability that lets you hide from enemies. Just stay still and hold the jump button: you'll automatically disguise yourself as a normal background object. When the foes guard is down, hit it in the back with Pursuit for double power.
After that opening move you could either run and disguise yourself again, or continue the onslaught with the other skills: Feint Attack as the charged, Hone Claws or Nasty Plot as the elemental, and Night Daze as the "burst". The last one looked like a wave of darkness that spreaded in a wide conical manner and dealt damage to every foe on its way.
It lingered for ten seconds and recharged very quickly, so you can spam the move every thirteen seconds and keep large parts of the battlefield dark. That lets you to continuously play "hide & seek" by disguising yourself and hitting with Pursuit.
Zoroark had the same ability, so Pursuit wasn't exchanged for something more powerful. Hone Claws, Nasty Plot and Night Daze were also untouched. So, ony Feint Attack was kicked to the bucket and replaced for Night Slash, which had an insane critical hit ratio when its used in darkness.
All of that made Zorua a great pick as a starter. Some players would say that he's simply the best… And some of them were good streamers that I'd enjoy to watch… But it was too Slytherin for my liking!
Clefairy, on the other hand, was a complete opposite. It looked like a pink, girly eyesore with Pound, Sweet Kiss, Wish and Metronome as the core moveset.
The first move was fairly slow and weak because of poor Speed and Attack stats. It was heavily reliant on Cute Charm, the first available ability. Foes became infatuated with a thirty percent chance and after that they are no longer able to attack Clefairy. But the other teammates are fair game.
Sweet Kiss had a seventy five chance of causing confusion, but as a charged move it was just too slow and short ranged. And Metronome was a wildcard that became an ineffective fluke seven times out of ten.
So, only Wish was a completely reliable move that provided massive amounts of hp for the whole team. Sadly, it worked on only one teammate at a time and had a pretty long cooldown. Max hp every twenty seconds? Good, but not great, if you ask me…
Players that chose Clefairy had to console themselves that at least Clefable was powerful. With Double Hit it had a bigger chance at infatuating the enemies. Draining Kiss provided healing. Moonlight provided healing and the amount depended on the weather and time of day. And Moonblast just obliterates everyone on its path.
So, basically, a great support that's capable of dealing massive damage. Especially if you unlock Magic Guard and Friend Guard. The personal immunity to non-damaging moves and damage reduction for the whole team seemed SO sweet. If only the streamers that chose Clefairy weren't so bitterly girly…
Cufant had the same problem. It had great HP, a strong Attack stat and moves like Tackle, Bulldoze, Iron Defence and Iron Head. And Copperajah had Stomp, High Horsepower, Iron Defence and Heavy Slam. Combine that with Sheer Force and Heavy Metal and you get one of the best tanks in the game.
But most of the good streamers somehow didn't want to play with him. Like he's the chubby schoolboy that's never picked on PE for games.
Some people on the boards said that's justified, because of Cufants extremely narrow and straightforward gameplay. It was extremely lacking in defence, speed and maneuverability, which made him a poor wall that can only trample forward. Powerful? Yes. Boring? Definitely!
And traveling with Cufant was a pain because of its complete inability to climb. Most of your time was wasted on finding paths that you can traverse. Though, to be honest, it was a great swimmer that could cross whole lakes without drowning. And Copperajahs teammates can ride on his back while swimming. Theoretically, that was super useful. But not in the realm of Rota…
I sighed and clicked on Tedds stream, then skipped the rest of the intro. The screen was instantly filled with thick fog...