It's hard to believe we're down to only three Pokemon I haven't delved into on this blog, and this post knocks out two of them! It's wild that I've been working on this for almost three months. But the fruits of my labor are apparent, and it's been pretty fun!
Back to the topic at hand, though, we've got one last moth and one last butterfly...bee...fairy? Frosmoth tries to be the cooler version of Volcarona, but has fallen pretty flat in battle despite an incredibly busted ability. Ribombee does a pretty good job as a utility and support Pokemon with its blazingly fast Sticky Web, but it tends to hover in the lower tiers due to its frailty. I think we can address some of the glaring flaws holding these two back and end up with some very effective Pokemon.
Before we get started, I don't want to throw shade but Ribombee is a LIAR. It clearly is not a bee at all, and I assumed from its design that it was some kind of fairy mixed with butterfly, but it isn't even that. It's based on a bee fly, little flies that mimic bee colors and have long proboscises and drink nectar. It's species name is literally the Bee Fly Pokemon. So it's not a bee, and it's not a butterfly/moth and now I'm a liar too for calling it a Lepidopteran. We'll see later this is far from the only dark secret that Ribombee is holding.
1. Stats
Right away we see the oppression inherent in the system when Frosmoth only has 475 for a base stat total while Volcarona enjoys 550. We know who your favorite is, Game Freak. We're upping that to a respectable 535 total with upgrades to HP, Defense, Speed and a smidge of Sp. Def. It's still not as fast or strong as Volcarona, but it has some tricks up its sleeve that will help it carve its own niche.
Ribombee is getting a defensive boost so its new spread comes out to 70/76/86. Not as anemic as its original stats, but certainly not a strong defensive showing by any means. This should help Ribombee stay out a little longer and provide support or buff its defenses to keep on fighting.
2. Abilities
Frosmoth has the incredible Ice Scales, meaning its modest Sp. Def is actually sky high in practice and gets boosted further by Quiver Dance. Problem is, Bug/Ice is just a terrible defensive typing, as are most combinations that have Ice in the name. Two x4 weaknesses to Fire and Rock make it pretty hard for even the most defensive juggernauts to take more than two hits before going down. Frosmoth is going to need some kind of edge here if it ever wants to survive.
Enter: Snow Warning. Forget the hail, Frosmoth will do it herself. Just with the advent of snow, running a fully invested HP and Defense Frosmoth with a defense boosting nature, not even your standard Iron Boulder can one hit KO with its Mighty Cleave. Now, I probably wouldn't recommend running a full HP/Def Frosmoth and it probably isn't practical in-game, but its a fun theory just to point out how far the snow boost goes for Frosmoth. Suddenly it is able to take a weaker Rock Slide without immediately crumbling, or a weaker fire move in the mid-game like Flame Wheel. And 100% accurate Blizzards are always appreciated.
Given that there's only one other Bug/Ice Pokemon available, you can't exactly build a full fledged snow-team, but Frosmoth doesn't need a whole weather based strategy to be very effective. If you opt to run a different weather strategy, then Ice Scales is still as strong as ever, you'll just need to have other ways to keep any Rock and Fire moves away from Frosmoth.
Ribombee will be swapping out all of its abilities to get the following spread:
- Hospitality
- Bombs Away
- Fairy Veil
Fairy Veil replaces Sweet Veil, and it is getting a buff. Instead of only affecting Grass types, it now protects all allies from Status conditions and lowering of stats.While it can be difficult to keep Ribombee on the field, you now get a huge reward for doing so. Hospitality takes the place of Honey Gather, and lets Rimbombee use its honey to heal its allies whenever it switches in, cementing its cleric role on your team.
Bombs Away, an ability that boosts the power of all bullet and ball moves, may seem out of place here but let me clue you in to the other skeleton in Ribombee's closet. Bee flies are notorious for being parasites of other bees and wasps. They find a nest, wait until the parent leaves, and then they fly over and do a bombing run on the nest, dropping their own eggs without even landing with some very accurate flicks. These eggs hatch, eat all the food in the nest that was for the baby bees, and then eat the babies. You may look adorable, Ribombee, but we know what you're hiding behind those adorable lashes.
3. Movepool
Frosmoth has pretty much all the moves it needs but we're throwing in a few odd picks to encourage planning some team synergy for the player. Focus Blast and Bleakwind Storm are both great coverage moves for Frosmoth, but with the drawback of very shaky accuracy. If the player can utilize some accuracy effects like Ledian's Lucky Start or Illumise's Supersweet Syrup, suddenly these moves become quite a bit more threatening. Otherwise, Frosmoth will be sticking to Blizzard, Giga Drain, and other powerful moves in its arsenal to utilize with Quiver Dance.
Ribombee enjoys a huge buff to Pollen Puff if it decides to run Bombs Away. Not only will it do more damage, but Pollen Puff's healing effect on allies gets boosted too. For some other options, I'm throwing in Shadow Ball and Mist Ball to complement the Energy Ball it already learns. I'm also swapping Mist Ball to the Fairy type, giving Ribombee two devastating STAB bomb moves to abuse. I'll also move Sticky Web and Moonblast over to either its level-up learnset or a tutor.
Conclusion
As is generally the case in Pokemon, with great power comes great situational weaknesses. While Frosmoth can be terrifying in the snow, it is still easily dispatched by Rock and Fire moves. And Ribombee can be threatening offensively or as support, but it still has a frail body that can't take much damage. Double battles open up so many more options for the player to strategize, however, and I'm sure that you will be very happy if you pick either of these two up for your championship team.
No comments:
Post a Comment