That's basically how the pros do it. But yes, if you're not going on WiFi to battle, There's no need to EV train, therefore Fire and Water is easier for just single player.
Yep. For the wondering person; unless you are hard core dedicated, pick the fire or water starter. Flip a coin if you are hard pressed to decide.
Or, check out the Gym leaders before playing. Take Platinum. It's kinda switched around. Grass is Defense and Fire is Attack. Water seems to be the "custom" one. Since the first and second gym are rock and grass, you may want to take the fire pokemon, Chimchar. Because once it evolves, it gains fighting type traits. It also learns a fighting type move.
Close Combat is a pretty solid move. I held onto that with my Infernape so that I don't have to haul around another Pokemon for a fighting type move.
Depend? Also, I used turtwig and survived the whole game with just one Pokemon once, of course, a few HM Slaves.
Torterra is a defensive tank, but so is the final form of the water starter (water/steel). They sort of removed the versatile starter in the newer games. Also, the post looks fine to me.
Skarmory may suck, but the final form of the water starter is a tank. I've tried fighting that thing with nothing but physical strength. It takes ages.
I think that's Torterra. When I used exp cheats to level him (I was bored and cheated tons), he had tons of special defense, more then any other stat really.
So basically, in the 4th gen, Torterra = SP Def tank, Big fat penguin = Defence, Infernape = Attack. Why no speed.... They did it in 3rd gen.
That too depends on the game you're playing. In the first gen, Grass is easiest to start with, having super-effective damage against Rock and Water types, as well as being resistant to Electric for the third gym, as well as having an easy time with the 4th gym, Erika's in Celadon. It isn't until the 6th and 7th gym that you start running into problems. That dual typing with Poison screws you royally against Sabrina. The last gym is pretty much a cakewalk provided that you don't get hit with a ground move. Water is balanced in the first gen, being able to handle the first two gyms easily, but suffering against the 3rd and 4th gyms. It is neutral in the 6th (Sabrina's) and very useful in the 7th and 8th. Having access to Surf and Ice Beam makes it a very good starter. Fire struggles in the first two gyms, but is relatively neutral in the 3rd, 5th, and 6th gyms. It isn't until Celadon that you see some true firepower, and Blaine's gym being immune to burns and resistant to fire. The last gym is sort of a problem if you don't have a Gyarados or something similar by then. Because it gains a Flying type, it SHOULD be immune to Ground moves, but I'm not sure if they implemented that in the first gen for Charizard. It wasn't until Yellow that he was able to learn Fly, but as for immunity, I'm not too sure about that. Second gen, the types are all switched around for difficulty. Grass had a big disadvantage in the first two gyms, Flying and Bug, and suffered resistance against Ghost/Poison in the 4th, owned in the 7th, and relatively neutral in the rest of the gyms. Paralysis is still a problem despite resistance to Electric. Grass overall doesn't have a type advantage throughout the game, making this one the hardest of the three. Water remained neutral throughout the game and is probably your best bet as being the easiest of them all, having access not only to Waterfall but Ice Punch as well making the 8th gym the only problematic one. I'd also say with Ice Punch, Lance is a BREEZE. The problem with Feraligatr is that Gyarados fulfills his role equally if not better, and is practically given to you at the Lake of Rage. The main selling point is that this makes the Elite Four so much easier. Fire starts off rather well, being neutral in the first, good in the second, neutral up until Jasmine and Pryce where Steel and Ice are melted down by Fire, and then resuming neutrality against the final gym. It wasn't until 3rd and 4th gen that I saw that Fire types prevailed. Having access to flying moves early on in Gen 3, made many gyms easy such as the fighting gym. I don't remember much from Gen 3. It is the worst generation out of the 4...Infernape is without a doubt a powerhouse in Gen 4. Having Close Combat and Flamethrower made many gyms fall without much effort. If it wasn't weak to Fire, then it was weak to Fighting and against annoying Bronzongs, the converse was conveniently true. Oh, and whoever said that Skarmory is not a physical tank, you sir, fail. That is EXACTLY what Skarmory is and one of the best I might add. Whoever said that Blastoise is good with Earthquake and other physical attacks, well that answers your question as to why it's not very good offensively. It would do much better with Surf and Ice Beam. You cannot generalize so much by saying all of one type is this and all of another is this. Take Venusaur for example. It is a capable physical sweeper, where Meganium is generally a support type. Look at Blastoise, mainly used as a bulky spinner or crappy staller without a recovery move and sometimes a special sweeper (in first gen you really have no choice but to make it a sweeper), where Feraligatr has monstrous attack and a vast sweeping potential. And yes, there is speed in 4th gen. Look at Infernape. It rivals the speed of Starmie. Come on, do some research before posting.
Yes, Back then, There wasn't any EV Training to put Grass types in that state of being mediocre compared to Fire and Water. And I never said Skarmory is a bad tank. I said it's bad compared to other steel types.
EV training is irrelevant, look at base statistics/movepool etc. For this, Solarbeam would technically be better power wise, and in favor of base statistics however, the charge up is a pain in the freaking ass, so I'd choose Razor Leaf over Solarbeam despite the lower attack and lower base power. The attack doesn't require a charge up and since Energy Ball, Magical Leaf or Grass Knot didn't exist at the time, I'd go for Razor Leaf. Venusaur is still slow so giving up essentially two turns before a Solarbeam goes off makes it hard to use effectively. Not to mention that anything past the 4th gym gives you trouble like I said. Venusaur is still better off with physical sets because it can learn Swords Dance, negating the lower attack stat and can cause more damage in the same two turns it would most likely take for Solarbeam to go, and consistently do more damage per turn. Second, you said that not all steel types are defense tanks, and then when you said take Skarmory for example, that explicitly said that Skarmory is not a defensive tank, in which it is, and always has been.
Ah, then I said it wrong then. I meant it to be Skarmory isn't a good defense tank compared to the other steel types.
Compared to what steel types? LOL. Scizor? Steelix? Magneton/Magnezone? Bronzong? Scizor's only good because of Technician with SD or Choice Band combined with BP. The earlier generations, he sucked bad. Steelix is slow and is vulnerable to more common types than Skarmory. Skarmory has two immunities where Steelix is weak against its own typing Ground. To say that Steelix is better than Skarmory is either bias, fanboyism, or inexperience. Skarmory is meant to be played as a physical wall, where Brozong is meant to be more balanced, most likely played on a Trick Room team and be an annoyance. It can handle either physical or special attacks rather well, but it certainly cannot wall physical attacks like Skarmory does. There is a reason why people HATE Skarm/Bliss teams, and not so much Bronzong teams. You can't deny a base 140 defense with immunity to Earthquake as well as pseudo-hazing capabilities, recovery moves like Roost, (or Rest in 2nd gen). Steelix may have Roar, but it won't be able to recover at all no matter what gen we're talking about. Skarmory is the best physical wall in the game ever since 2nd gen when it was released. You cannot argue that it isn't the best at what it does.
