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This portion is taken from the Moveset Training Guide posted by Anilones located in the Pokemon Ruby Forum.
--------------- Making a Moveset 1) Play by your stats - You want to utilize your stats as well as possible. Using Ice Beam on a Gyarados is a waste, simply because his SpAtk is so low that it won't even OHKO a Rhydon (common mistake). That means it sucks. Now look at Slaking's attack. It's awesome. This means that you should try your best to fit in at least one Physical Attack into any of its movesets.
2) Don't use more than one attack of the same type - Don't use Fire Blast and Flamethrower in the same moveset. Ever. They nullify each other in that using one means neglecting another, essentially leaving you with three attacks. That's not cool. But Mud-Slap and Earthquake doesn't count. Why? Because Mud-Slap is an annoyance move, not an attack.
3) Play by role - If your Delcatty is your main attacker, something is wrong. If it's your supporter, don't give it a Curser set. If it's your trapper, don't give it Pursuit. Don't use moves that conflict with each other like Rain Dance and Sunny Day on the same team. Surf/Earthquake is a common combo that points out the redundancy of it. Surf covers three types, two of which Earthquake already does. Not too cool. (I don't think you can get Pursuit in R/S but then I can also use this for future games).
4) Keep in mind type coverage and weaknesses - Surf and Earthquake cover very few types for all of your moves, six, and have many shared weaknesses. That means Surf and Earthquake probably aren't the best two attacks only. But then, you want to cover your weaknesses at the same time. This is when Earthquake/Surf becomes useful. Gyarados has a four times Electric weakness and can dish out a two hit knockout on any Electric type with Earthquake. That's awesome. Due to this your main weakness it gone.
5) Thunder Wave 0wnz - It just does. Any status infliction attack with 100% accuracy rules. Spore, Thunder Wave, Confuse Ray, and Attract all make well for this. Pairing these inflictions together is a common strategy for annoyers.
6) As a general rule, don't use those "Super Moves" - Normally you should avoid attacks like Thunder. They have high power but are usually unreliable. Stick to Thunderbolt in most cases. When dealing with low SpAtk Pokemon. NEVER use Blizzard. Hyper Beam (except for on a Slaking). Flamethrower > Fire Blast Ice Beam > Blizzard Thunderbolt > Thunder Surf > Hydro Pump
7) Items attached - Usually it's Chesto Berry for Resters, and Leftovers for pretty much anything else (however, try to mix them up a bit, do not use Charcoal or similar items, they suck).
8) Pokemon like Gyarados shouldn't rely on Sp. Attacks. Neither should Alakazam use Physical Attacks. They have high stats on Attack and Sp. Attack respectively and that is what you should build your movesets on, because they have strengths on certain statistics for a reason. (That means Pokemon like Rhydon have good Attack, and can learn all three elemental beams but can't use them, so don't use those Sp. Attacks, in other words, build your Pokemon's movesets(If you don't like ours) based on their: 1. Stats 2. Abilities 3. Strengths 4. Weaknessess In that order.
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Making a Team How do you make a team? Well, there are many different ways. Let's start with the simplest way - type wise.
Typewise, your team should represent as many different strengths as possible and as few shared weaknesses as possible. This doesn't mean that you can't have an Absol and Cacturne on the same team - quite the contrary. Just to counter the 2x Fighting and 3x Bug weaknesses, you could put in Skarmory. Cacturne has many different other weaknesses - Fire, Flying, and Ice (probably missed a few though). To counter the Fire weakness, you could put Snadstorm on Cacturne to slow them down and Mirror Coat on Absol (true this is not perfect, but not bad). However also Skarmory is weak to Fire, so this may be a problem, so throw in Swampert with Surf and Fire is no problem. Water type attacks are almost always on Water type Pokemon, so an electric Pokemon would help there. Grass is easily countered by Skarmory. Steel, an uncommon attack type, is almost never used except on Metagross (pseudo-legendary, so not a lot of people would use it). A Fire type, Torkoal, easily beats him. Skarmory's Fire and Electric weaknesses can be stopped by Torkoal's ability to take Special attacks. So already from this we have neutralised Psychic, Bug, Ice, Grass, Water, Flying, Ghost, Steel, Ground, Rock, Poison and Fire types. We still need to counter Dark, Fighting and Normal types. This is just from picking Absol, Cacturne, Skarmory, Swampert, Torkoal and an Unnamed Electric Pokemon. Using the standard Slaking all the teams weaknesses are destroyed.
Now let's get to another way to approach it - By Role
The standard Pokemon battling team uses this.
What is the standard team? Well, it has roles -
~ Annoyer ~ Baton Passer ~ Spiker ~ Trapper ~ Heal Beller ~ SpAtk-er ~ PhysAtk-er ~ Tank ~ Pseudo-Passer ~ Stat-upper ~ Hazer ~ Pseudo-Hazer ~ Supporter ~ Common Killer
To create a team by role, you must know the basic roles of a team.
Way One:
1) Opener - Usually a Spiker or annoyer, the Opener is meant to give your team a good start.
2) Hazer - Able to come in the form of Haze or Roar/Whirlwind, the Hazer is essential on your team to prevent from Absol sweeps or Breloom destruction.
3) Attacker - The Attacker does immense damage to the opponent. Usually it includes powerful STAB attacks to defeat the enemy more easily with.
4) Heal Beller - A Pokemon with Heal Bell and a recovery move. A Delcatty is a common Heal Beller.
5) Cleaner - A Pokemon that will finish off a Pokemon that has just given you a pounding. A Pokemon with high speed can do this.
6) Sweeper - It has to plow through many Pokemon, and is expendable to a certain degree. Usually it has high Speed and/or Attack/SpAtk.
Way Two:
Baton Passer - A Pokemon w/Baton Pass. It also has BP'able moves - stat ups. Mean Look, Swords Dance, Meditate, Barrier, Acid Armor, Double Team, Agility, Amnesia, Perish Song, and Growth are BP'able moves. It powers up your team.
Pseudo-Passer - A Pokemon w/Reflect, Light Screen, and/or Safeguard. These attacks can be passed onto your other Pokemon without Baton Pass, so they come in very handy. They spare Rests/Safeguards.
Supporter - The Circle gets bigger. It can be a pseudo-passer, a Baton Passer, a filler, or anything - It fills in a random role that your team is missing and must be used if you have only five Pokemon.
Annoyer - A Pokemon that, well, annoys. It stalls while slowly extracting damage. Little by little with Toxic, Sandstorm, Pseudo-Haze/ Spikes, Encore, Leech Seed, Sleep, Paralysis, Attract, Confusion, Flinch, Protect, and sometimes even more.
Trapper - A Pokemon with Whirlpool/Clamp/Mean Look. It forces the Pokemon to stay in and then slowly or quickly depletes its health. Sometimes it's combined with Toxic or Baton Pass. Usually you see it with Perish Song.
Spiker - A Pokemon with Spikes. It lays down the Spikes and does whatever other mission it's expected to do. Works awesome with a Pseudo-Hazer with good attacks.
Heal Beller - A Pokemon with Heal Bell. Because there are only four, it's hard to have an unpredictable Heal Beller.
Hazer - A Pokemon with Haze. Usually this requires good staying power because you might get pounded in the process. Usually it has Rest to ensure its stay.
Pseudo-Hazer - A Pokemon with Roar, Whirlwind, Perish Song, or some sort of other attack that forces a switch. This is to stop Cursers, Baton Passing chains, and the like.
Stat Upper - A Pokemon that uses stat-upping attacks. Swords Dance, Agility, and stuff are all here.
Tank - A Pokemon that's extremely hard to take out. Sometimes they use stat ups to become even stronger.
SpAtk-er - A Pokemon with all or mostly SpAtks. They sweep through most Pokemon with relative ease.
PhysAtk-er - A Pokemon with all or mostly Physical attacks. They're pretty much the same as SpAtk-ers except they have Physical moves.
Common Killer - A Pokemon that is designed to kill the Pokemon that it's most likely to be up against. They're much like sweepers except with custom attacks.
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Anilones' Team: Dusclops w/Leftovers
 Ability: Levitate(Ground moves fail) Nature: Careful (+Sp. Defense, -Sp. Attack)
-Mean Look -Toxic -Confuse Ray -Night Shade
My Starter and annoyer, Dusclops' purpose is to make a good start by taking out a few Pokemon (if I'm lucky), the Mean Look, Toxic combination is deadly in every form, but with Confuse Ray also the enemy is in a lot of trouble. I also use Night Shade as it's attack is so low that this is the only way to provide 100 damage.
Torkoal w/Chesto Berry
 Ability: White Smoke(Prevents ability reduction) Nature: Quiet (+Sp. Attack, -Speed)
-Amnesia -Iron Defense -Rest -Flamethrower
The best tank in the game (in my opinion). Already starts with a massive defense and special defense, and with Amnesia, Iron Defense, White Smoke ability and Chesto Rest Torkoal becomes very hard to take out. Flamethrower is there just for STAB.
Shiftry w/Miracle Seed
 Ability: Chlorophyll(When Sunny, SPEED doubles) Nature: Sassy (+Sp. Defense, -Speed)
-Sunny Day -Synthesis -Solarbeam -Explosion
This is where people start making complaints about myself being a hypocrite. Firstly I have given my Shiftry a Miracle Seed simply as Solarbeam is it's only 'real' attack. Apart from that it's moveset is pretty self explanatory, with Sunny Day boosting all moves (except Explosion) and boosting it's ability. Shiftry is here to stall them enemy, using Sunnybeam and Synthesis, and if I get into trouble I can take out the opponent with me using Explosion.
Lanturn w/Petaya Berry
 Ability: Volt Absorb(Turns electricity into HP) Nature: Modest (+Sp. Attack, -Attack)
-Thunder -Surf -Rain Dance -Ice Beam
Yes, I have two conflicting attacks on my team, Rain Dance and Sunny Day (this is where my team falls down), but I believe that it has enough reason. Lanturn is my main Special Attacker, as it can take out pretty much anything using Rain Dance.
Breloom w/Starf Berry
 Ability: Effect Spore(Spores left on contact) Nature: Adamant (+Attack, -Sp. Attack)
-Focus Punch -Spore -Leech Seed -Bulk Up
Breloom's purpose is of Physical Attacker, and it does it perfectly. Using Spore Punch nothing can take many hits. No need really for explanation.
Slaking w/Liechi Berry
 Ability: Truant(Moves only once in 2 turns) Nature: Adamant (+Attack, -Sp. Attack)
-Slack Off -Hyper Beam -Earthquake -Shadow Ball
Slaking is my sweeper, knowing how everyone knows about sweepers and Slaking no further explanation is required.
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My(db_skate's) Team: Crobat w/Brightpowder
 Ability: Inner Focus (Prevents flinching.) Nature: Jolly (Speed+, Sp.Attack-)
-Toxic -Mean Look -Confuse Ray -Fly
My starting annoyer. Poison with Toxic, Confuse them, trap them with Mean Look and use Fly to stall and do more damage.
Medicham w/Choice Band
 Ability: Pure Power (Doubles Attack stat in battle.) Nature: Adamant (Attack, Sp.Attack-)
-Brick Break -Shadow Ball -Return -Rock Slide
My Physical Attacker. With Pure Power, his attack equals 480 in battle, and with Choice Band boosting the attack I choose, Medicham blows through many teams.
Alakazam w/Petaya Berry
 Ability: Synchronize (Passes status problems onto opponent.) Nature: Modest (Sp.Attack+, Attack-)
-Calm Mind -Psychic -Shock Wave -Ice Punch
My starting special sweeper. Covers many types, and with 405 sp.attack, it takes them out pretty quick.
Gorebyss w/Leftovers
 Ability: Swift Swim (Raises Speed in Rain.) Nature: Bold (Defense+, Attack-)
-Amnesia -Iron Defense -Baton Pass -Water Pulse
Great Baton Passer. It helps out my Alakazam's low defense. And the other low defenses in my team.
Pikachu w/Light Ball
 Ability: Static (Paralyze foe on contact.) Nature: Modest (Sp.Attack+, Attack-)
-Rain Dance -Surf -Charge -Thunder
THE most powerful non-legendary special sweeper with 436 sp.attack while holding Light Ball. His defenses are only around 100, which brings him down ALOT. That's why he won't normally come out without being BPed by Gorebyss.
Slaking w/Leichi Berry
 Ability: Traunt (Can't attack consecutively.) Nature: Adamant (Attack+, Sp.Attack-)
-Hyper Beam -Shadow Ball -Earthquake -Slack Off
The most powerful base attack in the world of pokemon, and he's not legendary. I recommend that everyone uses one. Period.
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Well I hoped it helped (as before thanks to serebii.net, Squall Leonheart, Octarine Skye, Anilones and GameFAQs board for information). This message was edited by db_skate on Dec 18 2004.
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