Hariyama or Slaking?
For Sapphire.
Pleaselog inorregisterto add a comment.
Hariyama is better.Deathrider’s answer seemed to assume that every opponent only has 1 Pokemon, which is obviously not true. The best Pokemon are the ones that cansweeptheir opponents, which Slaking can’t do because of truant. Additionally, a good Pokemon should be able to sweep opponents for larger portions of the game. While Vigoroth does eventually learn moves like shadow ball and earthquake, both those TMs come very late and can only be obtained once. So Slakoth and Vigoroth will be stuck with cut and strength for more than half the game, or even later if the TM30 shadow ball goes to a teammate or gets hoarded. Slakoth is also annoying to drag through the early game because of truant and slow growth rate. As for Hariyama…
To start off, its experience group makes it so it’s extremely easy to level and only drags on during the late-game, to where you should be ready to finish the run at that point. It contributes extremely well to nearly every major battle that exists, and thanks to the accessibility of Bulk Up, can more often than not facilitate its own sweeps. Thick Fat and Guts are also quite handy abilities for these. While “moving last” seems to be a huge issue here, Vital Throw is a really strong STAB move early on and Hariyama isn’t too terribly slow to attack normally with Strength/Arm Thrust in the meantime. Its power spike is pretty early and remains relevant even through the late-game.It is a bit slow but its very tanky and very strong and with Bulk Up it just absolutely trashes basically every major fight in the game except for Tate and Liza and Winona to an extent. Honestly isn’t that reliant on Vital Throw, Strength + Arm Thrust is sufficient against the majority of opponents until Brick Break comes along with Vital Throw mostly being saved for major fights or evasion spammers. It will slurp a fair number of potions, but money isn’t really tight in this game after Lavaridge (you can always use herbal meds if you’re concerned) and the sheer volume of good matchups it has (this mon is fully capable of soloing Emerald E4, just need EQ TM so it can damage Phoebe and you’re set) makes it worth it. Availability is fantastic too.
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Slaking.The reason is quite simple: when making an in-game team, one should always choose Pokemon which can take out the opponent’s Pokemon fastest. What is better fitting for the role than slaking?It gets a plethora of coverage moves, including Hyper Beam, Earthquake, Shadow ball and many others. Its legendary level stats means you are taking out anything not resisting it with Hyper Beam, otherwise Earthquake and Shadow ball. Again, you have the option to switch after every KO. This means, get a KO and then switch, not worrying about truant.It sure is a little tough to train one, but it shall pay off at the latter half of the game.Hariyama is also incredibly slow, so may take a lot of hits. It’s bulky, but why take hits when you have the option to instantly KO?In case you need fighting coverage, no need for it now. Hyper Beam-Earthquake-Shadow ball covers everything!I literally swept through the game with just Blaziken, Slaking and Gardevoir. This trio is amazing.Hope I helped!
