Do you care about in-game tiers?

[Deleted member]

In case you don't know, in-game tiers are charts ranking Pokémon you encounter during the main adventure (generally until E4), much inspired by the same of the Fire Emblem games, and classify them following their availability in the game, moveset, versatility, stats and such.

Here's a link to the in-game tiers made by Smogon for 1G to 5G : http://www.smogon.com/ingame/misc/


I personally find them to be helpful if you want to have an efficient party and lack of ideas to fill it, even if I wonder on some ranks (Wooper only Mid-tier for HGSS ?)

And how about you ?

 

[pershona]

Never knew about them and now that i do i don't really care about them.

 

[toadster101]

"Strong Pokémon. Weak Pokémon. That is only the selfish perception of people. Truly skilled trainers should try to win with their favorites. I like your style. You understand what's important. Go on — — the Champion is waiting."

 

[Atrabilious]

It's a cool and interesting effort to be sure, and I can definitely see the use in this, but the reality is that the games are just not difficult enough to warrant deferring to a tier list for the purposes of your in-game team.

For the most recent games, OR/AS, there is almost nothing you can't beat just by brute forcing your way via over-levelling. And even if you don't over-level, the unlimited item uses and the fairly inept AI make it easy to breeze through the game even if you're under-levelled.

For competitive multiplayer, for sure you'd want to defer to the various tiering lists Smogon uses, but for in-game? Just catch what looks cool and blow some people up. I mean hell, I ran through Pokémon Y with a Beedrill in my team. Beedrill. Beedrill is unadulterated garbage statistically speaking, only reason I took him with me was because I think he looks cool.

 

[Deleted member]

Tiers not so much, but I do care about which stats they have when I'm competitively battling. I still will use Pokemon that are considered "low tier", though. I caught someone off guard with Charizard in Gen V era due to this.

 

[ViridianViridi]

Sometimes, yes, but as Kokonoe said, using lower-tier Pokemon can catch someone off guard as long as it isn't a Luvdisc.

I ended up sweeping someone in OU with a Cinccino.

 

[UltiMario]

In-game tiers don't really matter. You could take mono Beedrill and drive it through the E4 effortlessly in RBY.

Tiers only really matter for competitive.

 

[Kneutronic]

Like Smash Bros, tiers don't really matter to me in Pokemon. However, unlike Smash Bros, if I want to play competitively, I would resort to OU Pokemon if need be, as well as a couple UU and occasional RU and NU.

Unfortunately, I've raised so much competitive-ready Pokemon that it makes team-building difficult.

 

[oZzIIgk]

Honestly, I don't think Pokemon is difficult enough to warrant a tier list for the main adventure. I don't doubt I could beat the game with all Bottom Tier Pokemon, if they have the ability to learn the HMs that make the game beatable.

 

[VillageofFitness]

The earlier the gen, the less I care. You can pretty much brute force your way through Gen 1, and a much lesser degree through 2, but now we're at the point where Pokemon is so mechanical that it's worth paying attention to.

 

[Murlough]

In-game tiers are near pointless unless you are playing a ROM hack meant to be difficult, so no I don't pay much attention.

Besides I like a lot of under valued mons i.e. Lilligant.

 

[LunarWingCloud]

Nope. As long as I think I can make use of it I'll use it. I tend to just like using my favorites. I hate min-maxing in Pokemon it made me quit competitive play in the middle of Gen IV.

 

[DrCoeloCephalo]

Yes. I feel more accomplished when I can use the rare and strong stuff in my play throughs. Especially if it's something that's a personal favorite.
However, low tier Pokemon that are a pain to evolve like Rhyhorn and Dratini in Red, Blue and Yellow just require patience and you get a huge reward. But if you don't like grinding, I can understand their low tier placement in favor of easier to obtain and powerful top tiers like Abra.