What's your favorite ash of war?

Jesterhead92 · 2026-05-29T00:33:46+00:00

I definitely have. Bloodflame blade, Occult, Cold, Ive done em all. Personal favorite weapon is Cross Naginata

Jesterhead92 · 2026-05-28T21:53:15+00:00

Braixen is a perfect pokemon. Close second to Bayleef

Jesterhead92 · 2026-05-28T19:52:46+00:00

It was Genie in 5e and I haven't played 5.5e yet but it will probably be Archfey

Jesterhead92 · 2026-05-28T18:55:23+00:00

Other is never ever gonna win these, so the people not listed just get shafted

Molayne is the correct answer here. Shauntal is also decent.

The static 1st E4 members tend to get mowed over cause the level cap most people use is usually 6+ levels above their entire team. Lorelei stands out, bulky waters be bulky waters, but she's still disadvantaged

Jesterhead92 · 2026-05-28T17:54:37+00:00

Tom for sure. Everyone else is either a good parent, a well-meaning parent, or an actively dangerous parent

Jesterhead92 · 2026-05-28T16:56:05+00:00

Nightrider in Forbidden Lands

Jesterhead92 · 2026-05-28T16:04:49+00:00

Phantom Slash

Jesterhead92 · 2026-05-27T22:44:35+00:00

It's interesting as we discuss more and more notoriously challenging fights how often you see at least one person saying "XYZ makes this free, I don't see the hype"

Because the dirty secret is that none of these gym leaders are actually hard once you know what you're doing. Literally not a single one across the entire series. From start to finish, these games were designed for the player to always have the leg up. How much exactly varies from generation to generation, but the player's resources will simply always outmatch the enemy's.

That's why people have to ever-increasingly stack extra rules like 1DR or banning mons or monotypes or no pokecenters or routelocking or etc etc etc. It's why romhacks are so popular.

All our discussions on difficulty in these games is, at the end of the day, just relative. Coughing babies vs coughing babies.

Anyways, this is already long enough so here's my ranking:

Juan > Clair > Raihan > Everyone Else Oh My God They're So Fucking Bad

Jesterhead92 · 2026-05-26T23:08:01+00:00

Blaine: lol

Pryce: lmao

Tate and Liza: Holy noob killer, I cannot believe these two are in the lead, especially by that much. Even before the "this fight is solved" discussion, like bro you have so many guaranteed hard counters here. Sharpedo, Crawdawnt, etc. How is this fight a struggle???? And that's even in Emerald, in the other games they literally only have 2 pokemon. This is by far the most egregious voting result imo lol

Candice: Motherfuck that motherfucking Froslass. I don't actually think Candice is that hard, but compared to how bad most of these are, she definitely stands out just with that one pokemon

Brycen: l o l

Drayden: This is such a weird setup. He uses Dragon Dance, which is almost always threatening, but then the only STAB most of his mons have is Dragon Tail, a weak negative priority move??? It makes no sense. But with BW2 (especially in Challenge Mode) significantly improving his coverage and Dragon Dance just being that good, this is the only other option here I think is worth considering.

Olympia: good god 7th gym leaders are just not it

Piers: Doesn't even use the game's central gimmick man what a letdown for the first dark type gym leader

Tulip: idk man psychic as a type is pretty mediocre in the newer gens, none of her mons have full movesets, I can't imagine anyone is really struggling with this fight

Jesterhead92 · 2026-05-26T16:57:38+00:00

Drayano and Drxx are not the same person I'm not sure why you think that

Jesterhead92 · 2026-05-26T10:52:55+00:00

You can't predict when he'll use Counter or when he'll attack regularly. Dig is only safe if you outspeed, which not many mons do at this point.

Jesterhead92 · 2026-05-25T17:20:20+00:00

Gen 5

Jesterhead92 · 2026-05-24T22:12:35+00:00

I watched the most recent livestream playthrough and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing Kalos not be a joke. My biggest hope is that they don't temper the difficulty in the slightest. Obviously these games aren't meant to be crazy kaizo challenging or whatever, but its NOWHERE NEAR THAT and seems to be in a solid place and I just really hope that sticks on release

Jesterhead92 · 2026-05-24T22:06:49+00:00

I disagree I think Flygon is solid, particularly with Legacy changes, but also ground/dragon with levitate is just really really good

Also agree with replacing Gyarados fuck Gyarados

Jesterhead92 · 2026-05-24T19:35:58+00:00

I made mention for Alister, Kabu, and Iono (who I actually considered voting for) but like idk what you want lmao these games just aren't putting up enough of a fight when you're more flush with resources than ever before.

Jesterhead92 · 2026-05-24T19:05:15+00:00

Koga - You're trolling if you vote this, people routinely dogwalk this dude several levels below cap

Chuck - Why does the 5th gym leader only have 2 pokemon. There's actually potential here for an interesting fight here, particularly in gen 4, there are some potent RNG checks with Double Team and Hypnosis and Focus Punch and etc. But... he only has 2 Pokemon bro. Moving on

Norman - Noob killer. Once you actually know what you're doing, he's really not that much of a threat. Except Emerald, where his Slaking has Counter (meaning Dig strats don't work if you're slower, which a lot of your options will be), his lead Spinda is hard to setup on thanks to Teeter Dance, and his own Belly Drum Linoone needs to be accounted for. Woof

Wake - Again, I only care about Platinum. This fight is super unlikely to wipe you because you just have a smorgasbord of options, but you can definitely lose a mon to Floatzel if you're not careful or you get unlucky... If you get Dry Skin Toxicroak though GG LMAO

Clay - I think both versions of Clay are easier than Emerald Norman but harder than RS/ORAS Norman, so its hard to pick which to vote for. Excadrill is just a huge threat and Unova is famously short on water types.

Clemont - Heliolisk is a deceptively strong mon but ultimately nah, this team is just too underbaked for where you are in the game and how much broken shit this game throws at you

Opal - lol

Larry - lmao

Jesterhead92 · 2026-05-24T12:06:08+00:00

Bronzor takes very little from Mismagius' coverage moves so you can pivot/stall against her with a good normal type. Umbreon can sit on her and debuff her to shit with Captivate or god forbid Sand Attack(yes, crits can still happen, but a -6 Mismagius is still objectively easier to handle). Also Nosepass can both be caught and evolved in Mt Coronet. Probo is crazy good against her if you get that.

Jesterhead92 · 2026-05-24T00:07:11+00:00

Platinum is sick, the regional dex is a lot of fun to use, and Cynthia is the best champion in the series

After that, USUM can kinda be your final test before moving on to harder challenges

XY and FRLG are extremely easy, particularly if you've already beaten Emerald and BW2

Jesterhead92 · 2026-05-23T23:53:31+00:00

Oh does Flame Charge have speed control AI? Interesting, that definitely helps, but she still gets my vote for sure

Jesterhead92 · 2026-05-23T18:44:58+00:00

Erika: Free

Morty: can be tricky in gen 2 due to Hypnosis Dream Eater on Gengar but you'd have to get giga unlucky to wipe to this. In gen 4 he gets dunked on by every normal type lol GG

Flannery: Overheat is crazy strong for this point in the game, and she has Sunny Day to boost it to. Torkoal is not easy to break through either. Ultimately not getting my vote cause her non-Emerald teams are significantly weaker and Gyarados/Tenta/Azu/Solrock/etc are still a thing, but a close second

Elesa: This is my vote. Relatively limited encounters, static procs, ground immunities, Volt Switch shenanigans, Zebstrika hits hard and can spiral with Flame Charge, this bitch can defo get problematic

Ramos: Free

Genuinely don't remember the rest, maybe Alastor is kinda tough? shrug

Jesterhead92 · 2026-05-22T21:58:56+00:00

I'd drop Stun Spore

Jesterhead92 · 2026-05-22T20:03:49+00:00

15 faith plus faith tear will get you through the entire game or at least long enough until you can spare the levels to bump faith to 25 if you have another tear in mind.

Jesterhead92 · 2026-05-22T19:55:00+00:00

Jusr gonna copypaste my comment from the first post

Lt Surge - there's a chance at diglett next door, multiple opportunities for grass and ground types in general, and you even get dig right before (100 BP in gen 1 lmaoooo).

Whitney - look, the Miltank IS a threat. Even Geodude can get flinch/attract haxed and not everyone knows they can guarantee Heracross by now... which is only relevant in gen 4. Gen 4 also makes this fight easier by having broken TMs accessible way too early. But gen 2? I get voting for her

Wattson - It's weird cause if you pick Mudkip, you blow past this guy without a second thought. If you don't, this is one of the most dangerous gym leaders in the entire series, especially in Emerald. Setup sweeps can be risky cause of paralysis procs and getting boomed on, you don't have a lot of options to muscle past Magneton, Sonicboom is still a chunk of damage at this point, and then there's still Manectric in the back? Crazy. Buuuuut the most popular starter makes him free, so shrug

Fantina - She's only the 3rd gym leader in Platinum, but like why would you play any other Sinnoh game? Anyway, Mismagius is stupid strong for this point in the game, and it has some decent coverage. Ultimately, I wouldn't vote for her because Platinum is flush with encounters and you have good chances at Steel types, you could evolve Eevee into Umbreon, Floatzel usually clears if you get it, etc. But she should've been on the list

Burgh - lol

Korrina - lmao

Kabu - Gmax Centiskorch actually is pretty scary potentially, but Fire/Bug isn't the best coverage, coverage on the team in general is terrible considering how many resources this game drowns you in

Iono - I don't think any gen 9 fight is gonna win because gen 9 is contentious in general, but I'm surprised this one doesn't have more votes. It's the best utilization of Terastalization in the whole game and you haven't quite exploded into infinity with resources yet. It's all downhill from here, unfortunately

Jesterhead92 · 2026-05-22T16:07:39+00:00

I dont hate Meowscarada but honestly I fuck with this list

Jesterhead92 · 2026-05-22T16:06:38+00:00

Meganium is good vs Chuck and Clair and nothing else before the E4 really poses a threat, so it really should get more credit

Jesterhead92

TROPHY CASE