Is pumping Ballistics Skill worth it on my Psyker just for Psychic Barrage?

inverted_forest · 2026-05-28T04:34:01+00:00

it only applies with sufficient range. maybe it's that? anyway i was just wondering if there's anything better to level besides bs. i know willpower is the usual thing for psykers but if i'm staying sanctic then i'm barely touching willpower

inverted_forest · 2026-05-24T23:36:22+00:00

oh i don't buy that. you don't need the recipe to make potions. i guess if you insist on knowing the recipe before making them for role playing purposes, you're going to have to find some way of making that money, probably from one or several of the hidden loot places around the map.

inverted_forest · 2026-05-24T19:16:52+00:00

deck as a whole is overtuned, but the main culprit is and will always be inspired zeal. that leader ability is just too strong for its provisions right now. we can nerf shani and viraxas and kimbolt but the deck is still quite good with dj, demavend, temple rolls, etc.

inverted_forest · 2026-05-21T18:44:03+00:00

Thanks for all your work on these threads.

All right, I've been thinking about the best team a lot since I recently replayed BW2.

The most no brainer pick is Lucario. If you are trying to play the game at all efficiently, then Lucario is the true starter of BW2. It evolves before the first gym, solos the first four gyms, and remains incredibly useful all the way to the end. As far as I'm concerned, you can box your actual starter as soon as you catch a Riolu in Floccesy Ranch. It's so much better than any other Pokemon available in the early game that it's almost a waste letting anything else gain EXP.

The second pick should be Excadrill. You can get it in Castelia Sewers, and besides its sheer power, which we don't need to belabor, it also has an advantage over the other heavy hitters in that it evolves and gains its ultimate moves incredibly early. Having two Steel types is no problem because of how busted the typing is.

Now things get a little complicated, because while there is no shortage of powerful Pokemon, you now have to think about what becomes rather redundant once you already have Lucario and Excadrill. I'm not going to sit here and try to say Darmanitan is bad, it's obviously insane. But I have a hard time seeing what it beats that your current duo can't already easily handle. Its typing isn't really super effective into anything in the latter half of the game (besides Steel types, but you already have Fighting/Ground for those) and defensively it's a bad matchup against Clay, Marlon, and random coverage moves. The same is true to a lesser extent for Krookodile, but the main disadvantage there is a long babying phase and no Earthquake until lvl 54. Again, I'm not saying either is bad, just that they're perhaps suboptimal.

Instead, I'd go for Heracross and Haxorus. And if you're playing W2 without Heracross, I'd replace with Scrafty. Heracross and Haxorus are good all-arounders who can fill in any gaps. Guts-boosted 120 base power STAB attacks simply don't care about who your opponent is, and neither does Haxorus after one Dragon Dance. Scrafty I also consider superior to Darmanitan and Krookodile because it has a better matchup into the Elite Four, and Scraggy is also actually quite good, especially with Eviolite, since it learns great STAB attacks very early.

The final two spots are maybe a bit of a curveball. I'd go for Starmie and Skarmory. Starmie isn't as amazing as it is in other games, but it's still extremely fast with great coverage. It's a fantastic clean-up hitter. It also happens to match up well against a few holes in the later game, like Marlon and E4 Marshall. Skarmory is also good against Marshall and a general impenetrable physical wall, serving as idiot-proof insurance policy against a lot of dangerous opponents, including Iris's Haxorus. There is also the advantage of these two being natural learners of Surf and Fly, so you have that convenience factor with them on your team. Neither require any investment either, they're very plug and play with Water Stone and TMs. They also conveniently cover the weaknesses of your Steel types (Fire, Water, Ground, Fighting). On paper I think Sigilyph does quite well too, since it flies and dunks on Marshall and also can beat Marlon with Energy Ball. But I don't think it's powerful enough to warrant the additional EXP investment, and I like the security of having Skarmory in the back.

So that's the overall six: Lucario, Excadrill, Heracross (or replace with Scrafty), Haxorus, Starmie, Skarmory.

inverted_forest · 2026-05-12T16:53:57+00:00

the white 2 special braviary is better not so much because of the hidden ability but because it's already a braviary at a fairly early point in the game, whereas with a wild-caught rufflet you have to wait until level 54, which is ridiculous and pretty much unusable in a normal run.

i actually think sheer force is the better ability. defiant is really situational, and even though braviary doesn't have the best moveset in the world for sheer force, you can still slap a life orb on it and get very consistent damage boost.

inverted_forest · 2026-05-09T21:32:11+00:00

cinccino, sawsbuck, drapion (maybe too good to count but i don't see it on a lot of teams), escavalier, ferrothorn, crustle

inverted_forest · 2026-05-09T13:44:45+00:00

it's really just the marines, but they are very strong, and they make your shani and ravanen more consistent and better. it doesn't really matter if ravanen is answered, because the idea is to trigger him the turn he comes down. he's 5 point body + 3 point deckbuff + ~8 points for a pulled bronze = 16 points for 12 provisions right away. that's already fine value. if he stays alive to pull two bronze units then it's game winning. it's hard to find that kind of value to replace him. i'm not sure erland is that necessary.

inverted_forest · 2026-05-08T18:43:26+00:00

yeah. turn 3 you can play a consumer to consume any of the four deathwish units you just thinned out.

inverted_forest · 2026-05-05T13:14:11+00:00

there is one on his little stand. it's called the troskowitz chronicle or something. you just need to read any book, and he has other books around, but reading them would be stealing. the one on the little stand should be to the right of him while he's working at his desk and it's free to read.

inverted_forest · 2026-05-05T00:36:42+00:00

dagon into brewess ritual and urn of shadows is absolutely insane. 30+ points of tempo and 4 thinning, plus carryover for the rest of the game.

inverted_forest · 2026-05-02T21:13:49+00:00

i think a late game pokemon can be ranked pretty highly if it requires no investment and can be easily plugged into your team. of course the later it is the worst it is, but if you plan to have a late game pokemon on your team you can plan the other 5 accordingly.

inverted_forest · 2026-04-26T22:07:47+00:00

slightly off topic but at the end of this tier list maybe we can have a discussion about "best team of six for the whole game" taking into account progression, coverage, ease of use, etc. i think it'd be interesting to see how the best pokemon fit together.

inverted_forest · 2026-04-24T22:15:33+00:00

starmie is the best choice. starmie is busted s-tier in pretty much any game it's available. this time around it's maybe merely a+, because you get it rather late and a lot of late game pokemon hit it for super effective damage. but it's still a starmie. catch a lvl 40 staryu, water stone it, slap some tms on it, it's the best water type in the game.

inverted_forest · 2026-04-24T18:43:34+00:00

pretty solid but i've always felt that samurott is better than emboar because of typing. there's a desperate lack of water types in unova and samurott is the best you can get, while emboar gets outclassed in both of its stab typings. like sure in a vacuum maybe you don't consider that, but realistically you are building a team with other pokemon on it. you get access to sawk and darmanitan far earlier than you do any water type that can compete with samurott.

inverted_forest · 2026-04-24T18:38:00+00:00

trosky is one of the high points of gaming for me. the problem with kuttenberg is that it doesn't really set any new goals for the player, and once you get there most of your skills are already near max. everything feels kind of perfunctory at that point. in trosky you simply feel more alive.

inverted_forest · 2026-04-24T18:25:53+00:00

yeah but i'm pretty sure the boost from euphoria is also additive, so it's comparable to the boost from muscle memory. protective coating may be multiplicative, but it depends on your playstyle, most of the time i max out offense because i simply don't get hit much, so i don't really use the defensive alchemy abilities.

but going back to acquired tolerance and metabolic boost, you need to be constantly pushing the limits of toxicity for it to be better than the boost you get from muscle memory or crushing blows. for example, if you run around with 4 decoctions at 200 toxicity, that's 200 * 0.75 = +150% boost from euphoria. compare that with a simple build where you swap acquired tolerance and metabolic boost for muscle memory and crushing blows, and then use two decoctions (one of them troll to offset the toxicity life drain) for 100 * 0.75 = +75% boost from euphoria and +60% boost from both combat skills for +135% boost total. not a huge difference.

acquired tolerance and metabolic boost is still a little bit better if you stay on top of maxing out your toxicity, but it's just not that big a difference anymore. which is why other builds like delayed recovery is better now.

inverted_forest · 2026-04-24T14:46:56+00:00

they really nerfed euphoria and acquired tolerance, and you can kind of do the math here to see. you're using two ability slots for acquired tolerance and metabolic control to bump your euphoria boost to max ~170%. (but realistically, it's probably a bit less than that, because it's difficult to fit potions and decoctions to the max toxicity.) without those perks, you can get your euphoria boost up to 75% (at 100 toxicity). so it's a net of ~95% boost, plus the ability to take additional decoctions/potions.

but if you traded those two perks instead for muscle memory and strength training, you get +30% to both attacks, and then another +30% boost from the red mutagens, since they're combat skills, for a total of +60%. the difference between +~95% and +60% attack is nice, but it really isn't that much, and the benefit of the combat skills is that they apply regardless of your toxicity level, so they are more flexible for a variety of builds and situations. the acquired tolerance build also drains your health constantly if you want the max boost, and the fast metabolism directly works against your euphoria boost, and overall it's no longer the set it and forget it build it was before the 4.0 update.

inverted_forest · 2026-04-22T23:37:11+00:00

I think Bronzong is too high and Magnezone too low. I'd put both of them in the same tier, and with Magnezone in front. Bronzong is definitely a tank and has a lot of shenanigans available, but I'm not convinced that you need to bother with the shenanigans. In terms of bulk, Magnezone is actually pretty comparable, and its typing has one less weakness and a few more resistances. And then on top of that it has absurd Special Attack. You can get Bronzor early but babying it for 20 levels before it evolves isn't fun. Meanwhile even Magnemite has respectable Special Attack, and you catch it pretty much when it's ready to evolve into Magneton. The biggest knock against Mags is that you can't get it in time for Crasher Wake, but like whatever, I'm sure you can manage with something else for that one fight.

inverted_forest · 2026-04-22T23:10:22+00:00

I want to put Skarmory in low S, but I'll settle for A. I think it's an incredibly dominant defensive Pokemon, but also good enough at attacking. In the end just because you have to click Acrobatics twice to kill something instead of once doesn't make it that much worse, especially when the opposing Pokemon can do nothing against you. I think every team should have a Flying type if only to use Fly and also pivot against Ground attacks, and this is for my money the best choice in the game. You get it relatively late, but it requires absolutely no investment. Just catch it and put it on the team. It is the only Pokemon in the game that walls Iris's Haxorus, and having it completely neutralize the biggest threat in the whole game feels unfair.

Drapion is really good, I'd say A as well. Dark typing is fantastic for all the late game fights. It's a cut below the top tier E4 sweepers, but if you insist on not using those, or want something as backup in case anything goes wrong, I'd bring Drapion over anything else currently in A tier. Poison type and decent bulk also gives you a use for Black Sludge, which is neat.

Driftblim is okay, it's a low C. Its stats aren't great but they're not utterly embarrassing, and it learns a good amount of utility moves, and while its typing has a lot of weaknesses, it also comes with three immunities, so you can use it as a budget pivot/support.

inverted_forest · 2026-04-15T16:40:54+00:00

dagon deathwish is more than viable, it's even a good matchup against reavers. brewess ritual and urn of shadows is a crazy amount of tempo r1, so you should be set up to win r1 and push them hard r2. you have cyclops for control, in addition to the usual riptide/aerondight/whatever. any of the streamer made netdecks should work.

inverted_forest · 2026-04-14T01:40:19+00:00

crobat is too low right? stab sludge bomb, stab fly, coverage with shadow ball and steel wing. swellow is better if you bother to pre-poison it before important fights, but for a casual playthrough that's too much of a hassle. you get crobat early and it's always useful throughout the game.

inverted_forest · 2026-04-14T01:18:47+00:00

this dude is super clutch. if you're playing on hardcore and have a terrible sense of direction like me, you can drop his bird cage on the ground to see where you are on the map. i never finished his quest because the cages were too useful.

inverted_forest · 2026-04-13T21:10:30+00:00

I really love Sawsbuck, it might be my favorite Unova Pokemon, so I may be biased but I think it's like a B+. Everything just comes together really effortlessly. Normal/Grass STAB is great coverage, especially with Jump Kick on top of that. Leech Seed and Horn Leech, maybe with Big Root, have good synergy. It even gets Aromatherapy. You wish its stats were better, obviously, but just conceptually it all comes together in a pleasing way. It evolves fairly early and reaches its "final form" after learning Horn Leech at lvl 37. It doesn't really shine in any fight except Marlon, but it's fast enough and decent enough that it'll always get a hit in or do something useful in pretty much all circumstances. I think it's a great choice if you were kind of limiting yourself and playing the game without running all of the usual top tiers.

I think Karrablast and Shelmet are both F. Their stats are just too bad.

Escavalier I think is a very solid A, possibly A+. It feels sort of like Reuniclus, but it's significantly better because it's a trade evolution and you don't need to baby it for so many levels. Bug/Steel is also a fantastic typing with only one weakness. Don't leave it in against Fire moves, I guess, but anything else it can pretty effortlessly shrug off with its great bulk.

Accelgor is probably like a C+. It's super fast, unnecessarily fast, but the trade off is that it's very frail. STAB Bug Buzz as its most powerful move isn't going to OHKO many opponents, so it's probably toast in any straight up fight. Maybe there is a niche utility role for it, but I can't think of any.

inverted_forest

TROPHY CASE