The WORST Gym Leaders In Every Pokemon Region
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 3 ต.ค. 2024
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Happy JPR Friday! Who is your favorite Gym Leader?
Drayden for the role. Raihan for the challenge. Need Dragon to be Gym 1 in Gen 10 to resist all Starters.
Easy choice - Iono
Bea 👌
Erika i would say is my favorite. She's the one who shows Japanese culture the best with her flower arranging and her style of clothing too!
melony for.. no particular reason
At some point you realize just how much Giovanni sucks as a leader. He has a level 50 Rhyhorn for crying out loud and any semi decent surf user destroys him
That’s only in fire red and leaf green which nerfed his team for no good reason
In every other game he has Rhydon
Plus he didn’t have many options given ground types in Kanto don’t have much type diversity
My Blastoise: “I’m about to ruin this man’s whole career. Literally.”
Why do you think he runs an evil organization. Lol
He did have a rhydon originally.
I hate that so many pokemon are ground and rock type. It just gives stupid double weaknesses out that should have been avoided.
The 7th & 8th Gym Leaders: supposed to be the strongest Gym Leaders of all
Also the 7th & 8th Gym Leaders:
because Pokemon is very unbalanced sometimes
The problem with late game pokemon is that you tend to just 1 shot everythign with a super effective move so there no real threat
Diamond & Pearl, Black & White 1/2, and X&Y:
Especially X&Y… really a ice type gym where I can one shot with a fire type
Clare
Opal is even WORSE because as long as you get the questions right, which is a 50/50 chance if you're just blindly picking, you get super buffed, which you definitely do not need since she kinda sucks to begin with
Alcremie only puts up a small fight, it's not used well here
And she punishes you for getting her age right.
All the galar gym leaders suck to begin with.
Isn't she too old to be a Gym Leader? *(based on Phineas & Ferb's "a little young/old" running gag)*
@@tlst94 Yes. Yes, she is.
(I do not think so. Look at Pryce)
Funny how only one ice type leader (Candice) escaped being labeled the worst, and that's because Byron is the weakest gym leader of all time.
Melony fans stay winning 💅
Who?
False, Byron is not the weakest, he is not galarian.
Tbh, her froslass in platinum was kinda a pain in the ass to deal with... (If you don't have faster pokemon)
Not only that she'll set up hail, but her froslass have double team, making it near impossible to hit it due to its ability
@@ytghost8982Don’t forget the hail is pre nerf snow warning so the hail doesn’t go away unless you have a way to change it
All things considered about Ice Types... WHY are they always the last gyms?? In fact why are ice Types always left to the later third of the game?? Seriously, we need a Pokemon game where ice is the FIRST gym or somewhere close!
Yes agreed. The Ice-Type Pokemon in general need to be buffed, period. Ice is one of my favourite Pokemon types (especially on the aesthetic side of things), sadly it has been treated like absolute dogwater. How would I fix the type is first and foremost, make Ice no longer weak to Fighting, Steel and Rock-Types and instead make them resist those 3 types and get resisted back (execpt maybe Steel-Types as in real life, metal and steel have stood zero chances against the harsh cold, especially metal pipes being frozen). Secondly, make them super effective against Bug-Type Pokemon as most bugs can't survive the harsh cold (I know I would nerf the Bug-Type Pokemon even more than it already is, and the Bug-Type itself needs to be buffed as well). Lastly, of course make them super effective against Water-Types as ice beats water in reality (with the execption of the move Steam Euruption, Volcanian's signature move and the similar move that can melt Ice-Type Pokemon).
It would be awesome if the first Gym Leader was an Ice-Type gym Leader, especially basing around a more polar region. I like to think the first Gym Leader will have a Snom at Level 18, a Cubchoo at Level 19 or an Alolan Vulpix at Level 19 and his ace Swinub at Level 20. I know first Gym Leaders tend to have 2 Pokemon, not 3. I was going to say Glaceon, but that's not the most appropriate response. I have no idea on what moveset should they have, but all of them have decent to really good Ice-Type moves on their level as well as other types moves if dual-typed.
I think it might be because ice types are typically found in mountainous regions which are more often than not later-level areas
Blame GF for making the Ice type as bad as it is I suppose.
Since Gen 5 Ice Type a gym leaders definetly could have used Hail/Snow more often to their advantage. That would Mane pokémon like Beartic a lot better
Ice as a type also needs a boost. Ice should resist all 4 types it is super-effective against when fighting and it should be immune to water. It should also be super-effective against water. After all water FREEZES doesn't it? It never made sense to me
@@Pepstep_07 Ice Received a boost when Hail was changed to Snow it now Increases their Def Stat by 50%
The fact Pryce beats out Chuck for being underwhelming is astonishing.
Chuck in HGSS has a very irritating strategy with his Double Team & Focus Punch Primeape, along with a Poliwrath with Hypnosis & Focus Punch
@@zaneheaston8254 yeah Chuck seems to like using the more risky fighting moves be it dynamic punch in the gen 2 games or focus punch in the remakes, but does cover for their high-risk factor by carrying moves like hypnosis, double team, body slam and mind reader
@@bulborb8756 yeah even if he sucks most of the time, the highroll potential saves him. Now, granted, Pryce can highroll with freeze- wait, no, he's running stuff like Aurora Beam. He barely can even freeze you lol nevermind then. 😂
I used to think this until actually looking at Pryce's team. Both he and Chuck suffer from baffling team choices (No Hitmontop or Heracross for Chuck? Instead of Pryce having a cool Johto Pokemon like Sneasel they gave him a f'ing SEEL). But Pryce's movesets and overall quality of Pokemon stats wise are laughably bad compared to Chuck.
I think it's more cause he said he was going to be more critical of the later gyms. And although you can battle them in any order, so Chuck or pryce could both either be the 5th, 6th, or 7th gym leader, according to the game, pryce is technically the 7th
At least Candice didn't get the boot as an Ice-type gym leader.
At least in Plat her ace is a Froslass which covers for Fighting types.
@@MrKlausbaudelaire Not to mention Snow Cloak plus Ominous Wind for omni boosts
She's a genuine threat, especially in Platinum. When I first fought her Platinum team, I was pleasantly surprised.
@@ianweston310 She also often will lead with Abomasnow setting a permanent Hail which can be a real pain
Nah, Candice is the only competent one.
I feel like the Ice type gyms are basically set up to fail. Not picking the bulky, war of attrition option is kinda hard when that's 95% of the usable roster. What we have left is Weavile, Froslass and Darmanitan and Ninetales' regional variants. I for the life of me cannot understand why Game Freak is so allergic to making fast Ice types. The type is tailor made for fast offensive sweepers but NOOOO. Let's make another tank that can't reliably tank hits.
Even Mamoswine and Baxcalibur would’ve been serviceable
Sure 80-87 Spe is not the greatest speed tier in the world, but they can at least do something before dying unlike Beartic
SIDE-NOTE: Same applies to Rock more or less (runner-up worst defensive type with much more generic slow-bulky tank wannabes than offensive mons that actually take advantage of the type’s solid offenses, now where have I heard that before?)
Gamefreak be like: create ice as the glass cannon type
Make most ice pokemon defensive
The problem with Ice type gym leaders is how the series acts like Ice is this huge powerful expert endgame type when its at best a complete joke by then. If they want a challenging ice type gym, make it around the third gym where you have options to deal with them but they have lots of ways to harm your team for super effective damage, then kit them out with the faster ice types that can get that first hit on you. Even something like an Avalugg could be quite the potent foe if you're still relying on mid-game moves to really damage it while packing un-or-mid evolved pokemon who aren't at their best.
ice: is a bad defensive type but a good offensive type that can hit many types for super effective
gamefreak: makes many ice pokemon tanks
@@GameAW1 another option is them creating actually good, hard hitting ice types. but no, let's create a 10th bulky defensive ice type that resists NOTHING BUT ITSELF and has like 4 weaknesses to common offensive types
It's funny that Wattson is so easy in casual play, because he's a totally different beast in Nuzlockes. Borderline run killer in Emerald if you didn't choose Mudkip as your starter, and even Marshtomp can be put in an awkward position with confusion hax from Magneton.
Facts he's more of a threat than Norman in nuzlockes especially if you are doing a pokemon nuzlocke timeline
Wattson is easier in a nuzlocke than a normal playthrough since in a nuzlocke I would always pick Mudkip instead of Torchic or Treecko 😂
@@brendan6555 OK but what of you don't pick Mudkip because you've already done so millions of times before? Then your only option for a Ground type is praying for a Geodude.
@@robertlupa8273 I've swept him before with bulk up combusken as well. The level cap is 24 so BU Hariyama would also be an excellent option. I think Wattson is a very balanced gym leader; good levels, good pokemon, type diversity could be better but there's not many options.
I always find that ironic how the water starter has the easiest time against an electric gym leader in one generation
Still to this day, not giving Wulfric Mega Abomasnow, not making Olympia a double battle, and not giving the Kalos Elite Four members Megas have got to be some of the most blatantly missed opportunities in the history of Pokemon by Gamefreak...
And the anime fixed that, as it should.
I still don't even get why after we got a free Mega they didn't do any when they gave Lucario, one of the best as your first one. They can't even say it's because they're afraid that players would only have Lucario as their mega (which if you haven't gotten any other candidates by gym 5 you're doing something wrong) all the Megas you could face until the E4 Lucario is either neutral or resistant defensively and either neutral or super effective offensively.
Not having to fight Korrina's Lucario(s) in her gym battle is another missed opportunity. It would've been challenging to fight a Mega before you can use one yourself right.
Ya, every gym post 4 should have had a Mega on it. Or if they wanted to keep it special, at minimum Wulfric and the E4 needed them.
@jamiewalsh3349 It would also be significantly unfair to the player. As much as I want there to be more in XY, Lucario vs Lucario was a good introduction to giving the player Mega Evolution as well as a good starting point for Megas in fights.
I love the fact that everyone in the fanbase unanimously loves Larry. He is a gigachad.
But the thing is is that he's not a gigachad. He's just a normal guy. That's what makes him so great.
Not me.
That Giovanni battle is the main reason I roll my eyes whenever someone says he's the most terrifying villainous team-leader. Yeah, he's the most realistic and down-to-earth, but at the same time, what's he gonna do to any half-decent Pokemon Trainer? glare menacingly as his entire team sans Dugtrio gets outsped and one-shot?
Most realistic down to heart villain, who wants to take over the multiverse…
@Zoroark_Master most realistic villain until gamefreak decided they need more nostalgia bait :(
Guess that's why he gets one shot. He stopped putting effort into being a gym leader
If we're using their teams as a measure of how threatening they feel he's really only getting beat by Ghestis. Like, Maxie and Archie are memed on for a reason, most of Galactic is pretty bad (Syrus is ok but he isnt much more threatening than Giovanni) and Lysander is an idiot.
This is why everything outside Kanto just lets him have Mewtwo, whether it makes sense or not.
Byron is so bad that I once beat him with a Togepi
I beat with with an empoleon with 50 hp
🤣
CAP!!!
Use Bulldoze, Punch, and Surf
one shot his entire team with scald... not being used by a water type so not even same type attack bonus
The thing about early Gym Leaders, especially Brock, they might be low enough level where they can’t reach their STAB moves yet. There’s all sorts of coulda woulda shouldas about this but as they are programmed, if the thing changed was “bring the STAB moves early” you’d be making fun of the illegal moves like you have been for Lance all these years. So come on
Grusha's ace should've been Tera Ice Gengar to reference that the temperature drops when it's in the area. Shadow Ball, Sludge Wave, Tera Blast (Ice), and Dazzling Gleam/TBolt would've been great for it.
Yo, that'd be wild
It should have been a Tera Ice Electrode with soundproof holding a throat spray
@@leonardofarias8843 like a giant hail ball, right?
@@robertlupa8273 Yep 👍
Yeah but this is Gamefreak we're talking about.
The same people that changed Hail (a weather that damages all Types except Ice) to Snow (a weather that literally only raises the Defense of Ice Types and nothing else).
The same people that made Bitter Malice, a move that inflicted Frostbite and had the same damage calculation as Hex, into just a Ghost Type version of Chilling Water, both of which only lowers Attack and doesn't even have a 1% chance of freezing the opponent.
I think it's safe to say that Gamefreak just really hates anything that involves ice or freezing.
Giovanni not having his Rhydon in FireRed/LeafGreen had to have been some kind of goof from the dev team. Like I can't even fathom it being a conscious choice to make his ace another Rhyhorn with the same exact moveset.
Doesn't Wulfric even straight up say that you'll probably crush his team?
I believe so, yes
pretty much, and you have tons of time to get a strong special attacking fire type before you reach him and thus beat him in 3 turns by clicking flamethrower
_"Y'know what? Ice is both extremely hard and terribly fragile at the same time. You know what that means? Depending on which Pokémon you choose and what moves they use, I could be your most challenging opponent yet or I could be a total pushover."_
@@robertlupa8273and the average playthrough is more often then not the latter, because brain cells baby!
@@robertlupa8273Only way to screw that one up is either with ground, grass and flying types only.
Ash didn't just sweep Watson, he almost quit being a gym leader after that battle. He is absolutely the worst
To be fair, if you were an elite Trainer for decades and some 10-year old swept you by accident, would you even want to continue being an elite Trainer at that point?
I hate that episode. The gym battle episodes were doing so good but for Watson they brought the BS Kanto arc gym episode writing. Instead of Ash winning fairly some other crap happens and Ash still gets the gym badge.
Kanto was some BS, but the Kanto arc is over exaggerated when it comes to the "pity badges" Ash got.
TL;DR: Brock and Misty are liars and team rocket ruined most of Ash Kanto gym battles
Ash was going to challenge Brock a third but never got the chance because Brock basically forced the Badge on him
Misty was not officially gym leader at that point her sisters were. But even ignoring that fact. Ash and misty were tied before team rocket ruined the battle. Her sisters even say Ash would have won if Pikachu would have battled.
We all know about Lt. Surge, not even gonna explain it.
Team rocket ruined the battle against Erica as well but I believe Ash could have won with Pidgeotto or primeape
The Sabrina battle was some straight up BS. I hate that Haunter. I think it would have been better to have Sabrina use only Alakazam and allowed Ash to use his entire party and still lose to show how broken psychic type was back then and also give Ash a reason to train his team properly.
He beat Koga legitimately
Beat Blaine in a rematch
I do not feel like he should have won the earth badge. That entire battle made no sense. We all know Ash would have stood no chance against Giovanni.
"You cant have Defensive pokemon as an ace, you luse war of atrition to the player 10 times out of 10"
Whitney's Miltank laughs ominously in the corner
As it turns out, you CAN win the war of attrition against a player... if you have a ramping move.
I think it also her being the third gym that make the statement not as true, along with it being a normal type meaning only one type is super effective. Which likely means Miltank is going get 2 or even 3 rocks off before dying, and if she goes before you... it not going end well for your team to say the least.
Gonna have to disagree on Paldea’s worst Gym Leader. You glossed over the fact that Tulip’s team all consists of Special Attackers, but over half of them run physical moves for whatever reason. Farigiraf is unreliable thanks to Zen Headbutt, Espathra has no business running Quick Attack, and apparently Gardevoir can have Energy Ball but not Florges who has Petal Blizzard instead. At least with Grusha, his Pokémon can hit hard if you’re not careful. But Tulip’s offense is so paper-thin that she’s easily the biggest pushover.
Yeah, in my nuzlocke Tulip was a joke, but I actually had to plan the battle against Grusha, because all my super effective options risked getting crit OHKO by Beartic or Cetitan, Azumarill was basically the reason I won because it could tank everything.
I feel like some think he’s not tough because they pick Fuecoco. If you have that Pokémon, of course the ever growing Fire Attack will get you to victory with ease. Use another Pokemon and the battle difficulty changes greatly. If anything, he’s one of the best Ice Trainers in The series.
@@PopeDuwang I picked Fuecoco, but since I banned Torch Song, I didn't want to risk for not OHKO Beartic and Cetitan and having to take both an Earthquake and Liquidation.
For gen 2, I personally would pick Morty, due to his tendency to kill his own Pokemon with Curse.
that never happened to me once
That's a rare occurrence if you average it across every player
Curse can be a (almost literal) nightmare if you don't switch out. Plus, the best gen 2 dark type (Houndoom) is locked to Johto. Only way you can really beat him is if you use a good ground type (sorry, doesn't work in Gen 4 because of Levitate... which still bugs the hell out of me because most of Gengar's sprites show it standing on the ground)
@@GiordanDiodato Probably the reason why Gengar doesn't have levitate anymore but Gastly and Haunter still do
I mean, sure, Gengar can occasionally be seen floating in battle in SV but still
Fun fact:
All you need for Larry is a Flying/Ghost Pokémon that knows at least one non-damage move. Then you can beat his first two Pokémon without taking damage since Komala only knows Sucker Punch as a move that hits ghost types and Dundunsparce has no move to hit a Ghost/Flying type.
And if your Ghost/Flying can survive all the Arial Aces of his Staraptor, you have won, even if Staraptor is on full HP.
That's how I beat him with a freshly evolved (and therefore underleveled) Driftblim and forever wondered why people were saying online that his gym battle would be hard.
Shout out to candice for being the only good ice type gym leader (in platinum)
"You just can't have a defensive Pokemon in a war of attrition against the player." Tell that to Wallace's Kingdra in Sootropolis. I lost to that gym leader multiple times due to that damm kingdra being so hard to kill.
Ill actually give the worst Hoenn Gym Leader to Wallace. Juan has the benefit of that stupid Kingdra, Wallace really doesnt have the ability to give the player a challenge with Mono Water after a region of Water Types.
If you dont pick mudkip and dont want to use Geodude because its a trade evo, Watson is EXTREMELY Difficult and Magneton is a MONSTER that early in the game
I swept him with a groudon with no solar beam 💀
Yeah true. That is a good argument against Wallace
Uh... you know his Sealeo is part Ice, right?
@@RiddleLeech777 he has a Sealeo
@@GiordanDiodato okay? A non fully evolved Ice type for the 8th badge still isn't threatening compared to Magneton at the 3rd gym.
Sealeo doesn't actually cover of his main weaknesses defensively, and is too slow to be much of a threat, and since it hasn't evolved isn't bulky enough to survive a Leaf Blade from a Sceptile or a Thunderbolt from any electric type the player wants to bring.
I'm going to be completely honest. Pryce is the one Johto gym leader I genuinely forgot existed.
It's also the only one were people never struggled all the other Johto Gym Leaders had something that made them difficult
@@azunkor422 Yep, that's something I have learned when going through my Pokemon Heart Gold replay lately. While Whitney's Miltank never gave me trouble, it is an objectively pretty tough pokemon. Falkner's Pidgeotto can be relatively tough at the level that you face him. Jasmine's Steelix is a Steelix. Clair's Kingdra can be a real threat with smokescreen, dragon pulse, and hydro pump. Chuck's Poliwrath can be a reasonable threat if you're not careful. Morty's Gengar is kind of unfair to have at the level that he is. Finally, Bugsy's Scyther is an absolute menace with how brutal it can be. Meanwhile, the only thing that can make Pryce a minor nuisance is snow cloak on his Piloswine
probably because he's not an infamous one (i.e. Whitney and Morty), an early one, or requires you to do something first before you face him.
@@GiordanDiodato I mean, Chuck and Bugsy aren't very infamous or notable among the Johto gym leaders. However, I could still remember them clearly before watching this video.
*Mocks Bug type Gym Leaders for being obvious candidates due to type specialty*
*Proceeds to pick zero Bug type Gym Leaders as the worst in their region*
Maybe they're not so bad huh
Bug is bad due to its weaknesses being common offensive/coverage types, and being weighed down by plenty of weak, early-route bugs (as a Bug-type fan, I would know better than most)... but Ice is bad due to the way it's utilized.
While Bug-type trainers ARE considered "weak type" trainers and are thus deliberately given tools to compensate for their perceived weakness, Ice is a great offensive type, so it gets no such safety net. However, with its weaknesses being probably THE most egregious of all the types, Ice is meant for fast, glass-cannon type pokemon. ...and NOT slow, bulky defensive tanks, like the ones Game Freak is giving to Ice Gym Leaders as aces for the past whatever.
Because the Bug type leaders are all early game, with Burgh being the latest at 3rd. He said in the video that late gym Leaders are gonna be treated harsher since they should be more challenging, so of course he's gonna be more lenient on a type that's rarely represented late game.
I would argue the worst part of Bug is how bad it is offensively. So many things resist it and the types it does hit super effectively have weaknesses to types that are better overall. Like yes it's weak to common types, but there aren't actually that many and it has nice resistances. Ground is weak to common things too but no one says it's bad.
@@ImfernusRizen Aaron:
@@ImfernusRizen Plus, even for early-game gyms, all of the Bug-type leaders have some interesting strategies with regards to their teams and/or lead Pokémon. Bugsy has Fury Cutter on Scyther to stack up damage, with U-Turn in HGSS as well as a potentially deadly Focus Energy and Quick Attack combo (my favorite Gym Leader of all time, BUGSY YOU'RE GREAT), Burgh has a pretty well-rounded team with weaknesses spread out a little more and a strong third-stage evolution as his ace, Viola's lead is part-Water-type, meaning it's super effective against Fire-types, resists Water-types, and has an advantage over Grass-types by nature of being a Bug-type (all of the starter types, which is very clever - SURSKIT YOU ARE MY FAVORITE BUG!!), along with another third-stage evolution ace, and Katy, as mentioned in the video, also has a cool Fury Cutter strategy backed up by a unique Tera choice in Teddiursa.
I want 1 Generation where Either Ice is not a Late Game Leader/League Typing, or Just not represented by A Gym Leader or League member at all. You can have trainers use them here or there, have your Ice/Snow area, thriw some of important teams if the Secondary type matches up.. but they have to realize, Ice as a Late Game Boss Battle, lwhen you have 80 to 90 Percent of your options in the game available to you, make that Battle Easier than most. It has 4 weaknesses and only 1 Resistance. Yes, it has access to the most powerful Status Condition, and that could even prove to be more of a threat in 1 of the 1st 3 Gyms. Less options at that point too. Think about it- Kanto: League 1, Johto: Gym 7, Hoenn: League 3, Sinnoh: Gym 7, Unova Part 1: Gym 7, Unova Part 2: Evil Team Boss (3rd Strongest), Kalos: Gym 8, Galar: Gym 6, Paldea: Gym 8.
The only time Ice was not a Boss Battle, was Alola!
In my opinion: Give us Ice as a 2nd Gym Leader. 3 Pokémon on the team. Powder Snow is a weaker option that can still freeze; Icy Wind for the 2nd Pokémon, Speed Control, and give it snowscape + snow cloak, so 1 use of Snowscape raises it's Defense AND Evasion for 5 Turns, and the 3rd Pokémon is the Ace, a Physical Attacker, unlike the 1st 2 mons.. it could know Icicle Spear and Ice Punch (along with 1 Status Move and 1 coverage move), with Ice Punch being the Prize TM you win after defeating this Leader.
Just, Please GameFreak.. change the formula when it comes to placement of Ice Type Bosses.
Gamefreak: "What's that? Save Ice for the Champion with no/bad secondary types, abysmal stats, & terrible movesets? You got it.;)"
Alternate title:How bad Ice types are actually
FSG actually did a vid just for ice types
And a dishonorable dunk or two on Rock (the runner-up worse defensive type)
I lost to Byron many times when I played pokemon platinum with Ash's Sinnoh anime team. It was hard with Ash's three pokemon team when Chimchar wasn't evolved xD
Were Candice and Melony the only ice leaders who didn’t get picked for their generation?
Well at least Platinum Candice’s Froslass didn’t fall into the bulky-ace trap.
And Melony’s lapras actually somewhat succeeds at being bulky with a G-Max move that sets Aurora Veil.
I love you JPR, but leaving out Alola because it doesn't have gyms is a weird specificity to adhere to. I get the title of the video, but come on the Captains and Kahunas should've been included. Granted every single one of them will cook you in the Ultra games so why not. I guess they've all just got it like that.
i mean...the Trial Captains and Kahunas are kinda like gym leaders...but also not at the same time so its really weird when it comes to them
Wattson is a Mayor, a Landlord, and an Inventor, he isn't waiting on Social Security Checks x3
I believe gym leaders shoulf have themes not typings. Like maybe a gym leader is obsessed with beauty so they have pretty pokemon, maybe another likes weight lifting and so he has bulky pokemon. That way they can get some coverage and be more of a threat.
They sort of tried that with Raihan's weather teams, but I don't think they committed to the bit as well as they could have.
We could see that in a future game. Maybe a combination of both sounds like a better idea as we might get 4 Gym Leaders who use Pokemon based of the themes they're associated with while the other 4 have Pokemon associated with a certain type they specialise in (I imagined mine one to be based of Visual Arts, Music, Herding and Cute Pokemon (I would make the last one of the 4 as the first Gym Leader) for the themes and Ice, Fairy, Steel and Water for the typings (the second of the 4 is the last Gym Leader).
really hate how gamefreak ruined gym battles by limiting moves to 2-3 instead of a 4 moves, it does make it easier but less interesting and I think making an already easy game borderline babied really dumb
I always thought the reason for Pryce being the worst Johto Gym Leader was because of THAT GODDAMN ICE PUZZLE
Grusha breaks the mold on Paldea not having scaled gyms, cause you can just go 1 shot everything with a fuecoco
Local Ice Expert doesn't know what fire is
Wouldn't a Fuecoco be obliterated by Beartic or Cetitan almost immediately?
@@TunaBear64Yea, because people forget that it doesn't matter if your Mon has a Super Effective type if it can't do the right damage with it.
Overall, great video! Here's how I would fix Ice Types: 1) Have them deal effective damage on Fire PKMN like in Gen 1;
2) Make them resist Grass, Bug, Flying & Normal (there's absolutely no reason for them to only resist itself, so stupid);
Critters and birds aren't fond of the cold, grass gets covered by snow and both Rock and Steel already resist Normal.
3) They should damage Poison since icing and cooling heals/defeats wounds (gives Poison a 3rd weakness as well);
Korrina has the same issue Brawly has if you bring a Sableye from Granite Cave. Brock's don't even know Rock Throw.
All of these recent Gym Leaders with 2-3 move Pokémon is just embarassing. Winona and Juan were CHALLENGING!
I'm not sure about the Grass & Bug resist because that's nerfing other potentially underpowered types, but I agree with the Flying resist. I'd say Ice could resist Electric too _(I'm pretty sure lower temperatures aren't good for electricity, as low temperature usually means slower electron movement)._
Ice should absolutely not resist Grass, Bug, Flying, and Normal. Bug and Normal are already two of the worst attacking types in the game.
Ice as a type really isn't that bad, it's that Ice is good offensively but bad defensively... and then Game Freak keeps making defensive Ice types, which doesn't work.
@@Darkforce213they could tone Water and Electric down a notch
Even if the latter is normally known for having piss-poor movepools (even if it’s partially because there’s more monotypes than with most other types like Ghost, Dark, Ice, Steel, Dragon, and Fairy)
@@Darkforce213 Normal isnt a bad attacking type though, stab neutrality against most types is really good. Because if your entire reason for normal being a bad offensive is the lack of super effective stab, then I have to ask, what is your stance on dragon type?
Make them fast. That's the entire answer, give us a fast Ice type that can actually get a hit in before getting stomped into the dirt.
11:05 more like "Cold Garbage"
0:00 Intro
1:45 Kanto
3:53 Johto
5:15 Hoenn
6:16 Sinnoh
7:58 Unova
9:22 Kalos
11:27 Subscribe break
11:39 Galar
12:44 Paldea
15:01 Outro
I must say, Byron has always been the easiest Sinnoh Gym Leader from my experience. In comparison, I remember a time when I wasn't as experienced where I kept losing to Roark. That doesn't happen anymore, but Cranidos is still a dangerous threat at that point in the game. Base 125 Attack is no joke.
Apparently, grilled ice with seasoning is a popular street food in China. Look it up.
To be honest Wulfric hands were kinda forced to have Avalugg as the only gen 6 ice type line outside of Aurorus (which was a fossil poke already Grant's ace and used by Diantha. Even if Aurorus was in his team, he would’ve still have to have an Avalugg for variety because of the reasons i just mentioned) so yes, any way you look at it, Wulfric not having an Avalugg wouldn’t really make sense
even still...they could have at least did what was done in the anime where he has a Mega Abomasnow, then he'd have something...decent, not good but decent
@@bulborb8756 i was only talking about how he’s pretty much obligated to have an avalugg, nothing else really…
I feel you really underestimated Watson
. " just get a ground type " ... the only avaible ground types before the 3rd gym are geodude and marshtomp
. Magneton ( and subsequently Magnezone ) are Steel/Electric, which is till this day the type combo that resists the most types out of any pokemon, meaning that if you didn't bring a Ground, Fire or fighting type this thing will probably tank the attacks of your entire team
. Watson in general has very few checks, while yes Marshtomp and Geodude trivialize him, if you don't have either of them you're kinda screwed, Combusken and Makihita deal with Magneton but they take neutral damage from his Manectric
. The fact that he also sorta punishes you for trying to sweep his entire team with your lead pokemkn, because he leads with a fast Voltorb with Self destruct ( an essentially 400bp move at a point where your team is level 21-23 and your mon with the highest HP stat only has like 80 base HP at best ) means that only Geodude and Sableye and Shedinja and Mawile can tank, while everything else gets either KOed or at least severely damaged by it
I personally feel like Brawley is the weakest Hoenn gym leader, nkt a single pokemon on his team has a move that damages Sableye, a pokemon you find right NEXT TO his gym, and even if you don't get Sableye, the game SHOWERS you with counters to his team : Ralts, Taillow, Beautifly, Dustox, Combusken with Peck, Kadabra, Tentacool heck even Nincada because all his pokemon only know fighting type moves. You honestly have to actively TRY to lose to Brawley, meanwhile Watson can screw you over if you don't have the right selection of pokemon
this
And Shedinja gets killed by Rollout instead. It's the only move on Wattson's team that can hit it, in fact.
As for Brawly... I'm pretty sure I barely lost to him on my first playthrugh because Ralts/Kirlia sucks just that much. :/ Still, one person's experience while they were a dumb kids does not excuse a Gym Leader.
@@robertlupa8273ralts is significantly better in ORAS where it 4× resists Brawlys moves
Nincada exists as a ground type too but good luck. Id say Watson is the hardest gym leader in the region not the easiest. If you didn't start with Mudkip you basically need to backtrack to get a Geodude or grind to level 30 to win
Pretty sure you can also get Sandshrew? Not the best ground type, but it counts.
also I disagree. Brawley is really difficult because his Machop spams Karate Chop, which hits ridiculously hard and has a high chance of a crit.
10/10 thumbnail, no notes
I feel like I'm the only one who had trouble with Grusha. I had no idea what order I was supposed to do the last three gyms in so I did her 6th and was horribly under-leveled. I still won, but only by abusing battle items.
I actually lost my first battle against Opal and it was... *checks notes* the first fight I lost in the entire game! The second loss was in the doubles place and I don't think I lost a single fight in SV.
JPR Fridays are back baby! Great way to celebrate my birthday 😂
Happy birthday!!
@JPRPokeTrainer98 thank you :)
Happy B-Day! 😇🎂
@@robertlupa8273 thank you!
"has anyone actually ever lost to Byron??" Excuse me, when he pulled out Rest on Bastiodon for the first time and I had thought I could finish it off, i was WRECKED as a 10y old who did actually think a little about strategy :(
My poor boy Grusha, he's too cute to be this low 😢
I mean ice just sucks....
For Wulfric, I feel like his team is literally just Pokèmon he raised from eggs since he's a big family man.
The fact that gamefreak had some gym leaders pokemon not have all 4 moves later in the game really shows how hard pokemon has fallen.
some lore on grusha: he was an amazing snowboarder until there was an accident, and ever since then he never performed at the same level as before. that could be why he doesnt put as much effort into his gym battle: he really doesnt care anymore :’)
I like what that Pokemon OVA showed. When Red fights Brock in that he asks how many badges and then only uses an appropriate team for someone with no badges, but he has other poke balls shown. 🤷🏻♂️
yeah when it comes to gym leaders fought early on, you can't be too harsh on them since they are supposed to be relatively easy bosses in the early game...but that honestly doesn't excuse why every single gym leader in Kalos is horrible
It's been a while since I started watching your videos as a kid. That was almost 8 or so years ago and it's been 14 years since you started yt. Cool vid big bro :D
I love how in the manga Pryce literally controls Lugia, but in the games he is just a sad old man
I'll give passes to most early gym leaders since their pokemon don't usually learn decent stab moves by that point, also some leaders like Wattson have a severe disadvantage because of game development and no fault of their own. Even with his 4 pokemon team in emerald, not a single one of them can learn any type of attacking move besides electric and normal. The absolute best he could do is breed bite on manectric or rollout on voltorb, neither of which are going to stop marshtomp from soloing him. This is also a major factor for most of the ice type specialists as well, ice and electric are such strong attacking types that the pokemon that get stab damage on them usually have pretty bad coverage otherwise.
I will be honest that electric types always have that issue where they can almost never get any coverage other then normal moves, sure there are exceptions, but AT BEST an electric type would be lucky if it even gets access to a fire move, and most of the time they don't
@@bulborb8756 and even if they do it's not enough. Looking at you, Electavire. Fire Punch just doesn't hit hard enough.
@@robertlupa8273 yup, but that's kind of the case of physical electrics just being a lost cause at this point, but that is a solid point regardless
I'd say the worst is Elsa. Not due to being easy, but being too hard for how early on it is
There is actually one reason I can see for Roark using bulldoze actually being a good idea. considering you came through a few caves, it’s entirely possible you caught a Geodude or Onix yourself and might be using whatever ground type moves they use to beat him, so he’s basically doing the exact same thing to you in that case, which is a rare but not completely ineffective method of coverage. Let alone the borderline ubiquity of Shinx in most player teams, including in the footage you used, and a bulldoze off of that attack stat basically just nukes Shinx out of existence.
Bulldoze also lowers your speed, leaving you prone to Headbutt flinches.
Roark’s team was so bad I won with a CHIMCHAR. No Monferno, Chimchar, in BDSP, none of my Pokemon died until the Maylene fight (which was annoying af her Lucario one shot EVERYONE)
I always make fun of Byron in my nuzlocke runs of Renegade Platinum cuz even in a ROM hack where hes given a powered up full team of 6 he is still a joke every time. Even when I ran the game with only Ice types 😂
I just had to fight Byron the other night in platinum and I did actually struggle, but that mostly came from the fact that the only capable fighter I had was my underleveled Infernape with flame wheel, Mach punch, and close combat as my only damaging moves. Trying to speed run it to get a Teddiursa for Heartgold and that’s not even factoring in the team I’m using also has Togetic and Pachirisu on it. I’m truly in self imposed challenge mode 😂
Your choices for worst gym leaders are quite on point.
I will say though, I think Katy is worse than Grusha considering how her ace Teddiursa isn't that strong compared to previous first gym leader aces.
Wattson is a crazy pick when most emeral nuzlocks kinda quake in his boots without a ground type pick or if they lose a ground type personally I’d pick Flannery sure she can counter water types with drought and sunny day but she has 4x weaknesses to water types and has ground type weaknesses anyway nothing changed and arguably worse off than wattson
I would love to see you do this with the Gym leaders' best/worst teams in post game content. Pokemon world tournament does an awesome job fleshing out Gym Leader teams to use the Pokemon that probably made them a gym leader im the first place and it would be cool to see how they stack when they bring their A-game
_(cries in Kalos)_
I recall MahDryBread having issues with Byron [Saxton, smackdown commentator :P] in his Pikachu solo run, but like... we're talking about 300 BST "speedster" that has to rely on either Dig _(which gets countered by Earthquake)_ or Grass Knot _(which isn't quad effective)._ That's intentionally gimping yourself, it doesn't count as "losing to Byron".
Also you said Roar instead of Howl at 5:59. Setting up with Roar, good luck with that lol
Watson is actually a considerable difficulty spike in the nuzlock community.
Run ender if you didn't get Geodude. Only ground pokemon available if you didn't start with mudkip (nincada doesn't count)
In defense of Erika, her Pokemon don't have much type coverage. They have Grass, Poison, and Normal and that's it. She instead uses the different powder moves to inflict status conditions on your Pokémon and whittle you down. Victreebel/Weepinbell and Tangela are actually deadlier than her ace because they can Warp/Bind your Pokémon to death when coupled with Poison or Paralysis. You have to beat her quickly, not screwing around (though, I've found Vulpix's Confuse Ray can give her fits) to let her incapacitate your team.
I’m sorry but it have to disagree with gen 3. Yes Watson is horrible against ground types, but they are not common at all if you don’t pick mudkip as a starter. So, going by this criteria, if we’re gonna take Pokémon you can use into account, Brawly is the worst. He has nothing but fighting moves. This means he will lose to solo Beautifly, solo Dustox, and cannot even physically touch sableye.
there's also Tate & Liza in Ruby & Sapphire and ORAS, since you are going to have a water type with surf before you get to them, you essentially have an instant-win button against them since both their mons are weak to water
@@bulborb8756 they have a really good team in Emerald however, so it balances out
Literally only 3 ground types up to that point and one is a starter and another is ninjask. Having to backtrack to catch a Geodude from a semi optional area on a seperate island doesn't make a gym leader easy
I think Grusha is one of the best Gen 9 Gym Leaders because he is the only one who gave me any trouble. That said the other Ice Gym Leaders on this deserve it.
*hard* disagree on hoenn. I like thinking these types of theorycrafting ideas out though, so
I'm gonna go down the list of the 8 gym leaders:
Roxanne: A bit annoying for torchic but otherwise fairly easy; can be bad on treeko too if you don't get the bullet seed tm or overlevel. Generally a good difficulty level.
Brawly: This is the worst one. Focus Punch? Detect? These are moves I see spammed everywhere and they make him a literal cakewalk. Bulk up is nice, but giving the player multiple turns to attack is enough of a trade off that even if he kills one pokemon, you should have more in reserve.
Sure the Makuhita can be a bit annoying, but there are *so many* brawly counters and you are likely to be a good level for this gym anyways. Overall he just can't do much to you unless you actively let him and just pick random moves.
Wattson: A steel-electric type is not anything easy to handle if you decided not to catch geodude ahead of time and not to pick mudkip. Paralysis is also not to be taken lightly, *especially* in emerald he is not to be messed with. Not the hardest or anything but not a pushover.
Flannery: Overheat is killer, enough said.
Norman: Normal types aren't generally the best and he isn't amazing in RS, but he takes good enough advantage of stab moves, facade, and other things that he provides a good challenge.
Winona: Her ace can be a menace if you aren't prepared and let it set up, though generally I think she isn't *that* great unless you are doing a nuzlocke and can't afford to take a death or two, which you should be able to do this late into the game.
Tate & Liza in RS are pushovers. They have 2 Pokemon that are both rock type and you definitely have the move surf which many pokemon learn including the water types you passed by to get here so... Yeah. In Emerald they are really hard though because they have 4 strong pokemon instead of 2, but even then you should be fine to deal with them if you've gotten this far usually.
Wallace/Juan: They have a pretty large team and Kingdra can be a real menace sometimes.
Idk, I feel like Wattson is plenty hard enough to justify the spot as 3rd gym leader. He's just really a victim of the Mudkip line being super OP for hoenn in general, countering what would have been his biggest type advantage with the dual typing
Watson is the nuzlocke killer for a reason. He's way too overtuned for that point in the game and only having one singular non starter counter doesn't make him easy
Grusha’s tera ace could have easily been a strong speedy electric type. Having Electric + Ice coverage is great. Between bolt beam, electrics often running hp ice when hidden power was still around and how you see tera ice on electric types a lot. After all the most common tera types for an electric mon are ice, grass and fairy.
if you remember in the pokemon generations anime it shows gym leaders have more than just a level 10 whatever. they use a team based off how many gym badges you already have. so if you were born and started your journey in fushia city koga probably would have a low lv venonat and something else finishing at brock or misty would have a team that rivals viridian city. the games are built around us starting in the town you do but canonically the pokemon generations way makes the most sense. Rip to the gen 1 trainers who would fight sabrina last.
brycen did a more memorable job in pokestudios than as a gym leader
It makes me so happy that Candice wasn't even considered for the worst Sinnoh gym leader, while all the other ice gym leaders were tossed in the garbage pretty quickly.
Candice's team is, for an Ice-type Gym Leader, pretty good. Her Diamond and Pearl/BDSP teams have Medicham to deal with Ice's Rock and Steel weaknesses, while in her Platinum team, Snow Warning from Abomasnow sets up permanent hail in Gen 4, which pairs well with Froslass having Snow Cloak and Blizzard. Her Platinum team also has very good coverage for Ice's weaknesses. I wouldn't call her the hardest Sinnoh Gym Leader, but her team is far from bad. She was never going to be the worst in a region with Byron in it.
@@rustyspottedcat516 And there is lore reasons she has a Medicham to begin with, her best friend is Maylene, the fighting gym leader, gave it to her.
@@rustyspottedcat516 I know why she was not considered for the worst Sinnoh gym leader. I just find it humorous and lovely that she was not. Candice really is the only ice gym leader who can actually put up a fight.
@@galaxy-eyesgarchomp9478 Sorry for the unnecessary explanation, but I agree with your point. Candice is probably my favorite Sinnoh Gym Leader, so I'm happy she isn't the worst in her region.
@@rustyspottedcat516 No apology needed, I can understand why you went about explaining it. Candice is my favorite Sinnoh Gym leader too. Her upbeat personality, her sisterhood with Maylene, and her wisdom come together to make a very likable gym leader. The only Sinnoh gym leader who comes close for me is Volkner.
Calling-out Watson for lacking coverage moves is kinda silly when you're ignoring Brawly, who _literally only uses Fighting-type attacks in Emerald._ Ruby & Sapphire do give his Makuhita Knock-Off, as do ORAS, but it isn't really enough to save him from anything. Any kind of team restriction (monotype, Nuzlocke, etc.) turns Wattson into a serious threat, as it can be very hard to deal with his early Magneton. Meanwhile, with Brawly, odds-are, you might be bringing a Pokémon that resists, quad-resists, or is (in Emerald) even immune to his entire team _just by accident._ Sableye is right there in Granite Cave and Shedinja can be acquired in time for Brawly if you really grind for it; meanwhile, Zubat, Beautifly, Ninjask (again, excessive grinding required), and especially Dustox are extremely difficult for him to deal with. And that's not getting into everything that has a just kinda good matchup.
Where Wattson becomes extremely scary if you don't have a Ground type, Brawly almost needs you to build your team around making him a challenge.
Especially when there are only three ground types up to that point in the game. Marshtomp which you won't have if you go with any other starter, nincada which will not cut it, and Geodude. Compared the absolutely plethora of fighting resists you listed
Except most of the Pokemon that tank fighting type attacks have terrible defense. (especially Ralts and Kirlia)
also Wattson is easy if you have a fire and grass type.
@@GiordanDiodato I have done a lot of Emerald nuzlockes, Brawly is so easy, I don't think I have ever not had a clear counter. Dustox / Beautifly is 100% free, Tailow is strong as well. It is so easy to have a clear counter. Dustox sweeps with easy, it even has moonlight to self-heal if needed.
Correction to Erika: All her Pokémon are useless only to Fire and Flying types as in Pokémon Yellow, all of them were Grass and Poison.
Probably could've picked the worst Island Kahuna since they're the closest equivalent of gym leaders in that game (some people say it's the Trial Captains, but the stamps you get from the Kahunas are Alola's equivalent to badges)
Wulfric was peak in the anime, well most of the gym leaders in XY/XYZ were great but Wulfric is def one of the top gym leaders
The grass leader that doesn't come to mind when you think about easy gym leaders is Gardenia, because Roserade at the second gym is freaking evil
11:21 Trying to cook with a block of ice 🧊 yo that sick burn was insane 😂🔥
In terms of Gen 2 (not the Gen 4 remakes), my vote goes to Jasmine, as her movesets don't support her team, and actively assist the player with the likes of Sunny Day.
yeah meaning if you picked cyndaquil, typhlosion has no issue melting her entire team
I’m fully convinced ice types would work way better and be more loved if they were early game encounters
What is it with Ice type Gym Leaders and their teams sucking 99.9% of the time?!?
gamefreak hate ice types.
I think a large part of the problem is that all current Ice-type Gym Leaders are fought in the late game, when you can easily exploit their weaknesses. Put an Ice-type Gym Leader in the early game and they'd be significantly more of a challenge. It helps that Flying and Grass are both very common types in the early game in most regions.
Expect for Candice, she’s cool.
@@ethantreadway9478 They took her Medicham in Platinum, the one pokemon that gave her team challenge. Yes, I know she is supposed to use Ice only, but come on there weren't that many ice types to begin with in that gen and they gave her the good ones.
I mean, Ice is one of, if not THE, worst types in the series, so the deck's stacked against them to begin with. Add the fact that there's very few Ice-types that have good secondary Type-coverage, and, well...
Even putting an Ice-type Gym Leader in the early game probably wouldn't help that much, since two of the three Starter types resist it and Game Freak's tendency to give at least one of the starters a Fighting-type evolution means that the player is likely to have some means of reliably shutting them down by the first couple of gyms.
IMAGINE how difficult a vid like this would become if pokemon became open world AND scaled the gym leaders accordingly
Idk why they insist on nerfing boss trainers in remakes, the roadblocks were such a major aspect of the earlier games, and when you finally best one of the harder ones it feels amazing
Making it easier ‘for the kids’ just makes it less memorable for them
Honestly I would cut opal some slack because her Gym is supposed to be one big gag. All the quiz questions being kinda ridiculous lends itself to that idea so it’s hard to knock her for not being that challenging when the point of her gym is supposed to be a light hearted joke anyway
Maybe if fast offensive Ice types were used as aces instead, then some real progress could be made
And not making them the 7th/8th gym leader most of the time where you have all fully evolved Pokémon and the most options for teammates
I finally watched a JPR video in the morning. Good morning to you man!
The Giovanni battle in Yellow is even sillier when you realize you can solo his Dugtrio with a level 2 Pidgey caught off of Route 1 by teaching it Toxic. All of that Dugtrio's damage-dealing moves are Ground-type, which Pidgey is immune to, so it can't touch the severely under-leveled bird and basically just sits idly by as the Toxic poisoning saps away its HP for 8 turns.
I love Wattson BUT man you are right about him being easy,especially as a person who almost always picks Mudkip as a Starter
Avalugg would be a respectable Pokémon if they actually optimized its set for an NPC. Sturdy + Mirror Coat is all you need to make this thing a major threat in a boss fight. I do agree though that it should not be an ace.
Also, maybe I was just experiencing some early SV bugginess, but it actually snowed during my battle with Grusha the first time I played through the game. Made for a really tough battle, save for Frosmoth which got one shot.
I lost the Byron once
Uh oh… 😬
In a nuzlocke right?
_Right?_
@@thatman666 yes
@@JPRPokeTrainer98 The guy is secretly Alex Bowman
With the first gym leaders the idea is that they intentionally hold back some and use less powerful pokemon so as to not fully and completely overwhelm beginners. As for the ice type gym leaders I see the main problems (besides ice being bad defensively) as being that they're often encountered very late in the game and have teams and moves often ill-suited for that point in the game. Maybe if they were encountered earlier say 3rd, 4th or 5th then they'd be tougher to deal with. Just imagine dealing with a Cryogonal or an Avalugg, two tanky (and speedy for the former) mons that can also hit decently hard as well with a more limited team.
P.S. Cryogonal in gen 7 did get a 20 point DEF buff to 50 from 30.
I once struggled with Byron in a fangame, but they improved his team a lot for it (Magneton, Magnezone, Bronzong, Steelix, Bastiodon) and gave him Earthquake on some of his team.
Also I was using Empoleon, Magmortar, and Raichu.
I'm getting tired of people saying Erika got nerfed in Yellow over Red and Blue. Yes, her Pokémon aren't fully evolved, but the raised levels means her pokémon in Yellow actually have higher stats than they do in Red and Blue. Coupled with pure levels also factoring into damage calculations when attacking, her pokémon definitely do more damage in Yellow.
Koga is a defensive Gym leader and it clearly works for him, his toxic stall strats are good, unless you have Psychic type moves. He might as well be the only example of a good defensive gym leader with his minimize-toxic muk.
The first Gymleader is usually a free Kill, and more like a Tutorial. So the Gen 4 one is so powerfull, him actually posing a real threath is respectable.
And Walter is usually easy, but I played Saphire whit all different Types and Pokemonteams, and hes actually one of the very hardest if you have no direct counter to Magneton.