Slakings base 100 speed I believe is due to slaking being quite fast when it tries, it just can only use this speed in short bursts before needing to rest. Hence, truant
On the fourteenth day of December, Scott's Thoughts gave to me: The 'King of Emerald loafing A lively mid stage slashing The Johto trio roaming Surge's 'Chu with a competent trainer Classy Cat v Pig Monkey! A moonstone evolution The "Rhydon of gen three" A Pure Power powerhouse Wattson's ace in Hoenn 'Phan v Ursaring! A tiny turtle's bubble The fire starter digging A garden lizard's leech seed And those three weirdo mons punching
@myggmastaren3365 even outside of a solo run, Hyper Beam Slaking was a niche RSE gimmick in the competitive scene. That would be scary in the late game.
Fun fact, not all sloths are slow. There are some more aggressive ones, that while lazy when relaxing, will move very quick when faced with a threat or annoyance. They're very efficient at eliminating things that distract them from being lazy, lol
Sloths from the megafauna era were elephants sized monster with giant claws (something bigger than your head) and the ability to stand Just... let them loaf around
@@ryomaanime4563 here in Brazil we had giant sloths before human occupation. And today there are some caves that are literally carved in rock by this sloths claws. Imagine a big cave that is actually a den.
I always thought Slaking was supposed to be a Gorilla anyways which are known to laze around alot until its time to fight or scare off predators/other gorillas and that's when they use their amazing physical abilities including speed.
I think a naughty nature was a mistake, the trainers that gave you the most trouble were special attackers. When it's getting hit so often, having a really low defensive stat is dangerous. Lonely would've been the better choice blind, but in hindsight attack is all you need so Adamant would've been better. Also, I think you should keep Shadow Ball, since more often than not you end up having no moves to hit Claydol with. Brick Break is enough for most of Steven's mons while you can drop EQ for SB.
I think there is even an argument to be made for a +spdef nature since our physical defense is already great and we need to tank a lot of hits due to truant. The +Atk nature might still be best, but in a lot of cases our damage with 160 base attack is so high already that it overkills most opponents.
I think that for a solo run, Slaking definitely a mon that would need more playthroughs for optimization. The Truant ability is such an important factor to play around. As mentioned with Vigoroth in the previous video, Substitute would really be a great inclusion for Slaking since its massive HP means it will not break and it allows it to avoid status moves from trainers like Pheobe.
I'm sure you've recorded these ahead of time, but most of your resets can be prevented with substitute. It completely trivializes Sidney's Mighteyena (just deposit your HM users before so it can't roar), Phoebe's lead Dusclops, and Drake's lead Shelgon, and in some cases, Steven's Skarmory, along with stuff like Juan's Luvdisc.
Be great if you did a run where Slaking has huge power as the ability to see the difference between missing every other turn and the most overpowered of Slakings
This is the first video I ever watched of yours. And because of this video I play emerald, gold, and leaf green again. I went back to your first video to watch these in the background whilst I've played all the mainstream games and currently on Sun. Just want to say thank you for reigniting my love of pokemon again.
The speed stat isnt always about the pokemons running speed or what not, it kind of represents how fast theyre able to perform an attack whether thats phyiscally throwing a punch or putting out a psychic move without moving at all. Its not always about how fast they can physically move around
Gen 3 seems especially experimental with different learnsets for different evolutionary stages. There was obviously stone evolutions before but Vigiroth and Shroomish are regular level up evolutions which you may want to consider waiting to evolve in order to get specific moves, especially with Shroomish's Spore
So there's probably a billion comments mentioning Hyper Beam already... I don't know if Hyper Beam's extra power would have been that useful, since Slaking's problem wasn't really that its STAB Return wasn't powerful enough. But Hyper Beam's a purchasable TM in Lilycove so it would have provided some extra moveset flexibility in the late-game (notably against the E4), and that flexibility is an interesting "perk" that's kinda unique to Slaking (and Slakoth I guess). Against Steven's team, maybe STAB would be better than Brick Break (unless you're specifically worried about Claydol's Reflect)? A resisted Hyper Beam (or Return, even) does more damage than a neutral Brick Break, so it's just Cradily that Brick Break's stronger against. And while Cradily's not irrelevant it does have the lowest Defense of the bunch, and doesn't resist Earthquake.
When you do Slaking again give it Hyper Beam. The recharge happens on the same turn as its loafing turn allowing for a high damage attack with ok-ish accuracy.
There's not really any point in doing that when Return gets the job done in basically every situation anyway. Hyper Beam is just overkill beyond overkill with less PP and accuracy.
Slaking was a fun pokemon to use in our gym leader event, when I repped Norman. It even saw some play in the ladder challenge of the event, where I reached 3100 on the Japanese ladder, though TBH that was mostly people falling for Kangaskhan stupidity over and over. Still, in 3v3 having the ability to UTTERLY OBLITERATE something with a banded slaking giga impact (yes I ran the meme move) was amazing. Nobody expected that shit to OHKO skarmory and ferrothorn.
reminds me of jrose. i actually had to stop watching him because of the way he says arcanine and lorelei. i still like his videos where he doesn't say those words but i've watched almost all of his first gen solo runs and hearing him say arcanine and lorelei wrong so many times has actually triggered my fight or flight and i can't fight him so i have to go
2:30 "Man, slack off is such a bad choice when your ability is truant. Imagine having to wait several turns after healing. Anyway, this guy doesn't have vital spirit, so at least he can learn rest!"
What I really want to see now is a playthrough where you start with a Slakoth and allow it to evolve, because that way you can have a Vigoroth with Slack Off.
Like a lot of normal types, slaking is first of all meant to be a beast in story mode (look at all the TM unpaid interns, or the ones with Pickup) -You can switch him out after his first attack, and as long as you do that, he works like any other pokémon -He's the only one who doesn't care about hyper beam resting turn...he was gonna rest anyway ! -And most of all, he's just meant for you to use ITEMS. Instead of letting truant trigger, you can use every other turn to heal him with a potion (effectively replacing his slack off, but better cause you can use it any turn), or an items that buffs stats (X Attack for example)...Hence why Norman's gym is based on the use of buff items : Slaking is the best client for these kind of items. Also, I absolutely LOVE that they created a line where it's totally legit to keep the pre-evolution as it is : Vigoroth is my absolute favorite Pokémon because of that. Having a lvl 100 Vigoroth is a statement in itself 😁
Not sure if you considered it, but for both Vigoroth and Slaking you use Brick Break and Earthquake as your physical moves against Steven, but I wonder if Return and Earthquake would have been a better option, especially on Slaking. With STAB, Return outdamages Brick Break unless there's at least a 4x difference in effectiveness. There are no Pokemon in the league where this true, so STAB return offers slightly more damage against every single Pokemon in the League. The only Pokemon Steven has where it's true are Aggron, who can be handled with Earthquake, and Cradily. The other advantage of Brick Break is getting rid of Claydol's screens, but at +6 it should still be manageable. And with Slaking loafing every other turn, Steven's only getting 3 turns max with screens anyway. So I think it'd be better to muscle through Cradily w/ Earthquake than Claydol with Brick Break, as even though Cradily is more threatening with confusion, you're already set up by the time you get there anyways, so you should be just fine with a neutral Earthquake at +6. Especially w/ 160 base attack.
Not only this, but a move like Flamethrower is great against Skarmory due to its frail Special Defense and it would hit Claydol for neutral damage and avoid the Reflect. Metagross also would be hit for super-effective damage against its weaker Special Defense as well.
It would be very interesting to see how Slaking does without Truant as a fun side-challenge, giving it an ability that does nothing in battle in the context of a solo run (eg run away, all the exp would be going to Slaking anyway and it'd definitely always run away regardless) would be ideal.
feel that this would be an interesting thing to optimise would be an interesting comparison with something like Delcatty (half base stats, but can move every turn?) also... Tate&Liza might be brutal
On another note, Substitute would make Phoebe practically free. No longer would Confuse Ray and Curse affect you. Once again, Scott’s over reliance on Rest over other strats in Emerald runs is likely going to cost him.
Infinite Fusion has spoilt me. _My favourite _*_Tag Team Pokemon_*_ for the amount of ways you can switch/change Slakings Ability and... _*_WEEEEEEELLL!_*
Seeing a Slaking run without the ability would be interesting. Even if it isnt an official tiered pokemon, having context for *how* detrimental Truant is would be interesting.
Could facade and a burn have helped slaking? I don’t actually understand how the half damage from burn combines with facade’s double damage. Or guts. But I wonder if Facade could have helped in some of these fights. Even being poisoned with a shell bell or leftovers might be better than the paralysis chance.
Guts makes status double your attack, even for burns instead of halving it. Facade just doubles its power if you have a status condition so burn still halves your attack.
Imagine Slaking in Gen I. No ability, SLASH, AMNESIA! I think in Gen II it would be equally amazing, it's a much superior version of Snorlax who is already incredible. Is it possible it could be the fastest Pokemon of all times in those games? Mewtwo in Gen I could be hard to beat, but maybe in Gen II it could be done. Also, they used to always like to make a very strong Normal and Water type in the early generations. In Gen I they had Gyarados + Snorlax, Gen II had Kingdra + Blissey and Gen III had Milotic + Slaking (all of them had 540 BST, except for Slaking but I think spiritually it plays the same role, just they wanted to balance out its bad ability). They kind of discontinued this pattern in Gen IV where they had Electivire and Magmortar instead.
Truant hinders it more than it's legendary tier stats help it, unfortunately. Kinda cool gimmick in theory though! Surprised you didn't consider Hyper Beam since it's recharge turn is the loafing turn. I guess raw damage was rarely the issue and HB only has base PP.
It might be a fun idea in the future to play Slaking again, but going again with a neutral do-nothing ability like Run Away just to see how it would do based purely on its stats and movepool.
I wish Truant got some sort of minor buff, like giving +1 stage of sp.def or healing 1/12th hp every turn it activates. I like the concept and theme, but it just needs that one little push to let Slaking be an awesome pokemon
Aye, healing a small on the slacking turns would be nice even if it a small amount it would help things feel a lot better even if it so small a hyper-competitive time traveling supercomputer doesn't get any win rate increase out of it
Pokemon with Truant can use Slack Off during their 'loafing around' turn. This is a somewhat hidden mechanic but please check it out, it would completely change this playthrough.
"There is nowhere on my overlay where it says this information, but Roxanne does have 2 potions and the Nosepass has an Oran Berry" Will this change with the overlay changes you are working on that you mentioned in another video?
Hi Scott! Your friendly neighborhood English graduate here. You mentioned in a video earlier this month you’re trying to improve your vocabulary and grammar, so I figured I’d offer some small bits of feedback that you didn’t ask for (lol). Truant is actually pronounced like “tru-ent”, not “tru-aunt.” Something I’ve noticed in many of your videos is your use of “less” when discussing levels or items. When discussing an amount of something that can be measured (like levels, items, hit points, etc) you would use “fewer” instead of “Less.” So for example, you would say, “I gained fewer levels,” or “This Pokemon has fewer resets.” The word less is used for things can’t technically be measured, like health or speed. Those terms are broad, so you would say “less health” or “less speed.” Anyways, I hope this unprompted feedback helps, and I hope you don’t take this as major criticism! When you study the English language for most of your life you can’t help but notice these things. I’m loving daily December!
Regarding TM use for emerald if u are hard pressed for in this case brick break,maybe u can get HP fighting as a alternative instead, compared to gen 2 the slightly lower IVs from gen 3 onwards which affects HP is not as much as compared to gen 2, this give u more leeway of getting certain types of moves without restricting yourself to the 4 move syndrome. Also, -SpDef nature is definately a detriment for emerald.. if u consider the endgame, consider a speed lowering nature if u do not need the extra speed, or even a neutral nature will work since it is a first playthrough and help u plan better overall, though fot slaking likely adamant is the best nature to go
Interesting going for a Naughty nature when the champion is water type and Slaking is inevitably going to be taking hits… I went for a neutral nature in my Slaking solo (beat Wallace at 63 and Steven at 78) because I thought all my stats would be pretty important. If anything I would’ve gone for a speed lowering nature since nothing in the E4 is particularly fast anyway Also, for future runs, Slaking needs Encore for Tate & Liza and Substitute for Phoebe :)
I used Slaking competitively for a little bit and it was fun to use a choice item plus Giga Impact (the physical version of hyper beam after the physical special split), almost always gets at least one ko
Vigoroth joining Gen 1 Poliwhirl in the category of middle stages stomping their evolved forms. (Mostly assuming Poliwhirl will be dominant due to access to Amnesia)
I think it's so fast because it starts moving on the previous turn when it's loafing! So it acts first when it does move because it took all of last turn to get ready!
I think there's a few improvements you could make to Slaking: 1: Slacking can learn Hyper Beam, and get this: both the loafing around AND recharge take the *same* turn. With STAB it's 225, upped to 247 with Silk Scarf. This is better than return by a mile. It's in the Lilycove Department store for 7500. The only problem is... this move is 90% accurate. Ugh. May work better if a Pokemon is just living on a sliver through returns, I don't know. 2: Naughty nature probably isn't your best bet. Slaking has no problem with speed especially with opponents having no EVs, and you're bound to be hit by something while loafing. So why not take the Brave nature for maximum attack?
First it's Rock Slide instead of STAB Earthquake on ice types, now it's Brick Break instead of STAB Return! 😂😂😂 The super effective damage is too tempting!
I always love getting a Slaking when I play a Gen 3 or later Randomizer with abilities randomized, as it makes for an absolutely ridiculous monster for the entire game
I’ll say it one more time: keep in mind that you can go to the Move Deleter before facing Winona. Consider doing that if you teach Rock Smash for Wattson to open moveset flexibility.
(Commenting again to help the algorithm) I’d be very curious to see a play through with Slaking if it didn’t have Truant, just to see how much faster it’d be. That also makes me wonder what would be a good substitute ability for it/one that would make the most sense for it to have.
The Rawst Berry to heal burns might not be that useful in early gen solo runs, but in Sword and Shield solo runs, holding a Rawst Berry is almost required when fighting the Fire gym with a physical attacker. Otherwise, the pokemon would need to rely on a special move or Facade.
Btw, Sloths aren’t that slow, they can actually move very, very quickly, they just don’t like to move that much to conserve energy. When threatened they move incredibly fast. Another random sloth fact: they are one of I think 3 mammals that don’t have 7 neck vertebrae
I originally thought Slaking was cool when I was a kid because it was a monstrously strong and bulky Normal type, but that ability, even kid me couldn't get past it. It wasn't the Gen III Snorlax I was hoping it was
It’s funny; when this episode started I was wondering when you’d do Metagross; I assumed you’d do a versus with Salamence at some point. Then you said that Metagross is next week and Salamence is next.
Scott could you please do a series where you play pokemon with the gym leader teams from that specific generation like gen 2 Falkners team only and then another run where you play with bugsy's team and so on and so forth
Scott my guy, we need to talk about natures and damage types. You seem to put way too much focus on coverage/super effective damage rather than actual damage output. Play to the strengths of your 'mons, there's a lot of examples of this but the Medicham and Slackoth lines are recent ones. I know the overlay may draw your attention to effective power a lot but the offensive stat is still an important part of the equation. The other thing is Nature in gen 3 which I think you have trouble with because of the above problem. I understand you didn't want to be Adamant because you didn't want to commit to physical moves. But your base Atk is 160, now is the time to commit! Maybe it's easier to see because I'm used to VGC and knowing your calcs is more important there but playing around in a damage calc tool with different natures can be very helpful. Don't want this to sound like a negative comment, I love the content and thanks for providing it. I hope you find the best way to whoop gen 3's ass!
Slaking would be insanely good in yellow. It loses its ability, starts with recover instead of slack off i guess, and maybe spore or sing instead of yawn. Learns amnesia early on, body slam, ice beam, earthquake.
Encore could have been potentially useful against Phoebe, forcing her Dusclops to repeat using Protect. Someone else meantioned Substitute which would be even better.
Slaking has legendary stats and is better than pseudo legendary Pokémon. When I play slaking on games I use 2 or 3. That way I never trigger truant because he really is a legendary Pokémon that’s being hindered with ability. So my best advice is use multiply slakings with different move sets since he can learn so many abilities from being a normal type. He literally is a king.
Slaking is probably the only pokemon where Hyper Beam is better than Return. Available in the Lilycove Department Store, Hyper Beam has an effective BP of 225, whereas Return has a max effective BP of only 153. In both cases, Slaking would be able to do anything the turn after using it, so may as well just use Hyper Beam instead.
Ohhhhh Vigoroth having dig makes sense to me now - they didn't want any possibility of a Slaking with dig because it's awkward to have 2 turn moves with the loafing mechanic. Now I am curious on if Slaking loafs around underground for a turn if you hack the move in.
Also, reminder (seeing as you mentioned it in Vigoroth): brick break super effective is slightly less base power than stab return unless return is resisted. There aren't any normal resists in the E4 so it's really not useful until Steven on normal types.
I think the reason vigoroth can't learn dig is to prevent Slakings truant from interacting with this move when vigoroth evolves.
Slakings base 100 speed I believe is due to slaking being quite fast when it tries, it just can only use this speed in short bursts before needing to rest. Hence, truant
On the fourteenth day of December, Scott's Thoughts gave to me:
The 'King of Emerald loafing
A lively mid stage slashing
The Johto trio roaming
Surge's 'Chu with a competent trainer
Classy Cat v Pig Monkey!
A moonstone evolution
The "Rhydon of gen three"
A Pure Power powerhouse
Wattson's ace in Hoenn
'Phan v Ursaring!
A tiny turtle's bubble
The fire starter digging
A garden lizard's leech seed
And those three weirdo mons punching
The fact that you even thow in the odd rhymes! _Too much effort. Keep it up._
The ursaring video must have been such a gift.
Slaking, the greatest user of hyperbeam
And in Gen 4… Giga Impact
Usibg hyper beam is a terrible idea, cus then you can't switch out
@@SinNun-tx5jp when are you going to switch out in a solo run?
NOSE LASER
@myggmastaren3365 even outside of a solo run, Hyper Beam Slaking was a niche RSE gimmick in the competitive scene. That would be scary in the late game.
Fun fact, not all sloths are slow. There are some more aggressive ones, that while lazy when relaxing, will move very quick when faced with a threat or annoyance. They're very efficient at eliminating things that distract them from being lazy, lol
That makes realistic the Truant with high speed
Life goals, honestly. Efficiently eliminate anything that gets in the way of your ability to be lazy.
Sloths from the megafauna era were elephants sized monster with giant claws (something bigger than your head) and the ability to stand
Just... let them loaf around
@@ryomaanime4563 here in Brazil we had giant sloths before human occupation. And today there are some caves that are literally carved in rock by this sloths claws. Imagine a big cave that is actually a den.
I always thought Slaking was supposed to be a Gorilla anyways which are known to laze around alot until its time to fight or scare off predators/other gorillas and that's when they use their amazing physical abilities including speed.
I think a naughty nature was a mistake, the trainers that gave you the most trouble were special attackers. When it's getting hit so often, having a really low defensive stat is dangerous. Lonely would've been the better choice blind, but in hindsight attack is all you need so Adamant would've been better. Also, I think you should keep Shadow Ball, since more often than not you end up having no moves to hit Claydol with. Brick Break is enough for most of Steven's mons while you can drop EQ for SB.
Adamant would have been the choice, Slaking almost never wants to use a special move
I think there is even an argument to be made for a +spdef nature since our physical defense is already great and we need to tank a lot of hits due to truant. The +Atk nature might still be best, but in a lot of cases our damage with 160 base attack is so high already that it overkills most opponents.
This thumbnail concept needs to be used for almost everything I love it so much
I think that for a solo run, Slaking definitely a mon that would need more playthroughs for optimization. The Truant ability is such an important factor to play around. As mentioned with Vigoroth in the previous video, Substitute would really be a great inclusion for Slaking since its massive HP means it will not break and it allows it to avoid status moves from trainers like Pheobe.
I'm sure you've recorded these ahead of time, but most of your resets can be prevented with substitute. It completely trivializes Sidney's Mighteyena (just deposit your HM users before so it can't roar), Phoebe's lead Dusclops, and Drake's lead Shelgon, and in some cases, Steven's Skarmory, along with stuff like Juan's Luvdisc.
Be great if you did a run where Slaking has huge power as the ability to see the difference between missing every other turn and the most overpowered of Slakings
Would love to see that
I would also love to see that
Ah yes. Huge Power Slaking. You are a man of culture.
This is the first video I ever watched of yours. And because of this video I play emerald, gold, and leaf green again. I went back to your first video to watch these in the background whilst I've played all the mainstream games and currently on Sun.
Just want to say thank you for reigniting my love of pokemon again.
Just imagine if all the Pelipper had smart AI, they could stall Slaking for ages.
Maybe on your overlay you can add whatever items a trainer has next to their portrait, and held items on their pokemon's portrait.
In the case of the pokemon maybe only the image of the item would do the work, if the name is taking to much space.
The “a” in “truant” is a schwa. It’s a weak “uh” sound, like “n’t” in “doesn’t” or “didn’t”.
The speed stat isnt always about the pokemons running speed or what not, it kind of represents how fast theyre able to perform an attack whether thats phyiscally throwing a punch or putting out a psychic move without moving at all. Its not always about how fast they can physically move around
But also slaking is very, very fast. But he is just that lazy.
Purugly and Maushold Speed moment.
Gen 3 seems especially experimental with different learnsets for different evolutionary stages. There was obviously stone evolutions before but Vigiroth and Shroomish are regular level up evolutions which you may want to consider waiting to evolve in order to get specific moves, especially with Shroomish's Spore
Slaking would be SO OP if not for Truant
Great vid!!
Scott your a mad man thank you for all the content especially the emerald stuff daily december has been better than actual chirstmas so thank you!
This is gonna be paaaainful! I’m excited
Would be interesting to see this vs Regigigas in gen 4 when you get around to doing platnium runs!
So what I’m hearing is you’re really looking forward to Regigigas! Lol 😂
Love these videos and all the data you provide gen 3 is hands down my favorite gen can't wait for next weeks videos
So there's probably a billion comments mentioning Hyper Beam already... I don't know if Hyper Beam's extra power would have been that useful, since Slaking's problem wasn't really that its STAB Return wasn't powerful enough. But Hyper Beam's a purchasable TM in Lilycove so it would have provided some extra moveset flexibility in the late-game (notably against the E4), and that flexibility is an interesting "perk" that's kinda unique to Slaking (and Slakoth I guess).
Against Steven's team, maybe STAB would be better than Brick Break (unless you're specifically worried about Claydol's Reflect)? A resisted Hyper Beam (or Return, even) does more damage than a neutral Brick Break, so it's just Cradily that Brick Break's stronger against. And while Cradily's not irrelevant it does have the lowest Defense of the bunch, and doesn't resist Earthquake.
When you do Slaking again give it Hyper Beam. The recharge happens on the same turn as its loafing turn allowing for a high damage attack with ok-ish accuracy.
There's not really any point in doing that when Return gets the job done in basically every situation anyway. Hyper Beam is just overkill beyond overkill with less PP and accuracy.
@@BoopaKingIt could allow a lower level of finish.
I've waited so long for this play through and now it's finally here :)
Slaking was a fun pokemon to use in our gym leader event, when I repped Norman. It even saw some play in the ladder challenge of the event, where I reached 3100 on the Japanese ladder, though TBH that was mostly people falling for Kangaskhan stupidity over and over. Still, in 3v3 having the ability to UTTERLY OBLITERATE something with a banded slaking giga impact (yes I ran the meme move) was amazing. Nobody expected that shit to OHKO skarmory and ferrothorn.
The way you say 'Truant' triggers tf out of me. You earned this engagement
reminds me of jrose. i actually had to stop watching him because of the way he says arcanine and lorelei. i still like his videos where he doesn't say those words but i've watched almost all of his first gen solo runs and hearing him say arcanine and lorelei wrong so many times has actually triggered my fight or flight and i can't fight him so i have to go
2:30 "Man, slack off is such a bad choice when your ability is truant. Imagine having to wait several turns after healing. Anyway, this guy doesn't have vital spirit, so at least he can learn rest!"
Slaking is my favorite Pokemon of all time. It's the one and only Pokemon that I've ever made sure to perfect EV train
Loving this art!
A Slaking run with pure power/huge power would be fun lol
My favorite pokemon! Thanks for the upload Scott!
That may be the best thumbnail you've done.
i lold at the slaking vs slaking fight. good run Scott
Really nice Run! For your own interest, in Generation 3 only, Covet doesn't contact the foe.
This is the best card art so far!
What I really want to see now is a playthrough where you start with a Slakoth and allow it to evolve, because that way you can have a Vigoroth with Slack Off.
Like a lot of normal types, slaking is first of all meant to be a beast in story mode (look at all the TM unpaid interns, or the ones with Pickup)
-You can switch him out after his first attack, and as long as you do that, he works like any other pokémon
-He's the only one who doesn't care about hyper beam resting turn...he was gonna rest anyway !
-And most of all, he's just meant for you to use ITEMS. Instead of letting truant trigger, you can use every other turn to heal him with a potion (effectively replacing his slack off, but better cause you can use it any turn), or an items that buffs stats (X Attack for example)...Hence why Norman's gym is based on the use of buff items : Slaking is the best client for these kind of items.
Also, I absolutely LOVE that they created a line where it's totally legit to keep the pre-evolution as it is : Vigoroth is my absolute favorite Pokémon because of that. Having a lvl 100 Vigoroth is a statement in itself 😁
for held items maybe you could use a small jpeg image of the item in the corner of the portrait of the pokemon on the right
Not sure if you considered it, but for both Vigoroth and Slaking you use Brick Break and Earthquake as your physical moves against Steven, but I wonder if Return and Earthquake would have been a better option, especially on Slaking. With STAB, Return outdamages Brick Break unless there's at least a 4x difference in effectiveness. There are no Pokemon in the league where this true, so STAB return offers slightly more damage against every single Pokemon in the League. The only Pokemon Steven has where it's true are Aggron, who can be handled with Earthquake, and Cradily. The other advantage of Brick Break is getting rid of Claydol's screens, but at +6 it should still be manageable. And with Slaking loafing every other turn, Steven's only getting 3 turns max with screens anyway. So I think it'd be better to muscle through Cradily w/ Earthquake than Claydol with Brick Break, as even though Cradily is more threatening with confusion, you're already set up by the time you get there anyways, so you should be just fine with a neutral Earthquake at +6. Especially w/ 160 base attack.
Not only this, but a move like Flamethrower is great against Skarmory due to its frail Special Defense and it would hit Claydol for neutral damage and avoid the Reflect. Metagross also would be hit for super-effective damage against its weaker Special Defense as well.
Great video dude!
Scott i want you to promise one of your first videos if you ever get to generation 5 will be eviolite vigoroth. Its so good
Can't wait for the Metagross and Salamence Playthroughs.
Guessing Scott had perfect attendance and never spoke to a truant officer. His “True Aunt” raised him well.
It would be very interesting to see how Slaking does without Truant as a fun side-challenge, giving it an ability that does nothing in battle in the context of a solo run (eg run away, all the exp would be going to Slaking anyway and it'd definitely always run away regardless) would be ideal.
feel that this would be an interesting thing to optimise
would be an interesting comparison with something like Delcatty (half base stats, but can move every turn?)
also... Tate&Liza might be brutal
On another note, Substitute would make Phoebe practically free. No longer would Confuse Ray and Curse affect you.
Once again, Scott’s over reliance on Rest over other strats in Emerald runs is likely going to cost him.
That's a good advice for a follow up run in the future
Infinite Fusion has spoilt me. _My favourite _*_Tag Team Pokemon_*_ for the amount of ways you can switch/change Slakings Ability and... _*_WEEEEEEELLL!_*
Yup, the rawst berry.
Also, there are icy and burnt berries in gsc, along with a mystery berry that works like a leppa.
Seeing a Slaking run without the ability would be interesting. Even if it isnt an official tiered pokemon, having context for *how* detrimental Truant is would be interesting.
Oh man, Slaking definitely seems like a mon that wishes the leftovers were available before the postgame.
Could facade and a burn have helped slaking? I don’t actually understand how the half damage from burn combines with facade’s double damage. Or guts. But I wonder if Facade could have helped in some of these fights. Even being poisoned with a shell bell or leftovers might be better than the paralysis chance.
Guts makes status double your attack, even for burns instead of halving it. Facade just doubles its power if you have a status condition so burn still halves your attack.
Scott you HAVE to do a Slaking playthrough without Truant, just for funsies.
Imagine Slaking in Gen I. No ability, SLASH, AMNESIA! I think in Gen II it would be equally amazing, it's a much superior version of Snorlax who is already incredible. Is it possible it could be the fastest Pokemon of all times in those games? Mewtwo in Gen I could be hard to beat, but maybe in Gen II it could be done.
Also, they used to always like to make a very strong Normal and Water type in the early generations. In Gen I they had Gyarados + Snorlax, Gen II had Kingdra + Blissey and Gen III had Milotic + Slaking (all of them had 540 BST, except for Slaking but I think spiritually it plays the same role, just they wanted to balance out its bad ability). They kind of discontinued this pattern in Gen IV where they had Electivire and Magmortar instead.
This video has made me verh anxious about when you finally try Slakoth...
Truant hinders it more than it's legendary tier stats help it, unfortunately. Kinda cool gimmick in theory though! Surprised you didn't consider Hyper Beam since it's recharge turn is the loafing turn. I guess raw damage was rarely the issue and HB only has base PP.
You seem to really undervalue Shadow Ball vs Steven Stone. That move is often the best coverage possible for that Mon.
It's... interesting. I mean, it hits with the force of a truck, but it's just not very good. Truant really does balance it I guess. Great run.
It might be a fun idea in the future to play Slaking again, but going again with a neutral do-nothing ability like Run Away just to see how it would do based purely on its stats and movepool.
How does Slaking work with Hyper Beam? If it only skips the truant, it might be a cool tool with Slaking
This is correct in how it works. The only thing hyper beam prevents that slaking cares about are switching out and moving the ability to use items.
Issue is that it has only 5 PP but yeah it is strong
I wish Truant got some sort of minor buff, like giving +1 stage of sp.def or healing 1/12th hp every turn it activates. I like the concept and theme, but it just needs that one little push to let Slaking be an awesome pokemon
Aye, healing a small on the slacking turns would be nice even if it a small amount it would help things feel a lot better even if it so small a hyper-competitive time traveling supercomputer doesn't get any win rate increase out of it
Pokemon with Truant can use Slack Off during their 'loafing around' turn. This is a somewhat hidden mechanic but please check it out, it would completely change this playthrough.
Bulbapedia says nothing about this… are you sure?
I think that’s a hack added buff to truant and slack off. It’s not in the base game.
"There is nowhere on my overlay where it says this information, but Roxanne does have 2 potions and the Nosepass has an Oran Berry"
Will this change with the overlay changes you are working on that you mentioned in another video?
The thumbnail is awesome!
Hi Scott! Your friendly neighborhood English graduate here. You mentioned in a video earlier this month you’re trying to improve your vocabulary and grammar, so I figured I’d offer some small bits of feedback that you didn’t ask for (lol). Truant is actually pronounced like “tru-ent”, not “tru-aunt.” Something I’ve noticed in many of your videos is your use of “less” when discussing levels or items. When discussing an amount of something that can be measured (like levels, items, hit points, etc) you would use “fewer” instead of “Less.” So for example, you would say, “I gained fewer levels,” or “This Pokemon has fewer resets.” The word less is used for things can’t technically be measured, like health or speed. Those terms are broad, so you would say “less health” or “less speed.”
Anyways, I hope this unprompted feedback helps, and I hope you don’t take this as major criticism! When you study the English language for most of your life you can’t help but notice these things. I’m loving daily December!
Regarding TM use for emerald if u are hard pressed for in this case brick break,maybe u can get HP fighting as a alternative instead, compared to gen 2 the slightly lower IVs from gen 3 onwards which affects HP is not as much as compared to gen 2, this give u more leeway of getting certain types of moves without restricting yourself to the 4 move syndrome.
Also, -SpDef nature is definately a detriment for emerald.. if u consider the endgame, consider a speed lowering nature if u do not need the extra speed, or even a neutral nature will work since it is a first playthrough and help u plan better overall, though fot slaking likely adamant is the best nature to go
Interesting going for a Naughty nature when the champion is water type and Slaking is inevitably going to be taking hits… I went for a neutral nature in my Slaking solo (beat Wallace at 63 and Steven at 78) because I thought all my stats would be pretty important. If anything I would’ve gone for a speed lowering nature since nothing in the E4 is particularly fast anyway
Also, for future runs, Slaking needs Encore for Tate & Liza and Substitute for Phoebe :)
Okay.. that thumbnail! 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Brian did a great job!
I used Slaking competitively for a little bit and it was fun to use a choice item plus Giga Impact (the physical version of hyper beam after the physical special split), almost always gets at least one ko
Vigoroth joining Gen 1 Poliwhirl in the category of middle stages stomping their evolved forms. (Mostly assuming Poliwhirl will be dominant due to access to Amnesia)
I think it's so fast because it starts moving on the previous turn when it's loafing! So it acts first when it does move because it took all of last turn to get ready!
I think there's a few improvements you could make to Slaking:
1: Slacking can learn Hyper Beam, and get this: both the loafing around AND recharge take the *same* turn. With STAB it's 225, upped to 247 with Silk Scarf. This is better than return by a mile. It's in the Lilycove Department store for 7500. The only problem is... this move is 90% accurate. Ugh. May work better if a Pokemon is just living on a sliver through returns, I don't know.
2: Naughty nature probably isn't your best bet. Slaking has no problem with speed especially with opponents having no EVs, and you're bound to be hit by something while loafing. So why not take the Brave nature for maximum attack?
In Generation III there is the TM48 Skill Swap, it's supposed to exchanges the Abilities of the user and the target. Maybe you can try that next time?
Slaking can’t learn that :/
In double battles slaking becomes extremely fun in gen 3
No Slakoth challenge? It is the best of both worlds: Truant+baby stats
First it's Rock Slide instead of STAB Earthquake on ice types, now it's Brick Break instead of STAB Return! 😂😂😂 The super effective damage is too tempting!
Slaking! The beast!
I always love getting a Slaking when I play a Gen 3 or later Randomizer with abilities randomized, as it makes for an absolutely ridiculous monster for the entire game
That thumbnail goes hard
I’ll say it one more time: keep in mind that you can go to the Move Deleter before facing Winona. Consider doing that if you teach Rock Smash for Wattson to open moveset flexibility.
(Commenting again to help the algorithm) I’d be very curious to see a play through with Slaking if it didn’t have Truant, just to see how much faster it’d be. That also makes me wonder what would be a good substitute ability for it/one that would make the most sense for it to have.
IMO you should box your cheerleaders before going into the elite 4 to prevent the AI from using whirlwind/roar on you
Given Gen 1 doesn't have abilities, slacking would probably be hilarious as a backport. Tauros but better.
Troo ont😂 merry Christmas Scott
Looking forward for your episode 3 of this series: Slakoth 😅
The Rawst Berry to heal burns might not be that useful in early gen solo runs, but in Sword and Shield solo runs, holding a Rawst Berry is almost required when fighting the Fire gym with a physical attacker. Otherwise, the pokemon would need to rely on a special move or Facade.
Btw, Sloths aren’t that slow, they can actually move very, very quickly, they just don’t like to move that much to conserve energy. When threatened they move incredibly fast.
Another random sloth fact: they are one of I think 3 mammals that don’t have 7 neck vertebrae
I originally thought Slaking was cool when I was a kid because it was a monstrously strong and bulky Normal type, but that ability, even kid me couldn't get past it. It wasn't the Gen III Snorlax I was hoping it was
It’s funny; when this episode started I was wondering when you’d do Metagross; I assumed you’d do a versus with Salamence at some point. Then you said that Metagross is next week and Salamence is next.
Scott could you please do a series where you play pokemon with the gym leader teams from that specific generation like gen 2 Falkners team only and then another run where you play with bugsy's team and so on and so forth
Scott my guy, we need to talk about natures and damage types.
You seem to put way too much focus on coverage/super effective damage rather than actual damage output. Play to the strengths of your 'mons, there's a lot of examples of this but the Medicham and Slackoth lines are recent ones. I know the overlay may draw your attention to effective power a lot but the offensive stat is still an important part of the equation.
The other thing is Nature in gen 3 which I think you have trouble with because of the above problem. I understand you didn't want to be Adamant because you didn't want to commit to physical moves. But your base Atk is 160, now is the time to commit!
Maybe it's easier to see because I'm used to VGC and knowing your calcs is more important there but playing around in a damage calc tool with different natures can be very helpful.
Don't want this to sound like a negative comment, I love the content and thanks for providing it.
I hope you find the best way to whoop gen 3's ass!
Slaking would be insanely good in yellow. It loses its ability, starts with recover instead of slack off i guess, and maybe spore or sing instead of yawn. Learns amnesia early on, body slam, ice beam, earthquake.
Salamence next week? Is Metagross also going to be in that week? Gen 3 is the only gen to have more than 1 pseudo-legendary after all.
Cant wait to see if Poliwhirl will perform better than poliwrath in newer gens too, xD
Encore could have been potentially useful against Phoebe, forcing her Dusclops to repeat using Protect. Someone else meantioned Substitute which would be even better.
Slaking has legendary stats and is better than pseudo legendary Pokémon. When I play slaking on games I use 2 or 3. That way I never trigger truant because he really is a legendary Pokémon that’s being hindered with ability. So my best advice is use multiply slakings with different move sets since he can learn so many abilities from being a normal type. He literally is a king.
Your videos are interesting can you do Ursaring solo run in pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver next
Slaking is probably the only pokemon where Hyper Beam is better than Return. Available in the Lilycove Department Store, Hyper Beam has an effective BP of 225, whereas Return has a max effective BP of only 153. In both cases, Slaking would be able to do anything the turn after using it, so may as well just use Hyper Beam instead.
Ohhhhh Vigoroth having dig makes sense to me now - they didn't want any possibility of a Slaking with dig because it's awkward to have 2 turn moves with the loafing mechanic. Now I am curious on if Slaking loafs around underground for a turn if you hack the move in.
Also, reminder (seeing as you mentioned it in Vigoroth): brick break super effective is slightly less base power than stab return unless return is resisted. There aren't any normal resists in the E4 so it's really not useful until Steven on normal types.
a skolth playthrough is going to be painful
does the recharge time from hyper beam overlap with truant? Hyper beam should be better than return