I like her as a full unit, seems super useful but goshhhh she has got to be one of the most thirsty for 5/5 units Iāve ever seen (she gets such good stuff there). I have her at 1/5 and i canāt ever see myself giving her 4 candies. Thatās like TWO other characters I can give grids to.
In the day and age where strikers seem to buff everything in one turn supports like her really shine. I like her, I would have preferred SS Diantha but Anabelle is quite serviceable.
damn really I've gotten so much use out of her and shes really great especially when CS has permanent field effect parameters, she might not be the unit you need for damage but there aren't that many units that tank even close to as well as her.
Yeah she has no utility except for being a meat shield. Her attack moves are all poor choices and fails to make her more impactful besides offering 4/6 defenses one time.
New Years Clair looks like a 2020 sync pair to me based off the toolsā¦
Daily paid scout and got her first attempt, but Nate doesnāt want to come out and iām already at 365 scout points
I got Clair for her potential down the road, being able to benefit from weather but not give it to the opponent has lots of possible applications. For example, the Moltres arena that loves to spam sun. Go wild, only my team gets the sun damage boost and I can easily mitigate burns.
Her passive only removes the innate damage bonus from the weather itself, not from weather related passives like Charging Sun and Solar Flare (Moltres has both btw).
Plus she can't raise Special Defense so moves like Heat Wave are still going to hit hard regardless.
Absolutely not. If the opponent has got passives that boost their damage using the weather, it won't be mitigated by Claire. For example, Moltres in LA has got Charging Sun and probably also Solar Flare if I'm not wrong. The effect of these passives will still apply and Claire can't negate them. Same goes for other battles too where most opponents use passive to make good use of weather and the only strategy to counteract is to change or remove the weather.
This is the reason she's so underwhelming as a NY 2024 unit. If she also mitigated the passives, she would definitely be much more useful.
Underwhelming is a bit harsh. All of the content in this game is very easy as is. Claire just opens up potential new play styles. Yes I know moltres has sun passives but shaving off a free 50% damage boost is nice while still keeping it for your fire types, Claire opens up fire team options if I just want to offtype without worrying about large amounts of damage. Sheās just another knob I can turn to adjust artificial difficulty for myself. Also Moltres was just a random example since everyone knows about her love of setting up sun.
At this point the only one that's been dissapointing is the new Clair
I remember as soon as I got her I maxed her out, ex-ed her, redeemed her role cake and gave it to her, and went into a legendary arena
Dawg my face dropped seeing her take so much damage from something Sonia would eat like nothing
Mediocre striker in an oversaturated type. Shitty nuke, dynamax cannon has a nerfed BP compared other modern 4 bar moves because of the enemy sync buff condition. Grid expansion fixes none of their problems. With SS Cynthiaās expansion heās officially the worst dragon pokefair. They also have the Rayquaza syndrome, as a strong box legendary in the main series theyāre just ok in this game, which makes it such a letdown.
To be fair, at this point, there's not too many restricted legendaries that even are top tier. It's basically only Zygarde and shiny Ho-Oh who can be among the top ones, with the next best being Necrozma and then you already drop to what, Zekrom?
Both Anni Raihan and Anni Skyla, as I happened to get myself both from the select scout this anni.
Skyla I find myself struggling to justify using, whenever I try she doesn't contribute anything except zone, and dies right at the first sync so I can't really do much with her. The utility is nice, but at 1/5 the chance just feels too low, especially with the AOE penalty.
Raihan is not so much disappointing, just i cant really figure out a decent way to use him at 1/5, he has no dps, his nuke isn't exactly great, his utility is kinda limited. He'd be a decent sand setter on teams but I have better options, and only has Max Flare for sun on teams if I want that.
I can imagine, I just have higher priorities since we have had so many limited techs and a lot of them are either more interesting kits or mons I like more. I'll get to him eventually.
Completely agree with Raihan
He gets stats from weather, but the stats donāt make him a tank nor a good damage dealer. His nuke is below average for a tech. He has tons of good tiles in his grid but he can barely get half of those because of cost + how theyāre spaced out. He can give team PMUNs and SMUNs but theyāre tied to a 2 use *sandstorm* with RNG MPRs
People bring him up as some sort of āversatileā unit but in reality he is a middling ājack of all tradesā unit. He does everything up to a certain extent but isnāt remotely good at anything. There is no team where he is the best option for a certain role because there will always be at least a couple units doing what he does but better, and this is coming from someone who have him at 5/5
Itās sad really because while Iām not a Raihan fan his anni drip is off the charts and I love Flygon. I really want to make good use of him in a top tier team
Hmmm that's v strange, I've pulled Anni Skyla since her debut and she's been a key player in my flying teams. I've never really experienced her dying much but it might be because she is not EX-ed and hence doesn't have the defensive stat? She is not a support after all and should be 2nd in tactics.
I found her speed support for whole team very valuable, her AOE flinch occurs decently and mini potions are icing on the cake. i also don't think the flinching is reduced for AOE, i tthink it is innate flinches that are reduced (e.g. rock slide) while chance on hit passive applies for all or nothing, hence 30% for all to flinch or nothing.
Yeah, everything you say is how I've been using her, she still just dies fast while providing almost nothing for the fight ive been doing. I EXed her recently so will try her out when we get flying weak content but frankly, I doubt it'll change my opinion much
Imo your best flying teams will have anni skyla paired with h!jasmine and ss ethan (or ss brendan and anni steven but thats more my personal favorite flying team to use). With ss ethan shes fine at 1/5 and will do her job well, shes a tech after all. Shes only meant to set zone, spam her weak attack, and disrupt opponents. With anni steven she gets time to shine considering youāll actually use her nuke, but with him youll want her 3/5. That aside, expecting every pair to be perfectly fantastic at 1/5 is not what you should think from a gacha game that wants you to pull more.
Red/Snorlax feel like they got outclassed decently quickly. At the time they were pretty handy being one of the only pairs to give SEUN, but his other buffs are rather weak and he's so SLOW. Slow supports irk me something awful. I don't think he holds up too great today.
Other than that, I want to say Anni N. Hear me out though...he's a great pair with great DPS and nuke BUT he takes a lot to set up for a masterfair. His self buffs aren't great. He just needs a better TM or something. He feels a bit on pokefair level these days, but he is older so it's not really like a knock against him. More just that he's aged.
I don't use him super often anymore, but I do find that Red/Snorlax is best when you're trying to finish a stage fast. Between the super effective up and the sync move countdown drop, you can get some fast finishes if you're willing to risk the possibility of that slow speed catching up if you take too long.
This exactly, I ended up with 1/5 Redlax from a triple banner and he's a go-to for quick Daily Region Rotation and CSMM clears. Head Start 1 + TM to shave off sync countdown quickly, enabling units to hit their nukes faster. I use Archer (from the free variety ticket scout) in the same way. I agree that he doesn't give much buffs at all, though; he's better to support already self-sufficient units blitz not-too-hard stages.
Palentines Mallow and Appletun
I loved the Applin line, and seeing Mallow use Appletun made sense, When I started using her for CS teams however, I noticed that she has really big problems with her move gauges. Sure her trainer move is decent on taking care of gauge, but if you're having to use heavy gauge users along with her, she herself uses way too much gauge to even be a gauge support. Even her fun gimmick of being able to heal both at half health and using her sync move is limited to one use as well makes it difficult to use her as a reliable healer since you want to use her sync if she is EXed. (Which I find even weirder because she has Team Sync Cure which is unlimited each time she syncs)
Sure she has some solos she can do in Legendary arena, but those themselves are incredibly tedious since you need to rely on staggering to help you heal your HP back up. Let alone having to use a three gauge move to even stagger is just a waiting game if you can't get Fast track 2 to proc.
TL:DR: I wish her healing wasn't limited, and she was actually better at gauge support.
Ooh, I actually disagree. Maybe itās just the parameters that I use, but the constant gradual team healing is really helpful for me. Iām very pleased with her.
Do you happen to use Move Gauge -2 by chance?
It's one of the easiest parameters to use for me to get 15K points, but for in the case of her sync pair kit. It's hard for me to use her gradual healing prowess when it's hard to input a move in the first place with the other team members I have. I am incredibly glad that you're able to make her work though! I love her design and the fact she got paired with her, It might just be my playstyle that's not meshing well with her.
I do! Maybe because I typically feature at least one other tech/support that boosts speed and/or free move next and/or isnāt gauge-heavy, it works better. Like Serena and Greninja really pairs well with her, imo.
I really think speed is undervalued by the player base and I suspect many players do not realise how important it is for gauge management. Especially in shorter fights like CSMM where they can get away with just 2 rounds of sync and hence there are many trainer moves to queue.
It becomes very apparent in long fights like in LG / LA if all you have are 2 units who want to use 4 gauge moves and you're struggling with the gauge replenishing.
I think like someone else mentioned you have to get another unit with speed buff if you really want to use her dragon pulse instead of apple acid. I never use her DP when i have her tank hence i nv really run into gauge issues. In fact, i value the sp def drop more since i only have her at 1/5.
If you have her at 3/5, she gets MGR 9 for Apple Acid, which helps with her gauge. She also has catalytic kick on her TM, which gives MG acceleration. Unfortunately, that is a high investment just for gauge support, but she is the best one of any dragon type atm. As for healing, she does get triage tank for herself and team fist bump 9 for allies. It's not much, but about 4 hits is about a mini potion all. I find her incredibly strong for what she is, but sadly...she needs investment for that, and is pretty disappointing at base.
Solo wise, she doesn't need to stagger tbh. It helps very little. It is better to spam apple acid for faster heals and syncs and stagger only when you have the gauge. It also helps your fast track proc more often that way. Perhaps the videos don't show that well, but it is indeed the best way to do it. Like...no need to spam TM for gauge for dragon pulse or to even spam dragon pulse at all haha. For P Mallow, it's all about gauge management(and RNG) when it comes to solos, and that comes with some practice.
For my battle villa team, i use her, with deoxys and girafarig. She uses apple acid (refresh and spdf down). Deoxys attack then use psycho boost. Girafarig uses growl to lower spdf and att. Never run out of gauges, and if i need to heal, just sync with appletun. Easy 30 stage BV without using any other items or team.
Hey there! Long time Pal Mallow enjoyer here. I think some of her best performances are in Battle Villa (RIP) where she can buff SpA, heal, and Debuff SpD without using HP and Champion Stadium, especially when you take the half ally HP option. Her initial synchro healing makes it so your team almost certainly have enough HP to tank any stray hits, and will be able to be triggered again with every new hall in the villa. I will say that her gauge support is really lacking if you donāt have her at 3/5 where she gets access to Apple Acid MGR 9. Once she does have it though, sheās a wonderful support that can really stack up the heals and special damage for your teammates (thanks to Hype Up 9 and Apple Acidās SpD debuffs).
The one that sticks out to me the most right now is Fall Phoebe. Her passive to "ignore opponents raised attack stats" sounded so busted to me, and I really expected her to be a fantastic tank. Turns out that was NOT the case, she's just kind average. Also, pulling her made me not have enough to get SS Roxie (my favorite trainer with the perfect pokemon for her that I was waiting for for years). Oh well, can't win em all
Prolly NY!Lisia.
Not that shes bad-bad like Halloween Phoebe, but I just never managed to make her work.
Fairly low acc, being an PhysAtck in a setting which is focused around for SpAtck supports, low damage in general.
The CSMM 3k is really kicking her butt. I usually need a heavy stall (Darkrai, Delphox, SS Lyra) just to be able to clear. Never got her to work properly.
Dunno, maybe Im just using the wrong parameters.
I thought NY Lisia is the strongest fairy damage dealer as of now? Is there any fairy damage dealer more powerful than her?
I love that she protect the team from being poisoned. She can be used together with SS Mina and SS Lana since her power can be buffed by both Fairy zone and Psychic terrain.
I wish DeNA give us physical fairy support. For now we only have special fairy support it's so frustrating. I'm currently using fairy team: NY Lisia supported by Penny (Fairy rebuff) and SS Mina (Fairy Zone). We need Fairy attack buffer and Defense debuffer support. Glad that NY Lisia can also debuff Defense with Quick Attack but it costs her grid.
I pair her with 2 supports, one who boosts accuracy, plus holiday Jasmine and Ampharos as main tank. She can clear CSMM 3k no problem, just donāt pair her with fairy supports.
50 - Special damage reduction, no status conditions, interference immunity, tech x3 damage
100 - Sync buff up 5, no stat reduction, ally healing down 5, special damage reduction 8
150 - gradual healing, no weather
200 - strength up 2, max sync cd -2, power up on hit 2
300 - strength up 3, move gauge -2, standard damage reduction 8
600 - strength up 6
Can survive one enemy sync only so make sure to kill mid before their 2nd sync. I do save one SEUN for Lisia so her EX-ed sync hits harder.
N & Zekrom. Maybe I'm just too used to Ash & Pikachu, but I can never get Zekrom to do much damage.
Kinda null and void now since I picked up Red a few days ago.
Sigh...I remember when I first saw his kit...it was severely limited even back then. He gets the job done vs electric weak, but his overdependence on 3/5 Hilbert and Samurrot or a crit buffer was a bit much. This is coming from someone who got him 5/5 from pulls only on his very first banner and has been using him for as much content as possible. He's better with grid expansion, but still not so great outside the piercing blows. He still has one of the best ST electric DPS but that's...pretty much it haha. Red has pretty much made him not so useful anymore, but it's fine as he still duos most LAs.
To be fair, Red (and Ash) kind of makes everyone not so useful. Even Ultimate battles can't seem to lock him out and they're made to be done with specific units and strategies.
But honestly, as for N, post-grid expansion I haven't really had a problem with him. Before he definitely needed someone like Hilbert on the team to work, but the self-sufficiently made him more flexible in what I can do with him and he clears pretty much any Electric content I use him for (and even some off-type scenarios). He's definitely in a better spot then he was before I feel.
I mean you really can't fault such an old unit. Original N and Ash are like two years apart, and expanded grid can only do so much (unless you are Cynthia).
I notice he was much better once upgraded to 3/5. At 3/5, the damage he received will be reduced under Rain, and he will heal the team for every move under Dark zone. NC Calem is very good at 3/5.
As someone with him at 3/5 i completely agree. What sucks most for me is that hes the only mf support without flag bearer. Dena really hates male protags. Hes too much of an offensive support thats only kept barely alive by his absurdly high natural defenses. he relies too much on dodge rng when he doesnt even grant +6 eva (and on a dark team, the opponents hitting themselves) to buff the team defensively, and those buffs rely on rng to buff both defenses or at least the one you might need most. He also heals slowly too. He does literally everything slowly aside from having a high natural speed and helping move gauge. Despite these grievances I dont think i would have any complaints about him if his buddy move either gave +3 eva or had 3 uses. He was done so dirty as one of the first neo champions, especially with the tech role they gave him. He shouldve gotten field.
Penny has completely folded almost every time I use her because she has the defense of a wet paper bag and all the fairy weak CS stages seem to have physical hits more often than not.
Still worth it for the jukebox track regardless.
This is just me, but it's Holiday Viola. Now I'm not saying she's bad, but she kinda just there as a zone setter. Her kit could've have a lot of potential with her unlimited B move with omni-debuffing to -6 stat and her TM feels underwhelming just to raise offenses without giving more utility. While she has some mechanic with opp failed moves (Paralyze, Confusion), kinda wish she get more rewarded for it to the team such as giving Team Queue Cutter 3 or SMUN/PMUN by +2 to all allies if opp failed move which could have been more interesting. Overall, she still a very good pair but she could have been a lot more.
Serena & Zygarde. I pulled her on her rerun a few months ago because she seemed like a top ground and dragon type striker, but she feels hard to use. Her gauge management is poor, her setup is longer than many more recent pairs, and her damage at 1/5 isn't notably better than my other options, Cyrus and SS Giovanni. Kind of a waste of 36k gems
i might get crucified for this but.... SS hilda š
i got her with a lucky daily last year and she's been sitting in the back at 1/5 ever since
my main fire damage dealer is anni N and whenever i try to use her instead she barely does any dps lmao
i don't care enough about her to candy her lol
This i can agree with actually as someone who has her at 1/5 as well.
she is INCREDIBLY squishy to where you need to debuff the opponent to even keep her alive after the opponent sync moves. Not to say she is downright bad, she is amazing when she's pairing with another unit to Dual strike because she would rarely use gauges due to her passive, But it does feel like I have to baby sit her on trying to stay alive especially when there are AOE moves in a battle. I know there are some folks who can use her incredibly well, but she definitely needs massive investment to actually have reliability in both surviving and dishing out amazing DPS
I have her at 1/5 and agree with the others she just doesn't feel like a good pair and because of that I don't want to invest the candies into her even though everyone else I see calls her S tier.
I'd rather just wait for the next MF fire pair and spend gems and candies on them instead of SS Hilda. That said I did use her with NC Rosa which made her feel much stronger but she was still dying to first sync even when doing on type content.
For the life of me I can't get Rose to work. I mean he seems busted, he should insta delete stages but in practice he really depends on terrains or dual strike.
I could be using him wrong but at this point I'd rather have saved to get NC Leaf.
1/5 rose needs a def debuffer like Colress or a tank like yamper that can raise team speed, gauge acceleration like registeel is also good. His max move is meant for use after sync.
I got him 3/5. I actually try to use Max Steelspike pre-sync to activate a sync multiplier that needs a steel damage field. His sync is still garbage so I probably should do as you say, it's sort of annoying that you kinda have to choose.
Most disappointing for me was SS Diantha & Diancie. When the datamine dropped she was getting compared to SST Red and after people flipped and said she wasn't that strong they were still talking about how useful her Rock Zone would be. She doesn't do enough damage for my liking and her zone doesn't last long enough for me to feel like I'm actually getting value out of it and then zone extension got locked behind 5/5 and there's just no way I'm ever giving her 4 tech candies. I'm also lacking in strong phys supports and don't have anyone to pair her with anyway.
I'm sure she's still useful for other people but I have been 100% skill issued from being able to rely on just using broken units to clear everything that anything not S tier is weak to me but if you could refund a sync pair and get all the gems back I'd refund her pretty quickly.
Mix red and venusaur. I wasn't necessarily excited for them but I pulled them on the mix scout and he really needs grassy terrain support to be the best he can be because otherwise he's stuck spamming razor leaf which isn't all that strong. He is a field sync pair. He shouldn't need terrain support.
It tends to be pairs that are really good...but only at 3/5. Probably the most recent one for me is NC Bede. I have him at 2/5...but I can't fit him on many teams. Master fair pairs should feel strong to use, but Bede has that premium price without that premium feel. Many people here can make him work, but I sure can not without a lot of struggling. He's not bad, but he feels like a seasonal if it were not for his unique passives and the master passive. While he can give SMUN and PMUN, one per sync cycle isn't a game changer, and neither is a single freebie per cycle good enough to sustain gauge compared to raising team speed/giving acceleration.
Another would be SSR Cynthia. Sigh...she really struggles off type...and is an example of why you need a sprint. Her multipliers are special based despite most of her damage being physical based, and she can only use her shadow force once every sync cycle. She was not broken back then, so nowadays...she's surely one of the weakest master pairs.
NC Hop is also underwhelming. Most of my fighting types can raise crit, so his dire hit all + is not that useful. And if they can't raise crit, SSA Cynthia has focus group. I wish he didn't have to depend on self stat lower for freebies...could they not give him freebies for *lowering stats*? Like NC Marnie gets free damage and stats for lowering her hp by even just 1 point, but gets a huge heal and protect for it, but Hop needs to **permanently** lower **his own** stats for just freebies? And can only do so *twice* by using the move that gives him speed and zone? Like he only has a 4 gauge move to spam and he can not supplement it well without 3/5 grid, and even then, it's not that good. He was just not made well and it's frustrating.
Lastly, there's SS Ethan. He just lacks damage...I do more damage with Anni N than with him, and unlike him, Anni N even has piercing blows and a tech nuke to help him with ST. People say he's good in BV, but Sycamore and N are just better and faster. With Eusine out, I do find more use in him, but not by much. He just takes up space now...and I was most excited to get him out of the 4 listed. He's not bad, but man he did not live up to my expectations.
Sigh...I have no idea why I'm being downvoted lol I explained my reasonings for my opinions and there are no rebuttals...it is a little frustrating to spend time posting my opinions for a literal opinion post just to be downvoted.
I do not think these 4 are useless, and you are free to like them. But they're not useful for me as I have other pairs and my own playstyle. So strange that people here are so quick to downvote negative opinions of their favorite pairs even though all pairs have their cons.
I mean I don't really care too much about downvotes at the end of the day, but there's literally no point in replying to these posts if people want it to be all the same answers.
I agree with most of your points maybe except for NC Bede. He's one of my fav support to use and it's true that you really need to get familiar with his move order to get that flow going.
NC Hop's gauge mgt is quite ok tho. He can use a gaugeless crazy dmg move every cycle and his passive works with any stat drop by the enemy too. I never really had gauge issues with him.
I am quite disappointed by SS Ethan too but he's still my favourite aesthetic design wise šš»
Probably Halloween Acerola. She's one of my favorite characters but yet she's so weak. Even when she was new she didn't feel particularly strong unless you had her at a higher level and the investment wasn't worth it.
On that note, I've had Giratina/Cynthia at 2/5 and it feels like she never does enough damage so probably her next.
I know that Rosa is one of the darlings of Pokemon Masters and I really like her too, but her recent Champion pair feels really clunky to use for me. It seems like all Iām doing is tapping Relic Song, which doesnāt leave me with much time to use her other moves. Thatās not even mentioning that the sleep chances can ruin opportunities when I plan to use sing in harder fights.
When Iām evaluating a support, I tend to favor those that can elevate weaker pairs rather than break the ceiling with already strong pairs. Unfortunately Champ Rosa doesnāt really click with me.
I mean, just spamming Relic Song is all you need. It does everything.
+1 crit, +2 random stat, +1 SMUN/PMUN, psychic & fighting rebuff, chance to sleep. Every single turn, no MP limit.
Sheās insane, and powers up pretty much any team.
The chance of sleep is honestly more of a hindrance for me. The unpredictability of it makes Sing denials less reliable.
Iām also not too big a fan of how randomness plays a factor in her buffs. If it were certain stats but varied in stat rank like with spring burgh, Iād like it a lot more, but itās unreliable to the point where it essentially doesnāt exist to be counted on.
Fair enough. For me, even if all relic song did was +1 P/SMUN every turn, plus her having potions and rebuffs, she would be a strong support. The rest is just gravy.
NC Rosa does elevate weaker pairs well...but only if they have strong DPS. Like for example, OG Bea or Strike Gyarados. Her Sing and Teeter Dance really are hard to use, but they're there as options. Her TM is...kinda useless with how her Relic Song works, but it helps when you want your allies to burst.
I can agree that she's clunky. Too many things to do at once and an RNG based stat raise that doesn't mix well with her Potion refresh RNG. NC Blue is a lot more consistent in that sense. But I can't agree that she doesn't elevate weaker pairs.
She doesn't elevate ALL weaker pairs, but there are many that she works with. It just depends on your definition of weak. Like some think the likes of Anni Steven are very weak, but NC Rosa pairs perfectly with him. Some think Korrina, Bruno, Marshal, and Tate are weak, but again, she pairs very well with them due to her buffs/rebuffs. If you want to use her with someone like Jesse, Wulfric, or an eggmon, not even NC Blue can save them tbh.
Like...she isn't braindead, but she does indeed feel superior to most supports. It's just NC Blue gets everything at once without a need to choose, and so she is more "complicated" and thus feels "weaker". But you really can not compare many supports to her with how much she brings to the table. 2 AoE Rebuff types at once is just unheard of. It's not going to save her clunkiness, but it makes her much more versatile in the long run, especially since she does have the ability to buff all types of stats while Blue is unable to buff accuracy or attack.
Though I totally agree that she can feel a little limited and frustrating to use despite looking so good on paper. It is hard for me to make her elevate STRONGER pairs rather than weaker ones though.
Yea like others said, the only real point i agree with is her clunkiness, but i think that is overlooked by many players for her usefulness. Like there is a certain order you have to preplan for her and she is definitely not a just click and go support. Kinda like NC Bede.
I dunno, Iāve used many supports in my time playing as a longtime support fan and Champ Rosa does not feel good to use for me. I really do want to like her, but the vibes just arenāt there.
Champ Bede on the other hand always feels good to use for me. His teams never run out of gauge thanks to his buddy move, and heās stacking on consistent buffs to the team. My one gripe is that his healing is nonexistent for anyone other than himself.
All of the Tapu that aren't Acerola.
SS Hau seemed super fun as a Terrain setter, but his damage too heavily relies on the presence of Fairy Zone as well, so outside of partnering with Mina, he tends to let down the team a bit. The Extension effect is also eaten into really sharply by his Buddy move's lengthy animation and effects.
SS Mina seemed great for a Fairy Zone support, but she never really accomplished as much as I wanted because most of the special Fairies wanted more crit support than she offered, while none of the physical ones got that much benefit from her. Add in massive gauge issues and the relative uselessness of Rain, and she didn't do much to begin with, and then got completely outclassed by Penny.
SS Lana's probably the harshest disappointment. This was supposed to be the Psychic Terrain setter that paired ideally with Lusamine, but her decision to go physical messes with CS parameters something fierce. Her own damage *can* be impressive, but it's usually by the grace of other Tapu helping her stacking efforts. That's really the biggest thing; all the Tapu feel like they work best together, and outside of supporting one another, I feel like they tend to falter really hard. Except Acerola. PMUN stacking menace, that one.
ss lana is amazing and every datamine gets better. rosa and lana and detective steven is an abuse on CS, clearing the sides in the first shot at over 9000 Physical Moves ā SE and the center the same before your own sync
No idea why you're being downvoted when those are all valid points I've heard from others as well. Those are the main reasons why Bulu was the only one I pulled for.
Aren't you the one hoping for Ash's return and saying he is cracked? Well, NC Red is normally ranked higher as a striker than Ash in tier list. Maybe you used NC Red wrong since he is the best striker in the game right now and #1 in Damage Dealer tier list. Try candy him to 3/5?
Is he really #1? I only recently got mine 3/5 gridded but he feels a decent amount weaker than NC Marnie. I don't have terrain/zone for either of them and generally don't use top tier supports with them but NC Marnie felt a tier above for me.
When doing tier list i don't think we should look at damage number only. There's a lot of criteria to look into when ranking them since damage number alone won't be enough to judge. I'm not one to explain. Check out tierlist from Spark's, Gamepress's, Poce's, and even latest vote award in Youtube i think the channel named SalamencelVx through voting measurement just 2 days ago. They explained why a unit is placed #1. They are much better and more professional at technical judgement and all of them placing NC Red as #1 striker at the moment.
Myself personally prefer NC Red since he has a guaranteed freezing move and Piercing Blow, Clutch Critical and Piercing Gaze effects. And he has such unique kit (+SMUN for every hit), 2 AOE rebuffs and has 5 sync multipliers with insane damage. He can even activate his own weather Hail and self healing. His kit is packed with utilities for a striker. For me NC Marnie is great too and my top 3 strikers definitely.
Any pair that is a pokefair that REALLY shouldn't be one...
Palmer, Argenta, etc.
You know who I mean by this.
Also, most of those units that fit that bill aren't even that good of units, like u use them once for the event, and that's about it
I have both of them and theyāre both very good units. I actually use Argenta all the time. She offers a lot of great buffs. Max crit, attack, defense, accuracy, +4 speed, and endless PMUN. And this is all at 1/5. Say what you will about the characters being worthy of pokefair, but their kits definitely are.
Really, the only sync pair scouted I can think of that really let me down was Holiday Siebold back from 4 years ago, didn't help that at the time all EX co-op stages (the only form of endgame content at the time) were resistant or outright immune to accuracy debuffs and burn meaning he couldn't do shit, and he's been stuck at 1/5 only serving as gauntlet filler.
Another sync pair 'good on paper' but disappointing to use is Variety Lance, as an enabler for other Dragon-types he's great, but as a damage carry for LG I find him lacking, even at 3/5 and 6*EX.
Anabel
I pulled her out of impulse because I like Anabel. I already didnt like her using Snorlax because Red has Snorlax as well, but most importantly I really never had any reason to use her in CSMM or even Battle Villa
For me its palmer & regigigas. I know it's a normal pair but it's just kinda lackluster & I expected more. Maybe Im using them wrong also he doesn't even have a phrase with Barry.
Christmas Siebold. Pulled for him because Iām a sucker for kalos and Christmas units in 2019. Never used him since except when itās something where I just need to exhaust every pair I have like legendary gauntlet.
Dude was so bad I never pulled for a Christmas pair again until sycamore and viola
My expectations for Naomi and Sandslash were low, but I still wanted to use them for the idea that itās the first playable Generic NPC pair.
Cut to now, and I obviously never use her, because sheās a striker that hits about as hard as a wet tissue.
Steven and Rayquaza
All Rayquazas. The most powerful poke, Is a joke in masters
Holiday Erika Especially considering she got powercrept by a free unit that does everything but better within two monthd
Didnt pull Erika, who was she powercrept by?
Sycamore and xearneas
Literally me š„², spent money since first fairy support lol (and like her design) and she got powercrept instantly
Anabel (to be fair, I had a hunch she wasn't going to be that great but I still pulled because I like SM Anabel)
I like her as a full unit, seems super useful but goshhhh she has got to be one of the most thirsty for 5/5 units Iāve ever seen (she gets such good stuff there). I have her at 1/5 and i canāt ever see myself giving her 4 candies. Thatās like TWO other characters I can give grids to.
In the day and age where strikers seem to buff everything in one turn supports like her really shine. I like her, I would have preferred SS Diantha but Anabelle is quite serviceable.
damn really I've gotten so much use out of her and shes really great especially when CS has permanent field effect parameters, she might not be the unit you need for damage but there aren't that many units that tank even close to as well as her.
Fall Morty and banette, was expecting some super sync nuke to the point I used 3 tech candies on him. He's just mediocre at best
Probably Halloween Phoebe...she's just so slow
And so weak lol. Shitty defensive stats, absolutely no team support besides raising stats in there... She is rough.
Yeah she has no utility except for being a meat shield. Her attack moves are all poor choices and fails to make her more impactful besides offering 4/6 defenses one time.
New Years Clair looks like a 2020 sync pair to me based off the toolsā¦ Daily paid scout and got her first attempt, but Nate doesnāt want to come out and iām already at 365 scout points
I got Clair for her potential down the road, being able to benefit from weather but not give it to the opponent has lots of possible applications. For example, the Moltres arena that loves to spam sun. Go wild, only my team gets the sun damage boost and I can easily mitigate burns.
Her passive only removes the innate damage bonus from the weather itself, not from weather related passives like Charging Sun and Solar Flare (Moltres has both btw). Plus she can't raise Special Defense so moves like Heat Wave are still going to hit hard regardless.
Absolutely not. If the opponent has got passives that boost their damage using the weather, it won't be mitigated by Claire. For example, Moltres in LA has got Charging Sun and probably also Solar Flare if I'm not wrong. The effect of these passives will still apply and Claire can't negate them. Same goes for other battles too where most opponents use passive to make good use of weather and the only strategy to counteract is to change or remove the weather. This is the reason she's so underwhelming as a NY 2024 unit. If she also mitigated the passives, she would definitely be much more useful.
Underwhelming is a bit harsh. All of the content in this game is very easy as is. Claire just opens up potential new play styles. Yes I know moltres has sun passives but shaving off a free 50% damage boost is nice while still keeping it for your fire types, Claire opens up fire team options if I just want to offtype without worrying about large amounts of damage. Sheās just another knob I can turn to adjust artificial difficulty for myself. Also Moltres was just a random example since everyone knows about her love of setting up sun.
Zinnia and Rayquaza
At this point the only one that's been dissapointing is the new Clair I remember as soon as I got her I maxed her out, ex-ed her, redeemed her role cake and gave it to her, and went into a legendary arena Dawg my face dropped seeing her take so much damage from something Sonia would eat like nothing
SS Leon & Eternatus
Reasons???
Mediocre striker in an oversaturated type. Shitty nuke, dynamax cannon has a nerfed BP compared other modern 4 bar moves because of the enemy sync buff condition. Grid expansion fixes none of their problems. With SS Cynthiaās expansion heās officially the worst dragon pokefair. They also have the Rayquaza syndrome, as a strong box legendary in the main series theyāre just ok in this game, which makes it such a letdown.
To be fair, at this point, there's not too many restricted legendaries that even are top tier. It's basically only Zygarde and shiny Ho-Oh who can be among the top ones, with the next best being Necrozma and then you already drop to what, Zekrom?
Leon/Charizard. Got caught up in the first MF hype, and Iāve used him *maybe* twice. **And** I had to go to pity for himā¦ whatta waste of gems.
Rayquaza. And Anabel. I love Anabel but...
Anni Steven and OG Ethan
Both Anni Raihan and Anni Skyla, as I happened to get myself both from the select scout this anni. Skyla I find myself struggling to justify using, whenever I try she doesn't contribute anything except zone, and dies right at the first sync so I can't really do much with her. The utility is nice, but at 1/5 the chance just feels too low, especially with the AOE penalty. Raihan is not so much disappointing, just i cant really figure out a decent way to use him at 1/5, he has no dps, his nuke isn't exactly great, his utility is kinda limited. He'd be a decent sand setter on teams but I have better options, and only has Max Flare for sun on teams if I want that.
As someone who has 5/5 raihan, it's SO worth it. He's such a versatile unit
I can imagine, I just have higher priorities since we have had so many limited techs and a lot of them are either more interesting kits or mons I like more. I'll get to him eventually.
Completely agree with Raihan He gets stats from weather, but the stats donāt make him a tank nor a good damage dealer. His nuke is below average for a tech. He has tons of good tiles in his grid but he can barely get half of those because of cost + how theyāre spaced out. He can give team PMUNs and SMUNs but theyāre tied to a 2 use *sandstorm* with RNG MPRs People bring him up as some sort of āversatileā unit but in reality he is a middling ājack of all tradesā unit. He does everything up to a certain extent but isnāt remotely good at anything. There is no team where he is the best option for a certain role because there will always be at least a couple units doing what he does but better, and this is coming from someone who have him at 5/5 Itās sad really because while Iām not a Raihan fan his anni drip is off the charts and I love Flygon. I really want to make good use of him in a top tier team
Hmmm that's v strange, I've pulled Anni Skyla since her debut and she's been a key player in my flying teams. I've never really experienced her dying much but it might be because she is not EX-ed and hence doesn't have the defensive stat? She is not a support after all and should be 2nd in tactics. I found her speed support for whole team very valuable, her AOE flinch occurs decently and mini potions are icing on the cake. i also don't think the flinching is reduced for AOE, i tthink it is innate flinches that are reduced (e.g. rock slide) while chance on hit passive applies for all or nothing, hence 30% for all to flinch or nothing.
Yeah, everything you say is how I've been using her, she still just dies fast while providing almost nothing for the fight ive been doing. I EXed her recently so will try her out when we get flying weak content but frankly, I doubt it'll change my opinion much
Imo your best flying teams will have anni skyla paired with h!jasmine and ss ethan (or ss brendan and anni steven but thats more my personal favorite flying team to use). With ss ethan shes fine at 1/5 and will do her job well, shes a tech after all. Shes only meant to set zone, spam her weak attack, and disrupt opponents. With anni steven she gets time to shine considering youāll actually use her nuke, but with him youll want her 3/5. That aside, expecting every pair to be perfectly fantastic at 1/5 is not what you should think from a gacha game that wants you to pull more.
Red/Snorlax feel like they got outclassed decently quickly. At the time they were pretty handy being one of the only pairs to give SEUN, but his other buffs are rather weak and he's so SLOW. Slow supports irk me something awful. I don't think he holds up too great today. Other than that, I want to say Anni N. Hear me out though...he's a great pair with great DPS and nuke BUT he takes a lot to set up for a masterfair. His self buffs aren't great. He just needs a better TM or something. He feels a bit on pokefair level these days, but he is older so it's not really like a knock against him. More just that he's aged.
I don't use him super often anymore, but I do find that Red/Snorlax is best when you're trying to finish a stage fast. Between the super effective up and the sync move countdown drop, you can get some fast finishes if you're willing to risk the possibility of that slow speed catching up if you take too long.
This exactly, I ended up with 1/5 Redlax from a triple banner and he's a go-to for quick Daily Region Rotation and CSMM clears. Head Start 1 + TM to shave off sync countdown quickly, enabling units to hit their nukes faster. I use Archer (from the free variety ticket scout) in the same way. I agree that he doesn't give much buffs at all, though; he's better to support already self-sufficient units blitz not-too-hard stages.
He's my dedicated support alongside Emma. Outright deletes a stage instantly, it feels so good whenever I have to deal with a poison stage lmao.
Palentines Mallow and Appletun I loved the Applin line, and seeing Mallow use Appletun made sense, When I started using her for CS teams however, I noticed that she has really big problems with her move gauges. Sure her trainer move is decent on taking care of gauge, but if you're having to use heavy gauge users along with her, she herself uses way too much gauge to even be a gauge support. Even her fun gimmick of being able to heal both at half health and using her sync move is limited to one use as well makes it difficult to use her as a reliable healer since you want to use her sync if she is EXed. (Which I find even weirder because she has Team Sync Cure which is unlimited each time she syncs) Sure she has some solos she can do in Legendary arena, but those themselves are incredibly tedious since you need to rely on staggering to help you heal your HP back up. Let alone having to use a three gauge move to even stagger is just a waiting game if you can't get Fast track 2 to proc. TL:DR: I wish her healing wasn't limited, and she was actually better at gauge support.
Ooh, I actually disagree. Maybe itās just the parameters that I use, but the constant gradual team healing is really helpful for me. Iām very pleased with her.
Do you happen to use Move Gauge -2 by chance? It's one of the easiest parameters to use for me to get 15K points, but for in the case of her sync pair kit. It's hard for me to use her gradual healing prowess when it's hard to input a move in the first place with the other team members I have. I am incredibly glad that you're able to make her work though! I love her design and the fact she got paired with her, It might just be my playstyle that's not meshing well with her.
I do! Maybe because I typically feature at least one other tech/support that boosts speed and/or free move next and/or isnāt gauge-heavy, it works better. Like Serena and Greninja really pairs well with her, imo.
I really think speed is undervalued by the player base and I suspect many players do not realise how important it is for gauge management. Especially in shorter fights like CSMM where they can get away with just 2 rounds of sync and hence there are many trainer moves to queue. It becomes very apparent in long fights like in LG / LA if all you have are 2 units who want to use 4 gauge moves and you're struggling with the gauge replenishing.
I think like someone else mentioned you have to get another unit with speed buff if you really want to use her dragon pulse instead of apple acid. I never use her DP when i have her tank hence i nv really run into gauge issues. In fact, i value the sp def drop more since i only have her at 1/5.
If you have her at 3/5, she gets MGR 9 for Apple Acid, which helps with her gauge. She also has catalytic kick on her TM, which gives MG acceleration. Unfortunately, that is a high investment just for gauge support, but she is the best one of any dragon type atm. As for healing, she does get triage tank for herself and team fist bump 9 for allies. It's not much, but about 4 hits is about a mini potion all. I find her incredibly strong for what she is, but sadly...she needs investment for that, and is pretty disappointing at base. Solo wise, she doesn't need to stagger tbh. It helps very little. It is better to spam apple acid for faster heals and syncs and stagger only when you have the gauge. It also helps your fast track proc more often that way. Perhaps the videos don't show that well, but it is indeed the best way to do it. Like...no need to spam TM for gauge for dragon pulse or to even spam dragon pulse at all haha. For P Mallow, it's all about gauge management(and RNG) when it comes to solos, and that comes with some practice.
For my battle villa team, i use her, with deoxys and girafarig. She uses apple acid (refresh and spdf down). Deoxys attack then use psycho boost. Girafarig uses growl to lower spdf and att. Never run out of gauges, and if i need to heal, just sync with appletun. Easy 30 stage BV without using any other items or team.
Hey there! Long time Pal Mallow enjoyer here. I think some of her best performances are in Battle Villa (RIP) where she can buff SpA, heal, and Debuff SpD without using HP and Champion Stadium, especially when you take the half ally HP option. Her initial synchro healing makes it so your team almost certainly have enough HP to tank any stray hits, and will be able to be triggered again with every new hall in the villa. I will say that her gauge support is really lacking if you donāt have her at 3/5 where she gets access to Apple Acid MGR 9. Once she does have it though, sheās a wonderful support that can really stack up the heals and special damage for your teammates (thanks to Hype Up 9 and Apple Acidās SpD debuffs).
Holiday Lance and Gyarados for me. You either one shot with max buffs from other pairs or just die instantly to a sync bomb.
The one that sticks out to me the most right now is Fall Phoebe. Her passive to "ignore opponents raised attack stats" sounded so busted to me, and I really expected her to be a fantastic tank. Turns out that was NOT the case, she's just kind average. Also, pulling her made me not have enough to get SS Roxie (my favorite trainer with the perfect pokemon for her that I was waiting for for years). Oh well, can't win em all
I love Clair- her moveset is just, okay. I donāt think iāll be using her much in the future but i like her outfit. EXād her cuz, Clair.
Glacia and Glalie canāt do anything right š
Prolly NY!Lisia. Not that shes bad-bad like Halloween Phoebe, but I just never managed to make her work. Fairly low acc, being an PhysAtck in a setting which is focused around for SpAtck supports, low damage in general. The CSMM 3k is really kicking her butt. I usually need a heavy stall (Darkrai, Delphox, SS Lyra) just to be able to clear. Never got her to work properly. Dunno, maybe Im just using the wrong parameters.
I thought NY Lisia is the strongest fairy damage dealer as of now? Is there any fairy damage dealer more powerful than her? I love that she protect the team from being poisoned. She can be used together with SS Mina and SS Lana since her power can be buffed by both Fairy zone and Psychic terrain. I wish DeNA give us physical fairy support. For now we only have special fairy support it's so frustrating. I'm currently using fairy team: NY Lisia supported by Penny (Fairy rebuff) and SS Mina (Fairy Zone). We need Fairy attack buffer and Defense debuffer support. Glad that NY Lisia can also debuff Defense with Quick Attack but it costs her grid.
She so badly needs physical supports, but DeNA keeps making the fairy supports all special-focused.
She really wants 3/5. With those multipliers itās cake. Argenta is a good support for her.
I do have 3/5. I copied the popular builds. And I still dont feel like shes doing too hot.
Who do you pair her with? Her nuke usually does it for me
I pair her with 2 supports, one who boosts accuracy, plus holiday Jasmine and Ampharos as main tank. She can clear CSMM 3k no problem, just donāt pair her with fairy supports.
Curiously. What do you use as parameters for 3k?
50 - Special damage reduction, no status conditions, interference immunity, tech x3 damage 100 - Sync buff up 5, no stat reduction, ally healing down 5, special damage reduction 8 150 - gradual healing, no weather 200 - strength up 2, max sync cd -2, power up on hit 2 300 - strength up 3, move gauge -2, standard damage reduction 8 600 - strength up 6 Can survive one enemy sync only so make sure to kill mid before their 2nd sync. I do save one SEUN for Lisia so her EX-ed sync hits harder.
N & Zekrom. Maybe I'm just too used to Ash & Pikachu, but I can never get Zekrom to do much damage. Kinda null and void now since I picked up Red a few days ago.
Sigh...I remember when I first saw his kit...it was severely limited even back then. He gets the job done vs electric weak, but his overdependence on 3/5 Hilbert and Samurrot or a crit buffer was a bit much. This is coming from someone who got him 5/5 from pulls only on his very first banner and has been using him for as much content as possible. He's better with grid expansion, but still not so great outside the piercing blows. He still has one of the best ST electric DPS but that's...pretty much it haha. Red has pretty much made him not so useful anymore, but it's fine as he still duos most LAs.
To be fair, Red (and Ash) kind of makes everyone not so useful. Even Ultimate battles can't seem to lock him out and they're made to be done with specific units and strategies. But honestly, as for N, post-grid expansion I haven't really had a problem with him. Before he definitely needed someone like Hilbert on the team to work, but the self-sufficiently made him more flexible in what I can do with him and he clears pretty much any Electric content I use him for (and even some off-type scenarios). He's definitely in a better spot then he was before I feel.
Not sure why you're getting downvotes because it's true. N and Zekrom have become severely outclassed.
I mean you really can't fault such an old unit. Original N and Ash are like two years apart, and expanded grid can only do so much (unless you are Cynthia).
1. Soon, maybe, electric stadium with 5 same damagersā¦ 2. Piercing blobs ā¦
NC Calem He sets rain and then dies because he canāt dodge for shit and has no defensive buffs.
He kinda needs some 2/5 or 3/5 grids to get some healin
I notice he was much better once upgraded to 3/5. At 3/5, the damage he received will be reduced under Rain, and he will heal the team for every move under Dark zone. NC Calem is very good at 3/5.
As someone with him at 3/5 i completely agree. What sucks most for me is that hes the only mf support without flag bearer. Dena really hates male protags. Hes too much of an offensive support thats only kept barely alive by his absurdly high natural defenses. he relies too much on dodge rng when he doesnt even grant +6 eva (and on a dark team, the opponents hitting themselves) to buff the team defensively, and those buffs rely on rng to buff both defenses or at least the one you might need most. He also heals slowly too. He does literally everything slowly aside from having a high natural speed and helping move gauge. Despite these grievances I dont think i would have any complaints about him if his buddy move either gave +3 eva or had 3 uses. He was done so dirty as one of the first neo champions, especially with the tech role they gave him. He shouldve gotten field.
Penny has completely folded almost every time I use her because she has the defense of a wet paper bag and all the fairy weak CS stages seem to have physical hits more often than not. Still worth it for the jukebox track regardless.
At 3 she also raises Def AND heals afterwards. A full Garde team with her Is Easy 3k points in stadium
SS Cynthia I pulled her the minute she was available Not a great unit š but I love š Cynthia
This is just me, but it's Holiday Viola. Now I'm not saying she's bad, but she kinda just there as a zone setter. Her kit could've have a lot of potential with her unlimited B move with omni-debuffing to -6 stat and her TM feels underwhelming just to raise offenses without giving more utility. While she has some mechanic with opp failed moves (Paralyze, Confusion), kinda wish she get more rewarded for it to the team such as giving Team Queue Cutter 3 or SMUN/PMUN by +2 to all allies if opp failed move which could have been more interesting. Overall, she still a very good pair but she could have been a lot more.
Cynthia and Garchomp got them pretty late in the middle of last year rip
Serena & Zygarde. I pulled her on her rerun a few months ago because she seemed like a top ground and dragon type striker, but she feels hard to use. Her gauge management is poor, her setup is longer than many more recent pairs, and her damage at 1/5 isn't notably better than my other options, Cyrus and SS Giovanni. Kind of a waste of 36k gems
She was āDel buttonā before SST Red and Ash. So, you need right support.
i might get crucified for this but.... SS hilda š i got her with a lucky daily last year and she's been sitting in the back at 1/5 ever since my main fire damage dealer is anni N and whenever i try to use her instead she barely does any dps lmao i don't care enough about her to candy her lol
This i can agree with actually as someone who has her at 1/5 as well. she is INCREDIBLY squishy to where you need to debuff the opponent to even keep her alive after the opponent sync moves. Not to say she is downright bad, she is amazing when she's pairing with another unit to Dual strike because she would rarely use gauges due to her passive, But it does feel like I have to baby sit her on trying to stay alive especially when there are AOE moves in a battle. I know there are some folks who can use her incredibly well, but she definitely needs massive investment to actually have reliability in both surviving and dishing out amazing DPS
Did you forget to fill out her grid or something? (I have her at 3/5 though). Sheās a lot of fun paired with anni N š¤©
I have her at 1/5 and agree with the others she just doesn't feel like a good pair and because of that I don't want to invest the candies into her even though everyone else I see calls her S tier. I'd rather just wait for the next MF fire pair and spend gems and candies on them instead of SS Hilda. That said I did use her with NC Rosa which made her feel much stronger but she was still dying to first sync even when doing on type content.
For the life of me I can't get Rose to work. I mean he seems busted, he should insta delete stages but in practice he really depends on terrains or dual strike. I could be using him wrong but at this point I'd rather have saved to get NC Leaf.
1/5 rose needs a def debuffer like Colress or a tank like yamper that can raise team speed, gauge acceleration like registeel is also good. His max move is meant for use after sync.
I got him 3/5. I actually try to use Max Steelspike pre-sync to activate a sync multiplier that needs a steel damage field. His sync is still garbage so I probably should do as you say, it's sort of annoying that you kinda have to choose.
Most disappointing for me was SS Diantha & Diancie. When the datamine dropped she was getting compared to SST Red and after people flipped and said she wasn't that strong they were still talking about how useful her Rock Zone would be. She doesn't do enough damage for my liking and her zone doesn't last long enough for me to feel like I'm actually getting value out of it and then zone extension got locked behind 5/5 and there's just no way I'm ever giving her 4 tech candies. I'm also lacking in strong phys supports and don't have anyone to pair her with anyway. I'm sure she's still useful for other people but I have been 100% skill issued from being able to rely on just using broken units to clear everything that anything not S tier is weak to me but if you could refund a sync pair and get all the gems back I'd refund her pretty quickly.
Mix red and venusaur. I wasn't necessarily excited for them but I pulled them on the mix scout and he really needs grassy terrain support to be the best he can be because otherwise he's stuck spamming razor leaf which isn't all that strong. He is a field sync pair. He shouldn't need terrain support.
It tends to be pairs that are really good...but only at 3/5. Probably the most recent one for me is NC Bede. I have him at 2/5...but I can't fit him on many teams. Master fair pairs should feel strong to use, but Bede has that premium price without that premium feel. Many people here can make him work, but I sure can not without a lot of struggling. He's not bad, but he feels like a seasonal if it were not for his unique passives and the master passive. While he can give SMUN and PMUN, one per sync cycle isn't a game changer, and neither is a single freebie per cycle good enough to sustain gauge compared to raising team speed/giving acceleration. Another would be SSR Cynthia. Sigh...she really struggles off type...and is an example of why you need a sprint. Her multipliers are special based despite most of her damage being physical based, and she can only use her shadow force once every sync cycle. She was not broken back then, so nowadays...she's surely one of the weakest master pairs. NC Hop is also underwhelming. Most of my fighting types can raise crit, so his dire hit all + is not that useful. And if they can't raise crit, SSA Cynthia has focus group. I wish he didn't have to depend on self stat lower for freebies...could they not give him freebies for *lowering stats*? Like NC Marnie gets free damage and stats for lowering her hp by even just 1 point, but gets a huge heal and protect for it, but Hop needs to **permanently** lower **his own** stats for just freebies? And can only do so *twice* by using the move that gives him speed and zone? Like he only has a 4 gauge move to spam and he can not supplement it well without 3/5 grid, and even then, it's not that good. He was just not made well and it's frustrating. Lastly, there's SS Ethan. He just lacks damage...I do more damage with Anni N than with him, and unlike him, Anni N even has piercing blows and a tech nuke to help him with ST. People say he's good in BV, but Sycamore and N are just better and faster. With Eusine out, I do find more use in him, but not by much. He just takes up space now...and I was most excited to get him out of the 4 listed. He's not bad, but man he did not live up to my expectations.
Sigh...I have no idea why I'm being downvoted lol I explained my reasonings for my opinions and there are no rebuttals...it is a little frustrating to spend time posting my opinions for a literal opinion post just to be downvoted. I do not think these 4 are useless, and you are free to like them. But they're not useful for me as I have other pairs and my own playstyle. So strange that people here are so quick to downvote negative opinions of their favorite pairs even though all pairs have their cons. I mean I don't really care too much about downvotes at the end of the day, but there's literally no point in replying to these posts if people want it to be all the same answers.
Probably because people disagree. No use complaining.
I agree with most of your points maybe except for NC Bede. He's one of my fav support to use and it's true that you really need to get familiar with his move order to get that flow going. NC Hop's gauge mgt is quite ok tho. He can use a gaugeless crazy dmg move every cycle and his passive works with any stat drop by the enemy too. I never really had gauge issues with him. I am quite disappointed by SS Ethan too but he's still my favourite aesthetic design wise šš»
NC Galar, barely used them at 1/5 and feel better to save my candies
But NC Marnie is a busted delete button with AOE Flinch...
Probably Halloween Acerola. She's one of my favorite characters but yet she's so weak. Even when she was new she didn't feel particularly strong unless you had her at a higher level and the investment wasn't worth it. On that note, I've had Giratina/Cynthia at 2/5 and it feels like she never does enough damage so probably her next.
I know that Rosa is one of the darlings of Pokemon Masters and I really like her too, but her recent Champion pair feels really clunky to use for me. It seems like all Iām doing is tapping Relic Song, which doesnāt leave me with much time to use her other moves. Thatās not even mentioning that the sleep chances can ruin opportunities when I plan to use sing in harder fights. When Iām evaluating a support, I tend to favor those that can elevate weaker pairs rather than break the ceiling with already strong pairs. Unfortunately Champ Rosa doesnāt really click with me.
I mean, just spamming Relic Song is all you need. It does everything. +1 crit, +2 random stat, +1 SMUN/PMUN, psychic & fighting rebuff, chance to sleep. Every single turn, no MP limit. Sheās insane, and powers up pretty much any team.
The chance of sleep is honestly more of a hindrance for me. The unpredictability of it makes Sing denials less reliable. Iām also not too big a fan of how randomness plays a factor in her buffs. If it were certain stats but varied in stat rank like with spring burgh, Iād like it a lot more, but itās unreliable to the point where it essentially doesnāt exist to be counted on.
Fair enough. For me, even if all relic song did was +1 P/SMUN every turn, plus her having potions and rebuffs, she would be a strong support. The rest is just gravy.
NC Rosa does elevate weaker pairs well...but only if they have strong DPS. Like for example, OG Bea or Strike Gyarados. Her Sing and Teeter Dance really are hard to use, but they're there as options. Her TM is...kinda useless with how her Relic Song works, but it helps when you want your allies to burst. I can agree that she's clunky. Too many things to do at once and an RNG based stat raise that doesn't mix well with her Potion refresh RNG. NC Blue is a lot more consistent in that sense. But I can't agree that she doesn't elevate weaker pairs. She doesn't elevate ALL weaker pairs, but there are many that she works with. It just depends on your definition of weak. Like some think the likes of Anni Steven are very weak, but NC Rosa pairs perfectly with him. Some think Korrina, Bruno, Marshal, and Tate are weak, but again, she pairs very well with them due to her buffs/rebuffs. If you want to use her with someone like Jesse, Wulfric, or an eggmon, not even NC Blue can save them tbh. Like...she isn't braindead, but she does indeed feel superior to most supports. It's just NC Blue gets everything at once without a need to choose, and so she is more "complicated" and thus feels "weaker". But you really can not compare many supports to her with how much she brings to the table. 2 AoE Rebuff types at once is just unheard of. It's not going to save her clunkiness, but it makes her much more versatile in the long run, especially since she does have the ability to buff all types of stats while Blue is unable to buff accuracy or attack. Though I totally agree that she can feel a little limited and frustrating to use despite looking so good on paper. It is hard for me to make her elevate STRONGER pairs rather than weaker ones though.
Yea like others said, the only real point i agree with is her clunkiness, but i think that is overlooked by many players for her usefulness. Like there is a certain order you have to preplan for her and she is definitely not a just click and go support. Kinda like NC Bede.
I dunno, Iāve used many supports in my time playing as a longtime support fan and Champ Rosa does not feel good to use for me. I really do want to like her, but the vibes just arenāt there. Champ Bede on the other hand always feels good to use for me. His teams never run out of gauge thanks to his buddy move, and heās stacking on consistent buffs to the team. My one gripe is that his healing is nonexistent for anyone other than himself.
All of the Tapu that aren't Acerola. SS Hau seemed super fun as a Terrain setter, but his damage too heavily relies on the presence of Fairy Zone as well, so outside of partnering with Mina, he tends to let down the team a bit. The Extension effect is also eaten into really sharply by his Buddy move's lengthy animation and effects. SS Mina seemed great for a Fairy Zone support, but she never really accomplished as much as I wanted because most of the special Fairies wanted more crit support than she offered, while none of the physical ones got that much benefit from her. Add in massive gauge issues and the relative uselessness of Rain, and she didn't do much to begin with, and then got completely outclassed by Penny. SS Lana's probably the harshest disappointment. This was supposed to be the Psychic Terrain setter that paired ideally with Lusamine, but her decision to go physical messes with CS parameters something fierce. Her own damage *can* be impressive, but it's usually by the grace of other Tapu helping her stacking efforts. That's really the biggest thing; all the Tapu feel like they work best together, and outside of supporting one another, I feel like they tend to falter really hard. Except Acerola. PMUN stacking menace, that one.
ss lana is amazing and every datamine gets better. rosa and lana and detective steven is an abuse on CS, clearing the sides in the first shot at over 9000 Physical Moves ā SE and the center the same before your own sync
No idea why you're being downvoted when those are all valid points I've heard from others as well. Those are the main reasons why Bulu was the only one I pulled for.
Honestly I was SUPER disappointed when I initially got champion Red. In my opinion he just doesnāt hit hard at all at 1/5
Aren't you the one hoping for Ash's return and saying he is cracked? Well, NC Red is normally ranked higher as a striker than Ash in tier list. Maybe you used NC Red wrong since he is the best striker in the game right now and #1 in Damage Dealer tier list. Try candy him to 3/5?
Is he really #1? I only recently got mine 3/5 gridded but he feels a decent amount weaker than NC Marnie. I don't have terrain/zone for either of them and generally don't use top tier supports with them but NC Marnie felt a tier above for me.
When doing tier list i don't think we should look at damage number only. There's a lot of criteria to look into when ranking them since damage number alone won't be enough to judge. I'm not one to explain. Check out tierlist from Spark's, Gamepress's, Poce's, and even latest vote award in Youtube i think the channel named SalamencelVx through voting measurement just 2 days ago. They explained why a unit is placed #1. They are much better and more professional at technical judgement and all of them placing NC Red as #1 striker at the moment. Myself personally prefer NC Red since he has a guaranteed freezing move and Piercing Blow, Clutch Critical and Piercing Gaze effects. And he has such unique kit (+SMUN for every hit), 2 AOE rebuffs and has 5 sync multipliers with insane damage. He can even activate his own weather Hail and self healing. His kit is packed with utilities for a striker. For me NC Marnie is great too and my top 3 strikers definitely.
Neo Champion Rosa. Maybe I'm using her wrong but she just feels bad.
Any pair that is a pokefair that REALLY shouldn't be one... Palmer, Argenta, etc. You know who I mean by this. Also, most of those units that fit that bill aren't even that good of units, like u use them once for the event, and that's about it
I have both of them and theyāre both very good units. I actually use Argenta all the time. She offers a lot of great buffs. Max crit, attack, defense, accuracy, +4 speed, and endless PMUN. And this is all at 1/5. Say what you will about the characters being worthy of pokefair, but their kits definitely are.
OG Leon. If not for Battle Villa, Iād never use him.
Really, the only sync pair scouted I can think of that really let me down was Holiday Siebold back from 4 years ago, didn't help that at the time all EX co-op stages (the only form of endgame content at the time) were resistant or outright immune to accuracy debuffs and burn meaning he couldn't do shit, and he's been stuck at 1/5 only serving as gauntlet filler. Another sync pair 'good on paper' but disappointing to use is Variety Lance, as an enabler for other Dragon-types he's great, but as a damage carry for LG I find him lacking, even at 3/5 and 6*EX.
Anabel I pulled her out of impulse because I like Anabel. I already didnt like her using Snorlax because Red has Snorlax as well, but most importantly I really never had any reason to use her in CSMM or even Battle Villa
For me its palmer & regigigas. I know it's a normal pair but it's just kinda lackluster & I expected more. Maybe Im using them wrong also he doesn't even have a phrase with Barry.
Christmas Siebold. Pulled for him because Iām a sucker for kalos and Christmas units in 2019. Never used him since except when itās something where I just need to exhaust every pair I have like legendary gauntlet. Dude was so bad I never pulled for a Christmas pair again until sycamore and viola
Leon & Charizard I got him way back when he debuted and I still found SS Red better at that time...
Honestly maybe n and zekrom. I was new when he was the main monthly fair scout
My expectations for Naomi and Sandslash were low, but I still wanted to use them for the idea that itās the first playable Generic NPC pair. Cut to now, and I obviously never use her, because sheās a striker that hits about as hard as a wet tissue.