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Pokemon that disappointed you on playthroughs

Codface

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Everyone has had that pokemon that they capture/get and intend to use on a playthrough but it ends up either being banked, requires loads of extra effort to keep up or not really helped out that much.

Mine are

Geodude -> Golem - I love these guys truly but whenever I try to get them in a playthrough team they always struggle. They start off great hammering zubats and pidgeys but those last ice/dragon gyms/dungeons also end up making them 5-10 lvls lower than everything else and they end up getting banked for something else.

Dratini - Dragonite is my favourite but seriously obtaining a low lvl dratini and using it in a playthrough is an effort. It is weak, poor learnt moves, slow to level and takes forever to evolve. Takes alot of effort and by the time Dragonite turns up the elite 4 might even be over.

Gastly to Gengar - I used a Gengar on my recent Diamond/SSilver playthrough and it was hard work. Gastly learns nothing great early on. Lick doesnt work vs all those early mons and curse....just no. This time I managed to get past the early problems but the elite 4 and its Dark/Dragon/Ice/Psychic members just one shots the poor dude. Not really worth it sorry Gengar fans.

Togepi - I think it might be again an early move thing but I always try to get togepi involved but it never lasts past 30. Doesnt help I usually get a Hustle one....doh

Leavanny - Poor thing. I really like it but again that type just gets hurt and killed alot. Used one on and it truelly struggled.
 
Raichu - I used to love using it when I was younger. Then I had one in Diamond, and I realized how squishy it is. It can barely take damage.

Infernape - This thing is a disgrace to starter evolutions. Way too fragile.

Zebstrika - Another squishy Electric Pokemon.

Gothitelle - As much as I love it, it doesn't have access to any healing moves or sleep-inducing moves (unlike Reuniclus and Musharna). Combined with its sub-par stats, it's sometimes frustrating to use.
 
For me:

Purrloin/Liepard - Cute as the thing is, it never really held its weight compared to my other team members. Liepard is fast, but ... that's about it.

Blitzle - I don't know how this thing didn't end up hating me. I could swear that every time I released it for battle it ended up getting KO within two turns (even against flying/water types). As a Zebstrika with Flame Charge it at least got me some mileage against Brycen (while I was otherwise lacking in Fire-types), but that was about it.
 
I am honestly shocked at some of the pokemon that were mentioned above. Gokazaru was my starter in pearl and it literaly kicked ass. As much as I hate to admit it, but fire/ fighting combo is for the win.
I had a Togekiss in heartgold that was a beast. And don't even get me started about Hahakomori in Black...That pokemon really was amazing. I tarnished most of the poke of the elite 4 with its X-scissors.

As for me: Well, I'd have to say Zoroark a little bit. It doesn't learn anything decent. I was in constant agony during game play because on one hand,I adore Zoroark, but on the other it was just painful to make it level up. Then I gave it an exp share and I started playing more with its illusion ability ( requires a lot of predicting) and my Zoroark became a beast. Facing the E4 in white2 was like a piece of cake.
 
If Infernape, one of the best starters aside from Speed Boost Blaziken, is a "disgrace", I wonder what the likes of Typhlosion, Meganium and Charizard are.

Venusaur - I really like its design, but unless it has Chlorophyll and you are running a sun team, it is really hard to use Venusaur properly.

Mantine - I tried to use one in Black 2 but jesus, that thing is so bad. A shame because I really like Mantine's design :|

Mawile - ;__________;

Altaria - Great design, but a terrible Dragon-type

Honchkrow - Great design, but I didn't like using one at all. I dunno, it just didn't click with me.

Liepard - The first time I ever wanted to raise an uncreative cat-based Pokémon was in Generation V and the outcome was quite disappointing. Liepard's Dark-type isn't really good offensively, so I could hardly defeat one Pokémon before it fainting. I really hope Meowstic isn't as awful as the Dark-type leopard.

Zoroark - What I said about Liepard is valid for Zoroark as well. Extremely fragile with a bad offensive type. Ugh.

Seriously, why Dark-types disappoint me so much? Please don't disappoint me Malamar ;_;
 
Pansear - I was excited to get a fire type so easily, only to end up getting frustrated with it. I really tried, but it was so weak that training it was too much of a pain, much less actually using it in battle.

The other one would be Ampharos. I most certainly don't think it's a worthless Pokemon, I just didn't care for having a electric type that was so slow. It's a shame because Mareep and Flaafy are some of the most adorable Pokemon. lol
 
Weavile - Maybe it was just a bad roll on nature but geez it's stats were low and even though his design is awesome, he serves no purpose in my team.

Zangoose - Same story, too weak to be of any use.

Marowak - Another cool pokemon but outdated, stat and move wise.
 
Stoutland this ere pokemon was okay to start off. But by the time you got to the elite four, it didn't contribute enough to my team. But I still used him.
 
Blitzle - I actually had to give up on it since it kept getting KO'd so often. I ended up getting Leavanny instead though which proved an awesome decision.

Unfezant - It wasn't really that bad, but I mostly always end up using the early-birds and this one was just really boring.

Dratini - Dragonite is my favourite but seriously obtaining a low lvl dratini and using it in a playthrough is an effort. It is weak, poor learnt moves, slow to level and takes forever to evolve. Takes alot of effort and by the time Dragonite turns up the elite 4 might even be over.

I once purchased a Dratini at the Game Corner in HG to use during a playthrough and I actually found it to be pretty overpowered at that early stage in the game. It was kinda frail but with Dragon Rage it could easily KO almost everything in a couple of hits.
 
Off the top of my head, the slow, pure Psychics, specifically Munna, Reuinclus and Beeheyem, are ones that I remember disappointing me. I never even evolved a Munna to a Musharna because I just found it impossible to train. I stuck at it with Reuinclus and Beheeyem because I love their designs, but I still found them disappointing. They don't have great bulk/defences and combined with their low speed and (arguably) not great defensive typing I found them fainting often/taking too many hits. I'm sure some people loved using them, but they disappointed me and I'm not in a rush to try any of them again (despite me really liking Reuniclus/Beheeyem).
 
I used a Nidoking in my last Soul Silver run for the first time since RBY, and I'd forgotten just how unimpressive its stats are. It just wasn't particularly good at anything (this one had ass for Sp Atk, so I couldn't even fall back on his good movepool) so I ended up dropping it for a Mamoswine.

I also recall the first Lucario I ever used being a real let down, but an evaluation of its IVs once I'd finished the game revealed they were all close to 0. Whoops.
 
When I finally got around to using Machop - Machoke - Machamp, I found it really underwhelming. Not quite sure what I was expecting, but something more . . . useful, probably. The extent to which everything it learns is Fighting made me nuts.

And, sort of weirdly, Kyogre. I thought it would be awesome, and I remember it having had a relatively good moveset, but for some reason I ended up hating the thing.
 
Blitzle: A terrible Electric-type. So fragile, it got KOed more times than I'd rather admit. I just wasn't worth the effort. I boxed it after loss #... god only knows.

Gastly: Sure, it's fast, but very frail, and its early moves are horrid. You don't get any decent moves until much, much later, and until you got Sludge Bomb, it's Poison-type was more of a hindrance than a help. Sorry Gengar fans, but I found it hard to use and not worth all that effort.

Zoroark: Cool concept, but not worth the hype. It's ability was gimmick central, and very hard to work properly. Very lame moves right off the bat, too, while its best move was all the way at the end of its level up moves. Too much effort for not enough performance.

Piplup: Worst of the Water Starters. Sure, it's final Water/Steel-type was fine, but it was slow, and access to good moves for it were hard to obtain. My first run with a Piplup was a total disaster, getting creamed pretty much all the time, even with type advantage. Not a worthwhile Pokemon in the long run, preferred my rival having it instead.

Purrloin: It had speed... that about covers it's strong points. But too frail to work with, too few moves for it to be worthwhile.

Dratini: A pain to raise, slow to grow, slow to learn new moves, and exhausting to reach it to its final stage.

Larvitar: Same reasons as Dratini.

Sharpedo: A really awesome-looking Mon that packed a punch, yet that just got clobbered over and over and over again. Even it's useful Ability wasn't much help. Plus decent moves were somewhat hard to obtain. Still like that little half-sharkie.

That about sums it up for me at the moment. Maybe more will be added when I'm not so tired.
 
Jellicent - I'ts great for competitive battling but it's horrible during a normal playthrough.

People above saying that Infernape and Empoleon are bad , seriously??. I had all three starters on my playthrough in Pearl and both Empoleon and Infernape were my main sweepers and they never fainted, even Empoleon OHKO'ed Cynthia's Garchomp with a Ice Beam after surviving an Earthquake and Empoleon was level 63.
 
Serperior- While it gets a few good moves like leaf blade, dragon tail, giga drain, and coil, most of its movepool, like a lot of grass types unfortunately, is extremely underwhelming. That's not even taking into account its god awful offensive stats. 75 base attack and special attack for a fully evolved starter? Pathetic, utterly pathetic. It's okay defensively but I rarely ever play defensively so its defensive stats have little meaning to me. Black2 and White2's move tutors gave it a few other good moves but still, crappy offensive stats. In pokemon white I would struggle to KO anything with my serperior that didn't take super effective damage from his grass type moves. My serperior in black2 fared a little better due to the move tutors but the issue of her offensive stats once again caused me to struggle in KOing other pokemon with her.

Chespin, I really hope you don't disappoint me like serperior did.
 
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Zebstrika - so difficult to use without seeing it faint constantly.

Vanilluxe - same problem as Zebstrika; I just happened to be carrying both of these deadbeats on my White team and after depositing them, my team whittled down to 3 or 4 members. Not good... Hydreigon carried almost all of the weight, lol.

Drifblim - disappointing to use with its weak Shadow Ball and poor defensive capabilities. I had to switch it out for another Ghost that could Fly, so I picked Golurk. Never looked back.

I've used Delcatty, Mawile, Nidoking, Altaria, and Zangoose before with no problems, but in those earlier generations, I just kept on training, lol.
 
Zebstrika was actually the pinnacle of my team, and carried me through so many Gym Battles. I find it interesting how everyone says otherwise.

For me, I had a lot of problems with my Flygon in B2. The thing was relatively slow (incredibly so as a Trapinch) and just wouldn't stay alive. It hit hard, but never first and always went down quickly. This was probably because of that Brave nature it had, though.
 
People above saying that Infernape and Empoleon are bad , seriously??. I had all three starters on my playthrough in Pearl and both Empoleon and Infernape were my main sweepers and they never fainted, even Empoleon OHKO'ed Cynthia's Garchomp with a Ice Beam after surviving an Earthquake and Empoleon was level 63.

I think Empoleon is a complicated Pokémon to get used to, since it is quite slow, but it certainly isn't a bad Pokémon nor it is the worst Water-type starter as CynthiaLover claimed (It is definitely better than Blastoise, Samurott and on par with Feraligatr imo). I love its bulkiness and high special attack (although I wish it was physically oriented :/). I used Empoleon in most of my Platinum playthroughs and it never disappointed me. I also have one in my PWT team and the thing is a beast. :3 As far as Sinnoh starters are concerned, it is better than Torterra and not as good as Infernape. I dunno why people hate it so much.
 
Mightyena - One of my favorites with an awesome design. In battle? Barely usable. It is really a one hit wonder and does not even have a wide selection of moves to make up for it. Truly disappointing, particularly in battles with other players. I hope it gets a Mega or something to make up for it. This Pokémon is in serious need of some love.

Liepard - Unlike Mightyena, which was at least useful somewhat in the beginning of the game, this one was useless throughout. Once again, a cool design with awful stats and learnable moves. I had to get rid of it, and I typically keep all Pokémon I intend to use on my journey throughout the game, regardless of weakness. But this one was just too weak. It was like basically having an empty slot in my party. Such a shame.

There aren't any others I can think of at the moment. But I'll post more as I think of more.
 
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Purrloin/Liepard - fast speed, but it got KO'd 90% of the time.

Riolu/Lucario - Maybe I was raising it in the wrong way, but I found Lucario very difficult to use in battles.

Snivy/Servine/Serperior - the small movepool disappointed me in BW

Zoroark - Cool and all, but like everyone else says, not really worth the hype.

Togepi/Togetic/Togekiss - after it got KO'd by Volkner with one Charge Beam, I boxed it.

Happiny/Chansey/Blissey - Maybe it's because I prefer offensive pokemons, but when I tried using her, I was disappointed that it was mostly about stalling and support.
 
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