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Why do people always say Elesa is hard in BW?

Volt Switch was really annoying in BW1, but in BW2 you could just get a Trapinch to prevent her from using it.
Or you could beat her with the Pokémon you already had in your team, instead of catching one specifically to cheese the battle. Volt Switch isn't that bad, really.
 
Sandile existed and was available before Elesa in BW, so I don't see what difference Trapinch in B2W2 made given it's just another Ground type like Sandile was. The Ground-typing nullifies Volt Switch, so it isn't as if Trapinch's Arena Trap made any difference. So I don't really understand how Trapinch made her easier to battle in B2W2 than BW, given the same thing (Sandile) existed in BW if you wanted to use it. Oh and Palpitoad and Drilbur are part Ground too, if you had either one of those in BW. So yeah, don't know why Trapinch changes anything for the people who struggled with her in BW.
 
I personally didn't have a problem with her but here's my theory.

Elesa is unlike most other gym leaders up to that point simply because the type(s) that should give you the advantage against her are less effective against her than most other types. Only Zebstrika is weak to ground and all her pokemon have moves super effective against grass.

The rock types available don't have a electric immunity or resist and are too low on special defense to take repeated volt switches.

Volt switch itself is also a strong move in its own right being overall more effective than Retaliate thanks to its stronger neutral coverage.

Rock tomb is inaccurate and repeated double teams make it useless until they volt switch. Some people may not have even found it before challenging the gym.

The most effective Pokemon against Elesa's gym imo is actually her own ace Zebstrika since it is immune to electric, resistant to flying and has shock wave which hits past double team but most beginners don't think to do that. Taking out her Zebstrika is easily done by any reasonably strong ground type.
 
Sandile existed and was available before Elesa in BW, so I don't see what difference Trapinch in B2W2 made given it's just another Ground type like Sandile was. The Ground-typing nullifies Volt Switch, so it isn't as if Trapinch's Arena Trap made any difference. So I don't really understand how Trapinch made her easier to battle in B2W2 than BW, given the same thing (Sandile) existed in BW if you wanted to use it. Oh and Palpitoad and Drilbur are part Ground too, if you had either one of those in BW. So yeah, don't know why Trapinch changes anything for the people who struggled with her in BW.

The problem is that the Emolga are immune to Ground, so while Ground types do stop the Volt Switching, you still need something else to take them out. Trapinch is especially useful because it gets Rock Slide at Lv. 25, which can make quick work of Emolga. Drilbur could also work, but it's not as ideal because you have to backtrack and catch it at a lower level and it takes longer to learn Rock Slide (Lv. 29).
 
Elesa is to Gen 5 as Whitney was in Gen 2, but unlike Whitney, rather than just a single Miltank with Rollout, you have two Emolga, immune to Ground type moves and are constantly switching out every turn like they have no other moves. Then there's Zebstrika, with it's Motor Drive ability that absorbs Electric type moves and it's constantly increasing speed as a result makes it near impossible to hit.

All this combined make Elesa the most difficult Gym Leader in the franchise, and yet it's Whitney's Miltank that people constantly make jokes about...
 
Elesa is to Gen 5 as Whitney was in Gen 2, but unlike Whitney, rather than just a single Miltank with Rollout, you have two Emolga, immune to Ground type moves and are constantly switching out every turn like they have no other moves. Then there's Zebstrika, with it's Motor Drive ability that absorbs Electric type moves and it's constantly increasing speed as a result makes it near impossible to hit.
Not to mention the type coverage all three Pokémon have in terms of movepools.

All this combined make Elesa the most difficult Gym Leader in the franchise, and yet it's Whitney's Miltank that people constantly make jokes about...
I actually think Whitney's difficulty is overrated - especially considering that she doesn't have anything to counter against her type weaknesses.
 
Elesa isn't so much difficult as she is freaking obnoxious.

Difficulty is also subjective. I've never had any difficulties with Lenora; I always just switch into my HM Slave when she boots up her Retaliate and I win with Rock Smash spam.

Also, the Unova gym leaders, when not incredibly annoying or difficult, were hilariously bad. If you lose to Bryce, you really suck.
 
For similar reasons to why people found Lenora hard, she has a type of strategy and team that actually works and gives people trouble. As mentioned before, the Emolga don't have Electric type's traditional weaknesses, so you can't just spam Dig or other Ground type moves to take them down, and STAB Aerial Ace will hurt and you can't make that move miss. That means you either had to get your Ground type to learn a Rock type move (which was harder in BW) or get a Rock type, which were mostly vulnerable to her other type of moves (especially Volt Switch). Zebstrika was also no pushover, it was fast, had an ability that boosted that speed, and a decent movepool that could get around Pokémon that would otherwise take it down.

In short, she was a Gym Leader that had a team and strategy that could easily trip you up, and because of that, for many she was successful in beating their teams.
 
The very first gym is always the one I end up having some amount of trouble on.
 
She isn't exactly hard, but her team weaknesses aren't the easiest to exploit at that point in the game. Mass grinding wasn't an option either, as leveling in B/W was a damn chore.

While it was a bit frustrating, I like that it wasn't as straight forward as gyms often are.
 
I knew Elesa would have electric types, so i trained a Tympole until it evolved, and as back up i had a motor drive Blitzle with flame charge (which it learned by level up). SE hits didn't really matter against her Emolga when she just kept boosting Blitzle's speed and it hit her with fire.

For me the hardest Unova gym leader was Iris. I "misunderestimated" her.
 
As for my hardest gym leader, I'd say Lenora or Clay. Both of them have ridiculously powerful Pokemon for their point in the game, Lenora has an actually strategy that decimates your Pokemon (let Herdier take the fall and use Retaliate to obliterate your Pokemon), and Clay is at a point in the game where it's hard to grind.
 
Elesa wasn't hard for me, it was just very annoying to battle - Volt Switch made me so annoyed!!
Lenora was probably for me the most difficult to challenge - emotionally that is (as I don't like fainting my favorite Pokemon, she uses my most favorite Pokemon)

Skyla was the one that really gave me the most trouble - back then I didn't have much to counter flying types + Hyper Potion + Roost!
I lost to Skyla many times.
 
As for my hardest gym leader, I'd say Lenora or Clay. Both of them have ridiculously powerful Pokemon for their point in the game, Lenora has an actually strategy that decimates your Pokemon (let Herdier take the fall and use Retaliate to obliterate your Pokemon), and Clay is at a point in the game where it's hard to grind.
For me, Lenora was easy: I had a Sawk that pretty much destroyed anything that came near it. I was in and out of her gym within ten minutes, no problems.

Clay was a beast. Oh Primus, he was such a beast and his killer Pokemon was one that I could not make work under any circumstance. That Excadrill. Dear heavens....!

One Hone Claws and that thing started leveling everyone. My team couldn't stand up to him. I am so glad I didn't do a Nuzlocke while playing Black as I would have been back to square one; that Excadrill was KOing everything in its path! I got lucky and beat him only when his Excadrill, its health in the red, decided to pop another Hone Claws. Then my Sawk was able to land the fatal blow. But if that hadn't happened, I may have been severely screwed.

When I played my copy of White, things were different as I had a counter to Clay and nailed him within five minutes. The same with Elesa as well. I traded over a good solid Ground type--you can guess which one--and cut her flying rats off at the knees. But if I hadn't sent over my ace, it would have been the same thing all over again.

I fear for a Gen V remake. GF might decide to give us matches with GLs who have full rosters.... and Elesa now has six Emolga that all know Volt Switch. Welcome to my worst nightmare. :scared:
 
Because people don't use Tepig's line enough, kyu. My Pignite just kind of...derped through Elesa's team all by himself, kyu.

Heat Crash one shots the stupid rats. I always felt Elesa was one of the easiest leaders ever.
 
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