Rhydon
Hi all,
I have 2 Rhydons with mud slap/earthquake & mud slap/stone edge.
The one with mud slap / earthquake is already powered up to lvl 30.
Is there a need to power up the other with mud slap/stone edge to lvl 30 as well since these 2 are considered as the best 2 offensive movesets for Rhydon?
Or is it better to get a Golem with Rock Throw/Stone Edge for the Rock move offense?
Answers
Yeah, unless you're Dragonite-less in a heavy Snorlax gym area, having the one Rhydon powered up should be enough to get by. I'm in the same boat and have them at 2700 and 2000 respectively. The other saving grace to having two powerful ones of course is the high CP could put you on top of a nice gym in a pinch.
I WISH Golem was better, but in your case (mine too) Rock Throw is sloooooow compared to Mud Slap.
If Charizard is incredibly common as a gym defender in your area, I'd be looking to power up a RT/SE Golem just because it is the best matchup for Charizard. I've also found it to be a great asset vs Gyarados (just don't get hit by hydropump!) and Dragonites, although there are other good options for those.
Not sure if there's any new pokemons in v2 that Golem would have a great matchup against, which would improve his importance of being the best pure rock-moveset pokemon we have.
Can't really argue with that. Sadly, one of the best allround attack rosters for any gym are an army of Vaporeons (and perhaps a Cloyster for the Dragonites). I like to have a bit of variety though (and Golem is a really cool looking 'mon), so I would probably be able to justify powering one just for that reason.
Besides, I've caught 112 Rhyhorns, 144 Golems and only 223 Eevees, so I don't have a lot of high lvl Vaporeons with good IVs (they always end up as Flareons). As far as I can tell, it doesn't look like Golem has a good matchup vs any of the anticipated best defenders from gen2 either, so I guess you're right that there's better 'mons to power up.
I am glad to hear! Unpowered pokemons aren't exactly unusable either. These days I prestige friendly gyms more often than I battle, so I enjoy using a Graveler with RT/SE for prestiging against all the Charizards that have showed up at the bottom of gyms since the starters-event. There are tons of weird underdog pokemons in the prestige ranges, so it's rather easy for me to avoid using the usual suspects every battle.
Unfortunately, Rock Throw on Golem is much weaker than Mud Slap. Even against Ice types, where Rock Throw is efficient, Mud Slap deals more damage. Rock Throw only works better against Flying and Bug types, where it has double advantage. This covers Dragonite and Gyarados. I can imagine some gym compositions, where one would want to use a Golem on attack instead of Electrics or Ice types.
Gyarados, Dragonite, Gyarados, Dragonite isn't a very rare composition of the top 4 pokemons in the gyms in my area. Add a decent type matchup against Snorlax as well, and you could argue that Golem is one of the best allrounders for taking them all on if you don't like switching 'mons too often during a fight.
Rhydon is better than Golem in general.
Your first Rhydon is for countering Snorlaxes.
Your second Rhydon is best for countering Fire+Flying type pokemons. If you find those pokemons commons in your local gyms, so power him up. If not, I think you should keep him as he is now for any better use when gen 2 is released.
Plus, it 's no harm to have a RT/SE Golem in your collection :D.
In my opinion it's worth the investment to have both of them in many cases. Particular if you find yourself battling Snorlaxes frequently. These guys are the only counter to him. Although, with effective dodging a DB/DC Dragonite would also do the job effectively.
On a side note I would only recommend him on attack. Though he has great stats and a good general defensive moveset his double weakness to water leaves him highly vulnerable to Vaporeon.
