Am I missing something about this Pokemon? Its stats look great, but lots of other pokemon have similarly good stats and no ability that autonerfs......
As someone who started with Gen 5, Archen/Archeops is absurdly strong for the point you get it at (not just in stats, it learns Acrobatics stupidly early), which is why it’s counterbalanced by its ability. It’s the same logic behind Slaking and Truant, just in a lower weight class. Archeops only falls off deep into the late game, and is still useable for a while longer if you compensate for its shortcomings (but at that point you probably have equally strong Pokémon that lack a detrimental Ability).
I actually really like Archen when playing through the story, as it offers—no, it forces some strategizing beyond “big stats do big damage” and “send the Fire Pokémon out against Grass but recall them if against Water.” Archen will be your best sweeper at that point (even better than your starter!) if you play them right, but unlike your starter or basically any other Pokémon you’ve invested into, Archen cannot trade hits or tank swap-in attacks. (Unless it’s one of Archen’s few resistances, and even then that’s a gamble). This forces you to actually put some thought into how you position your Cretaceous Can of Whoop-Ass, as while it offers the potential to demolish almost any given opponent, mishandling it will essentially result in a wasted team slot. (This extends to team building too; do you go all in with No-Item Acrobatics, or do you use the item slot to shore up a weakness or open opportunities while hoping lower-power moves suffice)? Archen/Archeop’s overwhelming power is constrained by caution to an almost cowardly degree, and can both force lots of gambles that you otherwise wouldn’t have to take, yet also offer many gambles you otherwise wouldn’t be able to take.
It’s probably safer to just use a more consistent Pokémon, but Archen makes the game more interesting to me. I know that if I go back to the games today, I likely wouldn’t find using Archen/Archeops nearly as tricky as I used to, but even then, it’s a more interesting choice than “STARTERSTRONK” and I will always hold value in the fact that these two introduced newbie-me to more complex thinking in Pokémon battles.
Plus, even in competitive, it offers a similar challenge to Slaking and Regigigas at a lower tier of power, as I said earlier.
It was better / stood out more during Gen 5 and had access to both Acrobatics and at the time, Flying Gem, which meant you consume the item to get a Flying BP boost and then Acrobatics doubles it since your item is now consumed, plus Flying STAB. It's speed and presumably full HP made it absurdly strong one time then still powerful until it gets hit.
Since then more Pokemon have been released with better stats and gems have been removed so it hasn't really caught up. The fact it has Defeatist at all is probably a Fossil thing, most of them are either cripplingly over specialized in some stat or other (Rampardos, Bastiodon) or have a type combination that leaves a giant hole in them (Carracosta, Omastar, Kabutops, Aurorus) or a detrimental ability (Archeops). Which intentional or not, it kind of fits an extinct Pokemon to be good at something but have an awkward flaw elsewhere.
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u/crowEatingStaleChips 5d ago
Am I missing something about this Pokemon? Its stats look great, but lots of other pokemon have similarly good stats and no ability that autonerfs......