Weather Ball
Wednesday, August 17, 2011 at 8:00AM ___________________________________________________________________________________
*Sad kids sitting at table
Announcer: “What’s wrong, kids?”
Timmy: “I’m just so tired of using the same old moves. Flamethrower. Rock Slide. Surf. They’re just so boring.”
Announcer: “Well, Timmy, it sounds like you need Weather Ball.”
Kids: “Weather Ball???”
Announcer: “Yes, kids, Weather Ball!”
*Cue Super Fun Music
Announcer: “It’s the special move that lets you attack in 5 different ways! Just add water, sun, hail, or sand and watch your attack change before your eyes!”
Timmy: “Wow, thanks Weather Ball! Now I’ve got the power I need to succeed!”
Announcer: “Weather Ball, from GameFreak! Available at a Poké Mart near you.”
___________________________________________________________________________________
Now, I know you’re all super excited thanks to that word from our sponsor, but please remain seated so that I can tell you more about this wondrous move known only as Weather Ball.
Out of the hundreds of moves available in Pokémon, Weather Ball is by far one of the most unique. It’s a Normal type move that changes its type depending on the weather. In sunlight, it becomes a Fire type, in rain, a Water type, in hail, an Ice type, and in a sandstorm, it becomes a Rock type. It is 100% accurate, and has 50 base power when the weather isn’t active, but if the weather finally gets stirred up, the power doubles to a whopping 100 base power!
The following lists show which Pokémon can learn Weather Ball, and how.
Level Up
- Lugia - Psychic/Flying
- Ho-oh - Fire/Flying
- Castform - Normal (Changes type with the weather)
- Roserade - Grass/Poison
- Vanilluxe - Ice
- Egg Move
- Bellsprout - Grass/Poison
- Snorunt - Ice
- Cherubi - Grass
- Drifloon - Ghost/Flying
Using Weather Ball effectively can be tricky. Generally, there are better moves to use in its place. For example, Hail/Blizzard is a much better combo than Hail/Weather Ball. In Hail, Blizzard is 100% accurate, and has a base power of 120. That’s better than the 100 base power of Weather Ball.
Still, Weather Ball can find a home on certain teams.
Let’s pretend you have a Sandstorm team, and you want to put Roserade on it. Giving the Roserade Weather Ball would provide a strong Rock type move to help counter its weaknesses. Leftovers might be a good hold-item because it will heal the damage caused by the Sandstorm (just remember, the sandstorm will strike you before the leftovers heal you), but Ingrain, Giga Drain and Leach Seed can be used to heal sandstorm damage as well.
Here is a good moveset for a Sandstorm Roserade:
|
Item: Leftovers |
Weather Ball |
Sludge Bomb |
|
|
Giga Drain |
Shadow Ball |
Weather Ball covers your weaknesses to Fire, Ice, and Flying (as long as it’s sand-storming), Shadow Ball covers your Psychic weakness, and Sludge Bomb makes for a deadly STAB Poison attack. Giga Drain is a good STAB grass attack that can restore your health in the sandstorm. It’s also a nasty surprise for any water type trying to start a Rain Dance (say your prayers, Swampert!)
Like I said before, using Weather Ball can be tough, and I find there to be three main flaws.
One flaw is that you need at least two turns to effectively use it (one to set up the weather, and another to use the attack). If you’re team is built around weather effects, then it is much easier to use because your team should always have some kind of weather effect going on.
Another downside to Weather Ball is that you may need to change the weather a lot in order to get the right type of attack. This is especially true when using a Castform on your team, which I will get to in my next article.
The final flaw I found is that your team will probably already be loaded with moves of the same type as the Weather Ball. Like I mentioned earlier with the Hail/Blizzard example, Weather Ball can be quite unnecessary in a situation like that.
Well, that’s all for today’s article, kids. So, remember, when planning a team around weather effects; take the time to see if Weather Ball has a place on your team. It’s not always the strongest or fastest attack to set up, but it can be mighty effective if planned correctly, especially in a double battle.
Thanks for reading. Your local news is next.
Reader Comments (8)
Keep in mind that Castform with Weather Ball will always het a STAB bonus, on top of the bonus from the weather (only w/ sunny day, ect.) Great article about an often forgotten move!
Thanks, Max D! My next article is actually going to be about Castform. Haha!
This could be tricky to fit into a team, and to use it effectively, but if you could, I foresee this ruining someone's day.
Might I suggest that, in your articles following Castform, you discuss things like Type Synergy on Weather Teams? For example, that it's a bad idea to put 6 Water-types on a Rain Team, or that it's OK to put non-Steel/Rock/Ground-types on a Sandstorm team to patch up a Water weakness.
Some noteable Weather Strategists I'd like to see mentioned: Parasect in Rain, Donphan in Sun, and Reuniclus in Sandstorm, among others.
IMO, I think you ought to leave Hail alone. It sucks. Badly. Mostly because one has to have Abomasnow on a Hail team, and Abomasnow sucks. Badly. :|
OMG! that was FUNNY!!!
@Scott P - I love the suggestions (especially Reuniclus in Sandstorm). I'll try to squeeze some of them into my upcoming articles.
I like the awesome tips and suggestions about what to use the move for but I still didn't find out as much about the move as I wanted. I was curious as to why you didn't make weather ball's type changes easier to find. Also, do different weather effects cause secondary effects like 10/15 % chance brn or frz? just curious.
@ Dylan I'm not too sure what you mean by making the weather changes easier to find, but to answer your other question, no, weather effects don't increase the chance of getting a status effect (burn, freeze, etc.). I'm glad you enjoyed the article.