Both raids are pretty easy and you can get by with almost anything, if you build it well and play it right. But, since this thread is about strategies for the raid, I figure I'll post the strats that have been optimal for me. Although I've dabbled in lots of pokemon against Palkia and Dialga, for optimal results I've found Fairy types to be best. Here are the Fairies I'm using for each legend:
The Palkia raid is the easier of the two raids, because it doesn't have a big supereffective move against Fairies. So there's lots of options you can use and their builds and playbooks are all nearly identical. So, I'll just present them all together.
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Flutter Mane @ Covert Cloak
Tera Type: Fairy
Ability: Protosynthesis
Modest Nature
252 SpAtk / 128 HP / 128 SpDef
- Draining Kiss
- Mystical Fire / Moonblast
- Sunny Day
- Calm Mind | Sylveon @ Covert Cloak
Tera Type: Fairy
Ability: Pixilate
Modest Nature
252 SpAtk / 128 HP / 128 SpDef
- Draining Kiss
- Hyper Voice
- Light Screen
- Calm Mind | Florges @ Light Clay
Tera Type: Fairy
Ability: Flower Veil
Modest Nature
252 SpAtk / 128 HP / 128 SpDef
- Draining Kiss
- Moonblast
- Light Screen
- Calm Mind | Hatterene @ Big Root
Tera Type: Fairy
Ability: Magic Bounce
Modest Nature
252 SpAtk / 128 HP / 128 SpDef
- Draining Kiss
- Mystical Fire
- Light Screen
- Calm Mind |
These are all Fairies with big Special Attack and big Special Defense stats, and they are built to leverage both of those. I have made mine with Modest natures and I put all the EV's in SpAtck, HP, and SpDef. Honestly, you can go Calm if you want, and you can mix and match the EV's all you want and not really change the viability of any of these mons against Palkia. It's really just a question of your preference for dealing damage versus taking damage.
The moveset and playbook is pretty much the same for all of them: Screen the boss, CM up, use Draining Kiss to hit and recover health, repeat until cleared. More specifically:
- Turn 1: Set up Light Screen to help you and the team withstand attacks
- For Flutter Mane Turn 1: Wait a couple of seconds until Palkia uses Rain Dance, and then put up Sunny Day to debuff the Hydro Pumps and to activate your Protosynthesis boost.
- With the screen up, you're not going to take much damage for the next several turns, so I usually start using attacks to build Tera. DK, Mystical Fire, Moonblast -- all are fine, depending on your health needs and desire to do damage vs debuff
- As soon as Palkia does the player stat wipe, use Calm Mind
- Attack a few more times to go Tera, using your attacks of choice
- I usually use Calm Mind again on the turn I actually go Tera, because I want to spam attacks post-Tera
- Reset the Light Screen when it runs out
- For resetting Flutter Mane's Sunny Day, you need to watch Palkia's HP and wait when it's about to go below 50%, because it will scripted Rain Dance again. Use Sunny Day again only after it Rain Dances. In some of my earlier runs with Mane, I used Sunny Day as soon as sun ran out, and right about that time Palkia set rain again, and I had to waste a turn to put weather back to sun. So just watch the boss' HP bar.
- Button mash attack of choice until the raid is cleared
You can use any of the three items (Covert Cloak, Big Root, Light Clay) on any of the Fairies. I have generally settled on Covert Cloak as my personal fave, because Thunder paralysis happens WAYYY too often. But getting more health recovery with Big Root is nice, and Light Clay gives me more time to boost/build Tera to get to the endgame wincon. Use whichever best suits your style of play for any one of these Fairies.
I have the fairies listed in my order of preference for Palkia, but they all work really well. Also because they set screens and/or debuff the boss, these are all good for helping teams win in online randoms. I have only lost once or twice online, and that is with me accepting basically any Palkia raid lobby I can enter (because it's so hard to get a raid in the first place). Whenever I am on bad teams, all of these fairies are able to pretty much carry the entire raid themselves.
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Dialga is much harder than Palkia, imo, and I lose the Dialga raid online quite often because unprepared teammates die very quickly to Dialga's amazing coverage. All the fairies I listed above can be used for Dialga, and I have used them successfully. But when I finally got around to trying the pokemon below, it was gg for me, in terms of finding the "optimal solution" for Dialga. I procrastinated in using this pokemon, mainly because I knew
doipy hooves would pimp the hell out of this pokemon, like they do for literally every tera raid event, even if this mon is suboptimal. But giving props where it is due, if you want a reliable mon for Dialga raids, this one is the CLEAR number one choice, and second place is not even close:
Azumarill @ Shell Bell
Tera Type: Fairy
Ability: Huge Power
Adamant Nature
252 HP / 252 Atk
- Play Rough
- Light Screen
- Belly Drum
- Amnesia
Azumarill is one of the G.O.A.T. pokemon for tera raids in general, but it truly separates itself from the pack against Dialga, because it has an unmatched combination of traits that make it basically perfect. Played correctly, you should be able to cruise through this raid without fear of anything other than maybe a crazy bad string of Steel Beam crits. Honestly, I have never worried once in a Dialga raid with Azu, and I have bit my fingernails almost every time using the special fairies I listed earlier.
The fact that Azu doesn't get hit SE by Steel Beam is a MASSIVE advantage over all the other fairies. That does NOT mean that Steel Beam neutral against Azu is no big deal. It does almost 50% to the standard raid Azu, and so when most noobs using Azu do the Belly Drum turn 1 thing, they get slaughtered quickly. But if you use the other things in Azu's kit the right way, you really don't need to worry about Steel Beam or anything else Dialga throws your way.
This raid is a case where Azumarill's miserably low speed is a huge benefit! Without nature or EV adjustments, Level 100 Azumarill has 136 Speed, therefore underspeeding Quiet Level 75 Dialga who sits at 146 Speed. So Azumarill just needs to wait a second or two for Dialga to set Trick Room at the start of the battle, and Azumarill gets the big luxury of moving before Dialga for the first 5 turns of the battle. Here's my usual play sequence:
- Turn 1 Azu uses Light Screen which makes that first Steel Beam do a little more than 20%, which is very manageable.
- At this point, I keep an eye on Dialga's health and see when it's going to go below 80% health and do the player stat reset. I do Play Roughs in solo or teams in order to help it along.
- Immediately after the player stat reset, I use Amnesia. With a Screen and Amnesia, Steel Beam becomes a 10% damage love tap to Azu.
- From here, it's really about what Azu's health looks like to determine the next move.
- Because the AI is weird, it probably has used Fire Blast or Earth Power some on Azu, which do almost nothing, in which case Azu might be sitting at or near full-health, simply from the Shell Bell recovery of the unboosted Play Roughs. If Azu has been eating some Steel Beams or perhaps got burned by a Fire Blast, then I'll do a Heal Cheer to top up Azu's health.
- Now, you can finally use Belly Drum safely and go to the endgame.
- Play Rough repeatedly, going Tera as soon as it's there, and clear the raid.
By the time Dialga gets around to using Iron Defense, it really doesn't affect the outcome with Azumarill at all. Azu is Belly Drummed up to +6, with Amnesia and Screens making it laugh at anything other than crit Steel Beams. Even if a crit happens, Azu is recovering enough health from Shell Bell Play Roughs to relax and just keep button mashing until Dialga faints.
Azumarill gets plenty of ink when it comes to tera raids, and I am reluctant to use it sometimes because I like experimenting with less-popular pokemon. But for the Dialga raid, the winner is clear. Azumarill is simply that good, that perfect, for this.