I firstly want to extend a formal thank you to Its_A_Random for giving his blessing to his thread as well, even if it's not my thread. It was really considerate of you to do that!
I don't have any runs or nominations to share this time, but I wanted to talk about something a little different, and that is: does BW2 support a sweeper-oriented mindset? The more and more I play it, I feel like this is increasingly not the case due to various factors.
Cheren is hard to sweep for the sheer fact that most Pokemon A) don't have status at that point B) don't have boosting moves that early and C) Cheren usually has the advantage in stats and moves. According to Ryota, the starters, Sunkern, Pidove, Lillipup, Riolu, and Sewaddle can.
Roxie and Burgh I would say are notably easier to sweep than Cheren. Both have a little RNG going in their fights (Smog 30% from Koffing, Whirlipede's Poison Point for physical attackers, which can be mitigated through Sitrus Berry; Burgh has Razor Leaf crits and String Shot can be oddly annoying even though it's not really RNG). A lot of things that do good against Roxie also do good against Burgh (lol Dunsparce, Pidove / Tranquill, Pignite, Herdier, Growlithe, Magby, Magnemite - I'd think most first timers would probably have one of these sans Dunsparce).
An Elesa sweep depends primarily if you are a physical attacker or a special attacker; hopefully the latter. Physical attackers that make contact are basically forced to choose between the protection of Eviolite or Cheri Berry due to almost always being forced to deal with Static's 30% contact rate. Special attackers have considerably more leeway in this fight but I don't think many will OHKO without boosts. Even then, it's pretty likely most will fall before Zebstrika comes out, or be finished off by it.
Clay is borderline impossible to sweep. Intimidate significantly deters physical attackers, Bulldoze from either Krokorok or Sandslash makes most faster things Excadrill food: even some counters that look reliable on paper like Golduck can feasibly lose here thanks to Slash crits and Rock Slide flinches. Excadrill I think is by far and away the most dangerous ace Pokemon in the game.
Skyla is deceptively hard to sweep. Swoobat's Unaware can deter some setup attempts and I'm sure I don't have to tell you how annoying Attract is to male Pokemon. Swanna is one of the easier ace Pokemon (pretty frail) but Air Slash can be obnoxious if you are slower and most physical attackers are significantly deterred by FeatherDance if they can't outspeed and OHKO it. If most physical attackers don't get stopped by Swanna, most of them will be slowly chipped down by Skarmory.
Drayden is highly exploitable with setup sweepers, but Marlon is hard to sweep due to both Sturdy, Scald burns, and Cursed Body. Drayden is probably the easiest Gym Leader, but Marlon is perhaps one of the most-RNG-centric fights in the game: 20% Defense drops from Carracosta's Crunch, Wailord's Bounce having 30% paralysis, Scald's 30% chance to burn, Wailord's Amnesia potentially screwing over slower Special Attackers (generally seems to be a 50/50 if it goes for this or Bounce versus Scald resists), Jellicent's 10% chance to raise all of its stats with Ominous Wind AND Jellicent's 25% chance to delete a move with Cursed Body.
Colress is generally one of the top 3 hardest fights thanks to double Thunder Wave and Steel types being hard to beat by some Pokemon. Ghetsis is pretty exploitable like his BW1 counterpart as Cofagrigus invites setup moves when something isn't weak to it (generally it's okay if something can't sweep Colress or Ghetsis given their big rosters). Most things are generally going to be 1v1ing Ghetsis unless they are Steel type due to his array of diverse types.
The Elite Four are generally pretty easier than the earlier fights. Shauntal can be a pain with Will-O-Wisp Cofagrigus and Chandelure hitting like a nuke. It's hard to sweep Shauntal thanks to Cofagrigus's Mummy turning off great Abilities like Moxie, but despite how annoying it is, Cofagrigus tends to be setup bait if you avoid the 2HKO from its moves, moreso than Ghetsis because Shauntal's team is significantly slower.
Marshal is hard to setup on thanks to Throh's Speed drops and crit moves, and even if something faints Throh, Mienshao has decent chances to revenge kill them. Conkeldurr is also very scary due to Hammer Arm and Stone Edge being hard to wall. Sawk is probably the least threatening because most Psychic types are slow but it has Sturdy.
Coversely, Grimsley and Caitlin are some of the easiest bosses. Grimsley's Liepard is easy setup for female Pokemon that aren't weak to Night Slash, but Grimsley is a little tricky to go unboosted against because he does have some bulk through Krookodile's Intimidate and Bisharp's Defense (and Scrafty's good all-around bulk). The main thing about Grimsley is that Dark isn't exactly a scary offensive type. Caitlin has by far the most exploitable lead in the game in Musharna, but on the other hand she also has the bulkiest team in the game (not even Chandlure can OHKO some of her Pokemon with STAB Shadow Ball!)
Iris brings the difficulty back up again (probably one of the hardest fights and you likely won't sweep), but half her team is weak to Fighting types and half of them are also pretty slow (Druddigon, Aggron, and Lapras). I wouldn't call her the hardest Champion by any means but I wouldn't call her a Diantha-esque cakewalk.
I would say the top 5 hardest fights (descending difficulty) are Marshal, Colress, Clay, Iris (giving her some leeway, final boss is supposed to be hard after all) and Elesa. Elesa isn't so much HARD in the traditional sense as moreso Volt Switch and Static make getting kills and damage a pain.
What do you all think?
I don't have any runs or nominations to share this time, but I wanted to talk about something a little different, and that is: does BW2 support a sweeper-oriented mindset? The more and more I play it, I feel like this is increasingly not the case due to various factors.
Cheren is hard to sweep for the sheer fact that most Pokemon A) don't have status at that point B) don't have boosting moves that early and C) Cheren usually has the advantage in stats and moves. According to Ryota, the starters, Sunkern, Pidove, Lillipup, Riolu, and Sewaddle can.
Roxie and Burgh I would say are notably easier to sweep than Cheren. Both have a little RNG going in their fights (Smog 30% from Koffing, Whirlipede's Poison Point for physical attackers, which can be mitigated through Sitrus Berry; Burgh has Razor Leaf crits and String Shot can be oddly annoying even though it's not really RNG). A lot of things that do good against Roxie also do good against Burgh (lol Dunsparce, Pidove / Tranquill, Pignite, Herdier, Growlithe, Magby, Magnemite - I'd think most first timers would probably have one of these sans Dunsparce).
An Elesa sweep depends primarily if you are a physical attacker or a special attacker; hopefully the latter. Physical attackers that make contact are basically forced to choose between the protection of Eviolite or Cheri Berry due to almost always being forced to deal with Static's 30% contact rate. Special attackers have considerably more leeway in this fight but I don't think many will OHKO without boosts. Even then, it's pretty likely most will fall before Zebstrika comes out, or be finished off by it.
Clay is borderline impossible to sweep. Intimidate significantly deters physical attackers, Bulldoze from either Krokorok or Sandslash makes most faster things Excadrill food: even some counters that look reliable on paper like Golduck can feasibly lose here thanks to Slash crits and Rock Slide flinches. Excadrill I think is by far and away the most dangerous ace Pokemon in the game.
Skyla is deceptively hard to sweep. Swoobat's Unaware can deter some setup attempts and I'm sure I don't have to tell you how annoying Attract is to male Pokemon. Swanna is one of the easier ace Pokemon (pretty frail) but Air Slash can be obnoxious if you are slower and most physical attackers are significantly deterred by FeatherDance if they can't outspeed and OHKO it. If most physical attackers don't get stopped by Swanna, most of them will be slowly chipped down by Skarmory.
Drayden is highly exploitable with setup sweepers, but Marlon is hard to sweep due to both Sturdy, Scald burns, and Cursed Body. Drayden is probably the easiest Gym Leader, but Marlon is perhaps one of the most-RNG-centric fights in the game: 20% Defense drops from Carracosta's Crunch, Wailord's Bounce having 30% paralysis, Scald's 30% chance to burn, Wailord's Amnesia potentially screwing over slower Special Attackers (generally seems to be a 50/50 if it goes for this or Bounce versus Scald resists), Jellicent's 10% chance to raise all of its stats with Ominous Wind AND Jellicent's 25% chance to delete a move with Cursed Body.
Colress is generally one of the top 3 hardest fights thanks to double Thunder Wave and Steel types being hard to beat by some Pokemon. Ghetsis is pretty exploitable like his BW1 counterpart as Cofagrigus invites setup moves when something isn't weak to it (generally it's okay if something can't sweep Colress or Ghetsis given their big rosters). Most things are generally going to be 1v1ing Ghetsis unless they are Steel type due to his array of diverse types.
The Elite Four are generally pretty easier than the earlier fights. Shauntal can be a pain with Will-O-Wisp Cofagrigus and Chandelure hitting like a nuke. It's hard to sweep Shauntal thanks to Cofagrigus's Mummy turning off great Abilities like Moxie, but despite how annoying it is, Cofagrigus tends to be setup bait if you avoid the 2HKO from its moves, moreso than Ghetsis because Shauntal's team is significantly slower.
Marshal is hard to setup on thanks to Throh's Speed drops and crit moves, and even if something faints Throh, Mienshao has decent chances to revenge kill them. Conkeldurr is also very scary due to Hammer Arm and Stone Edge being hard to wall. Sawk is probably the least threatening because most Psychic types are slow but it has Sturdy.
Coversely, Grimsley and Caitlin are some of the easiest bosses. Grimsley's Liepard is easy setup for female Pokemon that aren't weak to Night Slash, but Grimsley is a little tricky to go unboosted against because he does have some bulk through Krookodile's Intimidate and Bisharp's Defense (and Scrafty's good all-around bulk). The main thing about Grimsley is that Dark isn't exactly a scary offensive type. Caitlin has by far the most exploitable lead in the game in Musharna, but on the other hand she also has the bulkiest team in the game (not even Chandlure can OHKO some of her Pokemon with STAB Shadow Ball!)
Iris brings the difficulty back up again (probably one of the hardest fights and you likely won't sweep), but half her team is weak to Fighting types and half of them are also pretty slow (Druddigon, Aggron, and Lapras). I wouldn't call her the hardest Champion by any means but I wouldn't call her a Diantha-esque cakewalk.
I would say the top 5 hardest fights (descending difficulty) are Marshal, Colress, Clay, Iris (giving her some leeway, final boss is supposed to be hard after all) and Elesa. Elesa isn't so much HARD in the traditional sense as moreso Volt Switch and Static make getting kills and damage a pain.
What do you all think?
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), I'd prefer if your logs were more detailed about your major battles. As it stands, your logs contain more about the time leading up to the fight than the fight itself, which, while nice to know, isn't the main objective of making logs in the first place. It doesn't seem like you used more than one or two Pokemon per gym, so idek if you tested the others or not. If you need an example of how detailed your logs should be, any posts from I, Ryota, or Drums should give you a good idea.
Pidove is a weird one because it can pull some good sweeps out of its hat but as soon as a Rock or Steel type rears its ugly head, you're pretty much screwed. The fact that it comes with literally no coverage at all means anything that resists the combination of Normal and Flying pretty much shuts you down completely, which is annoying because that's far from a rarity in BW2. Combine that with its poor bulk and how slow Work Up gets at lategame, and I think B is more appropriate.
Magby does it's job and a bit more. Magmar is fast enough to sweep Clay, and Magmortar's Fire Blast hurts enough to make it good at League. That said, it still runs into a fair few mus where it struggles, most notably Drayden and Marlon, where it accomplishes next to nothing, so it should stay at B.
Roselia is very solid overall. It begins by exploiting its bulk, resistances, and several forms of recovery to tank through Elesa and Clay, but once you get to Roserade, the magic really starts. Its Petal Dance is one of the strongest moves in the game and with Growth to boost it, you can blow past even some resists. It doesn't have amazing coverage, but Sunny Day + Weather Ball gives it a way past steels which is pretty nice, and you even get Shadow Ball for Shauntal and Caitlin. I feel it's justified in A.
Heracross doesn't have the availability of an S tier nor the performance of an S tier. It has trouble full sweeping teams due to a variety of factors (poison chip, average bulk, exploitable weaknesses), even on mus where it should demolish, like Grimsley, for example, where it has to be wary of Liepard's Aerial Ace. Rather than S, B tier feels more appropriate, especially when considering the pains associated with actually obtaining a good Heracross in the first place.
Aron can accomplish a few things by virtue of its typing and coverage, but its low speed and many, crippling weaknesses, make it pretty mediocre even in mus where, theoretically, its typing should make it great (Skyla is a good example of this). Despite this, it isn't complete dead-weight at League, so I think D is fine.
Elekid to B: Elekid has an underwhelming start, as it's too weak to take on Roxie and its typing is pretty bad against the next 3 gyms. Once you get to Skyla, though, Electabuzz begins to take off, clean sweeping her and Marlon as well as doing good vs Drayden and Colress. Past that it starts to get a little inconsistent, though some of this comes down to my move choice, and it does have a really good Iris mu, insofar as anything *can* have a really good Iris mu. Ultimately its rocky start bars it from A imo, but it doesn't deserve to drop any further. 
Timburr (Trade) to A: Conk is pretty insane. You can have it by Burgh and from there it steamrolls most of the game with a few Bulk Ups. Despite its ability to use a status orb, I think it's an absolute bait item and Leftovers should always be used over it. Conk doesn't even really benefit from Guts in the same way other Guts users would; unlike Hera, it has an actual setup move, and unlike Raticate, it has a really high Attack stat from the jump, so it doesn't have a huge need for the Attack boost from Guts. So all you really get is the chip damage, and when you're as slow as Conk, you want to capitalize on your bulk as much as possible. In any case, Conk has some of the best mus in the game, some highlights being full sweeping Clay, Ghetsis, and even Marshall, although that mu can be a little shaky. It does stumble a bit tho, being mediocre to bad vs Skyla and Shauntal and requiring some healing in other mus due to its low Speed and vulnerable Special Defense, so I feel remaining in A is most appropriate. 
Solosis to C: disappoiting tbh. Reuniclus has a pretty solid performance up til Colress, though it only manages to full sweep Marlon via Snatch shenanigans. But it *only* full sweeps Marlon reliably, relying on luck to sweep Elesa and Skyla and only being limited to 2 mons on Clay's team. Past Marlon tho, it does not have a good mu. Colress and Ghetsis are fairly understandable, I think, but its league performance is pretty abysmal, failing to get a good mu even vs Caitlin. Marshall, who you would imagine Reuniclus would be great for thanks to its FIghting resistance, bulk, and ability to ohko with STAB Psychic, is mostly average there due to the insane commonality of anti-Psychic coverage moves there. So overall it has some cheesy/situational sweeps here and there but ultimately has a lot of bad mus that drag it down to the realm of mediocrity. Sucks even vs Drayden, of all things. 
Zorua to B: Zoroark has a medley of interesting traits that make it desirable; high Speed, setup potential, and Illusion shenanigans to cheese some fights. While Illusion can be put to pretty good effect if you have the right teammates, ultimately this is team-dependent, and I don't like the concept of relying on outside Pokemon to enable your sweeps (think like using screens on another Pokemon to help a setup sweeper). Ultimately its lacking power (+1 Night Slash is far from the strongest thing out there) and low bulk mean some mus are just impossible to do well in, such as Colress, Ghetsis, or even Drayden, but it does sporadically well at other points in the game and beats 3/4 of E4, so I think B is appropriate. As an aside, I went and tutored Dark Pulse on it to use in conjunction with Nasty Plot for the E4, mostly because I was just fed up at how pathetically weak HC + NS was. Normally I would penalize a mon if I felt the need to do this, but looking back, I really don't think it was necessary at that point, as Zoro beats the E4 members he beats and loses against the member he loses against regardless of setup/STAB choice, so I'm not gonna hold it against him. 
Piloswine to E: Comes extraordinarily late, requires grinding to bring up to the level for the rest of your team, and hardly justifies it at all. EQ off 130 Attack is insane on paper, but the many downsides Mamoswine comes with (average Speed, terrible defensive typing, barren movepool, lack of setup options) means it hardly matters at all. That said, it *can* sweep Grimsley, even if it's kinda inconsistent, and is actually good vs Caitlin, so it's not entirely useless. Just be warned, that's all it really does.
to B: Azumarill has some impressive power but has issues making the most of it. You have a hard time getting off the ground as Azurill is pretty bad and Azumarill's first gym is full of Grass types, but you begin to pick up at midgame (according to Drums you can even sweep Elesa, which is insane for a Water type). As it continues though, its low Speed and lack of relevant resistances really begins to weigh down on it, to the point that by endgame it fails to sweep most fights (I managed to beat Caitlin at least, which Drums reportedly did not). Regardless, I think it carries its weight enough for B. 
to B: The ultimate "better on paper than in practice" mon. Magnemite is worshipped for its defensive capabilities, which are quite good, but ultimately don't mean a whole lot when you can't threaten the mons you're walling, and Magnemite fails to threaten much of anything until Skyla. Sonicboom cleaves through Roxie, but falls off a cliff immediately after, meaning that you fail to meaningfully damage Burgh or Elesa, meaning that they can actually bring you down unless you heal / get lucky, and I don't think I need to tell you what happens at Clay. Once you get to Skyla and get evolved into Magnezone you start picking up a lot, as it finally gets some good moves and its all-around solid stats, but lack of reliable setup and meaningful coverage means that Zone can still struggle in certain mus. Despite its unique properties, it doesn't really perform that much differently than the better Electrics in the game, like Elekid and Jolteon, so I think this should go to B with them. 
to C: Despite getting a strong STAB move for once, Crobat still has plenty of issues it suffers from. In terms of positives, it's incredibly fast, has Acrobatics, and matches up pretty well into Marshall, one of the hardest bosses in the game. As for the negatives, it has average Attack, poor coverage, and zero setup capabilities beyond Screech, which leaves it pretty weak going into the lategame. While Crobat is reliant on it for damage output, Acrobatics proves to be a double-edged sword, forcing Crobat to miss out on otherwise useful items to achieve anything close to a strong STAB move. For most major battles, Crobat is relegated to picking off certain targets, failing to full sweep much of anything. With that said, it is rarely ever dead weight in any mu (except against Colress lol) and is overall quite competent. so I think C is reasonable. 
to S: Krookodile is an insane Pokemon, possessing great stats, typing, moves, and the incredibly efficient Moxie. With a boost under its belt, STAB EQ will cleave through anything that isn't immune to it, and whatever is immune to it Krook has the coverage for, like Crunch, Rock Slide, Low Kick, even crazy shit like Outrage. When I had originally used it, I held off on evolving Krokorok in order to get EQ as early as possible, which resulted in a weak period with Krokorok which I believed was enough to drag it down to A, but as Ryota demosntrated in his run, doing this is not necessary at all; the only two mu an earlier EQ aids in, Drayden and Marlon, Krook can sweep anyways, and evolving it early provides Krook a good Skyla mu to boot. So with that in mind, its only truly bad mu is Clay, and, to an extent, Marshall, although you can still dent him pretty well. I think this makes Sandile a clear S.
to B: Volcarona is an insane investment, requiring a backtrack and multiple move tutors to get it going. Even then, Volcarona is a mixed, only getting a good mu on Drayden via Will-o-Wisp and Signal Beam spam, and suffering vs Skyla, Marlon, and even Ghetsis, to an extent (it does have a good Colress mu, although annoying dealing with Fire Blast inaccuracy). The payoff comes at League, when you learn QD and sweep the first three members cold. Even Marshall can get dented with Psychic, and it takes at least 5 against Iris, potentially even full sweeping her if you bait Haxorus into DDing. While Volc is a heavy investment, and that alone will be a major turnoff to people, I believe its insane endgame, and overall competency before then, justifies it being in B. 