I feel that the Treecko line is usable just running through the game, but outside of moving from gym to gym, they’re like a soccer player who has never heard of leg day.
Hey, don’t be hatin on treecko.
I’ve said it before, aesthetically the Treecko line is fine. Their movepool does not fit their stats though, and it hasn’t since Gen IV.
Who cares about stats?
Many people, especially when the stats determine how much damage you can take and deal out. Treecko’s line has terrible defenses so it cannot take a hit well. It has poor attack, so it cannot do damage efficiently with most of its movepool, but it has great speed and special attack. Unfortunately it has few options that take advantage of what it is made to do.
Competitively it’s terrible, but it still has a good design. Even just going through the game there are better grass types with access to better attacks and the means to use them well.
As for me, IDGAF. It’s not how you train the pokemon, it’s how you use it.
That’s the problem though, it’s not about training the Treecko line, it’s about how they are set up to be used. Treecko and its evolution have high speed and special attack but low defenses. Effectively they’re lizard mages in an rpg. The problem with that is that instead of spells and techniques that take advantage of what they’re best at they’re given knives that they can’t use nearly as well as a lot of others.
The Treecko line are mages told to attack with sticks instead of spells and that hurts them a lot.
For people who think that’s the right way. When it’s not. I use the treecko line in the right way. I try to keep it balanced and work on what attacks could help it. Like giga drain.
Giga Drain’s a good move, but better suited to something with more bulk and longevity, neither or which Treecko or its line have. It’s also a relatively low-powered attack, but admittedly one that does benefit from the line’s superior special attack. You know what doesn’t though? It’s signature move of Leaf Blade, or X-Scissor, Earthquake, Return, or 75% of the moves that it can learn. The bulk of the moves that they can learn are physical, and their physical attack is not high enough to take advantage of. The bulk of the special moves that the Treecko line can learn are grass type, and many of those are draining moves which are nice but don’t lend themselves well to the line in general.
Like I said earlier, the Treecko line is not built in a way that favors the options that it has access to. It is usable going from one gym to the next, but outside of straight progression there are much better grass types.