I think if you have to crown one sub skill as the best it has to be Helping Bonus, because it's top tier on ANY pokemon, and it helps the other pokemon on your team have that same benefit. If you look at it from a long term perspective, you want a mon to do it's job and then once it's done get replaced by a berry specialist. HB boosts whatever that pokemon's job was in the first place, BFS is the best on berry specialists because it improves the the thing that mon should be doing; farming berries. On all other mons it's just an extra, * total strength isn't everything*. For skill specialists we just want them to trigger more and faster HB helps with that, BFS does not, for ingredient specialists we want more ingredients faster, HB helps with that, BFS does not. The earlier a mon fulfills its purpose (farming x amount of ingredients or triggering a skill x amount of times) the earlier it can be replaced with a berry specialist with BFS, which is way stronger anyway.
I'm glad you covered situations that allow one skill to be better than the other. I only have 3 pokemon with both: Gengar, Butterfree, and an Eevee that I haven't decided what to evolve into. It was fun to learn about the 35% cap! Thanks for covering this topic so thoroughly!
I really do appreciate the time and effort you put into these videos. It has helped my understanding of the game immensely. Thank you for sharing, and a side shoutout to Piggy for being an awesome sidekick!
This video is what we needed, even though I did understand before about HB and BF. This video was some sort of enlightenment for me to organize my team in a more efficient way, thanks!
In my opinion, bfs on non-berry-specialists means the mon needs an inventory up subskill, bc as you described, sneaky snacking is not a good thing to have for ingredient and skill specialists. Sure, that could be another subskill that more directly increases production, but inventory up allows you to keep the mon on your team, thus making it more versatile.
@Bropenings Really like your detailed explanation of the game. I have never thought a strategy to run most ingredient specialist in day time and run berry specialist during sleep
Well now I feel better about my Vulpix that's skill down but has Helping Bonus and two corns, thank you! I also have a HB Eevee that I was undecided between Leafeon or Flareon. I guess if I make it a Flareon I will have 3 helping bonus for Taupe for the event thanks to my HB+BFS Pupitar. I didn't realize that stacking HB was such a strategy.
HB vulpix is approximately as good as BFS, varies depending on the situation. Ideally whether you have HB or BFS, you also have more speed skills like HSM or speed nature on top of them.
I was so confused when my HB Cyndaquil scored significantly higher than my new BFS one I finally found after 19 Cyndaquils, it felt so blasphemous to consider boxing the BFS one over the HB one when BFS is widely upheld as the must-have for berry mons. After running a bunch of team calculations for Taupe, the HB one is better when the whole team is at lvl 50, but the BFS one is better at their current levels. I'm still a bit uncertain but based on what you said about sneaky snacking, favourite berries and casual playing, I'm leaning towards the BFS one coz I don't check often enough to collect before they fill up every time.
It's pretty much situational which one is better in isolation. I'm assuming all other stats are the same in your case. A high main skill level can make HB better than BFS (if you collect often). One way to see how good it is if you don't play often is to set "always full pack" to on and see what berry productions are like.
@@Bropenings not exactly the same but BFS has HSM and Hasty while HB has ERB and Brave (I don't think the other subskills matter that much). I don't plan on skill seeding them so it'll be at lvl 3. Since I don't collect often (usually just at mealtimes and before sleep), at lvl 50 with full pack, BFS is better when the rest of the team is under level 48 while HB is better when they are 48 and above. It seems like the HB one is better long term?
I would like to add another scenario that benefits BFS. There's a chance that you won't be playing the game as much as today, making you sneaky-snack more often. At least BFS will get you covered regardless.
If you were to buff or improve the gold subskills that are useless what would you do? Also thanks for making this video so that I understand how good both berry finding s and Helping Bonus are.
ERB needs to be able to go above 100% like regular healers. DSB is fine right now, if you use it properly there are benefits but it doesn't need a buff as it's the most abundant resource (as long as you spend DS wisely). I just prefer it not be on my best pokes in place of other useful skills. SEXPB is fine REXPB is just a worse DSB when u reach level cap. Before that it's not that useful either, and rarely, harmful.
Indeed both would be the best. But if you landed a HB berry specialist without BFS, it can be almost as good as BFS, sometimes better, depending on all the circumstances I described in the video.
@@Max-my6rk *Hides the massive piles of mediocre and unusable pokemon that have all been released.* Yeah, maybe just a little humble bragging. But I've gotten a lot of unusable pokemon along the way, and I've kept some mediocre pokemon for a variety of reasons.
wait, doesn’t this mean that helping speed M is actually bad in some cases?? if you have an entire team with helping bonus, and speed up natures, helping speed M will do nothing…
Hmm so does helping bonus stack and help other pokemon that have it too or it doesn't and just help the mons that don't? I was a little confused about that part. Thank you in advance!
When i invest in permanent team members for different islands I just try to run 4 helping bonus + 5 HSM pkmn, to reach the speed cap of 35%. Not sure if that is the best, this video is a little too long for me :D
This is an advanced guide, don't worry if you didn't get all the info. You can always come back in the future when you feel like you need to understand HB more or how the calculator values HB.
Ok I have a question I have a charzard with helping bonus helping speed m ingred finder and inventory L with ingredients up on nature down on energy And also have a charzard with helping bonus helping speed m ingre finder m and berry findings s with main skill up nature and down exp Witch one is better the one with berry finding s in future will get way more strength with berrys and main skill of about .5 percent more but the one with inventory and ingredients finder up Nature gets way more strength from the ingredients aspect I’m So conflicted it’s 100 percent in ingredients but I feel it’s gunna be just way to much ingredients in future on level 75 and the one with berry finding s at level 75 with main skill up will double the berrys when I don’t need so many ingredients “The berry finding s at level 75 one is also mono Sasage”[Level 100 is skill trigger m] “The one with ingredients up Nature and inventory L at level 75 has s/s/h and it’s considered #1 on ingredients calculator”[level 100 is helping speed s]
It s//s/h on the #1 charzard .figured The berry finding s on with mono sausage was the way I was just conflicted because it literely said my charzard was #1 on the ingredients calculator even if it was triple sausage it would produce over 180 in sausage a day that’s were berry finding s comes in and wins regardless at level 75 because that’s way to much ingredients and I still will get over 160 a day with the berry finding s and double berry will help It sneaky snack through the night and day making it a ingredient specialist and berry
@Charmander_The_Great no such thing as too much ingredients. If you get too much then it's time to swap out. The ingredient specialist did a great job so it doesn't need to stay on the field.
@bropenings I’m curious to know how you manage/maintain energy levels like when you have a sleep and day team or when you swap ingredients specialists in and out (with or without a perma healer). I know helping pillow is the simple answer, but doing this constantly will take a lot of helping pillows.
I don't use energy pillows except for events (I save them for it). I have an amazing Wigglytuff from early game, and an amazing Gardevoir now. About 80% of the days I go to sleep with 100%+ energy. The skill level is very important (level 6). If you don't have an E4E healer, then you'll need to run more self-healing pokemon, or energizing cheer ones. However I believe E4E healing is the best. Additionally you can do a nap during the day. The nap that heals approx 20% can be boosted to 40% using recovery incense if you have a particularly bad day with the trigger on healers. As your account gets stronger and your E4E healer gets stronger, even recovery incense becomes less and less used.
When I know I'll start tracking for a nap, I actually swap out my healer about 1-2 hours before, so that allows the energy on the team to plummet to about ~80% (ideally no lower, but it's not a big deal if it is) just before I end/sync tracking. This way it utilizes more of the healing from the nap while I was able to farm extra productions with a 5th non-healer member. FYI 20% energy drop is about 200 minutes.
I do have a good wiggly but probably not as high performing as yours. I don’t do naps. I think this why I don’t reach end of day at 100%. More like 60-70% on a decent day. So when it is time to swap, I’m taking out say an ingredient mon at 60%. This mon will take a long time to heal in the box. That’s my conundrum. My solution now is to just remember to make team changes at the start of each day, use the team for the whole day, and tweak again next morning. But it is quite rigid. Key takeaway from you is 1) get a broken E4E healer 2) take a nap. I think that’s the gap between yours and mine. Correct?
@renfred yes but don't forget I also spend a fair amount of money including using GCT every week. That means boosted speed = more healing = I change out the healer more often
Question. Regarding your morning and night team, if you switch out your morning team to your night one, will the previous team recover energy come the next day?
I manage my healing very well. I usually go to sleep when all pokemon , irrespective of which team, has 100% energy so thats not a problem. Certainly on a bad day I might have to recover energy on the team that is low and so don't have much of a choice. Ways to manage energy: 1 Invest in a good e4e healer 2 Nap at the right time, with recovery incense if needed 3 Run a team with mostly self-healers or energising cheer if you don't have e4e
If you plan to use it a lot in many research areas, then it would be good value. I recommend my in depth explanation here ruclips.net/video/eToQ2TAb_XY/видео.html However a typhlosion with BFS alone and no other speed or trigger rate might not be as good value than other johto starters if you have better stats on them. The upside is it'll bring more strength for entei event.
@@Bropenings thank you, he has a skill up nature and skill trigger, so Ill give him some inventory. He’s my only BFS berry specialist right now other than a BFS quilava
@@noboundariesburnhws I'd say the inventory isn't too important. Check the calculator to see how many skill procs a day you get for each inventory. It'll mainly affect the skill trigger chance after a long sleep.
Very interesting the point of changing to berry pokemon during the night.... but how do you maintain the power in the ingredient pokemon? Pillows everyday? Or a healer does its work even full day working until night? Thank you!
I don't use energy pillows except for events (I save them for it). I have an amazing Wigglytuff from early game, and an amazing Gardevoir now. About 80% of the days I go to sleep with 100%+ energy. The skill level is very important (level 6). If you don't have an E4E healer, then you'll need to run more self-healing pokemon, or energizing cheer ones. However I believe E4E healing is the best. Additionally you can do a nap during the day. The nap that heals approx 20% can be boosted to 40% using recovery incense if you have a particularly bad day with the trigger on healers. As your account gets stronger and your E4E healer gets stronger, even recovery incense becomes less and less used.
When I know I'll start tracking for a nap, I actually swap out my healer about 1-2 hours before, so that allows the energy on the team to plummet to about ~80% (ideally no lower, but it's not a big deal if it is) just before I end/sync tracking. This way it utilizes more of the healing from the nap while I was able to farm extra productions with a 5th non-healer member. FYI 20% energy drop is about 200 minutes.
@@Bropenings nice thank you. I do have a lv 53 wiggly, is not god, but usable (neutral nature with stm) but with slus and slum and its at lvl 6. It doesn't trigger so much to be honest, but it's the only one I have atm. I know about naps (and have 30+ of these incenses) but I don't like to nap except on events like previous week hehe. I'll follow youe steps during night once I get a good sylveon or gardevoir. Thank you!
SLUM+SLUS is great to keep your main seeds for gardevoir in the future. The skill level provides more healing than skill trigger if you had to choose just one of these stats.
Based on a few of your videos lately, I demand justice for my Lonely nature Dratini with triple herbs and helping bonus which was called "trash" because it had Skill Level Up M and Skill Trigger S instead of any ingredient skills.
@@Bropenings Haha, it wasn't you but it was someone on the Discord. I'm not naming and shaming because it was a few months ago, but it stuck with me because I posted it more as a "which of these two pretty great Dratini should I focus on" and I was crushed when it was referred to so harshly. Dratini is now a Dragonair and is moving on with his life, grateful for my faith in him :)
Please also watch the sequels:
ruclips.net/video/v2YEFC_D-MM/видео.html
ruclips.net/video/gkXjavhFzeM/видео.html
You enjoy Helping Bonus more
👇
You enjoy Berry Finding S more
👇
I think if you have to crown one sub skill as the best it has to be Helping Bonus, because it's top tier on ANY pokemon, and it helps the other pokemon on your team have that same benefit.
If you look at it from a long term perspective, you want a mon to do it's job and then once it's done get replaced by a berry specialist.
HB boosts whatever that pokemon's job was in the first place, BFS is the best on berry specialists because it improves the the thing that mon should be doing; farming berries. On all other mons it's just an extra, * total strength isn't everything*.
For skill specialists we just want them to trigger more and faster HB helps with that, BFS does not, for ingredient specialists we want more ingredients faster, HB helps with that, BFS does not. The earlier a mon fulfills its purpose (farming x amount of ingredients or triggering a skill x amount of times) the earlier it can be replaced with a berry specialist with BFS, which is way stronger anyway.
Thank you. I am now reassured that my HB + Ing finder M + BFS Pupitar is a beast :D
You didn't need me to reassure you on that one!
Although I must ask: what is its ingredient list?
You are an absolute legend bruv. Thank you for all the work you do for the community
I didn’t realize lot of things goes into helping bonus
I'm glad you covered situations that allow one skill to be better than the other. I only have 3 pokemon with both: Gengar, Butterfree, and an Eevee that I haven't decided what to evolve into. It was fun to learn about the 35% cap! Thanks for covering this topic so thoroughly!
I really do appreciate the time and effort you put into these videos. It has helped my understanding of the game immensely. Thank you for sharing, and a side shoutout to Piggy for being an awesome sidekick!
This video is what we needed, even though I did understand before about HB and BF. This video was some sort of enlightenment for me to organize my team in a more efficient way, thanks!
Great vid with great timing. Gives me more knowledge for setting up my team for Entei
3 mons on my team will have helping bonus active during entei
Amazon video! So informatice and deep in the topic. Thank you for taking the time for educating all of us!
In my opinion, bfs on non-berry-specialists means the mon needs an inventory up subskill, bc as you described, sneaky snacking is not a good thing to have for ingredient and skill specialists. Sure, that could be another subskill that more directly increases production, but inventory up allows you to keep the mon on your team, thus making it more versatile.
For players who aren't obsessively opening the game, yes that's a fine strategy to combine BFS with inventory.
@Bropenings Really like your detailed explanation of the game. I have never thought a strategy to run most ingredient specialist in day time and run berry specialist during sleep
If you manage your energy well it works very well
Thanks for this brilliant info 🎉
Where u going tomm?
Taupe hollow
Well now I feel better about my Vulpix that's skill down but has Helping Bonus and two corns, thank you! I also have a HB Eevee that I was undecided between Leafeon or Flareon. I guess if I make it a Flareon I will have 3 helping bonus for Taupe for the event thanks to my HB+BFS Pupitar. I didn't realize that stacking HB was such a strategy.
HB vulpix is approximately as good as BFS, varies depending on the situation. Ideally whether you have HB or BFS, you also have more speed skills like HSM or speed nature on top of them.
I was so confused when my HB Cyndaquil scored significantly higher than my new BFS one I finally found after 19 Cyndaquils, it felt so blasphemous to consider boxing the BFS one over the HB one when BFS is widely upheld as the must-have for berry mons. After running a bunch of team calculations for Taupe, the HB one is better when the whole team is at lvl 50, but the BFS one is better at their current levels. I'm still a bit uncertain but based on what you said about sneaky snacking, favourite berries and casual playing, I'm leaning towards the BFS one coz I don't check often enough to collect before they fill up every time.
It's pretty much situational which one is better in isolation. I'm assuming all other stats are the same in your case. A high main skill level can make HB better than BFS (if you collect often).
One way to see how good it is if you don't play often is to set "always full pack" to on and see what berry productions are like.
@@Bropenings not exactly the same but BFS has HSM and Hasty while HB has ERB and Brave (I don't think the other subskills matter that much). I don't plan on skill seeding them so it'll be at lvl 3. Since I don't collect often (usually just at mealtimes and before sleep), at lvl 50 with full pack, BFS is better when the rest of the team is under level 48 while HB is better when they are 48 and above. It seems like the HB one is better long term?
I love math, these videos are my absolute favorite
Great, you'll love the new one I just uploaded
@@Bropenings 😱😱
I would like to add another scenario that benefits BFS. There's a chance that you won't be playing the game as much as today, making you sneaky-snack more often. At least BFS will get you covered regardless.
If you were to buff or improve the gold subskills that are useless what would you do? Also thanks for making this video so that I understand how good both berry finding s and Helping Bonus are.
ERB needs to be able to go above 100% like regular healers.
DSB is fine right now, if you use it properly there are benefits but it doesn't need a buff as it's the most abundant resource (as long as you spend DS wisely). I just prefer it not be on my best pokes in place of other useful skills.
SEXPB is fine
REXPB is just a worse DSB when u reach level cap. Before that it's not that useful either, and rarely, harmful.
My level 50 Raikou is my fastest Mon, and with 25% HB he's at 24 minutes xD
BFS better early, because you dont have recipes levelled up, pot size, and bag size,
HB later, because max recipe levels are insane
Both, we want both
We hope to get both
Yes. Both together are better. And I actually have a couple pokemon who have both skills... who are also Berry Specialists.
Indeed both would be the best. But if you landed a HB berry specialist without BFS, it can be almost as good as BFS, sometimes better, depending on all the circumstances I described in the video.
@@Bropenings Agreed.
r u bragging?
Humble brag
@@Max-my6rk *Hides the massive piles of mediocre and unusable pokemon that have all been released.*
Yeah, maybe just a little humble bragging.
But I've gotten a lot of unusable pokemon along the way, and I've kept some mediocre pokemon for a variety of reasons.
wait, doesn’t this mean that helping speed M is actually bad in some cases?? if you have an entire team with helping bonus, and speed up natures, helping speed M will do nothing…
Speed up nature is not counted to the 35% limit. So it's fine to have HSM as well, but HSS on top of that is useless.
Hmm so does helping bonus stack and help other pokemon that have it too or it doesn't and just help the mons that don't? I was a little confused about that part. Thank you in advance!
It stacks whether they have it or not
So you can get 25% speed boost if all 5 have HB
When i invest in permanent team members for different islands I just try to run 4 helping bonus + 5 HSM pkmn, to reach the speed cap of 35%. Not sure if that is the best, this video is a little too long for me :D
This is an advanced guide, don't worry if you didn't get all the info. You can always come back in the future when you feel like you need to understand HB more or how the calculator values HB.
I know how good it is but all of my HB pokemon have it in the lv75 and lv100 slots so it's useless for me anyway 😗 so I have to choose BFS over it.
Ok I have a question I have a charzard with helping bonus helping speed m ingred finder and inventory L with ingredients up on nature down on energy
And also have a charzard with helping bonus helping speed m ingre finder m and berry findings s with main skill up nature and down exp
Witch one is better the one with berry finding s in future will get way more strength with berrys and main skill of about .5 percent more but the one with inventory and ingredients finder up
Nature gets way more strength from the ingredients aspect I’m
So conflicted it’s 100 percent in ingredients but I feel it’s gunna be just way to much ingredients in future on level 75 and the one with berry finding s at level 75 with main skill up will double the berrys when I don’t need so many ingredients
“The berry finding s at level 75 one is also mono Sasage”[Level 100 is skill trigger m]
“The one with ingredients up
Nature and inventory L at level 75 has s/s/h and it’s considered #1 on ingredients calculator”[level 100 is helping speed s]
What is the ingredient list on each? That is the hurdle to pass to even consider investing a charizard.
if one is mono sausage, then as long as you have mono ginger larvitar, that charizard wins. The other option would produce too much unneeded gingers.
It s//s/h on the #1 charzard .figured The berry finding s on with mono sausage was the way I was just conflicted because it literely said my charzard was #1 on the ingredients calculator even if it was triple sausage it would produce over 180 in sausage a day that’s were berry finding s comes in and wins regardless at level 75 because that’s way to much ingredients and I still will get over 160 a day with the berry finding s and double berry will help
It sneaky snack through the night and day making it a ingredient specialist and berry
@Charmander_The_Great no such thing as too much ingredients. If you get too much then it's time to swap out. The ingredient specialist did a great job so it doesn't need to stay on the field.
@bropenings I’m curious to know how you manage/maintain energy levels like when you have a sleep and day team or when you swap ingredients specialists in and out (with or without a perma healer). I know helping pillow is the simple answer, but doing this constantly will take a lot of helping pillows.
I don't use energy pillows except for events (I save them for it).
I have an amazing Wigglytuff from early game, and an amazing Gardevoir now. About 80% of the days I go to sleep with 100%+ energy. The skill level is very important (level 6).
If you don't have an E4E healer, then you'll need to run more self-healing pokemon, or energizing cheer ones. However I believe E4E healing is the best.
Additionally you can do a nap during the day. The nap that heals approx 20% can be boosted to 40% using recovery incense if you have a particularly bad day with the trigger on healers.
As your account gets stronger and your E4E healer gets stronger, even recovery incense becomes less and less used.
When I know I'll start tracking for a nap, I actually swap out my healer about 1-2 hours before, so that allows the energy on the team to plummet to about ~80% (ideally no lower, but it's not a big deal if it is) just before I end/sync tracking. This way it utilizes more of the healing from the nap while I was able to farm extra productions with a 5th non-healer member.
FYI 20% energy drop is about 200 minutes.
I do have a good wiggly but probably not as high performing as yours. I don’t do naps. I think this why I don’t reach end of day at 100%. More like 60-70% on a decent day. So when it is time to swap, I’m taking out say an ingredient mon at 60%. This mon will take a long time to heal in the box. That’s my conundrum. My solution now is to just remember to make team changes at the start of each day, use the team for the whole day, and tweak again next morning. But it is quite rigid.
Key takeaway from you is
1) get a broken E4E healer
2) take a nap.
I think that’s the gap between yours and mine. Correct?
@renfred yes but don't forget I also spend a fair amount of money including using GCT every week. That means boosted speed = more healing = I change out the healer more often
Question. Regarding your morning and night team, if you switch out your morning team to your night one, will the previous team recover energy come the next day?
I manage my healing very well. I usually go to sleep when all pokemon , irrespective of which team, has 100% energy so thats not a problem. Certainly on a bad day I might have to recover energy on the team that is low and so don't have much of a choice.
Ways to manage energy:
1 Invest in a good e4e healer
2 Nap at the right time, with recovery incense if needed
3 Run a team with mostly self-healers or energising cheer if you don't have e4e
I see. I really have no choice but to wait until I get some good healers. Thanks for the info and I appreciate the videos you make. Cheers
I have a BFS typhlosion with inventory up s, is it worth giving it sub skill seeds for more skill procs throughout the day?
If you plan to use it a lot in many research areas, then it would be good value. I recommend my in depth explanation here
ruclips.net/video/eToQ2TAb_XY/видео.html
However a typhlosion with BFS alone and no other speed or trigger rate might not be as good value than other johto starters if you have better stats on them. The upside is it'll bring more strength for entei event.
@@Bropenings thank you, he has a skill up nature and skill trigger, so Ill give him some inventory. He’s my only BFS berry specialist right now other than a BFS quilava
@@noboundariesburnhws I'd say the inventory isn't too important. Check the calculator to see how many skill procs a day you get for each inventory. It'll mainly affect the skill trigger chance after a long sleep.
Very interesting the point of changing to berry pokemon during the night.... but how do you maintain the power in the ingredient pokemon? Pillows everyday? Or a healer does its work even full day working until night?
Thank you!
I don't use energy pillows except for events (I save them for it).
I have an amazing Wigglytuff from early game, and an amazing Gardevoir now. About 80% of the days I go to sleep with 100%+ energy. The skill level is very important (level 6).
If you don't have an E4E healer, then you'll need to run more self-healing pokemon, or energizing cheer ones. However I believe E4E healing is the best.
Additionally you can do a nap during the day. The nap that heals approx 20% can be boosted to 40% using recovery incense if you have a particularly bad day with the trigger on healers.
As your account gets stronger and your E4E healer gets stronger, even recovery incense becomes less and less used.
When I know I'll start tracking for a nap, I actually swap out my healer about 1-2 hours before, so that allows the energy on the team to plummet to about ~80% (ideally no lower, but it's not a big deal if it is) just before I end/sync tracking. This way it utilizes more of the healing from the nap while I was able to farm extra productions with a 5th non-healer member.
FYI 20% energy drop is about 200 minutes.
@@Bropenings nice thank you. I do have a lv 53 wiggly, is not god, but usable (neutral nature with stm) but with slus and slum and its at lvl 6. It doesn't trigger so much to be honest, but it's the only one I have atm. I know about naps (and have 30+ of these incenses) but I don't like to nap except on events like previous week hehe. I'll follow youe steps during night once I get a good sylveon or gardevoir.
Thank you!
SLUM+SLUS is great to keep your main seeds for gardevoir in the future. The skill level provides more healing than skill trigger if you had to choose just one of these stats.
Consider running more HB pokemon on the rest of your team to buff the wiggly if healing is a problem
Based on a few of your videos lately, I demand justice for my Lonely nature Dratini with triple herbs and helping bonus which was called "trash" because it had Skill Level Up M and Skill Trigger S instead of any ingredient skills.
Who called it trash? Hope it wasn't me 🤣
SLUS STM are indeed not very useful but HB + mono herbs is amazing.
@@Bropenings Haha, it wasn't you but it was someone on the Discord. I'm not naming and shaming because it was a few months ago, but it stuck with me because I posted it more as a "which of these two pretty great Dratini should I focus on" and I was crushed when it was referred to so harshly. Dratini is now a Dragonair and is moving on with his life, grateful for my faith in him :)