3rd Gen Salamence, Altaria & Flygon

[Tetra]

In Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald, 3 new Dragon-Types were introduced (that weren't legendaries). These were Salamence (Dragon/Flying), Altaria (Dragon/Flying) & Flygon (Ground/Dragon). These three were the only Dragon-Types available before the E4 (R/S only), and proved to be very strong, but hard to raise.

Salamence and Flygon are based in Attack and Speed, but Altaria is based in Defence and Special Defence. Did you use any of these three, or were you not bothered to raise them? If you did use them, which one did you end up using? Did they every prove useful in important battles?

Post below! <3~

 

[Guardian]

I had Shelgon in one of my games, it was too hard to raise that guy so I never evolved him into Salamence. For my next walkthrough, I am going to use Altaria :D
Flygon is cool too though.

 

[Arc]

I've never used a Salamence for an in-game team, but I have used both Flygon and Altaria. On the same playthrough no less! Both were a pain to level sure, but they were so worth it :D Altaria was a pretty reliable Dragon Dancer and Flygon did have an interesting moveset to use.

The two of them were pretty useful since they pretty much beat the Elite Four by themselves, except on Glacia xD

 

[Danny0317]

I have used all of those three. But I don't like dragon Pokemon, so I don't use them anymore. They look pretty cool, but ICE BEAM they are hard to raise, so I don't want them, and they're too strong, they make the game too easy for me. Also, when I beat the E4 in Emerald, Ruby or Sapphire, I am ALWAYS below level 50, so later in the Battle Frontier I can participate once I raise to level 50, since I don't wanna raise them to over 60, so that would be annoying. That problem only applies to Salamence, by the way. Anyways, Salamence and Altaria have no purpose, really. I mean a lot of people are gonna choose Rayquaza and what's the point of having two Pokemon of the same type in your party?

 

[Sydian]

Well. Let's consider this. My regulars in Challenges are Swablu. I'm Momma Altaria. There's an Altaria in the forum splash. I had a raffle for shiny Swablu and a shiny Altaria for my birthday last year. There's a shiny Altaria in my promotion post in the updates thread. With all that being said...Altaria is one of my favorite Pokemon. Not only did I think the design was great, but it's a Pokemon that means a lot to me now because of the challenge community here. It's my baby. <3 I use it whenever I can and I never get bored! :)

Salamence and Flygon are great too, of course! I used to use Flygon a lot actually. It's a bit difficult to use Salamence because Bagon is so late in the game (8 badges in) and then it evolves later than Vibrava and Swablu. Still worth it though, I'd say. But out of the three, I prefer Altaria.

 

[Tetra]

I did use Flygon and Altaria, but not Salamence! He was the hardest outta the three to raise + he could easily be knocked out by Glacia in the E4. Altaria was the most useful for me, its defence did work for me. It could bulk most of the E4 and Gym Leader's hits, even against Drake.

I used Flygon more for the looks. Come on, it just looks freaking amazing! Them goggles around its eyes also refers to how you need the Go-Goggles to enter the desert. However I was kinda of disappointed when I first found out Trapinch evolved into Vibrava. I thought it was going to turn into some type of bug, but I was wrong. I got an epic looking Ground/Dragon Pokémon! :)

 

[Radioactive]

How ironic, as those three Pokémon make up my Battle Frontier team in Emerald. From my experience Flygon is best as offensive using Dragon Claw and Dig with Toxic, Altaria's good for set-up with Safeguard but weak in combat, and Salamance isn't too strong with his defensive stats and weak moveset however packs a punch with Dragon Claw and can use Strength and Fly as failsafe moves. Plus Flygon is immune to electric attacks unlike the other two, and has a much better movepool out of the three.

 

[daydreamsleeper]

I've actually raised all three, Altaria's my favorite! She has really good defense and special defense. Salamence is a very very hard hitter. The only problem with all three was how quickly one ice beam could take them out...

 

[Apollo]

I used Flygon once during a solo run, and Altaria was used as well during one of my playthroughs. What I can say is that I prefer Altaria to the other two, because of her defense and I generally like her design better than the two. She has this dragon-y vibe in it, despite not looking like a dragon herself. I'm not sure if it's because of something in her design or her type, but she definitely is a dragon type to me! :)

Flygon is also good, although I had a hard time with Brawly haha.

 

[Amore]

Altaria was the first Dragon pokémon I ever encountered. After fighting Flannery I dug out my Swablu from the boxes, and raised it to an Altaria before I moved on past Fortree.

I've never used Flygon as I dislike Trapinch that much in battle, although I have raised one using exp. share after attempting to raise one as a team member.

Salamence on the other hand is one of my favourite pokémon of all time, mainly due to the tcg. I got an Ex:Delta card pack that had a special Fire/Metal Salamence, as well as Bagon and Shelgon and instantly thought they were the coolest pokémon since Dragonite. I've raised numerous Salamence on Emerald, although haven't used one in my team for about 5 years...need to get one again some time methinks.

 

[She_Delphox]

I had Salamence on my team several times because I really like this Dragon Pokemon :) But most of those times I trained a Flygon too, because you could catch a Trapinch sooner than Bagon in the game ;)

 

[Altairis]

I don't remember using any of these as kids in RSE but I've used Flygon at least 3 times in my playthroughs recently! It's one of my favorites :3 I like Salamence a lot but like Jak said it's so late in the game that it's hard to train. I did use Altairia as a kid, and I did like it a lot! I think my favorite out of the three is still Flygon, though.

 

[Guardian]

Apparently I do have a Salamence in my Sapphire, but only after I have beaten Elite 4.

 

[Juno]

Salamence and Altaria were two of my favorites in RSE - I know Salamence was in my team when I beat the Elite 4 for the first time. I don't think I have ever used Flygon, though.

 

[Zaakeil]

I never have used a Salamence in my runthroughs, mostly because its in-game location can't be accessed until after Sootopolis City, where you get waterfall. However, it is a very heavy hitter that definitely should be considered if you can trade it in or anything like that.
Altaria was one of my three partners on a Nuzlocke of Ruby, and he did surprisingly well with his combination of Dragon Dance and other TMs I'd taught him. Also, c'mon. The thing is like a giant cloud.
Flygon always has mystified me in that the tiny crab looking Trapinch can evolve into such a surprising foe. The STAB Earthquake is certainly something to be happy about, as well as the wide variety of Fire moves and Dragon moves it can learn. Overall though, Salamence is my favorite, at least as far as Generation III goes.

 

[Loner_grunger]

I was kinda crazy,I had a bagon ththen I breed it to get an hydro pump Salamance, ofc I ahd a lot of time and didnt know much about different kinds of attacks.

 

[JamieW]

I raised a Flygon on my last playthrough of Emerald an in my current playthrough of Sapphire here I'm gona raise another, great pokemon to have on your team IMO.

 

[Sonata]

I usually used Flygon since it was stronger than Altaria and was easier to obtain.

 

[DraconianWing]

I raised all three, but Salamence's massive attack power helped a lot during Battle Frontier challenges (as long as there weren't any "bulky" Ice types like Walrein or Lapras)

 

[Kikaito plush]

I used flygon as it appears earlier than the other two. It really helped in the liz and tate battle.