Breeding Gastly

[CAMountainSnake]

I have been trying to breed a Male Gastly with a decent nature. I seem to be getting a lot of the natures that have no effects. This seems to be the case with a lot of the Lapras and Cubone I have also been breeding. What is going on? I keep getting Quirkies, Hardies, Bashfuls, and Serious Pokemon. Anyway, is Gentle a good nature, besides Modest, to put on a Gastly? Defense rises slowly but that is not a big deal because Ghosts are not weak to any Physical attacks, and Special Defense rises sharply.

[andyizcool]

Defense rises slowly but that is not a big deal because Ghosts are not weak to any Physical attacks, and Special Defense rises sharply.
Ghost Pokemon are weak to Ghost attacks that happen to be physical so Defence would come into play there. Ghost Pokemon are also weak to Dark but not many people use Dark attacks because they don't cover many types.

[rinku]

I dunno about not many beople using Dark attacks - Bite and Crunch are very common level up moves outside of the actual Dark group, and handy for the Special Attacker versions of such things as Salamence, Flygon and Espeon (mind you, the last thing Gengar has to worry about from Espeon is its Bite...)

Gengar (as opposed to Ghost in general) is vulnerable to Ghost, Dark and Psychic, while remaining immune to Normal, Fighting and Ground. It's x2 resistant to Grass and x4 resistant to Bug and Poison (and is immune to poisoning). Its base Defense is 60 and its base Special Defense is 75 - better but not spectacular.

Fire, Water, Electric, Ice and Dragon affect it normally.
Flying, Rock and Steel affect it normally.

On balance, it's as likely to be zapped with special as with physical. Apart from Grass, a Special Attacker will be usually be using its normal attacks type against it (with STAB), while a non-Ghost Physical Attacker would typically be using Ghost Ball (a very common physical attacker backup) without STAB. Gengar owns the other Ghosts pretty much anyway, so I reckon it really has more to worry about from the Psychic crew, which means worry about its Special Defense.

But Just my thoughts. There is no absolute answer. Gentle is OK IMHO.

[CAMountainSnake]

Would a Hardy Gengar be better? I heard neutral natures are better for Mixed Sweepers which I intend to make it with Thunder Bolt, Sludge Bomb, Focus Punch, and Shadow Ball.

[rinku]

Would a Hardy Gengar be better? I heard neutral natures are better for Mixed Sweepers which I intend to make it with Thunder Bolt, Sludge Bomb, Focus Punch, and Shadow Ball.

Since 3/4 of your moves are physical, it would make more sense to go with a +Attack nature, perhaps Calm? The other tactic is to soak off on the Special Attack with Adamant and just accept a less than optimal Thunderbolt (which will still be powerful enough to be useful).

[MeLoVeGhOsTs]

If going for psychical:

Sub_FocusPunch_Thunderbolt_Shadowball

Ev's: 6HP, 252ATK, 252SPEED