Fire, Ground, and Dragon covers everything, so not much can safely switch into this. Fire Blast does amazing amounts of damage, even to those that resist it, and allows for a 3HKO on the likes of Gyarados and Swampert, and even Blissey. Overheat packs more initial power and superior accuracy, but has less power over two turns than Fire Blast. However, it is certainly worth considering as your primary attack, if only for accuracy issues. Earth Power provides excellent coverage and is always a 2HKO on both Tyranitar and Rhyperior in a Sandstorm, even if they have max HP. Dragon Pulse is a OHKO on every Dragon you will find in OU. When Heatran is close to fainting, you can use Explosion to take out another Pokémon. If Explosion doesn't appeal to you, you can try Hidden Power Grass or Electric in the last slot. Hidden Power Grass brings down Swampert in one hit, while Hidden Power Electric OHKOs Gyarados. Another reason to use either is to 2HKO Suicune and Milotic that don't invest in Special Defense (Milotic is 3HKOed if it uses Special Defense EVs). Flamethrower and Lava Plume are also viable options here, should you want a more reliable, backup STAB attack. Lava Plume is particularly good due to the 30% burn rate, which can severely cripple Gyarados and friends. If you're using Heatran in Ubers, you can ditch Earth Power if you wish. You will only be using it if you run into opposing Heatran, so replacing it with Hidden Power Electric (which offers the chance of 2HKOing Kyogre) is recommended. If you can get a Flash Fire boost, Flamethrower alone in the sun easily 2HKOs Blissey, making Explosion less necessary.
You lose the massive damage potential when switching from Specs to Scarf, but the Speed boost is very helpful to Heatran as it patches up that rather average Speed. Notice that Hidden Power Ice is now optimal because you lack the power to OHKO Dragons with Dragon Pulse. With these EVs, you are faster than base 120s such as (and most notably) Dugtrio, which you can OHKO with Fire Blast. Fire Blast will also OHKO (4 HP / 0 SpD) Azelf 92.3% of the time.
With its sky high Special Attack stat coupled with a strong offensive movepool, Heatran's excellent defenses and useful resistances are often overlooked. This set makes Heatran a fantastic status absorber, as well as a solid special wall. Lava Plume is a great move on this set, as the 30% burn rate further adds to its survivability, and also discourages Gyarados from freely switching in on it. Earth Power keeps other Fire-types from walling you, and provides the Fire / Ground attacking combo that is resisted by very few Pokemon. The Special Defense drop also allows you to outstall other walls, such as Blissey, 1 on 1. If you don't care about hitting opposing Heatrans, Dragon Pulse is a viable option, as it gives good coverage while also hitting the dragons that resist your main form of attack. It should be noted that Lava Plume's burn rate should already make physical attacking dragons think twice before switching in on Heatran. Life Orb recoil may seem unwelcome on a set that is meant to take hits, but being able to Rest off the recoil damage makes it a solid alternative to Leftovers.
Metal Sound is great for causing switches, and allows Heatran to KO Pokémon who have had a Special Defense drop. Lava Plume and Leftovers are the more defensive options, allowing you the chance to score a burn on the switch. Fire Blast and Life Orb make Heatran much more powerful, and allow you to guarantee a 2HKO on Blissey after hitting her with Metal Sound. With Life Orb and Metal Sound, Hidden Power Grass has a good chance of OHKOing most Milotic and Suicune. Hidden Power Ice is obviously there to take out incoming Dragons. Taunt can let Heatran disable something like Blissey temporarily. If you want to try your luck with the 70% accuracy of Heatran's signature move, Magma Storm, then this is the set to do it with. Explosion can go in the last slot if you're using Magma Storm, so that you can trap and kill Blissey or anything else that is giving you trouble.
Even without a choice item, Heatran can still excel with his magnificent Special Attack. This set takes advantage of most walls; Crippling them with taunt and killing them with a wide variety of Special Attacks. It is usually best to bring in Heatran late-game, where his sweeping capabilities really excel. Taunt is what makes this set so effective. Capable of crippling Cresselia and Blissey, Taunt allows Heatran to be one of the few special sweepers to take out these two Pokemon. Now don't be discouraged by Heatrans lack of a stat boosting move. Thanks to his ability, Flash Fire, Heatran gains an immunity to Fire as well as a stat boost if he switches in on a Fire attack. Fire Blast is the key as with 120 Base Power, Life Orb, and Heatrans high Special Attack, it becomes nothing to laugh at. Earth Power helps cover what Fire Blast doesn't. Thanks to the high speed, it will easily kill other Heatran, provided they do not use a Choice Scarf. It also allows you to defeat Tyranitar, if you need that "last" hit to kill him. The last attack will be based on what Pokemon you fear the most. Hidden Power Electric will be able to kill Gyarados and bulky Waters. However if you fear Swampert, Grass should be your choice. Explosion will kill all of these pokemon, as well as kill any Dragons who switch in on Heatran. One can take a much more defensive approach with the set, as giving Heatran Will-O-Wisp and Lava Plume, as well as keeping Taunt, allows you to stay alive much longer and cause all sort of problems for your opponent. Heatran can also easily Taunt opposing defensive Pokemon, making it a great defender. Stealth Rock could also be considered on a defensive Taunt set, as Heatrans access to high power Fire attacks will scare of Rapid Spinners, such as Forretress and Cloyster. Life Orb provides a lot of power for Heatran, however Leftovers also provides a way to defeat many defensive Pokemon such as Blissey. Both items can change the game and depend on your style of play. This set is tailored to give Heatran that extra "boost" in speed so you will use a lot of it there. However only 236 are needed with Timid to reach 274 which should be your goal as it outpaces Jolly Smeargle. 24 HP EVs will allow you the best number when using Life Orb and the rest can be put in Special Attack. If you choose to run a Modest Nature you can simply use enough Speed to net you 246, outspeeding Jolly Tyranitar. If you decide to forgo the offensive Taunt-Tran and use the defensively based one, the EVs should be tailored quite differently. A Modest Nature should be used, as well as 224 Speed EVs, This allows you to outspeed the Jolly Tyranitar and hopefully burn it before it attacks you. Max out HP to ensure you survive for quite some time and then procede to put the remaining 32 EVs in Special Attack. Other OptionsFlash Cannon gives you a bit more power against most Rock-types when compared to Earth Power, but the coverage it provides otherwise is average at best. Dark Pulse may seem tempting, especially in Ubers, but when you have a Sunny Day boosted Fire attack, Earth Power, and Dragon Pulse at your disposal, it will fail to cause more damage to anything else. Will-O-Wisp is available to reliably burn an incoming physical attacker, like Gyarados. Roar is there if you need a phazer, mostly for the likes of Ninjask and Scizor. Stealth Rock is useful for support, but there are other Pokémon who are better suited for this role. EVsUsually, you want to max that Special Attack. For Speed, the first major breakpoint is at 222 Speed, which requires 128 EVs. This beats out Adamant Tyranitar. 216 EVs hits 244 Speed, beating Adamant Breloom and Jolly Tyranitar. 236 EVs will hit 373 Speed if you're using Choice Scarf, which is enough to beat Jolly Dugtrio. Timid Nature can also work for the Choice Specs set to outrun the likes of Mamoswine, Gyarados, and Heracross. If you use Timid, go with at least 224 Speed EVs, so you can outrun Adamant Heracross. In Ubers, Timid and Choice Scarf help to outrun Timid / Hasty / Naive Mewtwo (200 EVs) and Mild / Rash Deoxys-A (212 EVs). For the Rest set, you'll want to focus on HP and the defenses so you can take hits better. The 100 Special Attack EVs gives 353 Special Attack, which gets the "bonus" point (96 Special Attack EVs would only give 351 Special Attack). Another option for this set is 252 HP / 56 SpA / 200 SpD with a Modest nature. This spread allows you to OHKO 252 HP / 0 Special Defense Skarmory with Lava Plume and puts the rest of the EVs to effectively take special hits. OpinionHeatran is part Steel, making it neutral to Stealth Rock and immune to Sandstorm. The typing affords Heatran a massive list of useful resistances, including a Fire immunity with Flash Fire. Notably, it resists Dragon, and makes a more than decent switch into Choice Specs Salamence, and an even better switch into Azelf. The DP environment looks to be segmented into two groups: very fast Pokémon, and slow Pokémon. That makes Heatran's 77 base Speed quite adequate, allowing it to outrun the slow group with EVs to spare. On the other hand, Heatran is weak to Water, Fighting, and most importantly Ground (x4). These are all relatively common types, so tread carefully. CountersThe obvious switch-ins are Water Pokémon—Milotic, Suicune, and Vaporeon are happy to take pretty much any attack. Tentacruel takes even Earth Power somewhat well and can set up Toxic Spikes or just Surf you. Gyarados and Swampert, however, need to be wary of Lava Plume's burn rate and random Hidden Powers. Garchomp can fairly safely come in on anything but Lava Plume and Dragon Pulse / Hidden Power Ice and threaten to OHKO with Earthquake or set up a Swords Dance. Salamence has similar capabilities, except it can use a pure special set to not care about Lava Plume, and it can retaliate with Hydro Pump. Moltres has difficulty doing damage back to Heatran if it doesn't have Hidden Power Ground / Hidden Power Fighting, but if it has Roost (and usually Substitute as well), it doesn't need to do damage. It can just keep healing off the damage as Heatran is unable to kill Moltres before being Pressure-stalled out of PP. Heatran can also come in easily on enemy Heatran thanks to Flash Fire and threaten it back with Earth Power. This is especially useful thanks to the prevalence of Choice Specs / Choice Scarf on Heatran, meaning as long as you bring it in on something other than Earth Power, you're safe. Blissey is a habitual pain, but the risk of Explosion will make her think twice. She can be 2HKOed by a Choice Specs Fire Blast if Heatran gets a Flash Fire boost, or if Sunny Day is active. Snorlax can absorb Heatran's main offense thanks to high HP and Special Defense paired with Thick Fat. Snorlax can then KO with Earthquake or just stall with Body Slam and Rest. Hariyama is in a similar boat to Snorlax, except it has slightly worse Special Defense and it gets STAB on Fighting to take Heatran out of commission. After it kills something, Dugtrio can come in and kill Heatran easily. However, Heatran always threatens Choice Scarf, so unless you are running Choice Scarf Dugtrio, be aware of this threat. In Ubers, Kyogre is the best counter you will find; Manaphy under rainy conditions works, too. Palkia is decent as long as it doesn't take a Dragon Pulse, and is quadruply resistant to Fire. Ho-oh with Earthquake also takes Heatran on quite well. Latias and Latios can use Heatran to set up a Calm Mind sweep. |
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