|
-
Suction Cups
- Cannot be forced to switch. Increases chance of encountering Pokémon while fishing.
-
Sniper
- Critical Hits do 3x damage instead of 2x.
|
Statistics
|
Min- |
Min |
Max |
Max+ |
| HP |
75
|
- |
291 |
354 |
- |
| Atk |
105
|
221 |
246 |
309 |
339 |
| Def |
75
|
167 |
186 |
249 |
273 |
| SpA |
105
|
221 |
246 |
309 |
339 |
| SpD |
75
|
167 |
186 |
249 |
273 |
| Spe |
45
|
113 |
126 |
189 |
207 |
Octillery’s incredible movepool and Suction Cups makes it a nice receiver of stat boosts, since it cannot be shoved off its attacking position with Roar or Whirlwind. The moves shown above are resisted by no Pokémon in particular. Hidden Power Ground is better against Empoleon, but Energy Ball is overall preferable since it hits Water/Ground-types better, and it still hits Lanturn well. The EVs listed give Octillery 203 Speed, which gets to 406 after being passed an Agility (or two Ninjask Speed Boosts), which outruns Choice Scarf Heracross. Pass it a good number of Special Attack boosts, and Octillery can sweep anything in UU. If you plan to use this in OU, first make sure to remove the opponent’s special wall before attempting the sweep.
Choice Specs perhaps benefits Octillery more than other Pokémon, since said Octillery has no way of boosting its stats (besides using Charge Beam, but, again, it was also added in DP). Add Sniper to the equation and Octillery can hit extremely hard. Its low speed doesn’t help, but Octillery can always switch into a not-very-effective move, and try to predict the switch-in to hit it hard. Choice Scarf gives Octillery a maximum Speed of 310, which outspeeds base 91 Speed Pokémon – not too bad in the middle tier metagame.
Octillery’s Attack stat is also pretty decent, although its physical movepool is more limited. However, Water and Normal is resisted by Empoleon only, which can be taken care of by Hidden Power Ground (even though it’s special).
In DP, Focus Energy raises the critical hit ratio of the Pokémon that uses it by 2 instead of by 1. This fact, together with Sniper, can allow Octillery to deal an incredible amount of damage. With Scope Lens, Octillery will be able to score a critical hit in 1 out of 3 hits after using Focus Energy, which will deal triple damage instead of double due to Sniper. This way, Octillery can deal a minimum 77% even to Hypno and Grumpig, and OHKOs most other Pokémon that don't resist the move used.
Other Options
Octazooka is still Octillery’s signature move, and, although it has low power, it has a 50% chance of lowering the foe’s accuracy. Octillery can also learn a variety of other Special moves, like Sludge Bomb, Wring Out, Psychic, Brine, Charge Beam and Flash Cannon. Thunder Wave can help Octillery to hit first given its low Speed.
EVs
For the first set, you can vary the Speed EVs according to what you want to outspeed and how many Speed boosts you are planning to provide it. For the third set, if you decide to scrap Hidden Power Ground for another physical move, you can put the Special Attack EVs into HP.
Opinion
Octillery’s huge movepool and nice attacking stats have always made people attempt to use it consistently, with mixed results. The advent of Choice Specs, Choice Scarf and Sniper have improved Octillery from the point of view of unaided attacking power, but Octillery’s best use still remains that of being passed stat boosts from the other members of the team to attempt a sweep.
Counters
Against the first set, if Octillery is passed the Speed and Special Attack boosts, there’s very little you can do to counter it. Blissey and Cresselia can manage not to be OHKOed by a maximum Special Attack Octillery, but they can’t OHKO it back either, and Hazers will be outsped and OHKOed. So the trick to counter Octillery is to prevent the opponent from passing the stat boosts to it in the first place, usually via a well-timed Haze. Against the second and third sets, fellow Water Pokémon like Lanturn and Slowking in the middle tiers are usually good enough to counter it, although you’ll need to be wary of Energy Ball. Grumpig and Hypno can also counter the non-physical sets, but beware of Sniper.