Pokémon Noivern

[Seth Vilo]

Do we have any word if SR has changed at all?

Yes we do. It hasn't, sadly (says the Volcarona/Noivern fan)...

Starting out by saying that Noivern is and always was pretty much instantly a favorite of mine, and I'm REALLY glad to see it'll have utility in OU. Had you not made this thread by the time I was back from my midterm, Molk, I was going to. I've been spending the last few hours playing with Wonder Trade praying someone will randomly trade away a crummy Noibat so I can have it in my dex at least to GTS for... XD

On the Frisk v. Infiltrator thing though, it is complicated by the fact that Boomburst (and all sound moves) now hit through Subs. It should be made easier by saying just run Boomburst and Frisk and get the best of both worlds. But when I think on common Sub users, the first one that leaps into my head is Gengar, who is immune to Boomburst, and with your Speed being what it is, would be primary revenge-kill material. Assuming non-Mega for this example, Gengar somehow got a Sub up and kept it intact while KOing something of yours? No prob, you have Infiltrator Noivern to smack it up. Don't know if Gengar is Mega or not? Frisk it. There are pros and cons of both, especially in the new and unknown Mega-metagame incoming.

 

[Maui Wowee]

I'm probably going with one. Life Orb Modest. 252 special attack/ enough speed to outrun scarf latios after agility boost and dump the rest in hp. Agility, Boomburst, Flamethrower, Dragon Pulse.

 

[MaximumZero]

Is there any alternative to Hurricane especially if you don't run rain with him ? That 70 accuracy would definitely bite you back .

 

[Mattman324]

Is there any alternative to Hurricane especially if you don't run rain with him ? That 70 accuracy would definitely bite you back .

A worthy question. Air Slash should be on this thing, if only as an egg move.

 

[Seth Vilo]

Is there any alternative to Hurricane especially if you don't run rain with him ? That 70 accuracy would definitely bite you back .

Well, the most obvious answer is the aforementioned Boomburst. Beats out STAB Dragon Pulse (and therefore Air Slash too) on neutral targets in overall power, with no drawbacks. Man that move is cool...

 

[Jameswilliams]

Question: can noivern breed super fang onto crobat?

Hope so because i want both, and i love stallbreaker crobat.

Flying gem acrobatics is my fave

Actually many of noiverns moveset would be nice if able to be bred onto crobat.

 

[Limer]

When I saw noivern´s stats and movepool, the first thing that popped in my mind was a stall breaker crobat, but with sp.A.
It get´s roost, taunt, super fang and a few attacking moves, it has a great speed and decent Sp.A. Practically all the tools to be a great stall breaker.
These are noivern´s base stats:
Hp. 85, Atk. 70, Def. 80, Sp.A. 97, Sp.def. 80. Spd. 123.

And here´s crobat´s base stats:
Hp. 85, Atk. 90, Def. 80, Sp.A. 70, Sp.def. 80. Spd. 130.

Infiltrator just boots it´s ability to stop stall going though substitute.

HPAttackDefenseSp. AttackSp. DefenseSpeed​

Base Stats

8570809780123​

 

[PurpleCordial]

Just pointing out that unless Draco is resisted 2 Dracos does more than 2 Boomburst even with the stat drop and the nerf making it 130 this gen

130*1.5 = 195 (STAB)
195*0.5 = 97 (2nd Draco)

195+97 = 292

140 * 2 = 280

 

[Seth Vilo]

Just pointing out that unless Draco is resisted 2 Dracos does more than 2 Boomburst even with the stat drop and the nerf making it 130 this gen

130*1.5 = 195 (STAB)
195*0.5 = 97 (2nd Draco)

195+97 = 292

140 * 2 = 280

When it comes down to a difference of 12 base power for two moves, I'm fine using Boomburst twice instead and not having my SpA cut down to a third for coverage moves I may need to use. Nuking something needs Draco, but for general use, I'm thinking two Boombursts are better for me. Either way, either Ghosts or Fairies are coming on with their immunity, so nothing is perfect...

 

[Spunik]

A worthy question. Air Slash should be on this thing, if only as an egg move.

I have Air Slash on my Noivern.

 

[Mattman324]

I have Air Slash on my Noivern.

Yeah, Serebii said much the same thing. With Noviern's speed, I can see Air Slash being quite useful on it...

actually, has anyone considered using this thing as a Scarfer? 123 Base Speed (according to OP and Serebii), Draco Meteor/Boomburst/Air Slash/Flamethrower having good coverage and Boomburst hitting past subs, reasonable attacking power... this thing could be a good revenge killer.

 

[CS3]

I think a LO Noivern could work well as a RK with just SW support,
-being immune to SW is also a large and noteworthy boon for the bat, so keep that in mind-
I think it'll function just well as a RK without scarf, although I suppose if you're dying for the insurance you could use it

 

[Lovelace]

Noivern is really an instant favourite of mine but I'm finding his lack of power to be a real struggle, particularly since his speed, ability, and access to U-Turn just beg for scarf. It's too bad (for Noivern) that perma rain is going away; I feel he really needs that 100% accurate Hurricane to make his damage respectable. Failing the dual threat of Draco/Hurricane I'm really struggling to find a justification for using this guy over something like Latios. His weak U-Turn is not enough when you consider his Stealth Rock weakness and a community that's becoming steadily better at dealing with U-Turn shenanigans. I love the guy but I'm afraid he may become something like a specially based Flygon (with better speed but worse typing).

 

[56k]

This thing is a good lead pokemon. Frisk lets you know if you're up against a banded or scarfed tyranitar, or a sash or custap berry lead, it has an extremely fast u-turn and taunt, and you have options like draco meteor and super fang.

 

[WildShot]

Drizzle was also pretty amazing in Gen 5 but it's not like they gave it to Kingdra lol.

If they had given Drizzle to Kingdra, it wouldn't have been as good because it would have meant that it wouldn't be able to abuse Swift Swim, which is what makes it so deadly. Otherwise, it gets murdered by every Salamence, Garchomp, and Hydreigon that it meets.

 

[Soda]

If they had given Drizzle to Kingdra, it wouldn't have been as good because it would have meant that it wouldn't be able to abuse Swift Swim, which is what makes it so deadly. Otherwise, it gets murdered by every Salamence, Garchomp, and Hydreigon that it meets.

That's so true, lol, my bad. I b dumb. My point with that post was that they didn't give Boomburst to Porygon-Z or Pixilate Gardevoir or something like that, as powerful as the move is it it's not a big deal for Noivern to have it.

 

[Codyksp]

I'm having quite some trouble figuring out a decent moveset for this guy... Boomburst beats out pretty much anything that isn't super effective, even STAB moves. Hurricane is too unreliable with it's low accuracy and Draco Meteor makes any other special moves useless afterwards in my eyes.

At the moment it's got Flamethrower, Boomburst, Dragon Pulse and Shadow Ball. I was thinking of replacing Dragon Pulse with Hyper Fang since I have a Fairy on my team anyway to switch into dragons. With these moves it would cover Steel and Ghost (to which Boomburst does nothing/almost nothing) and Hyper Fang could take down any kind of SpD wall, everything else can just be Boombursted aside from Rock.

I haven't done any EV training with it yet but I do have a reset bag standing by, I don't know if I should go for 252 SpA/252 Spe/4 Def or 252 SpA/252 SpD/4 Def. To be honest it has quite a few weaknesses but it's SpD is quite decent.

 

[ROFLz]

noivern kind of reminds me of tornadus-t actually, but with a dragon type and roost. I've been using scarf noivern lately and it's actually kind of decent with that speed stat, access to u-turn and strongth STABs. The lack of power hasn't been too big of a deal yet but I will need to test more before I can say for sure.

Specs is good too, fast + strong draco meteors are really good and noivern's coverage is definitely not bad at all. I've not used life orb, subroost or bulky noivern yet,will need to test those soon.

As good as choice sets are, I think life orb / expert belt might actually turn out better. Choice sets are sooo weak to scizor and tyranitar's pursuit that in order to stay alive they might need to spam u-turn / coverage moves all through the early game, and with an SR weakness...it won't turn out too well.

I definitely think this guy has potential, looking forward to using him this gen!

 

[FrostFire]

Is it just me, or does this kind of remind people of Gen 4 Flygon?

Because that's the kind of role I can see this guy filling. They're about equal in terms of power, though Noivern has that great speed to nab revenge kills, high BP attacks including DM, Boomburst and Hurricane, as well as being able to generally scout around the opponents' team with U-turn. Frisk also seems surprisingly good this gen, in that it will allow you to see whether a pokemon is holding a Mega Stone or not, which can be really important information. The major downside, for me, is not primarily Noivern's power output, but in fact it's SR weakness. Noivern seems like the kind of pokemon that wants to bounce in-and-out of battle quite a bit, scouting your opponents' team a bit, and firing off some speedy attacks. But, if it's taking 25% per switch in, it's going to fall fast. I imagine that it's effectiveness will really hinge on whether you can keep SR off the field. Also, I haven't done damage calcs for it, but I suppose it remains to be seen whether it's just strong enough to be worth it too.

 

[Malum]

U-Turn and Boomburst are great moves on this guy, but I think its a little outclassed by infiltrator Crobat, and there are better dragon/flying Pokemon. A fast taunt could have a pretty good niche in UU-OU though.

 

[Shadius]

I just started getting back into Pokemon this Gen and I'm just in love with the utility Noivern actually brings to the table. Personally I believe my favorite use of Noivern would be as some sort of Anti-lead. Noivy can support having Taunt/U-Turn, with having high base speed and Frisk. This leads to you not only be able to scout very well, but being able to shut down setups, or putting out heavy damage from the get go.

Noivern w/Life Orb
Modest/Timid Nature
252 S.ATK/SPD EV
Frisk

Taunt
U-Turn
Draco-Meteor
Boomburst

Above is something I personally had in mind, the set gives you the utility to properly scout, or burst down pokemon, and even prevent set-ups/hazards via Taunt. Mind you this is a work in progress but I feel like this use has a bunch of potential depending on how the Meta develops this Gen.

 

[Zé Capáu]

Infiltrator is needed, even if you have Boomburst other moves shall need to get the infiltrator buff.

Remember that Boomburst can't hit Ghosts, so for a non-Infiltrator set it's obvious that it's main counter would be Substitute Gengar, for example.

 

[Aurinko]

Noivern does not get Defog, tried it with a Swanna.

 

[Aviv]

Would having a Naive nature so U-turn did slightly more damage be worth it on Noivern, or do you think the difference would be negligible?

 

[Raseri]

I think Noivern has a decent amount of potential this generation, it will compete with Crobat quite a bit for the role of a speedy stallbreaker, but it's strong defensive typing will go a long way to helping it out.

When I think of Noivern in the future, I can imagine it running Tailwind / U-turn / Draco Meteor / Hurricane quite effectively. Tailwind is a weird move, but it's ability to allow other slow offensive threats to destroy (im thinking Mega Garchomp).

So basically I think Noivern could be a cool stall breaker / pivot in OU. It won't be top tier by any means, but its got U-turn to differ itself from the lati twins, and that extra speed could come in handy too!