Pokémon Roserade

[Otter Power]

I was never really interested in Roselia when she came out -- that is, until she got a badass superhero evolution!

Roserade
60/70/55/125/105/90
Natural Cure, Poison Point, Technician (DW)

Notable moves (offensive):
Solar Beam
Shadow Ball
Sludge Bomb
Poison Jab
Pin missile
Energy Ball
Grass Knot
Giga Drain
Leaf Storm
Petal Blizzard
Dazzling gleam

Notable moves (status):
Swords dance
Spikes
Toxic Spikes
Venom Drench
Grassy Terrain
Substitute
Cotton Spore
Sleep Powder
Stun Spore
Leech seed

What immediately pops out about Roserade's stats is her special attack and special defence, as well as a decent speed, complementing her spiffy array of special attacks. She is also good in that she can set up both spikes and toxic spikes, which few Pokemon can actually do.

Roserade received some interesting moves in gen 6, such as Venom Drench and Dazzling Gleam. The former, Venom drench, could run beautifully on a toxic spikes Roserade set: Not only will the enemy be poisoned, but they will also have their attack, special attack, and speed lowered, which is pretty brutal. The latter, dazzling gleam, gives Roserade more type diversity in attacking, now allowing her to counter dragon types, and dark types!

I'll also throw in one of my move sets from B/W, a sunny day Roserade:

Gimmicky sunny day

252 sp.atk, 252 spd, 4 HP Heat rock
Sunny day
Sludge Bomb
Solar Beam
Weather Ball/HP fire

I don't know about viability, but running this Roserade alongside Volcarona was pretty fun, aiming to give Roserade some nice, big coverage for attacking. Sunny day gives Roserade's solar beam the instant-use boost it needs, letting you spam a solid 100 BP grass move. Sunny day also creates a nice surprise in weather ball, turning it into a fire-type move to take out steel-types and grass-types. Finally, there is sludge bomb, a move to counter the rise of the fairy types!

Spiker

252 HP, X def, X sp.def (I'm not sure how much to put in both...) @ black sludge
Toxic spikes
Venom Drench/Spikes
Giga drain
HP psychic/HP ground

This set takes advantage of Roserade's ability to use dual spikes -- mainly Toxic Spikes. After setting up a layer or two of toxi-spikes, Roserade can choose to either combo this into spikes, or the decimating Venom Drench. Spikes are what's usually run for the extra switch-in damage, though Venom drench is a good option, allowing Roserade to take a few more hits, whilst sustaining herself with giga drain. Lastly, we have Hidden power Psychic or ground, to sweep out poison-type Pokemon that can remove her toxic spikes (apparently they do this in gen 6).

Status Absorber by lopsided

Roserade @ Life Orb
Natural Cure
Modest
248Hp/252 Sp.Att/8Def
Energy Ball
Hp Fire
Sleep Powder
Rest

This set goes for longevity on Roserade -- Natural cure, combined with rest, lets her shrug off pretty much any status thrown at her. Sleep powder with rest allows for safe resting; and if you want to wake up, you can switch Roserade out for natural cure to cure her! For offence, this set takes energy ball for a STAB stable, and HP fire to murder any Ferrothorn in the way. This set is hard-walled by dragons and Heatran, however, so be sure to pair it up with someone to counter those!

Venus Fly Trap by psylink

Roserade @ Choice Scarf
nature: Timid
@ 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
ability: Technician / Natural Cure
Leaf Storm / Energy Ball
Sludge Bomb
Hidden Power Fire / Hidden Power Rock / Sleep Powder
Sleep Powder / Dazzling Gleam

This set aims to remedy Roserade's Speed to act as either an effective revenge killer with it's newly buffed offensive typing, letting Roserade kill the likes of Sylveon. Roserade's impressive 115 Special Defense lets it take some hits from the likes of Starmie as well. The STABs are two very different things. Leaf Storm has more power than Energy Ball, but it can't clean teams of more than 1 Pokemon left, whereas the newly buffed Energy Ball has a reliable 90 Base Power with no drawbacks, allowing Roserade to clean weakened teams. Sludge Bomb is solid coverage, hitting the Grass-types that resist the STAB move of choice, as well as revenge killing Fairy-type Pokemon that impede your team. Hidden Power would normally be useless with the nerf, but Technician boosts it up quite well, up to 90 Base Power. HP Fire hits Grass-types that are immune/resistant to Sludge Bomb, such as Venusaur and Ferrothorn, plus it takes out Steel-types. On the other hand, if Fire-types give you trouble, HP Rock is the way to go. Alternatively, if you opt to run Natural Cure as a status absorber, you can run Sleep Powder over Hidden Power to make room for Dazzling Gleam. Sleep Powder takes the fourth slot if you're running Technician, as sleep is pretty great, despite the nerfs lately. If you want to revenge kill Fighting-, Dark-, and Dragon- types that resist it's STABs or that Roserade walls, you can run Dazzling Gleam to kill all three.

All-out offensive by CoolStoryBrobat

Roserade @ Life Orb/Black Sludge
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 Spe / 4 HP
Timid Nature
- Leaf Storm/Energy Ball/Giga Drain
- Sludge Bomb
- Shadow Ball/Extrasensory
- Sleep Powder/Rest

It's something I've been using more in my game and on the Battle Spot rather than outright on PS, but back in Gen 5 UU this was Roserade's primary Offensive set, and it was pretty threatening to say the least. Leaf Storm coming off base 125 Sp. Atk hits insanely hard, while the newly-buffed Energy Ball packs a respectable 90 BP. Giga Drain is useful though for recovering HP back, especially if you choose to run Life Orb. Both alternatives are good if you don't want Roserade to play as a hit-and-run attacker due to Leaf Storm's power drop (especially if you mispredict). Sludge Bomb is optimal secondary STAB that hits a good amount of Pokemon for neutral damage, such as most Fire-type switchins not named Heatran, as well as being able to give you some leverage against Fairies. Shadow Ball's now able to hit Steel-types, meaning the only Pokemon this Roserade set can't hit for at least neutral damage would be Bisharp. Extrasensory is useful for dealing with Poison-type switch-ins like Crobat and Amoonguss, but most of the time you won't use it outside of predicting a foe to switch in something weak to it. Rest is good with Natural Cure to offset the damage from hazards, prior attacks, and Life Orb, while Sleep Powder can put a Pokemon out of the game for a bit long enough to keep momentum in your favor.

Discussing!: So that's what I've got for Roserade, for now. Although, I also want to see what suggestions you guys have for Roserade movesets, since I'm pretty new to competitive play. Also, what tier do you think she'll end up in this gen?

Interesting notes from people:
- Apparently Roserade got a boost to her defence this gen, up 10 from the old defence.
- Running technician on Roserade lets her use a hidden power of 90 BP, type of your choice :O

 

[EtherDrive]

Grass knot should be worth a mention with technician, you don't necessarily have to run Giga Drain and the only mon who you would do more damage to with GDrain rather than Grass knot is Rotom-W as far as OU is concerned

 

[RowDog]

You might also want to note that Roserade got a 10 base Def boost this gen. Not sure if that will really add up to much but hey its a nice addition.

I really like the idea of Toxic Spikes and Venom Drench and would probably be the best way to use Venom Drench, but is still very gimmicky and means you are probably going to be forced to switch against Flying types. Roserade was a prime Toxic Spikes user in UU and probably still will be but the Toxic Spikes removed by poison-types isn't new to this gen.

Sleep Powder works really well on her for setting up layers of spikes, or comboing it with Leech Seed and I think that she works best as a wall from experience in the UU tiers.

Not too much has changed for Roserade and I think she'll still remain in UU, but she got a nice sort of gimmick going in Venom Drench/Toxic Spikes which I'd like to see in action.

Grass knot should be worth a mention with technician, you don't necessarily have to run Giga Drain and the only mon who you would do more damage to with GDrain rather than Grass knot is Rotom-W as far as OU is concerned

Oh and I don't think you'll need to worry much about Rotom-W as Roserade already counters both its STABs, and in most cases the Giga Drain recovery should be found as more reliable and helpful.

 

[newtonja]

This pokemon would be a fanstastic check for azumarill maybe even a counter, unfortunately that alone would not make roserade ou material

 

[AOPSUser]

This pokemon would be a fanstastic check for azumarill maybe even a counter, unfortunately that alone would not make roserade ou material

252+ Atk Choice Band Huge Power Azumarill Play Rough vs. 252 HP / 120 Def Roserade: 179-211 (55.24 - 65.12%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Not to mention it can still viably run Ice Punch...

Really I like comparing Roserade and Venusaur. Roserade has Spikes and Toxic Spikes, but is more offensively oriented. If only GameFreak gave Venusaur Spikes...

In terms of defensive Grass/Poisons, Venusaur is far superior, even having a Mega evolution that beats all of Roserade's stats except Special Attack (by 3 points!) and Speed. The only thing Roserade has over it are a few movepool options like Dazzling Gleam. Also you'd have to be crazy to try to use a physical attacker with this guy, so I'm not sure why Poison Jab and Swords Dance are listed in the OP. It's too bad really, I always liked Roserade. Maybe people might actually use it over Venusaur this gen for offensive purposes?

 

[The Great Gastly]

I'm a huge fan of Roserade this gen. Sleep Powder + Spikes is a spectacular combination, allowing for many free layers to go up. Also, Grass/Poison is actually a really good defensive typing for an offensive pokemon -- most notably resisting electric, water, fighting, and fairy!

Roserade has a definite niche on offensive teams that need any combination of spikes, status absorbing, and/or a Rotom-W check. All of that while still maintaining a powerful offensive presence... I think he has plenty of reasons to be used over its biggest competition in Venusaur.

 

[escarlata]

Roserades access of sleep powder, sludge bomb, leaf storm and it's access to technician hidden power makes an all out offense set perfectly viable. It's leaf storm is capable of OHKOing garchomp and Gliscor, who usually sets up easily on defensive roserade. Not to mention it has one of the fastest sleep powders in the tier

 

[newtonja]

252+ Atk Choice Band Huge Power Azumarill Play Rough vs. 252 HP / 120 Def Roserade: 179-211 (55.24 - 65.12%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Not to mention it can still viably run Ice Punch...

Really I like comparing Roserade and Venusaur. Roserade has Spikes and Toxic Spikes, but is more offensively oriented. If only GameFreak gave Venusaur Spikes...

In terms of defensive Grass/Poisons, Venusaur is far superior, even having a Mega evolution that beats all of Roserade's stats except Special Attack (by 3 points!) and Speed. The only thing Roserade has over it are a few movepool options like Dazzling Gleam. Also you'd have to be crazy to try to use a physical attacker with this guy, so I'm not sure why Poison Jab and Swords Dance are listed in the OP. It's too bad really, I always liked Roserade. Maybe people might actually use it over Venusaur this gen for offensive purposes?

Yea, your right but like I said a decent check but yea no counter any day soon unfortunately

 

[haunter]

252+ Atk Choice Band Huge Power Azumarill Play Rough vs. 252 HP / 120 Def Roserade: 179-211 (55.24 - 65.12%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Not to mention it can still viably run Ice Punch...

Do note that Roserade's base Defense has been pumped to 65 in X/Y, so it can avoid the 2hko from play rough/waterfall with leftovers, if there is no hazard on the field. Still not the best Azumarill counter, but a good check. Roserade also has natural cure to set itself apart from Venusaur.

 

[lopsided]

I've been laddering with
Roserade @ Life Orb
Natural Cure
Modest
248Hp/252 Sp.Att/8Def
Energy Ball
Hp Fire
Sleep Powder
Rest

Really good counter for Rotom as well as a status absorber for my team, Energy Ball's buff to 90 base power warrants its use over Leaf Storm plus the perfect accuracy is great, forces a few things out so can sleep powder, hp fire almost always OHKOs ferrothorn even with the nerf.

65 def still isn't the greatest and is hard walled by Dragons and Heatran but does its job well.

Probably should adjust speed/ hp EVs but nothing comes to mind what it absolutely needs to outspeed

As cool as Tecnician HP is, Rest + NC is far more useful for longevity IMO

 

[deluge]

Venom Drench is not a damaging move but Roserade is one of the faster users next to Crobat. It could probably work with Toxic Spikes, Sludge Bomb/HP Fire and Leech Seed as well. A poisoned and seeded mon would be taking heavy damage while finding it increasingly difficult to dent Roserade.

 

[Jaroda]

Oh wow you're right Technician would boost HP to a 90 BP elemental move of his choice. that's actually a BIG deal! Imagine scarf or specs in the sun with Solarbeam/Leaf Storm, Weather Ball, Dazzling Gleam and HP Rock. Brutal! Too bad Talonflame can outspeed no matter what with Brave Bird but I can't help but love the look on their face getting hit with that. HP Ground would be good for Heatran. Or HP Dark if you want a Ghost killer.

 

[Psylink]

Technician is OK, but Natural Cure is such a great defensive ability, Technician is quite a waste.

 

[Innocent Criminal]

With permanent weather gone Synthesis is now a viable option, and it's much superior to Rest+NC in my opinion. Even when your opponent has a Tyranitar sandstorm will only be up a fraction of the time, and definitely much less often overall than you lose momentum from using Rest.

 

[Otter Power]

Technician is OK, but Natural Cure is such a great defensive ability, Technician is quite a waste.

I thought so for a while as well, until someone mentioned Hidden power -- when paired with technician (HP is 60 BP, which is the max for technician), Hidden power becomes a solid 90BP special move of whatever type you may need. It also synergises well with Grass knot, apparently, though I haven't tried that out yet.
Since taking Technician instead of natural cure trades off easy-heals for offensive ability, you'd mainly want tech for full-on sweeper Roserade sets. Anything else should go with natural cure!

I've been laddering with
Roserade @ Life Orb
Natural Cure
Modest
248Hp/252 Sp.Att/8Def
Energy Ball
Hp Fire
Sleep Powder
Rest

As a Rotom-w user, that's scary. I'll add it to my movesets in the post!

 

[Psylink]

Otter Power that is a good point. Imo, bulky sets like the one lopsided posted are going to be the best this gen, and Sludge Bomb will be very common to take care of Fairies, which leaves no room for Hidden Power. Also, Rest synergizes well with Natural Cure.

I'm not saying that Technician isn't a good ability. An example:

Set Name: Venus Fly Trap (Choice Scarf)
Roserade @ Choice Scarf | nature: Timid
ability: Technician / Natural Cure
Leaf Storm / Energy Ball | Sludge Bomb | Hidden Power Fire / Hidden Power Rock / Sleep Powder| Sleep Powder / Dazzling Gleam @ 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe

This set aims to remedy Roserade's Speed to act as either an effective revenge killer with it's newly buffed offensive typing, letting Roserade kill the likes of Sylveon. Roserade's impressive 115 Special Defense lets it take some hits from the likes of Starmie as well. The STABs are two very different things. Leaf Storm has more power than Energy Ball, but it can't clean teams of more than 1 Pokemon left, whereas the newly buffed Energy Ball has a reliable 90 Base Power with no drawbacks, allowing Roserade to clean weakened teams. Sludge Bomb is solid coverage, hitting the Grass-types that resist the STAB move of choice, as well as revenge killing Fairy-type Pokemon that impede your team. Hidden Power would normally be useless with the nerf, but Technician boosts it up quite well, up to 90 Base Power. HP Fire hits Grass-types that are immune/resistant to Sludge Bomb, such as Venusaur and Ferrothorn, plus it takes out Steel-types. On the other hand, if Fire-types give you trouble, HP Rock is the way to go. Alternatively, if you opt to run Natural Cure as a status absorber, you can run Sleep Powder over Hidden Power to make room for Dazzling Gleam. Sleep Powder takes the fourth slot if you're running Technician, as sleep is pretty great, despite the nerfs lately. If you want to revenge kill Fighting-, Dark-, and Dragon- types that resist it's STABs or that Roserade walls, you can run Dazzling Gleam to kill all three.

 

[Quaily]

grass types are immune to spore moves now so natural cure isn't as useful as it was in the past. technician will definitely have a spot for offensive roserades and hidden power. grass knot doesn't benefit much as it only brings it up to the power of energy ball, so the only thing you would gain by using it over energy ball now is against ttar I think, and ttar probably wouldn't want to fight roserade. a set with energy ball/shadow ball/hp:fire/synthesis would have good staying power and nice offensive coverage.

venoshock is unbelievably powerful if you are using toxic spikes

 

[Magicfire]

Just saying, Hidden Power Grass is really strong with Technician and a STAB boost, even though it really isn't a good option at all.

Personally, I think Technician is better, since Roserade is immune to Spore and Venusaur gives it stiff competition as a more defensive Pokemon. Mega Vensaur has better stats in almost every single category, lacks weaknesses to Fire and Ice, and also checks Azumarill very well. I just wish it had moves that culd take advantage of Technician more though, but oh well.

 

[Psylink]

Just saying, Hidden Power Grass is really strong with Technician and a STAB boost, even though it really isn't a good option at all.

Personally, I think Technician is better, since Roserade is immune to Spore and Venusaur gives it stiff competition as a more defensive Pokemon. Mega Vensaur has better stats in almost every single category, lacks weaknesses to Fire and Ice, and also checks Azumarill very well.

HP Grass both takes away your Hidden Power slot and it has the exact same power as Energy Ball this Gen, and Energy Ball has the 10 percent chance to lower Special Defense. Completely outclassed.

 

[CoolStoryBrobat]

What of an all-out offensive set such as:

Roserade @ Life Orb/Black Sludge
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 Spe / 4 HP
Timid Nature
- Leaf Storm/Energy Ball/Giga Drain
- Sludge Bomb
- Shadow Ball/Extrasensory
- Sleep Powder/Rest

It's something I've been using more in my game and on the Battle Spot rather than outright on PS, but back in Gen 5 UU this was Roserade's primary Offensive set, and it was pretty threatening to say the least. Leaf Storm coming off base 125 Sp. Atk hits insanely hard, while the newly-buffed Energy Ball packs a respectable 90 BP. Giga Drain is useful though for recovering HP back, especially if you choose to run Life Orb. Both alternatives are good if you don't want Roserade to play as a hit-and-run attacker due to Leaf Storm's power drop (especially if you mispredict). Sludge Bomb is optimal secondary STAB that hits a good amount of Pokemon for neutral damage, such as most Fire-type switchins not named Heatran, as well as being able to give you some leverage against Fairies. Shadow Ball's now able to hit Steel-types, meaning the only Pokemon this Roserade set can't hit for at least neutral damage would be Bisharp. Extrasensory is useful for dealing with Poison-type switch-ins like Crobat and Amoonguss, but most of the time you won't use it outside of predicting a foe to switch in something weak to it. Rest is good with Natural Cure to offset the damage from hazards, prior attacks, and Life Orb, while Sleep Powder can put a Pokemon out of the game for a bit long enough to keep momentum in your favor.

 

[Sazoon]

What of an all-out offensive set such as:

Roserade @ Life Orb/Black Sludge
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 Spe / 4 HP
Timid Nature
- Leaf Storm/Energy Ball/Giga Drain
- Sludge Bomb
- Shadow Ball/Extrasensory
- Sleep Powder/Rest

It's something I've been using more in my game and on the Battle Spot rather than outright on PS, but back in Gen 5 UU this was Roserade's primary Offensive set, and it was pretty threatening to say the least. Leaf Storm coming off base 125 Sp. Atk hits insanely hard, while the newly-buffed Energy Ball packs a respectable 90 BP. Giga Drain is useful though for recovering HP back, especially if you choose to run Life Orb. Both alternatives are good if you don't want Roserade to play as a hit-and-run attacker due to Leaf Storm's power drop (especially if you mispredict). Sludge Bomb is optimal secondary STAB that hits a good amount of Pokemon for neutral damage, such as most Fire-type switchins not named Heatran, as well as being able to give you some leverage against Fairies. Shadow Ball's now able to hit Steel-types, meaning the only Pokemon this Roserade set can't hit for at least neutral damage would be Bisharp. Extrasensory is useful for dealing with Poison-type switch-ins like Crobat and Amoonguss, but most of the time you won't use it outside of predicting a foe to switch in something weak to it. Rest is good with Natural Cure to offset the damage from hazards, prior attacks, and Life Orb, while Sleep Powder can put a Pokemon out of the game for a bit long enough to keep momentum in your favor.

I've never been fond of rest because when I played with that set in UU, I always found rest just sucked up momentum like a vaccume. Giga drain I found to be far better because it accommodated for life orb.

Oh hey brobat! I just realized I was replying to you lol.

 

[EternalZ]

I've been running

Roserade@Expert Belt
Timid, 252 Sp.Atk/252 Spe/4 HP
- Sludge Bomb
- Leaf Storm
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Dazzling Gleam

This set is actually really good, especially alongside Sticky Web support. It threatens fairies, grass types, bulky waters, dragons, you name it. Not much can safely switch into this set due to it's strong coverage. So far the only pokemon that can take this set on even on the switch is Crobat, who laughs at it's STABS and Dazzling Gleam and doesn't take TOO much damage from an unstabbed psuedo-flamethrower. All in all offensive Roserade got much better, enough to warrant more use in OU imo (with the proper support).

 

[south memphis flying squirrel]

It really annoys me how people say that we needed more good poison types to really balance out this new typing, but we have good pokémon like Roserade and Nidoking staring us right in the face. I am glad that Roserade is in a metagame where it will truly shine against this fairy threat.

 

[Kafei-]

Roserade can learn Acid Spray this gen? or serebii egg moves list are completed?

Edit: Try and fail she can't learn Acid Spray :(

 

[CoolStoryBrobat]

I've been running

Roserade@Expert Belt
Timid, 252 Sp.Atk/252 Spe/4 HP
- Sludge Bomb
- Leaf Storm
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Dazzling Gleam

This set is actually really good, especially alongside Sticky Web support. It threatens fairies, grass types, bulky waters, dragons, you name it. Not much can safely switch into this set due to it's strong coverage. So far the only pokemon that can take this set on even on the switch is Crobat, who laughs at it's STABS and Dazzling Gleam and doesn't take TOO much damage from an unstabbed psuedo-flamethrower. All in all offensive Roserade got much better, enough to warrant more use in OU imo (with the proper support).

I've always been sort of on-the-fence about having Fairy moves as coverage without STAB. Probably because it's a new type and I find it kind of weird, but how effective is having Dazzling Gleam? I mean most of the types it hits for SE on will either be dealt with by Leaf Storm and/or Sludge Bomb, or most likely can beat Roserade one-on-one despite being weak to it (Such as Weavile or Hawlucha for instance). Not saying it's bad because you can definitely hit some switch-ins for respectable damage, but is it worth it? I never tried the move out myself so I'm genuinely curious