jas61292
used substitute
Of the abilities mentioned so far, I think that Water Absorb and its ilk are some of the best options. Gyarados does not specifically have trouble with most water types, but the threat of scald makes it hard to reliably set up on things like Keldeo, even with a full resistance to its movesets. As alexwolf mentioned, these do have the downside of taking away things like choice locked Hydro Pump as set up opportunities for Gyarados, over all, I see it playing to our advantages. With that said, I personally prefer Water Absorb over Dry Skin. Being slightly bigger bait for fire type moves is kinda nice, what with Gyarados resisting them. However, at the same time, Dry Skin does a bit to encourage placing the CAP on a rain team, which usually have their own set of set up sweepers that they would go with, rather than Gyarados. Its not a major concern, but I personally don't think that a 1.25x weakness is worth the possible distraction. Storm Drain, on the other hand, is a definitely viable options. The contrast between Storm Drain and Water Absorb is all about what role we want to take.
On the other hand, one ability that has been mentioned a decent amount that I very much dislike is Iron Barbs/Rough Skin. I understand some of the benefits that people have mentioned, however I think that any ability that could kill the opponent is very dangerous for this concept. The entire goal we have is free setup, and if the opponent is KOed at the same time as us, which is very possible with an ability like this, we could very easily lose any opportunity that we otherwise could have had. While I will admit that punishing U-Turners further than simply by resisting their moves is kinda nice, I believe that this could be done better with something like Static, which inflicts a crippling condition on contact users without ever risking losing our set up opportunities.
On the other hand, one ability that has been mentioned a decent amount that I very much dislike is Iron Barbs/Rough Skin. I understand some of the benefits that people have mentioned, however I think that any ability that could kill the opponent is very dangerous for this concept. The entire goal we have is free setup, and if the opponent is KOed at the same time as us, which is very possible with an ability like this, we could very easily lose any opportunity that we otherwise could have had. While I will admit that punishing U-Turners further than simply by resisting their moves is kinda nice, I believe that this could be done better with something like Static, which inflicts a crippling condition on contact users without ever risking losing our set up opportunities.