Pokémon Heracross

[CPU]

Yes for Rock Blast, no for Pursuit. Pursuit is an Egg Move for Heracross in Gen 5. Rock Blast is illegal with Pursuit, however; nothing can breed both moves down.

 

[colton815]

move 1: Close Combat
move 2: Pin Missile
move 3: Rock Blast
move 4: Earthquake
ability: Moxie
item: Heracronite
evs: 4HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
nature: Adamant

First off, know that i plan on using ninjask to baton pass a swords dance and speed boost.

Adamant nature is preferred because raising any stat other than attack is a waste. moxie is by far the better ability because heracross will still keep the attack increase after mega evolving, unlike Guts. close combat can ensure a moxie boost before mega evolving, unlike arm thrust. even with skill link, close combat hits much harder anyway. the only types that resist both of heracross's STAB attacks are poison, flying, ghost, and fairy. rock blast hits flying super effectively, and the rest for neutral damage. earthquake hits aegislash.

Battle plan: once hera is in play, use close combat and earthquake to rack up moxie boosts until the opponent either brings in a pokemon resistant to those moves, or you suspect a focus sash. mega evolve. win.

 

[Red Cat]

Rock Blast + Pursuit is legal on Heracross since both males and females pass down egg moves now.

 

[EyeDentist]

move 1: Close Combat
move 2: Pin Missile
move 3: Rock Blast
move 4: Earthquake
ability: Moxie
item: Heracronite
evs: 4HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
nature: Adamant

First off, know that i plan on using ninjask to baton pass a swords dance and speed boost.

Adamant nature is preferred because raising any stat other than attack is a waste. moxie is by far the better ability because heracross will still keep the attack increase after mega evolving, unlike Guts. close combat can ensure a moxie boost before mega evolving, unlike arm thrust. even with skill link, close combat hits much harder anyway. the only types that resist both of heracross's STAB attacks are poison, flying, ghost, and fairy. rock blast hits flying super effectively, and the rest for neutral damage. earthquake hits aegislash.

Battle plan: once hera is in play, use close combat and earthquake to rack up moxie boosts until the opponent either brings in a pokemon resistant to those moves, or you suspect a focus sash. mega evolve. win.

How are you going to deal with all that flying type priority out there?

 

[pitties]

well to be fair, thats just the fault of one pokemon, talonflame. So just set up SR and kill talonflame before you use heracross. Oh and of course use scolipede rather than ninjask :)

 

[MegaMogwai]

So, i've come back from the depths of UU to build yet another team around Mega Heracross, i've been experimenting with some new things.

I gotta point out 2 things:

1) Swords Dance is a fucking legit move on mega hera. It ensures you DO NOT lose to stall. There are a ton of matches where it's so useful its ridiculous. Before I pretty much accepted the fact that Gliscor completely walled me, and a Chansey-Gliscor core had me fucked. Well, no more. Set up an SD on its obvious protect, you can even set up 2, and you OHKO ANYTHING that comes in. Your opponent brings out a revenge killer? Switch out, then start paralalyzing offensive threats, maybe even set up a late game tailwind. I mean it's the same strategy i've been using, but it fucking works, and swords dance is the solution to a problem which I faced regularly in the past.

2) Scarfed Magnezone is an outstanding team partner. One poke that enables me to trap and eliminate ferrothorn, skarmory and scizor (which are all problems to hera) and also counter fly spam, which is Megahera's biggest weakness.

 

[Lolme]

Silly question: what's the point of running pin missile? It is 5 points stronger than CC but bug type is in general a poor offensive type. Imo rock+fighting+ground give it enough coverage to be effective.

The only situation I can see pin missile being superior to CC or a coverage move is against Bisharp behind a sub, otherwise I would go for bullet seed to hit rotom-w hard in a single turn.

 

[Talpr0ne]

Pin Missile is mandatory for a couple of reason. First, it is a STAB that does not hamper your bulk; considering that the only types that resist Bug but not Fighting are Fire, Fighting and Steel it is more spammable than you'd think. Second, and probably more important, it obliterates Psychic types as well as Venusaur and Amoonguss, extremely important targets that a stallbreaker worth its salt can't afford to ignore. It also breaks Substitute and Focus Sash.

 

[Lolme]

Pin Missile is mandatory for a couple of reason. First, it is a STAB that does not hamper your bulk; considering that the only types that resist Bug but not Fighting are Fire, Fighting and Steel it is more spammable than you'd think. Second, and probably more important, it obliterates Psychic types as well as Venusaur and Amoonguss, extremely important targets that a stallbreaker worth its salt can't afford to ignore. It also breaks Substitute and Focus Sash.

I completely forgot about Venusaur and Amoongus, thanks for the clarification.

 

[Jaroda]

Psychic types are getting more popular with Aegislash gone, you'd be a fool to forgo Pin Missile. If anything it's because CC is weaker, lowers your defenses, can't break subs, is a contact move (Cursed Body, Iron Barbs, Rocky Helmet, etc.) that you should consider dropping it over Pin Missile. With Skarmory dropping there are VERY few pokemon that CC is your best option for, like Mega Scizor, Mega Aggron and Conkeldurr. Sure, CC is also technically stronger against Tyranitar and Bisharp, but it isn't even needed.

252+ Atk Mega Heracross Pin Missile (5 hits) vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Bisharp: 290-350 (86.8 - 104.7%) -- approx. 87.5% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
252+ Atk Mega Heracross Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Mega Tyranitar: 792-936 (196 - 231.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO

Plus without Pin Missile you have nothing for Latias/Latios, Mew, Slowbro, etc. And not that it's common, but this drives the point home.

252+ Atk Mega Heracross Pin Missile (5 hits) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Cresselia: 390-460 (87.8 - 103.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock

God damn.

 

[YO FACE!!!!!!]

I Earthquake absolutely necessary for Heracross? I mean what happens if you forgo it for Bullet Seed or Bulk Up?

 

[Norne]

I Earthquake absolutely necessary for Heracross? I mean what happens if you forgo it for Bullet Seed or Bulk Up?

It isnt mandatory. In OU it was mostly for Aegis wich went Uber duoblade is still there just uncomon tough. And Bulk up isnt good on Mhera SD offers immediate firepower if you want to break stall.

 

[Celticpride]

I would say EQ is deadweight now, it's borderline redundant with CC. You only need one of the two to hit steels and STAB CC is almost twice as strong as EQ with respect to most Steels. Pin Missile is good STAB and Rock Blast pick off the Flying types that resist both STABS.

Close Combat
Pin Missile
Rock Blast
Swords Dance

That's by far the most effective four move combination I've found. Bullet Seed doesn't matter, you can punch through Washtom at +2 very easily. The other benefit to using Pin Missile is that it gives you two moves that can break Subs and Sturdy. Bug/Fighting/Rock is completely unresistant in the current meta outside of obscure things like Nidoqueen. I'm open to hearing other arguments, however the standard SD (listed above) is really effing good and is probably the best set by a distance. Absolutely wrecks stall WITH NO REGARD FOR POKEMON LIFE!

 

[hobreezy]

Does anyone have any experience with running a sub as the fourth moveslot instead of SD or EQ? It seems like a sub would really help against revenge killers and status

 

[Jaroda]

If you're going to pick Sub than I highly suggest picking Focus Punch over Close Combat for obvious reasons.

 

[Kejmur]

If you're going to pick Sub than I highly suggest picking Focus Punch over Close Combat for obvious reasons.

While it is obvious at first (of course power of STAB Focus Punch is absurd), MegaHeracross for offensive Pokemon is kind of slow (unless you have Sticky Web support) and in situations where Substitute isn't up it's a huge liability as many things outspeed it and may hit it hard back or KO. I still say Close Combat is perfectly fine on sets with Substitute as it still hits really hard and you don't loose STAB suddenly when substitute isn't up. For me it's still Close Combat > Focus Punch, but sheer power of Focus Punch still make it viable option.

 

[Jaroda]

Well again, the amount of times CC is superior to Pin Missile or Rock Blast is sparse as is. If you are going to use Substitute, which can occasionally come in handy like against an obvious Rotom-W WoW, then Focus Punch will blast through things that your other two moves can't. CC would be a better choice if Mega Heracross didn't have such an awkward speed tier. So for a SubPunch set this is what I'm thinking.

Heracross@Heracronite
Skill Link
Adamant 212 HP / 252 At / 44 Spd
~ Substitute
~ Focus Punch
~ Pin Missile
~ Rock Blast

Enough speed to outrun min speed Mega Venusaur. 92 Spd EVs outruns min Rotom-W. 236 to outrun SpD Gliscor and protect from Toxic.

252+ Atk Mega Heracross Focus Punch vs. 248 HP / 116 Def Mega Scizor: 241-285 (70.2 - 83%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Mega Heracross Focus Punch vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Conkeldurr: 364-430 (103.7 - 122.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Mega Heracross Focus Punch vs. 252 HP / 212+ Def Rotom-W: 249-294 (81.9 - 96.7%) -- 62.5% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
252+ Atk Mega Heracross Focus Punch vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Ferrothorn: 420-494 (119.3 - 140.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Mega Heracross Focus Punch vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Garchomp: 367-433 (102.8 - 121.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Mega Heracross Focus Punch vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Jirachi: 349-412 (86.3 - 101.9%) -- 56.3% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
252+ Atk Mega Heracross Focus Punch vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Suicune: 229-271 (56.6 - 67%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery

It seems nice here and there, but overall it really isn't necessary. Getting a Sub on a switch can be nice for a bunch of reasons but I think its hard to sell over basic SD or even four attacks because EQ is nice for Doublade and Magnezone and Bullet Seed demolishes Azumarill, Suicune, Rotom-W and Hippowdon.

 

[Kabuchops]

Mega Cross is very Viable in Ou however due to its speed it's outsped by a lot of the tier it needs sticky web support/batonpass or even trickrooming can be used for support nevertheless after reading a lot of the chat I have one thing to say....Close Combat>Arm Thrust. The main reason being the ferrothorn switch in meaning after every hit you will suffer at least 36% and it won't even ko in the end and for those who think a bulky mega heracross works, it probably could however fly spam is too common in ou for it to be effective. Also pedro702 you are forgetting arm thrust is stab so it's more like 125 bp compared to the 180bp including stab with CC. Suggestions and opinions would be appreciated so go ahead :)

 

[Rudoku]

Mega Cross is very Viable in Ou however due to its speed it's outsped by a lot of the tier it needs sticky web support/batonpass or even trickrooming can be used for support nevertheless after reading a lot of the chat I have one thing to say....Close Combat>Arm Thrust. The main reason being the ferrothorn switch in meaning after every hit you will suffer at least 36% and it won't even ko in the end and for those who think a bulky mega heracross works, it probably could however fly spam is too common in ou for it to be effective. Also pedro702 you are forgetting arm thrust is stab so it's more like 125 bp compared to the 180bp including stab with CC. Suggestions and opinions would be appreciated so go ahead :)

Arm Thrust is weak as hell. All five hits are equal to a Brick Break, and you don't even get barrier removal.

 

[Celticpride]

The issue I have with Hera using SubPunch is that most viable users of it have priority. Mega Mawile had Sucker Punch and Breloom has Mach Punch. I think it more goes back to the fact that most SubPunchers are slow and bulky (or have Poison Heal in Breloom's case) and good priority allows them to work around the slow part.

 

[escarlata]

Heracross with Sub should always have Close Combat. If it wants to run Focus Punch, it should be run over Pin Missile. The fundamental problem with not having Close Combat is that it is completely helpless against many Steel, Ground, or Fighting types, and practically have to make 50/50s on whether to attack them or switch out and let them get a free set up. The fact that Heracross has Sub, actually means it can drop the Pin Missile, because it no longer need to rely as much on it for Venusaur and Amoonguss. Basically a reliable Fighting type attack is still pretty nice to have imo.

 

[Jaroda]

Are you suggesting a sub set run Focus Punch AND Close Combat?

 

[escarlata]

It is still best to have CC over Focus Punch imo. But if you really want Focus Punch to kill those specific stuff that FP kills, then it is better to drop Pin Missile instead of dropping CC.
But best set with Sub imo would still be Sub/CC/Pin Missile/Rock Blast. Thing about a sub set it that it not longer needs Pin Missile for Amoonguss, which are about the only things it hits anyway.

 

[StairFall]

Something important to consider, Heracross with earthquake 2HKOes Specially defensive Doublade with rocks up (ok it's more like 91% chance to 2HKO but even switching in a second time with rocks up brings that to 100%). Doublade has been stall's new all encompassing answer to M-Gard/cham/cross, but with this Earthquake Heracross breaks through specially defensive versions.

Of course this may all be moot if Doublade has started running more mixed spreads, but last I checked most ran full special to handle Gardevoir.

 

[Mix]

Heracross (M) @ Heracronite
Ability: Guts
EVs: 32 HP / 252 Atk / 224 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Close Combat
- Swords Dance
- Substitute
- Rock Blast

SubDance Hera, can be very good in a sticky offense, but also in a classic offense.