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Honko · Nov 17th, 2012, 2:45:21 PM

I used the standard Life Orb Hone Claws / X-Scissor / Iron Head / Superpower set.

It was decent. Drapion and non-WoW Spiritomb are both fairly common and easy to lure in with Cress, and Durant can set up against them. Once set up, it would pretty much always get at least one KO, and often more if I had paralyzed/KOed whatever outsped it.

What I had forgotten and found surprising and disappointing was how little else Durant can safely set up on though. Everyone knows how weak to special attacks Durant is, but its physical bulk isn't all that impressive either. It's about as good as Tauros's; it can usually take one neutral hit, but that's it. For example, if you see a Hitmonchan without Fire Punch and without Close Combat, that sounds like a possible opportunity for Durant to set up, right? Wrong. Drain Punch + Mach Punch KOes. In fact, almost every common physical attacker either OHKOes, outspeeds and 2HKOes, or can 2HKO with priority. So don't expect to be setting up every game. The list of Pokemon that Durant can set up on without getting KOed, paralyzed, or burned is quite short.

But Durant has over 600 Attack (!!!) with Hustle and Life Orb, so it doesn't need to set up, right? Wrong again. As I said in the NP thread and Molk reiterated here, Durant's power is pretty overrated. 600 Attack sounds great, but it's held back by the fact that its STABs only have 80 BP. That makes a huge difference. In fact, it basically cancels out Hustle. Durant's power is the same as a Pokemon with 109 base Attack, 120 BP STAB moves, and no Hustle. Primeape is probably the closest common example. Primeape is decently strong, but nobody's calling it a "powerhouse", and yet Life Orb Primeape hits just as hard with its STAB as Life Orb Durant does, and it doesn't have to worry about missing 20% of the time. I'm not saying Primeape is as good as Durant, because obviously Durant has some major advantages, but the point is that a Durant that hasn't boosted is not going to be accomplishing that much. CB Durant can punch some holes, but so can lots of CB mons, and some of them can punch much larger ones without worrying about accuracy. Same for Scarf Durant.

One more thing to note is that Durant has a perfect counter in Qwilfish that is already the best Spiker for defensive teams (smd Roselia).

Pretty clearly not broken.

Nov 17th, 2012, 2:45:21 PM	#8
Honko pronounced "Honko" Join Date: Dec 2009 Posts: 1,024	I used the standard Life Orb Hone Claws / X-Scissor / Iron Head / Superpower set. It was decent. Drapion and non-WoW Spiritomb are both fairly common and easy to lure in with Cress, and Durant can set up against them. Once set up, it would pretty much always get at least one KO, and often more if I had paralyzed/KOed whatever outsped it. What I had forgotten and found surprising and disappointing was how little else Durant can safely set up on though. Everyone knows how weak to special attacks Durant is, but its physical bulk isn't all that impressive either. It's about as good as Tauros's; it can usually take one neutral hit, but that's it. For example, if you see a Hitmonchan without Fire Punch and without Close Combat, that sounds like a possible opportunity for Durant to set up, right? Wrong. Drain Punch + Mach Punch KOes. In fact, almost every common physical attacker either OHKOes, outspeeds and 2HKOes, or can 2HKO with priority. So don't expect to be setting up every game. The list of Pokemon that Durant can set up on without getting KOed, paralyzed, or burned is quite short. But Durant has over 600 Attack (!!!) with Hustle and Life Orb, so it doesn't need to set up, right? Wrong again. As I said in the NP thread and Molk reiterated here, Durant's power is pretty overrated. 600 Attack sounds great, but it's held back by the fact that its STABs only have 80 BP. That makes a huge difference. In fact, it basically cancels out Hustle. Durant's power is the same as a Pokemon with 109 base Attack, 120 BP STAB moves, and no Hustle. Primeape is probably the closest common example. Primeape is decently strong, but nobody's calling it a "powerhouse", and yet Life Orb Primeape hits just as hard with its STAB as Life Orb Durant does, and it doesn't have to worry about missing 20% of the time. I'm not saying Primeape is as good as Durant, because obviously Durant has some major advantages, but the point is that a Durant that hasn't boosted is not going to be accomplishing that much. CB Durant can punch some holes, but so can lots of CB mons, and some of them can punch much larger ones without worrying about accuracy. Same for Scarf Durant. One more thing to note is that Durant has a perfect counter in Qwilfish that is already the best Spiker for defensive teams (smd Roselia). Pretty clearly not broken. __________________