Alomomola (Analysis)

Alomomola


[OVERVIEW]
<p>Alomomola has incredible physical bulk which lets it take almost any physical attack with ease, while its large support movepool allows it to help almost any partner. Unfortunately, Alomomola's special bulk is subpar, leaving it susceptible to the large number of special attackers in the metagame. In addition, it's often helpless after being Taunted thanks to its mediocre attacking stats. Overall, Alomomola's ability to easily tank physical hits in conjunction with its large support movepool make it an effective support Pokemon.</p>

[SET]
name: Support
move 1: Helping Hand
move 2: Heal Pulse
move 3: Waterfall / Aqua Jet
move 4: Safeguard / Wide Guard / Protect
item: Wacan Berry / Mental Herb
ability: Healer
nature: Careful
evs: 4 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD

[SET COMMENTS]
<p>Alomomola's large support movepool allows it to serve as a useful team supporter. Helping Hand lets it power up a teammate's attack to make up for its relative lack of offensive prowess, while Heal Pulse can replenish the health of a teammate, greatly increasing their survivability. Waterfall gives Alomomola a reasonably powerful STAB attack that ensures it's not useless under the effects of Taunt, while also making it an excellent check to most Rock- or Ground-type attackers such as Terrakion and Excadrill. On the other hand, Aqua Jet allows Alomomola to break a Focus Sash and hit many Pokemon weak to it such as Terrakion and Archeops quite hard. There are three options for the last moveslot. Safeguard prevents nasty status affliction, most notably Amoonguss's Spore. Wide Guard protects Alomomola's partner from spread attacks such as Rock Slide and Earthquake, while Protect allows it to avoid damage for a turn in order for its partner to take out a threatening opponent. Wacan Berry allows Alomomola to survive any Electric-type attack directed at it, making it nearly impossible to OHKO. The EVs and nature provide the best overall defenses, allowing Alomomola to take a variety of hits, both physically and specially.</p>

[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]
<p>A Mental Herb allows Alomomola to bypass a Taunt and continue to support its teammate, but leaves it susceptible to Thundurus's Thunderbolt. Since Alomomola's niche is to use Helping Hand to boost the power of its partner's attacks, Pokemon that can abuse powerful spread attacks, such as Chandelure and Archeops, make great partners for Alomomola. Volcarona can use Rage Powder to divert a Taunt aimed at Alomomola, while also taking advantage of Alomomola's Helping Hand to boost the power of its Heat Wave. Terrakion in particular makes an excellent partner for Alomomola, as it eliminates threats such as Thundurus and Hydreigon and greatly appreciates Helping Hand. Alomomola's Heal Pulse can aid the survivability of many bulky attackers, so Pokemon such as Scrafty or Conkeldurr benefit from Alomomola as a partner.</p>

[Other Options]
<p>Alomomola has access to Wish which allows it to heal itself, but with mediocre offensive stats, it's far more effective supporting a partner than healing itself. With Alomomola's huge HP stat, Mirror Coat can score a surprise KO, especially in conjunction with a Wacan Berry, but its reliance on prediction makes it an inferior choice. Alomomola's secondary ability in Hydration can be used to abuse Rest in rain, but Healer offers great support and Alomomola is much better off healing its offensively-inclined teammates rather than itself. Soak is an option to support a Grass- or Electric-type partner so they can more easily abuse their STAB attacks, but is very situational, and usually an inferior choice.</p>

[Checks and Counters]
<p>Because Alomomola is primarily a support Pokemon, there aren't too many ways to stop it from doing its job. However, there are a few Pokemon which give it significant trouble. While Alomomola can render Amoonguss's Spore useless with Safeguard, Amoonguss will beat it one-on-one with Giga Drain, and can use Rage Powder to divert a Heal Pulse aimed at Alomomola's partner to heal itself. Thundurus can do huge damage to Alomomola with its STAB Thunderbolt, but if Alomomola has a Wacan Berry, it can easily survive and help its partner to take Thundurus out. Any Taunt user can render Alomomola almost useless, but if it has a Mental Herb, it can take a Taunt and continue to support its partner. Tailwind or Trick Room can hurt Alomomola, making its Helping Hand useless as its partner is outsped and KOed.</p>

Safeguard as the first slash, wide guard as the second imo. The focus should be on supporting the team mate, so saving itself for a turn should be secondary.

Also mention that you can Rage Powder Heal Pulse, which is a bitch. 1/2

Yeah, I can get behind that.

QC Approved 2/2

What good is Safeguard doing, though? It's not like status problems are common in VGC bar hax and Thundurus; on the flipside, Wide Guard has huge utility and is something that most opponents tend to forget.

Hell, if you're using Healer, Safeguard begins to look even more useless.

dear god I'm stupid

Alomamola is still kind of screwed vs. Amoonguss; its Giga Drain essentially fully heals it and does a load of damage as well. Surprisingly it's not 2HKOed by it, but is with support from spread moves.

Water Sport may be a gimmick to mention.

Yeah I mentioned how it loses to shroom in checks and counters. No to water sport, it's useless enough already.

Written up.

Deletions
Additions / Corrections
Comments



I shifted a few sentences from AC to Set Comments, and modified Set Comments to make it more interesting to read. Earlier, it was " a does this. b allows it to do that. c helps it do x. d makes it dangerous." etc etc. In short, it was just too bland to read. Otherwise,



GP 1 / 2

I agree, it sounded pretty bad before. I appreciate the help, and I've implemented the changes.

Just one thing to point out, you really overused "allow" in some places, so try mixing it up a bit or remove it if it's not necessary. Otherwise everything was pretty solid.



2/2

Yeah, this sounded really bad before. Thanks a lot for the help, and this should ideally be done.

LOL

Good analysis, I used rage powder on a volcarona and I owned this uh... luvdisk. heres an animated sprite.