Durant (Analysis)

[Overview]

<p>Durant can be a very threatening Pokemon in the RU metagame. Most outstandingly, its base 109 Speed lets it outspeed a good portion of the RU metagame outpace most of RU. When coupled with its ability, Hustle, and its excellent typing, Durant is almost the perfect becomes one of the best late-game sweepers. It also gets an interesting new move, Hone Claws, which patches up the Accuracy loss from its ability and makes it a solid boosting sweeper. However, Durant's main weakness is its terrible Special Defense, making which makes it vulnerable to almost any Specially based move special attack. It also gets an interesting new move, Hone Claws, which makes up for the accuracy loss its ability provides.</p>

[SET]
name: Hone Claws
move 1: Hone Claws
move 2: X-Scissor
move 3: Iron Head
move 4: Rock Slide / Stone Edge
item: Life Orb / Leftovers
ability: Hustle
nature: Jolly
evs: 4 HP / 252 Attack / 252 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]

<p>This set works around two main things, Durant's ability and its access to the move Hone Claws. Hustle increases Durant's Attack but at the same time lowers its accuracy, therefore Hone Claw is an excellent move to be used which makes Hone Claws the perfect move for it: Hone Claws not only increases your its Accuracy, but it also increases your its Attack, which are a few key elements while performing for a sweep. As for the moves, Iron Head and X-Scissor are two powerfull STAB moves with Hustle, while Rock Slide is mainly for hitting hits several Flying- and Fire- type Pokemon such as Entei, Moltres, and Charizard. Stone Edge has a bigger base attack greater Base Power but at the same time has a bigger chance of missing is less reliable, therefore Rock Slide can be is the better option. </p>

[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]

<p>Durant can use a Life Orb for more power but it greatly decreases Durants survivability. Since this set is mostly dedicated to making Durant a sweeper, Life Orb is overall the better choice of item despite this decreasing Durant's survivability. As for the nature, Jolly is the best nature Durant can have as it can maximise Durants speed A Jolly nature is necessary to allow Durant to outspeed the many threatening Fire-types occupying the base 100 Speed tier any other pokes? i'm not too familiar with RU. Entry hazard support like Stealth Rock and Spikes are always nice, ensuring several KO's by Durant. firstly i'm not too sure this belongs here, and secondly it would be more convincing if you gave specific examples. perhaps more of a mention that SR really puts the hurt on fire (and flying) types which resist Durant's STABs? lastly, it's KOs, no apostrophe</p>

<p>While Durant's only elemental weakness is Fire, but any special attacking scarfed pokemon Choice Scarf user can pose a huge threat to Durant. Most specially defensive Pokemon should compliment Durant quite well; Rotom-H is particularly a particularly good teammate as it resists Fire-(remove space)type moves.</p>

[SET]
name: All-Out Attacker
move 1: Iron Head
move 2: X-Scissor
move 3: Rock Slide / Stone Edge
move 4: Thunder Fang
item: Choice Band / Life Orb
ability: Hustle
nature: Jolly
evs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]

<p>The main purpose of this set is to abuse Durant's excellent attack stat base 109 Attack. This set is a high-(remove space)risk, high-(remove space)reward gain set: despite its great offensive presence, Accuracy is one of the very few a major cons of this set. Nonetheless, this set allows Durant to OHKO or 2HKO many defensive threats such as..?. This set, and can be used over the Hone Claws set if one feels that Durant doesn't have many opportunities to set up a few Hone Claws boost up pretty sure you don't need "a few hone claws". Again, Iron Head and X-Scissor are two powerfull STAB moves excellent STABs with Hustle., while Rock Slide is mainly for hitting several gains coverage on Flying- and Fire- type Pokemon. Stone Edge has a bigger base attack but at the same time has a bigger chance of missing, therefore Rock Slide can be the better option is viable, but its low Accuracy is off-putting on such a specially frail Pokemon. Thunder Fang can be used to hit several bulky-Water types which otherwise wall Durant otherwise.</p>

[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]

<p>This set functions well as a wall(remove space)breaker, allowing it to take down defensive threats and give a teammate an opening to sweep or let Durant sweep by itself. Choice Band is the preferred item on this set. why? Entry hazard support like Stealth Rock and Spikes are always nice, ensuring several KO's by Durant. see above</p>

<p>Durants only weekness is Fire but any special attacking scarfed pokemon can pose a huge threat to Durant. Most specially defensive Pokemon should compliment Durant quite well. Rotom-H is particularly a good teammate as it resists Fire- type moves. While using a Choice Band, Durant is only limited to one move and therefore any more Pokemon threaten it and forces a switch. please don't copy-paste whole chunks like this :/ Again, Durant is threatened by Fire moves, as well as special attacking Scarfers. This variant of Durant will likely be switching more especially with Choice Band, therefore type synergy is of greater importance. Rotom-H is once again a good partner. perhaps expand even more on this - you've tested this extensively, I haven't >.></p>

[Other Options]

<p>Dig is an Durant's only option for Steel-(remove space)types but it's a very predictable move. Batton Pass can be used if you want to set up some Hone Claws and pass it on to another pokemon. The same can be done with Rock Polish in conjunction with Hone Claws and / or Rock Polish. Substitute can be used in on the Hone Claws set to avoid status conditions that cripple Durant such as paralysis or a burn crippling paralysis or burn, but this significantly reduces Durant's coverage.</p>

[Checks and Counters]

<p>Status—both burn and paralysis—is a big issue for Durant, Burn and Paralysis greatly cripples Durant. Eviolite Gligar with Eviolite is a solid Durant counter, as it is a physically defensive Pokemon that resists boasting both great Defense and resistances to almost all attacks Durant throws its way. Choice Scarfed special attacking pokemon attackers can easily come in and take down Durant with ease. Qwilfish is a solid counter to Durant as(space)well; it resists both of Durant's STAB moves, and its ability Intimidate lowers Durant's Attack by one stage making it set up bait. Weezing is a decent counter to Durant as it can take one hit from Durant and then fire off a Will-O-Wisp or a Flamethrower. Steelix is also a perfect counter to Durant as it can also take unboosted Iron Heads and then proceed to phaze Roar it out with a Roar.</p>

[Dream World]

<p>Durant gains Traunt as its Dream World ability, its a useless ability which should not be used. Truant, Durant's Dream World ability, is worse than useless and should never be considered.</p>