(Quality Control) Hitmontop (QC 0/3)

[Tobes]

Needs a writer

[Overview]

• Very prominent
• Intimidate does work. Lots of it.
• Wide assortment of excellent support moves, quite a few of which are rare
• Great attack and a brutal STAB do a lot of damage even without much investment
• Can be hard to kill with proper defensive investment
• Great at assisting a bunch of different Pokemon
• Can have trouble beating anything that resists its STAB

[SET]
name: Support
move 1: Close Combat
move 2: Sucker Punch / Fake Out
move 3: Helping Hand / Feint / Fake Out
move 4: Detect / Fake Out / Wide Guard
item: Fighting Gem
ability: Intimidate
nature: Careful
evs: 252 HP / 84 Atk / 4 Def / 164 SpD / 4 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]

• Excellent support Pokemon: Great moves, great ability, no slouch offensively
• Intimidate does tons and tons of work: Weakens opponents, protects Pokemon vulnerable to prominent threats (Thundurus, Cresselia, from Terrakion, Tyranitar, etc), forces switches, etc
• Close Combat is a strong STAB even with low investment, will hurt anything that doesn't resist it
• Sucker Punch for Latios and the like, gives you a neutral option against things that resist Fighting-types
• Fake Out is a fantastic move. Disrupt opponents, net free KOes, provide set-up time, mindgames, etc etc
• Helping Hand to aim teammates, especially useful when Top can't really hurt its current opponents by itself
• Feint is can be used to score KOes against Protecting opponents who think they're safe, also good for mindgames; forces opponent to switch out if they absolutely want to keep that Pokemon alive
• Detect because it's hard to Imprison
• Wide Guard blocks moves like Surf, Rock Slide, Heat Wave, etc.
• Hitmontop doesn't strictly need defensive moves; it's just fine to pick Close Combat + the 3 attacks that compliment its teammates best.

[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]

• EV spread survives anything a Dragon Gem Latios can throw at it: Dragon Gem Draco Meteor, Psychic, Psyshock, etc
• Some attack investment ensures you OHKO non-Chople Berry 252 HP / 36 Def Tyranitar with CC
• Brave + -spe IVs for Trick Room is an option
• Can shift bulk to Attack for more power but suffers from a severe drop in bulk
• Fighting Gem for initial power or Sitrus Berry for survivability
• Stone Edge to hit Flying-types hard
• ChestoRest
• Teammates that likes Intimidate support: Thundurus, Cresselia, Tyranitar, etc
• Teammates that beat up on Cresselia and Lati@s: Tyranitar, Bisharp, Scrafty, etc
• Another teammate with Intimidate to stack the effect: Salamence, Scrafty, etc.
• Partners with Skill Swap: Cresselia
• Volcarona makes a good partner: likes Wide Guard and makes life hard for Psychic-types

[Other Options]

• Technitop: Outclassed by Breloom
• Low Sweep
• Rock Slide
• Quick Guard
• Counter

[R Inanimate]

If the statistics for Hitmontop in the wi-fi tourneys is any indication...
Fake Out should be de-slashed and placed as moveslot #1, as pretty much every hitmontop runs Fake Out. Although some would say that the threat of fake out can be good enough, Fake Out is way too useful of a move for Hitmontop to reasonably pass up. As such, things will shift to having a moveset of Fake Out + Close Combat + 2 other moves. With Sucker Punch / Helping Hand / Feint for move 3, and Detect / Wide Guard for move 4.

Mention something about using Adamant Hitmontop, since that is probably more used than Careful. I'm not that familiar with the EV spreads that many people use for Hitmontops though, since I've never really had much success with using one on my teams. All I know is that EVs invested into speed can vary greatly.

[lucariojr]

Adamant 252 Gemmed Hitmontop should be the first set period. Its close combat isn't all /that/ strong, but it's enough to ohko reasonably bulky stuff like ludicolo, kingdra and chople ttar, which is too good to pass up. A careful set should probably go second with all its bells and whistles in that AC.

also, this is how the first set should be imo:

[SET]
name: Standard Support
move 1: Fake Out
move 2: Close Combat
move 3: Feint / Sucker Punch / Helping Hand
move 4: Wide Guard / Helping Hand / Detect
item: Fighting Gem
ability: Intimidate
nature: Adamant
evs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def (basic evs are basic)

detect isn't all that great on hitmontop since it's usually doing so many other great things with its time, but protect is protect i guess. also feint as the first option because sucker punch really isn't powerful at all, but it can 2hko latios (50% damage iirc....) which is cool i guess? kind of makes me wonder about the europeans with their dark gem hitmontop, but w/e. feint is just so useful for netting KO's through protect and if you can predict right you can feint right through a double protect or something first turn for a free ko

[The Knights of Wario Land]

Low Kick >>> Low Sweep and also should mention why LK is a decent alternative to CC

Get rid of the Rock Slide mention RS is pathetic on Top; mention Mach Punch due to how Sucker Punch can easily be predicted around