Pyroak Analysis (Part II)

[tennisace]

Needs a lot of reworking, format needs to be changed, sets need to be updated, basically a full revamp. Stratagem and Tyranitar are the beggest counters, however TTar needs to worry about the burn from Lava Plume but still walls the hell out of Pyroak, even with Grass Knot.

I'm going to have to ask eric for his opinion on some of these, but the first set will be Leech Seed / Lava Plume / Toxic / Grass Knot or Synthesis. RestTalk will stay the same. Sunny Day might be changed to more of a tank rather than offensive, something like Sunny Day / Synthesis / Flamethrower / Solarbeam. Physical set should be cleaned up a bit, as should the special set. Mixed set is out, it's pretty crap. What does everyone else think?

Disclaimer: This is for people who have been on the server and actually TESTED it, not pure theorymon.

[SET]
name: Tank
move 1: Leech Seed
move 2: Toxic
move 3: Lava Plume / Grass Knot
move 4: Synthesis / Rest
item: Leftovers
ability: Battle Armor
nature: Bold
evs: 252 HP / 16 Def / 240 SpD

[SET COMMENTS]

<p>Pyroak, with it's amazing defenses, can outstall even some of the hardest hitters in OU, crippling them in the process. Leech Seed is obvious, as it allows you to slowly drain the life out of your opponent while healing yourself in the process. Toxic also allows you to cripple some of it's counters, draining their health faster than with just Leech Seed alone.</p>

<p>With no special attack EVs, Lava Plume looks quite weak to be using as Pyroak's main attack. However, the 30% Burn chance and the ability to damage Steel-types and Poison-types who are immune to Toxic and Grass-types who are immune to Leech Seed is a huge plus. However, Grass Knot is an option to hit Rock and Water-types, just be aware that it will only 3HKO Tyranitar, who can outspeed and OHKO with CB Stone Edge in return. In the last slot, Synthesis is recommended, because without Sleep Talk Pyroak is a sitting duck (lizard?) while using Rest. However, Sandstorm is very common, and cut's Synthesis's healing to 25%. With Leech Seed and Leftovers, it's not that big of an issue, but it does hurt it's stalling ability.</p>

<p>Flamethrower is an option over Lava Plume if you want a bit more power, but the increased burn percentage that Lava Plume has makes up for it. You can also try Aromatherapy over Toxic if your team is susceptible to status. Stealth Rock is also an option if you have nowhere else to put it on your team.</p>

<Rest Talk Set goes here>

[SET]
name: Physical Oak
move 1: Substitute
move 2: Howl
move 3: Wood Hammer
move 4: Flare Blitz
item: Leftovers
ability: Rock Head
nature: Careful
evs: 152 HP / 252 Atk / 88 Spe / 16 SpD

[SET COMMENTS]

<p>With a decent base 70 Attack, access to two base 120 base power STAB moves and a boosting move in Howl, physical Pyroak can be a surprisingly potent threat. This set is designed to let Pyroak switch into the Pokemon that don’t pose a threat to it, like Bronzong or Vaporeon, and use them to set up. With just one Howl, Pyroak is able to severely damage a lot of common threats. Wood Hammer and Flare Blitz will easily 2HKO Hippowdon and Skarmory, respectively. It will also OHKO any Tyranitar with Stealth Rock up, provided that it doesn’t invest significantly in Defense, usually OHKO Vaporeon with Stealth Rock up and Flare Blitz will easily incinerate Bronzong.</p>

[TekkenStorm]

The first set should be more like this

Leech Seed
Flamethrower/Lava Plume
Toxic/Grass Knot
Synthesis

The Fire stab should be used over hes Grass one if your going to use Toxic so you will hit Steel/Poison types harder which resis toxic.

If your going to run Toxic its better to use Flamethrower than Lava Plume.

Also Pyroak really needs Synthesis as it would be useless without it as every time he switches he loses 25% and it helps him alot with healing/stalling.

[sbc]

Synthesis is useless anyway in Sandstorm especially with Strata-tar so common. I think Lava Plume is superior to Flamethrower anyway; helps you beat Tentacruel without Rest and I'd rather burn Mence than have it go on an all out rampage with full attack.

[Lawman]

I would argue that this should be the standard set:

Lava Plume / Grass Knot
Toxic
Leech Seed
Substitute / Synthesis

Lava Plume would be better now but with CAP6 coming along that might change. Toxic and Leech Seed work nicely with each other, and the last slot is either for blocking status and SubSeeding or getting some extra recovery.

[eric the espeon]

The basic leech seed staller is going to have a lot of options, and will need quite detailed explanations in Set Comments. I would advise the following given the number of SS teams around:

move 1: Leech Seed
move 2: Lava Plume / Flamethrower
move 3: Toxic / Grass Knot
move 4: Synthesis / Rest (Aromatherapy/SR/Sub in another set or Other Options)

I know it looks ugly, but with sufficient explanation it should become clear. In truth any combination of those moves is very viable, and none shows much of an advantage over others.

[Beej]

I would like to note the power of the somewhat gimmicky-looking SubHowl set at this time. I used to use it before Platinum changes, and now some of its more common switch-ins are Rock-types like Tyranitar and Stratagem hoping to blast it with their Super Effective STAB moves. Both of them are going to be hit with a 180 BP SE move in Wood Hammer, which is really going to hurt even coming from a relatively low Attack stat.

[eric the espeon]

How does Howl help against those though? Maybe Sub on a Phy set is good though.

[Beej]

Pyroak's typing isn't perfect, but it's bulky and it's hard to break its subs if you can't hit it hard enough. Howl lets it set up on some of the Pokemon it counters and it hits hard on things that aren't bulky enough or who don't resist. Skarmory and Hippowdon are 2HKOd after a Howl, in addition to OHKOing 252 HP Tar, OHKOING 212 HP/252 Defense Vaporeon with SR, OHKOing most variants of Bronzong and Metagross, and other feats.

OHKOing Tar is nice because if you Howl on the switch, you outspeed and beat most CBTars if you run only 92 Speed EVs. This is without wasting HP for a sub.