Vaporeon (Analysis)

supermarth64

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Vaporeon is (still) cute.

Written.


http://www.serebii.net/pokedex-bw/134.shtml

Status: Done.

[Overview]
<p>With Wish's new mechanics along with Vaporeon's massive HP stat, Vaporeon can really benefit your team by healing off any damage that it may have taken. Vaporeon also got a nifty new toy in Scald, allowing her to burn unsuspecting physical sweepers. She can still utilize her Baton Passing capabilities with Acid Armor, Aqua Ring, and her new move Work Up. However, because of more Pokemon who can hit Vaporeon hard in this new generation such as Virizion and Thundurus as well as older Pokemon such as Breloom, Vaporeon will have difficulty walling to her full potential. In addition, she is susceptible to all forms of entry hazard damage. Vaporeon is in for a tough time, but with help from her teammates and by taking advantage of the new tools she has received, she is fully capable of doing her job well.</p>

[SET]
name: Wish Support
move 1: Wish
move 2: Protect
move 3: Scald
move 4: Roar / Ice Beam / Toxic
item: Leftovers
ability: Water Absorb
nature: Bold
evs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD

[SET COMMENTS]
<p>This set utilizes two of the fifth generation's gifts to Vaporeon. With a defensive EV spread, Vaporeon can tank multiple hits from opposing Pokemon. Scald serves as Vaporeon's STAB move and has a handy 30% chance of burning the opposing Pokemon which is great for crippling physically-based Pokemon who think they will be getting a free switch-in. Wish heals an amount equal to 50% of Vaporeon's max HP to a teammate. That, combined with Vaporeon's large base 130 HP stat, means that she will be healing much of your team for at least 50%. Protect serves as a scouting move and ensures that Vaporeon gets healed by her own Wish.</p>

<p>There are several options for the last moveslot. Roar is the primary choice because Vaporeon can phaze out her counters such as Ferrothorn and cause extra residual damage. Ice Beam is there for Garchomp, Dragonite, Breloom, and any other Pokemon who resists Scald or takes little damage from it. Finally, Toxic, in conjunction with Protect, enables Vaporeon to stall out Pokemon she walls. However, this may clash with the burn chance from Scald.</p>

[Additional Comments]
<p>Haze can be used in the last spot for those last Pokemon situations, but generally Roar is better since it forces them out. Hidden Power Electric can be used to hit Gyarados but only scratches other Water-type Pokemon due to its low Base Power. Toxic is generally a better answer to enemy Water-types. Heal Bell can be used for Vaporeon to be the ultimate team supporter by providing status removal in addition to her Wish-passing.</p>

<p>Due to Vaporeon's inability to really hurt Ferrothorn, he can switch in and begin setting up entry hazards without much trouble. Skarmory does a similar job except he uses Roost to heal off the damage from Scald. Excadrill is a good choice to remove entry hazards with Rapid Spin, as he is immune to Electric-type attacks. Vaporeon can also switch into Fire- and Water-type attacks aimed at Excadrill. Breloom and Virizion can be dangerous if Vaporeon doesn't catch them on the switch with Ice Beam. Gliscor is a great counter for both of them as he has Poison Heal to make him immune to Spore, has the Defense to take their attacks, and can hit them back with a STAB Acrobatics.<p>

<p>Ferrothorn also serves as a good partner. Vaporeon can easily take the Fire-type attacks aimed at Ferrothorn whilst Ferrothorn can handle both the Electric- and Grass-type moves headed Vaporeon's way. Ferrothorn can also lay down entry hazards which Vaporeon can abuse with Roar. Heatran is also an option to scare away Grass-type Pokemon such as Ferrothorn. Vaporeon can also absorb the Water-type attacks aimed at Heatran. Additionally, Vaporeon dislikes Toxic Spikes because of the gradual residual damage it brings. Forretress has good defensive synergy with Vaporeon and can Rapid Spin away entry hazards.</p>

[SET]
name: Baton Pass
move 1: Baton Pass
move 2: Substitute
move 3: Acid Armor / Wish / Aqua Ring
move 4: Scald / Roar
item: Leftovers
nature: Bold
evs: 244 HP / 132 Def / 128 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]
<p>Not only can Vaporeon take advantage of her large HP stat to pass Wishes, she can also use it to pass huge Substitutes to her teammates on a Baton Pass chain. That, combined with her large support movepool, enables her to fit many different roles. Baton Passing Acid Armor is a good way to patch up inferior defensive stats, whilst Wish allows Vaporeon and her team to create more Substitutes. Aqua Ring slowly heals off any damage from Substitutes that your team may have taken, acting like a weaker but more consistent Wish. The final moveslot is to stop other Pokemon from stopping your Baton Pass chain. Scald hits Taunters and any burns it may inflict make it harder for a physical Pokemon to break Vaporeon's Substitute. Roar can be used to phaze away most phazers before Vaporeon is phazed away herself.</p>

[Additional Comments]
<p>The given EVs maximize Vaporeon's Baton Passing capabilities. 128 Speed EVs enable Vaporeon to outspeed positive-natured base 130s with +2 Speed. 132 Defense EVs give a jump point with the given Bold nature while 244 HP enables Vaporeon to make the largest HP Substitutes she can without being entry hazard weak. Additionally, at +4 Defense, Ferrothorn can't break Vaporeon's Substitutes with a 0 Attack Power Whip. Vaporeon can also Baton Pass Work Up but generally Baton Pass receivers are either physically or specially based so they don't have to split EVs.</p>

<p>Gliscor and Celebi are great partners for Vaporeon because they resist or are immune to Electric- and Grass-type moves. Gliscor can also Taunt to stop opposing Taunters or phazers from ruining your Baton Pass chain while Celebi can Calm Mind and keep the Baton Pass chain running. Zapdos is also an acceptable choice because it resists Grass-type moves and can Baton Pass both Agility and Substitutes whilst Roosting off any damage taken. Smeargle can pass anything you want, from Ingrain to Shell Break to Gear Change.</p>

<p>As for a receiver, Metagross is always a good choice. It has Clear Body so it can't be affected by Intimidate, has a Steel-typing so it's immune to Toxic Spikes, and has powerful moves such as Meteor Mash and Earthquake. Lucario is another potential choice except he's frailer than Metagross but is still immune to Toxic spikes.</p>

[Other Options]
<p>Surf may be used over Scald for more power in lieu of the 30% burn chance. A Choice Specs set combined with Vaporeon's often overlooked base 110 Special Attack is plausible, but is not without its downfalls. If you decide to use Hidden Power Fire, Vaporeon has difficulty with Water-type Pokemon. If you use Hidden Power Electric, Vaporeon has trouble with Ferrothorn.</p>

<p>Hydration is only useful if you bring along Politoed due to his ability Drizzle. With Hydration, Vaporeon is best used on a stall team centralized around rain. With rain automatically removing any statuses inflicted on Vaporeon, she no longer has to fear Toxic. It also removes the sleep status that Vaporeon succumbs to when using Rest. With it, Vaporeon can boost her Defense using Acid Armor, stall using Toxic, and hit any Pokemon immune to Toxic with Scald except for Dry Skin Toxicroak. An EV spread of 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD with a Calm nature achieves the best overall defenses after one Acid Armor boost. Unfortunately, Wish is incompatible with Hydration, meaning Vaporeon cannot support her teammates as well. Additionally, Vaporeon shares the same weaknesses with Politoed, so one must be careful about switching.</p>

[Checks and Counters]
<p>Ferrothorn loves switching in on Vaporeon, as he can use Leech Seed which, in conjunction with Vaporeon's massive HP stat will heal huge amounts of damage the he may have taken. From there, he can freely set up entry hazards or attack with Power Whip. Skarmory can come in easily because of Roost but getting burned by Scald severely hampers his walling capabilities. Shaymin, Breloom, Virizion, Thundurus, Zapdos, and many other Pokemon all can come in on Vaporeon and hit her with a super effective STAB attack. Latios doesn't mind coming in on an Ice Beam because of his massive Special Defense. From there, he can freely launch Draco Meteors.</p>

<p>Without Roar, Vaporeon has trouble with boosting Pokemon. Jirachi and Espeon can both utilize Calm Mind and Wish to slowly boost up in front of Vaporeon. Jirachi's Steel typing means it's immune to Toxic while Espeon has Magic Bounce to bounce it back. Reuniclus has Magic Guard so he's immune to entry hazards and Toxic and can Calm Mind in Vaporeon's face. Virizion can also Calm Mind and use Giga Drain to heal off any damage it may have taken. Conkeldurr can use Bulk Up and Drain Punch to set up and doesn't mind a burn due to Guts. Both Blissey and Chansey can come in and put Vaporeon to a dead stop as Vaporeon can't break either of them. They can also use Toxic to reduce Vaporeon's walling capabilities and have Natural Cure, Aromatherapy, and Heal Bell to rid themselves of harmful statuses.</p>
 

jc104

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As I've said numerous times in gen 4, standard vaporeon gets slightly better defenses out of a max HP spread. Given the new Wish mechanic, I think this is something of a no-brainer now.
 

AccidentalGreed

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It is said in Serebii that Boiling Water's chance of burn is only 10%.

I dont know if it has been verified.
This should answer your question.

Deck Night (from the Boiling Water thread) said:
TM55 - Boiling Water:
[M503]: Special Water PP: 15 Power: 80 / Accuracy: 100 Effect: May burn opponent. (30%)

Basically this is like Lava Plume, except it hits Pokemon immune to burn for super-effective damage and burns everything else 3 out of every 10 uses. Because Burn halves the attack of opponents, this is an extremely useful move for any Pokemon to have. Bulky Waters are especially adept because they have the bulk to use the attack multiple times, and when its effect succeeds they become even harder to take down.
Not sure Vaporeon should run specs due to the existence of Palkia and Kyogre as more offensive, faster options. Vaporeon's defensive abilities should be capitalized and Specs is pretty impractical, in my opinion.
 
I don't understand your "Dream World" section. This is an Ubers analysis and thus Vaporeon doesn't have to run Rain Dance to abuse Hydration; it simply needs a Kyogre.
 

Trinitrotoluene

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Hey supermarth64, Hydration Vaporeon has been released alongside all the other Eeveelutions, so you might want to put a mention about Hydration being used as an alternate ability for a few Vaporeon sets.

Proof of release: The Eeveelutions.

EDIT: I forgot that DrizzleToad wasn't released yet.
 
Maybe not, Vappy really needs the 30 percent burn chance to soften physical hits. The only thing Hydro Pump does better is that it 2HKOs Skarmory.

Minor nitpick, but you only need 3 QC checks unless I am gravely mistaken.

Solid Skeleton otherwise. Good luck.
 
Sorry to be so particular, but I noticed you forgot to give Cheer Up a slash on the Baton Pass set, even though you talk about it in the Set Comments.

-Zane
 

supermarth64

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Sorry, forgot about this.

Anyway, Hydro Pump will not be mentioned in OC because as a defensive Pokemon, Vaporeon should stick to 100% attacks. The low PP from Hydro Pump doesn't help either.

About Cheer Up, it's a minor thing but I'll change it later after QC approves of this.
 
[Dream World]
  • Hydration is only useful if you use Politoed also - brings infinite rain
  • Can only really pass Wishes and Toxic random enemies, doesn't really help much
  • Brings additional weaknesses, better off just bringing another sweeper
  • Outclassed by Manaphy for Hydration utilization
I want to note that hydration is not legal with wish, it is egg move.
 
I suggest mentioning Hail as an option. Already being a support pokemon, Hail is a fantastic move on balance teams to eliminate the enemy's beneficial weather, and the Hail damage isn't permanent so it won't supremely hinder your team.
 
I think it needs a rest/hydration set for rain teams.
It hasn't been released yet, and at the moment Manaphy outclasses it completely with Hydration, since Manaphy can actually hurt stuff with Tail Glow boosts.

Also, sm, have you considered Specs? I know its not the ~best~ way to use Vappy, but its pretty cool in rain since Specs Boosted HPump propbably wrecks everything under the sun (or in this case rain xD).
 

supermarth64

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@Jaroda: Vaporeon already has trouble with 4MSS, as it would love Ice Beam/Toxic for the times that it needs it. It just doesn't have the time to Hail and might as well pass another Wish.

@TransparentOpacity: Hydration is pretty bad... not gonna lie. Vaporeon can't really do anything because it doesn't have the Speed to really go on the offensive and can't pass Wish because of egg move problems.

@Alan: It has been released, it just sucks. Also, Specs Vappy still... sucks, even in rain. No speed to really outspeed opposing Pokemon and even though it hits hard, it really only gets one shot and then is forced out by a faster Pokemon.

@A Man In Black: Changed that.

@ParaChomp: Laziness and I didn't realize only 2 QC checks were needed.
 
I wouldn't list Forretress in the counters section. Non SpD variants are easily 3HKOed by Boiling water all the time (each Boiling Water does 40% minimum), meaning that Forretress switches in, sets up 1 layer of (Toxic) Spikes, and then is either forced to switch or die.

In a similar vein, SpD variants (252/252 +SpD Nature) are 4HKOed unless Vaporeon gets extremely unlucky with the damage roles (about a 97% chance to 4HKO if Forry switches into SR on a boiling water, counting in leftovers) meaning only 2 layers of hazards or 1 layer and a spin.

Plus, Forretress cannot actually do anything back to Vaporeon. Counters need to be able to switch in with little to no threat to themselves and be able to inflict good damage/cripple the other Pokémon.
 

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