Golbat (UU Analysis)

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http://www.smogon.com/dp/pokemon/golbat

[Overview]

<p>Crobat's little brother, Golbat, may seem like a strange choice due to its NFE status. However, Golbat is able to play the same role as Crobat within the lower tiers. Inner Focus allows Golbat to counter Ambipom leads, making it quite effective in the metagame. Furthermore, access to Taunt allows Golbat to shut down set-up leads such as Qwilfish, who try to lay entry hazards. Golbat's typing allows it to switch into the likes of Venusaur, Hitmontop, and Torterra with ease, resisting or being immune to many of their attacks. Nevertheless, as Golbat is part Flying-type, it has a weakness to Stealth Rock. Another downside to Golbat's typing is its weakness to the common Ice-, Electric-, Rock-, and Psychic-type moves of the UU metagame, giving it a hard time switching in. What sets Golbat apart from other Flying-types such as Swellow and Moltres, however, is that it has access to Taunt and Hypnosis. If you can cover Golbat's many weaknesses, it can become a great asset to your team.</p>

[SET]
name: Scout
move 1: Brave Bird
move 2: Taunt
move 3: Roost
move 4: U-turn
item: Leftovers / Life Orb
nature: Jolly
evs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]

<p>Golbat makes an ideal scout as it has the ability to shut down walls with Taunt, while U-turn allows it to escape the battle safely, effectively revealing the opponent's team. Golbat is able to switch in quite easily, due to its decent defenses, Ground immunity, and three 4x resistances. Although Stealth Rock may be a problem, Golbat can remedy this by carrying Roost, which allows it to restore 50% of its health, while simultaneously losing its weakness to Ice-, Rock-, and Electric-type moves. Brave Bird is Golbat's primary attacking option due to its high power and STAB. However, you must note that it is illegal to use in conjunction with Hypnosis, so if you wish to use Hypnosis, Aerial Ace must unfortunately be used instead.</p>

[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]

<p>If you want Golbat to be more defensive, you may forgo the Attack EVs and use an alternative spread of 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 Spe, which gives Golbat much more bulk than the previous set, while maintaining its high Speed to outrun the opponent. 248 HP EVs give Golbat the highest bulk possible and it ensures that Golbat survives a fourth switch into Stealth Rock. The remaining EVs are placed into Defense for additional bulk. Alternatively, you may choose to lower Golbat's Speed and use a spread of 248 HP / 44 Def / 216 Spe, giving Golbat even more bulk. 216 Speed still allows Golbat to outrun dangerous threats such as Venusaur and Toxicroak, though it loses the tie with Moltres. More EVs can be placed into Defence to give Golbat more bulk, however, Golbat cannot afford to lose any Speed or attacking power. If using a defensive set, Super Fang is an excellent alternative to Brave Bird or Aerial Ace as it is not affected by the lower Attack, while making it easier to defeat bulky walls such as Registeel.</p>

<p>As Golbat is unable to deal a lot of damage to Steel-types, you may choose to use a Ground-type, such as Torterra or Donphan, as they can hit Steel-types super effectively with Earthquake, while also being immune to Thunder Wave. Donphan is the better choice as it can Rapid Spin away Stealth Rock, allowing Golbat to switch in freely. Fire-types are also another wise choice, as they can scorch Steel-types with their STAB attacks. Moltres is an excellent example as it has one of the highest Special Attack stats in the metagame. However, Rapid Spin is even moreso recommended as Moltres is weaker to Stealth Rock than Golbat. Arcanine is another great choice as it can switch into most physical attacks with Intimidate and hit the opponent with STAB Flare Blitz, while using Morning Sun to recover from any recoil damage. Finally, Blaziken can blast its way through the opponent's Steel-types with a variety of physical and special STAB Fire-type moves, or any of its Fighting-type moves.</p>

<p>As for the item choice, using Leftovers is the preferred option as it allows Golbat to recover recoil damage from Brave Bird and Stealth Rock, though Life Orb also has its merits. When using a Life Orb, Golbat becomes more of a sweeper, allowing it to potentially 2HKO standard 252 HP / 200 Def Milotic with Brave Bird. As another option, Golbat may use a Lum Berry, allowing it to switch into the likes of Venusaur with Sleep Powder, then scoring an OHKO with Brave Bird.</p>

[SET]
name: Nasty Plot
move 1: Nasty Plot
move 2: Sludge Bomb
move 3: Heat Wave
move 4: Hidden Power Grass / Air Slash / Roost
item: Life Orb
nature: Timid
evs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]

<p>Although Golbat has a horrible Special Attack, after a Nasty Plot, it becomes an effective special sweeper. Sludge Bomb provides a decent STAB move, while Heat Wave provides great type coverage against Steel-types. Hidden Power Grass scores an OHKO against Rhyperior and deals with Omastar and other Rock- and Ground-types who expect a Brave Bird. Air Slash is a secondary STAB move that deals more damage to Fighting- and Grass-types than Golbat's other attacks. Roost is an option to recover from Life Orb and Stealth Rock recoil, though Golbat is usually KOed before it has chance to use it.</p>

[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]

<p>For additional bulk, you may lower Golbat's Speed to 216 and combine the leftover EVs and the 4 Def EVs into HP, to ensure that Golbat's HP remains odd, allowing it to survive four switch ins to Stealth Rock without fainting. This spread given allows Golbat to reach 297 Speed, beating all base 85 Pokemon such as Toxicroak, though losing to base 90s such as Moltres.</p>

<p>Being completely specially-based, this set is walled by Chansey and Clefable. Their huge HP and high defensive stats will slow Golbat down while they slowly KO it with Seismic Toss. To deal with them, you may decide to use a physical sweeper such as Blaziken who can hit Chansey with its STAB Fighting-type moves, or Dugtrio, who can trap them with its ability and hit them with STAB Earthquake. Alternatively, you may choose to use Taunt Mismagius with Nasty Plot and Hidden Power Fighting. After three boosts from Nasty Plot, Mismagius is able to 2HKO Chansey with Hidden Power Fighting.</p>

<p If you decide to use Roost, Lum Berry is the better option as Golbat can set up multiple boosts from Nasty Plot while recovering health when necessary. Also, when using Roost, Toxic Spikes are helpful as they slowly drain walls of HP, such as Chansey and Milotic. Qwilfish is the best option to set up Toxic Spikes as a lead due to its above-average Speed and the ability to use Explosion on the opponent. Drapion and Nidoqueen are good choices too due to their great bulk.</p>

[Team Options]

<p>Being part Flying-type, Golbat has a weakness to Stealth Rock, making a Rapid Spinner almost essential. In UU, there are a few reliable users of Rapid Spin, the first of whom being Hitmontop, who carries useful priority moves, Intimidate, and Foresight. Donphan is another great option due to its huge physical stats, support moves such as Stealth Rock and Roar, and Assurance to hit Ghost-types who may attempt to block its spin. Donphan is also immune to Thunder Wave, which is commonly seen on Registeel. Blastoise is another good option as it has great defensive stats, sleep support with Yawn, and unlike Cloyster, does not have a weakness to Stealth Rock. Finally, Claydol can be considered as it resists Rock-type moves and is immune to Electric-type moves, while having a few great support moves such as Reflect, Light Screen, Trick Room, and in some cases, Explosion.</p>

<p>Steel-types cause trouble for most variants of Golbat, barring variants with boosted Heat Wave. Torterra is an excellent teammate to deal with them due to its immunity to Thunder Wave, access to STAB Earthquake, and decent Attack. Fire-type Pokemon complement Golbat as well, as they can hit Steel-types with their STAB moves. Moltres is the number one choice due to its massive Special Attack and decent movepool. If you wish to go down a more physical or mixed route, you may decide to use Arcanine, who can wield physical and special attacks at the same time, sporting both Flare Blitz and Fire Blast. Blaziken is another excellent choice as it can use both Fire- and Fighting-type attacks to destroy Steel-type opponents with ease.</p>

<p>As for defensive partners, Steelix is an excellent choice as it is immune or resists Electric-, Rock-, and Psychic-type moves, all of which hit Golbat super effectively. Furthermore, it has access to support moves such as Roar, Stealth Rock, and Torment, and has a massive Defense stat. Lanturn is also a good partner as it resists Ice-type moves, while Volt Absorb allows Lanturn to restore its health when hit with an Electric-type move. Ironically, despite being one of Golbat's biggest counters, Registeel makes an ideal partner as it can switch into most Rock-, Ice-, and Electric-type moves aimed at Golbat with little trouble, support the team with entry hazards, provide paralysis support, and deal with physical attackers such as Scyther and Swellow.</p>

[Optional Changes]

<p>Golbat may use Choice items to some success, though its physical movepool is nothing spectacular, limiting it to Brave Bird, U-turn, Steel Wing, Zen Headbutt, and Pursuit. Haze is another option to reset stat boosts, but Golbat lacks the opportunity to use support moves most of the time due to its lackluster defenses. Substitute may be used with Roost to stall opponents, along with Toxic Spikes or Toxic to wear down walls such as Chansey, Slowbro, and Milotic. Super Fang is useful in stripping walls of half their health, which is useful against the likes of Registeel and Steelix. Finally, Screech can be used to lower the opponent's Defense, making Golbat's attacks more powerful, while forcing switches at the same time.</p>

[Counters]

<p>The main way to beat Golbat is to figure out what set it's running. All of its physical sets can be defeated by Steel-types, such as Registeel and Steelix, as they can wall Golbat forever due to their massive Defense and resistance to Brave Bird. Registeel can wear it down with Iron Head, while Steelix can defeat Golbat with Stone Edge, followed up by Earthquake when it uses Roost. Rhyperior and Aggron are also great counters to Golbat as the bat is unable to deal a lot of damage to them with its physical sets, while they can easily set up Substitute or Rock Polish and proceed to sweep Golbat's team.</p>

<p>Rotom and Lanturn are both decent counters to Golbat as they resist Brave Bird, carry STAB Electric-type moves to hit Golbat super effectively, and have many great support moves. Rotom may set up Substitute , Reflect and/or Light Screen, or be a sweeper, while Lanturn can support its team with Thunder Wave and Toxic.</p>

<p>Basically any Pokemon who can outspeed Golbat, survive a Brave Bird, and hit it super effectively can be called a counter.</p>
 
Not much else Golbat can do. A Toxic stall set with moves set sort of like this: Toxic/ Substitute / Roost / U-Turn could probably use an OO mention tho. Other than that, great job!
 
I do have some comments about this analysis, although it looks decent to me. First, if you have Hypnosis in the last slot, then slash Aerial Ace with Brave Bird, because (as you mentioned) Brave Bird and Hypnosis are illegal together. Otherwise, take off Hypnosis altogether, and put it in OC. Also, in the first part of Set Comments, mention the 4x resists to Bug, Fighting, and Grass (the last of which you never mentioned). Golbat also has Return, Steel Wing (deals with Rock-types, which you should still avoid), and Zen Headbutt (flinch chance might help with Golbat's decent Speed stat) for its physical movepool with Choice items. Additionally, mention Super Fang and Screech in AC, which can help Golbat take down opponents that would usually pose problems. I hope my comments helped!
 
I really don't see much point in running Aerial Ace and Hypnosis, Golbat would be too weak with it. Anyway, I suggest changing the item of choice to Life Orb, which gives Golbat a fair amount of power. With Life Orb, he has a great chance to 2HKO 252/200 Milotic with Brave Bird after SR, which is quite impressive.

WHY DOES GOLBAT NOT HAVE 110 SPEED THAT WOULD BE SO MUCH BETTER
 
I can see Golbat running a bulky Stall Breaking set containing Superfang/Roost/Taunt/Brave Bird or Air Slash. Toxic can also be put in there, but I don't know what to get rid of for that.

EDIT: I'll see if I can find some good EVS and nature and I'll post it here after testing it (yup you heard right I have not tested this-sue me lol)

EDIT 2: I tested it. Its Ok.. not gamebreaking but decent. I can confidently say that it is effective enough. Can't take hard, unresisted hits, but then again, it isn't supposed to.

name: Cave Nuisance
move 1: Brave Bird/U-turn
move 2: Super Fang
move 3: Taunt
move 4: Roost
item: Leftovers
nature: Jolly
EVS: 252 HP/ 4 SpDef/ 252 Spe or 252 HP/ 40 SpDef / 216 Spe (you can put the 40 spdef evs into attack if you want)

-Keeps reliable KOS against Heracross and Venusaur (2hko)
-Counters Hitmontop and Toxicroak much better as it takes much less from their priority moves
-Has trouble against hard hitters like Drapion, etc.
-Excels against stall teams and pure defensive cores (Miltoc/Venusaur particularly)
-Works very well with Entry Hazard support (including toxic spikes)
-not really any other UU mon that can do it as well as crobat
-hates registeel with a passion because all it can do is superfang it. registeel can't kill golbat, but golbat can't kill registeel either unless golbat has heat wave.
-if you want golbat to be more bulky, you can get rid of some Speed Evs: 216 evs let it outrun +speed base 85s, but you lose the speed tie between Moltres/kangaskhan and you fail to outrun +Speed Hitmonlee


EDIT 3: You should probably mention that Golbat is beastly when paired with Swords Dance Shiftry. Just sayin.
 
That set is pretty simular to the one already listed. I should mention in AC about an alternative EV spread and the use of Super Fang.
 
Golbat is a boss.

Its speed just fucking ruins it though :(
Could a NP set be viable? (lol)

[SET]
name: Nasty Plot Sweeper (lol i wanna be NP Crobat)
move 1: Nasty Plot
move 2: Brave Bird / Super Fang
move 3: Sludge Bomb
move 4: Heat Wave
item: Life Orb
nature: Hasty / Naive
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA/ 252 Spe

Brave Bird + LO has a decent chance to 2HKO 4 HP/ 252 Def Calm Chansey even without attack EVs, while it actually gets decent coverage + damage with Sludge Bomb, Brave Bird, and Heat Wave.

This set is purely theorymon though, so testing it obviously needed.
 
I <3 Golbat as a lead. It's just too bad he can't outspeed Mesprit/Uxie if they run max Speed.

I think you should mention how LO Lead Golbat OHKOs Ambipom if they Fake Out w/ their own Life Orb. It leaves Golbat with about 4% health, but hey, it's a dead Ambipom.
 
I've used NP Golbat before, it's "ok" at best. Base 65 SpA is a massive letdown, although NP patches it up slightly. I'm not sure if it warrants an analysis, though, he still has plenty of flaws. Don't bother with Brave Bird, you'll die trying to Brave Bird Chansey with it (And BB without Attack EVs isn't doing much else). The set I used was:

[SET]
name: Nasty Plot
move 1: Nasty Plot
move 2: Air Slash/Sludge Bomb
move 3: Heat Wave
move 4: Roost/Hidden Power Grass
item: Life Orb
nature: Timid
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA/ 252 Spe

Air Slash generally offers better coverage than Sludge Bomb, but Sludge Bomb is better for more power, I guess. Air Slash + Heat Wave have good coverage as it is (Air Slash also comfortably 2HKOs Venusaur without an NP boost), so Roost lets Golbat recover off LO and SR damage against stuff like Heracross and Venusaur. You can use HP Grass to kill off Rhyperior quickly, but Golbat will die a lot quicker.
 
This guy is pretty cool, so let's get him the hell out of QC. On the first set, I really think Leftovers should be the main option; yes 2HKOing Milotic is pretty cool, but Golbat will most likely end up stalling it out with Taunt, Roost and BB anyways; or will just U-turn to a true counter. Added to that, to actually 2HKO Milotic, you need it to run a specially defensive spread, hazards to be down and basically maim Golbat's HP, which won't let him switch into Venusaur and company until you can find a free Roost. That isn't to mention this set has no investments in defense, which means it shouldn't be trashing its unique typing with recoils. tl;dr: Leftovers / Life Orb. Still regarding the first set, I agree with shrang, Aerial Ace is just too weak to worth the use of Hypnosis. IMO, AC is the best place for this combo.

On the Nasty Plot set, I have just gone through the UU list, Psypokes and think this should be the set:

name: Nasty Plot
move 1: Nasty Plot
move 2: Sludge Bomb
move 3: Heat Wave
move 4: Air Slash / Roost / Hidden Power Grass
item: Life Orb
nature: Timid
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe

From taking a look at the UU list Poison / Fire seems to have the best coverage of all, which is why I made them the main options, while Flying / Fire, although bearing a better super effective coverage, falls short against some key pokés and loses in power (which Golbat doesn't have much). Poison / Flying just has a pretty poor coverage as they don't complement each other very well and just can't get past Steel-types; being that why I made Air Slash the last option. With all that said:

stamp3.png
 
Got your PM. I'm an extensive user of Zubat but Golbat...not so much lmao.

Anyways I've seen the first set used effectively, so
stamp3z.png
for that.

I'd need to test or see some logs of the NP set to approve that though.
 
Lol, ok ^^ Will do the rest and maybe mess around a bit to get some logs or something unless anyone else wants to x)
 
Hmmm, well Thund never approved of the NP set. Maybe get some more opinions on that? I'm not actually convinced by it either... I mean, NP Crobat barely worked in UU if my memory serves me correctly, so I can't see Golbat pulling it off.
 
I'm aware of this, I was waiting for someone to get back to me about it, then I just decided to write it anyway, it can be moved if need be.
 
Just one thing, Golbat does not necessarily lose to Registeel, since you can just Taunt it, Brave Bird it a few times all the while recovering health with Roost. Since Registeel lacks recovery, you can attempt it if you're really desperate. Otherwise, you can just Taunt Registeel and then U-Turn to a counter.
 
I should reword that, I'm meaning to say it can't deal much damage to them :P

"As Golbat is unable to deal a lot of damage to Steel-types, you may choose to use a Ground-type like..."
 
I'm pretty sure Registeel will stall it out with Seismic Toss before Golbat can do so having to alternate between Brave Bird and Roost every now and always.
 
k, looked this over and discussed a bit more with Bluewind, and the consensus we came to is that HP Grass should be the primary slash in the last slot, as it covers the Ground- and Rock-types looking to wall Brave Bird better than Air Slash. Air Slash moves to the second slash, while Roost goes to the third slash.

With those changes:
stamp3z.png


be sure to revise the set comments, especially the last paragraph in AC mentioning something about Heat Wave in the last slot (?) and this should soon be ready for GP. good work
 
nitpick:

Is there an onsite analysis called "Scout"? It seems like "Antilead" or something along those lines would fit in better. Not sure though.
 
As this Golbat isn't specifically a lead, I wouldn't call it that, it's more a Pokemon to ease prediction and reveal the opponent's team. Unless you can think of anything else with a similar description with a more suitable name?
 
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