Volcorona (Analysis)

[Overview]

<p>Volcarona is a potent special sweeper and is one of the two Pokémon in the Unova region that learn Rage Powder, the Follow Me equivalent of BW. Volcarona is definitely a threat to be reckoned with because Fire-type moves got a buff in the new metagame.</p>

[SET]
name: Special Attacker
move 1: Heat Wave
move 2: Bug Buzz
move 3: Protect
move 4: Rage Powder
item: Focus Sash
ability: Flame Body
nature: Timid
evs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]

<p>Heat Wave hits both opponents and thus eases prediction which is why it is a must-have on every Volcarona set. Bug Buzz is your second STAB and OHKOes the slower Hydreigon as well as being a threat to Psychic types such as Reuniclus and Musharna. Protect gives your partner time to kill that Rock Slide Pokémon that threatens your Volcarona. It is also needed to waste a turn of Fake Out, should you want to use Rage Powder and a set-up Pokémon of your choice. Rage Powder is the new Follow Me. Note that Volcarona is slower than Mienshao and needs to Protect first turn to waste the Fake Out because Fake Out is now in the same priority bracket as Rage Powder. Focus Sash is used because Volcarona has trouble with the frequency of Water and Rock type moves, it also has good synergy with Flame Body and Rage Powder, since it allows you to take a hit and still live for another turn. If you choose to draw in Fake Out, do not forget that Fake Out is in the same priority bracket as Rage Powder so take care when choosing it.</p>

[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]

<p>Volcarona always needs 252 EVs in Speed to be faster than every Pokémon with less than 100 base Speed, most notably Hydreigon which gets OHKOed by Bug Buzz and Haxorus which gets OHKOed by a +1 Bug Buzz after the Quiver Dance boost is activated (does 71-83% to 4/0 Haxorus without the boost). Of course 252 Special Attack is also needed to take full advantage of Volcarona's Base 135 Special Attack, also allowing it to OHKO 252/0 Whimsicott with a 3/4 powered Heat Wave. It is frail on the defensive side but can take hits from the special defensive side of the spectrum thanks to 80/105 defense, unfortunately it cannot really shine with these defenses due to the mediocre defensive typing. The reality of its defensive weaknesses and the omnipresence of Rock Slide make Focus Sash clearly the best item. Life Orb or Charti Berry can also be used but Life Orb doesn't grant any notable surefire OHKOes or 2HKOes other than on Musharna (252/0) and Charti Berry doesn't make that much of a difference with those 85/65 physical defenses.</p>

Volcarona is a strong stand-alone-Pokémon but still greatly enjoys and supports any kind of setup, the most noteworthy being Sunny Day which powers up its already beefy fire moves. But Tailwind is also a really good choice to support Volcarona allowing it to get the jump on all the Pokémon faster than it. It can even work in some kind of Trick Room team despite sitting at 100 base Speed because it has Rage Powder and is still slower than all the 101-110 Base Speed Pokémon. Outside Trick Room it is faster than Amoonguss, who is the only other Pokémon capable of learning Rage Powder, dealing a hefty 73-86% damage to 252/0 Amoonguss with a 3/4 powered Heat Wave (60% chance of OHKOing with Life Orb, Flamethrower is a certain OHKO). A partner using Wide Guard remedies its quadruple Rock Slide weakness and gives turns for Volcarona to set up or attack. Jellicent also makes for a good partner because it keeps the opponent from using their own Water Spout on you mindlessly, while Volcarona can direct away attacks aimed at Jellicent so that your own Jellicent can fire off full-powered Water Spouts. Inner Focus Mienshao stands out as one of the best partners to Volcarona with a set of Fake Out / Feint / Wide Guard / Fighting move because it aids Volcarona in setting up and sweeping.

[Other options]

<p>Sunny Day and Quiver Dance can be used if you utilize a Wide Guard partner to protect yoursekf from Rock Slide.
Flamethrower is an option if you want a powerful Fire type single target move. Chandelure can be a nuisance to Heat Wave Volcarona. Fiery Dance's 80 base damage is lower than Flamethrower's 95, but Fiery Dance can grab you a Special Attack boost 50 percent of the time.</p>

[Checks and Counters]

<p>Rock type attacks hit Volcarona hard but that can be played around by using Wide Guard which blocks the most used Rock type attack, Rock Slide. Wide Guard also stops Water Spout from opposing Jellicent. Its flying weakness can be targeted by Acrobatics and Brave Bird users, however, they have to fear getting burned by Flame Body on contact.</p>

[Dream World]

<p>Swarm is a cool Dream World ability, but it's nothing spectacular. It'll be really useful once Volcarona's Focus Sash activates, but at the same time, burning an opponent that makes contact moves is also pretty good. Swarm is generally the better choice, but it's still not amazing and won't be super clutch when released.

---------------

so this is my Volcarona analysis that I also wrote for the other site, hope I did a decent job of reformatting it, if anything is out of place here or needs prosa correction, just tell me here.

There are too many slashes on the bottom move, I think everything but Anger Powder should be moved to OC.

Swarm isn't released yet, so remove mentions of it.

Formatting wise you don't have to put what the nature does, just put the nature.

There are a few grammatical problems I noticed, but thats not really my place. Otherwise great job.

Slightly edited the analysis based on the things you mentioned. Now the grammar's disappointing because I'm actually a student of English but well, I never checked it for grammatical errors so feel free to correct all that sloppy English you'll find there :P

QC Approved 1/2

You need to check your formatting for the moves, it should be:

[SET]
name: Utility Sweeper
move 1: Heat Wave
move 2: Bug Buzz
move 3: Protect
move 4: Anger Powder
nature: Timid
item: Focus Sash
ability: Flame Body
evs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe

Notice the changes to the way the stats are named, and the way the moves are listed.

Changed the formatting for the moves.

edited English pokemon names and moves

i can has cookies?

Should String Shot get a mention in OC? It acts as an Icy Wind in doubles and its not like Volcorana has that many other options.

Also you missed a few of the English move names.

Good to go. Beast of a bug, he is.

QC Approved 2/2

Add/change
delete

drug_duck said:

[Overview]

<p>Volcarona is a potent special sweeper and is one of the two Pokémon in the Unova region that learn Rage Powder, the Follow Me equivalent of Generation 5 BW. and as such Volcarona is definitely a threat to be reckoned with because Fire-type moves got a buff in the new metagame.</p>

[SET]
name: Special Attacker
move 1: Heat Wave
move 2: Bug Buzz
move 3: Protect
move 4: Rage Powder
item: Focus Sash
ability: Flame Body
nature: Timid
evs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]

<p>Heat Wave hits both opponents and thus eases prediction, which is why it is a must-have on every Volcarona set. Bug Buzz is your second STAB and one-shots OHKOes the slower Hydreigon as well as being a threat to Psychic types such as Reuniclus and Musharna. Protect gives your partner time to kill that Rock Slide Pokémon that threatens your Volcarona. It is also needed to waste a turn of Fake Out, should you want to use Rage Powder and a set-up Pokémon of your choice. Rage Powder is the new Follow Me. Note that Volcarona is slower than Mienshao and needs to Protect first turn to waste the Fake Out because Fake Out is now in the same priority bracket as Rage Powder. Focus Sash is used because Volcarona has trouble with the frequency of Water- and Rock-type moves. It also has good synergy with Flame Body and Rage Powder, since it allows you to take a hit and still live for another turn. If you choose to draw in Fake Out, do not forget that Fake Out is in the same priority bracket as Rage Powder so take care when choosing it.</p>

[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]

<p>Volcarona always needs 252 EVs in Speed to be faster than every Pokémon with less than 100 base Speed, most notably Hydreigon which gets OHKOed by Bug Buzz and Haxorus which gets OHKOed by a +1 Bug Buzz after the Butterfly Dance boost is activated (does 71-83% to 4/0 Haxorus wiBhout the boost). Of course 252 Special Attack is also needed to take full advantage of Volcarona's Base 135 Special Attack, also allowing it to OHKO 252/0 Whimsicott with a 3/4 powered Heat Wave. It is frail on the defensive side but can take hits from the special defensive side of the spectrum thanks to 80/105 defenses, unfortunately it cannot really shine with these defenses due to the mediocre defensive typing. Also because of this and because of the omnipresence of Rock Slide, The reality of its defensive weaknesses and the omnipresence of Rock Slide make Focus Sash is clearly the best item. Life Orb or Charti Berry can also be used but Life Orb doesn't grant any notable surefire OHKOes or 2HKOes other than on Musharna (252/0) and Charti Berry doesn't make that much of a difference with those 85/65 physical defenses.</p>

Volcarona is a strong stand-alone-Pokémon, but still greatly enjoys and supports any kind of setup, the most noteworthy being Sunny Day which powers up its already beefy fire moves. but Tailwind is also a really good choice to support Volcarona, allowing it to get because then it gets the jump on all the Pokémon faster than it. It can even work in some kind of Trick Room team despite sitting at 100 base Speed because it has Rage Powder and is still slower than all the 101-110 Base Speed Pokémon. and without Outside Trick Room it is faster than Amoonguss, who is the only other Pokémon capable of learning Anger Powder, dealing a hefty 73-86% of damage to 252/0 Amoonguss with a 3/4 powered Heat Wave (60% chance of OHKOing with Life Orb, Flamethrower is a certain OHKO). A partner using Wide Guard remedies its quadruple Rock Slide weakness and gives turns for Volcarona to set up or straight attacking attack. Jellicent also makes for a good partner because it keeps the opponent away from using their own Water Spout on you mindlessly, while and Volcarona can direct away attacks aimed at Jellicent so that your own Jellicent can fire off full-powered Water Spouts. Inner Focus Mienshao stands out as one of the best partners to Volcarona with a set of Fake Out / Feint / Wide Guard / Fighting move because it aids Volcarona in setting up and sweeping.
​

[Other options]

<p>Sunny Day and Quiver Dance can be used if you utilize a Wide Guard partner to protect yourself from being Rock Slide. d and Flamethrower is an option if you want a powerful Fire-type single target move. since Chandelure and its Flash Fire can be a nuisance to Heat Wave Volcorona Chandelure grabs a Flash Fire boost if you hit it with Heat Wave. Fiery Dance's 80 base damage is lower than Flamethrower's 95, but Fiery Dance can grab you a Special Attack boost 50 percent of the time.</p>

[Checks and Counters]

<p>Rock-type attacks hit Volcarona hard but that can be played around by using Wide Guard which blocks the most used Rock-type attack, Rock Slide. this also includes Wide Guard also stops Water Spout from opposing Jellicent. Its flying weakness can be abused targeted by Acrobatics and Brave Bird users, however, they have to fear getting burned by Flame Body on contact.</p>

[Dream World]

<p>Swarm is a cool Dream World ability, but it's nothing spectacular. It'll be really useful once Volcarona's Focus Sash activates, but at the same time, burning an opponent that makes contact moves is also pretty good. Swarm is generally the better choice for a once-boosted Bug Buzz, but it's still not amazing and won't be super clutch when released.

Click to expand...

1/2

Pretty nice

Could you use Hurricane on a Rain Dance team?
Maybe like:
-Hurricane
-Bug Buzz
-Quiver Dance
-Protect
Modest Nature; 252 SpAtk/ 4 SpD/ 252 Spd
Swarm

You could, but that would be a waste of its fire STAB and it would still be walled by heatran and the fire gang.

sliceofsweiss said:

You could, but that would be a waste of its fire STAB and it would still be walled by heatran and the fire gang.

Click to expand...

You clearly don't play VGC2011 so maybe you shouldn't comment here...

(there's no heatran in vgc)

+1 Bug Buzz after the Butterfly Dance boost is activated (does 71-83% to 4/0 Haxorus without the boost).

Click to expand...

Quiver Dance has been removed, so this sentence should probably be revised.

Also, the Dream World section should be removed.

Quiver Dance is just not in the main set but in the additional section so I won't remove that because it's definitely worth playing. I just don't want slasheritis in the main set so that's why I put it to additional comments.

Other than that I'm going to edit the analysis once again (editing in full English names and grammar / prose corrections).

Edit: done

Can you expand your Overview a bit? Two sentences isn't really cutting it. Go over its qualities, how well it fares in the metagame, maybe some comparisons with other Pokemon, interesting notes aboout Volcarona (btw, it's typoed in the title), etc.

Probably want to expand the Counters section as well. I think you can get a little more information in there.

And in Other options:

"Sunny Day and Quiver Dance can be used if you utilize a Wide Guard partner to protect yourself from Rock Slide."

Other options is also seemingly having some spacing problems.

"Yourself" was typoed but it should be "Volcarona" anyway.

This paragraph is missing tags:

<p>Volcarona is a strong stand-alone-Pokémon but still greatly enjoys and supports any kind of setup, the most noteworthy being Sunny Day which powers up its already beefy fire moves. But Tailwind is also a really good choice to support Volcarona allowing it to get the jump on all the Pokémon faster than it. It can even work in some kind of Trick Room team despite sitting at 100 base Speed because it has Rage Powder and is still slower than all the 101-110 Base Speed Pokémon. Outside Trick Room it is faster than Amoonguss, who is the only other Pokémon capable of learning Rage Powder, dealing a hefty 73-86% damage to 252/0 Amoonguss with a 3/4 powered Heat Wave (60% chance of OHKOing with Life Orb, Flamethrower is a certain OHKO). A partner using Wide Guard remedies its quadruple Rock Slide weakness and gives turns for Volcarona to set up or attack. Jellicent also makes for a good partner because it keeps the opponent from using their own Water Spout on you mindlessly, while Volcarona can direct away attacks aimed at Jellicent so that your own Jellicent can fire off full-powered Water Spouts. Inner Focus Mienshao stands out as one of the best partners to Volcarona with a set of Fake Out / Feint / Wide Guard / Fighting move because it aids Volcarona in setting up and sweeping.</p>

This one's missing the ending tag:
<p>Swarm is a cool Dream World ability, but it's nothing spectacular. It'll be really useful once Volcarona's Focus Sash activates, but at the same time, burning an opponent that makes contact moves is also pretty good. Swarm is generally the better choice, but it's still not amazing and won't be super clutch when released.</p>

At Additional Comments:

"due to the mediocre defensive typing. The reality of its defensive weaknesses and the omnipresence of Rock Slide makeFocus Sash clearly the best item."

Spacing problem. Watch out for them. Don't just edit and save. Look over your analysis again and see if problems pop out.

GP CHECK 2/3

additions
removals
(comments)



no offense, but...this analysis was pretty poor. there were tons of obvious grammatical mistakes, the prose could use some heavy improvement, and even the content was a little off. i think that just to be safe, this'll require a third gp check after you implement my changes.

The title is still spelled wrong...

I'll go ahead and take this over and repost it.