Fighting Types: Honing The Vital Spirit

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Fighting types are an amazing offensive type. Dispite most of them being swallowed up by the higher tiers, NU is still left with a plethora of fantastic options for use. Able to hit a lot of common types super effectively with powerful moves like close combat, dynamicpunch, hi jump kick, and drain punch is no joke. Also, only having 2 weaknesses is nice. There may not be too many options, some things I added here just to kill space, but fighting types have stood out for a long while for their ability to deal with many of the great threats, and become some themselves.



The Big Three


Gurdurr

As the prevo to one of gen 5's first "lolbroken" pokemon, gurdurr acts just like his big brother. With a great attack stat and access to eviolite, gurdurr becomes a fantastic tank. He also gets Bulk Up to boost his attack and defense at the same time, as well as the coveted drain/mach punch combo. The icing on the cake is the ability Guts, which gives him an attack boost from the otherwise crippling status that plagues so many potential threats.



Sawk

Sawk can utilize choice items to punch massive holes in the opponant's team. With powerful moves like Close Combat and Earthquake, Sawk can smash through walls with his huge attack stat and solid speed. Unfortunately, scarf sawk JUST misses out on beating gorebyss after a smash. But it does get a nifty ability called sturdy, meaning it will always live a hit from full health.




Emboar

With low speed, mediocre defences (except HP) and crappy defensive typing, not to mention being the only fully evolved fire/fighting type in NU, Emboar doesnt exactly scream excellent pokemon. At first that is. However, stare into those offenses in awe as he fires off STAB flare blitz and superpower. As one of the few physical attackers that can stand up to Tangela, and come out at the end. Emboar also can be a mixed wallbreaker with cool options like scald, grass knot, fire/focus blast. Also, rhyperior2 (as I sometimes call it, seriously look at those sprites next to each other.) Will get even BETTER when the ability reckless is released. This will give a power boost to moves like flare blitz, head smash, and wild charge.



Not Bad...




Scraggy

Be cautious before posting hate comments, for if you do, a pack of angry Molks will be after you. But either way, the ghetto toddler is surprisingly viable. Able to set up reliably and rest off the damage is amazing. Also, access to drain punch allows him to heal semi-reliably. However, there are things that set it apart from gurdurr and throh. First, scraggy has Shed skin, so instead of boosting attack, the status could go away! Also, he has STAB dark type, giving him both an immunity to psychic, and near-perfect coverage with his STABs.





Throh

As Sawk's little bro, you would assume there would be more in common between them than their sweet wardrobe option. In fact, Throh shares more with Gurdurr than Sawk. He shares the Guts ability, Bulk Up, and just overall tankishness with Gurdurr. However, gurdurr focuses mainly on sweeping with his boosts, wheras Throh preferrs to abuse the near-exclusive move Circle Throw to rack up hazards damage on the opponant. He can then use Payback to avoid being walled by ghosts and psychics.



Machoke


Again, an NFE fighting type in NU. The vast majority of them are however. But this by no means says that Machoke is bad. With access to the exclusive ability No Guard and STAB dynamicpunch, Machoke fills a certain niche that nothing else in NU can fill. With a 100% accurate powerful STAB move that has a sweet secondary effect. This move, is Dynamicpunch (its only accurate with No Guard.) He also has access to priority and good recovery with resttalk. He can also run a Guts set, but it is extremely outclassed by Gurdurr in every way.


Combusken

He may share his typing with emboar, but they are very differant. Combusken received an amazing ability called Speed Boost and thus gained an ability to late game sweep. However, Combusken has essentially no bulk. Along with this, it is fairly weak without any offensive boosts. If you aren't going to set up, it is better to go special, physical otherwise because of swords dance. However, even with the intence speed it reaches after a few boosts, it is still bypassed by priority and quick scarfers (this due to his mediocre speed from before boosts).



Not Good...



Monferno

Monferno is one of the more interesting options on this list. It isn't good at offense, like one would first think. I mean, it SHOULD be, with access to moves like flare blitz, close combat, mach punch, etc. But it, unlike the other fire/fighting starters, monferno takes on more of a support role. Using his solid speed, monferno can work as a lead to set up stealth rocks, get hit down to a focus sash, endeavor something, and kill it with a mach punch. Unfortunately, that's all it can do.


Mienfoo

Again, there isn't much it can do. Regenerator is a nice toy, especially with U-Turn. But other than that, a scarf set might be decent, because Hi Jump Kick is just so strong, but mienfoo can either be slow or weak, whichever you want to go with.



Meditite

Another "joke", meditite could actually be decent. He was banned from little cup for a reason, right? Again, Hi Jump Kick is the prevailing factor, but this is coming from something with an ability that doubles his attack stat. I mean, there must be SOME power there?



...

Riolu

As the final option on this list, Riolu is another interesting option. He can troll the living hell out of the opponant with prankster copycat and roar/circle throw, providing hazards are up. But then again, Why?
 
The max HP/SpD Bulk Up Scraggy set has wreaked havoc against me on so many occasions. With Eviolite his special defense reaches 392 and after a few Bulk Ups his defense is right up there as well, not to mention Drain Punch and Rest recover health like nobody's business. That little guy is a piece of work, and I'm surprised he hasn't seen more action than he has in the tier.
 
I think Throh should become part of the big 3 (i.e make it the big 4). It's just insanely bulky and is probably as effective at a Bulk Up set as Gurdurr, it just works differently. I've seen it survive a Specs Psychic from Exegg for christ sake.

EDIT: Yeah, I meant Throh.
 

CrashinBoomBang

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I think Sawk should become part of the big 3 (i.e make it the big 4). It's just insanely bulky and is probably as effective at a Bulk Up set as Gurdurr, it just works differently. I've seen it survive a Specs Psychic from Exegg for christ sake.
I suppose you mean Throh there, but I disagree; The big three should be more of a reference to the most effective fighting types overall. In my opinion, Throh only works on teams tailored exactly for it while Sawk, Gurdurr and Emboar require way less team support to work, and are better standalone Pokemon. The main draws Gurdurr has over Throh are Drain Punch and Mach Punch, giving it semi reliable recovery as well as priority, thus making it less team-support dependant (a sleeping Throh is pretty much dead unless a cleric heals it, for example).
 
Sawk really needs Mold Breaker. Something that could OHKO every single common Stealth Rock user (other than physically defensive Regirock and Torterra) would be very useful.

I really wish there was a bigger selection of Fighting-types in NU. All good Fighting-types here are either wallbreakers, bulky Bulk Up Pokemon, or Combusken. Although I guess with most other tiers, it's pretty similar. Still, it would be nice to have Hariyama / Primeape (why is this RU?)/ Poliwrath.

My favorite of these is Emboar. Emboar is such an excellent wallbreaker. Unlike Sawk, it doesn't get walled by some of the most common walls (Sawk is still a very good Pokemon, though).

Scraggy is also nice for the ability to set-up on Musharna. If you play carefully with it, Scraggy will be extremely hard to stop. It doesn't have Gurdurr's great stats, Guts, or Mach Punch, but Shed Skin and the Dark-typing give it enough of a niche to shine - especially in a tier like NU where Fighting/Dark/Psychic cores are pretty prominent. It's quite interesting that Scraggy's best checks are Fighting-types themselves.
 
I suppose you mean Throh there, but I disagree; The big three should be more of a reference to the most effective fighting types overall. In my opinion, Throh only works on teams tailored exactly for it while Sawk, Gurdurr and Emboar require way less team support to work, and are better standalone Pokemon. The main draws Gurdurr has over Throh are Drain Punch and Mach Punch, giving it semi reliable recovery as well as priority, thus making it less team-support dependant (a sleeping Throh is pretty much dead unless a cleric heals it, for example).
I guess you're right in that Throh needs a bit more team support than the likes of Sawk, but the same is true for Gurdurr (which is Throh's main niche competition).

Throh also gets much more out of it's ability thanks to RestTalk. It can status itself while healing, then phaze with a Guts boosted Circle Throw.

I guess they both have there draws.
 
I guess you're right in that Throh needs a bit more team support than the likes of Sawk, but the same is true for Gurdurr (which is Throh's main niche competition).

Throh also gets much more out of it's ability thanks to RestTalk. It can status itself while healing, then phaze with a Guts boosted Circle Throw.

I guess they both have there draws.
Throh doesn't have Sleep Talk. If it did, it'd be noticeably better, and Sleep Talk sets would be quite fun to use. Maybe BW2 will have a Sleep Talk tutor or something?
 
Throh doesn't have Sleep Talk. If it did, it'd be noticeably better, and Sleep Talk sets would be quite fun to use. Maybe BW2 will have a Sleep Talk tutor or something?
Wow. I have no idea why I thought it did. It would seem Gurdurr does pretty much have the jump on Throh then.
 
Yea, i was origionally going to use resttalk in it's description, until I realised it didnt have sleep talk. It's fairly sad though, because if it got it, i would use it more.
 

Molk

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you know, speaking of bulky fighting-types with restalk, Pignite might be an interesting option as a defensive fighter (emphasis on MIGHT). its insanely bulky on both sides with eviolite with its 90/55/55 defenses (it outbulks hariyama and rivals throh when both are fully invested). Fire/Fighting, despite having common weaknesses is actually interesting defensively, having resistances to both fire and ice, being able to take on quiver dancers by simply tanking air slashes may be nice too. I havent worked out an ev spread for it, but theoretically it could counter both Absol and Magmortar at the same time with the right one! (max spD takes 35% MAX from LO focus blast). It also has a decent base 93 attack and 70 spA, along with things such as the restalk combo, roar, will-o-wisp, and even curse on a gimmick set could be viable. Sadly pignite doesnt get a lot of moves its evolution does, but the huge amounts of extra bulk even WITH lefties counted might make up for it. here are some calcs to look at and discuss

http://pastebin.com/18LfhxeV SpD pignite

http://pastebin.com/aJB5kEBH physically defensive

anyways, this might just be another gimmick, but it seems interesting to me
 

November Blue

A universe where hot chips don't exist :(
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I'd like to put in a good word for Monferno.

Monferno @ Choice Band
Adamant
Iron Fist
252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe

-Mach Punch
-U-turn
-Close Combat
-Flare Blitz

This set is really good. It has 261 Speed with this spread, which is more than enough, seeing as the majority of the metagame is slower than this. The 48 Base Power Mach Punch is useful, just like on Gurdurr, and U-turn is spammable. It's pretty straightforward. I'll add some calcs in a sec.
 
Sawks Sturdy ability makes it a perfect candidate for the Salac Berry or the Liechi Berry and with Tutors it gets both Fire Punch and Dual Chop added with Earthquake for perfect coverage then Close Combat for STAB can switch in survive opposing attack on switch with sturdy. This activates the berry which gives Sawk plus 1 attack or speed depending on chosen berry then select move to use and as long as the opposing Pokemon doesnt have Priority you should be able to knock out most of the tier.
 
Machoke


Again, an NFE fighting type in NU. The vast majority of them are however. But this by no means says that Machoke is bad. With access to the exclusive ability No Guard and STAB dynamicpunch, Machoke fills a certain niche that nothing else in NU can fill. With a 100% accurate powerful STAB move that has a sweet secondary effect. This move, is Dynamicpunch (its only accurate with No Guard.) He also has access to priority and good recovery with resttalk. He can also run a Guts set, but it is extremely outclassed by Gurdurr in every way.
This isn't true Golurk also gets No guard and Dynamic Punch and I think he generally does it better being fully evolved and not having to rely on Eviolite allowing him to use other useful items. He also get's a nice secondary stab in Earthquake although he doesn't get stab on Dynamic Punch. That and he's generally all round more useful, setting up stealth rocks and spin blocking. If you want to use No guard Dynamic Punch, I'd say Golurk is the way to go.

I have used Eviolite No Gaurd Machoke before but that was before Golurk dropped into NU and Machoke did pull it's weight, especially on teams that spears paralysis and Machoke spreading confusion. It also made a good lead on slower Rock Type Sturdy Stealth Rock users if you invested some EVs in Speed where you had a 50% chance of preventing the opponent from setting up rocks.
 

jake

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hey guys, this thread is eons old and the OP is really outdated. if you want to continue talking about this stuff, you're welcome to do so in the np: thread.
 
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