Salamence

Deluks917

Ride on Shooting Star
Arguably an equally common answer is to kill it with a fast scarfer. Scarf Keldeo/Terakion/Latios are all pretty common.
 

Adamant Zoroark

catchy catchphrase
is a Contributor Alumnus
He asked specifically for DDmence, and I doubt there is going to be a sudden influx of scarf Lucario and scarf Hydreigon.

Scarf Salamence however is really important, idk how I managed to forget about it.
Personally I always run +Spe Natures on Salamence; 10% extra power isn't much, and if you've got a Moxie snowball going, that extra power will probably end up being negligible. On the other hand, by running Naive/Jolly, you beat all kinds of Choice Scarf Kyurem-B with Scarf or +1 Speed (something Salamence shouldn't be losing to). The Speed tie with positive base 100s (ScarfRachi anyone?) is also a pretty big deal. Not that Jolly Luke is common, but I'd rather outspeed all variants of Lucario with my Intimidate Salamence than get a most likely negligible amount of extra "oomph" to Outrage, as shown by SJCrew's calcs.
 

Bryce

Lun
I've done a lot of testing with DD Mence since BW2 came out with moxie+dd+outrage.From the standard set to strange ones with DD+Tailwind.To me,SubDD Mence produced best results.Just by using sub,the opportunities to get a DD increases by lot.You don't risk scald burn from bulky waters since they can't break your sub even in rain and pull of multiple DD's as well as protect you from status turning stuff like Jellicent and Twave Celebi without hp ice into set up bait.

Sub also maximizes the damage salamence causes when the opponent has a Mamo,weavile,CB Scizor or faster scarfer in the wings as you can simply hide behind a sub on a set up opportunity.And if the opponent decides to use a death fodder by switching,SubMence can abuse that very well thanks to moxie and immediate power.Not to mention you can scout for random HP Ice and status and eases prediction and punish twave Deo-D leads.All these benefits of sub seems more appealing to me rather than of a fire move.The ability to get past skarm,forry and ferro isn't all that good imo.Since good players will often switch in their steel once Mence is locked to outrage and Ferro is used mostly on rain anyway.
 
Speaking of Tailwind, I've actually been testing a Tailwind MixMence that has been surprisingly effective. Early game it plays like a standard MixMence, switching in and dropping a Draco Meteor/Fire Blast, whilst late game it uses Tailwind to either sweep with Outrage or give a teammate (CB Terrakion) the speed needed to sweep.

Salamence@Life Orb
Trait: Moxie/Intimidate
EVs: 252Atk/160SpA/96Spe
Naughty Nature
-Tailwind
-Outrage
-Draco Meteor
-Fire Blast

Either ability works fine, Intimidate gives you more staying power, while Moxie makes a Tailwind sweep much deadlier. As for the EVs,Max Attack to power up Outrage, enough speed to outspeed base 108's after Tailwind and the rest thrown into Special Attack.
Thoughts?
 
12 more points in speed allows you to outrun Scarf-Latios. They aren't too common, but should you ever meet one those 12 points will save its life (allows you to outrun Politoed without Tailwind, by the way).
It misses Earthquake, because enemy Heatrans and Jirachis will have much more freedom in switching - it is a bit obvious when you switch out of them. It also ensures a clean OHKO against Terrakion, especially those Scarf-Terrakions who usually beat Salamence.
Thirdly, I don't think that Draco Meteor is really needed on any other set than the wallbreaker one. It helps you with Hippodown and Jellicent as well as in dealing damage without locking yourself into Outrage too early. But both the wallbreaker and the cleaner need Earthquake to deal with certain threats, the wallbreaker additionally have to run Fire Blast to deny Forretress and Skarmory entry hazards. With such a strong 4MSS, Tailwind looks a bit out of place.

Frankly, in hindsight I don't think offensive Tailwind Salamence needs to differ itself from the offensive Dragon Dance one that much. LO-neutral-Fire Blast already has the power to deal with certain key threats so you might just use the cookie cutter spread Naughty or Naive 252/252 (Moxie). It works similar to Agi-Lucario, but with Moxie. Naive allows you a bit more freedom outside of Tailwind, since the power difference will be negligible at +1 anyway.

Salamence @ Leftovers
Trait: Moxie
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Naive / Naughty Nature
- Tailwind
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Fire Blast

I can offer you a bulky supporter, though you must ask yourself if Dragonite is not better suited for that role (and if Thunder Wave is not better in the long run).

Salamence @ Leftovers
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 248 Atk / 108 Spd / 152 HP
Adamant Nature
- Tailwind
- Dragon Claw
- Earthquake
- Roost / Fire Blast / Wish

Earthquake over Fire Blast, because with Tailwind you probably aim for the guys faster than Skarmory, Ferrothorn and Scizor. Magnezone in this team is very much appreaciated. I have put one more point in HP, just in the case you cannot keep up with Roost or SR off your field.
 
I've done a lot of testing with DD Mence since BW2 came out with moxie+dd+outrage.From the standard set to strange ones with DD+Tailwind.To me,SubDD Mence produced best results.Just by using sub,the opportunities to get a DD increases by lot.You don't risk scald burn from bulky waters since they can't break your sub even in rain and pull of multiple DD's as well as protect you from status turning stuff like Jellicent and Twave Celebi without hp ice into set up bait.

Sub also maximizes the damage salamence causes when the opponent has a Mamo,weavile,CB Scizor or faster scarfer in the wings as you can simply hide behind a sub on a set up opportunity.And if the opponent decides to use a death fodder by switching,SubMence can abuse that very well thanks to moxie and immediate power.Not to mention you can scout for random HP Ice and status and eases prediction and punish twave Deo-D leads.All these benefits of sub seems more appealing to me rather than of a fire move.The ability to get past skarm,forry and ferro isn't all that good imo.Since good players will often switch in their steel once Mence is locked to outrage and Ferro is used mostly on rain anyway.
Hmm, this seems like a fun set to use. Getting free EQs off on priority users would be nice. And if you run dragmag, then those steels aren't much of a problem anyway. Will give this a try.
 
Speaking of Tailwind, I've actually been testing a Tailwind MixMence that has been surprisingly effective. Early game it plays like a standard MixMence, switching in and dropping a Draco Meteor/Fire Blast, whilst late game it uses Tailwind to either sweep with Outrage or give a teammate (CB Terrakion) the speed needed to sweep.

Salamence@Life Orb
Trait: Moxie/Intimidate
EVs: 252Atk/160SpA/96Spe
Adamant Nature
-Tailwind
-Outrage
-Draco Meteor
-Fire Blast

Either ability works fine, Intimidate gives you more staying power, while Moxie makes a Tailwind sweep much deadlier. As for the EVs,Max Attack to power up Outrage, enough speed to outspeed base 108's after Tailwind and the rest thrown into Special Attack.
Thoughts?
I'm going to go ahead and suppose the Nature isn't supposed to be Adamant, but some Special Def reducing Nature.
 

...Sorry just had to do that one...
Anyway, Salamence seems to be much less common these days, but it can still wreck teams when it gets a chance to set up a DD. The only good wall here is Gliscor(depending on the set), and even that is really not a perfect check to it. Needs more usage. All I can see as a problem is its speed. 100 may seem high, but in a metagame with Terrakion its not. DD or CS fixes this nicely though.
 
Salamence (F) @ Life Orb
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 100 Atk / 176 SAtk / 232 Spd Rash Nature (+SAtk,-SDef)
- Draco Meteor
- Fire Blast
- Brick Break
- Roost
I like MixMence because it destroys stall by luring out those physical and special walls. This is probably the best Salamence set imo, because while I like DD it's always been revenge killed a bit too easily, and Scarf is so lacking in immediate power which is a drawback for me. Draco Meteor is really strong and does a ton to like anything and OHKOes most physical walls which is awesome. Fire Blast is mainly used against Ferrothorn, Forretress, and Skarmory, although Skarmory takes like 60% from Draco Meteor anyway. Brickity Brakity is really only useful for Tyranitar and it is a physical move which could be slightly helpful after Draco Meteor. It's also the only move with perfect accuracy, and can be helpful if I wanna do like 30% to Rotom-W or something. And roost is the best, again for using against a stall team which I hate. Mix mence has good coverage and could be a good addition to teams that are weak to stall or just need an extra mon.
 
In my opinion, Salamence is one of the MOST dangerous AND underrated dragons in the current tier.
MixMence is almost guaranteed to get a kill, 2HKOing the entire tier(DM on Heatran, then E-quake) and can devastate mons not prepared for it.
Scarf Mence on the other hand can clean up late game, making a great partner with Scarf Kyurem-B(who sweeps first before Scarf Mence cleans up).
 

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