Slowking Discussion

[kniteowl]

#199 Slowking

Abilities: Oblivious, Own Tempo
Dream World: Regeneration

HP: 95
ATT: 75
DEF: 80
SPA: 100
SPD: 110
SPE: 30

With a significantly strong base 100 SPA and good dual stab and reasonably good bulk 95/80/110. Slowking makes a good tank that can hit hard on the special side, it can even hit the physical side with psycho shock, base 75 attack isn't totally unusable as some utility moves such as dragon tail can be viable. The only thing that really holds it back is it's typing and very poor base 30 speed but even that has a positive side and can be worked around.

Most importantly of all is its awesome ability regeneration, allows Slowking instant recovery whenever it switches out. You'd think Slowking would take over Slowbro's job in RU, that Slowbro does very well in UU but sadly with a tier dominated by bugs and Honchkrow, Slowking has a tough time switching in or finding a team slot as the team's water or psychic type with so many better options but regeneration does give it an edge.

SET
Name : Specs King
Move 1: Surf
Move 2: Psychic / Psycho Shock / Future Sight
Move 3: Grass Knot
Move 4: Fire Blast / Ice beam
Item: Choice Specs
Nature: Modest
Ability: Regeneration
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 Def

This set takes advantage of Slowking's ability with a hit and run strategy allowing slowking to deal a lot of damage while being able to recover by switching out.

After a Choice Specs Slowking SpA raises to 492

Surf for Water STAB (If only it learnt Hydro pump)

Psychic for secondary stab, psycho shock can be used over Psychic if you want to hit particular threats that are weaker on the physical side.

Grassknot to hit other bulky waters

Fire Blast / Flame thrower to hit Steels, grass and bugs on the switch, especially Ferroseed.

Ice beams hits different threats such as rare dragons but Fire Blast is generally the superior option.

Other Options:

Focus Blast hits Ice, rock and Steels but you already got that covered with your other moves

Shadowball can use use to hit opposing Psyhics but stab Surf should deal more then enough damage.

Sadly Trick is illegal with Regeneration because Trick is a Gen 4 tutor move.

Future Sight is the risky option for those who want to try something different, here's an example.

Turn 1

Opponent expects you to use a psychic type attack so they switch in a dark type pokemon for immunity for example Honchkrow.

You did use a psychic attack but it was future sight but doesn't deal damage for another 2 turns.

Turn 2

You expect Honchkrow to use a super effective dark type attack so you switch out to your counter say Rhyperior.

Your opponent does use a Dark attack but Rhyperior takes minimal damage

Turn 3

now your opponent is in a check mate position (unless they have another dark type pokemon or something that resist a psychic attack)

They either have to keep Honckrow in to take on Future sight but if they stay in, Rhyperior can KO them with a super effective Stone Edge/Rock Blast

But if they switch out, the pokemon that switches out take 2 hits, 1 from Specs Future Sight and a hit from Rhyperior, which is also a potential KO.

They could get lucky and and keep Honchkrow in, Stone edge misses , they take a future sight with zero damage because of their immunity and fire off a Super power which crits nad KOs Rhyperior :P

I hope the Turn delay is correct, I typed this up without actually testing it :S

BTW, Future sight is now a psychic type attack and does get a stab boost with the generation 2 mechanics.

SET
Name : Defensive
Move 1: Scald
Move 2: Slack Off
Move 3: Psychic
Move 4: Fire Blast / Toxic
Item: Leftovers
Nature: Relaxed / Sassy
Ability: Regeneration
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def or SpD / 4 SpA

Yip a basically the exact same set as Slowbro

Scald to burn

Slack off for recovery and makes you insanely difficult to KO

Psychic for a 2nd Stab

Fire Blast to hit ferroseed and bugs on the switch.

Toxic to Toxic Stall out opponents

Other options:

Dragon tail for phazing, especially useful on Gorebyss

Thunder wave to catch speedy opponents but be careful of electric types wanting free speed boost, SpA boost or recovery. Unless you're gastrodon, Ground types generally don't want to switch into Slowking so carry Thunder-wave is a Viable option.

Name : Slow-Tank
Move 1: Calm Mind
Move 2: Slack Off
Move 3: Scald / Surf
Move 4: Psycho Shock / Psychic / Grass Knot
Item: Leftovers
Nature: Bold
Ability: Regeneration
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA

Compared to other calm minders Slowking does have one niche over the others in RU, Scald's 30% burn chance. While Calm mind boost's your SpD, Scald's possible Burn Chance can lower the attack of Physical pokemon trying to Take you out after you become too Specially Bulky.

Scald is recommended over surf for burns.

Slack off for recovery

the Last Slot depends on what you want Slowking to cover, Psycho Shock is the 1st choice to hit Pokemon on their weaker physical side like Munchlax.

Psychic can be used because of the higher base power if you don't mind SpD Walls ruining your day,

Grass knot is essentially there for Quagsire that can take your hits all day long while it Status you with Toxic.

Hidden Power - Dragon can be used for an attempt at perfect coverage but you will still be walled by Ferroseed as it sets up on you

Flamethrower can be used if Ferroseed is your biggest problem but you're walled by other bulky waters.

 

[Nails]

Choice locked future sight is huge set up bait. It's not necessarily bad, but you're giving your opponent a free turn on the guaranteed switch. Specsking is solid otherwise.

It's main role is being the best bulky water in ru though. Blastoise can spin but having to use rest sucks for stoise. Quaggy (gastrodon is also moving up) can't hit as hard and it can't abuse unaware as well because of a lack of physical boosting sweepers.

set comments, not discussion related

It's not good but slowking is one of, if not the best trick roomer in ru, and so you should mention it.

NP king is pretty decent too. As is CM which lets you handle yanmegas, lilligants, venomoths, and rotoms that try to switch in better.

Tanking should only be defensive. Its typing is horrible for a special wall. However, it is the best bulky water.

And it shouldn't be -Spe.

 

[kniteowl]

Choice locked future sight is huge set up bait. It's not necessarily bad, but you're giving your opponent a free turn on the guaranteed switch.

True but I did mention it's for those who want to try something different and risky, it obviously not the main option as it's slash right at the end.

It's not good but slowking is one of, if not the best trick roomer in ru, and so you should mention it.

I definitely should mention it but I haven't used trick room for so long I kind of forgotten about it, but Slowking is definitely a top contender for a trick room team because he can set up trick room multiple times with healing in both slack off and regeneration.

NP king is pretty decent too. As is CM which lets you handle yanmegas, lilligants, venomoths, and rotoms that try to switch in better.

Nastyplot is kind of hard to practically pull off for me (maybe you can pull it off better then me), Slowking set ups Nasty Plot and your opponent switches into a counter with a super effective move and is very likely to hit first, since Slowking is well... SLOW

Calm Mind is definitely worth looking into, I remember with my surprise Calm mind Slowbro owned in OU, it basically worked a lot like Reuniclus but with dual stab. but the lower physical defensive stat means it can't take tank as many hits as his big bother Slowbro but in RU the threat don't hit as hard it can defintely pull it off, but there are better calm minds users, the main one being Cress.

as for Mega, Lilligant, Venemoth and rotom taking on calm mind slowking.

I reckon Specs Mega can potentially 2hko Slowking after one calm mind but don't take my word for it because Mega hits pretty hard. Besides I'm too lazy to do calculations.

Lilligant as sleep powder so unless sleep clause is in effect or if it misses you're screwed, it also has quiver dance so it's be a boosting war and if Slowking isn't carrying psycho shock, +6 Super Effective Giga Drain hits harder then psychic.

Venemoth is in the same both as Lilligant with Sleep powder and super effective Bug buzz but you could catch by surprise and hit it with super effective psychic.

Rotom has trick, obviously not all sets carry it.

So it looks like Slowking may have a tough time tanking those pokemon effectively but I do agree a calm mind set is worth mentioning but there are better pokemon that can use calm mind.

Tanking should only be defensive. Its typing is horrible for a special wall. However, it is the best bulky water.

That's a tough choice for me really because it depends on the main threats in the Tier. Going for Maximum SpD seems the natural choice because of Slowking's high SpD but you still have to worry about threats like Mega, Lilligant and others

While on the Physical side you have to worry about Honchkorw and Scollipede but if you hit them with scald on the switch and get lucky with a burn, they can be walled even with only 4 EVs in Def but I reckon Both Physical Defensive and Specially Defensive are both viable in the tier.

And it shouldn't be -Spe.

I originally had dragon tail slashed in the defensive set but I dropped it at the last minute and added it in other options but left the -Spe nature.

If Slowking does use dragon tail, you probably don't want to decrease Slowking's attack because Dragontail is a physical move, even though you're only using it for utility for phazing.

Slowking doesn't care about the speed drop, it's slow already, who is slowking gonna out speed anyway? Ferroseed? Muchlax? they're hardly worth out speeding. Ferroseed can potentially also be running a -Spe nature to max out the power of gyroball

 

[tomtom5858]

Slowking doesn't care about the speed drop, it's slow already, who is slowking gonna out speed anyway? Ferroseed? Muchlax? they're hardly worth out speeding. Ferroseed can potentially also be running a -Spe nature to max out the power of gyroball

Regardlesss of whether or not either of them run a -Spe nature, Comparing their speeds is the same as comparing no Sun Venusaur and an unboosted Salamence (first base 80 and base 100 Pokemon I thought of). Neither Ferroseed wants -Spe to have max power GBall all the time, and Munchlax is, well, Munchlax. Tied for lowest Base speed in the game. Yeah.

 

[Nails]

Nastyplot is kind of hard to practically pull off for me (maybe you can pull it off better then me), Slowking set ups Nasty Plot and your opponent switches into a counter with a super effective move and is very likely to hit first, since Slowking is well... SLOW

It's "pretty decent". It's nothing amazing, but pretty much any specially based mon is gonna be able to use it. It has good enough defenses that it can NP on the switch, take a hit and ohko back. It was more included for completeness though.

Calm Mind is definitely worth looking into, I remember with my surprise Calm mind Slowbro owned in OU, it basically worked a lot like Reuniclus but with dual stab. but the lower physical defensive stat means it can't take tank as many hits as his big bother Slowbro but in RU the threat don't hit as hard it can defintely pull it off, but there are better calm minds users, the main one being Cress.

Yeah, cress is better. Slowking has typing and movepool over cress, so that's what you should be abusing. Recovery that isn't nerfed in hail is useful.

I reckon Specs Mega can potentially 2hko Slowking after one calm mind but don't take my word for it because Mega hits pretty hard. Besides I'm too lazy to do calculations.

Here's the calcs

252 SpAtk Choice Specs Yanmega Bug Buzz vs 252 HP/0 SpDef Slowking: 95.18% - 112.69%
252 SpAtk Choice Specs Yanmega Bug Buzz vs 252 HP/0 +1 SpDef Slowking: 63.96% - 75.38%

You use it to avoid the ohko, so then you can hit it with flamethrower for the ko. In retrospect I overestimated slowking's uninvested SpD.

Lilligant as sleep powder so unless sleep clause is in effect or if it misses you're screwed, it also has quiver dance so it's be a boosting war and if Slowking isn't carrying psycho shock, +6 Super Effective Giga Drain hits harder then psychic.

Venemoth is in the same both as Lilligant with Sleep powder and super effective Bug buzz but you could catch by surprise and hit it with super effective psychic.

Yeah, I more meant for their ability to just beat down on king unboosted. I was assuming sleep clause because otherwise you lose either way.

Rotom has trick, obviously not all sets carry it.

Yeah but if he tricks you his scarf you crippled their revenge killer and are still hitting stuff with a +1 psychic.

So it looks like Slowking may have a tough time tanking those pokemon effectively but I do agree a calm mind set is worth mentioning but there are better pokemon that can use calm mind.

It's not so much for "I'm using a calm mind slowking" as "I'm using a slowking, it's running a cm set". It's just something for it to do while it walls.

I originally had dragon tail slashed in the defensive set but I dropped it at the last minute and added it in other options but left the -Spe nature.

If Slowking does use dragon tail, you probably don't want to decrease Slowking's attack because Dragontail is a physical move, even though you're only using it for utility for phazing.

Dtail slowking sounds pretty cool. Thanks for explaining.

 

[Makn]

Slowking is far too slow and not powerful enough to pull off a Specs set in my opinion, although I do like the idea of the "hit and run" strategy with regenerater, there are still better Choice Specs candidates in RU like Yanmega. You should probably go with something more traditional, perhaps one like this:

Slowking @ Leftovers
Ability: Regenerater
Nature: Calm
252 HP / 144 Def / 112 SpD

Scald/Surf
Psychic/Psyshock/Ice Beam
Slack Off
Toxic/Thunder Wave

Almost exactly the same as Gen IV's Bulky Water set, except with some changes displaying some new options you have, like Scald and Psyshock.

You also ought to make one or two trick room sets, as Slaking is naturally suited to take on that roll.

As far as boosting goes you have Calm Mind and Nasty Plot. Although I could probably see a Calm Mind set working better over the Nasty Plot.

 

[waterwarrior]

Trick Room > Specs. With Slowking's great defenses, it can easily set up TR and start ripping holes. You can go offensive or defensive with it too!

Offensive (my favorite of the two):
Slowking @ Leftovers/ Life Orb
Quiet
Regenerator
252 HP/ 4 Def/ 252 Sp. Atk (0 Speed IV)
-Trick Room
-Nasty Plot
-Surf
-Psychic

The only thing this set truly suffers from is 4MS. It can beat its way through everything but Ferroseed, including Cress and Munchlax, after one NP with a Life Orb (Cress is 2HKO'd after Rocks, Munchlax is 3HKO'd, but Slowking rather enjoys the sometimes free turns of set-up Munchlax's Rest gives it), and it recovers whenever you switch out, so if you can predict/play around the opponent's Ferroseed, you'll end up healing your Slowking to full.


Defensive:
Slowking @ Leftovers
Sassy
Regenerator
252 HP/ 144 Def/ 112 Sp. Def (0 Speed IV)
-Trick Room
-Scald
-Psychic
-Slack Off

More of a supporter than a wall, but can be used as both. Comes in on something that can't touch it, sets up Trick Room, then can either stay in and wall or switch to something like Rampardos and start sweeping.

 

[kniteowl]

Slowking is far too slow and not powerful enough to pull off a Specs set in my opinion, although I do like the idea of the "hit and run" strategy with regenerater, there are still better Choice Specs candidates in RU like Yanmega.

Good luck using Yanmega once it's banned from RU, we all know it's happening sooner or later.

Besides Slowking is used differently from Yanmega, first off, different typing so different offensive stabs (how many other Psychic or water types in the tier that could pull off Specs better then Slowking? there's probably someone *shrugs*).

No quad weakness to Stealth rock and it isn't walled by Muchlax because you can use Psycho Shock (It might be walled but I'm too lazy to do the damage calculations).

Sure it's a lot slower (Almost everything out speeds it) but it was meant to take hits and hit back hard in return then switch out and regenerate.

You should probably go with something more traditional, perhaps one like this:

Slowking @ Leftovers
Ability: Regenerater
Nature: Calm
252 HP / 144 Def / 112 SpD

Scald/Surf
Psychic/Psyshock/Ice Beam
Slack Off
Toxic/Thunder Wave

Almost exactly the same as Gen IV's Bulky Water set, except with some changes displaying some new options you have, like Scald and Psyshock.

I've already posted a similar defensive set,

SET
Name : Defensive
Move 1: Scald
Move 2: Slack Off
Move 3: Psychic
Move 4: Fire Blast / Toxic
Item: Leftovers
Nature: Relaxed / Sassy
Ability: Regeneration
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def or SpD / 4 SpA

The EVs that I posted are what I recommended, You can change the EVs to your preference, I didn't include Surf because Scald is always better on a defensive set, Psychic hits harder then psycho shock in general, psycho shock won't be helping you 2HKO SpD Walls without any investment in SpA or calm mind / nasty plot to boost your SpA.

Flamethrower/ Fire blast is generally better then Ice beam in the tier as it hits grass and bugs which you're weak too, not to mention Ferroseed, Durant and the Odd Steel. Dragons are very rare in this tier and if you happen to face one, just hit it with stab Psychic. Unless it's Zweilous ( Even rarer).

You also ought to make one or two trick room sets, as Slowking is naturally suited to take on that roll.

I'm too lazy, you read Water warrior's post, above this one, btw it's Slowking not Slaking, Doubt Spell Check would've helped there lol.

As far as boosting goes you have Calm Mind and Nasty Plot. Although I could probably see a Calm Mind set working better over the Nasty Plot.

I already talk to Nails that other pokemon like Cress do the Calm mind set better and most of the special attacks in the tier can easily overcome Calm Mind Slowking in the previous post with Nail but i can see Slowking replacing Cress when it's banned so here

Name : Slow-Tank
Move 1: Calm Mind
Move 2: Slack Off
Move 3: Scald / Surf
Move 4: Psycho Shock / Psychic / Grass Knot
Item: Leftovers
Nature: Bold
Ability: Regeneration
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA

Compared to other calm minders Slowking does have one niche over the others in RU, Scald's 30% burn chance. While Calm mind boost's your SpD, Scald's possible Burn Chance can lower the attack of Physical pokemon trying to Take you out after you become too Specially Bulky.

Scald is recommended over surf for burns.

Slack off for recovery

the Last Slot depends on what you want Slowking to cover, Psycho Shock is the 1st choice to hit Pokemon on their weaker physical side like Munchlax.

Psychic can be used because of the higher base power if you don't mind SpD Walls ruining your day,

Grass knot is essentially there for Quagsire that can take your hits all day long while it Status you with Toxic.

Hidden Power - Dragon can be used for an attempt at perfect coverage but you will still be walled by Ferroseed as it sets up on you

Flamethrower can be used if Ferroseed is your biggest problem but you're walled by other bulky waters.

As for Nastyplot.... It really doesn't work well with Slowking because of it's poor speed.