Slowking

[asterat]

I haven't done this since BW1, I'm sure I did a lot of it wrong. If my formatting is all right, I will have slowbro up tomorrow probably

Gen 5: http://www.smogon.com/bw/pokemon/slowking
Serebii: http://www.serebii.net/pokedex-xy/199.shtml


Overview
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• Regenerator and the right stat distribution make it an amazing assault vest user
• Good typing, excellent against rain teams
• Amazing movepool: slack off, thunder wave, nasty plot, grass knot, dragon tail, etc.
• Prone to pursuit, average physical bulk
• Not so fast
• New pokemon are not good for slowking

Assault Vest
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move 1: Scald
move 2: Psychic / Ice Beam
move 3: Fire Blast
move 4: Dragon Tail
ability: Regenerator
item: Assault Vest
nature: Quiet
evs: 248 HP / 196 SpA / 64 SpD
Moves
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- Scald is obviously a requirement, acts as a status move despite the item limiting to attacking moves
- STAB is a good idea, psyshock is weaker but provides coverage on specially bulky mons, psychic is stronger and hits stuff like conkeldurr harder. Psyshock is not enough to break blissey etc., psychic is usually more reliable. CM keldeo will not get past in a million years.
- Fire moves hit steels and grasses, flamethrower is more suited to the tank idea of the set but fire blast hits harder.
- Grass knot is an alternative for Jellicent, Gastrodon, etc.
- Ice beam hits dragons, although Slowbro can't switch into stuff like dragonite very reliably (catch them on the switch.)
- Dragon tail is useful on hazards based teams, and is a last ditch effort for reuniclus and similar things.
- Foul Play hits a host of physical attackers, but is generally outclassed by other options.


Set Details
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- Can OHKO mega lucario with fire blast, the rest is thrown into special buk
- Assault vest is the crux of the set and half the reason to use this poke
- Regenerator + Assault vest is an amazing combination

Usage Tips
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- Pair with U-turn / Volt Switch users so you can get it in easily, it serves the Voltturners with a solid special wall and they serve slowking with lots of opportunities to activate regenerator
- More for balanced teams than full stall
- Does not require much support outside of hazard removal
- Excellent pivot on weather teams


Team Options
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- A really good pivot on hail, sand, and sun teams looking for something to take special attacks. A more reliable choice than goodra or something because of regenerator.
- Really likes spin/defog support, if not using defog use a reliable spinner
- Again, volt switch and U-turn
- Especially good in hail, excellent synergy with mega abomasnow

Defensive
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move 1: Scald
move 2: Psychic / Psyshock/ Flamethrower
move 3: Thunder Wave / Dragon Tail
move 4: Slack Off
ability: Regenerator
item: Leftovers
nature: Calm
evs: 252 HP / 200 Def / 56 SpD

Moves
========
- Scald is the main attack, burns are annoying but effective
- Psychic is strong, hits bulky fighters and some poison types
- Psyshock is a weaker alternative but hits keldeo, terrakion in sand, virizion, tentacruel, roserade and some others harder
- Flamethrower hits steels and grasses, more reliable than fire blast
- Thunder wave is great for slowing things down, opens up sweeping potential for slow offensive teammates
- Dragon Tail phases, so things can't set up one slowking

Set Details
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- I copied the EVs from last gen's set, can't think of a better way to do it (I think they avoid 2HKO from specs keldeo hydro pump in rain)
- Lefotvers for consistent recovery, stuff like rocky helmet could work but EVs would need to be reconfigured.
- Good against rain, on all other weathers (especially hail)


Usage Tips
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- Use with volt turn
- Find a good reason to use this over vest
- Same stuff as above


Team Options
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- Weather is good
- Regenerator cores are hard to break
- What's been said above


Other Options
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- Really wide movepool, a lot.
- Choice Specs
- Trick Room
- Nasty Plot (can work in conjunction with trick room, or alone with 2 attacks and recovery)
- All out defensive assault vest to wall almost all attackers (consider options like foul play because it doesn't hit that hard)

Checks & Counters
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- Hard to find hard counters because of scald burns
- Celebi
- Blissey
- Gastrodon (watch out for grass knot)
- Rotom-W (watch out for burns, volt switch will do nothing)
- Generally bulky pokemon that aren't destroyed by scald burns

 

[Fuzznip]

I don't really like this set. I'm going to suggest this:

move 1: Scald
move 2: Fire Blast / Flamethrower
move 3: Ice Beam
move 4: Dragon Tail
ability: Regenerator
item: Assault Vest
nature: Quiet
evs: 232 HP / 24 Def / 252 SpA

Psychic STAB isn't really necessary, Slowking needs to be using the first three moves listed. Grass Knot and Foul Play are mediocre at bes compared to Slowking's other options. I'd probably place all of those in OO. If you're using AV Slowking, you also need to be using Dragon Tail, because that's what makes it better than Slowbro. I'm also not sure if Slowking should be going max/max specially defensive, and not being used as a tank, but I'll leave that for now.

 

[alexwolf]

Here are some SpA benchmarks:

- 168 SpA EVs with Modest guarantee the OHKO on 4 HP Mega Lucario after SR with Fire Blast
- 196 SpA EVs with Modest guarantee the same OHKO without SR
- 252 SpA EVs with Modest give a 75% chance to OHKO Thundurus (-T) after SR with Ice Beam

Personally, i would go with 248 HP / 196 SpA / 64 SpD, as being able to unconditionally OHKO Mega Lucario is all you need. Also, Psychic is very important for Mega Venusaur and Keldeo, the first of which is everywhere and a difficult Pokemon to take down in general, and the latter of which Keldeo is supposed to counter. Being able to OHKO Gengar is nice as well, which is another prominent special attacker that Slowking can beat one on one. Psychic > Ice Beam, but Ice Beam can be slashed after it.

Also, max HP / max SpD+ with Assault Vest should definitely get a mention somewhere, as it's able to keep in check literally every single special attacker in the game, including Gengar, max SpA+ Aegislash (without Spooky Plate or Life Orb), Thundurus, and Mega Charizard Y. While it can't hit that hard back, just keeping those threats in check with Dragon Tail is often enough.

 

[asterat]

Here are some SpA benchmarks:

- 168 SpA EVs with Modest guarantee the OHKO on 4 HP Mega Lucario after SR with Fire Blast
- 196 SpA EVs with Modest guarantee the same OHKO without SR
- 252 SpA EVs with Modest give a 75% chance to OHKO Thundurus (-T) after SR with Ice Beam

Personally, i would go with 248 HP / 196 SpA / 64 SpD, as being able to unconditionally OHKO Mega Lucario is all you need. Also, Psychic is very important for Mega Venusaur and Keldeo, the first of which is everywhere and a difficult Pokemon to take down in general, and the latter of which Keldeo is supposed to counter. Being able to OHKO Gengar is nice as well, which is another prominent special attacker that Slowking can beat one on one. Psychic > Ice Beam, but Ice Beam can be slashed after it.

Also, max HP / max SpD+ with Assault Vest should definitely get a mention somewhere, as it's able to keep in check literally every single special attacker in the game, including Gengar, max SpA+ Aegislash (without Spooky Plate or Life Orb), Thundurus, and Mega Charizard Y. While it can't hit that hard back, just keeping those threats in check with Dragon Tail is often enough.

Making these changes.

 

[Fuzznip]

You need to change the moveset, Asterat. For now, use what I suggested but include Psychic before Ice Beam. The current set you have is not good.

I'm inclined to reject the defensive set too, as it is mostly outclassed by Slowbro. Dragon Tail (which isn't even on its own) isn't enough of a boon to make it better than Slowbro, who packs higher Defense to take on the physical threats it's meant to counter better.

 

[asterat]

Sorry, I wrote that post before I finished editing it, changed now.


This is not an inferior slowbro. It's a unique specially defensive water type with regenerator and good movepool. I see what you said with the typing, but resisting water and fire and fighting is excellent on both sides of the spectrum, this mon is more useful at taking weather powered water and fire attacks than taking powerful close combats and flare blitzes etc. I will admit the weather nerf made slowbro's role less important, but it's great against stuff like goodra or fairies (heal bell is annoying.)


Also should defensive assault vest and tank vest be separate sets, I feel like they should be with tank first. I'm starting to think both vests should be the only sets listed, but I'm not really sure.

 

[Fuzznip]

I'm really not a fan of defensive Slowking. It had merit last generation with the advent of rain, but now that playstyle is far less threatening, so Slowking's main niche as a rain check is no longer significant. Slowking's typing is better suited to be taking on physical attackers, as it acts as an excellent check to a variety of threatening sweepers, such as Charizard-X, Terrakion, Salamence, Garchomp, Lucario, etcetc, meaning Slowbro is going to be doing a better job almost all of the time with its higher Defense. Slowbro's typing and bulk will still allow it to switch into the likes of Keldeo and Heatran as well.

Slowking should only be using an AV set with Dragon Tail, that's its only niche over Slowbro in my opinion.

 

[Fuzznip]

Asterat

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