Absol

Pressure
Enemy attacks lose 1 extra PP. Increases wild encounter rate.
Type Tier
Dark UU
Statistics
Min- Min Max Max+
HP
65
- 271 334 -
Atk
130
266 296 359 394
Def
60
140 156 219 240
SpA
75
167 186 249 273
SpD
60
140 156 219 240
Spe
75
167 186 249 273
Name Item Nature

Swords Dance + BP

Leftovers / Salac Berry Adamant
Moveset EVs
~ Swords Dance
~ Shadow Ball / Substitute
~ Hidden Power Fighting / Taunt
~ Baton Pass
252 HP / 32 Atk / 224 Spe

This is a Baton Passing Absol. Absol makes a great Baton Passer with Taunt and can hit stuff hard with Shadow Ball. However, you may not find Taunt to be particularly useful in UU, as very few things run Roar there, and so for this reason, you may prefer Hidden Power Fighting. It combos nicely with Shadow Ball to hit everything at least neutrally. Substitute, however, is still useful to stop status effect moves and is a lot easier on prediction than Taunt. It also blocks Explosion and goes well with Baton Pass.

Name Item Nature

Calm Mind + BP

Leftovers Timid
Moveset EVs
~ Calm Mind
~ Thunderbolt
~ Ice Beam
~ Baton Pass
252 HP / 40 SpA / 216 Spe

This is a Calm Mind Baton Passing Absol. There is no need for Taunt here, because Skarmory and Suicune take a Calm Minded Thunderbolt. This set works well, but not as well as the other. You could stick Counter on here over one of the attacks, as Absol can boost its Special Defense and take one hit (as long as it's not super effective or boosted, sadly) from the physical side and Counter back for the KO.

Name Item Nature

Choice Bander

Choice Band Adamant / Jolly
Moveset EVs
~ Shadow Ball
~ Body Slam / Return
~ Quick Attack / Baton Pass
~ Hidden Power Fighting
4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe

The Choice Band set doesn't have the benefit of STAB, but nonetheless it uses Absol's 130 base Attack. Absol doesn't really have the movepool or the Speed to use this very effectively, but it may surprise people. In standard, Baton Pass is nice to check for your opponent's switch. If they go to Skarmory you can bring in your Magneton, and if they bring in a slightly dented Tyranitar or Metagross you can go to Dugtrio. Flamethrower / Fire Blast and Thunderbolt / Thunder are options to hurt Skarmory if you wish, while Aerial Ace can OHKO Heracross and Breloom and hurt other Fighters.

Other Options

Thunder Wave is always nice when available. Curse can add some Defense to a passing, Taunting Absol, as long as you give your sweeper at the end of the line a White Herb to negate the Speed drop. You might want to stick with Umbreon for that, however. Thief is a cool alternative always, although it is overshadowed by others. Psych Up can grab stat-ups from a Cursed Snorlax or a Calm Minded Suicune and Taunt them, or you can Baton Pass to another sweeper to take them out. Perish Song is novelty, but it learns it. Absol can use Endure or Substitute in UU and sweep with a Salac boost, thanks to Swords Dance and that massive Attack stat.

EVs

You'll want to focus on a defense and HP on the Baton Passing Absol. For the sweeper sets, however, you'll want Attack, and lots of it. 264 Speed for Salac variants helps.

Opinion

Absol has a good movepool and great Attack. Too bad its poor defenses and Speed stop it from being better, or it could be a complete monster. Baton Pass is still fun to toy with.

Counters

In standard, nearly anything. Absol may be hard to phaze with Skarmory, Weezing or Suicune due to Taunt and Thunderbolt, but you can always throw offense at it that it cannot hurt much. Metagross is a good example, unless Absol has a Fire move it cannot do much, while Metagross has that STAB Meteor Mash. Choice Band Salamence can outspeed and do a lot of damage with Hidden Power Flying or Earthquake (or Brick Break if it has it), Tyranitar can use Focus Punch or Rock Slide and Tauros outspeeds and hits hard with Choice Band STAB Normal attacks. This kind of Pokémon will always hold off Absol from surviving more than one turn.

In UU, your best bet is probably Gligar, unless Absol is using a novelty Ice Beam set. What hinders Absol is that its Speed is so low that even if it could pull something off, Nidoking or Fearow could just switch in and beat it down. Pokémon like Kangaskhan can easily take a hit from the special set and 2HKO it.