|
-
Guts
- Attack is increased 50% when hit with a status move.
-
Swarm
- Boosts power of Bug moves 50% when at 1/3 HP or less.
|
Statistics
|
Min- |
Min |
Max |
Max+ |
| HP |
80
|
- |
301 |
364 |
- |
| Atk |
125
|
257 |
286 |
349 |
383 |
| Def |
75
|
167 |
186 |
249 |
273 |
| SpA |
40
|
104 |
116 |
179 |
196 |
| SpD |
95
|
203 |
226 |
289 |
317 |
| Spe |
85
|
185 |
206 |
269 |
295 |
Choice Band Heracross can deal good damage to any Pokémon in the game. If you switch into Thunder Wave from Blissey, Focus Punch will OHKO Skarmory. With a burn, Facade does in the 70% range to Weezing. It has a hard time staying alive sometimes, but it packs a great, great punch. Hidden Power Ghost is for Gengar and Dusclops mostly, but Megahorn will usually do more than enough damage to them. Sleep Talk allows you to switch into a sleep-inflicting move like Spore and surprise them with a Guts boost. Sleep Talk will not select Focus Punch, however.
This thing can be so useful at times. Rock Slide or Brick Break is up to you, but Rock Slide is more useful due to hitting things like Salamence, Gyarados, and Gengar. However, with both Rock Slide and Megahorn, you lack a nice 100% accuracy move to make sure you can safely kill a low HP Pokémon. STAB Brick Break is a great solution to this dilemma, but then you are walled by Fliers. Its attacks hit hard during sleep due to the Guts activation, giving you essentially the same boost as a Choice Band. Although it requires a bit of luck, it makes a great Sleep absorber with this set.
Heracross is an awesome sweeper. Use Guts with Swords Dance after you're Burned and Heracross will sweep the hell out of Weezing and anyone else. Focus Punch is for predicting the switch to Skarmory, and after a Swords Dance Megahorn does enough to everything to make Brick Break useless. If you're Jolly, you can drop the Speed down a bit and raise HP.
This is a ticket to an easy sweep if your opponent has no Quick Attacker or Tyranitar, and even then you can work around it. After one Swords Dance, this can OHKO Gengar thanks to Swarm, as well as Skarmory, Suicune, and many others thanks to its insane Attack and the base power of Reversal.
Make sure Skarmory is out of the way and sweep their team. With a 30 HP IV and no HP EVs, Salac Berry activates after the third Substitute, so don't be afraid to use this in Sandstorm.
EVs
At least 264 Speed for Salac variants, as this makes you faster than Jolly Aerodactyl and Timid Jolteon. You'll usually just want to max out your Speed at 269 (252 EVs, Adamant), as this will help against random Pokémon with Agility / a Salac of their own. The Choice Bander usually uses 269 Speed (252 EVs with an Adamant Nature). Almost all Heracross should have an Adamant nature, but Jolly can also be used to beat the multitude of Pokémon that put their Speed at 270 for Adamant Heracross. For the Sleep Talking variation, you want to pump HP. Focus your Speed around 244 max, and put some EVs into Attack. Make it Adamant, too, while you're at it.
Opinion
Heracross is one of the most feared Pokémon in the game, with its 125 base Attack and 120 base power STAB move. Heracross is in fact so dangerous, that many of its counters can lose to it, such as Weezing and Dusclops, who dare not Burn it. Dugtrio even has to risk Heracross having Endure + Reversal (unless Sand Stream is up), potentially sweeping the enemy's team.
Counters
Salamence and Gyarados resist Megahorn and Fighting moves and have Intimidate, making Heracross' Megahorn hurt less. Still, it will bug them after a while, and Rock Slide hits them pretty hard. Skarmory takes about 30% from a decently powered Brick Break and is 2HKOed by Focus Punching Heracross (OHKO with Guts and Choice Band), but has that awesome 140 base Defense and 4x resistance to Megahorn, so most of the time it should be fine.
Dugtrio can trap and take out Heracross with Aerial Ace. It's not going to take any hits and live, though, and if Heracross has Endure and a Salac Berry, it will still win unless Sand Stream is up.
Weezing resists Megahorn, can Haze away any boosts, and Fire Blast, Flamethrower, or Sludge Bomb Heracross to death. It can get into big trouble sometimes, though, as it doesn't have a reliable way to recover, and if it uses Will-O-Wisp or poisons Heracross with Sludge Bomb, Heracross will activate Guts and become even more powerful. Facade will 2HKO Weezing.
There's also Arcanine, who has Intimidate and resists Megahorn, but you seriously don't want to switch it in on any other hits from Heracross. Moltres and Charizard resist Megahorn and Focus Punch / Brick Break, but are OHKOed by Rock Slide. Zapdos can take a few hits from Megahorn and Fighting moves, but will need some serious HP investment; beware of Rock Slide. Crobat has 4x resistance to Fighting and to Megahorn, can OHKO with Flying moves, and pisses its figurative pants at Rock Slide like most counters.