|
-
Hyper Cutter
- Prevents the enemy from lowering this Pokémon's Attack. Increases Cut's area of effect.
-
Shell Armor
- Prevents Critical Hits.
|
Statistics
|
Min- |
Min |
Max |
Max+ |
| HP |
55
|
- |
251 |
314 |
- |
| Atk |
130
|
266 |
296 |
359 |
394 |
| Def |
115
|
239 |
266 |
329 |
361 |
| SpA |
50
|
122 |
136 |
199 |
218 |
| SpD |
50
|
122 |
136 |
199 |
218 |
| Spe |
75
|
167 |
186 |
249 |
273 |
Kind of outmatched by Pinsir, Kabutops, Heracross and a few more things, but Kingler can still try to pull it off. Either Substitute down to 1 HP or just use Endure, then Flail away. Swords Dance if you can find the time. Crabhammer is to try and get a critical hit when you're up against Gligar, Aggron, and the like, as well as a potential OHKO on Golem. Note that after a Swords Dance, Kingler OHKOs Gligar with max power Flail. Hidden Power Ghost just hits Misdreavus and Sableye in UU, which are both very rare. Whichever move you pick, you'll be hitting Solrock and Lunatone moderately hard (but Hidden Power Ghost will of course do more). Since Kingler has just 75 base Speed, you will often face faster Pokémon, and when using Substitute in your set you will need some prediction to beat them. Substitute if you think they will attack, use your weak fourth moveslot if they use Substitute, and in other cases use Swords Dance. If you use Substitute the same turn they break it every turn, you end up at 1% with Salac Berry triggered and a Substitute up. Hyper Cutter helps a lot to prevent Kingler from being Intimidated.
If you don't like going all-out with Flail, this is probably your best bet. Knock Off is a very nice move that will allow Kingler's teammates to, for example, 2HKO that Skarmory with Focus Punch, or force Snorlax to Rest earlier. Body Slam because paralysis is your and Kingler's friend.
Other Options
Kingler's movepool isn't exactly big. Double-Edge is about his only decent physical move (poor, poor Kingler with his 130 Attack). Then you have Haze, though Kingler cannot survive too long.
EVs
Generally, you will want to max Kingler's Attack. You'll want to either pump HP to survive physical attacks, or pump Speed to beat certain things. Most things are not going to help more, unless you are going to try and survive some particular attacks, but in general, having full Attack power (and thus having less chance of bringing your opponent to 0% or something else you can't afford) and having high Speed is needed on Salac sets.
Opinion
Kingler looks cool, but honestly has a load of trouble in standard play if the opponent has a physical wall. In UU, it should be a bit better, but alas, there are still better Flailers and / or Swords Dancers around and too many Quick Attackers. 130 Attack and no STAB, and then 50 Special Attack and one exclusive STAB move really doesn't cut it. Kingler is a cool novelty Pokémon.
Counters
OU counters include Skarmory, Metagross, Forretress, other Steel-types and lots of Rock-types will give Kingler loads of trouble, in most cases even when it runs Crabhammer. Dusclops and Weezing are threats too, and so is Suicune. Pokemon like Sceptile, Jolteon, or Raikou are faster and can beat Kingler with their good Special Attack. Pokémon with Endure and Salac Berry can Endure on Kingler and will almost always outrace it then. Kingler is in the UU category of Pokémon, so more relevant counters would be Meganium, Blastoise, and Quagsire for the same reasons as the OU counters. Every UU Electric-type Pokémon will beat it, aside from Ampharos, they will find a hard time switching in.