- Your EV spread is actually ok. The ones he mentioned are actually inefficient. With your EVs (assuming Jolly {flawless IVs} since that was his recommendation), your Dragonite would have 167 / 186 / 115 / 108 / 120 / 145. With his spread, Dragonite would have 167 / 185 / 116 / 108 / 121 / 144 ... i.e. Attack and Speed drop by 1 point while Defense and Special Defense increased by 1 point, which is not anymore efficient than your spread. However, 244 Attack 244 Speed also gets the same 185 and 144 Attack/Speed, which means 8 EVs are wasted doing 248 EVs on 2 stats. Instead you could be doing:
4 HP 244 Attack 4 Def 4 Sp Def 252 Speed to get: 167 / 185 / 116 / 108 / 121 /145, which gets you one more speed (assuming you want max speed). Just as a rule of thumb, unless you have 30 (or even #) IV, basically every time you want to increase or decrease a stat by 1 point, you should be increasing or decreasing the EVs by 8, unless it has no EVs, in which case, the first 4 EVs would gain you an extra stat point. I.e. with 4 HP 244 Attack 4 Def 4 Sp Def 252 Speed, you're essentially losing 1 attack stat point (8 EVs), in exchange for 2 stat points (Def and Sp Def -> since they have 0 EVs, it only takes 4 EVs to increase stat by 1). Hope that made sense.
I'll go 4 HP 244 Attack 4 Def 4 Sp Def 252 Speed, thanks
- I understand why you would want Fire Blast. Dragonite's SpA is ok, but without EV investment, it won't attack very hard. So that's an issue, but my main issue isn't that though. It's the fact that you'll only be using it against steel types... And then, you look at the rest of your team. You have HP Fire Magnezone and Terrakion. Pokemon 4x weak to fire will die to Magnezone's HP Fire. Steel types not 4x weak to fire are all at least 2x weak to Fighting, except for Metagross and Bronzong I think. And then this is the part where I'd say, if Dragonite is at +1 Attack, you're better off (or at least just as good) EQing Metagross and Heatproof Bronzong, and HP Fire will deal with Levitate Bronzong fine. That way, Dragonite can go for Jolly if you want too without lowering defense. That said, with Hone Claws and Extremespeed, I'd more likely go with Adamant. Of course, totally your choice. I do realize that your main purpose is Hone Claws Dragon Rush, not Hone Claws Extremespeed, so Jolly is valid, especially since Dragon Rush has flinch chance too.
Seriously, i can't understand anything fg
- Terrakion. It would be ideal to have something not weak to fighting and ground entirely, so you won't have doubled up weaknesses with Magnezone. Of course, not much else can really match Terrakion's speed and attack, so if that's what you really want, then sure. Stone Edge will miss in crucial times though, just in case you didn't know.
I didn't notice i have a double Ground-Fighting weakness... but Dragontie can switch in both of them without problems thanks to Multiscale, and Terrakion can use its Air Balloon. Stone Edge is 80% Accuracy, and it sucks, but the other option is Rock Slide, which has 90%, so it isn't that better. It's also my only inaccurate move (assuming Nite used HC), so it shouldn't be a problem
In general, for Dragon-Steel combo teams, I usually have a water type as my 3rd pokemon, mainly for extra ice and fire resist. For me, it's usually been either Milotic or CM-Rest Suicune, neither of which care about Twave, which is the main "ugh :(" about Dragon-Steel combo teams that do not involve Garchomp. In fact, I can see that you might have some trouble with water types in your team. Magnezone is not that fast and it does not resist water. Dragonite is weak to ice attacks which many water types carry, and of course Terrakion is weak to water, so just something to look out for. There isn't any single water type that could just power through your team of course, but a trainer with multiple / all water types might give you trouble, especially if it's Ground/Water types like Swampert which doesn't care about Magnezone and probably has defenses to survive one +1 Dragon Rush from Dragonite. Like it might take 1 or 1.5 pokemon to finish off something like a swampert, and then if you face another 2 water types (which isn't uncommon at all), it'd be a tough match.
This is a good point. Cloyster can get phisical moves all the day, and at the same time use ShellSmash to spam multi-hit moves that bypass Focus Band. Or maybe Slowbro with Calm Mind + 3 Attacks, i don't know
If you end up not using Terrakion as your last slot, then maybe there's a bit more justification for Fire Blast on Dragonite, but yah, Dragonite's SpA is decent but not amazing, and without EVs to back it up, it's a bit hard to justify it, unless you're only planning to ever use it on 4x weak pokemon.
Dragonite has 100 Base SAtk, it isn't good but isn't bad either, so i'm pretty sure Fire Blast will 2HKO the worst threats. I don't know what spreads are used in the Subway, so i can't do calcs
Fire Blast does not guarantee OHKO on 252 HP 0 SpDef Ferrothorn. Neither does +1 Fire Punch (since the 0 Sp Def Ferrothorn is Impish 252 Def), but +1 Fire Punch easily OHKOs the two Ferrothorn that are +Sp Def with 252 Sp Def (whereas Fire Blast will never OHKO the SpDef Ferrothorns without a crit). True, there's Iron Barbs, and yes I do realize that Fire Blast does not absolutely need the +1 for accuracy too. Then there's Scizor which Fire Punch is totally fine. There's Forretress which is a 2HKO either way due to sturdy.
I know i can use Dragon Dance with Fire Punch, fine, but Scizor and Ferrothorn, the main threats, have a SDef lower than the Def, and also Forretress and Skarmory, even if they have Sturdy, so it can't be 1HKO. As Fire Blast has much more bp, and is the main reason to use Hone Claws, i'd prefere to keep it
And, by the way, even if Dragonite was +SpA with 252 SpA, Fire Blast still only has a low chance to OHKO the two Ferrothorns that are +SpDef nature, so if your reasoning for Fire Blast is mainly for Ferrothorn, you might be better off using EQ/Superpower/BrickBreak/Roost/etc. (just leaving Ferrothorn to Magnezone or Terrakion), or just go with Fire Punch.
2HKO is ok too, Leech Seed and Stealth Rock aren't a problem, Thunder Wave is bypassed with Extremespeed, so Superpower isn't needed (is Superpower allowed with Multiscale?)
If you REALLY want Fire Blast, I'd suggest trying Salamence instead. Dragonite without Roost means Multiscale is likely only to last a single turn (Leftovers won't get it back to 100% from an attack most of the time, if ever at all). Salamence can usually survive a non-ice attack as well, so with better speed and special attack, would make a much better user of Fire Blast. OF course, there's Dragonite's ES, which does work neatly with +Attack moves like hone claws.
I'll try it out. At first i was thinking at Hone Claws Garchomp and Roost Dragonite, so i combined them lol