Choice Band/Specs

[eriados]

Choice Band Azumarill in Rain is unholy.

252Atk Choice Band Huge Power Azumarill (+Atk) Waterfall in Rain vs 252HP/252Def Sturdy Skarmory (+Def): 61% - 71% (204 - 240 HP). Guaranteed 2HKO.

Superpower can deal with Ferro and Ice Punch can deal with Grass-types. Aqua Jet is necessary priority. Return can be an option if you have problems with opposing Water types.

 

[Uberchu]

Choice Band Haxorus and Choice Specs Latios are the best in my opinion. Haxorus just hits like a truck and almost nothing is going to survive getting mauled by Draco Meteor.

 

[Bboy235]

I have a rainstall team with the only offensive pokes dnite and tornadus. Tornados doesn't really need life orb because I just spam hurricane so specs are more useful for this poke and a lot of others. I think the choice items specs and band are helpful sometimes but you can't just replace them with life orb on anything, some things don't have the raw power in their stab and need to switch moves to use a coverage move. Obviously scarf is the most useful choice item

 

[Demoness]

Choice Band Haxorus is absolutely amazing. And then there's the titan of the Ban himself, Scizor with Bullet Punch. Techniloom will soon follow. Technician + STAB Priority + that kind of power equals destruction!

As for Specs, what I found is that many Special Attackers really want the power to switch moves, like Latios, Hydreigon, et cetera. Whenever I use a sun or a rain team, however, I always, ALWAYS give my weather starter the Specs. a base 120 power double STAB fire/water move coming from a Specs'd Politoed or Ninetails is quite strong, and that one move combo is really the only thing Ninetails can do to actually be a threat.

Yes, Choice Band Haxorus is a huge wrecking ball, and I usually end up having to sack something on any of my teams that don't run Skarmory. I don't really like Choice Band Scizor that much though. I just hate the thought of revenging something with Bullet Punch, and having one of the 8000 Steel-type resists to come in and do what they want. The terrible Speed is also another thing I hate.

Choice Specs Politoed is just a huge fucking (BAN ME PLEASE) that I wish would just go away. It's a lot like Choice Band Haxorus to me: unless you have Gastrodon, Chansey, or a specially bulky resistor, your likely sacking something. Ninetales, on the other hand, just doesn't compare. Fire Blast is resisted by both Tyranitar and Politoed, while Hydro Pump curbsttomps Ninetales and Tyranitar. Ninetales also has a annoying weakness to Stealth Rock, and when that weakness is made worse because of the hit-and-run nature of Choice items, it just culminates into a bad idea IMO.

Where I think Choice Band really shines this gen is on Trick Room attackers. Rampardos, Aggron, Rypherior, Conkledurr and more can turn from slow, hulking brutes into speedy hulking brutes capable of ripping entire teams appart simply be virtue of their ridiculously powerful STABs. Conkledurr is even useful out of Trick Room thanks to Mach Punch.

I really only ever see Specs on Latios and Politoed these days. Politoed gets it simply because it's one of the only ways to actually make it useful beyond rain support, and Latios because it just plains wrecks everything with Spec'd Draco meteor. I find that Scarf Rotom-W is more common than Specs Rotom-W since it abuses Volt-Switch more effectively, though the occasional one does show up.

Really though, with all the bulky Pokemon and set up sweepers running around this gen getting locked into an attack is frequently deadly. Locking yourself into a ground type attack is more dangerous than ever, with Dragon Dance Dragonite and the Lati@s twins floating about. Ferrothorn is another huge problem for both Specs and Band, since it can come in on all but a few attacks and start throwing up hazards. Still, the power boost from Choice Band and Specs certainly can be an advantage on occasion, but overall I think their usage has declined except on a few specific Pokemon that people have already mentioned.

Geez, with all the discussion on Choice Banded Trick Room attackers, I might have to actually try one of them out. I actually used Choice Band Conkeldurr once when the metagame was just starting out, and it worked quite well. Wrecked shit and revenged crap. As I said before, Choice Specs Politoed is just a huge fucking (BAN ME PLEASE) and can go die in a thunderstorm for all I can care. I've never really liked Choice Specs Latios for the reason I think most people are seeing: It leaves Latios as set-up bait. Of course, a -2 Draco Meteor pretty much accomplishes this too, but with Life Orb, at least you HP Fire that Ferrothorn or Scizor that switched in, or Surf that Heatran.

I agree that locking yourself into a Ground-type move is stupidly risky nowadays with so many Leviataing and Flying-type Pokes just waiting to switch in. That's the reason why I don't like Scarf Landorus or Choiced Ground-type Pokemon: they can't use their Ground STAB safely because it invites a whole ton of Pokemon in for free.

I've never liked Choice items outside of Scarf. I've found them to be extremely underwhelming in almost all situation. The only case where I've found it acceptable to use a Choice item outside of Scarf is probably Specs Latios and Band Haxorus. It's also pretty easy to see why I prefer them too. The thing is though whenever I end up running a Band or Specs I end up really hating myself for not having Life Orb instead. 10% of my HP and the freedom to change moves? That's so much better. That's why I think it's extremely rare to see Band / Specs users. Why have that super-horrible drawback (stuck in one move) when you could, at exchange for a little less power and your HP, be able to switch moves completely. It's just very baffling to me!

Really? I've never liked Choice Scarf because at least with Choice Band/Specs, if you mispredict, your still hitting hard if the switch-in isn't immune. With Choice Scarf, you don't get that bonus, and it becomes much easier to set-up on the Choice Scarf user. However, I agree with you on that Life Orb is usually the better item for most Pokemon because they are mostly sweepers, mixed attackers, or don't mind the 10% loss of HP every turn because they don't have good bulk. If you look at all the Choice Band/Specs users, you will see that all of them have either Trick for walls, insane power, great bulk they don't want to ruin, their STAB moves are sufficent for sweeping purposes, or a combination of all these. The perfect example of a Choice Band user IMO is Terrakion. It has amazing coverage with just his STAB moves, his Speed and Attack are great, and his bulk is astonishing for a sweeper.

Something thats often overlooked about Choice Band/ Choice Specs is how effectively they can be used defensively. Your immediate response to that is most certainly NWO is an idiot, but I'll explain.

Choice Band/ Specs pack incredible power, and put a ton of offensive pressure on the opponent. However, one of the biggest problems with them is misprediction. For example you are using a Choice Band Dragonite and come in against Heatran, your opponent has a Salamence in the wings. If you opt to Outrage, and Heatran stays in, the opponent can screw up Dragonite big time with Toxic or Will-o-Wisp. If you opt to Earthquake, and the opponent switches to Salamence, you are suddenly faced with tremendous offensive pressure.

Here's where the use of Band/ Spes on a defensive minded team has its boons. Choice Band and Choice Specs are bound to force a ton of switches, nobody wants to eat CB Close Combats and Specs Hydro Pumps, and the opponent will inevitably switch to a resist. But coupled with heavy entry hazards, this can be heavily abused, especially on stall teams which rely heavily on hazards and phazing to deal damage. Band/ Specs act as pseudo phazing, allowing you to slowly beat down opposing pokemon throughout the course of a match. The opponent is now faced with the decision: do I want my pokemon in right now to die, or do I want to switch, take 30% just for coming in and potentially be KOed the next time round?

This strategy can be employed very easily on a pseudo stall team. Stack up entry hazards early on, then get in a Band/ Specs user to put tremendous offensive pressure on the opponent. This is especially useful against the bulky sweepers that often give stall teams trouble. These offensive threats can be worn down throughout the course of a match from entry hazards or being forced to eat powerful moves. With Band/ Specs, even resisted attacks are going to put huge dents into most pokes. Stunt Stall is a great exemplar.

The best part about abusing Band/ Specs on a defensive natured team is that you eliminate one of the items' biggest problems: prediction. Now, you wont have to take risks such as Lucario staying in on Terrakion's X-Scissor and sweeping your team because. You can safely make the obvious move with relatively few consequences. If Lucario stays in, its gonna die. If Mew comes in, it'll be punished with 37.5% from entry hazards and be 2HKOd anyways. All in all, Choice Band and Choice Specs make threats to defensive minded teams much easier to deal with.

Ah, that actually seems like an amazing idea. If I were to ever make a stall team, i'm sure that I would pack at least one powerful attacker for cleaning up. Of course, I don't think I would ever make a stall team because I'm a much more offensively minded player, but whatever.

@power boost talk: Does it honestly fucking matter whether Choice Band/Specs increases the stat or power of the move? It allows you to hit 50% harder. How anyone could not get that is a damn mystery to me -_-.

 

[UncleFinger]

Oh, and Gastrodon still isn't safe from SpecsToed, who often (if not always) packs HP Grass, and considering the tendency of many to switch the sea slug into him, can easily (I want to say 2HKO a 252/252+) Gastro with it.

 

[Aerodactyl Legend]

Let's not forget Team Reveal, which essentially makes the Band/Scarf easier to use.

 

[That Noob]

Oh, and Gastrodon still isn't safe from SpecsToed, who often (if not always) packs HP Grass, and considering the tendency of many to switch the sea slug into him, can easily (I want to say 2HKO a 252/252+) Gastro with it.

I've used choiced poli on all my rain teams and have to say hp grass will hit gastro pretty hard but once you lock yourself into hp grass you are complete set up bait. Usually on my specstoed, I spam surf because even resists are gonna take massive damage because of the specs, and the double STAB provided by its natural stab along with rain. IN this matter, gastro hard counters choiced toed because sure, you can use hp grass but they'll take the hit and switch to their dragonite and get a free DD.

 

[asdfrozen]

Does Band/Specs boost a stat one stage, increase damage by 50%, or boost Att/SpA 50% separately from stat boosts?

 

[NoUserName]

Does Band/Specs boost a stat one stage, increase damage by 50%, or boost Att/SpA 50% separately from stat boosts?

Separated to stat boosts. It is x1.5 to the final stat after taking into account stat boosts or drops.

Where I think Choice Band really shines this gen is on Trick Room attackers. Rampardos, Aggron, Rypherior, Conkledurr and more can turn from slow, hulking brutes into speedy hulking brutes capable of ripping entire teams appart simply be virtue of their ridiculously powerful STABs. Conkledurr is even useful out of Trick Room thanks to Mach Punch.

Actually, in TR is preferrable Life Orb than choice items. Most sweepers in TR will be dying quickly anyways when TR ran out and losing turns switching in TR is losing the needed advantage, usually losing the game. Maybe the exception could be Aggron due the fact Head Smash has absurdly huge power to destroy anything even resisted.

 

[asdfrozen]

Separated to stat boosts. It is x1.5 to the final stat after taking into account stat boosts or drops.

That's what I thought, but people kept calling +1 Att CB "+2".

 

[doughboy]

I find that pokes that have great movepools that would otherwise suffer from 4-slot move syndrome make great Band/Specs users. Pokemon with powerful priorty make great users as well because they will allow for a fail-safe revenge-kill. A great example of this would be Lucario. With Swords Dance taking up a moveslot, Lucario has to choose between Gliscor or Jellicent walling it. With Choice Band. Lucario frees up a moveslot for Crunch/Ice Punch and can act as a very powerful revenge-killer. With Choice Specs, Lucario doesn't have to choose between Hidden Power Ice or having priorty with Vacuum Wave. Other pokes who fit this criteria include CB Iron Fist Infernape, CB Dragonite, and CB Conkledurr.

 

[Shining_Latios]

Choice Band Haxorus and Choice Specs Latios are the best in my opinion. Haxorus just hits like a truck and almost nothing is going to survive getting mauled by Draco Meteor.

You might want to mention Choice Band Terrakion because it hits like an absolute monster, not to mention it's amazing STABs. Nothing appreciates taking a Close Combat to the face, unless your a Ghost-type of course.

 

[Jaetheho]

dont forget choice band darmanitan in the sun.

jellicent is ohkoed.
ferrothorn is fried.

 

[jessifer]

Choice Band/Specs are probably best for late-game sweeping since you should be able to get rid of resists to one of your choiced pokemon's move, setting up for a sweep. A revenge-killer couldn't hurt.

A main tip is to check your opponents team and be wary of which attack to use. Perhaps that's a reason why dragons are popular holders of choice items? Dragon is only resisted by the Steel type (which is common because of that reason and many others).

 

[SlimMan]

dont forget choice band darmanitan in the sun.

jellicent is ohkoed.
ferrothorn is fried.

For the record, Jellicent is not OHKOed by this. It does 76.7%-90.3% to the "standard" Jellicent, accounting for STAB, Sun, Choice Band, and Sheer Force boosts.


I'm sure this has already been said, but I don't wanna check every post for it. The Pokemon which make good Banders or Specsers are those with awesome STAB. Suppose a Pokemon has superb coverage, but lacks a good STAB (things like Deoxys-S and whoever else, though that's all I got off the top of my head). Coverage moves don't mean much to a Choice user, because without STAB or the ability to change them, you hit strong once and then get walled. But then take something like Terrakion. Just by spamming its ridiculous STABs it basically 2HKOes almost everything. Terrakion doesn't care abut coverage because not much can take a couple Stone Edges or CCs. A similar idea applies to Latios/Haxorus, they can just use their strongest move half the time and be fine. Coverage is simply too weak to be locked into, and so it becomes irrelevant for most Pokemon looking to don these items. Of course, it isn't completely unimportant, as one move can't be an entire set. But it's way less important on Choiced 'mons than on others.
That said, power is not the only factor. Scizor, for instance, doesn't have an absurd, 120 bp STAB move. But it does have STAB U-Turn, which grants it amazing utility and scouting prowess. This means that it doesn't need to 2HKO everything, because when your opponent tries to wall it, it'll just switch back out. Volt Switch has the same principle. Of course, it doesn't hurt to be sporting the most powerful priority move in the game (except for a STAB Sucker Punch, but meh, who uses that?).

 

[KokoaKiwi]

I'd like to mention Scarf Gastrodon. Gimmick set, I'm aware of it, but works great since nobody expects it. Requires a lot of prediction (derp) but +2 stab surf / earth power doesn't fuck around. Mind you, it's not that versatile; you'll almost always end up using surf / ice beam / earth power / hidden power fire.

 

[SlimMan]

I'd like to mention Scarf Gastrodon. Gimmick set, I'm aware of it, but works great since nobody expects it. Requires a lot of prediction (derp) but +2 stab surf / earth power doesn't fuck around. Mind you, it's not that versatile; you'll almost always end up using surf / ice beam / earth power / hidden power fire.

Did you mean Specs Gastrodon?, because Scarf has no place in this thread, lol.
And how is it getting to +2? Storm Drain is basically a +1, so with Scarf it's still just a +1 (although the boost becomes 2.25 with Specs attached).

 

[yaysnivy34]

I like running Specs or Band on a Pokemon who is very fast. Specs Starmie and Alakazam are absolute monsters. I don't run Trick on either just because I will surely miss the power later. They both outrun a large amount of the tier, so they won't be outsped easily while attempting a sweep.

 

[2sly4u]

Choice Band/Specs are probably best for late-game sweeping since you should be able to get rid of resists to one of your choiced pokemon's move, setting up for a sweep. A revenge-killer couldn't hurt.

A Choice-equiped pokemon can make a great cleaner, but I think the item is better suited for punching holes in the opposing team early in the game. For example, when paired with a Pursuit Trapper to handle ghosts, CB Terrakion can cripple your opponent's Fighting check with sheer might so a Conkeldurr/Lucario can sweep later. It's a bit harder to do with Specs just because of Blissey's prevalence.

 

[Eradicator]

CB Terrakion has so much power and can just rip through teams. It can just get in, fire off one of its stabs, get out and then repeat the process. All you do you sit back, click the better attack for the situation, and watch your opponent get destroyed.

 

[Lamppost]

I'd like to mention Scarf Gastrodon. Gimmick set, I'm aware of it, but works great since nobody expects it. Requires a lot of prediction (derp) but +2 stab surf / earth power doesn't fuck around. Mind you, it's not that versatile; you'll almost always end up using surf / ice beam / earth power / hidden power fire.

I've never tried Scarf Gastrodon, but I've used Specs Gastrodon a bit. I think Scarf would be pretty bad just because it can only reach 291 Speed with it equipped, so it's not outspeeding any fast threats which is what you should be using a Scarf for. Anyways, back to Specs, i find it to be one of the best wall breakers in the Metagame and it's very underrated and underused which only adds to it's potency. If you come in on a Water Move in the rain you hit 1046 Special Attack which is pretty ridiculous if you think about it. It's also good because it beats some of Tank Gastrodon's common switch-in's with a surprise KO. For example, a Conkeldurr comes in while in the rain expecting Gastrodon to be a Tank, which means Conkeldurr will be taking a Scald to get the Guts boost burn, or taking a Toxic to get the Guts boost that way. Then it gets hit by a Specs Surf, KO'd. Here's some Calcs:

252 SpAtk Choice Specs Gastrodon Surf vs 120 HP/136 SpDef Conkeldurr:
93.18% - 109.71%
56.25% chance to OHKO / 93.75% chance to OHKO with Stealth Rock

252 +1 SpAtk Choice Specs Gastrodon Surf vs 120 HP/136 SpDef Conkeldurr: 140.16% - 164.83%
100% chance to OHKO

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

252 +1 SpAtk Choice Specs Gastrodon Surf vs 0 HP/4 SpDef Rotom-W: 88.38% - 104.15%
100% chance to OHKO with Stealth Rock

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

252 SpAtk Choice Specs Gastrodon Surf vs 248 HP/0 SpDef Scizor: 105.83% - 124.49%
100% chance to OHKO

It can pretty much 2HKO anything you can think of with Surf / Ice Beam / Earth Power.

 

[Marble101]

In the Op it mentioned magic room lets choice pokemon switch attacks?

Why does nobody use it in conjunction to choiced pokemon like metagross and haxorus?

 

[alphatron]

Magix room doesn't work in conjuction with choice items because magic room disables all effects of all items. Sure, you may be able to switch attacks, but now you no longer get that 1.5 boost, removing the point of holding the choice item to begin with.

 

[CZ.]

CB Terra is a beast and should never be taken lightly

CS Rotom-W is walled by Gasto, but with them dying down it does so much work with powerful Volt turn combo's.

 

[CZ.]

That's true, I sometimes run Band Ferro with Leech, good for recovery also fools opp into thinking you are rugged helmet alto of the time, then gyro ohko's latios/latias and plenty of other pokes