Dex Page
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[Overview]
- The most popular Pokemon of Gen 4 arrives in Gen 5, bringing his excellent Special Attack, great typing and good ability in Flash Fire with him.
- Gen 5 gave Heatran a new toy in Nitro Charge, which fixes the problem of its mediocre Speed.
- Flaws: Still retains the weaknesses to common types, the nerf of Explosion severely harms the way Heatran can deal with Blissey.
name: Life Orb
move 1: Nitro Charge / Taunt
move 2: Fire Blast
move 3: Earth Power
move 4: Hidden Power Grass / Dragon Pulse
item: Life Orb
evs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
nature: Timid
Set Comments:
- Reaches 417 Speed after a Nitro Charge, outspeeding every non-boosted Pokemon except for Agirudaa, all Deoxys formes (except for Deoxys-D), and Ninjask.
- Hits incredibly hard with its high Special Attack, especially after a Flash Fire boost.
- Fire Blast is Heatran's main STAB move. Earth Power takes care of opposing Heatran and Tyranitar.
- Hidden Power Grass hurts Water-types, but Dragon Pulse can stop Dragon-types that can take a Fire Blast.
- If you don't mind losing higher Speed, Taunt can be used over Nitro Charge to beat Blissey 1-on-1.
- Hidden Power Ice will deal more damage to Garchomp and Salamence than Dragon Pulse, but won't hit Kingdra, Sazandora and Ononokusu as hard. Hidden Power Electric trades the ability to hurt Swampert for the ability to take down Gyarados.
- Heatran can try bluffing a Choice Scarf by carrying a Balloon, Shuca Berry or Passho Berry.
- Like most offensive Pokemon, Heatran benefits from Stealth Rock support.
- Heatran becomes almost impossible to wall in the sun, so pairing Heatran with Groudon is a good idea.
- Celebi resists all of Heatran's weaknesses and vice versa. If Heatran lacks Nitro Charge, Celebi can use Thunder Wave to slow down Pokemon so Heatran can strike first.
- Bulky Water-types are Heatran's #1 concern. Heatran can only 2HKO most with Hidden Power Grass and they can OHKO Heatran back with Surf / Boiling Water.
- Scarfed Ground types such as Garchomp and Warubiaru can stop a Heatran sweep.
name: Stealth Rock
move 1: Stealth Rock
move 2: Fire Blast
move 3: Earth Power
move 4: Dragon Pulse / Taunt
item: Balloon / Shuca Berry
evs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
nature: Timid
Set Comments:
- Offensive presense and multiple resistances give Heatran at least one turn to set up Stealth Rock.
- Works well both in and out of the lead position.
- Fire Blast, Earth Power and Dragon Pulse grant exceptional coverage. Taunt can be handy if Heatran is leading, to stop Stealth Rock from being set up by slower leads.
- Balloon and Shuca Berry protect Heatran from Earthquakes and Earth Powers aimed at it. Both of them have their own merits and downfalls. Balloon gives Heatran total immunity to Ground-type attacks, whilst Shuca Berry only weakens them. Balloon also gives Heatran an immunity to entry hazards. However, Balloon stops working once Heatran takes any damage, unlike Shuca Berry.
- Other resistance berries such as Passho Berry and Chople Berry are other options.
- Hidden Power Grass can harm Swampert quite a lot, but without a boosting item, it don't do much to Water-types. Will-o-Wisp is also quite the useful move, crippling Earthquake users after they fail to KO Heatran.
- Retains many of the same teammates and counters from the Life Orb set, although Balloon / Shuca Berry can allow Heatran to survive some Earthquakes and strike back.
- Pokemon that attract Fire attacks such as Forretress, Scizor and Genosect can give Heatran a free oppurtunity to get Stealth Rock up.
name: Choice Scarf
move 1: Fire Blast
move 2: Earth Power
move 3: Dragon Pulse
move 4: Hidden Power Grass
item: Choice Scarf
evs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
nature: Timid
Set Comments:
- Can revenge kill a variety of foes with its good coverage and high Speed with Choice Scarf equiped.
- Without the need for an auxillary move, Heatran can afford to run both Hidden Power and Dragon Pulse on the same set.
- Outspeeds base 140s with the Choice Scarf boost.
- Hidden Power Electric is usable over Hidden Power Grass since Heatran is able to outspeed +1 Adamant Gyarados.
- The usual suspects from other Heatran sets are handy for Scarf Heatran as well.
- Because of the move locking ability Choice Scarf brings, Heatran is more suspectable to being set up upon, so be sure to prepare for that problem.
- Entry hazards help Heatran in the same way they do for most offensive Pokemon, by weakening its checks to the point where they can't safely switch in.
- Celebi has great synergy with Heatran thanks to its typing and the ability to deal with Water types. Complementing Heatran and Celebi with a bulky Water type gives a nice defensive core that can check a large group of Pokemon.
- Groudon's Drought ability can boost the power of Heatran's STAB attacks to astronomical proportions.
- Choice Specs gives Heatran some almost ridiculously overpowered attacks. Overheat is recommended on a Choice Specs set for raw power, especially after a Flash Fire boost.
- Heatran's unique typing and decent 91/106/106 defenses means that a specially defensive RestTalk set is viable. Lava Plume and Roar give Heatran the ability to phaze and spread burn.
- Magma Storm has the handy attributes of preventing double switches and causing recoil damage, but it's no more powerful than Fire Blast and less accurate. Speaking of accuracy, Flamethrower is an option for any Heatran set if you don't like Fire Blast's tendency to miss and don't mind a drop in power.
- Explosion is still available on Heatran, but it now lacks the halfing of Defense effect that made it so powerful in Gen 4, so it won't be able to KO Blissey without some investment in Attack.
- Water types such as Burungeru, Suicune, Daikenki etc. will be able to take Heatran's Fire attacks and KO it with Surf or Waterfall.
- Like most special attackers, Heatran will have troubles with Blissey and Snorlax. Taunt can hinder Blissey, but Snorlax can easily use Earthquake to take down Heatran.
- Heatran gets the abilty Flame Body from the Dream World.
- Flame Body isn't a bad ability by any means, but Flash Fire is much useful, as it gives an immunity to Fire, a very common offensive type, powers up Heatran's STAB attacks and isn't luck-based.
