Heracross [QC 0/3]

[BreloomMyHomie]

[OVERVIEW]
+Definitely a lot of admirable traits, such as high base attack and great movepool.
+Notable and used in CAP for it's Mega Evolution, with a gigantic attack stat with decent defenses.
-Quad Weakness to Flying-Type attacks and other offensive types such as Fairy and Fire.
-Mediocre Speed in its base and mega form.


[SET]
name: Swords Dance
move 1: Swords Dance
move 2: Pin Missile
move 3: Close Combat / Earthquake
move 4: Rock Blast
item: Heracronite
ability: Moxie / Guts
nature: Jolly
evs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]
Moves
========

• Heracross is capable of sweeping an entire team after setting up a Swords Dance
• Pin Missile is Heracross's main STAB, hitting notable Psychic and Dark types such as Slowbro, Colossoil, and Aurumoth.
• Close Combat is another STAB Heracross tends to run in order to hit Steel Types such as Cawmodore, Skarmory, Ferrothorn, and Excadrill.
• Earthquake can be run over Close Combat in order to get Kitsunoh, Plasmanta, and Fidgit for super effective damage. The downside is that Heracross can't do much to Scizor and Skarmory as it could with Close Combat.
• Rock Blast is great coverage move run on Mega Heracross because it provides coverage for Flying-Types such as Zapdos, Gyarados, Talonflame, and Charizard.

Set Details
========

• Max Speed with a Jolly Nature outspeeds Defensive Zapdos, Adamant Dragonite, Breloom, and Adamant Altaria.
• Max Attack for higher damage output with Heracross's attacks and the rest goes into Defense.
• For the PreMega Evo Ability, it can be Moxie or Guts. Moxie is used to get an attack boost when Heracross can knock something out while staying in Heracross's base form. Guts is used so it can take status and dish out even more powerful attacks.

Usage Tips
========

• Used as a powerful Swords Dance sweeper; it's better to sweep mid/late game when all of Heracross's checks are gone.
• Because of it's mediocre speed, it will be hard to set up vs Offense, but because Mega Heracross's attack is enormous, it doesn't necessarily have to set up.
• One of the best balanced/stall breakers in the metagame. When playing balanced/stall, set up on a pokemon that can't touch Heracross such as Chansey or Colossoil. However, beware of status, as the chance of Heracross sweeping will be deteriorated.

Team Options
========

• Electric Types check the Flying types that threaten Heracross out.
• Heatran is an excellent partner, resisting all of the types that Heracross is weak to.
• Having a cleric such as Sylveon or Clefable would definitely be ideal because if somehow Mega Heracross gets burned,whether it's WoW or Scald, Heal Bell would eliminate its status condition so Heracross can still dish out damage to the opposing team.
• Scizor is a powerful Steel-Type that can destroy Fairy Types to make way for Heracross to sweep.
• Sticky Web is definitely a viable playstyle to use Mega Heracross on, since a lot of the megas and CAPs do outspeed it. Furthermore, Heracross has a roll to beat the most common rapid spinner being Colossoil, so Sticky Web will stay on the field for the remainder of the game. Example of a Sticky Web user is Necturna, but definitely give put resists to take care of the huge fire weakness.

[SET]
name: Substitute
move 1: Substitute
move 2: Swords Dance / Earthquake
move 3: Pin Missile
move 4: Rock Blast
item: Heracronite
ability: Moxie / Guts
nature: Jolly
evs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]
Moves
==========

• Substitute allows Heracross to set up easily while also preventing status such as Rotom-W's Will-O-Wisp.
• Swords Dance boosts Heracross's attack immensely to wallbreak, but can use Earthquake over it to hit Kitsunohs, Plasmantas, and Fidgits for an ample amount of damage.
• Pin Missile is Heracross's main STAB, hitting 5 times constantly with Skill Link. It breaks Psychic Pokemon such as Slowbro and Aurumoth, as well as Dark Types Colossoil and Tyranitar.
• Rock Blast provides coverage to hit Flying Types such as Gyarados, Dragonite, Talonflame, and Ghost Types such as Gengar.

Set Details
========

• Max Attack investment to increase Heracross's damage output.
• Max Speed to outspeed Defensive Zapdos, Adamant Dragonite, Breloom, and Adamant Altaria.
• It's PreEvo can be Moxie or Guts. Moxie is used to get an attack boost when are certain that Heracross can knock something out while staying in Heracross's base form. Guts is used so it can take status and dish out even more powerful attacks.

Usage Tips
========

• Heracross functions as a bulky wallbreaker, with set up moves such as Substitute and Swords Dance.
• It's best to Substitute up on the predicted Status, or on the predicted switch so its Substitute doesn't break right away and prevents it from being easily revenge killed.
• Heracross should not recklessly set up on Pokemon that tend to carry Haze, Whirlwind, or Roar, especially since it goes through sub. Pokemon that carry these moves are Tomohawk, Hippowdon, Pyroak, and Skarmory.

Team Options
==========

• Electric Type teammates such as Cyclohm, Rotom-W, and Thundurus work well with Heracross, being able to check the Flying Types that threaten it out such as Talonflame, Skarmory, and Mega Pinsir. Rotom-W and Thundurus also check Landorus-T and Gliscor, two of Heracross's counters.
• Heatran+Heracross's defensive synergy is practically perfect. Heracross resists Ground and Fighting type attacks while Heatran resists Fairy, Flying, Psychic, and Fire type attacks.
• Heracross can set up a subsitute for a limited amount of times, so having a Wish Pass cleric such as Sylveon/Clefable or a Healing Wish mon like Latias would help Heracross a ton.
• Sticky Web is nice with Mega Heracross, so you don't have to worry about speed control that much. It also threatens the most common rapid spinner, Colossoil, so Sticky Web will most likely stay on the battlefield for a long time. However, there are pokemon that do threaten Heracross out and can learn rapid spin such as Tomohawk.

[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============

• Knock Off lets Heracross get past Ghost Types, but Rock Blast ohkoes Gengar and Earthquake hits Kitsunoh harder.
• Bullet Seed can also be used in slot 2 to ohko Water Types such as Rotom W, Krilowatt, and Azumarill, but Pin Missile or Rock Blast 2hko all of them.

Checks and Counters
===============

**Flying-Types**: Many Flying Types are capable of threatening Heracross because of its 4x weakness to it. These include Tomohawk, Talonflame, Mega Pinsir, and Cawmodore.

**Psychic-Types**: Psychic-Types such as Aurumoth, Alakazam, and Mega Gardevoir all outpace Heracross and OHKO it with a Psychic-Type attack.

**Ground+Flying Types**: Ground+Flying Type pokemon such as Landorus T and Gliscor wall Heracross indefinitely.

**Fire-Types**: Fire Type pokemon such as Charizard, Volkraken, and Scarf Mollux all threaten Heracross with its Fire STABs. While Infiltrator Volkraken is less common than Analytic, it still exists, and can fire blast through the sub to knock it out.

**Fairy Types**: Fairy Types such as Diancie, Azumarill, Clefable, and Sylveon threaten Heracross thanks to the Offensive and Defensive typing advantage. It is worth knowing that Magic Guard Clefable, Sylveon, and Azumarill die to +2 Rock Blast.

**Status**: Status, especially burns will cripple Heracross, especially if it doesn't have guts. Pokemon that can get a burn on heracross before it can get a substitute up are Sableye and Kitsunoh.

 

[BreloomMyHomie]

Ready For QC

 

[HeaLnDeaL]

Umm. No mention of Bullet Seed is borderline criminal. It might be best in OO however, since it doesn't hit much outside of Krilowatt and Swampert and Quagsire and Diancie. Bullet Seed and a 4 attack set could be mentioned in OO I guess.

In my personal experience, the most crucial bit of team support for Heracross is sticky web (or some other form of speed control). I mean, a lot of the megas with 100 speed or less kind of share this quality. What makes Heracross so effective in this roll is his ability to beat the most common spinner (Colo).

Burns could be added to C&C, especially fast burns before sub can go up from Sableye or Kitsunoh. Under Fire types, you should somehow mention the Volkraken's chance of running Infiltrator makes even substitute Heracross very worried.

 

[BreloomMyHomie]

I mentioned bullet seed for the Substitute Set, but thanks HeaL for the advice. I will implement these changes now

 

[BreloomMyHomie]

Implemented

 

[sparktrain]

In the Checks and Counters section, remember to clarify which mons are checks, along with which moves trouble them (e.g. Mega Pinsir resists Hera's STAB, but isn't a safe switch-in because of Rock Blast), as well as which mons are counters. Counters should generally be mentioned before checks (doesn't need to be perfect, but the hardest counters to a mon should definitely go first). This is especially important for Hera's analysis; it's really not a hard mon to check due to its middling Speed, but it's a lot more difficult to counter due to its coverage options, Skill Link, SD, and massive Attack.

Regarding the Sub set, I'm not entirely sold on Sub+SD at the moment, mostly because it'll be walled by a pretty significant group of mons regardless of which two attacks it chooses-- Pin Missile + Rock Blast means that Steel-types can check Heracross a lot more easily than they should, plus there's a pretty significant opportunity cost of not running that deliciously strong STAB Close Combat. Just running STABs detracts from Hera's ability to hit Flying- or Ghost-types too hard. I dunno at this point; I'm sure that Sub+SD works with the proper support, but Sub+3 Attacks (as well as SD+3 Attacks and even AOA) are much more threatening and consistent without being over reliant on teammates. Other opinions welcome here.

 

[cbrevan]

Implement the bolded sections

[OVERVIEW]
+Definitely a lot of admirable traits, such as high base attack and great movepool.
+Notable and used in CAP for it's Mega Evolution, with a gigantic attack stat with decent defenses.
-Quad Weakness to Flying-Type attacks and other offensive types such as Fairy and Fire.
-Mediocre Speed in its base and mega form.

Good, you've listed its dex traits. Now explain what it does in the metagame.
Take a look at the Overview section of writing tips, specifically this section:

"General Questions / Statements to answer in the overview

• What does the Pokemon beat? Notable individual Pokemon, groups, or whole playstyles (Poliwrath is a fantastic glue Pokemon while Snow Warning Aurorus is a hard check to all weather teams).

• What general role the Pokemon takes / What teams it fits best on (Stall / Balance / Bulky Offense / Hyper Offense)

• What threatens this Pokemon? Notable individual Pokemon, groups, or whole playstyles

On top of these points, don't state information that you can see in the dex entry. The typing, ability, and stats are at the top of the page. It is fine to talk about how a Pokemon's defensive typing lets it handle [x threats], how its STABs and coverage make it an excellent wallbreaker, or how its Speed stat puts it above the majority of the tier. What isn't fine is statements like 'Kadabra has a great base 120 Special Attack stat'. This provides no useful information to the reader."

[SET]
name: Swords Dance
move 1: Swords Dance
move 2: Pin Missile
move 3: Close Combat / Earthquake Close Combat needs its own slot, giving up that beefy STAB Fighting move is a shame and Earthquake provides less than optimal coverage overall.
move 4: Rock Blast
item: Heracronite
ability: Moxie / Guts
nature: Jolly
evs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]
Moves
========

• Heracross is capable of sweeping an entire team after setting up a Swords Dance I seriously doubt Heracross is going to 6-0 a team after a boost, its slower than dirt and has no way to circumvent this. Should say its can break through virtually any wall because you're using it to wallbreak not sweep.

• Pin Missile is Heracross's main STAB, hitting notable Psychic and Dark types such as Slowbro, Colossoil, and Aurumoth.

• Close Combat is another STAB Heracross tends to run in order to hit Steel Types such as Cawmodore, Skarmory, Ferrothorn, and Excadrill.

• Earthquake can be run over Close Combat in order to get Kitsunoh, Plasmanta, and Fidgit for super effective damage. The downside is that Heracross can't do much to Scizor and Skarmory as it could with Close Combat. Earthquake isn't really worth listing, gives up way to much coverage to justify it when compared to STAB moves and Rock Blast

• Rock Blast is great coverage move run on Mega Heracross because it provides coverage for Flying-Types such as Zapdos, Gyarados, Talonflame, and Charizar
• Substitute takes advanatage of Mega Heracross' massive damage output to put pressure on offensive teams as well.

Set Details
========

• Max Speed with a Jolly Nature outspeeds Defensive Zapdos, Adamant Dragonite, Breloom, and Adamant Altaria.

• Max Attack for higher damage output with Heracross's attacks and the rest goes into Defense.

• For the PreMega Evo Ability, it can be Moxie or Guts. Moxie is used to get an attack boost when Heracross can knock something out while staying in Heracross's base form. Guts is used so it can take status and dish out even more powerful attacks. Guts only applies to base form, the bonus can't be carried over to the Mega form like Moxie.

Usage Tips
========

• Used as a powerful Swords Dance sweeper; it's better to sweep mid/late game when all of Heracross's checks are gone. Heracross is more of a wallbreaker than a sweeper.

• Because of it's mediocre speed, it will be hard to set up vs Offense, but because Mega Heracross's attack is enormous, it doesn't necessarily have to set up. Good bulk allows Heracross to take a hit and kill a mon in return and works well with Substitute.

• One of the best balanced/stall breakers in the metagame. When playing balanced/stall, set up on a pokemon that can't touch Heracross such as Chansey or Colossoil. However, beware of status, as the chance of Heracross sweeping will be deteriorated.

• Remove Tomohawk before breaking stall because it can otherwise stop you short.

Team Options
========

• Electric Types check the Flying types that threaten Heracross out. like... (Cyclohm is a good example since it can heal status from Heracross, in return Heracross demolishes Colossoil for Cyclohm)

• Heatran is an excellent partner, resisting all of the types that Heracross is weak to.

• Having a cleric such as Sylveon or Clefable would definitely be ideal because if somehow Mega Heracross gets burned,whether it's WoW or Scald, Heal Bell would eliminate its status condition so Heracross can still dish out damage to the opposing team.

• Scizor is a powerful Steel-Type that can destroy Fairy Types to make way for Heracross to sweep.

• Sticky Web is definitely a viable playstyle to use Mega Heracross on, since a lot of the megas and CAPs do outspeed it. Furthermore, Heracross has a roll to beat the most common rapid spinner being Colossoil, so Sticky Web will stay on the field for the remainder of the game. Example of a Sticky Web user is Necturna, but definitely give put resists to take care of the huge fire weakness.

(Not going comment on second set until its been consolidated into the first one.)

[SET]
name: Substitute
move 1: Substitute
move 2: Swords Dance / Earthquake
move 3: Pin Missile
move 4: Rock Blast
item: Heracronite
ability: Moxie / Guts
nature: Jolly
evs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]
Moves
==========

• Substitute allows Heracross to set up easily while also preventing status such as Rotom-W's Will-O-Wisp.

• Swords Dance boosts Heracross's attack immensely to wallbreak, but can use Earthquake over it to hit Kitsunohs, Plasmantas, and Fidgits for an ample amount of damage.

• Pin Missile is Heracross's main STAB, hitting 5 times constantly with Skill Link. It breaks Psychic Pokemon such as Slowbro and Aurumoth, as well as Dark Types Colossoil and Tyranitar.

• Rock Blast provides coverage to hit Flying Types such as Gyarados, Dragonite, Talonflame, and Ghost Types such as Gengar.

Set Details
========

• Max Attack investment to increase Heracross's damage output.

• Max Speed to outspeed Defensive Zapdos, Adamant Dragonite, Breloom, and Adamant Altaria.

• It's PreEvo can be Moxie or Guts. Moxie is used to get an attack boost when are certain that Heracross can knock something out while staying in Heracross's base form. Guts is used so it can take status and dish out even more powerful attacks.

Usage Tips
========

• Heracross functions as a bulky wallbreaker, with set up moves such as Substitute and Swords Dance.

• It's best to Substitute up on the predicted Status, or on the predicted switch so its Substitute doesn't break right away and prevents it from being easily revenge killed.

• Heracross should not recklessly set up on Pokemon that tend to carry Haze, Whirlwind, or Roar, especially since it goes through sub. Pokemon that carry these moves are Tomohawk, Hippowdon, Pyroak, and Skarmory.

Team Options
==========

• Electric Type teammates such as Cyclohm, Rotom-W, and Thundurus work well with Heracross, being able to check the Flying Types that threaten it out such as Talonflame, Skarmory, and Mega Pinsir. Rotom-W and Thundurus also check Landorus-T and Gliscor, two of Heracross's counters.

• Heatran+Heracross's defensive synergy is practically perfect. Heracross resists Ground and Fighting type attacks while Heatran resists Fairy, Flying, Psychic, and Fire type attacks.

• Heracross can set up a subsitute for a limited amount of times, so having a Wish Pass cleric such as Sylveon/Clefable or a Healing Wish mon like Latias would help Heracross a ton.

• Sticky Web is nice with Mega Heracross, so you don't have to worry about speed control that much. It also threatens the most common rapid spinner, Colossoil, so Sticky Web will most likely stay on the battlefield for a long time. However, there are pokemon that do threaten Heracross out and can learn rapid spin such as Tomohawk.

[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============

• Knock Off lets Heracross get past Ghost Types, but Rock Blast ohkoes Gengar and Earthquake hits Kitsunoh harder.

• Bullet Seed can also be used in slot 2 to ohko Water Types such as Rotom W, Krilowatt, and Azumarill, but Pin Missile or Rock Blast 2hko all of them.

Mention Bullet Seed first
Mention a base heracross set, like the SD Guts variant
Earthquake can be mentioned here since its no longer listed in the first set.

Checks and Counters
===============

**Flying-Types**: Many Flying Types are capable of threatening Heracross because of its 4x weakness to it. These include Tomohawk, Talonflame, Mega Pinsir, and Cawmodore. Rock Blast is highly threatening to Talonflame and Pinsir, Cawmodore takes a lot from Close Combat.

**Psychic-Types**: Psychic-Types such as Aurumoth, Alakazam, and Mega Gardevoir all outpace Heracross and OHKO it with a Psychic-Type attack. None can take a Pin Missile at all, slower Psychics are absolute fodder for it.

**Ground+Flying Types**: Ground+Flying Type pokemon such as Landorus T and Gliscor wall Heracross indefinitely. This is blatently false. Gliscor has to resort to toxic stalling to do any noticeable damage while Heracross can just set up in its face and blow it out of the water with Swords Dance. Landorus-T gets worn done and if Heracross Sword Dances on the switch its 2hkoed by Rock Blast, while being unable to 2hko in return.

**Fire-Types**: Fire Type pokemon such as Mega Charizard-X, Mega Charizard-Y, Volkraken, and Scarf Mollux all threaten Heracross with its Fire STABs. While Infiltrator Volkraken is less common than Analytic, it still exists, and can fire blast through the sub to knock it out. None can switch in directly due to rock blast

**Fairy Types**: Fairy Types such as MegaDiancie, Azumarill, Clefable, and Sylveon threaten Heracross thanks to the Offensive and Defensive typing advantage. It is worth knowing that Magic Guard Clefable, Sylveon, and Azumarill die to +2 Rock Blast. Mention how Mega Diancie can't switch in because Close Combat OHKO's

**Status**: Status, especially burns will cripple Heracross, especially if it doesn't have guts. Pokemon that can get a burn on heracross before it can get a substitute up are Sableye and Kitsunoh.

Reorder this with harder counters towards the top (like Flying), with checks (Psychics) towards the bottom.

Make these changes and you can consider this QC 1/3.

 

[sparktrain]

reassigned