Pokémon Lanturn

[Ping_Pong_Along]

As a dedicated cleric, Lanturn is definitely not a great choice. Oddly enough, in my use of him, I've rarely used Heal Bell. When I have though, it has been a great benefit to the team. I find that I'm using him more to gain tempo with Volt Switch. Volt Absorb makes him a great wall for a surprisingly large number of pokemon. Because he's so uncommon, people might not even realize how much Lanturn screws them over and so they stay in while I paralyze or Scald them. That VoltTurn combo that has started showing up with Mega Manectric and Landorus? Both of them really hate taking a scald. I've seen where Thundurus after a Nasty Plot still has nothing to hit Lanturn.

So other than Volt Absorb, why run Lanturn over Rotom-W? Well Lanturn (other than that awful ground weakness), can take more special hits than Rotom-W and pairs exceptionally well with a flyer.

 

[mrglass]

The teams that use a cleric are usually stall teams and they will always opt for better clerics than Lanturn (Chansey and Clefable) who have reliable recovery and will not die after a few hits. A cleric without reliable recovery is not reliable at all.

Because heal bell is clearly the only reason why you would ever use lanturn over Rotom-W, this is a problem. Why would anyone use this thing? It can "stand out" by being the only water-electric type with heal bell but that is a VERY small niche, miles away from being relevant. So unless you are in dire need of a pokemon with heal bell AND a water electric typing AND volt switch... Well then you are better off using something else over our favourite angler fish.

Input on this is welcome. I could be horrible mistaken on this but as I see it now Lanturn is not viable for high level OU play.

Well, there are two pokemon in total that learn Volt Switch/U-turn and Heal Bell/Aromatherapy. Those are Lanturn and Celebi, and having a combined pivot and status clearer can be useful, particularly when you consider having to use Heal Bell pretty much stops your momentum dead in its tracks. Lanturn stands out from Celebi by having an astronomically better typing, with resists/immunity to the 4 most commonly used special attacking types in the game.

Also, like Ping_Pong_Along said, it pairs really well with a bulky flying type like Mandibuzz or Skarmory

 

[Xanru]

Well, there are two pokemon in total that learn Volt Switch/U-turn and Heal Bell/Aromatherapy. Those are Lanturn and Celebi, and having a combined pivot and status clearer can be useful, particularly when you consider having to use Heal Bell pretty much stops your momentum dead in its tracks. Lanturn stands out from Celebi by having an astronomically better typing, with resists/immunity to the 4 most commonly used special attacking types in the game.

Also, like Ping_Pong_Along said, it pairs really well with a bulky flying type like Mandibuzz or Skarmory

Pretty sure Ampharos learns heal bell/volt switch.

 

[MasterLemon]

Nope it can't.

 

[Aragorn the King]

Nope it can't.

Yeah it can. It learns heal bell Gen V tutors, and it learns Volt Switch by Gen V and VI tms.

 

[Kairyu_Gen1]

While I'm all for thinking outside the box, this poke seems to prove that any Pokemon can make it in OU with the right team. I like what it offers compared to rotom and ampharos, but the chances of it displacing either of them on one of my teams is slim

 

[MasterLemon]

Yeah it can. It learns heal bell Gen V tutors, and it learns Volt Switch by Gen V and VI tms.

I'm going to be having words with whoever made Serebii's move set calculator.

 

[Impy]

Remember when Lanturn was the premier boltbeaming bulky water? Pepperidge Farm remembers.

 

[mrglass]

You should use http://pokemondb.net/tools/moveset-search instead; it's much better. Apparently, the only fully evolved pokemon to learn the combo are Smeargle, Lanturn, Ampharos, Mew, and Jolteon.

Fair enough. Lanturn has the best combination of bulk and typing of those 5 aside from Mega Ampharos, who, if you really need a bulky pivot, you would have to use your mega slot for.

I think it's worth mentioning that Lanturn is a rather good check to the SwagPlay strategy being suspected right now. Paralyzing the user dramatically affects their chances of being successful, while Lanturn is completely immune to T-Wave. Lanturn also has low attacking stats, so Foul Play and Swagger don't bother it.