You ust have forgotten the awesome might of lightning rod Seaking, Zapdos has never been and never will be a problem, it has horrible typing and stab, the only thing worse is Salemence...Not much to say here. DW Zapdos appears to be the biggest immediate benifactor
The real question is if Zapdos can legally recieve both Lightningrod and Heat Wave through a special DW move. If so, it will probably regain its reputation as a powerful tank, particularly countering steels.Lightningrod is probably the only thing Zapdos can claim that Voltolos can't do better. Besides Subroost, but I question its effectiveness in Gen V.
I was about to say, I find Zapdos is actually severely hampered coveragewise by running Lightningrod. If you run Roost and Thunderbolt, which are givens, that gives you only two moves to really work with. If we assume the choices so far are Substitute/Toxic/Hidden Power or something similar, that's not a whole lot that he can do against certain threats.The real question is if Zapdos can legally recieve both Lightningrod and Heat Wave through a special DW move. If so, it will probably regain its reputation as a powerful tank, particularly countering steels.
A toxic/roost/free fall/thunderbolt is actually solid. You get walled by steel/ground but against alot of things it destroys.Personally, I think Zapdos does just fine without LightningRod because it already has that 125 base Special Attack to work off of, and Pressure is just dandy in some stalling instances. I can see why you guys would like LightningRod; a Special Attack boost would be nice in the case of Hidden Power Electric Bulky Water types.
If I advocated the use of Lightningrod, Zapdos with Roost + Hidden Power + Coverage moves would be just dandy, though lack of Heat Wave hurts.
Water Veil's always nice to switch into Boiling Water with little fear. Lightning Rod seems like it'd best benefit him on mixed sets, but Swift Swim is better for those (not saying mixed sets are good, but yeah).Has Seaking had much mention yet? I think Lightningrod is fantastic for Seaking, since it essentially puts him in the same class as the Water-Ground hybrids in only having one weakness, and only a regular x2 weakness at that, whereas he even benefits from taking Electric attacks now. If only you didn't have to choose between that and Swift Swim... but even if you just give him like a Scarf or something, he could still cause his fair share of havoc on Rain teams. He just needs something to hit Burungeru, I'm pretty sure he doesn't have much in that department.... >.>
That's not necessarily true since Raichu can always switch into a defensive pokemon and encore them into useless repeating a move or switch into an offensive pokemon using substitute or a boosting move. Lightning Rod encore is going be ridiculously awesome though!Water Veil's always nice to switch into Boiling Water with little fear. Lightning Rod seems like it'd best benefit him on mixed sets, but Swift Swim is better for those (not saying mixed sets are good, but yeah).
Lightning Rod seems like it'll help Pikachu/Raichu in the lower tiers, since they used to have literally nothing to switch into. Now they have random Thunderbolts and Thunder Waves.
Metal Sound is incompatible with Lightningrod, as it is an XD-exclusive move.And losing Heat Wave means a free slot that can be filled by Metal Sound for example that is a pseudo-boost.
How about all those fun steel-types? The ones that RESIST hp ice.What pokes would you hit with heatwave that aren't ohko'd by +1 LO hp ice?
Zapdos is a BEAST with lightning rod, being only weak to 2 types and resistant to both priority, making agilitydos an incredible sweeper.
zapdos@LO
252spa/252spe modest
agility
roost
thunder/tbolt (depends if there's rain)
hp ice
Absolutely decimates teams. I cannot tell you how many 6 poke sweeps zapdos has gotten, or how many times I was losing badly to then have zapdos come in and turn it around. He outspeeds every scarfer and has decent enough defenses to roost out of weak hp ice.
+1LO zapdos does 44-53% to wishbliss.
Of course the main problem is there aren't that many electric attacks these days, but that's ok.
Also for those who say voltolos is strictly better that's completely false. Zapdos has better defenses, recovery, and a speed boosting move which are all important depending on what you want to do.
Zapdos is an excellent counter to the majority of steels, resisting their STABs and hitting them with a strong neutral Thunderbolt. Evolution Stone Chansey has comparable special bulk to Blissey when one considers that it foregoes leftovers, its physical bulk is where it shines. Also don't be so unnecessarily agressive, you sound like a child.How about all those fun steel-types? The ones that RESIST hp ice.
As for bliss,
That's nice. How much does it do to evo-stone Chansey who is both bulkier and more common than its fluffy assed evolution
DoruzuyuuHuh? What steel types can survive +1 LO thunders? besides the almost never used magnezone and steelix?
Hahaha, Hell yes. Ash's Pikachu is from Dream World.So wait....
Is this the reason that Ash's Pikachu didn't get hurt by Lt.Surge's Raichu's Thunderbolt? D: