Lucario

Ditto

Ditto

/me huggles
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#448 - Lucario​
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Typing
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FightingType.png
SteelType.png


Weaknesses/Resistances
Immunity:
PoisonType.png

x0.25:
BugType.png
RockType.png
DarkType.png

x0.50:
NormalType.png
GrassType.png
IceType.png
GhostType.png
DragonType.png
SteelType.png

x1.00:
WaterType.png
ElectricType.png
FlyingType.png
PsychicType.png

x2.00:
FireType.png
FightingType.png
GroundType.png


While Lucario has 3 very common attacking types as a weakness, it also has a plethora of resistances to use. Along with resistances to a fair number of different types, Lucario also boasts immunity to Toxic Spikes, which can greatly shorten of other Set Up Sweepers like it. Lucario also has a strong offensive STAB in its Fighting-type that can allow it to tear through many Pokemon.

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Stats
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Base Stat Total: 525
Base Stats: | 70 | 110 | 70 | 115 | 70 | 90 |

While Lucario's defenses are nothing to write home about, coupled with its resistances Lucario can often find a way to switch in and use its marvelous offensive stats. Lucario's speed is not bad, but it is also not too great. While Lucario is able to outspeed a fair number of Pokemon, its lackluster defenses can often hurt it when opponent's switch in faster Pokemon. Luckily for Lucario, its offensive stats along with a couple well placed priority moves give it a fighting chance against Pokemon that outspeed it.

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Abilities
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Steadfast: When this Pokemon is flinched its Speed raises 1 stage.
Inner Focus: This Pokemon cannot be flinched. This does not include flinching as a Focus Punch.
Justice Heart [Dream World]: When this Pokemon is damaged by a Dark-type attack its Attack raises 1 stage.

Neither of its non-Dream World abilities are too stunning as not many Pokemon will try to flinch Lucario, so you can really choose either. While Steadfast may look appealing because of the possibility of raising Lucario's average speed, it will also cause Lucario to lose a valuable turn that could have been spent using Swords Dance or Nasty Plot. While Justice Heart does not grant a Dark-type immunity, Lucario's resistance to Dark allows it to switch into most Dark-type moves without taking too much damage and while still getting the Attack boost.

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Moves Learned
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Physical Moves
Ankle Sweep (TM47): Fighting | 60 BP | 20 PP | 100% | Decreases opponent's Speed by 1 stage.
Bite (Egg Move)
Blaze Kick (Egg Move)
Bone Rush (Level 19)
Brick Break (TM31)
Bullet Punch (Egg Move)
Close Combat (Level 55)
Cross Chop (Egg Move)
Crunch (Egg Move)
Dig (TM28)
Earthquake (TM26)
Extremespeed (Level 65)
Facade (TM42)
Feint (Level 15)
Fling (TM56)
Force Palm (Level 11)
Frustration (TM21)
Giga Impact (TM68)
Hi Jump Kick (Egg Move)
Low Kick (Egg Move)
Metal Claw (Level -)
Overhead Throw (Egg Move): Fighting | 60 BP | 10 PP | 90% | Forces the target to switch.
Payback (TM66)
Poison Jab (TM84)
Quick Attack (Level -)
Retaliation (TM67): Normal | 5 PP | 70 BP | 100% | BP increases if an ally was KOed the previous turn.
Return (TM27)
Reversal (Riolu Level 19)
Rock Smash (TM94)
Rock Tomb (TM39)
Shadow Claw (TM65)
Sky Uppercut (Egg Move)
Smooth Over (TM78): Ground | PP | 60 BP | 100% | Lowers the opponent's speed.
Stone Edge (TM71)
Strength (HM04)

Special Moves
Aura Sphere (Level 51)
Dark Pulse (Level -)
Desperation (Riolu Level 55): Fighting | --- BP | 5 PP | 100% | KOs the user and deals damage to the opponent equal to the HP lost by using this move.
Dragon Pulse (Level 60)
Flash Cannon (TM91)
Focus Blast (TM52)
Hidden Power (TM10)
Hyper Beam (TM17)
Psychic (TM29)
Shadow Ball (TM30)
Troll (TM48): Normal | 60 BP | 15 PP | 100% | Power increases when allies also use Troll.
Vacuum Wave (Egg Move)

Support Moves
Agility (Egg Move)
Attract (TM45)
Bulk Up (TM08)
Calm Mind (Level 47)
Calm Mind (TM04)
Cheer Up (TM83): Normal | 30 PP | ---% | Raises user's Attack and Special Attack 1 stage.
Claw Sharpen (TM01): Dark | 15 PP | ---% | Raises user's Attack and Accuracy 1 stage.
Copycat (Riolu Level 29)
Counter (Level 6)
Detect (Level -/Egg Move)
Double Team (TM32)
Endure (Riolu Level -)
Fast Guard (Level 33): Fighting | 15 PP | ---% | Protects your team from priority moves. Will fail if used in succession.
Follow Me (Egg Move)
Foresight (Level -)
Heal Pulse (Level 42): Psychic | 10 PP | ---% | Restores 50% of an ally's HP.
Iron Defense (Egg Move)
Me First (Level 29)
Metal Sound (Level 24)
Mind Reader (Egg Move)
Nasty Plot (Riolu Level 47)
Protect (TM17)
Rain Dance (TM18)
Rest (TM44)
Roar (TM05)
Rock Slide (TM80)
Screech (Riolu Level 24)
Substitute (TM90)
Sunny Day (TM11)
Swagger (TM87)
Swords Dance (Level 37, TM75)
Toxic (TM06)

Lucario has several different options given its movepool and stat distribution. While Lucario does not has the biggest variety in terms of move typing, it does get good coverage with either special or physical attacks. On the physical side Lucario possesses STAB Close Combat to tear through teams and a powerful Crunch to help with coverage. Lucario also has Extremespeed or STAB Bullet Punch for priority that allows Lucario to deal with faster Pokemon. On the special side Lucario has STAB Aura Sphere and Dark Pulse to use as alternates to Close Combat and Crunch respectively. It also has a special priority move in its STAB Vacuum Wave. It also has 4 good set up moves, Swords Dance, Nasty Plot, Cheer Up, and Agility to boost its already good offensive stats.

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Sets Ideas
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name: Swords Dance
move 1: Swords Dance
move 2: Close Combat / High Jump Kick
move 3: ExtremeSpeed / Bullet Punch
move 4: Crunch
item: Life Orb
ability: Justice Heart / Inner Focus
evs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
nature: Jolly / Adamant

Will Edit Later

name: Nasty Plot
move 1: Nasty Plot
move 2: Aura Sphere
move 3: Dark Pulse
move 4: Hidden Power Ice / Vacuum Wave
item: Life Orb
ability: Inner Focus
evs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
nature: Timid / Modest

Will Edit Later

Other Set to maybe consider
- Mixed Cheer Up set
- Agility set (either Physical or Special)
 
I can still see an agility set working, and cheer up has potential too.

Edit : His dreamworld ability can really come in handy, too; with all the new ghosts around tyranitar will be throwing crunches out left and right, so if you manage to get an attack boost from that and agility on the switch, that could be dangerous.
 
I could see a mixed Cheer Up set working. It would probably use something like Close Combat, Shadow Ball, and Extremespeed/HP Ice. I'm not sure it would really be any better than the two sets you posted, though. It's nice to see Lucario being able to use a pure Special set that's not Choice Specs as well. It might not end up being as good as the SD set but we'll have to see.

The real thing that could really help Lucario is Justice Heart. It was already able to switch in on Dark attacks with some prediction but now it will be able to get a +1 Atk boost as well. It's too bad that we probably won't be able to use it with Crunch and Agility.
 
giggity69 said:
I can still see an agility set working, and cheer up has potential too.

Edit : His dreamworld ability can really come in handy, too; with all the new ghosts around tyranitar will be throwing crunches out left and right, so if you manage to get an attack boost from that and agility on the switch, that could be dangerous.
Click to expand...

If a tyranitar comes in on a ghost pursuit is almost guaranteed to be the move he'll use to trap the ghost. So Lucario can't really come in to a pursuit since it'll already have done damage to the previous pokemon.
 
It should probably be noted, as well, that Extremespeed has +2 priority this gen, allowing Lucario to do something to faster things carrying Vacuum Wave or Mach Punch (such as Infernape).
 
DR809 said:
If a tyranitar comes in on a ghost pursuit is almost guaranteed to be the move he'll use to trap the ghost. So Lucario can't really come in to a pursuit since it'll already have done damage to the previous pokemon.
Click to expand...

I agree. This is also a perfect opportunity to add +2 to either of your attacking stats. I don't think Justice Heart makes too much difference in the end. Pursuit is the move that will be thrown around more, and Lucario won't be getting hit by many Dark attacks.
 
I was thinking maybe a mixed Nasty Plot set would be viable, with Aura Sphere, Dark Pulse, and Extremespeed for clean up.

Edit: Scratch the Vacuum wave alternative. Then it wouldn't be a mix.
 
Now Lucario with Nasty Plot, Claw Sharpen and Cheer Up will be even more unpredictable, and with Justice Heart it is going to be a better counter of Dark type Pokémon, but IMO things like Heal Pulse and Fast Guard will not be too used with Lucario (because it is mainly offensive). With its new boosting moves and ability i´m sure that Lucario will be a even more threatening opponent in the B&W metagame than in DPP.
 
Will Lucario use Swords Dance, Nasty Plot or Cheer Up? One wrong switch and it's game over.

Anyone thinking of a mixed Calm Mind set? That might help Lucario take special hits more efficiently.

Lucario @ Life Orb
252 SpA/252 Spe Timid
~ Calm Mind
~ Extremespeed
~ Dark Pulse
~ Aura Sphere
 
Limewire said:
Will Lucario use Swords Dance, Nasty Plot or Cheer Up? One wrong switch and it's game over.

Anyone thinking of a mixed Calm Mind set? That might help Lucario take special hits more efficiently.

Lucario @ Life Orb
252 SpA/252 Spe Timid/Modest
~ Calm Mind
~ Extremespeed
~ Dark Pulse
~ Aura Sphere
Click to expand...

Why would you use Modest? It takes away from ExtremeSpeed's damage.
 
thewetmop said:
If it wasn't for Zoroark getting flamethrower, justice heart Luke would make a good switch into him.
Click to expand...

Actually, if Lucario switches in on a dark attack and gets the justice heart boost he can OHKO Zoroark with rocks up at the very least with a +1 Extremespeed. I ran a damage calc on an Absol with a +1 extremespeed who has similar stats but better HP and it came out as 92.6% - 109.2%, meaning that these figures would be even higher for Zoroark unless it runs some kind of bulky spread most of the time, which would be counter productive.
 
But what if he doesn't come in on a Dark attack, then he does much less damage with ExSpeed. This set pretty much requires him to get the attack boost to be effective. Something such as Vacuum Wave would be better for priority, but that would defeat the purpose of using Justice Heart.

Edit: Timid has the same problem as Modest (forgot to say that earlier), you would want either Hasty or Naive so that niether of your attacks are dropped.
 
AlphaJolt said:
But what if he doesn't come in on a Dark attack, then he does much less damage with ExSpeed. This set pretty much requires him to get the attack boost to be effective. Something such as Vacuum Wave would be better for priority, but that would defeat the purpose of using Justice Heart.

Edit: Timid has the same problem as Modest (forgot to say that earlier), you would want either Hasty or Naive so that niether of your attacks are dropped.
Click to expand...

Wow, I must have been asleep while posting that set >_<. You know what, how about I just make the CM set purely special and put Inner Focus>Justice Heart and Vaccum Wave>Espeed? Hasty/Naive lowers Lucario's already pitiful defense stats.

Oh, and Luke could also run a physical counterpart with Bulk Up.
 
With the Rotom formes having lost their Ghost-typing, Lucario can now slaughter them with a boosted ExtremeSpeed or Close Combat. For instance, a +2 Adamant LO ExtremeSpeed does 86.36% - 102.07% on a 6 HP/0 Def Choice Scarf/Choice Specs Timid Rotom, a OHKO more than 92% of the time provided Stealth Rock is in play. Slower, more defensive Rotom sets are met with Close Combat for a swift OHKO.

Previously, thanks to Intimidate, Lucario couldn't OHKO Salamence with ExtremeSpeed, even after Stealth Rock. But now, If Lucario switches into a Choice Band/Choice Scarf Tyanitar's Crunch and gets its Justice Heart boost, it can OHKO 6 Hp/0 Def Salamence with a +2 LO ExtremeSpeed. The same goes for 6 HP/0 Def Gyarados as well (SR is need for both examples).

Checks for the SD set like Hippowdon and Scarf Heatran would be destroyed by a +2 LO Aura Sphere or Vacuum Wave, thanks to Nasty Plot. Vacuum Wave also handles Sazandora quite well.

Lucario is looking to be a fantastic Pokemon all around, much like it was in Gen. IV.
 
The OP might want to update that the research thread has confirmed the Justice Heart does not make you immune to Dark, you just get the boost.
 
Lucario is viable with Swords Dance, Nasty Plot, and Agility.

It should not use Cheer Up or Calm Mind.

Cheer Up is outclassed by Swords Dance and Nasty Plot. +2 in one stat is way better than +1 in both, given Lucario's huge movepool. Calm Mind is just worthless given Lucario's frailty and access to Nasty Plot.
 
I think Modest and Vacuum Wave should be the primary options on Nasty Plot.

Vacuum Wave beats way too much important stuff (Scarf-Heatran, Scarf-Tyranitar, the new Ground/Steel mole, among others).

Modest gives you maximum wall-breaking power.
 
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