Modest Gardevoir? Why not Bold?

[Ryanide]

I'm wondering why Modest is the standard Gardevoir nature on most sets I see here.

Since Gardevoir's best use is as a support Pokemon, wouldn't it be better off having a Bold nature to accommodate more for the low defense? Or even Calm if you wanted to put all your eggs into one basket.

I'd understand that it would be good to have Gardevoir hit really hard when it needs to attack, but a lot of the time, Gardevoir just prefers to use status effects or set up wish for passing. It really shouldn't attack as often as one would think.

I'm going to breed myself a supporting wish Ralts and just thought I'd get some advice this decision before I choose the nature.

 

[evolutia]

I think it really depends on the overall team of your build and how bulky you want your Gardevoir to be. After choosing the role it'll play then choose your nature accordingly.

I used a Bold Gardevoir with WoW; it was quite handy against physical attackers; but now that I think about it Bold wasn't really nesscary because of WoW :/

 

[Ryanide]

I used a Bold Gardevoir with WoW; it was quite handy against physical attackers; but now that I think about it Bold wasn't really nesscary because of WoW :/

The thing is, though, having a Bold nature could make it easier for Gardy to even get to use Will o Wisp on faster physical attackers in the first place, since it will be able to survive a hit more than it usually would.

 

[Phiphler]

Its quite simple, physical attackers will kill Gardevoir unless its stuff like mixape, modest just gives the most stats for the Nature, due to Gardevoirs 130 base SpAtk.

 

[Ryanide]

True. I suppose that even with a + defense nature, Gardevoir is still very frail defensively.

What about Calm then?

 

[Dragontamer]

Warning: This post is heavy with Defense tiers. Hell, it is a straight up Defense Tier analysis. Metalkid's calculator isn't working right now so yarr.

A bold Gardevoir with 252 HP has Def Tier of 115.75 and Sp. Def of 119.74.

That is more than decent and surprisingly durable. Obviously, more EVs in Def would help Gardevoir significantly more in Defense, This is about as good as Spinner Starmie in physical defenses while significantly better in the Sp. Def side (115.88, 115.88). Timid/modest drops Gardevoir to defense tier 114.79, or about what 0/0 Starmie gets.

Metalkid's calculator isn't working right now, but I can tell you that 115+ Defense tiers is surprisingly durable, while 119+ in Sp. Def I would almost describe as a tank.

115+ I'd describe that "typical" Non-Stab non-boosted attacks breaking point. Ex. Weavile is guarenteed to survive Scarf 252 Timid Azelf Flamethrowers (see that? Scarf and Timid. Aka, totally unboosted. No Stab, or using a weak attack). Gardevoir won't be surviving guts CB Heracross Megahorns, but I have a feeling it can take a single pursuit and then WoW the Weavile.

119+ is above the 0/0 spreads for Mew and pals, and is above 0/0 T-Tar and 0/0 Gyarados. Not exactly a tank yet (Blissey scores a wooping 128) but 119 is still much higher than typical status inducers. 252/252 Bold Dusknoir is 119 in Sp. Def... granted, it is focused on Def instead of Sp. Def, but for Gardevoir to reach this mark in Sp. Def is impressive to me.

Just throwing 252 HP EVs into Gardevoir seems suboptimal, but I'd start with 252 HP Evs somehow and work from there. I'd probably push a few EVs into Def.

Talking about defense tiers... my topic somehow got messed up... I lost the program that I used to make defense tiers, so I guess I'll just have to make a new one :-(

 

[Samson]

i've used a bold gardevoir with trace + WoW + Sub that was effective as a starter, but as i invested so much in defense and hp, it became less of a special tank, which only created more troubles.

 

[GonE]

Why do you want to take a hit anyways? Use WoW when you are expecting a switch in from a threat (like Metagross). When using Gardevoir you should try to avoid physical hits.

 

[Forsety]

The short of it is unless you plan on exceeding Gardy's maximum defense without a nature than your simply wasting EV's. If you do go all out with a 252/252 spread than Gardy is probably going to be lacking in offense.