Water/Fighting
90/95/95/70/90/70 (510 BST)
Water Absorb / Damp / Swift Swim
Notable moves:
- Liquidation
- Drain Punch
- Bulk Up
- Circle Throw
- Earthquake
- Ice Punch
- Poison Jab
- Belly Drum
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
- Protect
- Substitute
- Hypnosis
- Focus Blast
- Hydro Pump
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Vacuum Wave
- Poliwrath has a good defensive typing that gives it favourable matchups against common physical threats and nice bulk.
- Water Absorb is a useful ability that lets it stop common Water types and rain sweepers, as well as shut down Scald-reliant passive mons.
- Circle Throw is an uncommon move that lets it phaze out opposing sweepers, so it doesn't become setup fodder.
- A lot of the types that it's weak to aren't as commonly carried as coverage by physical attackers, improving its ability to wall them.
- It's completely reliant on either Rest or Drain Punch to regain HP.
- With its pretty flat statline, it doesn't stand out much. It faces extremely stiff competition from other similar mons. It struggles to differentiate itself as a bulky Fighting type compared to Kommo-o, Conkeldurr, or Okidogi, and as a specially defensive Water-type it doesn't really offer anything over Azumarill. Quaquaval, which is also a niche mon, is much more versatile with the same typing, with better utility, boosting, and recovery options.
- As a rain sweeper, it is generally deficient in speed and power compared to better Swift Swimmers like Floatzel, Ludicolo, or Basculegion.
- In order to succeed, Poliwrath needs to completely lean into its unique qualities; that is, Circle Throw and greater bulk along with Water Absorb, as well as Drain Punch to potentially give it more longevity as a sweeper.
- Tera Fairy gives it an immunity to Dragon, which helps it fight Baxcalibur and potentially shut down Walking Wake. Fairy is just a solid defensive type in general.
- Tera Grass flips some common weaknesses and lets it resist Ground, which helps it fight physical Ground types like Garchomp.
- Tera Fire is a stable option against Heartflame, Teal, and Wellspring Ogerpon, Azumarill, and Iron Valiant while still maintaining a good matchup against Cinderace. It also lets you outplay random Will-o-Wisps. The vulnerability to Ground it incurs can be unfavourable, sometimes.
- Tera Steel probably lets you flip the most weaknesses at once and is a good type in general, but it makes you a bit too vulnerable to physical Ground and Fighting types to consider on a physically defensive set.
- Tera Water is a good option for rain sweeper Poliwrath to increase your power.
Poliwrath @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
Tera Type: Fairy / Grass / Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Impish Nature
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
- Circle Throw
- Knock Off / Liquidation
This Poliwrath set makes it a good check to physical attackers, especially Dark types like Samurott, Kingambit, and Crawdaunt. Being a RestTalk mon means it can also absorb random status from stuff like Sneasler, Toxapex, Cinderace, and others. Circle Throw lets it deal big damage to them, and the ability to phaze out setup sweepers like Baxcalibur, Kingambit, and Dragonite is essential. Knock Off offers the most utility and has good neutral coverage with Circle Throw, but Liquidation does more damage to offensive threats in general. Surf and a Relaxed nature can be used instead as it generally does more to Great Tusk and Landorus-Therian. You can even use an Ice move if you want to completely stuff Dragonite, Gliscor, and Garchomp, but usually just phazing them out is enough to deal with them.
Bulk Up
Poliwrath @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
Tera Type: Fairy / Grass / Fire
EVs: 80 HP / 252 Atk / 176 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Bulk Up
- Drain Punch
- Knock Off
- Liquidation
Poliwrath makes use of its good bulk and boosted Drain Punch to become a sweeper with a good amount of longevity. Unlike Conkeldurr, it outspeeds defensive mons with its Speed investment, like bulky versions of Great Tusk, Landorus-T, Moltres, and Gholdengo and can hit them super-effectively. This set competes with Okidogi and Kommo-o too, but its STAB combo and defensive profile, especially after it Teras, is arguably better than either.
CB Swift Swim
Poliwrath @ Choice Band
Ability: Swift Swim
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Liquidation
- Close Combat
- Knock Off / Ice Punch
- Earthquake
With strong STAB options and respectable speed in Rain, Poliwrath is a decent Rain sweeper. STAB Close Combat distinguishes it and lets it hit some of the tier's Water resists harder. Earthquake lets it smack Toxapex and Ice Punch hits Amoonguss, but often a strong Knock Off just works.
Other sets:
- Belly Drum is usable, but mostly overshadowed by Kommo-o who just has better stats for this sort of thing.
- Assault Vest is usable to be a check to Walking Wake, Greninja, and Manaphy, but even with the Water immunity it is mostly outdone by Azumarill which boasts priority and better power, and a better typing.
- Offensive Swift Swim LO Bulk Up is a possible set, but going for Bulk Up eats into your Swift Swim turns so it's not great.
- Even with 70 base Special Attack, a Specs Swift Swim set is usable to surprise physical walls. It even has a priority option in Vacuum Wave, and an option to hit Toxapex and Amoonguss in one slot (Psychic). However, its power outside of rain is extremely lacking.
