So I used Durant for this week. Currently peaked at 1610 but I might ladder some more. Anyway, durant is an interesting mon that I was going to try to use anyway, so I have a lot to say about it.
Life Orb Durant Set
The first set is the all out pummeling set that I noticed a lot of other people used to, I think this is its best set, but I'll talk about the life orb set first.
Life orb is the set I was initially drawn too, mostly because of its raw power and even has the potential to break stall. Life orb super power has a chance to 2hko quagsire after spikes or chip. However, I found that life orb reduced durant's longevity way too much, limiting its ability to continue to break down bulkier team. For example, you hone claw as your opponent switches to hippowdon. +1 Life orb iron head does not KO hippo, so you take 2 turns of LO recoil and 50% from eq, leaving you at ~30% hp (or less if rocks are up). This scenario comes up a lot, where durant dies to its own recoil before it can break through a team like it should on paper. This set could possibly be very good if it was paired with a healing wish user though.
Replay:The first time durant manages to do something other than being fodder
All out Pummeling Durant
I had a lot more success with this durant set, for without life orb cutting durant's longevity, I was sometimes able to bring it in multiple times a match to put in work. Its also able to immediately nuke something with its z-superpower (and yes I realize I'm running double z-move on my team, but sometimes you want to use skystrike with talon or pummeling with durant). For example, an unboosted all out pummeling can completely decimate an unsuspecting scizor trying to u-turn on you, paving the way for altaria. You also almost OHKO rotom-heat with it, paving the way for talonflame.
I have a lot more replays of Durant putting in work here:
Conclusions:
I think Durant is kind of an underrated pick, as it can cause some serious damage under the right circumstances. Its great speed tier and even more amazing power lets it power through mons that would normally stop scizor cold, such as moltres, rotom-heat, non-scarf infernape, etc. However, durant's main shortcoming is its very limited opportunities to set up. If its special defense wasn't so horrendous, it could set up on a lot of the stuff scizor does, such as latias, draco meteor, fairy types, etc. But unfortunately durant finds itself 2hkoed by most of these special attacking moves (lati's devastating drake just OHKOs it straight up), leaving durant not many chances to switch in and put in the work it can. Thats why most of my teams had durant paired with u-turn hydreigon, because most of the stuff that hydreigon lures in (fairies, special walls) durant can come in safely with a u-turn and then set up on the expected switch out. Thats mainly how you have to use durant in general, setting up on expected switches like if they have out a togekiss or blissey, or on something like sd u-turn scizor. If you make the right plays, and can get durant on the field safely, the mon can potentially put in a lot of work and carves itself a small niche in the tier. I enjoyed using this mon a lot once I got out of low ladder and made a decent team.
Note: Might update my ladder ranking or the post in general.
Durant @ Fightinium Z
Ability: Hustle
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Hone Claws
- Iron Head
- Superpower
- Crunch
Durant @ Life Orb
Ability: Hustle
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Hone Claws
- Iron Head
- Superpower
- Thunder Fang / Crunch
Ability: Hustle
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Hone Claws
- Iron Head
- Superpower
- Crunch
Durant @ Life Orb
Ability: Hustle
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Hone Claws
- Iron Head
- Superpower
- Thunder Fang / Crunch
Life Orb Durant Set
The first set is the all out pummeling set that I noticed a lot of other people used to, I think this is its best set, but I'll talk about the life orb set first.
Life orb is the set I was initially drawn too, mostly because of its raw power and even has the potential to break stall. Life orb super power has a chance to 2hko quagsire after spikes or chip. However, I found that life orb reduced durant's longevity way too much, limiting its ability to continue to break down bulkier team. For example, you hone claw as your opponent switches to hippowdon. +1 Life orb iron head does not KO hippo, so you take 2 turns of LO recoil and 50% from eq, leaving you at ~30% hp (or less if rocks are up). This scenario comes up a lot, where durant dies to its own recoil before it can break through a team like it should on paper. This set could possibly be very good if it was paired with a healing wish user though.
Replay:The first time durant manages to do something other than being fodder
All out Pummeling Durant
Kevin (Durant) @ Fightinium Z
Ability: Hustle
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Hone Claws
- Iron Head
- Crunch
- Superpower
Altaria-Mega @ Altarianite
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 76 Def / 180 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Return
- Refresh
- Roost
Talonflame @ Flyinium Z
Ability: Gale Wings
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Brave Bird
- Flame Charge
- Flare Blitz / Taunt
Empoleon @ Leftovers
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 252 HP / 76 Def / 172 SpD / 8 Spe
Careful Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Stealth Rock
- Scald
- Toxic
- Protect
Rotom-Mow @ Iapapa Berry
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 76 HP / 180 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Volt Switch
- Leaf Storm
- Will-O-Wisp
- Defog
Westbrook (Hydreigon) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Dark Pulse
- Defog
- U-turn
Ability: Hustle
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Hone Claws
- Iron Head
- Crunch
- Superpower
Altaria-Mega @ Altarianite
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 76 Def / 180 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Return
- Refresh
- Roost
Talonflame @ Flyinium Z
Ability: Gale Wings
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Brave Bird
- Flame Charge
- Flare Blitz / Taunt
Empoleon @ Leftovers
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 252 HP / 76 Def / 172 SpD / 8 Spe
Careful Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Stealth Rock
- Scald
- Toxic
- Protect
Rotom-Mow @ Iapapa Berry
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 76 HP / 180 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Volt Switch
- Leaf Storm
- Will-O-Wisp
- Defog
Westbrook (Hydreigon) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Dark Pulse
- Defog
- U-turn
- 252 Atk Hustle Durant All-Out Pummeling (190 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Scizor: 274-323 (79.6 - 93.8%) -- 43.8% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
- 252 Atk Hustle Durant All-Out Pummeling (190 BP) vs. 236 HP / 0 Def Rotom-Heat: 259-305 (86.3 - 101.6%) -- 12.5% chance to OHKO
- +1 252 Atk Hustle Durant All-Out Pummeling (190 BP) vs. 248 HP / 8 Def Filter Aggron-Mega: 292-345 (85.1 - 100.5%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO
Conclusions:
I think Durant is kind of an underrated pick, as it can cause some serious damage under the right circumstances. Its great speed tier and even more amazing power lets it power through mons that would normally stop scizor cold, such as moltres, rotom-heat, non-scarf infernape, etc. However, durant's main shortcoming is its very limited opportunities to set up. If its special defense wasn't so horrendous, it could set up on a lot of the stuff scizor does, such as latias, draco meteor, fairy types, etc. But unfortunately durant finds itself 2hkoed by most of these special attacking moves (lati's devastating drake just OHKOs it straight up), leaving durant not many chances to switch in and put in the work it can. Thats why most of my teams had durant paired with u-turn hydreigon, because most of the stuff that hydreigon lures in (fairies, special walls) durant can come in safely with a u-turn and then set up on the expected switch out. Thats mainly how you have to use durant in general, setting up on expected switches like if they have out a togekiss or blissey, or on something like sd u-turn scizor. If you make the right plays, and can get durant on the field safely, the mon can potentially put in a lot of work and carves itself a small niche in the tier. I enjoyed using this mon a lot once I got out of low ladder and made a decent team.
Note: Might update my ladder ranking or the post in general.