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"What can it do that SDLuke can't?"
- Thread starter Lee
- Start date
Zapdos, Gyarados, Rotoms, Slowbro and Starmie do. :\
Flash Cannon is also quite troublesome if your opponent turns out to have SpecsLuke's worst enemy; Magnezone. Not that Psychic does much better, but at least it always breaks 172/0 Magnezone's subs (25-29%).
You're right though I guess, there certainly isn't much to seperate Flash Cannon and Psychic in terms of usefulness. Psychic allows you to hit 13/17 types as opposed to 11 (and 2HKOs Gyara), whereas Flash Cannon makes life a little bit easier when you find yourself in a tricky situation like I mentioned on the last page (and 2HKO's Spiritomb). At the end of the day though, I imagine 90% of people would use Vacuum Wave over both of them.
Expert Belt Lucario Close Combat w/ 4 Atk EVs vs. 80 HP/252 Def Blissey = 100.00% - 117.73%
All it takes is those 4 EVs that don't usually matter, and the standard Blissey will OHKOed with a guarantee slapped on it. Heh, no excess damage is needed. :]
But running two fighting moves tends to hit a lot of stuff neutral from both sides of the spectrum and not much super-effective. If I'm going to bluff being a Specs Luke, I do run Expert Belt with 4 special moves.
For example, LO is required to 2HKO stuff like Hippowdon, Swampert, and Metagross, since I run Hasty/Naive and not Rash/Mild.
For example, LO is required to 2HKO stuff like Hippowdon, Swampert, and Metagross, since I run Hasty/Naive and not Rash/Mild.
im more concerned about the fact that despite SpecsLuke does hit common Luke counters hard, it is possible (and for some frequent) that multiple such counters exist. For example, we won't be surprised to see both gyarados and forretress on the same team. since only aura sphere covers both for potential OHKO or 2HKO (and for gyarados it might need a 3KO), it somehow leaves a dangerous gap for things like celebi to come in and set up. the presence of ghosts proves to be a problem too.
Did you even read the OP, Rovok?
I agree. One attack gives away SpecsLuke, and its common for the Lucario swap in to not take much damage. This gives away the surprise of Specs. LO recoil means little due to 4x SR resist. SpecSLuke then gets beaten by prediction, as with all choice users, he doesn't have hard hitting moves (best is Aura Sphere, which is decent, but can be walled by the common Rotom, and Dark Pulse is much more easily walled).
SD Lucario is more frightening due to SD boost, Close Combat's 120 bp, and the ability to swap attacks, meaning more than prediction is needed to counter Lucario.
However, I suspect SD Lucario will drop in popularity because one of his biggest selling points was a hard hitting priority move. That role has largely been taken over by Scizor. SpecsLuke can make a comeback to combat some of Scizor's weaknesses, but there is no way he's getting past Gyara.
Oh, and Vacuum Wave > Psychic > Flash Cannon. Priotity moves are more important due to more Scarfers and priority moves. Flash Cannon has crap type coverage, and is almost always inferior to his other moves. Psychic hits Tentacruel, Heracross, Breloom and other Fighting and Poison Pokemon, but Vacuum Wave is usually better unless you have enough speed on your team.