Nidoking (Pure Special Attacker)

[muna]

Original Analysis: http://www.smogon.com/dp/pokemon/nidoking

[SET]
name: Special Attacker
move 1: Earth Power
move 2: Thunderbolt
move 3: Ice Beam
move 4: Fire Blast
item: Expert Belt / Life Orb
ability: Poison Point
nature: Timid
evs: 6 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe

[[SET COMMENTS]

<p>Nidoking's excellent special movepool and respectable Special Attack stat make it an efficient special attacker in UU. With a special movepool that can hit 12 of the 17 types for super effective damage, it is no surprise that Special Nidoking is an immediate threat. Earth Power supplies you with a powerful STAB move. Thunderbolt and Ice Beam work in tandem to take down any Grass- or Flying-type Pokemon who Earth Power has trouble with. Fire Blast lets you hit pure Ice- and Bug-types super effectively. Being able to hit 12 types for super effective damage makes the Expert Belt a good item for this set. However, if your team struggles with the 5 types that are not hit for super effective damage by this set, then you can go with the Life Orb which provides more power on all of your moves at the expense of durability.</p>

[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]

<p>Nidoking has very mediocre stats so you must make sure to use its excellent movepool to its advantage. Maxing out Special Attack is needed to capitalize on the great movepool. The rest of your EVs should be poured into Speed with a Timid nature so that you can outspeed +Speed Blaziken, Kabutops, Mesprit, Altaria, Venasaur, Milotic, and Drifblim, all of whom you would fail to outspeed with a Modest nature.</p>

<p>Special Nidoking also serves a role on dedicated sandstorm teams. It is one of the few Ground Pokemon who can utilize Special Attacks effectively. It is also, along with Nidoqueen, the only Pokemon who can absorb Toxic Spikes and is immune to sandstorm damage which can tear apart the bulkier sandstorm teams.</p>

<p>With great coverage comes great responsibility. With this set relying on super effective hits, you must be able to out-predict your opponent. Nidoking rarely runs Fire Blast, so if you can manage to keep that move hidden and lure a Grass- or Bug-type in, then you should be able to pull off a suprise KO. Do not settle for neutral hits with Nidoking as his power can be often disappointing. If you cannot hit an opponent super effectively, you will usually be better off trying to switch rather than trying to leave a dent in your opponent.</p>

 

[gvmgvm40]

[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]As with all choice sets, prediction is key. If the opponent outpredicts you and brings in a flying type on your Earth Power, then you just gave the opponent a free turn. Therefore it is recommended that you use this Nidoking later in the game once you have an understanding of the opponent's team so you can outpredict them.

then you should find it very easy

 

[Heysup]

What does this set accomplish that a Life Orb set would not? Unless you get any KOes, the ability to switch attacks is far more important than the .2 damage difference and lack of recoil.

Not that it isn't viable, I just don't see how/why anyone would use Specs over Special Life Orb in this metagame.

 

[muna]

Thank you very much. I am correcting those now.

What does this set accomplish that a Life Orb set would not? Unless you get any KOes, the ability to switch attacks is far more important than the .2 damage difference and lack of recoil.

Not that it isn't viable, I just don't see how/why anyone would use Specs over Special Life Orb in this metagame.

It has two advantages over the Life Orb set. Firstly, with all of the common entry hazards, Life Orb recoil is something that can really take it's toll on Nidoking. By removing this recoil, Nidoking has much more survivability. Secondly, that extra 20% power can be very crucial. I know that I basically restated what you just said, but those are two great advantages. I will add some damage calculations to the analysis now too to prove why it would be worth it to use Specs instead of a Life Orb.

 

[locopoke]

Thank you very much. I am correcting those now.



It has two advantages over the Life Orb set. Firstly, with all of the common entry hazards, Life Orb recoil is something that can really take it's toll on Nidoking. By removing this recoil, Nidoking has much more survivability. Secondly, that extra 20% power can be very crucial. I know that I basically restated what you just said, but those are two great advantages. I will add some damage calculations to the analysis now too to prove why it would be worth it to use Specs instead of a Life Orb.

I'm going to have to disagree with you. Yes, entry hazards are extremely common in UU, but Choice Specs will force Nidoking to switch out more often than he should, which means that the entry hazards will take more of a toll on him than if he had Life Orb. Life Orb gives Nidoking good coverage so that he doesn't need to switch as often. Your opponent will have an easy time avoiding Nidoking's attacks once they figure out that he has Choice Specs, 3/4 of his attacks are types that Pokemon are commonly immune to.

 

[muna]

I'm going to have to disagree with you. Yes, entry hazards are extremely common in UU, but Choice Specs will force Nidoking to switch out more often than he should, which means that the entry hazards will take more of a toll on him than if he had Life Orb. Life Orb gives Nidoking good coverage so that he doesn't need to switch as often. Your opponent will have an easy time avoiding Nidoking's attacks once they figure out that he has Choice Specs, 3/4 of his attacks are types that Pokemon are commonly immune to.

You do have a point about entry hazards. Overall though, it is hard to deny that a Pokemon with a Choice Item won't last as many turns as one with a Life Orb.

 

[Heysup]

Thank you very much. I am correcting those now.



It has two advantages over the Life Orb set. Firstly, with all of the common entry hazards, Life Orb recoil is something that can really take it's toll on Nidoking. By removing this recoil, Nidoking has much more survivability. Secondly, that extra 20% power can be very crucial. I know that I basically restated what you just said, but those are two great advantages. I will add some damage calculations to the analysis now too to prove why it would be worth it to use Specs instead of a Life Orb.

The point is that those advantages are irrelevant unless they actually do something concrete. And why would you bring entry hazards up as an advantage for any Choice set? Choice sets need to switch out. The reason that Life Orb is so much better than Choice Specs on a frail Pokemon is because it allows it to stay in and not take entry hazard damage, which can be 6.25-31.25 damage a pop. I'm leaning towards the latter with all of the current Spikestacking teams in the tier.

So unless you can show that the lack of Life Orb recoil / the 20% damage actually make a difference, I feel this set should just carry Life Orb. This also allows Nidoking to run Superpower or something to deal with Chansey.

 

[WECAMEASROMANS]

I honestly do not see this set working in the UU metagame. First of all, there are so much more special attackers in UU that can hit way harder than Nidoking. Second, this set doesn't have enough power to be used as a specs set. Since it has fantastic coverage though, I would replace the item Choice Specs with Expert Belt.

 

[Cherub Agent]

in the bit where you wrote about him fighting steelix, you wrote neber instead of never

However, i think expert belt would make more sense on this set, since it has excellent type coverage

 

[muna]

I am changing up the set completely. I am going to remove the specs and make it a pure special attacker.

Edit: I changed the set, but the title still reads "Choice Specs". Could a moderator please change that?

 

[Heysup]

Alright, the only thing that I think is missing is Superpower as a slash with Fire Blast. Does Fire Blast hit anything worthwhile anyway?

 

[Fuzznip]

Alright, the only thing that I think is missing is Superpower as a slash with Fire Blast. Does Fire Blast hit anything worthwhile anyway?

If you're going to be slashing Superpower in this set, you've just created a secondary Mixed Attacker (UU) set, which is already on-site. The moveset looks like this:

~Earth Power
~Thunderbolt
~Ice Beam
~Superpower / Hidden Power Grass

So really, we already have a good enough mixed Nidoking set, except Fire Blast is not in the moveset (you can just add a slash if it really needs to be there). There's probably no need for this one, unless you choose to use an all-out special attacking set or you have some whack EV spread/nature.

 

[Heysup]

I know that Fuzz (I did write it), but I don't see any problem with an update (basically merging SpAttacker with the special "mixed" variant).

 

[muna]

As for the last moveslot, what notable advantage does HP Grass have over Fire Blast. It doesn't allow you to hit any extra types for super-effective damage. The only 2 Pokemon allowed in UU play which are 4x weak to grass, Gastrodon and Quagsire have both gone down in usage. If I am missing something, then please tell me and I will add it. It might be how UU isn't my main tier, but I don't see the use in today's UU metagame for HP Grass.

Also, if/when this does go on the site, I think that HP Grass should be removed from the mixed attacker (UU) set as it would just make it a copy of this set with slightly worse EVs.

 

[Snorlaxe]

[SET]
name: Special Attacker
move 1: Earth Power
move 2: Thunderbolt
move 3: Ice Beam
move 4: Fire Blast
item: Expert Belt / Life Orb
ability: Poison Point
nature: Timid
evs: 6 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]

<p>Nidoking's excellent special movepool and respectable Special Attack stat make it an efficient special attacker in UU. With a special movepool that can hit 12 of the 17 types for super effective damage, it is no surprise that Special Nidoking is an immediate threat. Earth Power supplies you with a powerful STAB move. Thunderbolt and Ice Beam work in tandem to take down any Grass- or Flying-type Pokemon who Earth Power has trouble with. Fire Blast lets you hit pure Ice- and Bug-types super effectively. Being able to hit 12 types for super effective damage makes the Expert Belt a good item for this set. However, if your team struggles with the 5 types that are not hit for super effective damage by this set, then you can go with the Life Orb which provides more power on all of your moves at the expense of durability.</p>

[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]

<p>Nidoking has very mediocre stats so you must make sure to use its excellent movepool to its advantage. Maxing out Special Attack is needed to capitalize on the great movepool. The rest of your EVs should be poured into Speed with a Timid nature so that you can outspeed +Speed Blaziken, Kabutops, Mesprit, Altaria, Venasaur, Milotic, and Drifblim, all of whom you would fail to outspeed with a Modest nature.</p>

<p>Special Nidoking also serves a role on dedicated sandstorm teams. It is one of the few Ground Pokemon who can utilize Special Attacks effectively. It is also, along with Nidoqueen, the only Pokemon who can absorb Toxic Spikes and is immune to sandstorm damage which can tear apart the bulkier sandstorm teams.</p>

<p>With great coverage comes great responsibility. With this set relying on super effective hits, you must be able to out-predict your opponent. Nidoking rarely runs Fire Blast, so if you can manage to keep that move hidden and lure a Grass- or Bug-type in, then you should be able to pull off a suprise KO. Do not settle for neutral hits with Nidoking as his power can be often disappointing. If you cannot hit an opponent super effectively, you will usually be better off trying to switch rather than trying to leave a dent in your opponent.</p>

Good job, a lot of simple grammatical mistakes, but the set itself looks good.

 

[whistle]

there's an essentially identical set in the nidoking revamp so i'm going to lock this to keep everything cleaner; feel free to post comments in that thread.