It's start of another new year and I am pretty pumped to see what lies ahead! But of course, it doesn't mean that we are going out of commission just yet! In fact, we will try to soar higher this time! :D
WELCOME TO POKEMON BOOTCAMP!
Subject No. 18
Name: Salamence
Species: The Dragon Pokemon
Height: 4'11" (5'11" in Mega Form)
Weight: 226.2 lbs. (248.2 lbs. in Mega Form)
Type: Dragon, Flying
Possible Abilities: Intimidate, Moxie (Aerilate in Mega Form)
Smogon Tier: OU (Uber in Mega Form)
Insights: Salamence is known for its high Attack power and a massive array of physical attacks. However, there are some players (like I do) tend to play Salamence as a Special Attacker; spamming Hydro Pumps and Dragon Pulses every day of the week. So you might ask, if you know that Salamence has high physical damage output, why make Salamence something that's not even good at? Well, I really can't say that Salamence is a terrible physical damage dealer. Besides, Salamence is NOT the only one who can use Intimidate here, and an Intimidated Salamence is a lost cause. The 110 Special Attack stat is not all that bad, too. And now that ORAS is out, it can learn Hyper Voice, on if which combined with Mega Salamence's Aerilate will do decent damage.
Recommended Ability: Intimidate
Like I said a while ago, Salamence is not the only Intimidate user in this game. There are a variety of Pokemon that can also utilize Intimidate, and if they pitted it against Salamence, the Dragon Pokemon's offensive potential will wear down quickly like a rusty blade (not really, but you get the point). However, if you can use Intimidate while having a Special build on your dragon, that can mean some serious business. While you lower your opponent's Attack, you spam your attacks while tanking their hits (or if your opponent switches out, has the chance to miss their opportunity of slaying the dragon). It's just that BROKEN!
Recommended Moves:
1. Draco Meteor - Salamence's main special STAB move with a good amount of damage. However, the only main downside here is the recoil; reducing your Special Attack by two levels. The accuracy is manageable using the Wide Lens, but it sacrifices a lot of needed firepower.
2. Fire Blast - Salamence's main coverage move against those pesky Ice-types while also leaving your foes' burning. The accuracy for this move begs for a Wide Lens, but just like in Draco Meteor's case, you need to sacrifice your Mega Stone slot to do so.
3. Hyper Voice - one of Salamence's good special moves, dealing a good amount of damage to an enemy party. However, this move only shines when using on a Mega Salamence build; dealing additional damage and turning it to Flying-type.
4. Double-Edge - an excellent physical attack that can benefit Mega Salamence's use of Aerilate; making it a pseudo-Brave Bird Talonflame, without the Gale Wings. :P
5. Outrage - another good physical STAB attack. However, this will force Salamence to lock itself with one move, and it can be disastrous if your foe switches in a Fairy Pokemon.
Other recommended moves:
1. Dragon Pulse - a good substitute for Draco Meteor with perfect accuracy and no drawbacks, but with an even less firepower than Draco Meteor.
2. Flamethrower - in a similar vein to Dragon Pulse, but this time, it replaces Fire Blast on a similar degree. It has lower damage and burn chance than Fire Blast, but it has perfect accuracy.
3. Giga Impact - Mega Salamence uses a powerful desperation attack to deal massive damage to your foe, but it will force you to recharge. It can benefit from Aerilate really well, but stick to Double-Edge instead.
4. Hyper Beam - similar to Giga Impact, but goes down on the Special side. Only use this if you're sure that your foe will go down in one hit.
5. Dragon Claw - a substitute for Outrage. Well, that's it. Just a substitute. No additional effects whatsoever.
Recommended items:
1. Salamencite - the only reason you would want to use a Salamence in ORAS. It grants Salamence some needed boosts on its key stats; Attack and Speed. It also increases its Special Attack and defenses on a certain degree. This Mega Stone made Mega Salamence a monster in competitive play, and the reason why Smogon banned this freaking thing! (U mad, Smogon?)
2. Choice Scarf - this item boosts your Salamence's speed, but it will force you to stick to one move unless you switch out. My recommendation? Use it to someone else. Not because it's not viable for Salamence, but there are other better Scarfers out there (*cough*Garchomp*cough*)
3. Wide Lens - this can help Salamence a lot since most of its attacks have awful accuracy (provided that you followed the recommended moves above). It increases the accuracy of all of your moves by 10%. It may be not enough, but at least its better than having zero accuracy.
4. Choice Specs - if you want your special attacks to have that extra kick, use this. It will force you on one move, however, so be careful.
5. Life Orb - I am going to slap this in because this is an obvious choice if you are not taking the Mega route.
Recommended Natures: Naive or Jolly
Salamence must be purely emphasized on Speed; allowing it to outspeed even the most dangerous of Pokemon within its tier such as Dragon Dance Charizard X, Dragonite, and even Garchomp. The trade-off here, however, underlies within its not-so-good defenses. Practically the best way to go for Salamence is to destroy as much as you can, as fast as you can. It's not really worth boasting, but think about it, a Dragon Pokemon that can beat the crap out of other Pokemon can be very rewarding... sort of. Anyways, just max out the Speed IV's; no matter what the build you take.
Overall: Salamence is one of the stronger picks nowadays due to its balanced stats and a decent amount of moves, whether you run a physical or special build. The most interesting part in Salamence's viability is on how the Dragon Pokemon can dish out enormous amounts of damage while still being tanky enough to survive enough hits, despite its squishy stats. The bottom line? Salamence is a powerful Pokemon with an enormous amounts of potential, capable of standing the test of time.
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