BBL PoTW #7 Dragonite

[BadAssKoala]

BBL PoTW #7 Dragonite

It's Dragonite b***h! One of the premier physical attackers in B/W OU is back with a vengeance. So without further adieu lets see how to tame your dragonite.

In Depth Look

Dragonite
Type: Dragon/Flying
Abilities: Inner Focus, Multi Scale
Stats: 91/134/95/100/100/80

Sets

Choice Band

Dragonite@ Choice Band
Multi Scale
Adamant
252 Attk, 252 Spe, 4 HP

Outrage/Dragon Claw
Extreme Speed
Waterfall/Fire Punch
Earthquake/Superpower

This set is still fairly relevant in the X/Y OU meta. Extreme speed turns dragonit into an excellent revenge killer. Its next move can be outrage or dragon claw. Outrage is by far the more powerful move, but with fairies lurking around its not the best idea as it allows fairies to come in and set up most notably Azumaril and Mawile. Dragon claw is the weaker move but it is superior as it doesn't lock you into one move for up to three turns. Waterfall can be used in the next move slot to suprise your opponent and hit heatran hard, but fir punch hits the steel and ice types that threaten to scare it out. Finally earthquake or superpower can be used to further the offensive pressure on ice or steel types. While this set still holds up there are a few better sets to use.

Dragon Dance

Dragonite@ Lum Berry/Leftovers/Weakness Policy
Multi Scale
Adamant/Jolly
252 Attk, 4 SpD, 252 Spe

Dragon Dance
Outrage/Dragon Claw
Fire Punch
Earthquake/Extreme Speed/Roost

This is pretty mucch Dragonite's standard OU set. Use DDance to set up and proceed to sweep. Weakness policy can be used in conjunction with ddance to get some good first turn stat boosts. Lum berry and leftovers are also still viable options as they cure status on dnite or heal him back up to marvel scale range. Outrage still isn't the best move to slap on dragonite as it is walled by fairies. I would suggest Dragon Claw every time as it is very good with a few ddances and amazing with ddance plus weakness policy. fire punch is mandatory on this set to cover his ice and stell weakness that might hinder a sweep. Earthquake or e speed can be used to apply more offensive pressure but I like roost as it heals dnite and keeps in the fight longer.

Tank

Dragonite@ Life Orb/Leftovers
Multi Scale
Modest
252 HP, 252 SpA, 4 SpD

Draco Meteor
Fire Blast/Flamethrower
Thunder Wave
Roost

This set is pretty cool in that it can take a variety of roles for your team. It can be a wall breaker, paralysis spreader, or a offensive wall. Draco Meteor is there to surprise your opponent, and kill some unsuspecting dragons such as choice band or leftovers Dragonite. It can also hit some physical walls hard such as Skarmory, and Gliscor, paving the way for a physical attacker to sweep. Fire Blast hits steel types hard but flamethrower can be used with sun support. Roost keeps dragonite alive and in the fight.

Perfect Coverage

Dragonite@ Expert Belt
Multi Scale
Adamant
252 Attk, 252 Spe, 4 Def

Iron Tail
Superpower
Fire Punch
Dragon Claw

Dragonite is such a bamf that he can completely cover his weaknesses. Fire punch and superpower covers your ice weakness. Iron Tail for those pesky fairy types, and dragon claw for the other dragons. This set turns Dragonite into an unpredictable killer. Your opponent tries to switch Sylveon or Florges into your outrage and boom smacked with a iron tail.
Because of Dragonite's great attack stat he doesn't particularly need a boosting item. With a Expert Belt he'll be knocking out the competition.

As Dragonite much like many of its pseudo brothers is blessed with nearly infinite sets. These are all the sets I'm going to cover otherwise I'd be writing this all day. I really don't want to see comments about how I missed certain sets as Dragonite can run nearly any set. Notable sets I didn't mention include Rain Tank, Multiscale Shuffler, and Rain Sweeper
http://www.smogon.com/bw/pokemon/dragonite

Dragonite As A Team Player

Because of Dragonite's very impressive skill at filling almost any role he fits on almost any team. He can be a impressive Special or Physical sweeper. He can sweep on sun or rain teams. He can also stall with multi scale and roost. I'd recommend running him on a Hyper Offense, Bulky Offense, or semi stall team type. Really Dragonite is a pokemon who's a jack of all trades and works marvelously on any team. I'd highly recommend giving this gen 1 dragon a try.
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[AnybodyAgrees]

Weakness policy deserves mention, what with Multiscale allowing you to survive some SE hits.

 

[BadAssKoala]

Weakness policy somehow slipped my mind. I'll edit the OP.

 

[UB-01 Kenobi]

It should really be the first slash on the DDance set, which should be the first set in the analysis since it is Dragonite's current best set.

 

[BadAssKoala]

True, when I put down sets I don't put them in any particular order. Dragonite hardly has a best set set though. I'd say it's his most common X/Y OU set though. With a pokemon like Dragonite there's so many good ways to run him.

 

[TerraTF]

Dragonite is likely going to be running the same sets that it ran in Gen 5 seeing how it didn't get much in the shift. The only real difference I can think of is items. Besides the Weakness Policy mentioned earlier the only new item I can think of that Dragonite could benefit from would be an Assault Vest to help it last longer against Pokemon that like to run Ice Beam, Blizzard, Thunder, and *Insert long list of special Fairy moves here*. Safety Goggles would be a nice idea if you plan on running any of the sets in Sandstorm. For Doubles you could run it holding a Snowball with a partner it with Vaporeon and have Vaporeon hitting it Ice Beam to give it quick +1 Attack Boost. Not highly recommended but Assault Vest and Weakness Policy are definitely two of Dragonite's best new items.

 

[UB-01 Kenobi]

Dragonite lacks recovery or utility moves, making Assault Vest a pretty bad option tbh.

 

[TerraTF]

Dragonite lacks recovery or utility moves, making Assault Vest a pretty bad option tbh.

Yeah because Roost is not a recovery move

 

[BadAssKoala]

AV would actually be pretty awful on a Dragonite. Especially considering it's main draws are being a bulky physical attacker/hyper offensive physical attacker. Having a pokemon ice beam a WP Dragonite is an albeit gimmicky stratagy that has a fair chance to backfire but might be interesting. As for safety goggles why you'd run a Dragonite on a sand team is beyond me.

 

[UB-01 Kenobi]

Dragonite lacks recovery or utility moves, making Assault Vest a pretty bad option tbh.

Yeah because Roost is not a recovery move

Do you not understand what Assault Vest does?

 

[TerraTF]

Dragonite lacks recovery or utility moves, making Assault Vest a pretty bad option tbh.

Yeah because Roost is not a recovery move

Do you not understand what Assault Vest does?

Yes I do. No status moves. It would make 4 Attack LO Dragonite an easy Baton Pass target.

 

[UB-01 Kenobi]

Dragonite lacks recovery or utility moves, making Assault Vest a pretty bad option tbh.

Yeah because Roost is not a recovery move

Do you not understand what Assault Vest does?

Yes I do. No status moves. It would make 4 Attack LO Dragonite an easy Baton Pass target.

I said that Assualt Vest would be bad on Dragonite because it lacks recovery, you responded by saying that it has Roost. You do realize that Roost is a status move, right?

 

[TerraTF]

Yes and you realize the point of 4 Attack LO Dragonite is to hit as many Pokemon as hard as possible correct?

Assault Vest is just as gimmicky as Weakness Point with Weakness Point being even more gimmicky.

 

[UB-01 Kenobi]

Weakness Policy is Dragonite's best set and is not really gimmicky at all. Meanwhile Assault Vest is just... bad. Why would you even do that? Life Orb Dragonite is a waste of Multiscale tbh and anyways +3 Extreme Speed (240 Base Power per turn + it's priority) or Earthquake (250 BP/Turn) hits Fairies much more reliably than a SE Iron Tail (200 BP/Turn, and it's also only got 75% acc). And then for literally everything besides Fairies... +3 Dragon Claw is 300 BP/turn and +3 Outrage is 450. Meanwhile a 4x SE Superpower only hits 480 and it drops your Attack and Defense.

 

[TerraTF]

Weakness Policy is also only ever pulled off if someone uses an Ice, Dragon, or Fairy type move against Dragonite. That means that Weakness Policy is not even Dragonite's best set unless you're switching into a Vaporeon and hoping you won't get burned from Scald. Overall Assault Vest is a much better option due to extra protection from Ice Beam and various Fairy typed moves. And if the Assault Vest Dragonite is played correctly after being Baton Passed to from a +2 Atk, +2 SpA, and +2 Spe Gorrebyss than it is clearly much better. Weakness Policy also relies on getting Dragonite out, surviving 2 Super Effective moves and getting off a Dragon Dance in order to even get to +3. Surviving 2 SE moves doesn't even get added benefits due to Weakness Policy being a once time use item. Not to mention that Stealth Rocks already has a Weakness Policy Multiscale Dragonite ready to die if its up against a Starmie.

That means that Leftovers and CB are Dragonite's best sets, meaning that its best sets from Gen 5 still hold up in Gen 6.

 

[UB-01 Kenobi]

Weakness Policy is also only ever pulled off if someone uses an Ice, Dragon, or Fairy type move against Dragonite. That means that Weakness Policy is not even Dragonite's best set unless you're switching into a Vaporeon and hoping you won't get burned from Scald. Overall Assault Vest is a much better option due to extra protection from Ice Beam and various Fairy typed moves. And if the Assault Vest Dragonite is played correctly after being Baton Passed to from a +2 Atk, +2 SpA, and +2 Spe Gorrebyss than it is clearly much better. Weakness Policy also relies on getting Dragonite out, surviving 2 Super Effective moves and getting off a Dragon Dance in order to even get to +3. Surviving 2 SE moves doesn't even get added benefits due to Weakness Policy being a once time use item. Not to mention that Stealth Rocks already has a Weakness Policy Multiscale Dragonite ready to die if its up against a Starmie.

That means that Leftovers and CB are Dragonite's best sets, meaning that its best sets from Gen 5 still hold up in Gen 6.

You forgot Rock. Also, a Chatot could sweep an Ubers team if it got SmashPassed so that argument is pretty much irrelevant. Besides, it necessitates using Gorebyss and honestly why would you want to use a Gorebyss when you could use a Scokipede with Speed Boost, Sub/Protect, and swords Dance and get the same effect as well as not having a useless piece of shit on your team. Also, re Assault Vest being shitty on Dragonite: You can't DDance to boost your Speed, so everybody and their mother will be smacking you with Ice Beams all over the place. You can't Roost to restore your Scale after SR, so all those Ice Beams will be OHKOes. Also AV does not give you any meaningful longevity like you claim. MAbomasnow's Blizzard, for instance, does up to 98% through both Multiscale and Assault Vest. Specs Greninja has a chance to OHKO through the same. Choice Band Azumarill has a chance to OHKO. Etcetera etcetera. So which would you prefer? Being 2HKOed by every Fairy and Ice and Rock and Dragon type in existence as you do pitiful damage back with your unboosted STABs, or being 2HKOed by the same but suddenly jumping to +3 Atk/+1 Speed in that turn and then sweeping the opponent's team?

 

[TerraTF]

I take it you've never used a Gorrebyss before. Not only is it one of the better SmashPassers, it also can hold its own in a fight with Scald and Ice Beam. Now I've never used a Scolipede so I won't talk shit on it but Speed Boost, Protect, Sub, Swords Dance is as old as competitive battling itself. Ninjask was one of the first Pokemon I ever used in competitive battling and it had that exact set. Now I know that Scolipede isn't as frail as Ninjask but you just assuming that someone would send out an Assault Vest anything is just asinine.

 

[BadAssKoala]

I do find it funny that you loop back to saying CB and lefties are the best as I'd established that in the OP. As PoTW is about one pokemon I'd like for us to keep on topic about that one pokemon. Thanks! By the way for something to be as old as the meta itself would mean it would have had to been around that long. Speed boost has existed since gen 3 not gen 1.

 

[TerraTF]

I do find it funny that you loop back to saying CB and lefties are the best as I'd established that in the OP. As PoTW is about one pokemon I'd like for us to keep on topic about that one pokemon. Thanks! By the way for something to be as old as the meta itself would mean it would have had to been around that long. Speed boost has existed since gen 3 not gen 1.

We were just simply discussing potential partners for Dragonite. Gorrebyss and Scolipede seem to be great partners for Dragonite.

 

[UB-01 Kenobi]

I do find it funny that you loop back to saying CB and lefties are the best as I'd established that in the OP. As PoTW is about one pokemon I'd like for us to keep on topic about that one pokemon. Thanks! By the way for something to be as old as the meta itself would mean it would have had to been around that long. Speed boost has existed since gen 3 not gen 1.

We were just simply discussing potential partners for Dragonite. Gorrebyss and Scolipede seem to be great partners for Dragonite.

Gorebyss is not a good partner for anything. Dragonite can boost to +3/+1 on his own in a single turn, and Gorebyss couldn't get a SmashPass off against a competent player ever. It would be brought down to the red or it's Focus Sash when it set up the SS and then killed by whatever priority you've got before it could BP.