Since Manaphy is coming down to OU, I wonder how it will affect the use of RD teams. Will its ability promote it, or would its typing and bulk dissuade people from trying an RD team?
Honestly, when Manaphy comes down, if it comes down, I don't expect much of it. There will be a huge spike in Rain Dance teams as soon as it comes down, but after that not much. If I were to use a Rain Dance team, even when Manaphy is OU, I wouldn't use Manaphy simply because the ability doesn't promote Heavy Offense as much as Swift Swim or the other Rain Dance Sweepers. Sweepers such as Ludicolo, Kingdra, Qwilfish, and Kabutops are used because in the Rain they outspeed the majority of things, and they can hit hard as heck. Manaphy doesn't have the ability to outspeed to much in the Rain, and what you put in Speed loses you in Bulk and Power, and the only thing setting it off from normal Rain Dance sweepers is the fact that it has bulk, but if you need to put EV's in speed to make up for its ability, it kind of defeats the point.Since Manaphy is coming down to OU, I wonder how it will affect the use of RD teams. Will its ability promote it, or would its typing and bulk dissuade people from trying an RD team?
Feraligatr often creates an unfavorable position. Salamence, Latias, Gyarados, Rotom-A, and many more can easily switch into Aqua Jet and threaten with one of their moves. With DS it could be could(and Lum berry) but Waterfall is too good of a STAB move to pass up, so you are only left with 1-2 moves(SD, Waterfall, Aqua Jet/?, ?).Yes, Manaphy can set up on stuff it normally can't set up on with DS. Subglow will probably be the most common on DS teams. I've used it in place of Suicune when it was on the ladder, and I must say, the extra offense and ability to beat some walls like Swampert and Skarmory whom I had trouble with earlier was welcomed, but I lost a TON of that defense Suicune provides. It just isn't as bulky as Suicune, not to say it isn't bulky.
Just wondering. How viable of a candidate do you guys think feraligatr will be on HO with access to priority? It severely weakens those counters to Lucario and Scizor, too. Maybe boosted priority HO?
Well it would need a Lum Berry, as I was actually thinking of Will-o-Wisp. I think Feraligatr could get 1 kill, maybe 2, simply because Return doesn't hit things like Salamence or Gyarados hard enough at +1.Return gives perfect neutral coverage which is the set I meant to communicate to you guys. Sorry about that....It seems able to do lots, especially after surviving a super effective attack and then run rampant with torrent thanks to DS. Also, Rotom can't switch into an Adamant SD boosted aqua jet. It takes lots of damage, and after surviving the thunderbolt thanks to DS it'll take more due to torrent.
Basically, I'm seeing this as a way to make nearly everything faster useless with priority of different types, and then powerful moves to take out stall. It seems like it can work.
Err, I hope no one tried it as I listed it. The reason was that I made a typo. You need to invest Jolly and 170 Speed EVs, not 166. 170 ensures you beat Timid Latias by one point after two Dragon Dances. I found on my team that it was solid simply because of the current state of the metagame. Rotom-A and Latias are the accepted Gyarados checks, so it works. If Celebi and Vaporeon were still the common Gyara counters, it would fail.Speaking of which, has anyone tried that Wacan Gyarados set?
Bronzong is a lead of the past that has lost its prime due to Suicide leads shutting him down and Infernape/Heatran dealing a huge dent to our iron bell's health. If you plan on using Bronzong to support your HO team, it's far better off in a different position other than lead. Leads for HO teams should be able to set up a favorable situation without getting shut down easlily or destroying your opponent's team from the get-go.Has anyone tried a lead such as a Bronzong that may be able to set up screens twice in one battle, whereas Azelf is only useful once?
Although Bronzong is one of the slower pokemon available and will definetley not be starting the offensive power, could a poke like him or similar to him be viable as a lead for heavy offense?
ReyScarface has also gotten to #1 with a HO team, and several people have gotten into the top 10 with it. 1338 peaked at #7 (with a team that wasn't even his) and didn't use any alts to do so.The only HO team I have seen at the top of the leaderboard is Stathakis'
A faster taunt hurts any strategy, including stall. I fail to see how this matters. In fact, Azelf is only slower than Aero as far as taunt leads go. Also, it in no way cripples your strategy. You simply bring Azelf back in later.How good can something be if a faster Taunt lead cripples your entire strategy?
There is no high reliance on luck. Your opponent either can handle your team or they can't, just like your opponent either has the one weakness to your stall team or they don't. Also, don't act like stall isn't completely predictable. The format for stall is incredibly rigid. You have pert/gliscor/hippo, forry/skarm/roserade, tentacruel/latias, Cursetar/Blissey, Rotom, and filler.The high reliance on luck to achieve success, and the predictability of Heavy Offense make it an inferior playstyle.
It is unfair to generalize here. Good HO players can beat stall consistently, and bad players can't. That is true of any team style. If you are more skilled than the opponent, you deserve the win. The fact is that most people that play HO aren't very good, which means what and how they play doesn't truly reflect what a good HO team is/plays. I'm glad to hear that you are skilled enough to beat average players playing a mediocre HO team. Way to go! You certainly don't go so far as to call bulky offense bad because of all of the people who suck that use it. It has been said in this thread multiple times that bulky offense is probably the best matchup, and is currently the most popular team style. HO is fun, and also a sort of metagame choice. A good team is a good team, regardless of what strategy it employs.I would like to clarify that it does not beat stall. I have never had any issues against HO when using stall, phazing / intimidate shuffling ruined Heavy Offense, especially since it is so easy to predict the moves of the opponent.
I wanted this thread to die a while ago ~_~Wow this thread has not died yet.
I truly do not understand why Heavy Offense is getting all this attention. To be blunt, it is not good.
to be fair, with special ho it only took me one alt (in fact, assuming I would ruin it, I used one that I didn't care about!), but I ruined a shitton of em with physical ho during the same ladder run, and the only reason I even got to #1 was because of repeated games with good team matchup against 1650+ guys. that said, it still did take me only 1 alt and like 3 hours with that one good team, and some of the luck my opponents got would shock you.The only HO team I have seen at the top of the leaderboard is Stathakis'; even then, how many ruined alts do you think it took for him to finally streak his way to number 1?
with special offense, on my suspect run, I actually lost every single manaphy speed tie and didn't have a problem. with physical offense, when facing faster taunt leads I usually sac an intimidator to get rid of it and do some scouting, then bring azelf back in as if the game had just started. oftentimes, the extra scouting allows me to make better use of screens and makes the matchup more favourable than the beginning of a generic battle! azelf vs azelf in mirror matches sucks though because there's no conceivable way of winning if your opponent has half a brain =/There were likely multiple battles that were decided on speed ties. How good can something be if a faster Taunt lead cripples your entire strategy? Think about all the Azelf vs Azelf speed ties that decide the battle then and there!
actually, the fact that there are usually so many win conditions means that ho can win despite shitloads of luck, because all it takes is one pokemon left to sweep the entire team.The high reliance on luck to achieve success, and the predictability of Heavy Offense make it an inferior playstyle.
I disagree here. the concepts of overloading and removing the guard are things you know about from chess, and as such you should also understand how easy it is to take on an overloaded opponent when your team actually has good offensive synergy (i.e. can overload the opponent). the whole premise of ho is to give stall a bad matchupContrary to the OP, I would like to clarify that it does not beat stall. I have never had any issues against HO when using stall, phazing / intimidate shuffling ruined Heavy Offense, especially since it is so easy to predict the moves of the opponent.
I disagree here too. I have played against ipl plenty of times using ho vs. stall, and even though he's a better player than me, I win those games every time, while his team is notorious for not giving free turns to the opponent, using things like payback forry, coverage pert, paralysis, etc. I think it might take a player with half a brain to pilot ho against a good stall player, but in the end one fact remains. good stall teams have to try and cover everything with 6 pokemon. this means they will probably not dedicate more than one or two guys to beat the same threat. if they fight 5 pokemon that are the same threat, it makes sense that 2 or 3 pokemon will lose to 5, even if they are counters. that's just how offensive 4th/5th gen pkmn is by nature. if your opponent is smart, they will play to weaken your counter before trying to sweep, which will, 99% of the time, be enough to break through stall.Ultimately, a good player can easily dismantle Heavy Offense by making smart switchs and not being stupid enough to let the opponent have free turns for set up.
yeah, it's not that good, and yeah, I've stopped playing it, but I think you're exaggerating a little bit in generalThe lack of successful HO teams should be testament enough to prove it's horridness. People would be smart to abandon this inferior playstyle.