No WoW, really? Come on GF. Reliable recovery and at least some ability to work off a common weakness makes it marginally useful as a spinblocker, but without WoW, this is a missed opportunity for interesting play options against physical Waters, More than anything else, no WoW kills this any chance of this being viable at high levels of play. Golurk also looked cool on paper with scary offensive prowess but ended up failing to make a splash.
I mean, I think this thing will be cool on doubles sand teams; obviously NU or RU doubles teams, but I think UU doubles is possible, so there might be your higher level of play. But you're right; Will-o-wisp would've made Palossand a very apt defensive wall, and without it Palossand's effectiveness at, and what it can, reliably defensively wall is narrowed. Although it's true the attack-split was burn's main role,
zferolie is also right that the decreased chip damage wouldn't've worked in Palossand's favor either way.
Can I ask what the Toxic nerf might be?
Will-o-wisp doesn't truly make sense on this pokemon so I guess I wasn't really expecting it. It's weird though, how Froslass gets Will-o-wisp this generation
but not this...
I think the move tutors in the next games might teach Will-o-wisp though ;)
They basically killed him when when they made Water Compaction not give him a Water immunity.
The lack of Will-o-wisp is just beating a dead horse.
Wait, he doesn't get Shadow Sneak either. A complete joke.
"Killed" is way too strong of a word lol. It's not like Palossand needs a water immunity to function at all; Hippowdown operates well as a defensive Ground type, and Palossand has arguably a better defensive typing and better recovery, although with less bulk. Palossand also has nice coverage options and spinblocking capabilities. And Palossand works well with allies like Gigalith, Mega Steelix, and Tyranitar, that all need somebody to eat Fighting moves/can eat Knock Offs.
I feel like this Pokémon has a lot of potential. It has a great offensive typing, a good Special Attack, decent bulk, and two forms of recovery in Giga Drain and Shore Up. 35 Speed is a problem, but its bulk is enough to tank most hits, so it isn't rendered useless.
Here's an experimental set I came up with:
Palossand @Assault Vest
Ability: Water Compaction
EVs: 252 Def / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Modest Nature
-Shadow Ball
-Earth Power
-Giga Drain
-Sludge Bomb
Shadow Ball and Earth Power for STAB, Giga Drain for recovery, Sludge Bomb to hit Azumarill hard (you shouldn't be staying in against Azumarill at all, but if you're crazy enough to do so, this is an option). Assault Vest patches up its lower Special Defense. It's rekt by Azumarill no matter what you do with it, but with the given EV's you could possibly switch in on the Choice Band set if it's locked into Aqua Jet and get a free +1 in Defense, which could let you take another Aqua Jet and hit back with Sludge Bomb or Giga Drain.
252+ Atk Choice Band Huge Power Azumarill Aqua Jet vs. 0 HP / 252 Def Palossand: 176-210 (56.5 - 67.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Huge Power Azumarill Aqua Jet vs. +1 0 HP / 252 Def Golurk: 116-140 (37.2 - 45%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
(NOTE: This is a possibility, not a suggestion. Even with the Defense boost Azumarill is likely to kill you next turn.)
Thoughts on this set?
Assault Vest Palossand sounds like a fun idea, and I hadn't even really considered it. In Singles I might change the 252 Def stats for HP just so Palossand can truly eat special attacks and switch into as many as possible (which is going to be necessary given that this set doesn't have recovery).
I don't Palossand is going to end up in the same tier as Azumarill in singles, but these calcs are important to consider in doubles, where it's likely Palossand and Azumarill will interact more. I might run something other than Assault Vest, and run Protect, to deal with Azumarill and the like.
If I did run Assault Vest in doules though, I'd definitely run Sand Veil over Water Compaction, since Palossand isn't going to be living water hits super well anyway and in a sandstorm Palossand would rather try its luck missing them entirely. The coverage you have looks good; not a lot is hard walling Palossand, as a bulky tank it can chip away from pokemon on the field.
Also, Water Compaction is +2 per water hit though, so your calcs are a little off ;)
The actual ones would be:
252+ Atk Choice Band Huge Power Azumarill Aqua Jet vs. 0 HP / 252 Def Palossand: 176-210 (56.5 - 67.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Huge Power Azumarill Aqua Jet vs. +2 0 HP / 252 Def Palossand: 90-108 (28.9 - 34.7%) -- 2.9% chance to 3HKO
you're hitting back:
252+ SpA Palossand Sludge Bomb vs. 172 HP / 0 SpD Azumarill: 216-256 (56.2 - 66.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
also, belly drum pre-boost:
252+ Atk Huge Power Azumarill Aqua Jet vs. 0 HP / 252 Palossand: 116-140 (37.2 - 45%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
post-boost:
+6 252+ Atk Huge Power Azumarill Aqua Jet vs. +2 0 HP / 252 Def Palossand: 236-278 (75.8 - 89.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO