Feraligatr Discussion Thread

[KillerDraco]

Stats: 85 HP / 105 Attack / 100 Defense / 79 Special Attack / 83 Special Defense / 78 Speed​

Abilities:
Torrent: When HP is below 1/3rd its maximum, power of Water-type moves is increased by 50%.
Hidden Ability:
Sheer Force: Moves with a secondary effect are increased in power by 33% but lose their secondary effect.

Noteworthy Moves:

Spoiler: Noteworthy Moves

*Bold = STAB, Underline = Sheer Force boosted

Waterfall
Aqua Jet
Ice Punch
Crunch
Earthquake
Return
Iron Tail
Rock Slide
Superpower
Low Kick
Swords Dance
Dragon Dance

Arguably the most popular of the Johto starters, Feraligatr has never quite been as good as its popularity might’ve suggested. Despite a great movepool full of good coverage and two great boosting moves, in addition to decent bulk, underwhelming attack and speed stats have long since caused it to live in the shadows of the mighty Gyarados. As a result, Feraligatr fell all the way to NU, where admittedly it is one of the best Pokemon in the tier. Gen 5’s advent of Hidden Abilities did tease Feraligatr with a great ability in Sheer Force, but due to not being released it’s never been legal… until now. With the announcement of Johto starters with their HA’s being released, there is a lot of buzz about Sheer Force Feraligatr, and for good reason. With attacks like Waterfall, Crunch, and Ice Punch, Feraligatr has no shortage of attacks to take advantage of Sheer Force, which in turn also lets it abuse recoil-free Life Orb. It’s got a decent amount of sets it can run as a result, ranging from a 4-attack wallbreaking set, a Swords Dance set to hit ridiculously hard, or even sweeping with Dragon Dance. Without a doubt, Feraligatr is the Johto starter who most benefits from its HA, so expect it to make a splash (gratuitous pun intended).

Discuss pros and cons, sets it can run, potential teammates, checks and counters, how it’ll fare with its new hidden ability, and basically anything pertaining to Feraligatr. First most may be updated with links to good posts.

 

[Mye]

With all the fast threats in OU and other water types, I would be surprised to see people run anything but ddance/3 moves on it. Swords dance may seem tempting, until you look at that 78 speed and the fact that tons of dangerous things in OU (like the newly-brought up serperior) can outspeed and threaten to k/o it. A 4-attack set may also seem tempting, until you look at those coverage moves and the fact that only 2 of them are really all that useful (superpower for water-resistant steels and ice punch for dragons). On the off chance people start rapidly using it in OU, I would be thoroughly surprised to see them running anything but this:

Feraligatr @ Life Orb (Sheer Force)
Jolly, 252Atk/252Speed/4SpDef
-Waterfall
-Ice Punch
-Superpower
-Dragon Dance/Aqua Jet

 

[QWARTEN]

I still belive a scarfed set would work the best, it drops the insane LO damage but that damage might never come to use otherwise. That would have some decent synergy with Superpower aswell. Iron Tail would make it a really good fairy counter, but the accuracy is questionable. Wish it would get Iron Head instead.

 

[Mye]

You also may want to add agility under "notable moves", as with enough EV's and aqua jet it could work as a decent cleanup or double-dance sweeper.

 

[Disaster_Lord]

Honestly, gyarados outclasses this guy hardcore as a DD user, by virtue of its typing and intimidate. And as a wallbreaker by crawdawnt...


However, feraligator does brings one nice calcs to the table with is Swords Dance and a superior bulk. I'd say it's an interesting pokemon to team build around as it has a better movepool than crawdawnt and more initial power than gyarados. It should be noted that 78 speed is so Damm trolly when compared to gyarados if you factor Jolly as the nature. Adamant could be used to break trough base 111 and keep some bulk.

 

[ger9119]

Overall Gatr is better than Crawdaunt, better typing with better speed. Sheer Force is also extremely good, it's a step under Gyra but it certainly can be used over it as well mainly with the additonal rock weakness dos has, and it can free up a mega slot since regular Gyra is kinda meh tbh. Movepool wise is pretty much the same thing just giving up STAB Crunch which doesn't really matter in the long run since it gets a sheer force boost. Rock Slide and Iron Tail are underrated options, Dragon Dance/ Waterfall / Ice Punch / Superpower or Low Kick will probably be the standard for it though since you don't want to get walled by Ferro totally.

 

[Mr.Y]

Honestly, gyarados outclasses this guy hardcore as a DD user, by virtue of its typing and intimidate. And as a wallbreaker by crawdawnt...

However, feraligator does brings one nice calcs to the table with is Swords Dance and a superior bulk. I'd say it's an interesting pokemon to team build around as it has a better movepool than crawdawnt and more initial power than gyarados. It should be noted that 78 speed is so Damm trolly when compared to gyarados if you factor Jolly as the nature. Adamant could be used to break trough base 111 and keep some bulk.

Gyarado doesn't really outclass it, as Gatr has more physical boost if Gyara doesn't get the -1 (unless it goes Mega) and it's actually stronger too:
+1 252+ Atk Mold Breaker Mega Gyarados Waterfall vs. 4 HP / 252+ Def Eviolite Chansey: 325-384 (50.6 - 59.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+1 252 Atk Life Orb Sheer Force Feraligatr Waterfall vs. 4 HP / 252+ Def Eviolite Chansey: 378-446 (58.8 - 69.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Just waiting for ace trainer rhiana to post saying Gatr is not viable.

----

Overall Gatr is better than Crawdaunt, better typing with better speed. Sheer Force is also extremely good, it's a step under Gyra but it certainly can be used over it as well mainly with the additonal rock weakness dos has, and it can free up a mega slot since regular Gyra is kinda meh tbh. Movepool wise is pretty much the same thing just giving up STAB Crunch which doesn't really matter in the long run since it gets a sheer force boost. Rock Slide and Iron Tail are underrated options, Dragon Dance/ Waterfall / Ice Punch / Superpower or Low Kick will probably be the standard for it though since you don't want to get walled by Ferro totally.

Normal Gyarados is not only usable, but actually good, it's bulky DD set is really good. Crawdaunt is also a better wall breaker because of Adaptability boost as well as STAB Knock Off, which makes it better than Gatr if you want more power right of the bat. Both have different roles though, so it's not really useful dicussing who is the better 'mon.

 

[Mye]

Yeah ger, crawdaunt can be better than feraligatr on the off chance you want to use something that can actually damage bulky waters/abuse ridiculously powerful choice-stabs. After taking a look at all the facts, feraligatr should do all of three things to OU:

1) Prevent Crawdaunt from ever using DDance sets/force it to run choice items exclusively, as boosting sets are now entirely outclassed by other water types.

2) Increase usage in bulky water types, specifically rotom-w who is the Ashton Kutcher when it comes to this thing (in that it either burns it, or tortures it endlessly by forcing it to watch movies its starred in)

3) Decrease usage of Lando-T/Talonflame slightly, which could make some people want to ban certain steel types (M-Metagross) because of it.