Onyx Tanuki
Ma! There's a weird 'nuki in the yahd!
Pyroar@Shell Bell/Leftovers
Ability: Rivalry
EVs: Undecided, ideally max HP
Nature: Timid or Modest
- Entrainment
- Noble Roar
- Hyper Voice
- Fire Blast/Flamethrower
I need some help with this set.
First off, I know. Pyroar wasn't blessed with the best of stats (not even a decent movepool gamefreak wtf) but I did want to try to see how to put Noble Roar, a move unique to the Pyroar line, to work.
Noble Roar lowers the opponent's Atk and Sp.Atk by 1 stage, meaning you'd expect Pyroar to be a defensive pokemon. Unfortunately, that isn't the case, but it does have something to assist it further, and that's Entrainment. By passing the ability onto an opponent of the same gender, Rivalry will cause the opponent to have their Atk and Sp.Atk lowered by 25%. In all other cases, Pyroar will be using Rivalry to boost its own Sp.Atk, letting Pyroar play an offensive attacker one on end, and a tank on the other. For this reason, its preferred item is Shell Bell, although Leftovers is just as viable. See, Shell Bell is the item of choice for the fact that, even with Leftovers, Pyroar won't be able to wall certain pokemon this way (ie Tyranitar, Talonflame, Azumarill needs to have taken a Noble Roar drop and Rivalry's stat reducing effect is in play) so instead of letting Pyroar sit there and drool, it should be swapped out.
Now, it may be a lost cause, but I am interested in hearing the opinions of everyone here. Pokemon Showdown's calculator doesn't factor in Rivalry boosts or drops, so having the actual numbers is a bit hard to come by. And I'm aware the Entrainment strat will only work half the time due to gender ratio, but the idea was that Pyroar could punch holes and wall at the drop of a hat this way.
I might bring in some calcs later to try and prove Pyroar can do things. Doubt it, though.
No Lave Plume or Inferno makes defensive Pyroar very sad
EDIT: It's not working out. Ironically, a straight up defensive Pyroar works loads better than I thought.
Pyroar@Leftovers
Ability: Rivalry
EVs: 252 HP/252 Def/4 Sp.Def
Nature: Bold
-Entrainment
-Noble Roar
-Will-o-wisp
-Snarl/Fire Spin
It still uses the Entrainment strat from the above set, but it uses the move defensively, not offensively. Removing an ability like Huge Power and Guts allows Pyroar to wall endlessly, even with a weak as hell 72 Def stat. Noble Roar scores an Atk and Sp.Atk drop and is safe against mixed attackers, while Will-o-wisp cripples physical attackers even harder. Guts pokemon are not to be feared thanks to Entrainment. And Snarl is an offensive attack that can bypass Taunt and weakens special attackers should they come about. Since this set is less effective against physical attackers, Fire Spin is another viable option to trap opponents once they realize they're not hurting Pyroar.
I have calcs.
164 Atk Choice Band Azumarill Waterfall vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Pyroar: 168-200 (44.6 - 53.1%) -- 0.4% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
These are the calcs simulating the effect of a Rivalry stat reduction induced by Entrainment, lowering Azumarill's Atk to 175 from 218. EVs, IVs, and Base stats were fiddled with to get this result.
And these are the calcs of Entrainment passing along a Rivalry Boost.
212+ Atk Choice Band Azumarill Waterfall vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Pyroar: 264-312 (70.2 - 82.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
Azumarill ain't such hot Grimer without its precious Huge Power boost (it doesn't OHKO but that does a lot of damage shh)
In the event that Entrainment gives the opponent an Atk boost, Will-o-wisp is a much better idea.
252+ Atk Choice Band Huge Power burned Azumarill Waterfall vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Pyroar: 211-249 (56.1 - 66.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
Entrainment Rivalry works best when the genders are opposite, and if the opponent has an attack boosting ability. If they are the same, Will-o-wisp works better for surviving the initial hit.
0 Atk Garchomp Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Pyroar: 234-276 (62.2 - 73.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery (Rivalry drop)
252 Atk burned Garchomp Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Pyroar: 144-171 (38.2 - 45.4%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
Now, here's a fun one. Standard Conkeldurr doesn't OHKO with Drain Punch.
252+ Atk Conkeldurr Drain Punch vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Pyroar: 254-300 (67.5 - 79.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
Let's use Entrainment, and let's say it's the opposite sex.
0+ Atk Conkeldurr Drain Punch vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Pyroar: 204-240 (54.2 - 63.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery (IVs lowered to simulate Rivalry drop)
Still a 2HKO, but now that it doesn't have Guts, let's Burn it.
0+ Atk burned Conkeldurr Drain Punch vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Pyroar: 102-120 (27.1 - 31.9%) -- 38.3% chance to 4HKO after Leftovers recovery
Of course, Pyroar would be dead by now, but this is an extreme case. Of, Entrainment and Burns, I mean.
This works far more ideally in a team that takes advantage of gender. Even if Pyroar goes down, if it passed along Rivalry, the teammate coming in can benefit by sharing the gender of Pyroar, and keeping the opponent crippled with Rivalry and not whatever ability they had. Something like Shadow Tag Gothitelle can be a real pain because now it can set up and can't be stopped. But this is hyperbole.
Actually, this whole post is hyperbole.
...
Sorry for going overboard with the calcs and stuff. I really wanted to make Pyroar work. :'<
Still though, interesting stuff ;D
To be perfectly honest, Pyroar isn't all that good defensively at all. Entrainment really isn't all that good an ability, since it can easily be switched out of, and in Pyroar's case really only benefits against users of Guts or Flash Fire, and a handful of other abilities. And the problem there is that most of those opponents will switch out to cancel the ability change. Fire Spin helps a little with this, but most Guts users have enough power that they can do some decent damage to Pyroar even with Burn on them. I do like your idea here, but Pyroar would need much more reliable recovery than Leftovers or much better bulk to support itself, neither of which it has. It's much better as a more offense-oriented pokemon IMO. Here's what I might use:
Pyroar @ Life Orb
Unnerve
Modest/Timid
252 SpAtt, 4 Def/SpDef, 252 Speed
- Flamethrower/Fire Blast
- Hyper Voice
- Will-O-Wisp
- Dark Pulse/Snarl
Hyper Voice and your main Fire move are your main means of attack, with Will-O-Wisp there to cripple most non-Guts physical attackers. Dark Pulse is a more powerful means to handle Rock, Ghost, and Psychic types, particularly ones that would otherwise resist both of your STABs (such as Chandelure, Lunatone, or Jellicent), but it can be subbed out for Snarl to help handle pokemon with strong SpAtt. At its core, Pyroat is better as a wall-breaker than anything; it doesn't need to kill everything around it or survive against brutal onslaughts, it just needs to deal enough damage that your sweepers can clean up.
Now for something uncommon that can use the type of strategy you were looking at, we can try something like, say, Wailord?
Wailord @ Leftovers/Big Root/Binding Band
Oblivious
Calm/Bold
252 HP, 4 Def/SpAtt/SpDef, 252 Def/SpDef
- Whirlpool
- Clear Smog
- Rest/Aqua Ring
- Toxic/Sleep Talk/Aqua Ring
There's a few ways this can go, but the ultimate goal is the same regardless: take the foe down passively. Whirlpool traps the foe, and Clear Smog prevents setups while allowing Wailord to hit Grass types. For recovery, you could go for Rest or Aqua Ring; either is viable because of the fact that Wailord gets its bulk via insanely high HP, coming behind only Blissey and Chansey I believe. Toxic provides additional residual damage, while you could pair Sleep Talk or Aqua Ring with Rest to get added offensive presence or recovery, respectively.
Leftovers is the safest bet here, since it gives you set recovery of 1/16th of Wailord's HP per turn on its own, or combines with Aqua Ring for 1/8th HP recovery. Big Root could be viable as well, though a bit less so, as it gives Aqua Ring 13/160 HP recovery, or about 8.12%, versus the normal 6.25% normally, or 12.5% with it and Lefties. Bining Band means minimizing your recovery for additional damage from Whirlpool, making it deal 1/6th of the opponent's life in damage rather than 1/8th as normal, and works better when you can Rest as a means to stall.
Keep in mind, though, that you have to kill off the things that'll stop it from working first and foremost. Ghosts can easily escape Whirlpool, with Gengar in particular also resisting Clear Smog and immune to Toxic. You also have to already have taken down anything with Water Absorb, Storm Drain, or Dry Skin to ensure Whirlpool traps them at all. And of course pokemon with Grass or Electric moves - especially of the type of defense you don't focus your Wailord on - will need to be avoided.