I'll make an effort to go somewhere this week to practise singles!
If someone could give me a hand?
Also, have people been experimenting with Volcanion? A friend on twitter likes it. And another thread here seems to think it could be over-centralising.
Thoughts?
Personally, i'll probably never use it in WiFi as it's auto-banned by VGC.
It sucks...by itself. Look at black's reasonings. Yes, it is naturally bulky but it's still 2hkoed by nearly every stab eq out there with attack investment, despite 248 hp investment. (Speaking of being 2hkoed, breloom legit checks volc with bullet seed...it 2hkoes and then, because standard volc doesn't run speed and loom does, outspeeds volc too.) For me, in the 6 matches I've done, I've had difficulty even bringing it in safely. Even when I can, it'll take a nice hit because of the ladder being so offensively oriented. What also kills it is that it's dragon fodder, getting only hp ice and sludge wave (eat that, mega altaria) in terms of special movepool. It also gets focus blast, but with steam eruption, earth power and fire blast...no. I've wanted to use a specs set but I've been really enjoying an LO on it so I can really take advantage of what it does best: smashing switch ins. The good news? Rotom wash and mega bro are the bulkiest waters in this gen's OU tier. However, with water absorb and the correct team building and crappy lower ladder players, bulky waters ain't got crap on volc.
That all being said, it is COMPLETELY overpowered when it comes to offensive team building. As black also mentioned, on paper, it looks like it works well with grass sweepers...and based on my testings, it in fact works EXTREMELY well with serperior (serp being the grass sweeper I have on my team) at the very least as I can't say much for the likes of the other stuff that could work, like loom and mega venusaur. With serp, you get the most basic core (fire/water/grass, commonly termed as fwg) in 2 pokes. After that, you need a physical wall breaker. The choices we've suggested on the PS chat? Mega bunny (my personal selection) and mega medicham. I'm using bunny, who I've discovered to be one of the best late game sweepers ever, and I am cleaning house with this core. Mega venusaur is no problem whatsoever since even the most offensive variants of it can only guarantee a 2hko from giga drain after rocks damage. Without, and it's a 3hko.
In conclusion, I don't find volcanion broken by itself; however, with the right pokemon, it is. This is smogon, too, and they don't like stuff that 2hkoes anything from the switch in. I don't see it being suspected in OU though wouldn't be shocked if it is. I have yet to really sweep with it, though wouldn't be shocked if it will in the near future. However, fire/water is honestly a somewhat average type, literally only threatening anything that doesn't resist either stab. Dragons resist both and outside of a 2hko sludge wave or steam eruption don't have to fear much as long as they get a safe switch in. Switching into it really makes this pokemon so hard to deal with but can be easy to scare off with a poke that's faster and specially offensive, therefore it needing hazards to be cleared consistently. We'll have to see how much these things change, but I really don't see it being too overcentralizing so far.
Edit: Aura pointed out that there are things that have had these traits and were still broken (hoopa unbound). Doesn't change my mind too much but it is a valid point.