Volcarona Discussion

[kaiser soze]

Volcarona​

Hello there trainers. Remember those pathetic Bug pokemon back in the RBY days? It's time for revenge. For four generations we have been scoffed at, but Unova is home to the best collection of Bug pokemon hands down, and I am their king. I'm so boss I have to evolve at lv. 59. I feature a unique STAB combo: Fire and Bug. Offensively I'm a threat to everything not a Fire, Water, or Rock type. Defensively my -Bug typing resists Ground and -Fire resists Fire, s I take neutral damage from those types, unlike some of my colleagues. I also sport a Fighting resistance, which is kinda nifty. However, I do have a kinda problematic 4X Rock weakness that means a) I lose half my health when I got to switch into Stealth Rocks and b) Most Rock attacks are OHKOs. However, did I mention I have not one, but two signature moves? I have Quiver Dance, which offers three stat boost to my Special Attack, Special Defense, and Speed. One-move boosting for a special sweeper. And then there's Fiery Dance: an 80 BP Fire move with a 50% chance of an SA boost. Yes, I am that good.

Stats
85/60/65/135/105/100​

Volcarona's stats scream special sweeper. Placed in the respectable but crowded 100 base speed tier. However it does have some decent bulk, improved through SD boosts from QD and burning your opponent.

Abilities
Flame Body: 30% chance of burning an opponent who makes contact. Not a bad one, considering burning an opponent will half its attack, helping you take physical hits better and staying alive longer.
Swarm: It's unreleased DW ability. 1.5X boost to Bug attacks when it's health is under 33%. Not bad, but I like the passive burn chance better (and I don't think DW Larvesta will be out soon).

Pros and Cons​

Pro:
- The statistically best pokemon with Quiver Dance. Incredibly hard to take down if it can get 2 or more in.
- Flame Body improves physical bulk by subtraction
- Access to a recovery move in Morning Sun
- Typing provides a wide range of coverage with its STABs. Defensively they complement each other well (hey there's worse combos)

Con:
- 4X Rock weakness. Spin support is mandatory.
- Shallow movepool beyond its STABs with basically Hurricane/Solar Beam/Psychic/Hidden Power left
- Many sets are predictable with Quiver Dance/[Fire STAB]/[Bug STAB]/Filler

Sets​

Generic Special Sweeper​

Volcarona @ Life Orb/Leftovers/Wise Glasses
Timid/Modest, Flame Body
252 SA/252 Speed/4 SD
- Quiver Dance
- Bug Buzz
- Flamethrower/Fiery Dance/Heat Wave/Fire Blast
- Psychic/Hurricane/Hidden Power (Ground/Rock/Ice/Grass/Electric)

Pretty straightforward. QD to boost, then attack your opponent's weak spot. You have a wide choice for Fire moves; go for reliability (Flamethrower), boosting (Fiery Dance), double trouble (Heat Wave), or risk/reward (Fire Blast). Your last spot is a toss-up. Psychic can hunt Fighting types reliably. Hurricane hits Fighting hard too, but is a lot more risky. HP Ground stops Fire types, notably Heatran (who walls to death otherwise). Rock stops other Fire types and Flying. Ice stops Ground, Dragon, and Flying. Electric stops Flying and Water. Grass handles Water/Grounds handily.

ChestoRest (courtesy of d0nut)​

Volcarona @ Chesto Berry
Flame Body
Modest
160 HP / 252 SpA / 96 Spe
-Fiery Dance
-Bug Buzz
-Quiver Dance
-Rest

Its offensive Quiver Dance set shouldn't really have so many slashes on its Fire STAB or its last move. Flamethrower and Heat Wave are both inferior options, and Hurricane and Psychic are both horrid on Volcarona. Hidden Power Rock and Ground should be its main options since they allow it to take on some of its best checks with the correct typing. Rock helps with Salamence, Gyarados, and Dragonite, while Ground hits Heatran and Terrakion. They both also provide it with important coverage against other Fires.

Bulky Set​

Volcarona @ Leftovers
Bold, Flame Body
248 HP/252 D/8 Speed (or SD)
- Quiver Dance
- Bug Buzz
- Fiery Dance/[insert Fire move]
- Morning Sun.

This set is designed to reliably get multiple Quiver Dances, then own. Maxed-out defenses try to get some survivability on the weaker side. Flame Body helps out a lot by providing a chance to cut your opponent's attack, making you last longer and some residual damage while you boost/heal. Morning Sun is a risky healing move, depending on the weather wars: it provides 2/3 when Sun's up but only 1/3 for anything else. After boosting and healing, rely on your STABs to do damage. Even if they resist a STAB, after several SA boosts it's not that big of a deal, especially since your defenses are pretty high too. This set requires smart play; opponents like Heatran need to be eliminated, as well as SR. Also while it might be tempting to come in on a FIghting attack, Fighting pokemon often carry a Rock attack, so be warned.

Moths in the rain? lolwut​

Volcarona @ Life Orb/Leftovers/Wise Glasses
Timid/Modest, Flame Body
252 SA/252 Speed/4 SD
- Quiver Dance
- Bug Buzz
- Hurricane
- HP Grass/Electric

Gimmick set I saw once on Smogon that I'm adding for lols. Hurricane gets perfect accuracy in the rain. HP Grass or Electric can stop other Water pokemon.

"I might not always use Bug pokemon, but when I do, I prefer Volcarona."
-- The Most Interesting Man in the World​

 

[complete legitimacy]

You could also add the Chesto-Rest set. You just have QD, dual STABs, and Rest. The idea is to set up, heal up, and then sweep.

 

[CraZy RudOlF]

u should put 36 Speed Evs on the bulky set to outspeed scarftar, starmie & standard dusgtrio after a QD, and some other stuff like raikou thts not common.

 

[d0nut]

You could also add the Chesto-Rest set. You just have QD, dual STABs, and Rest. The idea is to set up, heal up, and then sweep.

Agreed, ChestoRest is possibly the most fearsome Volcarona set in the metagame to date since it can set up on several of Volcarona's usual counters such as Blissey or Chansey, and then turn around and completely sweep the opponents team.

Volcarona @ Chesto Berry
Flame Body
Modest
160 HP / 252 SpA / 96 Spe
-Fiery Dance
-Bug Buzz
-Quiver Dance
-Rest

Its offensive Quiver Dance set shouldn't really have so many slashes on its Fire STAB or its last move. Flamethrower and Heat Wave are both inferior options, and Hurricane and Psychic are both horrid on Volcarona. Hidden Power Rock and Ground should be its main options since they allow it to take on some of its best checks with the correct typing. Rock helps with Salamence, Gyarados, and Dragonite, while Ground hits Heatran and Terrakion. They both also provide it with important coverage against other Fires.

Between these two sets beating its usual counters, it kinda has a bit of a gen 4 Salamence factor which is the main reason it's a suspect as far as I can tell. ScarfLandorus and ScarfTerrakion are probably its most reliable checks though.

 

[Pichu47]

^Agreed, chesto rest is the best (no rhyme intended)

 

[lucario44444444]

^Agreed, chesto rest is the best (no rhyme intended)

What??????? Offensive has MUCH more usage and is more effective and Bulky Sun is considered one of the best sun abusers

 

[PokeMaster366]

What??????? Offensive has MUCH more usage and is more effective and Bulky Sun is considered one of the best sun abusers

Even I have to agree with him on the idea that Volcarona is better off as a heavy offensive sweeper; especially since he has to worry about SR ruining him.

 

[kaiser soze]

ChestoRest and Bulky Morning Sun essentially have the same goals, however (QD as much as you can then pwn). I'm personally not a fan of the straight up offensive sets because TBH there's not many options beyond STABs and an HP. If you want a pure offensive set there's better pokemon with wider movepools; the main reason to use Volc is for Quiver Dancing. I don't even think a Choice Specs set is a good idea; that's how shallow it's movepool is.

 

[lucario44444444]

Even I have to agree with him on the idea that Volcarona is better off as a heavy offensive sweeper; especially since he has to worry about SR ruining him.

I find Bulky Sun abuser better

 

[d0nut]

What??????? Offensive has MUCH more usage and is more effective and Bulky Sun is considered one of the best sun abusers

Theres no way to tell that the offensive set has more usage as of right now, though even if it did, that wouldn't necessarily make it better. Bulky Sun is definately difficult to deal with, but still has the disadvantages of being very weather dependent and ruined by status, so things like Bliss can still cripple it with Toxic which prevents it from sweeping.

The offensive set is great, don't get me wrong, but since ChestoRest can set up on some of Volcarona's most reliable checks then turn around and completely sweep someone's team makes it that much more deadly in comparison. Between the two, there is virtually nothing that can reliably counter Volcarona, bar maybe Scarf Terrakion and Scarf Landorus.

 

[AudinoGlitch]

No matter what set you run, Azumarell will F*** you up. Trust me, it's Aqua Jet is a OHKO no matter what set you run unless you have some sun up.

 

[kaiser soze]

No matter what set you run, Azumarell will F*** you up. Trust me, it's Aqua Jet is a OHKO no matter what set you run unless you have some sun up.

Duly noted. However Azumarill was used only 1.48824% of the time according to the August usage stats. Terrakion and TTar are far more likely to be seen, and Volc struggles in general against a rain team since there's few things to set up on. And of course there's SR.

Bottom line is that no pokemon is invincible.

 

[lovetheangelshadow]

How come no one has mentioned SolarBeam? It is quite handy on the sun teams because it decimates a lot of rock and grounds types that don't have Sturdy and lots of water types

Though i don't know if I wanna run Morning Sun or SB....

 

[Vandslaux]

Run Morning Sun. Bulky Waters can be set up on in Sun, and eventually muscled past with Bug Buzz.

 

[kaiser soze]

How come no one has mentioned SolarBeam? It is quite handy on the sun teams because it decimates a lot of rock and grounds types that don't have Sturdy and lots of water types

Though i don't know if I wanna run Morning Sun or SB....

Solarbeam would definitely be more risky. First of all, you're gambling that you will have weather superiority. Second, you don't have any recovery. Morning Sun and (Chesto)Rest allow it to spend a few moves getting QDs, then regaining health before going for the sweep. Water and Ground are neutral to Bug (and Volcarona takes neutral damage to Ground attacks thans to Bug's resistance); teambuilding's probably the best way to try to get around the weaknesses.

 

[ParaChomp]

Down for running Morning Sun. It's its only way of healing itself thus, its quite usable on a defensive Quiver Dance set.

 

[Soperman]

For your first set, you might as well have put [INSERT FIRE ATTACK HERE]
Same for the HP typing.
Anyway, although he has access to Morning Sun, it's kind of wasted on him; he has mediocre Defense, ok Hp, and is Destroyed by SR, so he can't really be a tank or a wall. The only thing to make up for the Defense is Flame Body, but that would require getting hit.
Plus, his move-set and stats scream sweeper, so you would most likely have a Quiver Dance set or a choice set.
Morning Sun is mostly for the hipsters.
Hurricane is kind of unreliable, except in Rain, where he can be easily destroyed unless you a) use him as a revenge killer and use HP [Grass or Electric] or b) Set up at least one Quiver Dance to outspeed theats.
I personally have never used Volcarona, but besides what I said now he seems great. Nice Speed, fantastic Sp. Attack, and a usable move-pool.

 

[kaiser soze]

For your first set, you might as well have put [INSERT FIRE ATTACK HERE]
Same for the HP typing.
Anyway, although he has access to Morning Sun, it's kind of wasted on him; he has mediocre Defense, ok Hp, and is Destroyed by SR, so he can't really be a tank or a wall. The only thing to make up for the Defense is Flame Body, but that would require getting hit.
Plus, his move-set and stats scream sweeper, so you would most likely have a Quiver Dance set or a choice set.
Morning Sun is mostly for the hipsters.
Hurricane is kind of unreliable, except in Rain, where he can be easily destroyed unless you a) use him as a revenge killer and use HP [Grass or Electric] or b) Set up at least one Quiver Dance to outspeed theats.
I personally have never used Volcarona, but besides what I said now he seems great. Nice Speed, fantastic Sp. Attack, and a usable move-pool.

You would be surprised how well a max physically defense Volcarona can take hits. it can take neutral hits from the likes of Salamence well enough while QDing/healing and with a little luck score a burn. Still not going to take a Rock move, but neither do most things with 4x weaknesses. Since QD is basically Calm Mind plus a speed boost, it will also increase its Special Defense as it sets up, increasing its ability to take hits as it sets up to ungodly levels.

A choice set is a waste of an idea because a) the main reason to use Volc is Quiver Dance, which is impossible with a choice set, and b) it doesn't really have the movepool for a choice set. Like I already said, you got your two STABs, a HP, and Hurrican I guess. And a choice set would require more switching, which means more chances at taking SR damage.

TLDR: Volcarona makes a excellent tank with some good teambuilding + strategic elimination of threats.

 

[Vandslaux]

Try using HP/Def Bold Volcarona with Morning Sun in Sun. I guarantee mostly good results.

 

[lovetheangelshadow]

Because of SR I NEVER use Volcanara as a revenge sweeper. He is always in front. Though the Volcan I have right now has Focus Sash....
Does anyone know any good partners for Volcan?