ultimatedra
New Member
[GAL=53289]When facing a tough foe, it looses flames from its wrists. Its powerful legs let it jump clear over buildings.[/GAL]
By:ultimatedra
Requested by: Sceptile King
Todays Trainer's Choice we will be looking at Blaziken, the final evolution of Torchic from Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald. Blaziken was quite unique when it was first released being both Fire & Fighting types, but then Infernape and Emboar came and stole the spotlight. With the dream world promotion in Japan he gained a massive amount of attention for his hidden ability, Speed Boost.
Before we start with the movesets, let us look at some of the raw data for this spicy chicken.
Base Stats:
- HP: 80
- Attack: 120
- Defense: 70
- Special Attack: 110
- Special Defense: 70
- Speed: 80
Abilities:
- Blaze (Fire moves gain 50% power when health is at 1/3)
- Speed Boost (Promotion only - 50% Speed boost every turn)
From looking at these stats you can see that Blaziken is good at both physical and special attacking. Furthermore, being both Fire and Fighting types fuels both of these stats nicely.
Let’s look at some examples of how Blaziken can utilize the Blaze ability with both physical and special attacks.
Blaziken with Life Orb, Fire Gem, or Fighting Gem
Timid Nature, Blaze Ability
EVs: 148 Attack, 108 Special Attack, 252 Speed
Flamethrower/Overheat
Fire Punch/Flare Blitz
Reversal/Hi Jump Kick
Substitute/Protect
The points in the EVs and nature will even out your attack and special attack to 143 and 144 respectively at level 50 and max your speed out. As for the moves you can go either way.
The Life Orb item will increase your damage output by 30%, but you will lose 10% of your HP with each attack that does damage. This can be good to help you get into the range for your Blaze ability. Fire Gem and Fighting Gem will give you a one-time type 50% power boost.
Flamethrower gives reliable damage and accuracy while Overheat gives you more power but 90% accuracy and will lower your special attack, but should be okay because after using Overheat you can use a physical move without taking a loss in damage.
On the physical side you have Fire Punch, for reliable damage and accuracy. In comparison, Flare Blitz has higher power but will give you recoil damage equal to 1/3 of what you dealt. Regardless, Flare Blitz can be good to get you into the range to utilize the Blaze ability to its fullest.
For fighting type moves, you are limited to being physical unless you want Focus blast, but it has unreliable accuracy. To get Reversal you will need to breed a with a male Growlithe, Vigoroth, Lillipup, Mienfoo, Bouffalant or any of their evolved forms. Reversal does more damage when Blaziken's HP goes down and reaching 200 power at 4% or less. Very nice if you are reducing your HP for your Blaze ability. Then you have Hi Jump Kick with an amazing 130 power, but if you miss you will lose half of your HP.
Substitute can be used to set up a dummy to take damage for you, at the cost of 25% of your HP. Even better if they don't hit you the turn you use it. It will also help you get down into Blaze range. You can also even use Protect for a full turn of protection
Now that is done we will look at the much rarer variant, using the Japanese event exclusive ability Speed Boost. This is quite the amazing ability as it will constantly increase your speed by 50% at the end of each round. Some other sites even ban the use of this ability due to it being so overpowered. Let us take a look at a set you can use for such an amazing Ability.
Blaziken w/Focus Sash
Modest nature, Speed Boost Ability
EVs: 172 attack, 252 special attack, 86 speed
Flamethrower/Overheat
Fire Punch/Flare Blitz
Hi Jump Kick/Brick Break
Protect
The moveset using Blaze and Speed Boost are very similar. The only difference is that the event Torchic cannot get egg moves, like
The EVs are more focused on the attacking stats since your speed will naturally be increasing every turn anyway.
Protect is very much needed here because it will guarantee your Blaziken will get at least one speed boost.
Other Options:
I mainly showed a focus to Blaziken's types but there are many other options Blaziken gets.
Attacks:
Swords Dance can get your physical attack to obscene levels. Pairs nicely with Substitute or Focus Sash to ensure you get at least one use.
Brave Bird is a very solid attack at the cost of recoil damage. It will be able to take pokemon out like Ludicolo or bulky fighting types like Conkeldurr.
Acrobatics is similar to Brave Bird, but will only be useful if you have no item. This paired with a Gem will get you the results you need.
Solarbeam can be used if you are using Sunny Day or Ninetales to take out water types with ease. The sun will not only make Solarbeam hit on the same turn, but will increase your fire attacks as well.
Earthquake gives a great all around attack, hitting everybody (including your partner) in double battles.
Rock Slide is great in double battles because it hits both opponents and has a 30% flinch chance on each hit.
EVs and Natures:
You don't have to go with the mix of attack and special attack. You can focus of either one and increase your damage output.
Adamant or Jolly nature will lean you towards physical attacking. Putting 252 attack and speed EVs will further increase this.
Modest or Timid nature will have you going more special attacks. Again 252 speed and special attack EVs will boost your damage output.