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6 votes
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This thread is for Kantonian Moltres. For Galarian Moltres, please go here.

If you have a good competitive moveset for Moltres, post an answer below and upvote the best ones. Movesets for any of its pre-evolutions can also be shared on this thread.

Be sure to include full set details in your post, e.g. items, abilities, natures and EVs. Some explanation, including the intended game mode for your set, is also appreciated. Access the full list of guidelines here.

Moltres Pokédex and learnset for reference.

Sprite

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exactly like charizard.
i guess this moveset is best with fire/flying
Galarian or Kantonain?
Galarian sets belong in a different thread: https://pokemondb.net/pokebase/364320/

9 Answers

3 votes


Moltres @ Leftovers / Heavy-Duty Boots (Gen 8)
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 252 SpA / 6 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid / Modest Nature
- Fire Blast
- Hurricane
- Roost
- Substitute /Defog / Scorching Sands

This is an offensive utility Moltres that intends to use its typing to support a team. The only thing it requires is for you to keep Stealth Rock off the field. This is nothing new, since you should always be prepared to do this for anything 4X weak to Rock. What I mean by using its typing to support a team is quite simple: Moltres has resistances to Fire, Bug, Grass, Steel, Fighting and Fairy and is very decent as a switch-in to them. Fire Blast and Hurricane are your STAB moves and have great coverage together; No matter what you do, the three moves that should never change are Fire Blast, Hurricane, and Roost. While Moltres has a good Special Attack and access to Flamethrower and Air Slash, without a Life Orb the damage output can easily be too low to really get things done, so they're not recommended. On the other hand, the value of Leftovers is that it eases Moltres' ability to switch in to attacks and greatly improves its longevity in general; Fire Blast and Hurricane give Moltres good attacking power without punishing it with recoil. With Roost keeping it healthy, its presence of the battlefield won't end anytime soon. Substitute is a bit of a tossup, but it's cool since it can used to play a few mind games with your opponent, on top of Protect Moltres from status. It can be quite entertaining to mess up your opponent when they use Volt Switch assuming you're going to switch out, and instead you use Substitute to stay in, and they're forced to switch-in a Pokemon that can't handle Moltres very well.

Well, like I said you should be prepared to have Defog or Rapid Spin ready before using any Moltres, not just this one. With Stealth Rock out of the picture, don't assume that a 4X weakness to Rock explicitly equates to a bad defensive Typing, because honestly, it doesn't (It's sort of like saying Heatran has an awful defensive Typing because its 4X weak to ground, yet I cannot remember the last time I faced an offensive Heatran).

Edit (Updated for Gen 8)
This Moltres set is excellent and is even more excellent thanks to Heavy-Duty Boots. Flame Body allows it to punish attacks such as U-turn simply by switching into them. Heavy-Duty Boots not only stops it from being affected by Stealth Rocks, but also makes it fairly efficient and clearing hazards with Defog. Scorching Sands is also cool because Ground Coverage is the only type of coverage it ever really needed. On top of that, it can optionally fish for a 30% burn chance against things that haven't already been burned, since Fire Blast has a paltry burn rate. Still very much a toss-up overall.

I also think I originally wrote this set before Flame Body was released. Flame Body is significantly better than Pressure because Moltres has a lot of physical attacks it can switch into. I am 100% confident that I thought the same way back when, too.

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3 votes

Gen 8 Moltres:
Moltres @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 248 HP / 200 Def / 60 Spe
Timid Nature
- Defog
- Flamethrower
- Roost
- Scorching Sands

Moltres got buffed in Gen 8 with the introduction of Heavy Duty Boots while gaining a great coverage move in Scorching Sands to hit mons like Toxapex and Heatran super effectively. This set allows it to tank those mons while also dealing with Steel types like Melmetal and Magearna while also outspeeding them. The 60 Spe allows you to outspeed Modest Offensive Heatran and lets you hit it with a 4x Scorching Sands before it can touch you. Flame Body also allows it to be a good pivot for the aforementioned Melmetal by potentially burning it especially if it uses Double Iron Bash. Overall, Moltres is a very good mon to try in Gen 8.

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2 votes

Double/Triple battle

Moltres @ Life Orb
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature / Timid Nature
- Tailwind
- Heat Wave
- Air Slash
- Hidden Power [Fighting]

Tailwind provides team support. Heat Wave is STAB that hits multiple foes. Air Slash is STAB and can hit any foe in a Triple battle. HP Fighting is type coverage.

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1 vote

Gen 7 Moveset

Moltres @ Grassium Z
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Roost
- Burn Up
- Air Slash
- Solar Beam

Explanation: Grassium Z is the Item here because you can Use Solar Beam ---> Bloom Doom in one turn instead of two. Roost is for healing and if Moltres uses Burn Up before Roost, Moltres will become Typeless for one turn. Burn Up is Powerful STAB but Moltres will lose its Fire typing until it Switches out. Air Slash is STAB, and it has a Chance to make the foe Flinch. Solar Beam is Water, Rock and Ground type Coverage and use it with Grassium Z to unleash a powerful Bloom Doom.

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Recommended Nature: Timid
1 vote

Moltres is one of my favorite Pokemon, though it's not that good. It's not in OU, it has a 4x weakness to Rock and gets crippled by Stealth Rock, and has less than 600 stat total, which is bad for a legendary. Though this is my mascot, so I found a way to buff it.

Today we are using...
A Weakness Policy Sun Sweeper Moltres.

Moltres @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Pressure / Flame Body
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Agility
- Fire Blast / Flamethrower
- Air Slash / Hurricane
- Solar Beam

Use this on a Sun Team with some sort of Drought Pokemon. Even though Moltres has only 3 weaknesses, it's the only effective way to set up that I found. First turn that Moltres is out, use Agility to boost your Speed and then hope your Moltres gets hit by a super-effective move. Fire Blast is for more power, but less PP and accuracy, but Flamethrower does mediocre damage and has no drawbacks. Air Slash has less power, and has 95 accuracy, but Hurricane has more power, but has less accuracy. Solar Beam is where the sun comes in, it covers Water and Rock types. Hidden Power Grass is too weak to use on Moltres, it rarely gets a KO on bulky Water and Rock types.

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0 votes

Role: Scout And Sweep

I Fry faces (Moltres) @ Life Orb
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Overheat
- U-turn
- Extrasensory
- Air Slash


Overheat is his way of saying

" Die you retarded trainer who dares to approach me with that douche of a Pokemon

Yep, sums that one up.
U-Turn lets him scout, since nothing is screwing over his physical attack.
Extrasensory is for coverage, and Air Slash is STAB.

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I know two months ago, but replace Sp Def EVs with Attack EVs.
0 votes

Unexpected rain sweeper

Moltres @ Life Orb
Ability: Pressure / Flame Body
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hurricane
- Fire Blast
- Hidden Power [Fighting] / Hidden Power [Ice] / Hidden Power [Ground] / Hidden Power [Grass]

Hurricane: Highly powered STAB move, especially in the rain. The 30% chance of confusion is a neat bonus.

Fire Blast: Although used in the rain, Fire Blast still hits hard coming off a 125 base Special Attack and Life Orb.

Hidden Power [Fighting] / [Ice] / [Ground] / [Grass]: Unfortunately, Moltres hasn't got the biggest movepool so Hidden Power will make do. HP Fighting is for Rock types, in particularly Tyranitar and also hit Dark types fairly hard as well as Normal types and some Ice types harder in the rain. Also used for hitting Heatran. Ice is for Ground and Dragon types. Ground hits Heatran harder than HP Fighting. Grass is for problematic Water types like Gastrodon.

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Why do you only have three moves?
0 votes

Moltres @ Life Orb
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Hurricane
- Flamethrower
- Hidden Power [Fighting]
- Roost / Tailwind

-Hurricane (STAB, high power, chance of confusion)
-Flamethrower (STAB, high power, chance of burn)
-Hidden Power [Fighting] (covers Rock weakness)
-Roost / Tailwind (for either healing or a nice Speed boost)

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0 votes

Gen 8 OU
Moltres @ Weakness Policy/Charti Berry
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 136 Atk / 124 SpA / 248 Spe
Naughty Nature
- Overheat
- Brave Bird
- Steel Wing
- Roost
Its surprising that no one actually tried to make a mixed set using the 100 base Atk! The berry is meant to let it survive a stab rock hit and retaliate with a Steel Wing, but I consider the Weakness Policy better, because it makes use of both Physical and Special moves. Overheat because the drop won't affect the other moves, Brave Bird is STAB, Steel wing for coverage, and Roost is to reduce rock type attack damage, activate Weakness Policy, then sweep.

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