What is a good moveset for Arcanine?

Question

If you have a good competitive moveset for Arcanine, 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 detail, including the intended game mode for your set, is also appreciated. Access the full list of guidelines here.

Arcanine Pokédex and learnset for reference.

Comments

With all the movesets here, it seems like Arcanine is a sucide lead.

Answer 1

Gen V

Arcanine (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 248 Atk / 8 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature (+Spe, -SpA)

• Close Combat
• Flare Blitz
• Wild Charge / Crunch
• Extreme Speed

Again, your standard sweeper. Although Intimidate gives it some bulk. Life Orb makes it more powerful. Flare Blitz is STAB. Close Combat and Crunch provide you with type coverage. However, since Crunch is going to do damage equal to Flare Blitz on a super-effective hit while Blitz is neutral, it might not be the best option, while Wild Charge is meanwhile getting a super-effective hit on Water and Flying types (Flying types resist Close Combat) and x4 effectiveness on Gyarados. Extreme Speed is really the only thing that makes this guy worth using (well, the nice coverage moves like Close Combat and the actual physical STAB move help) as it is +2 priority with 80 base power.

Comments

How would you teach it bot extremespeed and flare blitz?

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Easy learn flare blitz as a groulith then go to a move relearner after evolving him

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I like Agility better on this set, and Adamant nature. Xtremespeed is not necessary IMO.

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Yes, Adamant nature indeed. Extreme Speed over Agility though, Trachy got that right. There are other [bigger] matters here like the fact that you called this a standard sweeper, but in reality, this is a grade "A" kamikazee Arcanine. This thing is going for the kill, yet killing himself. Life Orb, Flare Blitz, and Wild Charge in the same rotation. That just spells suicide. Can you imagine getting both moves off while holding Life Orb, beating the pokemon, and then getting put in the dirt by a igglybuff or a pichu only because the next pokemon's trainer knew s/he only had to huff, puff, and blow whatever HP Arcanine did have left out of the stadium?

Answer 2

Double/Triple battle

Arcanine (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Intimidate / Flash Fire
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature (+Spe, -SpA)
- Helping Hand
- ExtremeSpeed
- Flare Blitz
- Bulldoze / Close Combat

Helping Hand provides you with team support. Extremespeed is priority. Flare Blitz is STAB. Bulldoze hits mulitple Pokemon and lowers their Speed, which can cause some problems for your opponent. However, Close Combat can be used for the higher power. Intimidate is a great ability that lowers the Attack of your foes. However, Flash Fire can be used if you have a Lava Plume using teammate. Even then, Intimidate is probably still better.

Answer 3

Arcanine (M) @ Choice Band

Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe / 4 Def
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Flare Blitz
- Wild Charge
- Extreme Speed

Back for another UU Pokemon to be used in OU. Dare underestimate this sucker and pay the price. Close Combat and Wild Charge get decent coverage against common switch-ins, namely Heatran and Politoed respectively. Flare Blitz is extremely powerful, especially after switching into a Fire move, activating Flash Fire and boosting Flare Blitz to astronomical levels. ExtremeSpeed is a pinnacle for revenge killing and is one of Arcanine's niches. One might question why you'd not use Infernape as it gets STAB on Close Combat and Mach Punch in the pace of E-speed. Thing is, Arcanine is decently bulky, whereas Nape frail. Arcanine has less weaknesses, and also has access to Flash Fire, meaning that while it may not share all of Nape's perks, it has some of its own as well.

Answer 4

Gen III

Arcanine (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 52 HP / 108 Atk / 64 Def / 188 SpA / 64 SpD / 32 Spe
Serious Nature

• Extreme Speed
• Fire Blast
• Crunch
• Agility

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This guy is just amazing....

EV's give him effecient 212 Defenses, with a 334 HP Stat.
283 in Both attacking stats, with a boostable 234 Speed stat.
This guy is Meant to be good at everything.
ExtremeSpeed is the master of priority moves, hitting with +2 and 80 Power, great neutral coverage, and allows Arcanine to be a revenge killer when needed. Fire Blast giving amazing STAB on top of the fact, that you could easily get a Flash Fire boost added on to that, to make it even more powerful. Crunch gives you some nice coverage agaisn't Gengar and Alakazam both of which you can outspeed after a single Agility. And Agility, allowing you to outspeed most all of your major threats (like Gengar and Alakazam!) while still having enough bulk to set it up, and enough offensive stats to sweep. I love you Arcanine.

Comments

In my opinion, that ev spread is too spread. You are better off just not ev training at all if you're gonna ev train arcanine like this. Make use of his abnormally high attack stat and not this. Also, don't go with agility or fire blast. Fire blast has way too low accuracy for me and agility is a waste because arcanine already has a decent speed stat. But otherwise nicely done!

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I think it's pretty good.

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why did you give arcanine agility if you already has extremespeed

Answer 5

Arcanine is a boss and has excellent stats for a mixed use.
If Physical sweeper:

Arcanine @ Muscle Band / Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe / 4 HP
Adamant Nature

• Fire Fang / Flare Blitz
• Double Kick / Reversal
• Thunder Fang
• Iron Head / Morning Sun / Agility

Double Kick is there as a substitute breaker and coverage, Thunder Fang is there as a flinch and para chance and coverage, Fire Fang is a burn chance and STAB, or Flare Blitz for a more powerful STAB but with recoil, and the last is for whatever floats your boat.

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If special sweeper:

Arcanine @ Power Herb
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe / 4 HP
Modest Nature

• Solar Beam
• Flamethrower
• Swift
• Agility

With a Power Herb you can hammer off that first Solar beam while they expect you to set up, Flamethrower is a reliable STAB, and Swift is for those stupid Double team users, Agility is self explanatory.

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If used as a mixed tank:

Arcanine @ Focus Sash / Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 SpD / 252 HP / 4 Def
Hardy Nature
- Toxic
- Morning sun
- Dig
- Fire Fang

He has sufficient bulk to pull this off, and it would be rather unexpected, you set up with Toxic and then use Morning sun and Dig to keep yourself alive while they take ongoing poison damage, then you use Fire Fang for those stupid steel types that I love.

Answer 6

Gen 8 NU

Arcanine @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 196 Def / 60 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Overheat
- Toxic
- Morning Sun
- Teleport

Physical defensive Arcanine. 252 HP EVs to help it take hits. 60 Speed EVs is to outspeed Max Speed EV Jolly Bewear. The rest of the EVs are dumped into defense. Overheat is STAB and OHKOs Bewear and Vileplume if Stealth Rock is on their side. Toxic is to cripple the opponent. Morning Sun is for healing. Teleport is to pivot and bring in a teammate saftley.

Answer 7

Arcanine is a great Pokemon that can perform well in most situations.

Arcanine @ Expert Belt
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 SpA / 4 Spe
Mild Nature
- Flare Blitz / Flamethrower
- Sunny Day
- Solarbeam
- Morning Sun

This is my personal favorite setup for Arcanine. You can choose either Flare Blitz or Flamethrower for your STAB move depending on if you want Arcanine to be a special or mixed sweeper. If you want him to be mixed, I would place his EVs as follows: 252 Atk, 252 SpA, 4 Spe. If not, I would place them like this: 252 SpA, 252 Spe, 4 HP. Solarbeam gives you coverage against all of Arcanine's weaknesses and even without STAB the Expert Belt gives you the power you need to deal considerable damage to your opponents. Sunny Day is a no-brainer. It gets rid of the charge move for Solarbeam and strengthens your STAB move. It also increases the healing power of Morning Sun. Finally, Morning Sun will heal for the recoil of Flare Blitz and any other attacks Arcanine withstands.

Answer 8

Growlord [HarmoKnight]
Jolly
Flash Fire
Muscle Band- Increases all of its moves by 10%
252 Attack/ 252 Speed/ 4 HP
ExtremeSpeed-80 damage and goes first
ThunderFang-Does good damage (65) and may flinch or Paralyze the attacked Pokémon
Fire Fang-Does good damage (65) and may flinch or Burn the attacked Pokémon
Flame Charge-Does modest damage (50) and raises its Speed

Answer 9

Arcanine @ Life Orb
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Wild Charge / Flare Blitz
Wild Charge deals with Water Types and Flare Blitz is STAB
- Extreme Speed / Sunny Day / Close Combat
Extreme Speed for priority (useful if the opponent is a water type with Focus Sash: Poliwrath etc.), Sunny day if you use Solar Beam and is also useful for Flamethrower, Close Combat has 120 Power so Wynaut?
- Morning Sun
Recovery
- Solar Beam / Flamethrower
Solar Beam Deals with Water and you should use it if you don't use Wild Charge, Flamethrower is boosted by Sunny day and is STAB

Choose any :D
-AeroBorne

Comments

Edited Swords Dance out because Arcanine doesn't have the move.

Answer 10

Arcanine (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Atk
Impish Nature
- Extreme Speed
- Morning Sun
- Will-O-Wisp
- Flare Blitz

Impish Nature - impish or careful is my recommendation because it is a tanky set
- Extreme Speed - Priority
- Morning Sun - Healing
- Will-O-Wisp - Dmg adds up and since its atk isnt too great without the nature/evs it helps chip away (STAB sarcasm)
- Flare Blitz - high base power with STAB (Recoil)

Answer 11

This is a Arcanine built created for doubles to decrease the opponents attack while being at max speed to try and go first so your opponents Pokemon have their attack decreased at the start, it is quite bulky for taking hits, healing and then dealing some damage and protect to scout or if you think your opponent will attack only you Arcanine this turn. Also the Lum Berry is for if your opponent does try to harming Arcanine through status conditions. I think this set would work with a trapper like mega Gengar or Gothitelle to prevent your opponents Pokemon from escaping to get rid of its attack decrease.

Arcanine @ Lum Berry
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 248 HP / 8 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Heat Wave
- Snarl
- Morning Sun
- Protect

Answer 12

Arcanine (F) @ Electrium Z
Ability: intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Relaxed Nature
- Wild Charge
- Extreme Speed
- Overheat
- Snarl

Starting out by saying I love Gigavolt Havok animation with Arcanine. That being said this build catches most people off guard. As he can take a hit from a physical atacker on a switch in. If you lead with overheat you can surprise most opponents with your electric Z-move. Snarl is great to debug Sp. Attackers and bypasses substitute’s with good neutral coverage. Extreme speed is good for hitting first and getting around fake out or other slower priority moves.

Answer 13

Arcanine@Choice Scarf or Life Orb
Trait: Flash Fire(?) Not too important on which one.
Nature: Hasty (+Speed, -Defense) or Naive (+Speed, -Sp. Defense)
EVs:
1. 252 Speed, 126 Attack, 126 Sp. Attack, 4 HP
2. 252 Speed, 126 Attack, 130 Sp. Attack
Role: Mixed Sweeper/ Sunlight Abuser(?)

Sunny Day or Agility or maybe Crunch: Don't use Sunny Day unless you don't have another Pokemon on the team to set up Harsh Sunlight. Agility only if you use the Life Orb and Crunch if you use the Choice Scarf.
Solarbeam: Covers all weaknesses, and is really powerful. Useable in one turn if Sunny Day is in effect. So more useful when someone sets it up.
Heat Wave: STAB. Targets both of the foe's Pokemon in a double battle, and is more powerful than Flamethrower. When Sunny Day is in effect, it becomes really powerful.
Flare Blitz: STAB. Does damage the user a little though. Powered up when Sunny Day is in effect.

Answer 14

Gen 8 NU

Arcanine @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature

• Flare Blitz
• Wild Charge
• Close Combat / Teleport
• Teleport / Morning Sun

Flare Blitz is STAB. Wild Charge covers Water types. Close Combat covers Rock types, but you can use Teleport instead to safely bring something in, and to drop the enemy's Attack the next time Arcanine hits the field. Morning Sun is crucial recovery for a Pokemon that's going to be taking a lot of recoil damage.

Answer 15

I want to propose a set that is slightly different...

Gen VII
Arcanine @ Firium Z
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP/ 252 SDef/ 4 SAtk
Trait: Calm (+SDef, - Atk)
Moveset:
- Burn Up
- Will-O-Wisp
- Snarl
- Morning Sun
Explanation: Burn Up, powered by Firium Z, will have a hefty BP of 195 though it can only be used once in the battle and Arcanine loses its Fire typing. But wait! This can be a good thing. By losing its only typing, Arcanine becomes typeless, thus losing its vulnerability to typings that are super-effective against Fire types like Ground and Water. By investing heavily on its defenses, Arcanine uses a combination of WoW and Snarl to burn the opponent and then lower their Special Attack, and Morning Sun to recover HP, making it a highly defensive staller with no weaknesses. Of course if the opponent cannot be burned then the issue comes in, but you can always try Snarl or better yet, don't use Arcanine. The timing of Burn Up is crucial because the opponent may use a Protect, thus rendering you typeless and losing your Burn Up for nothing.

(I've seen this set across other sites with little variations, for instance in EV spread or trait, but I haven't seen it here yet hence I am proposing it. So this is definitely not an original set by me but I have witnessed it on a few other sites so I have no idea who to credit anyway, but just know that it's not an original idea from me.)

Answer 16

Sir Barkly (Arcanine) (M) @ Firium Z
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 76 HP / 252 SpA / 180 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 30 HP / 30 SpA
- Sunny Day
- Heat Wave
- Morning Sun
- Hidden Power [Grass]

Z-Sunny Day to outspeed and boost both damage and recovery.
Heat Wave STAB and sun boosts BP to 285.
Morning Sun to fully heal due to Sunny Day.
Hidden Power Grass covers all of its weaknesses.

Evs focused on damage and speed. Survival is a nice bonus.
IVs are specifically set for HP Grass at max damage.

Arcanine is pretty fun, until they use one against you. Sir Barkly is one of those party poopers.

Answer 17

Arcanine
Item: Heavy Duty Boots
Ability: Intimidate
EV: 252 Attack, 252 Speed, 4 HP
IV: Max All
Nature: Jolly/Adamant
Moves:
-Flare Blitz
-Wild Charge
-Extreme Speed
-Morning Sun
Flare Blitz is Stab, Wild Charge for Water types and Damage against Rock types, Extreme Speed for Priority and Morning Sun For Healing

Answer 18

I highly suggest running this guy on sun teams, as they complement this set a lot

Arcanine @ Life Orb / Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Intimidate / Flash Fire
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid / Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Fire Blast / Flamethrower
- Solar Beam
- Morning Sun / Agility
- Scorching Sands

Fire Blast and Flamethrower are STAB, with Fire Blast trading off accuracy for higher BP, while Flamethrower is the opposite. Solar Beam is great coverage and has no recharge while in sunlight. Morning Sun recovers 3/4 of your HP while in sun, and allows you to heal the damage taken from Life Orb while Agility allows you to setup speed, allowing you to outspeed most Pokemon. Scorching Sands is simply coverage, helping to deal with Poison and Fire types that Arcanine may have trouble handling. Life Orb chips off a bit of your health while allowing you to deal more damage, while Heavy-Duty Boots allows you to not take damage from hazards, especially Stealth Rock. Intimidate lowers your opponents attack, while Flash Fire can be used to switch in Arcanine on a predicted Fire type attack to increase the damage of your STAB. The EV spread and Nature are self-explanatory.

Answer 19

Gen 9 UU

Arcanine @ Life Orb
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk/ 252 Spe / 4 HP
Jolly Nature
Tera Type: Normal
-Extreme Speed
-Howl
-Close Combat
-Crunch

I just transformed Arcanine to a normal type, and it looks very good. Extreme Speed is STAB,
Howl is setup, close combat is coverage against rock and steel and crunch against ghosts.

It looks like a good idea to terastal a Pokémon that learns Extreme Speed to take advantage of
this wonderful move and If put the right coverage moves Arca will do well.

That’s it for now!

Answer 20

Gen 9 NU Howl

Arcanine @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Flash Fire
Tera Type: Normal
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant / Jolly Nature
- Howl
- Extreme Speed
- Flare Blitz
- Double-Edge

Arcanine recently dropped to NU, so here is a Howl set Arcanine can use on HO or offense teams. Howl is Arcanine's only move to raise its attack, making Arcanine's attacks more powerful. Extreme Speed allows Arcanine to have a nice priority move to pick off faster Pokemon. With Tera Normal, Arcanine gets STAB on Extreme Speed, making it more powerful to revenge kill faster Pokemon. Flare Blitz is used for a powerful Fire STAB, being useful to hit Steel-types such as Copperajah and Bronzong super effectively. Double-Edge takes advantage of Tera Normal to become a powerful Normal STAB that hits most Pokemon who resist Flare Blitz such as Qwilish, Tauros-Paldea-Blaze, Oricorio, and Tauros-Paldea-Aqua. Close Combat is an option over Double-Edge to hit Pokemon such as Coalossal and Lycanroc super effectively, but Lycanroc is usually a HO lead, so Close Combat doesn't really hit much else. Heavy-Duty Boots is used to prevent Arcanine from being chipped by hazards. Flash Fire lets Arcanine freely switch into Fire moves. Adamant Nature gives Arcanine as much power as possible, while Jolly Nature lets Arcanine have more speed.