What is a good moveset for Arcanine?

Question

If you have a good moveset for Arcanine, post an answer below and upvote the best ones. Remember, this is for competitive movesets, not in-game. Ability, EVs etc should be included, and we encourage sets for VGC doubles as well as singles. Make sure to read all the guidelines here.

Arcanine Pokedex & learnset for reference.

Comments

Here's my current set for my XY/ORAS Team:

Arcanine (Physical), Leftovers
Adamant Nature | 252 Atk/252 Spd/4 HP
Intimidate
- Flare Blitz
- Wild Charge
- Extreme Speed
- ???

Pretty standard stuff. For my fourth move I'm considering the following:

Close Combat: Strong Rock-type coverage, lowers Defenses however
Crunch: General coverage
Outrage: Strong coverage, causes confusion and must be used consecutively
Iron Head: Rock-type coverage

What move should I go with? I'm leaning towards Close Combat currently.

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Charizard, there are multiple ways to set up an Arcanine. If he is part of a sun team, then Sunny Day is not needed, but Morning Sun is VERY useful. Also, Arcanine can be either a SAtk build, Atk build, or Hybrid. I have a sun team Arcanine, so Flare Blitz is good to have as it is powerful and you can use Morning Sun to heal his wounds. I had it learn dig to escape damage and cover Electric and Poison types. There's that or Extreme Speed which will ensure you strike first, but lose coverage. Both choices deal 80 base damage. Last, I have Close Combat, but am debating switching to Double Kick. Double Kick w/o crit hit's for a base 60 power, which is doubled if used against types like Rock, Steel, Normal, Dark and any that I might have missed dealing 120. That may not seem like much, but on a Atk (physical) Arcanine, it could mean a lot of damage without lowering your defenses like Close Combat would. Close Combat would lower your defenses, but do 240 in super effective damage. It really depends on how you play it. I go pound for pound in my battles. No switching Pokemon and no legendaries, latios/latias, or Garchomp (as these pokemon are created with stat advantages and/or otherwise). The object here is to overcome the obsticles in your path as 1 in a fair battle (single or double). My Arcanine is built as a Atk Arcanine on a sun team. Him and his partner must battle as one and the same or be sent to Oblivion. As I stated, it's all how you play it.

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MajesticArcanine, I like it! We think similiar with the sun team build, lol, nice.

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well i know it sounds weird but the moveset should be morning sun flare blitz will o wisp and extreme speed also its ev's should be max hp max sp.def and the rest in attack

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Do you know what's annoying? Got a shiny growlithe from SOS chaining and it's got an adamant nature and I can't breed for Close Combat XD

Answer 1

Use:
Sunny Day: to decrease the turns needed for Solarbeam and to increase the HP you recover from Morning Sun and to power up Fire-Type moves
Morning Sun:to recover HP
Solarbeam:for weakness coverage
Flamethrower/Flare Blitz:the two moves get powered up by Sunny Day.the choice depends on you whether you want it to be a mixed sweeper or a special sweeper
you could set up Sunny Day before you switch in to it and replace Sunny Day with Extreme Speed

Comments

Well said Pokenut.

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Solar Beam won't do so much damage because Arcanine is a psysical attacker, even though this set is mixed

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Dude, Arcanine has base 110 attack and base 100 special attack. There isn't much of a difference which means solarbeam still is a great move to have on Arcanine. If Arcanine has a modest nature and EV's that boost it's special attack, then its special attack becomes stronger than its physical attack power.

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Pokenut and MrKijani, you guys are VERY incorrect just like all these so called "wise trainers**" you speak of. I just got done watching a stupid battle where the two trainers did nothing but switch out for 15 damn minutes. It reminded me why I never watch other people battle. The cowardice is at a all time high.  A real wise pokemon trainer is one who raises his pokemon to cover his weaknesses.

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Night Child, the reason why pokemon battles are skill based and not just a competition of who copied and pasted the best team is judgment on what movesto use at what times, when to switch out, etc. There's nothing wrong with switching so you aren't required to sacrifice a pokemon.

Answer 2

Ability: Intimidate
Flare Blitz
Extreme Speed
Wild Charge
Morning Sun

Comments

how do you get flare blitz? tm or level up? also i have HA flash fire will that work?

Answer 3

Gen V

Arcanine (M) @ Life Orb

Trait: Intimidate

EVs: 248 Atk / 8 Def / 252 Spd

Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)

• Close Combat
• Flare Blitz
• Wild Charge/Crunch
• ExtremeSpeed

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. Extremespeed 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 4

Wow! Classic arcanine! This guy is a hard core old testament phyaical attacker. Great moves!

Item: Leftovers/ Lum Berry/ Life Orb

EVs: 252 Attack 252 Speed 4 HP
Teach it:

Flare Blitz- STAB, plus a base power of 120 which is increased with STAB. If you don't like recoil, go with fire fang, or flamethrower if you're trusting it's special attack. Use leftovers for recoil, or go suicide with the life orb.

Extremespeed- You HAVE to teach this guy this. Priority + 80 base power = a must. Simple math.

Outrage: OK guys, this is outrage!!! You have to have it! It's just another move with 120 base power! Use the Lum Berry to snap it out of confusion.

Thunder Fang/ Close Combat/ Morning Sun/ Wild Charge- Ok I had a hard time deciding between these three so I listed them all. In my opinion, I would go with thunder fang or wild charge due to arcanine being ev trained on attack in speed so it is a partial glass cannon, so I think there would be no use trying to heal it with morning sun, but I know people are going to argue my point. Also, thunder fang or wild charge won't lower defense like close combat. As I said before, wild charge will due recoil, so go with leftovers if you choose this move.

So yeah that's about it. Please rate well! Btw this is my first set being posted so don't be too harsh. Until next time, See Ya!

Comments

That is four not three

Answer 5

Id say that as a potential mix sweeper, Arcanine can learn these moves:

Flamethrower - good power, great accuracy, special

Thunder Fang - decent power, use to deal water types,physical

Sunny Day - powers up flamethrower, solar beam releases quicker

Solar Beam - great power, great accuracy, deals with rock,water,ground.

thats what I think is the best moveset for arcanine. you can have it with a lonley/rash/mild

Answer 6

This is a common Arcanine I see on PO Underused. This works great on a vulpix sun team.

close combat/crunch-CC gives nice coverage, and crunch deals with ghosts.

Morning Sun-Completely restores health if he's under the sun.

ExtremeSpeed-priority works wonders on him.

Flare Blitz-STAB; works nicely with morning sun.

Comments

Dark, the only thing better than a Vulpix sun team is a Ninetales sun team...unless that is what you meant, ;-). Crunch isn't necessary if Ninetales is built correctly, trust me. Close combat lowers defense, try Thunderfang or Wild Charge, but WC is suspect. If you want another Fighting move option, Double Kick deals 120 base power to Dark, Normal, Rock, and Steel. Extreme Speed is a good choice unless you want coverage, than Dig is good too. If you want first hit, then ES is the way to go.

Answer 7

Double/Triple battle

Arcanine (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Intimidate/Flash Fire
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- 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 8

Arcanine (M) @ Choice Band

Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spd / 4 Def
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Flare Blitz
- Wild Charge
- ExtremeSpeed

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 9

I actually use this doge as a tank

RK9 @ Leftovers

Ability: Intimidate
Gives you some natural Physical bulk allowing you to invest more in SDef if you so want to.
EVs: 196 HP / 252 Atk / 60 Def or SDef
Gives some mixed bulk and attacking power
- Flare Blitz
- Extreme Speed
- Will-O-Wisp
- Morning Sun

*Flare Blitz is a decent STAB with Morning Sun to heal off the damage. Will-O-Wisp is the bread and butter of this set, allowing you to cripple physical attackers to nothing while getting off residual damage. E-Speed allows some neutral coverage and finishing off stuff.*

Comments

This is the set I've been thinking of for Arcanine as well. Upvote.

Answer 10

Extremespeed and Flare Blitz are a must for Arcanine. Thunder Fang is also a good move to have around and deal with Water and Flying types. Hidden Power Grass is a good option for the fourth moveslot, since it provides type coverage and works off of Arcanine's good Special Attack. However, you could also use Hidden Power Ground to take down Fire types, but HP Grass is usually better. However, there are some other good options for the fourth moveslot:

Toxic: Takes down foes who would otherwise be unaffected by Arcanine's other moves.

Will-o-wisp: Helps take down Physical sweepers.

Iron Tail: To deal with Rock types.

Dragon Pulse: To deal with Dragon types.

Overall, the best moveset would probably be: Flare Blitz, Extremespeed, Thunder Fang, HP Grass/Iron Tail

Answer 11

Gen III

Arcanine (M) @ Leftovers

Ability: Flash Fire

EVs: 52 HP / 108 Atk / 64 Def / 188 SAtk / 64 SDef / 32 Spd

Serious Nature

• ExtremeSpeed
• 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 killed 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 12

Well first of all you need to know what Arcanine's weaknesses are. Arcanine's weaknesses are: Rock, Ground, and Water. So here is a good moveset I would think would be the best for Arcanine.

1. Morning Sun- This move would allow you to heal half your max HP...depending on the weather it could either give you close to 3/4 or close to 1/4 of your max HP back.

2. Close Combat- This move would cover for it's Rock weakness. It is pretty hard to teach it this move because it can only learn it from an egg move. Although with a power of 120 and and accuracy off 100, this would be a very good move to teach it. It also works well since Arcanine has great attack power. The only downside to this move is that it lowers your defense and special defense by one every time you use it, BUT I am sure that Arcanine's speed would allow it to attack first.

3. Thunder Fang/ Wild Charge- Depending on wether or not you want recoil damage or not these are the only two electric type moves that Arcanine can learn. Wild Charge has a power of 90 and an accuracy of 100, however it does recoil damage to Arcanine if it does damage to the pokemon. Thunder Fang would be better for those people who don't like recoil damage. I would still go with Wild Charge because Thunder Fang only has a power of 65 and an accuracy of 95. I would highly recomend one of these attacks though because it is super effective against Water type pokemon.

4. Flare Blitz/ Extreemespeed- Flare Blitz is a really great move for Arcanine for two reasons: (1) STAB (Same Type Attack Bonus) Since it is a Fire type along with arcanine it would give it an extra 50% more damage to the defending pokemon bringing the total power of it to 180!!! and an accuracy of 100. (2) It is much more reliable than Fire fang because it has better power and accuracy. The only bad part is that recoil damage. :-( Extreemespeed would be good too because it always attacks first and when your opponent has HP that is low yellow or in the red it is almost certain to KO that pokemon with the great power of 80.

If you want both Flare Blitz and Extreemespeed I would recommend you get rid of Morning Sun because your opponent would have a chance to take more damage out of you while your using the turn to heal. Well this attack set takes care of some of Arcanine's weaknesses. The only one left is the ground type. Well I wouldn't woory to much about that, but if you do you could always teach Arcanine Solar Beam which is a Grass type, but if you don't worry about it than give it the item AIR BALLOON. This item lets your pokemon float in the air until it is hit by certain moves then it pops, but while in the air ALL ground type moves are nullified. So now you don't have to worry about those moves like Earthquake(which is very common and one of my favorite moves), Bulldoze, and Earth Power. Well there you have it, a good moveset for Arcanine that should work very well.

Answer 13

Arcanine @Choice Band
Trait: Intimidate
EVs 252Atk \ 252Spe / 4SpD
Adamant Nature

~Flame Charge
~Extremespeed
~Crunch
~Close Combat

Comments

...Flame charge? With a priority move? If you want speed, use Agility. If you want a power STAB, use flare blitz >.>

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if you see a steel mono without heatran and say YOLO and then Flame CHarge everyone

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Well it is Banded, so unless the Choice Band gets knocked off, it's not like it could easily switch between the two Moves.

Answer 14

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

[email protected] Band/Leftovers
Trait: Flash Fire
Adamant Nature
EVs: 252 Atk 252 Spe 4 HP
-Fire Fang/Flare Blitz
-Double Kick/Reversal
-Thunder Fang
-Iron Head/Morning Sun/Agility

Double kick is there as a sub breaker and coverage, thunder fang is there as a flinch and para chance and coverage, fire fang is a burn para 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:

[email protected] Herb
Trait: Flash Fire
Modest Nature
EVs: 252 SpAtk, 252 Spe, 4 HP
-Solar Beam
-Flamethrower
-Swift
-Agility

With a white 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:

[email protected] Sash/Leftovers
Trait: Intimidate
Hardy Nature
Evs: 252 Sdef, 252 HP, 4 Def
-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 15

Arcanine M "Faculae"; Fire; Flash Fire; Jolly; Life Orb;

Approx. Stats at Level 50:
Atk = 150
Def = 95
Sp. Atk = 110
Sp. Def = 90
Spd = 130

Moveset:
Sunny Day = Used on the First turn for later moves. Also to cut the damage of weakness Water type attacks

Flare Blitz = Main STAB Attack move. With Sunny Day under effect plus Life Orb's benifit, its power will increase to a point even Pokemon with a type advantage will be cut to critical health

Morning Sun = w/ Sunny Day under effect, Its Hp will be recovered tremendously and to heal up after a Flare Blitz or Life Orb's HP drain

Close Combat = Can be used to knock-out rock types or trying to avoid self damage form Flare Blitz

Comments

Well, what about chandelure. There's this one's weakness.

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And that's the beauty with being able to have multiple pokemon.

Answer 16

This is how I'd go about Arcanine's moveset.

Evs: 252 Atk, 252 Spd, 4 Hp
Jolly(for a super-fast arcanine)/ Adamant (sweeper)
Lum Berry- in case of that electrivire static
Ability- intimidate

Flame charge- increase in speed EVERY time
Wild charge- Coverage
Bulldoze- decrease opposition's speed EVERY time
ExtremeSpeed- Priority +2

Summary

If you're into fast-paced movesets, then go with this!
Get him started with flame charge- it will keep him on top of the speed chain
Then have him use bulldoze to decrease their speed.
Add in ExtremeSpeed to give him an extremely high chance of hitting first
Wild charge foe coverage(can be replaced with thunder fang, but not as reliable.)
If you want to have him as a phisical sweeper, then go for a different moveset.

Answer 17

Arcanine(Persim Berry)
Ability: Intimidate
Nature: Jolly(+Spe -SAtk)
252 Atk/252 Spe/4 Hp

• Flare Blitz
• Outrage
• Wild Charge
• Extremespeed

Answer 18

Arcanine is awesome! he is like a replica of my own dog dusy. for him I would do

• fire fang/overheat(stab flare blitz works too but this is what mine knows)
• wild charge(covers water)
• iron tail(covers rock)
• outrage/extreme speed(power and extreme speed has priority)
  feel free to make any changes. also move set works with shell bell.

Answer 19

Arcanine @ Leftovers

Ability: Flash Fire

Nature: Adamant (+Attack, -Sp. Atk.)

-Sunny Day (Water power decreases, Solar Beam will charge and attack in one turn)

-Solar Beam (Coverage for Waters, Grounds and Rocks)

-Dig (Coverage for Rocks)

-Flamethrower (STAB, very good power combined with Sunny Day)

Although this canine has low defenses, Leftovers will help it.

Comments

Adamant lowers the power of 2/3 of his attacks.

Answer 20

Arcanine has good offensive EVs, and its Spd is awesome. Things like Crobat and Archeops can outspeed it, so these are the moves that I use for a Defensive-ish Arcanine.

Item: Leftovers
Ability: Justified/ Flash-Fire- Good Abilities, but choose the latter if a DreamWorld Arcanine/Growlithe is unavailable.

Flamethrower: It's Flamethrower. Use Flare Blitz as a physical alternative.

Extreme Speed: Common on most Arcanines, use this if you need to outspeed, or for a quick KO.

Morning Sun: Healing

Howl/ Sunny Day: Howl raises Atk, so it's good for physical Arcanines, while Sunny Day powers up Fire moves and makes Morning Sun heal more.

This is defensive-ish because of Morning Sun, and works well on Sun teams if you hav Sunny Day. Hope I help'd!