What are Life Orb's true uses?

Question

What Pokemon can TRULY take use of the Life Orb (Healing moves, high attack stats, and speed maybe?)

Comments

Magic guard pokemon

Answer 1

Magic Guard Pokémon

The ability Magic Guard negates the recoil from Life Orb, making it a good item for these Pokémon. Alakazam is really the only 'Mon who can use it well, though, because all other Magic Guard Pokémon are more support/stall-based and have better things to do than Life Orb.

Sheer Force Pokémon

If the user is holding a Life Orb and uses an attack that activates Sheer Force, it will not receive the 10% damage from Life Orb, but it gets boosts from both Life Orb and Sheer Force (total of 69% base power increase).

Common Sheer Force users, such as Landorus, Darmanitan, Nidoking and Conkeldurr all usually run Life Orb, because it's essentially a Choice boost with no recoil and the freedom to alternate moves, without an HP drawback.

Mixed/Versatile Sweepers

Other Pokémon who love the Life Orb are mixed sweepers and versatile sweepers. Mixed sweepers, such as Greninja, enjoy the power boost of Life Orb as opposed to the riskiness of a Choice item. These are the ones who's job is to be fast and deadly, and Life Orb allows them to do just that. Versatile sweepers are those dedicated to one stat, but find themselves either switching between moves often (Breloom, Garchomp, Scizor, etc.) or healing themselves (Talonflame, Latias, etc.), and they like to rely on the ability to use a mixture of status and attacking moves instead of being locked into one. Both mixed and versatile sweepers are usually frail, with some exceptions (cough Dragonite cough), meaning that the recoil damage won't be much of a hinderance because they aren't expected to live for long anyways.

I hope that this answered your question, and that you're able to find the Life Orb user that's best for you. There's one out there for everyone.

Answer 2

Well, I believe that any Pokemon that has the Ability Sheer Force can make good use of Life Orb. While it raises the damage of your attacking moves, Life Orb stacks with the 30% from Sheer Force to devestating potential. The best part is you don't suffer from the Life Orb recoil. Sheer Force gives you no Life Orb recoil on moves effected by Sheer Force. For example, Nidoking uses Earth Power. Usually, Earth Power has a 10% chance to lower SpDef by one stage, but Sheer Force removes the chance for that effect to give you a 30% boost to the damage. Life Orb stacks to add an extra 10 %. Including STAB, Earth Power's total damage comes out to 189, and there is no damage from the recoil. Other Pokemon can make good use of it too. Personaly, I use Life Orb on my Crobat to increase the overall damage on Poison Fang or Brave Bird. Poison Fang is weak, but after calculated STAB and the bonus from Life Orb, it hits for a solid 80, with a 50% chance to Badly Poison. Not bad! Then, I can just Roost off the damage! The only other Pokemon I know of that can resist Life Orb recoil are Pokemon with Magic Guard. This ability protects your Pokemon from the passive damage of things such as Poison, Burn, Hail, or Sandstorm. But, it can also mitigate the damage from Life Orb as well. So, I'd say any set with it's own form of self recovery could also benefit from the Life Orb boost, but the best users of the Life Orb would be any with Sheer Force or Magic Guard.