Physical Attacker or Special Attacker Salamence?

Question

I want to make a team based on Salamence; I don't know yet what the others are going to be yet.
So I want to make my Salamence a Special Attacker, but the more I looked at the moves and explored it, I learned that the game creators want us to make Salamence a Physical Attacker.
It's Attack base stat is higher than it's Sp. Attack base stat, it's hidden ability is Moxie and it can learn the move Dragon Dance. Much more. But I am still unsure.
What should I do?

Comments

Why won't you make it a physical attacker?

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Just to clarify: does your question include mega salamence,  or just Salamence?

Answer 1

You can make a Special Salamence, although it should mainly be used for Physical attacking.

Physical Reasons:
- Higher Attack than Special Attack
- Dragon Dance
- Has access to Double Edge, one of the most powerful Aeriliate moves in the game.
- Has HA Moxie

Special Reasons:
- Special Attack is, although lower than its Attack, usable.
- Has access to Hyper Voice, a powerful spread move which is Aeriliate boosted.

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However, you should only use Physical/Special Mence if your team requires it. I'd recommend you use a Physical Salamence, as the higher Attack will help you many times, and not much can take a Aeriliate boosted Double Edge directly to the face. This is a Battle-Spot set, although can be used for Smogon tiers etc.

Salamence @ Salamencite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Double-Edge
- Earthquake
- Roost

Pretty simple stuff, however only use DD when you are safe. If you are threatened, use Double Edge or Earthquake to KO the other Pokemon before they KO you. You also may want to consider when you Mega Evolve, as Intimidate destroys threats such as Mega-Kangaskhan and Landorus.

Hope I helped!

Comments

One problem; I'm in Gen 5. You did help a lot, but I don't have any access to the mega evolutions.

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I can't help you if you are in Gen 5, just replace the Mega Stone with a Life Orb. Replace Double Edge with Outrage or Dragon Claw, however Outrage requires a Lum Berry

Answer 2

I'm going to caveat my answer: I don't have any experience of using Salamence for Gen 5. And that said, though there were some pretty big changes between 5 and 6, I've offered my thoughts based on my knowledge of using Salamence in Gen 6. Salamence is also my all time favourite Pokemon, so I have a lot of experience with using it in general. I hope you find this informative.

As mega stones are not possible, consider looking at the VGC2012 movesets on Smogon as a frame of reference for Salamence pre-mega stone, and you'll be surprised to see that most movesets are in fact Special Attacker, so using Salamence as a special attacker is clearly an option. There's multiple possible reasons for this:

• At 110, Salamence has a decent Special Attack stat.
• More importantly, Salamence has a diverse movepool to consider it as a Special
  Attacker.
• Any physical attacker can be crippled by Intimidate/Burn: I have a physical Mega Salamence, but everyone has a counter in either Ice moves or status changes. A Special Attacker does not suffer these same fates with regards to burn, although paralysis will still hurt Salamence A LOT. But removing the burn option for people to deal with Salamence makes a big difference. Certainly I prefer Special over Physical for the reasons I outlined above.

When it comes to items, on Special Salamence you have two options:

• Choice Scarf; faster, but frequent switching in/out may be a pain with Salamence's weakness to Stealth Rock. Activating Intimidate every time does somewhat lessen the pain though.

• Life Orb. Essentially your Aerialite boost! And whilst Salamence may not be fast enough to hit first,setting up Tailwind would double Mence's speed and greatly increase the chances to hit first. This will also allow you to choose a Modest nature over Timid to ensure that you hit hard, and you hit fast.

Consider something like:

Salamence @ Life Orb
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Fire Blast
- Tail Wind
- Hydro Pump

That's a coverage of Super Effective against 8 types, and guaranteed neutral damage on everything else. Consider the following damage calcs:

252+ SpA Life Orb Salamence Draco Meteor vs. 248 HP / 252+ SpD Kyogre: 165-195 (40.9 - 48.3%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery (or 9.2% 2HKO post Stealth Rock)

252+ SpA Life Orb Salamence Hydro Pump vs. 248 HP / 84 SpD Ho-Oh: 216-255 (52 - 61.4%) -- 96.9% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ SpA Life Orb Salamence Draco Meteor vs. 252 HP / 80 SpD Lugia: 188-224 (45.1 - 53.8%) -- 2% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ SpA Life Orb Salamence Draco Meteor vs. 252 HP / 200 SpD Dialga: 239-282 (59.1 - 69.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

These are three examples of Pokemon who are either tanks or have a neutral coverage to all of Salamence's attacks, yet still it is able to outspeed all 3 (even without Tailwind) and inflict a respectable amount of damage. Against weaker Pokemon, or those that are susceptible to one of it's moves, it's pretty clear that Special Salamence is definitely an option.

With regards to other team members, I like this set from the Rate My Team Forum. I know it;s Gen 6 and mega Salamence, but there's not THAT much difference between special Salamence and it's mega counterpart, plus all it's team mates are <= Gen 5.

Comments

Thank you for the answer; I will consider using that Salamence in Sun&Moon.