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He is slow, defenseless, bad move pull but he has great attack. So should I use him?

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Is this for competitive or in-game?
Grapploct is gimmiky
Gimmicky in what way?
In competitive, it could do a superpower and topsy-turvy thing, and in-game it doesn’t really matter. And it’s defences aren’t that bad...
It’s defence is 90 and it has a nice attack which can be a trick room sweeper or a good tank...And not to mention,it’s signature move—octolock is super nice and tricky (these are all my opinion, it’s really depends yourself whether you think it’s good or not)
This both in-game and competitive.
Pick one. Both is too vague and too much to write in-depth for one question
Flagging this question till it's edited to be clearer, or closed.
If this is for competitive, what format/rules are you asking about?
sumwun, Grapploct is only in one generation of games.
Uh... Grapploct was introduced in SwSh...
Yes I'm obviously insane right now.
Obviously :p
His good attack could be an asset to your team, I think.
So is Grapploct better than other Pokemon with good attack?

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Best answer

Since this question is still up, I'll give some of my observations here.

Stat-wise, Grapploct is rather lackluster, but it's not dismally bad. The poor Speed is not that big a deal, and could even be a boon specially if you decided to use it in a Trick Room team. The rest of its stats are well rounded, so it can actually be surprisingly effective, specially if you catch your opponent off guard.

Movepool: Grapploct has a pretty terrible movepool, but again, not atrocious. It has Liquidation, Octolock, Superpower, Sucker Punch, Topsy Turvy, and Circle Throw, all of which are decent moves that help in chip damage and utility.

A great example of Grapploct absolutely demolishing an opponent team would be if it was against a Pokemon that cannot damage it via Toxic/Seismic Toss, and then using Octolock to trap them while you Bulk Up a few times before gaining an edge over the opponent. Do note that this is more of a gimmick that could work under optimal circumstances, but doesn't guarantee anything.

I think Grapploct was designed to play a support role rather than shine as an attacker or sweeper. That said, I feel an Assualt Vest set with full investment in Attack and HP can make it a bulky tank which can wear down the enemy, specially with Drain Punch.

But that's not all. Personally I feel Grapploct can really shine in doubles, and here's why:

  • Octolock can be a surprise trap that can wear down opponent walls while your own Sweepers take the opportunity to boost and sweep.
  • Topsy Turvy can be super useful if your partner Pokemon uses Draco Meteor/Leaf Storm/ Overheat, etc.
  • Just for fun, you can use Octolock on your own Partner Pokemon which has Contrary, which keeps getting bulkier, and can't be phased out.
  • As mentioned above it can help out massively in Trick Room teams with its low health.

All in all, I'd say that while Grapploct isn't the next Landorus T or Tapu Lele, it's not utterly garbage either, but you're better off using another Pokemon in its slot unless you want to win through some funny Doubles shenanigans. Grapploct doesn't stand out as a competitive Pokemon, but it needn't be written off.

Finally, as far as in-game play goes, I'd say it's actually quite good. The low speed is easily fixed by overlevelling, and it can simply click Liquidation and Drain Punch to victory. If you need a Fighting type for your Sw/Sh playthrough and don't have access to the others, this isn't a bad choice by any means.

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nice answer!
this actually gives me faith that Grapploct is usable in some capacity
not to nag, but do you mean chip in and not in chip?
Thanks, @crystal

Haha @StellarLucario, I've been quick to write off many Pokemon in the past as useless, so I try to look out for whether there's any scenario that can help a Pokemon shine (For example, Banded Normalise Assist V-Create Delcatty is a strategy I saw online that blew me away, and there's tons of other such niche sets that really bring out how diverse the game is if you stop to consider it haha)

@Flareon haha thanks for pointing it out, but here I meant "chip damage" as one phrase, the "in" is not for "chip in" but poor wording on my part which suggests that it could help out by chipping away at the opponent for late game sweepers to finish the job.
What's a good moveset for him, including sucker punch? Because I trained one up with sucker punch to level 100, and it took ages!