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I use Salamence because with a Focus Sash, I get a Dragon Dance. With the boosted Speed and Attack, it won’t be very difficult to get a kill, and after every Pokémon Salamence kills, it gets a boost from Moxie, making it harder to kill every turn.
However, a lot of ppl say Garchomp is way better and I don’t understand why
Pls explain
Thanks

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ew garchomp
For one, garchomp has better defences and better speed and only lacks a little in terms of power. Unlike salamence, garchomp also has moves to effectively take care of fairy types. And u would only make use of salamence ha if u are sure u can ko, and shld u be at 1hp there is the priority moves like sucker punch. There is also the fun side effect of making the opponent guess which ur ability is for garchomp if u put it in a sand team, allowing them to find out only after they suffer. Although I would say they are on par
you should specify the generation you're playing in
Not really as much, that one is 1v1 and 2v2s, so moxie wouldn't matter as much. Still flagging for mod attention tho
That link doesn't really answer the question since that is just a comparison and the guy did ask for the hidden ability specifically and the best answer didn't cover their abilities including the regular ones

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It really depends on the gen, as it faces different opponents for each one. On the other hand, you've seemed to have been posting many gen 5 ou questions lately, so I'll go with that.

Enter Salamence. This is a Pokemon that was deemed too powerful for DPP OU, which is a testament to just how good it is. That doesn't explain everything about Salamence's power, though. In Black and White, the Dream World gods decided for whatever reason that this already powerful Pokemon needed even more muscle, so they gave it Moxie. Thanks to this ability, Salamence will progressively become more difficult to wall. So, are you thinking you can just send out a physical wall and expect all your Salamence problems to go away? Well, that's not how it works. Salamence has great mixed attacking stats, so you should probably think twice before switching that physical wall in. Okay, so, what does Salamence struggle with then? Answering that question is simple. It faces a lot of competition from Dragonite, who is much bulkier thanks to its stats and access to Multiscale. Additionally, the once unrivaled MixMence now has to compete with the newcomer Hydreigon, who boasts a higher Special Attack stat and access to Superpower. Salamence is also easily revenge killed by Mamoswine and Choice Scarf users such as Keldeo. Rest assured, however; Salamence is guaranteed to be a formidable opponent on the battlefield.

It's amazing, but it is also matched up closely by other dragons, drago unite and hydregon. It's also doomed against mamoswine(I should know. I use mamo on my gen 5 ou team) as an ice shard ohkos. It also gets koed by other Pokemon, like the mentioned keldeo.

Garchomp is one of the most versatile Pokemon in the OU metagame. Sporting great stat distribution across the board, an amazing typing, and above-average bulk, Garchomp is capable of filling many roles for a team. Garchomp's great Attack and Speed stats are augmented by powerful STAB moves, such as Outrage and Earthquake, that allow it to hit the majority of the tier for major damage with its STAB moves alone. While Ground / Dragon is a very good typing offensively, it cannot be disregarded defensively either. With an immunity to Electric, key resistances to Fire- and Rock-type moves, and above-average bulk, Garchomp is capable of checking strong attackers such as Thundurus-T, Tyranitar, and Heatran. However, while Garchomp has a good Speed stat, base 102 Speed just isn't what it used to be. Powerful threats such as Keldeo, Latios, and Terrakion are just some of the dangerous Pokemon that outspeed Garchomp. While Garchomp's Ground / Dragon typing is generally good defensively, it does remove its Water- and Grass-type resistances while only amplifying an Ice-type weakness that quite a few common Pokemon can exploit. Regardless, Garchomp is a very serious threat. It can begin to wreak havoc at a moment's notice, so be sure you have a way to handle it.

A bit more bulk, and with rough skin, it can be a bit more defensive. Not to be said that you should make it a wall tho. It's more on the fast-but-still-bulky-sweeper side, and it's typing is good offensively. It also is able to check Pokemon, which are mentioned above.

All in all, it really depends on the team. If you got yourself a spinner-maybe Salamence is better, no destroyed by SR. If you dont, maybe garchomp. Hyper offensive-salamence. Not hyper offensive-garchomp. Team to frail? Garchomp. Not enough damage? Salamence. It really depends on what the rest of your team is, as while they are similar they are still different.
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Salamence
+ Side

Intimidate and Moxie are great abilities
Dragon Dance
Very High Attack and a good Special Attack stat
Vast physical movepool and a decent special movepool
Typing resists water and 4x resists grass, and both of these types are rather common

-Side

4x Ice weakness
If not carrying Intimidate, its bulk is rather low
Offensively, Dragon-Flying is not so good, since it gets walled by Steel types. I'll get to Earthquake later
Literally has no good Flying STAB if you aren't using Mega
Sash Moxie-Mence gets trashed by priority moves, such as Weavile and Mamoswine's Ice Shard, and Greninja could use it as a free evolution into Ash-Greninja by simply clicking Water Shuriken
Stealth Rock weakness

Garchomp
+Side

Great offensive typing, as it has Dragon type STAB and Earthquake to destroy Steels and actually do damage to Fairies
Rough Skin+Rocky Helmet chip punishes Physical attackers, leaving them in range of being revenge-killed, which also makes it a good teammate for Ash-Greninja
High Speed stat
Epic Attack stat
Special attack is decent, and its special movepool is pretty good
Great physical movepool
Stealth Rock resistance
Good bulk
Access to Stealth Rock
Sandstorm immunity

-Side

4x Ice weakness
Neutrality to Water and Grass
Destroyed by Mamoswine and Weavile

TL;DR here is, Garchomp is more useful in both offenses, resistances, and team support than Moxie-Mence is. Use Garchomp

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Garchomps speed is only a small little better than salamences and salamence doesn't get effected by spikes and sticky web plus salamence gets dragon dance which I don't think garchomp does
Also salamence has 90,80,80 defence and although it has more weakness than garchomp(1) it does have more resistance and isn't steel wing good enough on salamence
Spikes are less common than Stealth Rock. Sticky Web is also rare. Garchomp's speed is already fast, so the 333 speed cap only matters in a few situations. Garchomp also has access to Swords Dance, which I don't believe Salamence has.
Steel Wing is weak, and has low accuracy. More resistances doesn't matter if you take 25% switching in either
If you wanna cover Ice types Flamethrower is better imo (saying this to the Steel Wing claim) and a STAB neutral... Fly does almost as much as a super effective Steel Wing.
But nobody even runs Fly Salamence anyway, other than Z-Move variants.
I wonder if Lyle realizes that Garchomp's speed is the reason it is such a threat. It completely trolls every single base 100 pokemon

And that fly Salamence is only good with the flying z crystal. I don't even think it's a particularly good idea considering that after using the crystal, you're stuck with a next to useless move
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That honestly depends on what your team really needs. Garchomp is a swiss army knife while Salamence is a kommando tri dagger. This comparison isn't just a random one as it pretty much sums up both of the Pokemon. Salamence is a pure and utter killing machine while Garchomp can do lots of stuff

Just a quick run down of their key differences

Garchomp
- stealth rock resistance
- good bulk in 108 hp / 95 def / 85 spd
- powerful stabs on both types
- utility options
- vulnerable to both form of spikes

Salamence
- stealth rock weakness
- immunity to both spikes along with earthquake
- colorful and destructive movepool
- lack of powerful flying stab
- fragile in 95 hp and 80 in both defenses which is further compounded without intimidate

That's just their major differences. To be honest, Salamence took a massive hit in gen six when the fairy nation attacked. Unlike in previous gens where you just have to go dragon dance or slap a choice scarf and spam outrage after Ferrothorn has been killed, this isn't as doable anymore. Garchomp took the hit as well but not as hard as Salamence. Garchomp's movepool might not be that colorful nor destructive but it provides it with the tools it need

As for their abilities, rough skin allows Garchomp to have a lot more options, specifically brutally punishing fake out users while Salamence's moxie only increased its specialty, which is going on an outrage. Garchomp just has a lot more options since it is a swiss army knife while the only thing Salamence can really do is kill especially if not running intimidate and even then, the ultra beasts like Kartana, Pheromosa and that disco ball headed beast does that job better since they're faster and have a similar ability

So which one you choose? That depends on what you want. Need utiltiy? Go with Garchomp. Need a killing machine? Go with Salamence. If you want which one is better than Garchomp is the way. Garchomp has been a threat in ou not because of its firepower but mainly because of its utility. It even rivals the king of ou, Landorus Therian

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