What's a good move to cover Heliolisk's Ground-type weakness?

Question

I'm debating whether to choose surf or grass knot in gen 6, in-game uses, Dry Skin ability. Thanks

Comments

which ability?

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What do you want to do with this Heliolisk? Do you want to battle other people, the Battle Maison, in-game trainers, or something else?

Answer 1

Sand Veil is banned, so nobody's having any of that. This leaves 2 abilities.

Dry Skin: You should probably go Surf if you have Pelipper. If you're weary of sun setters like Charizard Y, go Grass Knot.

Solar power: It is imperative that you run Solar Beam since its 1 turn and is as powerful as the heaviest grass Knot. Surf is bad on SP because water type attacks have their power halved in sun.

Hope this helps :)

Comments

Ya I meant in-game, sorry should’ve been more descriptive!

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If you're going Solar Power, wouldn't you want Solar Beam?  Being in Sun reduces Solar Beam to a 1 turn move instead of 2.  It's also a consistent damage source, rather than the variable that is Grass Knot.

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forgot about that. edited

Answer 2

I would say surf.

Surf hits more Pokemon super effectively than grass knot does and surf will always have a reliable 90 base power.

Comments

but what about solar power? surf gets weaker in sun

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Yea, it may actually half into 45 power, aka weak.

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that's true. i didn't think of that.

Answer 3

Ground types are usually heavy, so Grass Knot does more damage than Surf does. Surf is fixed at 90 BP, but Grass Knot has more power as the opponent is heavy. However, If it has dry skin ability, then you need to use surf as it behaves as a coverage moves for two of its weaknesses, Fire and Ground. Otherwise, I would go with Grass Knot.

Hope it helps :)