So, I have a Pokemon question. And Smogon and everything is currently down for me, so I'm asking here. What is the best nature, moveset, and stats for Volcarona? I can't for the life of me figure it out. I know he's supposed to be a fast mother flanker, but that's all I got :c
I have no idea about Gen 5 at all, but this link may help if you can access it: http://www.serebii.net/potw-bw/637.shtml
Here's some of it copypastad into the spoiler tags: Spoiler: probably very long Overview Volcarona is one of the new Pokemon brought to us in Black and White and it's one worth remembering. It quickly became one of the most dangerous Pokemon in history to not be outright banned. Its offenses are horrifying, speed great and the rest of its stats above average. Its movepool is basically perfect. Quiver Dance allows Volcarona to go from a solid offensive threat to a team slaying nightmare. Its abilities are also great, Flame Body in particular making Volcarona difficult to assault from either side of the spectrum. Oh, and did I mention Drought Ninetales giving Volcarona MORE power? Volcarona may spend most of its life Quiver Dancing but that doesn't mean it's predictable. Each of its sets have drastically different counters. Its only real flaw is a 4x Stealth Rock weakness but that can be worked around with only a little support. Volcarona is potentially the most dangerous Pokemon you will ever face, only somewhat rivaled by other monsters like Dragonite and Terrakion. Prepare for the solar deity or else you will feel its wrath. Abilities Flame Body: When a move makes contact with Volcarona it has a 30% chance of burning your opponent. This is an amazing ability for Volcarona. With Quiver Dance boosting its Special Defense you generally have to tackle Volcarona physically.. and doing so has a chance of burning you. It also makes spamming Iron Head and Bullet Punches more dangerous as Volcarona can ruin them just by switching in. Swarm: Boosts the power of Bug moves by 1.5x when under one third of your remaining HP. A good ability, but it's largely inferior to Flame Body. It's as a Dream World ability, limiting its usage. Movesets Watch your moth young lady! - Fiery Dance / Fire Blast - Bug Buzz - Quiver Dance - Hidden Power Ground / Ice / Rock / Substitute Ability: Flame Body EVs and Nature: EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk) So if you see a Volcarona, prepare for this set. While it has many options the generic offensive set is the most common. The idea is to Quiver Dance against something that can't hurt you like Jirachi, Scizor or Latios after a Draco Meteor. After a Quiver Dance you punish pretty much every Pokemon around with your shockingly good STAB moves and coverage. Fiery Dance is a great STAB move, having a 50% chance of boosting your Special Attack. Fire Blast however has stunning power, particularly in sunlight, allowing you to OHKO some things that actually resist it. Bug Buzz is the all around reliable STAB move which hits water types like Politoed harder than anything else. Hidden Power Ground is the best option for the last move as it decimates Heatran while giving you a good shot at getting through Terrakion and Tentacruel. Hidden Power Ice hits Dragonite hard, OHKOing even through multiscale if you have Life Orb but HP Rock also OHKOs Dragonite (needs Stealth Rocks to do so). HP Rock also hits Gyarados. Substitute is a final option to help wear down counters like Landorus and Politoed so Volcarona can either sweep later or let something else take advantage of it. Lum Berry is the primary item choice as it lets Volcarona not instantly be screwed by Thunder Wave, Toxic Spikes, Jirachi Body Slam or random Sleep moves. Life Orb is worth mentioning for the sheer deadly power it brings. Leftovers is the last usable item but it's mostly to be used if you're running Substitute. A real mothful. - Fire Blast - Bug Buzz - Quiver Dance - Hurricane Item Attached: Leftovers / Life Orb / Lum Berry Ability: Flame Body EVs and Nature: EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk) So you've used Volcarona in sun, or clear skies. But have you ever used it in Rain? Sounds crazy, but it actually works. Rain Volcarona takes advantage of its ability to check several things Rain teams have trouble with while still being an offensive might on its own. Things like Ferrothorn, Scizor, Virizion, Toxicroak and Celebi that Rain hates to face all crumble before Volcarona. Hurricane has 120 base power, 30% confusion rate and 100% accuracy in the rain which is pretty hard to switch into. Fire Blast is still on the set despite being used in Rain as it lets Volcarona rip through Scizor and Ferrothorn and take a big chunk out of anything that's weak to it. Don't bother with Fiery Dance. In rain it's too weak. Leftovers is the best item here as it lets Volcarona stick around longer but Life Orb and Lum Berry are always usable. It's that time of the moth again. - Fiery Dance - Bug Buzz - Quiver Dance - Morning Sun Item Attached: Leftovers Ability: Flame Body EVs and Nature: EVs: 240 HP / 216 Def / 52 Spd Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk) Think using Volcarona in the rain is dumb? Fine, try using the sun god in... the sun. Fiery Dance hits like a truck in sunlight, blazing through everything it hits super-effective in one shot. Bug Buzz is as always Volcarona's most reliable STAB move. Morning Sun and defensive EVs pair with Volcarona's Special Defense boosting Quiver Dance to become very difficult to take down without using a rock move. Flame Body works particularly well here as with the added bulk Volcarona can easily come in on Scizor and either scare it off or burn it. EVs hit a defense jump point with the rest in HP, reaching an odd number so Stealth Rocks do less damage. 52 Speed outruns all unboosted Pokemon in standard after a Quiver Dance, while two dances will outrun Scarf Landorus (along with virtually every other Pokemon). Lum Berry protects from status which is important as you aren't sweeping anything when Paralyzed or hit by Toxic, yet Leftovers adds to Morning Sun's ridiculous recovery allowing you to heal over 70% in one turn. Your MOTHer is so dumb she flies into lights. - Fiery Dance / Fire Blast - Bug Buzz - Quiver Dance - Rest Item Attached: Chesto Berry Ability: Flame Body EVs and Nature: EVs: 104 HP / 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 148 Spd Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk) Volcarona is a terrifying offensive force but one problem it has is being slowly worn down by tankish Pokemon. Sure it can Quiver Dance right in Blissey's face, but Blissey will still probably take it out with Toxic or Thunder Wave long before Volcarona collects enough Quiver Dances to beat the pink blob. Chesto Rest helps solve this problem. Quiver Dance until the Blissey, Tentacruel or whatever has you near death. Then Rest, and Quiver Dance further with this new "life". This set is extremely dangerous against stall that relies on residual damage and Blissey / Chansey as Chesto Rest Volcarona has little trouble getting around them. Speed EVs outrun Scarf Rotom and Scarf Adamant base 100s after one Quiver Dance with the rest of the spare EVs placed in bulk. HP hits an odd number so Stealth Rocks does less damage while the remaining 4 EVs is slapped into Special Defense. EVs & Natures Volcarona Always max Special Attack and Speed on the offensive sets. Try to keep your HP odd so you can survive two hits from Stealth Rocks. 52 speed with a neutral nature outruns Alakazam after a Quiver Dance while 148 with Timid outruns Choice Scarf Rotom. Other Options Swarm, Whirlwind / Will-o-wisp, Solarbeam, Flamethrower, Psychic, Choice Specs and... that's about it. Though Flame Body is by far the better option Swarm can give Bug Buzz pretty scary power. After Quiver Dance, STAB and Swarm Bug Buzz will hit with over 300 base power. Whirlwind and Will-o-wisp could work on a defensive set but having a 4x Stealth Rock weakness, bad recovery and good-but-not-great defenses means you're better off using something like Heatran for this role. Solarbeam can OHKO Terrakion and most bulky waters that give Volcarona trouble. Sadly it doesn't have good coverage past that and Solarbeam is a bad move in a weather heavy metagame. Flamethrower hits almost 20% harder than Fiery Dance and has a chance of burning. It's weaker than Fire Blast but also has 100% accuracy. A lesser option usually but it's there if you need the balance between power and reliability. The problem is Bug Buzz usually fulfills this roll so the Fire move is use for the power of Fire Blast or steamroller effect of Fiery Dance. Psychic hits Tentacruel hard while I guess doing some damage to Conkledurr. Don't use it unless you're playing Wifi and can't get a Hidden Power. Choice Specs in the sun can be pretty incredible. Even Blissey can't easily take a Specs Fire Blast with sunlight.
