Assault Vest and Doubles

[everybody]

Yea exactly. That's why you should change the spread lol preferably to one that is not 2hko'd by ttar rock slide

Thats kinda hard. It will take a 252 HP / 84 Def AND an intimidate reduction to get a gauranteed 3HKO after sandstorm. I can possibly sac some spdef and speed evs to fulfill this but I don't know...

 

[BlankZero]

Thats kinda hard. It will take a 252 HP / 84 Def AND an intimidate reduction to get a gauranteed 3HKO after sandstorm. I can possibly sac some spdef and speed evs to fulfill this but I don't know...

You could lose some Attack. Gyara has plenty of it.

 

[Hitsusen]

Not sure if anyone aready pointed this but...

Gogoat @ Assault Vest
Ability: Grass Pelt
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Horn Leech
- Payback
- Wild Charge
- Earthquake

+

Florges @ Leflovers
Ability: Flower Veil
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
- Grass Terrain
- Aromatherapy / Safeguard
- Wish
- Substitute / Protect

Grass Pelt + Assault Vest gives to Gogoat 298,5 SpD and 240 Def without investiment
Flower Veil gives immunity to Intimidate and any Stats Drops in General
Aromaterapy / Safeguard recover / avoid stats
Horn Leech It's a recovery move that gives more lifetime to gogoat
Grass Terrain acts like a Leflovers to all grounded Pokes

I'm testing this at Showdown and it's working fine.

 

[Lasagne]

I played a few games using assault vest Ludicolo, and it was surprisingly a pretty cool set. Ludicolo already has solid spD (100?), so I thought I might as well throw a vest on it, especially since it definitely has at least 4 moves its happy to use together without missing out on anything essential. I used the following set:

Ludicolo @ Assault Vest
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Fake Out
- Giga Drain
- Surf
- Ice Beam

Ludicolo should get muddy water ;;
I didn't optimize the evs because it was just a quick 5 minute team, but that doesn't really matter on the ladder lol. Fake out is obviously an awesome move that disables an opponents mon for a turn and gives your partner time to do whatever the fuck they want. Giga drain is cool not only because its a good stab but the recovery it provides makes up in part for the lack of recovery that you may get from a different item like sitrus berry. Surf is a nice strong spread move but unfortunately it also hits your allies. has good coverage with giga drain and is generally a good move. You can use hydro pump or bubble or whatever in this slot if you don't want to hit your ally and/or want more power. Ice beam rounds off the awesome three move coverage of grass / water / ice, that (I believe) hits everything for neutral damage. Vest Ludicolo is actually a cool way to beat zardy since its not 2hkoed by heat wave (maybe my evs are but I'm p sure it doesn't have to be), and can hit back hard with surf. If zardy is running air slash your opponent is bad anyway and you should win. Btw I run modest cos fake outs power doesn't matter, its just the utility it provides. Good set, try it, etc.

 

[Novus Canis]

<3
So this didn't exist and I thought it did. Anyways. Assault Vest is an interesting item. When held by a Pokémon, it increases the Sp. Defense stat by 50% but requires the Pokémon to only use damaging attacks.

Competitive Use
The defensive potential of this item is quite huge. However, Assault Vest in Doubles has that huge sacrifice in the loss of Protect or Detect, so it's more suitable for Pokém capable of surviving long enough to make use of their abilities.

Potential Users
You know who's a decent user of Assault Vest? Our beloved Scrafty. Already quite bulky and uses mainly attacks, even though you lose Detect which is a huge hit. You'd need to get rid of enemy tops, too. Is the defensive potential good enough to ditch Detect and keep Scrafty as a support mon that only attacks? Fake Out, Crunch, and Drain Punch are quite useful, allowing for a new moveslot to use Ice Punch, Rock Slide, Stone Edge, Smack Down, or Zen Headbutt.

Togekiss. He already has a nice typing, with decent defenses and a nice movepool overall, this small annoying support Pokémon could put Assault Vest to good use, especially with that goddamn flinching Air Slash.

I personally see Scrafty as being better suited to the role of a D-Dance lead. Dragonite on the other hand could revenge kill quite easily with assault vest and multicale letting it survive most unboosted Ice Beams (something that surprises as much it as it gains other pokemon successful sweeping chances. Assault vest is also a decent option for Cloryphyll Venusaur, taking super-effective hits better and allowing it to sweep easier. (Its rather gimmicky I understand, but it gets results)

 

[Joim]

No, d-dance lead is never a good idea on Doubles.

 

[Novus Canis]

No, d-dance lead is never a good idea on Doubles.

For the most part yes, but you forget that quite a percentage of pokemon used in double battles learn Follow Me. Just because its not a good idea on *standard* teams does not mean you should throw out the idea completely. I'm not going to fall into a back and forth about whats good and what isn't because our opinions could vary massively, but you really should be more open minded about what others use.

 

[Joim]

Scrafty is slow and its spread without Assault Vest is not that good. Spread moves ruin Follow Me / Rage Powder (dazzling gleam OHKOs Scrafty) and if you are using either then it means you are not setting up Trick Room on turn 1, which means if you want to set it up on turn 2 scrafty gets even another hit.

Furthermore, an Intimidate switch in just makes your turn useless, or if Scrafty is burned turn 1 it's useless again and it did nothing but gain speed to hit weakly with.

Lead DD being bad is not a matter of opinion, it's an objective fact proven by everyone experienced in the metagame. It can work, and it will work some times, but it's definitely not the best strategy nor the safest route to a victory. DD has its merits, but it's situational and a bad idea for a lead in a metagame infested with W-o-W, Intimidate, Fake Out, and Taunt (often fast or priority).

 

[Novus Canis]

Never said it was the be all and end all, just an option to consider.

 

[Lasagne]

as joim stated, doubles is littered with moves and abilities that reduce the effectiveness of physical attackers. Obviously there are a lot of physical attackers that overcome this due to them being immensely strong, really useful pivots, great support or they may even offer their own intimidate, which is the case with lando-t, hitnontip, and our very own scrafty. For this reason, physical mons with setup moves are generally less than ones on the special side of the spectrum. Pokemon who choose to set up a swords dance or a dragon dance open them up to burns and intimidate, which invalidates the boost. Some Pokemon can still afford to pull this off thanks to their great power without a boost and solid bulk. Tyranitar is a good example, mega or not. It has good bulk, especially with the spD boost from sandstorm, and high attack which means it doesn't need to set up to do a lot of damage, but can choose to. Scrafty has the necessary bulk (even if its hp is a bit low), but its power is lacking. This is why an assault vest set with fake out support is the best set. It utilizes scraftys bulk to the maximum potential, while providing good support for the team in fake out and intimidate.

you could run DD + weakness policy which would be pretty fun, but its fairly inconsistent and works best as a surprise set (frisk gourgeist :o)

 

[Hailblue]

I have been running Assult Vest on Granbull for a trickroom team. It has been fairly effective. Though I do not know if I should allocate evs more towards the defensive side of Granbull.

Granbull @ Assault Vest
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Att / 4 Sp. D
IVs: 0 Speed
Brave Nature
- Play Rough
- Close Combat
- Earthquake
- Crunch

 

[Novus Canis]

as joim stated, doubles is littered with moves and abilities that reduce the effectiveness of physical attackers. Obviously there are a lot of physical attackers that overcome this due to them being immensely strong, really useful pivots, great support or they may even offer their own intimidate, which is the case with lando-t, hitnontip, and our very own scrafty. For this reason, physical mons with setup moves are generally less than ones on the special side of the spectrum. Pokemon who choose to set up a swords dance or a dragon dance open them up to burns and intimidate, which invalidates the boost. Some Pokemon can still afford to pull this off thanks to their great power without a boost and solid bulk. Tyranitar is a good example, mega or not. It has good bulk, especially with the spD boost from sandstorm, and high attack which means it doesn't need to set up to do a lot of damage, but can choose to. Scrafty has the necessary bulk (even if its hp is a bit low), but its power is lacking. This is why an assault vest set with fake out support is the best set. It utilizes scraftys bulk to the maximum potential, while providing good support for the team in fake out and intimidate.

you could run DD + weakness policy which would be pretty fun, but its fairly inconsistent and works best as a surprise set (frisk gourgeist :o)

I'm fully aware of this, as I have run these sets before. I'm just saying that as far as Assault Vest is concerned, there are generally better options than Vest&Pants lizard. I'm not saying its a bad choice, far from it. I just find that Scafty (FOR ME PERSONALLY) works better as a Shed Skin setup sweeper.

I'm aware of its better team placement choices and how slow/vulnerable it is, its just that I personally find Assault Vest better placed on pokemon that are generally faster/bulkier from the start.

 

[Qazoo306]

I don't have time to test this now, but how would slowbro work as an Assult Vest user? Good physical bulk, passable special bulk, hits moderately hard, has a powerful STAB spread move, and outspeeds most everything under trick room. Just a thought, I'll test it soon and get back with the results.

 

[champetero]

Goodra is a very good assault vest user,it already has huge special defense bulk so with the boost of assault vest goodra will tank a lot of special attackers.The lack of need to invest in special Defense EV's allows you to invest more in defense.Has good coverage in draco meteor,ice beam,fire blast, thunder bolt,etc.His 3 abilities are ok, sap sipper counters grass types and is immune to sleep so he can tank charizard Y + venusaur all day, with sleep clause possibly being removed sap sipper becomes a cool way to counter sleep.Gooey helps slow down pokemon and then let another pokemon outspeed it and get the Kill on it.Hydraiton means its viable under rain because it can heal of status that try to wear it down + it gets to use 100% Thunder.

I don't have time to test this now, but how would slowbro work as an Assult Vest user? Good physical bulk, passable special bulk, hits moderately hard, has a powerful STAB spread move, and outspeeds most everything under trick room. Just a thought, I'll test it soon and get back with the results.

I don't think slowbro would be a good assault vest user because slowbro's strength is being a good support pokemon and running assault vest ruins that.