Grubbin, Charjabug, Vikavolt Discussion

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Pretty sure that Mega Ampharos runs an Agility set with only 2 more points in base speed. This could work just fine.
But sweeper set of mega-amphy isn't that effective, it's best set is bulky one; which vikavolt can't pull off due to obvious reasons.
 
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Pikachu315111

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Aw, I was hoping it would be fast. :( Heck, it's not even average, it's slow. I suppose it'll work well in a Trick Room team, especially with that great Special Attack and okay defenses. Speaking of which, I wouldn't be surprised if Charjabug got more play time via Doubles. Its decent defenses will appreciate an Eviolite boost while its partners will appreciate the Special Attack increase.

Vikavolt has the STABs you'll expect it to have plus Air Slash, Energy Ball, and Flash Cannon. Also gets Volt Switch though surprisingly not U-turn, would have been nice to have the option which one you wanted to use. Also gets Roost which could be helpful, though Charjabug would probably have liked a healing move more. Though it has no healing Charjabug still gets Iron Defense, Light Screen (but no Reflect), Protect, Substitute, and Endure to hold on as long as it can. Both also get Electroweb as an Egg move which will help Vikavolt a bit with its lacking speed or Charjabug supporting its partners.

An odd thing I notice, why does Charjabug learn some rather acrobatic Flying-type moves? Isn't the point of it is that it's in a molting state thus not moving much at all?
 
Some pokemon which are faster than Vikavolt:
Aggron
Weedle
Carbink
Dwebble
Ledyba

It speed ties with Squirtle and even Timid Vikavolt has to invest EVs in Speed in order to guarantee outspeeding Slowpoke.
The good news? It will always outspeed Ferroseed (Unless it has a negative nature, in which case it can be outsped).
 
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Is it worth trying Choice Scarf or is Specs just the better Choice item no matter what?
scarf vikavolt has the equivalent of base 89 speed, so no

as people have mentioned before I think agility might be the only way to really use this thing. It has like 203 sp. attack with a lorb which is quite a bit better than mega amph (about 18% higher) so maybe it'll actually be better at that job than amph was, minus the fewer setup opportunities due to lower but still decent bulk. Not that I really know how viable agility mega amph was in the first place.
 
Holy moly, that really sux.

So yeah, we're gonna need Life Orb. I would probably try Specs because off 145 spatk sounds funny.
Kind of sux that it needs agility though. Need to spend two turns setting up just to not get revenge killed at best. That hurts.
 
I'm crossing my fingers that Vikavolt has a better speed stat. Base 43 is beyond pathetic for a Pokemon that looks to be fast.
 
Holy moly, that really sux.

So yeah, we're gonna need Life Orb. I would probably try Specs because off 145 spatk sounds funny.
Kind of sux that it needs agility though. Need to spend two turns setting up just to not get revenge killed at best. That hurts.
Specs might work in trick room. Idk how many months it will take ill accept that speed stat. I still think Im living a nightmare I cant wake up from.
 
How many mons with less than 80 HP and having below 50 speed and at best a defensive stat of 90 are considered good or decent?
This looks like something that dies before getting a turn to do anything.
 
When you do get a chance to set up, it has enough raw power to sweep offensive teams in OU without even needing prior damage.

252 SpA Life Orb Vikavolt Bug Buzz vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Mega Manectric: 251-296 (89.3 - 105.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock
252 SpA Life Orb Vikavolt Bug Buzz vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Tyranitar in Sand: 281-330 (82.4 - 96.7%) -- 62.5% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
252 SpA Life Orb Vikavolt Bug Buzz vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Bisharp: 278-329 (102.5 - 121.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 SpA Life Orb Vikavolt Thunderbolt vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Gengar: 263-309 (101.5 - 119.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 SpA Life Orb Vikavolt Thunderbolt vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Thundurus: 251-296 (83.9 - 98.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock
252 SpA Life Orb Vikavolt Thunderbolt vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Lopunny: 214-253 (78.9 - 93.3%) -- 43.8% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock

Obviously it OHKO's other common stuff like Latios, Manaphy, Weavile, Azumarill, Breloom, Serperior, Keldeo, Torandus, Tangrowth, Mew and Garchomp + Landorus (with HP Ice).

It actually OHKO's like half of OU come to think. If you just plopped this thing in the current metagame it might actually do work tbh. It's a better version of Thundurus-T.
 
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"Vikavolt clasps Charjabug with its legs and uses it as an extra battery. Even if a battle drags on, it can use the electric power from Charjabug to continue firing off powerful moves. When Vikavolt is engaged in a fierce aerial fight, it releases Charjabug to make itself lighter and increase its mobility."

Maybe this implies some type of mechanic where it will lose SpA and gain Spe as it takes hits? This may be reaching, but I'm praying that there is something about Vikavolt that will prevent it from being as bad as it seems.
 
"Vikavolt clasps Charjabug with its legs and uses it as an extra battery. Even if a battle drags on, it can use the electric power from Charjabug to continue firing off powerful moves. When Vikavolt is engaged in a fierce aerial fight, it releases Charjabug to make itself lighter and increase its mobility."

Maybe this implies some type of mechanic where it will lose SpA and gain Spe as it takes hits? This may be reaching, but I'm praying that there is something about Vikavolt that will prevent it from being as bad as it seems.
I feel your pain T_T, but as evidenced time and again, flavour text is hardly reliable. And since its ability doesn't do that, it'd have to be hardcoded for that to happan. Even then, sacrificing its best stat for more speed would hardly make it any better.

BTW, did anyone find out how much the Battery boost is?
 

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I've been analyzing this mon and after actually looking at it closely I think Vikavolt looks significantly better than people are worried it'll be. Doesn't look like an OU kind of mon but it looks very well built for VGC. With Modest/Quiet and no SpA investment you're as strong as neutral base 129 SpA which is pretty solid (think Gengar/Latios), so investing heavily in bulk goes a long way. I'd go so far to say that 252 HP / 252 Def with AV or Maranga Berry might actually not be bad, the Smog AV article doesn't apply nearly as well to Doubles so I can see AV being a legitimate option. Its movepool isn't half-bad either with access to Electroweb, String Shot (I'm not kidding, -2 Speed on both opponents might be legit), Roost, and Flash Cannon is actually pretty good. Being a slow Sky Drop/Volt Switch mon also has really good utility in theory as well. Bug/Electric with Levitate is also not too bad in terms of resistances, and honestly Levitate on anything that doesn't resist Ground is very good.

Beyond that, it seems pretty clear that a lot of Alola mons are designed with the intent of running a Z-Move on them, so I can see Bug Z-Move with Bug Buzz and String Shot being a legitimate thing, since that gives you the option of Bug nuke or a super Speed control option that gives Vikavolt one Speed boost which goes a long way fixing its Speed problem.

Now for Singles I think Vikavolt will be less good but some of the stuff I'm mentioning still applies. Decent typing, slow nuke with Volt Switch and Roost, the freedom to invest more in bulk due to insane base Special Attack. I can see this thing being a pretty solid mon in maybe UU and it has two things that RU Escavalier wishes it had, recovery and VoltTurn access. It's not a one to one comparison since Escavalier has better bulk and typing while Vikavolt is stronger and faster, but given that U-turn would probably break that thing in RU I think Vikavolt has more of a future than people are saying here. In practice it might not be as great as I'm saying but at least in VGC, I think Vikavolt might be a legitimate threat. Still mad it doesn't get Rage Powder though...
 
Made an account just so I could say this. Vikavolt has the potential to be insane on a TR team. With a quiet nature, max evs, and life orb it can OHKO a solid amount of OU with Bug Buzz/ T Bolt/ HP Ice and then you could use either volt switch or roost with it. Throw in Dhelmise and maybe Golisopod and you'll have half a team already, all you need is something with TR and a couple others.
 
"Better speed stat"? What does that mean? This is the stat that it has.
Just in case GF intentionally gave many Pokes garbage speed as an anti piracy measure. Pretty unlikely though. But, it's not like GF was naive to have not expected hackers to delve into the games.
 
Just in case GF intentionally gave many Pokes garbage speed as an anti piracy measure. Pretty unlikely though. But, it's not like GF was naive to have not expected hackers to delve into the games.
That has 0% chance of happening.

Edit: That speed stat is indeed, unfortunately. It doesn't even fits the Pokémon design as it looks fast as hell.
 
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I'm so sad he's so slow. I mean why? What actually went through their minds. I mean I'm all for slow Pokemon after the speed creep of Gen 5/6 but at least make sure it made sense.

Vikavolt became my favorite Pokemon of Alola the moment I saw it and expected it to be a beast.
Why did you ruin him GameFreak?

Base 80 Speed and Speed Boost as a Hidden Ability would have at least been decent for it
 
Just in case GF intentionally gave many Pokes garbage speed as an anti piracy measure. Pretty unlikely though. But, it's not like GF was naive to have not expected hackers to delve into the games.
Pretty sure that isn't how Anti-Piracy would work. It's usually checking for a number on boot-up and running a set of instructions. Going into the code and pulling out Values wouldn't trigger it, and even then the game would have to have the normal values for legitimate copies, which could probably still be found.

Besides, odds are any anti-piracy measures would do fairly mundane stuff like Disable all Wi-Fi Functions and prevent it from connecting to other copies in general, and maybe outright prevent other certain functions (i.e. Pokemon Refresh) from working. Also probably dramatically reduce Pokemon Encounter Rates to make it unfun to play.

On topic: Yeah, I don't think Charjabug in Doubles may even be worth it, unless Battery was a pretty big boost. It gets Thunder Wave, Electroweb, and Swagger for a supportive movepool. Not really something one would tend to send out on the field.
 
Is it really so horrible that he needs to run agility? Everyone is acting like it's a disaster. You need 1 turn to set up then he's a beast. Doesn't seem like a huge deal to me but maybe idk what I'm talking about.
 
Is it really so horrible that he needs to run agility? Everyone is acting like it's a disaster. You need 1 turn to set up then he's a beast. Doesn't seem like a huge deal to me but maybe idk what I'm talking about.
Well, Vikavolt is somehow slower than Mega Ampharos who can also run an Agility set, but it just doesn't cut it against fast threats. Good endgame cleaner if the last few mons can be outsped but otherwise it struggles
 
Well, Vikavolt is somehow slower than Mega Ampharos who can also run an Agility set, but it just doesn't cut it against fast threats. Good endgame cleaner if the last few mons can be outsped but otherwise it struggles
The most disappointing part of this gen. In trying to make a more balanced meta they screwed over most of the new pokemon. Now the older will get used even more and these will get ignored.
 
The most disappointing part of this gen. In trying to make a more balanced meta they screwed over most of the new pokemon. Now the older will get used even more and these will get ignored.
It really makes no sense as to why they made so many of the new Pokemon so SLOW. It's not like they made an auto Trick Room setting ability or even an item that extends its duration like the Terrains got. A bit frustrating, honestly.
 

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