Gurdurr Discussion

[Ricky Charizard 1998]

I would use Iron Fist personally, I really dislike abilities like Guts, they do more harm than good - or maybe I'm just not skilled enough to pull them off nya~

 

[Infernis]

I find Guts to be really useful for making Gurdurr immune to burns, even without using a flame orb to do it intentionally.

 

[chimpact]

I feel like iron fist vs guts can be compared to Bronzong's Levitate vs Heatproof. Ya heatproof could be useful but being immune to spikes and not having to worry about EQ at all is worth the surprise of being not weak to fire moves. If your Gurdurr happens to get statused you would wish you had guts at that point.

Unless you have a dedicated status absorber I feel like Guts is the superior ability, unless I'm missing some important kos you lose out on when you don't use iron fist.

Knock off is another interesting move. Bulk up is fantastic on gurdurr but it doesn't work quite as well against offensive teams. Defensive teams like to wear down Gurdurr with residual damage via hazards or status (main reason why I think guts is superior) and knock off somewhat evens the playing field. Getting rid of their leftovers or eviolite enables you to handle that pokemon a lot better. The increased damage output from a guts boosted drain punch can also somewhat mitigate the residual damage from the status.

 

[DTC]

bulk up works better than knock off vs offensive teams, though. sure it may have less times to set up a bulk up, but how many times are you gonna be using knock off? you can generally get at least one bulk up boost off vs most physically offensive mons and then start attacking mons for high damage from there.​

that said, knock off is really good vs defensive teams, as removing leftovers / eviolite from the defensive mons tends to be more crippling in the long run than statusing them. there's always a few heal bell mons in the tier, but nothing can cure them of the loss of an item.​

iron fist vs guts is also the same thing. iron fist gives you the immediate power boost from the start which is nice vs offensive teams because they won't bother statusing you over attacking, while the extra power from drain punch / mach punch / ice punch can be very useful in certain situations.
i think we can simplify it to bulk up and iron fist are better if you need a little extra boost vs offensive teams, while knock off and guts are better vs defensive teams.​

Edit: xenforo butchering my posts 9.9​

 

[InsaneDragoniteHD]

Fact is, Gurdurr can easily run Guts (you can still bluff Iron Fist and hope that Misdreavus won't have the balls to WoW you) and Payback if it wants to deal with the Ghost-types (as Payback will be hitting all of the relevant ones for 100 base power). Golbat and Pelipper to beat Gurdurr, but Golbat does have to watch out for Guts Ice Punch, as between Stealth Rock, the boost to Ice Punch from Guts or Iron Fist and Brave Bird recoil, as well as the lack of Leftovers, Golbat can end up in trouble. Pelipper does beat it quite handily though. Mandibuzz really isn't a problem for Golurk, as it uses Foul Play and Toxic, whih Gurdurr resists and which can also power him up. When Mandibuzz is not Roosting Gurdurr can Ice Punch for the super effective hit, and while it is Roosting it can smack it with a super effective Drain Punch n_n

It can run guts effectively ?
Oh, yeah, duh.
I used Guts Gurdurr once. *facepalm*

It was able to take out various pokemon like Kanga and Carracosta when they were at low health and it let me fool Misdreavus into thinking they could burn me and half my attack.

 

[tennisace]

@DTC I actually think the opposite pairing is better: Knock Off + Iron Fist on defensive teams and Bulk Up + Guts on offensive. My reasoning is that on a defensive team, it's easier to rid yourself of status since you should be running a Heal Bell mon somewhere anyway. Iron Fist provides a nice power boost that Gurdurr would otherwise lack, since unboosted Gurdurr is a tad weak (I could look into specific calcs if you want). On the other hand, Bulk Up + Guts is nice on an offensive team since it gives them a makeshift status absorber AND lets Gurdurr get obscenely powerful very quickly, at the cost of longevity. However on an offensive team, Gurdurr just needs to punch a hole or two and maybe take out a key mon via revenge kill, unlike on a defensive team where it needs to pivot around a lot more. Currently I've been playing with an offensive team and using BU+Guts, which has been going fantastic. I would like to say though that I don't think there's a right or wrong answer, and that it just depends on what mons you're going to partner Gurdurr with.

edit: didnt realize dtc meant vs offensive/defensive teams and not on, but i think my points are still valid

 

[chimpact]

I worded what I said poorly lol. most of the time against offensive teams you want to just go for the attack (since you want the drain punch recovery and you'll most likely go for 2 DP's rather than a bulk up then dp) and will rarely get an opportunity to go for the bulk up. Bulk up is not a bad option against offensive teams, it just isn't the most optimal play.

@tennis knock off is also great on defensive teams because it takes off a lot of offensive pressure off your team. you don't have to deal as much damage because their pokemon loses out on a significant amount of leftovers recovery.