03/28/24, 12:12
#372 | Shelgon | Pokédex Strategy Moves Database | Beldum | #374 |
This article gives you ideas of how to use Salamence in battle in the Pokémon Black, Pokémon White and Pokemon B2W2 Games. It lists popular movesets used by competitive battlers, as well as a description on how to use each set to help you understand why the moves were chosen. These popular sets are usually the best to use in battle and so reading this guide will help you in your team building.
Gen 4: OverviewMostly any kinds of Offensive Teams. The BulkyDD set is an exception to this, as it can be used in Stall or Semi Stall teams.
Ability | Nature | Item | HP | Atk. | Def. | SpAtk. | SpDef. | Speed | |
Intimidate | Naive | life orb | 0 | 76 | 0 | 252 | 0 | 180 | |
This set is one of the most popular Salamence sets, due to the fact it is extremely hard to find a safe switch-in to. Since the type combination of Dragon + Fire + Ground has perfect coverage (as in being able to hit anything in the game for neutral damage or more), this allows you to an extra move to play with. Having both Draco Meteor and Outrage allows Salamence to hit both sides of the physical/special spectrum. Fire Blast and Earthquake hit the steels which neither Draco Meteor nor Outrage can hit. Having Roost is a fine way of recovering lost HP due to Life Orb, Sandstorm and Stealth Rock damage, you may find more of a need of it than Outrage.
I prefer a slightly different EV spread than Smogon, because I believe having more speed on Mence is more necessary than having slightly more power. 180 Speed EVs brings Mence to 309 Speed. Salamence can outrun Max Speed, +Natured Base 90 Pokemon, plus a few other Base 100’s that drop their speed to outrun them (Jirachi for one). Of course you can run Max Speed and take the EVs straight out of Special Attack to be sure of outrunning more than your fair share of +Natured Base 100 pokes. Max Special Attack will ensure that most switch-ins will be dealt serious damage by Draco Meteor. Leftover EVs can go into attack. There is enough there to 2HKO Max HP/Def Blissey after Stealth Rocks with Outrage.
If you prefer to have a little more power than you would have speed, then I suggest using either Smogon’s EV spread: 84 Atk/208 Spd/216 SAtk with Mild Nature, or use this one with Mild Nature: 4 Atk/252 Spd/252 SAtk. It can still 2HKO Blissey after Outrage, but this gives a lot more power to Draco Meteor, and can outrun Max Speed + Natured Rotom-A’s that happen to run max speed.
There aren’t many Pokemon that can safely switch into this beast. Cresselia can, but you are unlikely to see that. Pair this with any bulky steel to take rock/ice/dragon attacks that can revenge kill it. Also, since Salamence is going to take quite a bit of residual damage, you may want to 1. Pair it with a Rapid Spinner and/or 2. Pair it with a Wish Passer (especially if you do not have roost). If you opt for Roost over Outrage, then, like the Specs set, make sure you have an easy way of dealing with Blissey.
Ability | Nature | Item | HP | Atk. | Def. | SpAtk. | SpDef. | Speed | |
Intimidate | Adamant / Naughty | life orb / lum berry | 76 | 252 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 180 | |
This is one of the more popular Salamence sets, and with no surprise. After one DD it has the potential to rip through the vast majority of teams; especially if they are already weakened. With the inclusion of Outrage into Platinum, it just makes DD Salamence that much more deadly.
There are two ways of dealing with the EV’s. You can either use the spread with 180 Speed (which brings Salamence to 281 speed). This outruns Heatran (Scarf Heatran after one Dragon Dance), and other pokemon that design their EV’s to do likewise. If this does not float your boat, then you can run max Speed and you have a chance to win an unlikely Speed Tie with other Salamences, also outruns Max Speed Timid Rotom-A as well, so that is definitely a plus.
Adamant or Naughty are the preferred Natures for Physical Dragon Dance Salamence. You could argue that it needs more speed, and Jolly/Naïve should be listed as an option. There is an abundance of Jirachi in the current Metagame, and they usually reach 308 or 309 Speed, so if you are running Jolly or Naïve, you should give Salamence 184 or 180 Speed EV’s to prevent a Speed Tie with any Jirachi. The reason you run this is speed, is not just because of Jirachi, it is because of Base 90 Speed pokes that run max speed. If you opt for Jolly or Naïve however, you lose the chance to OHKO or 2HKO certain threats.
The moveset you should use for this Salamence, is Dragon Dance; getting Salamence’s Speed and Attack up one stage, puts immediate pressure on the opponents team, Outrage for obvious STAB, base 120 power can rip through the vast majority of teams with little effort. Dragon Claw, however, should not be ignored as an option if the confusion hax is unattractive to you. Eathquake works with Outrage/Dragon Claw, because of its fantastic coverage, besides this, it helps against Non-Levitating Steels (Magnezone and Heatran especially), Tyranitar among other threats. Fire Fang has very poor base power, but completes the coverage with the Levitating/Flying Steels (Bronzong/Skarmory) or Scizor/Forretress. Fire Blast is definitely a good option, because it hits Skarmory much harder Fire Fang. If you opt for Fire Blast over Fire Fang you can change Salamence’s Nature to Naughty or Naïve, for a little extra power.
After one Dragon Dance, Salamence has a 46.15% chance of OHKOing Mixed Swampert after Stealth Rock damage.
607 Atk vs 297 Def & 401 HP (120 Base Power): 343 - 405 (85.54% - 101.00%) |
Looking at those calcs, you may want to get Swampert weakened before attempting to Outrage.
Other things that threaten DD Mence are Porygon2, who can come in, Trace Intimidate back at Mence, then OHKO with Ice Beam. The rare Scarf Starmie can come in on Dragon Dance or Outrage and OHKO with Ice Beam. Mamoswine will easily revenge kill it, Bronzong can come in on Outrage and Explode, Metagross is a similar deal. In all honesty, your best chance against Salamence is prediction.
One of the best offensive pokemon to pair with Salamence, is, Life Orb Starmie, both of them together can beat Stall. Defensive typing to pair with Salamence, Magnezone does a good job, they resist each others weaknesses very well. Magnezone can switch in on a Scizor expecting Bullet Punch.
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Ability | Nature | Item | HP | Atk. | Def. | SpAtk. | SpDef. | Speed | |
Intimidate | Adamant / Jolly | choice band | 4 | 252 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 252 | |
There are no current set statistics analysed |
As soon as this is brought into play, it brings an immediate threat to the opponent’s team, which needless to say, threatens quicker than the Dragon Dance Life Orb Set. It can 2HKO everything in the game. Like the DD set (and most other sets), max speed is not always essential, you can run 180 Speed EV’s to outrun non-scarfed Heatran variants. Jolly is NOT advised for this set, because Salamence will lose enough power to 2HKO the threats it needs to.
Having both Dragon Claw and Outrage allows choice. Dragon Claw is the “safe” option, so you are not locked into Outrage before you need to be. This way you can bring in Salamence earlier in the game, dish out decent STABed damage, even with the base power drop from 120 to 80, it still will hurt anything not Steel and not Physically Defensive. Earthquake will take Non-levitating/flying Steels, Ground, Fire, Rock, Poison and Electric Types with near ease, although Outrage can 2HKO most of those, saying that, it depends on the pokemon itself more than its type. Fire Fang will hurt Bronzong, Skarmory, Celebi and the like. Outrage is better for late game sweeping, Dragon Claw for early/mid game.
Offensively, pair this with Life Orb Starmie (like the DD Mence set), both together can break most kinds of stall. Defensively, pokes like Metagross or Magnezone. Magnezone can help remove the steel types that contribute in preventing an Outrage sweep from Salamence.
Ability | Nature | Item | HP | Atk. | Def. | SpAtk. | SpDef. | Speed | |
Intimidate | Modest | choice specs | 4 | 0 | 0 | 252 | 0 | 252 | |
There are no current set statistics analysed |
Like its beastly attack, Salamence also has reasonable Special Attack as well. The one thing it can do better than Garchomp in OU, is special attacking. It doesn’t have a monstrous special movepool, but the attacks it does have do have very good coverage and power.
Your ideal Nature is Modest, to deal as much damage as possible. Of course you can opt for Timid, and drop its speed to 309 (180 Speed EVs), so it can outrun Base 90 max speed pokemon (like Roserade). Of course, Modest max speed Mence can outrun +natured, max speed Rotom (without the scarf of course). Depends on which threats are more deadly to your team in general.
For Modest: 4 HP / 252 Spd / 252 SAtk
For Timid: 76 HP / 180 Spd / 252 SAtk |
Ok, as for the moveset, you bring Mence in Mid-game to tear anything up with Draco Meteor. This will even take a reasonable chunk out of Blissey:
525 Atk vs 306 Def & 714 HP (140 Base Power): 258 - 304 (36.13% - 42.58%) |
To something as specially defensive as Blissey, that is an amazing amount of damage. If Blissey comes in with less than a third of its HP left, the big, pink blob will be taken care of.
Of course Draco Meteor is mainly for Mid-game, just to get damage on the opponents team. Dragon Pulse is more for late-game, where most of your opponents team has been weakened to the point where Mence can sweep. Bring STAB’d, and boosted with Choice Specs, it will dish out a LOT of damage. Fire Blast will deal with any steel types that you may have a problem with (with the obvious exception of Heatran, which takes the Flash Fire boost). Scizor, Magnezone, Jirachi, Metagross, all fall to Fire Blast. If you really are concerned with the accuracy of Fire Blast, go for Flamethrower, although it is a 25 BP drop, it will still damage Steel Types just fine.
Last slot is more debatable; Hydro Pump will, in most cases, OHKO Heatran after Stealth Rocks:
525 Atk vs 248 Def & 386 HP (120 Base Power): 364 - 430 (94.30% - 111.40%) |
Tyranitar with Max HP and near Max Special Defence (Careful Nature TTar) is easily 2HKO’d by Hydro Pump:
525 Atk vs 317 Def & 404 HP (100 Base Power): 238 - 282 (58.91% - 69.80%) |
That is only assuming that Heatran runs max HP, and no Special Defence EVs, so you should be safe. However, if Hydro Pump’s accuracy puts you off (like Fire Blast and Flamethrower), then opt for Earthquake. Even though Earthquake is a physical move on a Choice Specs set, it has more reliability than Hydro Pump when it comes to hitting.
This is the damage calculation for Modest EQ against Max HP Heatran:
275 Atk vs 248 Def & 386 HP (100 Base Power): 320 - 380 (82.90% - 98.45%) |
If you want that to OHKO after Stealth Rocks, add some Attack EVs in there, or make Salamence Rash or Naïve Nature.
Since the main threats to this set, is Blissey and Snorlax, you should ideally match it up with something that can take out both; Machamp, Heracross and other fighers. Also, you could pair it with a pokemon that can lay spikes; having Blisseys weakened by Spikes damage (25%) + Stealth Rock damage (12%) + Draco Meteor (36% Minimum) = 73% minimum, so weakened Blissey will go down pretty quickly.
Ability | Nature | Item | HP | Atk. | Def. | SpAtk. | SpDef. | Speed | |
Intimidate | Impish | leftovers / lum berry | 212 | 8 | 252 | 0 | 0 | 36 | |
Combining Salamence’s excellent Attack Stat with its above average bulkiness, you can take hits while hitting hard with Earthquake or Dragon Claw (or if you opt for it: Outrage). Intimidate helps Salamence take hits a lot better on the physical side, and this will aid Salamence in setting up and healing with Dragon Dance and Roost respectively. The EV spread is a tad erratic, but nonetheless important. 36 Speed EV’s allows Salamence to outspeed Jolly, Max speed Tyranitar, as well as a few threats that like to outrun Tyranitar as well.
252 EV’s in defence to allow survivability on the physical side along with 212 HP EV’s. This is maximum lefties recovery gain that Salamence can have without going over and gaining the same amount of lefties recovery gain. The remaining 8 EV’s can go in either HP or Attack, it’s down to the user.
If you end up going with Outrage over Dragon Claw, it might be a good idea to have Lum Berry to go with it, to cure the confusion after the 2 or 3 turns of Outrage are up. It´s also useful to cure any burn or paralysis as well.
Ability | Nature | Item | HP | Atk. | Def. | SpAtk. | SpDef. | Speed | |
Intimidate | Mild | life orb | 0 | 36 | 0 | 220 | 0 | 252 | |
There are no current set statistics analysed |
This is the Classic Mix-Mence. Before Platinum even existed, this was the Mix-Mence that was used (albeit different EV spreads). Without Outrage, Dragon Claw was not really much of an option on a Mixed Set because of its lack of power, and there needed to be something to 2HKO Blissey at least. In all honesty, Dragonite utilises this set a lot better in Platinum, thanks to the inclusion of Superpower. Sadly, Salamence isn’t granted Superpower, and has to make do with Brick Break.
Obviously, your default move of choice will be Draco Meteor, and that will hit everything hard that isn’t Blissey, Snorlax or a Steel type. Fire Blast will easily take care of most steel types like Skarmory, Magnezone, most Metagrosses, etc. Brick Break, with the EVs given, 2HKO’s Blissey, and it will 2HKO any Heatran that doesn’t run Max Defence or Leftovers after Stealth Rocks. The final moveslot really depends on whether you would rather recover lost health due to consistent damage by Stealth Rocks, Life Orb or Sandstorm or have a little extra coverage against Psychics/Ghosts with Crunch. Roost is naturally preferred by most, but Crunch is a fine alternative.
The actual EV spread maximises power, rather than utilise Salamence’s speed like I have done with the previous sets. If you would rather outspeed threats like Roserade and other Base 90’s, then use the following EV spread: 40 HP/36 Atk/180 Spd/252 SAtk with Naïve or Hasty Nature. Having 40 HP EVs still maintains the “Magic Life Orb HP” number, which allows Mence to take recoil from Life Orb 11 times rather than the standard 10. The attack EVs remain untouched, 180 outruns Roserade and other base 90’s PLUS other threats that wish to outspeed base 90’s, such as Jirachi. Also, you can outrun the Salamence’s that only carry a Neutral speed nature, which in itself, is a plus.
Cresselia will definitely give this set a problem, so you would need to have something like Tyranitar, Scizor or Heracross on your team alongside Mence to take on Cresselia. Salamence being revenge killed is more of an issue than it being countered. One of the better checks to Mence is Mamoswine. Bring something along the lines of a Bronzong, because it can resist all viable attacks (with the exception of Superpower) that Mamoswine can throw at it. Having a scarfer is wise as well to take on the faster checks to this set. Scarf Tran for one, Infernape (with HP Ice), Scarf Flygon, Latias and the like.
One other note I should mention about Mence’s Nature, it is Mild rather than Rash so Blissey’s Ice Beam won’t hurt it as much as it would with Rash. If this is not a worry to you, then by all means use Rash over Mild; that would boost Salamence’s bulkiness further on the physical side.
The Mixed Salamence set is most used currently. Mainly due to fact it can use both Outrage and Draco Meteor to hit both sides of the spectrum, in addition to this it also uses Earthquake and Fire Blast to take out any Steel types that can´t be hit with Outrage or Draco Meteor.
Other OptionsAs far as other options go, there arent that much else that is competitively viable in the current OU metagame. Wish and/or Toxic Support is handy, but there are other pokemon with better resistances that can do both much better. Choice Scarfing Salamence can certainly be used as a decent revenge killer.
Usual CountersThere aren´t any usual counters, mainly due to Salamence´s versatility, it can hit both sides of the Physical/Special spectrum, and hit both sides VERY hard with excellent Offensive Stats. If you are looking for Counters, check out each individual set.
If you are looking for decent checks, then both Scizor and Mamoswine can OHKO with their priority moves Bullet Punch and Ice Shard respectively (Scizor needs to be Choice Banded or has 1 SD up and Salamence to have taken Stealth Rock damage). Apart from this any faster hard hitters can usually take it down and Scarfers as well (especially Scarf Latias).
OpinionThis is one of the most threatening pokemon in OU due to its versatility, above average offensive stats and a decent movepool. Because of its dominant nature, it has been considered to be tested to see if it is indeed too powerful for the OU metagame. As far as Salamence is concerned, it doesn´t have the best Defensive stats going for it, and Intimidate can only help so much.