Swampert

[tofucocoa]

As a slow, defensive tank, Swampert often finds itself in a defensive pivot role in most teams. While it does face competition from Gastrodon and Quagsire, both of whom have Recover, Swampert can use its 110 Attack stat to great effect, taking hits from common Pokemon and softening them up or simply taking them out.

Singles sets:

Choice Band

@ Choice Band
Adamant Nature
252 HP / 252 Atk / 6 Def

Aqua Tail
Earthquake
Ice Punch/Avalanche
Hammer Arm/Superpower

This set aims to simply hit hard and take hits, and can check dangerous Pokemon like Excadrill, Tyranitar, and assorted Dragon-Types. Aqua Tail is the preferred move due to higher Base Power, but if 90% accuracy puts you off, Waterfall is always an option. Earthquake is simply for strong STAB, while Ice Punch and Hammer Arm are there for coverage. Stone Edge can be put to good use in either of the last two slots, hitting Flying types harder than Ice Punch, though it doesn't offer much else.

Doubles sets

Wide Guard Support

@ Sirtus Berry / Rindo Berry / Leftovers
Relaxed Nature
252 HP / 252 Atk / 6 SpD

Wide Guard
Waterfall
Earthquake
Hammer Arm/Ice Beam

Swampert can make use of Wide Guard by protecting its partners from various spread moves like Heat Wave, Earthquake and Rock Slide while sponging other non-Grass hits easily. Waterfall is preferred here, especially if you run Trick Room, though Aqua Tail can prove useful with higher Base Power. Earthquake is a useful spread move that can take out Electric-types that threaten your Flying partner, but if you don't like the fact that it can hit your Pokemon, you can opt for another supportive move like Yawn, Protect, or even a ChestoRest combination to keep Swampert in top form. The last slot is purely for coverage, and your choice should reflect what your team needs covered. Muddy Water is a cool spread move that has a chance of lowering accuracy, and can be used over your physical Water move, though the drop in power is very noticeable. Blizzard is another spread move that can be used to great effect in Hail teams who enjoy the protection of Wide Guard against their mortal enemies; Heat Wave and Rock Slide. It might be tempting to pour all of Swampert's other EVs into its Defenses, but extra Defense doesn't really help as much as 2HKOing Metagross with Earthquake, 2HKOing Thundurus and Tornadus with Aqua Tail (OHKO in the rain) and OHKOing many frail-ish Pokemon is.

Other notes:

Swampert needs a teammate or two that can take out dangerous Grass-types. Thundurus with Hidden Power Ice or Flying greatly enjoys having Tyranitar and Excadrill out of its hair, and can switch into Grass moves Swampert attracts. Fire and Ghost-types also enjoy having said Pokemon gone, and can support Swampert with Will-O-Wisp as well as scaring off Grass-types. In Doubles, Thundurus can perform a 'ZapChomp' combination with Discharge and Earthquake, which is more difficult to deal with considering Wide Guard blocks Rock Slide, the main Thundurus check.

-more other notes coming soon-
​

 

[tofucocoa]

fuck got ahead of myself, joel go ahead and feel free to use my stuff :)

 

[Joel]

You can keep the OP. We can compare notes and do this together.

*edit*

You maybe shouldn't forget Swampert's base 100 85 SpAtk, with a move pool on the special side to pull it off.

Here's what I've been using recently.

Swampert @ Leftovers
Ability: Torrent
Nature: Quiet/Modest
EVs: 252 HP/252 SpAtk/4 Atk
Moveset:

-Muddy Water/Surf
-Blizzard/Ice Beam
-Earthquake/HP Electric
-Wide Guard/Protect

Best used on hail teams. Muddy Water doesn't have the best accuracy, but I like it over Surf since it won't damage Swampert's teammates. The rest are standard stuff in it's moveset.

If you are running Modest, take the 4 HP EVs and drop them into one of Swampert's defences.

 

[DreamTalon]

Muddy Water deserves a mention, as it is one of the best moves in Doubles, except for Protect and Teeter Dance (kidding, kidding). I'd say a mixed set for Doubles would be something like this:
Muddy Water
IceBeam
earthquake
wide Guard

Best when pulling a pseudo-ZapChomp combo, as it as so much bulk. Zapdos also hits the Electric and Water types Swampert can't touch, while Swampert can.block incoming Blizzards and Rock Slides, Zapdos' main problem.

 

[tofucocoa]

@ joel, it has 85, so really the only special moves you should be running are ice beam and some water move with a secondary effect

muddy water is pretty cool though, i'll add that

 

[Joel]

@ joel, it has 85, so really the only special moves you should be running are ice beam and some water move with a secondary effect

muddy water is pretty cool though, i'll add that

>_< my bad, thougt it hit harder than that.

Blizzard still deserves a mention though on doubles/triples with Ice Beam, especially since it has really good synergy with Abomasnow.

 

[Nickscor]

>_< my bad, thougt it hit harder than that.

Blizzard still deserves a mention though on doubles/triples with Ice Beam, especially since it has really good synergy with Abomasnow.

Icy Wind in Doubles/Triples works out pretty well imo, however it's incompatible with Wide Guard. Others can use it better, but hell it's an option.

Edit: Ice Punch is also incompatible with Wide Guard, fix that in the OP.

 

[tofucocoa]

so it is, fixing

 

[cosmicexplorer]

A special attacking set similar to what Joel posted is very usable (mostly in doubles, though), with Ice Beam, Earth Power, Scald, Surf, Muddy Water, or Hydro Pump, and Protect or Wide Guard. It doesn't hit Tyranitar as hard, but Tyranitar still can't do much back, and Earth Power/Water STAB hits Metagross and other physically defensive Pokemon such as Rhyperior a lot harder than a physical set. Swampert can also run Low Kick on such a set, as with 100 Attack EVs, it will almost always OHKO Tyranitar and 2HKO Ferrothorn. The benefits of such a set are not being crippled by burn or Intimidate, being able to use its Ground-type STAB without necessitating an immune partner (which is very helpful on rain teams), and being able to hit physically defensive Pokemon much harder. Even though Swampert's Special Attack is slightly lower, its Attack is less than 20% higher, so there's not a huge difference in power, especially with Swampert's access to higher-powered moves on the special side, i.e. Earth Power over Earthquake and Ice Beam over Ice Punch.

Also, why so much defensive investment on the doubles set? Without any Attack investment, Swampert is actually rather weak, not even 2HKOing Metagross with Earthquake. I'd suggest Adamant max Attack as at least an option, because Swampert does hit reasonably hard with maximum Attack, and I really can't see where the extra Defense would help.

 

[tofucocoa]

i'm not seeing a purely special set working in doubles, especially since earth power is illegal with wide guard (and low kick for that matter) and wide guard is the only reason i'd reach for a swampert, since gastrodon pretty much outclasses swampert without it (except for a possible choice band set, but in doubles... ehhh)

also i wasn't quite sure what to put in the EVs on the doubles set, so I just put what i use on my swampert, but if i see some hard calcs on metagross and company i'd give it some serious thought

 

[cosmicexplorer]

0 Atk EQ v. 252 HP Metagross: 39.6%-48.1%
252 Atk EQ v. 252 HP Metagross: 54.5%-65.2%

You can take some EVs out of Attack since Swampert only needs 152 Atk Adamant to always 2HKO Metagross, but at that point it's kind of pointless to run 100 Defense and 252 Atk Adamant stops any shenanigans with Leftovers. However, you can opt to run 152 Atk Adamant with 84 Special Attack EVs and Scald to always OHKO Rhyperior through Solid Rock (or you can just use 0 SpA and Hydro Pump which also KOes Terrakion and friends but w/e). Also, 0 Atk never OHKOes 252 HP Rhyperior with Waterfall or Aqua Tail, but 252 Atk always OHKOes Lightningrod Rhyperior (however uncommon) and weakens Solid Rock versions to the point where they'll be KOed along with, say, a Life Orb Terrakion's Rock Slide. Also, 252 Atk Adamant OHKOes 252 HP Mamoswine with Fake Out support, and OHKOes 4 HP Mamoswine (the more common spread) without Fake Out, unlike 0 Atk. It also OHKOes 4 HP Terrakion with Aqua Tail, and non-Yache Garchomp with Ice Punch, while 2HKOing Latios and Latias with Ice Punch. Also, in rain, 252 Atk Swampert OHKOes Thundurus and Tornadus with Aqua Tail.

EDIT: It's still really hard to 2HKO Swampert without a 120+ BP move or a Grass-type attack; Mamoswine's Earthquake does only 37.7%-44.9%.

 

[Tenodera]

Wow, nice calcs! It seems to me like 252 Attack is superior.

For the edit.. Is that CB Mamoswine or unboosted though? Just curious.

 

[cosmicexplorer]

That is unboosted Mamo, but CB Mamo is not very commonly seen. Earth Gem is reasonably common, but even that only has a 1/3 chance to 2HKO 252 HP Swampert.

 

[Solace]

pert is pert, takes hits and dishes hits too but hasn't really gotten anything new in gen 5

everything has pretty much already been said so this looks pretty cool!

 

[risenreturn]

I've been using this moveset in triples recently to pretty god success. I haven't done a lot of testing with him yet, but i think he does quite well.

swampert@Lefties
Careful
252HP/252 Sp.D/6Defense(or something like that)
Toxic
Wide Guard
Mirror Coat
Scald/Bulldoze/Hammer Arm

Any attack works in the last place really.

 

[cosmicexplorer]

Why so much Special Defense? While it allows Swampert to sometimes take Ludicolo's Giga Drain and random Grass Knots, it seems that Rindo Berry would be a better choice, and would also allow you to put EVs in Attack or Special Attack to hit harder. Relying upon Mirror Coat to do damage is extremely unreliable, especially in triples where so many Pokemon can hit it at once, with a multitude of different attacks.

 

[soul_survivor]

Can't a mix set be viable, with relaxed nature.

Swampert@ice gem/sitrus/rindo/STABgem
(insert mixed ev spread)

muddy water
earthquake/earth power
ice beam/hammer arm
wide guard/protect

Well swampert has access to two very great spread moves. Give it the right support. ice gem is opted if running ice beam as that goes through pesky yache dragons namely garchomp and salamence. I can see thundurus w/ grass knot and hp fly working well with swampy as they peform a pseudo-zapchomp but thunderus's hp fly hits grass who beat swampy. Also not to meantion wide guard can be use to protect from blizzards and rock slides that hurt thunderus. Thunderus running grass knot help beat out gastro and other water/ground.

 

[risenreturn]

the swampert I posted isn't meant to do damage, it's meant to support the rest of the team. Wide guard allows you to use many of the more powerful moves like earthquake and surf without the fear of damaging your partners, while toxic helps weaken bulkier pokemon that may allow you to KO them much faster, while Scald has the chance of burning, bulldoze unfortunately hits your partner, but slows the opponent down. being able to help against faster pokemon. The Special Defense EVs arent exactly neccesarry, but In my experience, I've found it more useful than defense EVs. You could always invest evenly though

 

[cosmicexplorer]

I meant why invest in Special Defense over Attack or Special Attack? I posted previously why 252 Atk Adamant Swampert (or some variation thereof) is superior in many situations to max Def or max SpD.

soul_survivor, Swampert's offenses (especially its Special Attack) are too low to effectively use an mixed set, outside of adding Ice Beam to physical sets to hit Dragon-types.