by Dragonite is a Pokémon that I personally have always liked a lot and I think that is largely due to the fact that I grew quite fond of it playing the first generation of Pokémon and that dragons have generally always been quite cool to me.
However, you already know that the idea of this type of post (which I already have a few foolishly) is to thoroughly break down his performance and aptitudes for the competitive one, which in that sense I already tell you that good… it’s not that it’s bad , in fact it has many good things; but it has some problems that weigh heavily on it and that I will show you.
And nothing, we go as always with his complete analysis and at the bottom his strategy. Let’s go there!
? DRAGONITE STATS
His stats add up to a total of 600 points , as usual in Pseudo-Legendaries like Tyranitar or Salamence, which is a lot. Let’s see their distribution:
- Health: 91.
- Attack: 134.
- Defense: 95.
- Special Attack: 100.
- Special Defense: 100.
- Speed: 80.
Offensively we have a monstrous Attack, something that unfortunately we will not take advantage of so well because Dragonite has better special attacks than non-physical ones and that is one of the first problems that I already mentioned in the intro and that we will see more in depth in the attacks section.
Its Special Attack isn’t bad at all, it’s stuck at 100, but the truth is that it would be amazing if this Pokémon traded its Attack for its Special Attack… well, that’s life. Its Speed is also not something that benefits it too much since although we cannot say that it is very low, it is not high either and you know, many Pokémon will surpass it and that is always problematic.
But… at least in terms of defenses we are not badly covered. We have a Health of 91, which is not bad (it’s not crazy either, but fine, just fine) and both defenses (physical and special) at a value of 100, which is really good and will protect us quite well for both sides, that is always appreciated.
?? TYPE, RESISTANCES AND WEAKNESSES
Dragonite is a Flying Dragon Type , which gives it the following weaknesses and resistances:
- He is immune to Earth.
- It is very resistant to Plant.
- It is resistant to Fighting, Water, Fire and Bug.
- It is weak to Rock, Fairy and Dragon.
- It is very weak to Ice.
Let’s start with the good part. Earth Immunity is brutal, we all know, since after all it is one of the most common types in competitive and Earthquake is a movement as powerful as it is used in the Pokémon meta. Otherwise, we’re pretty well covered against Fighting (another very worth resisting type), Water, and Fire… so foolishly, we cover a lot of the more important types. Plant and Bicho are also there, they are less relevant, but hey, it all adds up.
And now we come to the bad part. From the outset, mention as always that the weakness to Rock in my opinion is surely the worst you can have, and in the case of Dragonite this is even worse (you’ll see later), especially due to the enormous presence of Rock Trap (unless it’s put your boots on). Add to that the fact that it also has a double weakness to Ice (as it happens to Garchomp , only this one performs much better despite that), which is a very typical coverage move and that of course is also something that plays a lot in his against.
DRAGONITE ABILITIES
Let’s now see his abilities and which ones could become interesting:
INTERNAL FOCUS
It’s not bad, actually. This ability will prevent our Pokémon from backing down to the typical attacks that cause this (and since it is somewhat slow, it is easier for it to happen) and will also immunize us against one of the most annoying abilities that we see so much in the competitive (only to from 8th gen): Intimidation (makes the Pokémon that has it, when going out to the field, lower the attack of its rivals).
MULTISCALE
In my opinion this ability is the best thing that Dragonite has in his kit and I love it. With Multiscales we will basically receive 50% less damage (half the damage, a lot) when we are at maximum health; making it almost impossible for them to delete us in this situation (and since on top of that we can heal ourselves, we can take advantage of this more than once).
Of course, be careful with Trap Rocks because not only will it take away a lot of life, but it will also take away this effect just for going out on the battlefield, that’s why I told you that Trap Rocks is really a nightmare when you’re using a Dragonite.
Another thing to keep in mind is that moves that deal flat damage (you know, like Dark or Seismic Move) will ignore this ability.
IVS, EVS AND NATURE
The perfect Iv’s as usual. Let’s see now in the face of EV’s and Nature:
- EV’s : Personally I think it’s better to target it in order to be a defensive Pokémon. So the ideal would be to put all the EVs in Health and the rest distributed in Defense and Special Defense. Anyway, if you want to orient it to the offensive, you can imagine… All in Attack and Speed and the few that you have left over, put them in Defense.
- Nature : I would put a Placid nature (+Defense, -Speed), more than anything to make it more resistant and losing speed will not mean much either because it is not too fast either and at least it is resistant. The other statistics do not interest us at all that they lower us. Firm (+Attack, -Special Attack) is another option on an offensive set.
RECOMMENDED ITEM
These are the items I recommend for Dragonite:
- Thick Boots : For me the obvious choice because Rock Trap is the daily bread in competitive and without the boots we will be lost since when entering the field we will lose a lot of health and also the -50% of damage received that the Multiscales ability gives us.
- Jagged Helmet : The rival Pokémon will lose 1/6 of its health when making a contact attack, it comes great to lower the life of the rival physical Pokémon; we will be able to heal ourselves to stay at 100% health and thus have Multiscales while the rival tries to harm us and ends up killing himself. With Multiscale it is almost impossible for someone to kill us, it has to be an exaggeratedly strong blow and hit us in some weakness (be careful with Ice, you know).
- Remnants : The one that never fails in defensive, you know, we will heal each turn a little health. In any case, what has been said, in this case it is better to use Thick Boots. Put the Leftovers (or even the Helmet, but better Boots) on another Pokémon.
BEST MOVES FOR DRAGONITE
The movements that I recommend the most for Dragonite:
- Dragon Dance : Tremendous boost that needs no introduction right? It will increase Attack and Speed by one level.
- Earthquake : Ground, Physical, 100 Power, and 100% Accuracy. Tremendous physical coverage movement. Ground-Type hits Steel, Electric, Rock, Poison, and Fire hard.
- Breathe : We will heal for 50% of our health and lose the flying type (with the change of resistances and weaknesses that implies; Ice for example would no longer be a double weakness) that turn.
- Cure Bell : We will cure the altered states of all our team (burn, paralysis… etc). Dragonite is great at it because health-draining statuses like Burn or Poison will severely affect its Multiscale ability.
- Ice Beam : Ice, Special, 90 power, 100% accuracy, and 10% chance to freeze. Another tremendous coverage move, Ice is good against Ground, Dragon, Grass, and Flying.
- Wing Bis : STAB Flying, Physical, 40 power, 90% accuracy. Hit 2 times in the same turn (come on, that’s 80 power at the end, but it’ll also come in handy against enemies using Protection or Substitutes). Flying is effective against Grass, Bug and Fighting.
- Extreme Speed : Normal, Physical, 80 power, 100% accuracy. Brutal attack because it has priority (even if you are slow you will attack before, come on).
DRAGONITE STRATEGIES
Next I will assemble a couple of strategies that seem quite interesting to me, do not hesitate to share your own in comments if you wish. I have decided to create a more defensive and a more offensive one so you can choose the one you prefer:
DEFENSIVE DRAGONITE
- IVs: Perfect.
- EVs: 252 Health, 128 Defense and 128 Special Defense.
- Nature: Placid (+Defense, -Speed).
- Object: Thick Boots.
- Ability: Multiscale.
- Movements:
- Wing Bis.
- Earthquake.
- Ice Lightning. Optional (Cure Hood).
- Respite.
We will be very resistant, although of course we will have to be careful against the Ice type. As long as we keep Multiescamas active, we will be practically immortal . We also have, despite being more defensive, very good attacks and very good coverage, so be careful because you will continue to be an offensive threat to take into account.
PHYSICAL OFFENSIVE DRAGONITE
- IVs: Perfect.
- EVs: 252 Attack, 252 Speed, 4 Defense.
- Nature: Steadfast (+Attack, -Special Attack).
- Object: Thick Boots.
- Ability: Multiscale.
- Movements:
- Sword dance. Optional (Ice Punch or Extreme Speed)
- Wing bis.
- Earthquake.
- Respite.
Sword Dance + Multiscale is a very good combo since this ability will allow us to throw Sword Dance with incredible safety (you know, -50% damage if we have maximum life, hence Thick Boots are essential). After a boost (and if you can 2, let’s go) we will hit very hard and also then we will be fast, so the idea would be to take advantage of the fact that we have powerful movements and good coverage to destroy everything we can.
We also have a recovery movement such as Breath, some not bad defenses and Multiescama; so come on, we will be a powerful Pokémon but also quite resistant (not as much as in the previous strategy, obviously, but not so bad anyway).
HOW TO DEFEAT DRAGONITE AND COUNTERS
And now the opposite, what to do to defeat a Dragonite and some of its counters:
- Rock Trap : This of course if the opposing Dragonite is not built like the one in our strategies and is wearing the boots (which fit very well). Trap Rocks destroys Dragonite because it takes a lot of life just entering the field and on top of that, Multiscale annoys it.
- Ice : There are tons of Pokemon faster than it that hit really hard and possess Ice moves. To mention a few examples, we have Weavile , Kingdra or Gengar .
- Burn and Poison : If he doesn’t have a heal bell, he will be very vulnerable to these states since they annoy his Multiscale ability, not to mention how annoying they are already.
- Multiple Hits : Moves that hit multiple times in the same turn are great since Multiscale will only reduce the damage of the first hit. Icicle for example is a very good move (so watch out for Cloyster ) because he hits multiple times and on top of Ice.
