by Heatran is a Pokémon that stands out a lot in Competitive but without a doubt you have to know how to use it very well because it is a double-edged sword.
We have great offensive power, good attacks, loads of resistances and immunities, good defenses and even plenty of options for a Stall strategy (the kind of slowly draining life and such). What is the problem, then? A low speed and some weaknesses, which although they are few, are too problematic.
For this reason I told you that we have to know how to use it well, because if we don’t remove it at the right time, it will be easy for them to knock it down. The case, we go with his complete analysis and in the end as always his strategy and others.
? HEATRAN STATS
His stats add up to a total of 600 points , the same amount that Pseudo-Legendary Pokémon such as Garchomp or Dragonite usually have, and frankly it’s outrageous (although he’s not a Pseudo-Legendary).
- Health: 91.
- Attack: 90.
- Defense: 106.
- Special Attack: 130.
- Special Defense: 106.
- Speed: 77.
Obviously it’s great. Offensively he is a monster, especially facing the special side with those 130 points, which is a lot. Speed is not very good, but as we have already seen, this Pokémon aims to be a powerful offensive player with good defenses as well; so the Speed falls a bit short.
Defensively you can see that he is also very good. Both Defenses are good and therefore it will be covered on both sides and a somewhat lower Health but still good in conjunction with Defenses.
TYPE, RESISTANCES AND WEAKNESSES
Heatran is a Steel Fire Type , which gives it the following weaknesses and resistances:
- Immune to Poison and Poison status ailment. He is also immune to burns.
- It is very resistant to Grass, Ice, Bug, Fairy and Steel.
- It is resistant to Flying, Normal, Dragon and Psychic.
- It is weak to Fighting and Water.
- It is very weak to Earth.
Regarding his weaknesses and resistances… it is complicated because on the one hand he is great for having many immunities and resistances, while on the other; despite having few weaknesses; these are very shitty.
Come on, Heatran is a Pokémon that either has just Pokémon that hit its weaknesses, or you’re lost. But it is that we are facing probably the 3 worst weaknesses that we can have, and on top of that Earth is its weakness x4 is also something catastrophic. It’s a tremendous Pokémon, but you’re going to have to be very careful with it in the face of those weaknesses.
HEATRAN ABILITIES
Let’s now see his abilities and which ones could become interesting:
ABSORB FIRE
Fantastic ability since it gives us 2 very interesting effects simultaneously. From the outset it gives us immunity to the Fire Type , so we add another immunity to the list; and secondly, it will increase the damage of our Fire attacks by 50% if we take a fire hit.
The idea is clear, when it smells like they’re going to throw a Fire attack at us (you’re with Ferrothorn and they take out an Infernape for example), you switch to Heatran, block the blow, and on top of that you’ll get the buff.
FLAME BODY
If you get hit with a contact move, there will be a 30% chance to burn the target . It’s pretty good actually, but I prefer the former.
IVS, EVS AND NATURE
The perfect Iv’s as always; Regarding EVs and others…
- EV’s : We are going to improve those defenses so that it holds up well. All the points in Health and the rest distributed in Defense and Special Defense.
- Nature : Bold. Increases Defense and lowers Attack.
RECOMMENDED ITEM
Without any doubt of object we will put Remains since it will be our only source of healing and we will need it.
BEST MOVES FOR HEATRAN
The movements that I recommend the most for Heatran:
- Smoke : STAB Fire, Special, 80 power, 100% accuracy and 30% burn. Very good Fire STAB Attack and good accuracy with a chance to burn, which never hurts. Fire is effective against Ice, Steel, Grass, and Bug.
- Flamethrower : STAB Fire, Special, 90 power, 100% accuracy, 10% burn. Slightly more powerful than Smoke, but significantly less likely to burn. Given its fairly defensive role, I consider Smoky to be better because burning will help us slow down physical Pokémon.
- Rock Trap : We will put some stones on the opponent’s field that will damage the opponent’s Pokémon when they enter the battlefield based on their weakness to Rock Type. Movement that in my opinion should never be missing (in single) and Heatran would be a good candidate for it.
- Toxic : Another essential in Defensive since it will help us to slowly eliminate enemies through powerful poisoning. In 8th generation it is not available as MT.
- Living Earth : Earth, Special, 90 power, 100% accuracy, and a 10% chance to lower the target’s Special Defense. Tremendous coverage move, remember that Earth is effective against Electric, Rock, Fire, Steel and Poison.
- Protection : We will protect ourselves from all the damage that turn, but we should never do it 2 times in a row. It will be great for us to see what the enemy will attack us with and also to win turns in which we will heal with Leftovers while being fully protected.
HEATRAN STRATEGY
This is the strategy I would take for Heatran, feel free to experiment and try your own strategies. Anyway, this will serve as an example of one that I think is very good.
- IVs: Perfect.
- EVs: 252 Health, 128 Defense, 128 Special Defense.
- Nature: Bold.
- Object: Remains.
- Ability: Absorb Fire.
- Movements:
- Smoke.
- Alive earth.
- Protection. Optional: Rock Trap.
- Toxic. Optional: Rock Trap.
We have good offense and good defense, but we will have to be very careful against Pokémon that we are weak to, especially watch out for Ground attacks. Except for these cases, it will be practically impossible for them to knock us down and we have both powerful moves with good coverage and Toxic for those Pokémon that hold up very well and want to kill them slowly (or to annoy them a bit, which is always cool). Protection + Debris + Toxic will give us a very good Stall.
Also mention that we are the worst nightmare for Fire-Type Pokémon since we are immune to movements of said type, we boost ourselves if they attack us with Fire and on top of that we have Living Earth to annihilate them (in addition to other tools). Of course, watch out for the typical Fighting Fire like Blaziken , which can knock us down with their powerful Fighting-Type attacks.
HOW TO DEFEAT HEATRAN AND COUNTERS
Heatran is an easy Pokémon to defeat; It will be enough to have a Fighting, Water or Ground Type Pokémon (especially Ground) that hits very hard and is also faster than it (something quite simple to achieve). Excadrill is a good example. If your opponent is clever, he will change it, but come on, if you ride it well in the end he will have no choice.
