HA Garchomp or HA Salamence?
I use Salamence because with a Focus Sash, I get a Dragon Dance. With the boosted Speed and Attack, it won’t be very difficult to get a kill, and after every Pokémon Salamence kills, it gets a boost from Moxie, making it harder to kill every turn.However, a lot of ppl say Garchomp is way better and I don’t understand whyPls explainThanks
Pleaselog inorregisterto add a comment.
It really depends on the gen, as it faces different opponents for each one. On the other hand, you’ve seemed to have been posting many gen 5 ou questions lately, so I’ll go with that.
Enter Salamence. This is a Pokemon that was deemed too powerful for DPP OU, which is a testament to just how good it is. That doesn’t explain everything about Salamence’s power, though. In Black and White, the Dream World gods decided for whatever reason that this already powerful Pokemon needed even more muscle, so they gave it Moxie. Thanks to this ability, Salamence will progressively become more difficult to wall. So, are you thinking you can just send out a physical wall and expect all your Salamence problems to go away? Well, that’s not how it works. Salamence has great mixed attacking stats, so you should probably think twice before switching that physical wall in. Okay, so, what does Salamence struggle with then? Answering that question is simple. It faces a lot of competition from Dragonite, who is much bulkier thanks to its stats and access to Multiscale. Additionally, the once unrivaled MixMence now has to compete with the newcomer Hydreigon, who boasts a higher Special Attack stat and access to Superpower. Salamence is also easily revenge killed by Mamoswine and Choice Scarf users such as Keldeo. Rest assured, however; Salamence is guaranteed to be a formidable opponent on the battlefield.
It’s amazing, but it is also matched up closely by other dragons, drago unite and hydregon. It’s also doomed against mamoswine(I should know. I use mamo on my gen 5 ou team) as an ice shard ohkos. It also gets koed by other Pokemon, like the mentioned keldeo.
A bit more bulk, and with rough skin, it can be a bit more defensive. Not to be said that you should make it a wall tho. It’s more on the fast-but-still-bulky-sweeper side, and it’s typing is good offensively. It also is able to check Pokemon, which are mentioned above.
All in all, it really depends on the team. If you got yourself a spinner-maybe Salamence is better, no destroyed by SR. If you dont, maybe garchomp. Hyper offensive-salamence. Not hyper offensive-garchomp. Team to frail? Garchomp. Not enough damage? Salamence. It really depends on what the rest of your team is, as while they are similar they are still different.Source 1Source 2
Salamence+ Side
Intimidate and Moxie are great abilitiesDragon DanceVery High Attack and a good Special Attack statVast physical movepool and a decent special movepoolTyping resists water and 4x resists grass, and both of these types are rather common
-Side
4x Ice weaknessIf not carrying Intimidate, its bulk is rather lowOffensively, Dragon-Flying is not so good, since it gets walled by Steel types. I’ll get to Earthquake laterLiterally has no good Flying STAB if you aren’t using MegaSash Moxie-Mence gets trashed by priority moves, such as Weavile and Mamoswine’s Ice Shard, and Greninja could use it as a free evolution into Ash-Greninja by simply clicking Water ShurikenStealth Rock weakness
Garchomp+Side
Great offensive typing, as it has Dragon type STAB and Earthquake to destroy Steels and actually do damage to FairiesRough Skin+Rocky Helmet chip punishes Physical attackers, leaving them in range of being revenge-killed, which also makes it a good teammate for Ash-GreninjaHigh Speed statEpic Attack statSpecial attack is decent, and its special movepool is pretty goodGreat physical movepoolStealth Rock resistanceGood bulkAccess to Stealth RockSandstorm immunity
-Side
4x Ice weaknessNeutrality to Water and GrassDestroyed by Mamoswine and Weavile
TL;DR here is, Garchomp is more useful in both offenses, resistances, and team support than Moxie-Mence is. Use Garchomp
That honestly depends on what your team really needs. Garchomp is a swiss army knife while Salamence is a kommando tri dagger. This comparison isn’t just a random one as it pretty much sums up both of the Pokemon. Salamence is a pure and utter killing machine while Garchomp can do lots of stuff
Just a quick run down of their key differences
Garchomp- stealth rock resistance- good bulk in 108 hp / 95 def / 85 spd- powerful stabs on both types- utility options- vulnerable to both form of spikes
Salamence- stealth rock weakness- immunity to both spikes along with earthquake- colorful and destructive movepool- lack of powerful flying stab- fragile in 95 hp and 80 in both defenses which is further compounded without intimidate
That’s just their major differences. To be honest, Salamence took a massive hit in gen six when the fairy nation attacked. Unlike in previous gens where you just have to go dragon dance or slap a choice scarf and spam outrage after Ferrothorn has been killed, this isn’t as doable anymore. Garchomp took the hit as well but not as hard as Salamence. Garchomp’s movepool might not be that colorful nor destructive but it provides it with the tools it need
As for their abilities, rough skin allows Garchomp to have a lot more options, specifically brutally punishing fake out users while Salamence’s moxie only increased its specialty, which is going on an outrage. Garchomp just has a lot more options since it is a swiss army knife while the only thing Salamence can really do is kill especially if not running intimidate and even then, the ultra beasts like Kartana, Pheromosa and that disco ball headed beast does that job better since they’re faster and have a similar ability
So which one you choose? That depends on what you want. Need utiltiy? Go with Garchomp. Need a killing machine? Go with Salamence. If you want which one is better than Garchomp is the way. Garchomp has been a threat in ou not because of its firepower but mainly because of its utility. It even rivals the king of ou, Landorus Therian
