How is a Hazer usually used?

2 minute read

Hello, I am completely new to the scene and am trying to learn a little more about the mechanics of the meta-game. At the moment I’m just practicing with some friends on Gen II. Please excuse me if any of this is wildly ignorant. I have questions about the move Haze:

would one usually give defense/attack boosing moves to one that can Haze? For instance, for use on the turn after hazing, or ‘separately’ at a point where its role isn’t directly a hazer (e.g. team is whittling down, the Pokemon in question can ice-beam, and an ice-beam would be useful so it is brought out for that purpose/can boost in the process)?

what prevents the Pokemon being hazed from hanging around and just boosting again (e.g. Snorlax re-cursing)? As I understand it a Hazer is more defensive than offensive, so if the enemy isn’t in fear of getting hit hard because its defence is back to baseline, what usually are the reasons for the the adversary to switch out? Would this purely be to avoid ‘wasting PP’?

this last question might be a little more situation-dependent: does a hazing Pokemon usually ‘dip in and out’ (i.e. come in, haze, leave) or is the idea more to stay put to threaten hazing again?

Any replies would be welcome, thanks for reading.

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Answer from FriendOfMrGolem120 on Smogon:

Haze is rarely used in GSC. The most “common” examples I can think of right now are Qwilfish in UU and the defensive Dragonite set in OU (Reflect, Haze, Sleep Talk, Rest; which is really rarely seen and very vulnerable to critical hits at a bad time). These two actually illustrate the different uses of Haze perfectly: on Qwilfish it is usually used as an emergency check to a set up mon. You use it when such a mon becomes too damgerous and after Qwilfish eventually faints, you can bring in another Pokemon safely.Defensive Dragonite on the other hand tries to be a longterm counter to a few Pokemon. In order to do this, it is important that it doesn’t take too much damage from non-boosted attacks of the Pokemon you are trying to wall and that you have a recovery move like Rest.

I don’t recommend to use Haze on Vaporeon.

PS. There is also Kindgra as “viable” Hazer in GSC but well… it is not really that viable.

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