XY/ORAS Singles Alternative Abilities

[Mr.Munchlax]

While the favored abilities for Greninja & Heliolisk are Dry Skin and Protean among competitive gamers, the Helioptile and Froakie I'm planning on using for my X game unfortunately have Sand Veil and Torrent. Though I'm going to try to get new pokémon with better abilities, I'm trying to think of alternative strategies that will work with the abilities I already have, in case I can't find a good substitute.

Greninja @Expert Belt/Roseli Berry
Timid
Torrent

• Surf/Water Pulse/Hydro Pump
• Ice Beam/Grass Knot
• Dark Pulse
• Role Play

I was a little more fortunate with Froakie since it has Timid for its nature, so I'm planning on focusing more on its Speed & coming up with a movepool to make up for not having Protean for its ability. While Dark Pulse & either Water Pulse, Surf, or Hydro Pump would go towards Greninja's STAB, I thought of giving Grass Knot or Ice Beam to deal with Grass types (among other things). Lastly, since it doesn't have Protean for its ability, I thought of having it know Role Play so it can use its opponents abilities against them. Plus, if I ever end up battling another Greninja that know Protean, I could use Role Play on it and give my opponent a taste of their own medicine

EDITED AFTER READING KoL's COMMENT:
Heliolisk @Smooth Rock/Ability Capsule/Life Orb
Relaxed
Sand Veil
Moves:

• Parabolic Charge/Thunderbolt/Charge Beam
• Sandstorm
• Bulldoze/Surf/Grass Knot/Hidden Power (Ice)
• Thunder Wave/Flash/Double Team/Substitute

While I know there's no way to completely benefit from Heliolisk's Relaxed nature due to its movepool, I decided to create a strategy based on EV Speed training and teaching it moves to slow down its opponents and evade them. First off, when thinking of its go-to Electric type move, I thought of either teaching it Parabolic Charge for the healing feature, Thunderbolt for its power, or Charge Beam for boosting its special Attack stat. I then thought that a Smooth Rock-powered sandstorm combined with Bulldoze will make Heliolisk faster and more evasive with more powerful foes. And, if Bulldoze isn't a good move due to its low physical Atk, I thought of giving it the three moves regarded for its Dry Skin and Solar Power counterparts to counter type disadvantages. Lastly, I would use the same speed and evasion tactic with either Thunder Wave, Flash, and Double Team, while Substitute would be a possible added protection. Lastly, if all else fails, I thought of giving Heliolisk an Ability Capsule to switch into Dry Skin

 

[KoL]

I'm going to make this nice and simple for you: RE. FUCKING. BREED. This issue was prevalent in your Diggersby topic and it's still a problem here.

You haven't turned Heliolisk's weaknesses in nature and ability into a strength at all besides giving it sandstorm, and with Base 52 Defense any physical attacker in the house has an 80% chance of smashing your face in on your setup turn. With Base 109 Speed, you HAVE to make the absolute most of it, and the only way to do that is with a speed-boosting nature. You're completely wasting Heliolisk's power here; Dry Skin is by far the best ability for him especially with Greninja there to benefit from rain as well.

As for Greninja, you've already got the Timid nature there to use so with Everstone you can pass that nature over when breeding for a Froakie with Protean. Greninja's speed combined with his ability to change his type at will is his greatest strength, and with Spikes available to turn him Ground-type to shrug off Electric-type moves for example there's a lot of potential with Protean.

Bottom line, I'm not going to waste my time with further advice if you're not willing to invest time into breeding stuff that doesn't suck.

EDIT: I probably should have emphasized this, but Heliolisk's biggest problem is Relaxed nature. Using an Ability Capsule to get Dry Skin won't change the fact that you need to rebreed him.