DPPt/HGSS Just a need a little help with my Ninetales

[Bennett856]

Hey all! I'm new to these forums, but from the looks of it, you guys can evaluate people's pokemon and teams and give a little advice. I was just wondering if you could give a rating on my Ninetales. Here are it's stats at the moment.

Ninetales (Natasha) @ Expert Belt (was thinking about Wise Glasses instead)
lvl: 69
Nature: Modest
Hp: 196
Attk: 123
Def: 130
Sp. Atk: 165
Sp. Def: 158
Spd: 163

Also, it's current moveset is:
Heat Wave
Energy Ball
Dark Pulse
Hypnosis

I'm still refining it a little, so I'd like to know what you guys think of it. I'd appreciate any advice at all. Oh, and expert belt or wise glasses? I really can't decide.

 

[GodlessM]

Good nature, good item, good moves, the only problem is that the stats don't represent as well. If you don't care for EV training then you have a darn fine Pokemon there. If you want to EV train, you will need to use some "Happy" berries to lower your EV's to 0 and then work them back up. 252SpA/252Speed/6HP looks about right.

 

[Bennett856]

Thanks, I wasn't sure that Dark Pulse was a good choice though, but it seems logical enough.

I can see what you mean for stats though. I'm not really one to EV train, but I do have quite a few of those berrys lying about. All I need to know now is whether I should keep my Expert Belt or go for the Wise Glasses.

 

[Celadon]

You really do not need to post the stats of your Pokémon. EV's would help us better, provided you care about EV training.

I would recommend this moveset for Ninetales:

Ninetales@ Wise Glasses
Mild/ Modest

-Flamethrower
-Energy Ball
-Dark Pulse
-Iron Tail/ HP Fighting/ Ice

->Flamethrower for STAB, better accuracy than Heat Wave, and nearly the same damage, too. (142.5 power, while disregarding natures and items, with sure-shot accuracy really is something).

->Energy Ball for killing water and ground types.

->Dark pulse for killing psychic types.

->Iron Tail against rock and Ice types.

-> HP fighting/ Ice against steel and/ or rock types.

Removed Hypnosis because of horrible Accuracy. Anyway, Ninetales does not have great defenses according to me, so you would be better off with the said attacks.

Notes:
-> Breed for Mild Nature, if you decide to use Iron Tail.
-> Use Wise Glasses. Your Ninetales has a full special moveset (assuming that you do not choose Iron tail). Wise glasses hence would do great. Flamethrower may even deal One- hit KO's due to the nature, item and STAB.

Hope that helped.

 

[Bennett856]

Oh I'm sorry. Didn't know think I was required to record where all my EV's went. I know I tried to put as many as I could into Sp. Atk but I'm really not sure.

Umm, I may not be an expert, but Iron Tail? I thought Energy Ball and Heat Wave would take care of Ice, Rock and Steel types?

Thanks again though, appreciate the feedback. I'll try harder to record where my EV's go.

 

[GodlessM]

If it's not EV trained then there is no need to post your EVs since you obviously won't know them.

And I would agree with you that you don't really need Iron Tail especially in a special sweeper. You three weaknesses are Water, Rock, and Ground, and Energy Ball takes care of them. Flamethrower takes care of Ice, Grass, Steel, and Bug. Dark Pulse does in Psychic and Ghost.

My suggestion is to go to the tutor in Pastoria City and replace Hypnosis with Nasty Plot.

 

[Celadon]

Umm, I may not be an expert, but Iron Tail? I thought Energy Ball and Heat Wave would take care of Ice, Rock and Steel types?

Iron Tail:
Power: 100
PP: 15
Accuracy: 75
May lower defense.

The drop in Accuracy does affect Ninetales. However, it has an added effect of lowering defense. This can work wonders, especially because Iron Tail is and Attack. I recommended this, provided you rebreed Ninetales for a Mild Nature, in which case you could have had a Mixed, but mainly Special, Sweeper.

As for the two Hidden Powers, they would do well along with your Wise Glasses.

I have already given the reason for why you should choose Flamethrower over Heat wave.

And as I said, Nasty Plot , or any other "Special Move", is not recommended on Ninetales, due to its low defense. Usually, at least, one's strategy should be to kill his/her opponent in the first turn if possible, when s/he is battling with Ninetales.
Just my opinion though. I have seen quite a few people keeping Will-O-Wisp or Confuse Ray on their movesets.

Hope that helped.

 

[Ruko]

... Iron tale is a horrible suggestion for ninetales for various reasons:

It's accuracy is so low, the chance of missing is almost equal to the chance of lowering defense.. Ninetales has an abysmal attack stat, and Steel has horrible coverage [even if it can hit rock for ninetales, it'll bounce off regardless of being super-effective when comparing stats]

Hypnosis' accuracy is only 5% lower in Diamond/Pearl and 15% in Platinum... and it will do far more than Iron Tail since it's capable of stunning for quite a few turns.

The set first listed will work perfectly, except for the EVs already covered by GodlessM... I'd reccommend Flamethrower over Heat Wave purely for the accuracy issue, though.
If you do find yourself disliking the accuracy on Hypnosis, I'd recommend Confuse Ray.

 

[GodlessM]

And as I said, Nasty Plot , or any other "Special Move", is not recommended on Ninetales, due to its low defense. Usually, at least, one's strategy should be to kill his/her opponent in the first turn if possible, when s/he is battling with Ninetales.
Just my opinion though. I have seen quite a few people keeping Will-O-Wisp or Confuse Ray on their movesets.

Considering his Ninetales is geared to be a special sweeper, Nasty Plot is perfect so as to allow Ninetales to sweep even against high defense without super effectiveness. Combined with STAB and Wise Glasses, Flamethrower should be able to take out most opponent with at least a 2HKO.

And as Ruko stated, Iron Tail is almost as inaccurate as Hypnosis.

 

[KoL]

Your current set, as Ruko stated, is very good. Flamethrower over Heat Wave I agree with unless you plan on doing a lot of doubles. Fire Blast is an option for a raw power attack, but the slightly lower accuracy and terrible PP can hurt you. Take your pick.

As for status attacks, Ninetales has bulky Sp.Defense which works well with Will-O-Wisp, allowing Ninetales to take hits pretty well from both sides of the plate and possibly boost stats with Calm Mind/Nasty Plot. Confuse Ray is fun to disrupt, as is Hypnosis - again, take your pick, Ninetales can work with any of them.

As for your coverage attack, Dark Pulse, Energy Ball and Extrasensory are all available. Ninetales has pretty good Speed, so flinch-hax with Dark Pulse/Extrasensory can work, and Energy Ball is good for wiping out Swampert and Rhyperior in a snap. Three attacks will make you hard to wall whereas two will hurt your coverage a bit more than I'd like myself, but having a stat-up move and a status move on there with two attacks can work well for flexibility and disruption.

 

[Bennett856]

Wow, didn't expect to get quite this many people commenting. Thanks guys, you've really helped me out here. I was thinking of Will-O-Wisp over Hypnosis, but since I already have another two pokemon in my current team that know it, I might give it a miss. As for flamethrower, yeah, I probably should go for that instead of heat wave.

Thanks guys, I appreciate all of your help on this!