Raticate


Name: Raticate
Type: Normal
Abilities: Run Away: Except for trainer battles, will always run from battle.
Guts: Attack raises 1.5 times when induced with a status
Dream World: Hustle: Damage from physical attacks is 1.5 times, but accuracy is reduced 20%
Stats:
HP:
55
Att: 81
Def: 60
SpA: 50
SpD: 70
Spe: 97
Code:
Level Up
1. Swords Dance
1. Tackle
1. Tail Whip
1. Quick Attack
1. Focus Energy
4. Quick Attack
7. Focus Energy
10. Bite
13. Pursuit
16. Hyper Fang
19. Sucker Punch
20. Scary Face
24. Crunch
29. Assurance
34. Super Fang
39. Double-edge
44. Endeavor

TMs/HMs
05. Roar
06. Toxic
10. Hidden Power
11. Sunny Day
12. Taunt
13. Ice Beam
14. Blizzard
15. Hyper Beam
17. Protect
18. Rain Dance
21. Frustration
24. Thunderbolt
25. Thunder
27. Reutrn
28. Dig
30. Shadow Ball
32. Double Team
42. Facade
44. Rest
45. Attract
46. Thief
48. Sing A Round
57. Charge Beam
67. Vengeance
68. Giga Impact
73. Thunder Wave
75. Swords Dance
83. Cheer Up
86. Grass Knot
87. Swagger
88. Pluck
89. U-turn
90. Substitute
93. Wild Bolt
94. Rock Smash
001. Cut
004. Strength

Egg Moves
Screech
Flame Whell
Fury Swipes
Bite
Counter
Reversal
Uproar
Last Resort
Me First
Revenge
Life Gamble
Ohhh you thought you saw the last of him with the transition to gen 5 did ya? Well Raticate is back for another round and chomping at the bit. Now, its pretty safe to say... raticate isn't gonna exactly make the top tier this generation. As always, (like the rest of his furry normal brethren), he will probably be confined to a much lower usage tier, or onto fun teams. But, that doesn't mean he didn't get a few new toys to tinker with this generation. Lets have a look and see what he's got to offer us now.

Not quite a flame orb...
Raticate @ Choice Band
252 Att / 252 Spe / 4 HP
Jolly
Hustle

Double Edge / Return
Crunch / Sucker Punch
U-turn
Wild Bolt / Reversal / Me First / Quick Attack


Well, this raticate sacrifices the freedom and status aversion of the classic flame orb set, to provide it with insane power right off the bat. Choice band and hustle combined make this little rat hit like a snorlax. The choices are pretty simple, double edge provides raw power, and return is slightly more reliable. Sucker punch is nice priority to pick off those fast ghosts, but being locked into sucker punch can spell doom for a team, so crunch is a nice option. U-turn lets him scout, while leaving a small but decent dent in the opponent. The last move is filler, wild bolt is a new option for the guy, letting him hit bulky waters better than before. Reversal isn't likely to get that powerful, but its his best way to hurt steels, so if you can get yourself into the red, it should take out a decent chunk. Me first can work to your favor at times, if you get the right move. And pursuit catches fleeing ghosts who might expect a sucker punch. Easy to use, hard to sweep with (and hustle can screw you over at times).

Dancing Rats
Raticate @ Life Orb / Toxic Orb
252 Att / 252 Spe / 4 HP
Jolly
Hustle / Guts

Swords Dance
Double Edge / Facade
Sucker Punch / Crunch
Wild Bolt / Reversal
/ Quick Attack / Protect

Same as above but with swords instead of a band. The choice of nature is up to preference. Hustle gives you more power due to being able to abuse life orb + hustle but costs you accuracy. Toxic orb gives you immunity to paralysis and sleep (though something that tries to paralyze raticate, rather than just kill, is probably not that big a threat) and gives a decent power boost, but means you'll have to switch out sooner. This set is damn near impossible to pull off, but its there for shits and giggles.

So aside from that... anything much new? Not a whole lot. Cheer up is an option, as his special movepool ain't that bad (like all normals), but with no ability boosting his poor base 50 SpA, its just not worth replacing a band or SD. The old lead set of focus sash + endeavor etc, still can work. Hustle can be used on that set to some effect, as it means Raticate can do some decent damage from a lead position. Finally, last resort is a gimmicky option, letting it run a stronger slower set to that old ambipom set that was fun to use on gimmicky UU teams. Finally, if you somehow have a way of keeping that sandstorm at bay, a sub salac set could be used with hustle and reversal. Again a gimmick, but hey your using raticate, might as well gimmick it up
 

LouisCyphre

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Hustle is a 20% increase, not 50%. Not only that, it's inferior to Guts in almost all cases. It barely even raises your net damage, accounting for missed attacks.
 
Choiced Sucker Punch is horrible, it basically guarantees setup from the opponent. I'd run Crunch 100% of the time on that set, even if he misses the priority. Also, Quick Attack might be worth some mention on the Swords Dance set, since it hits for more power than SD Scizor's Bullet Punch after a Guts boost. Other than that, cool stuff. Hustle is a boon for Raticate, but it might arguably be outclassed by Guts due to the accuracy drops.

Hustle is a 20% increase, not 50%. Not only that, it's inferior to Guts in almost all cases. It barely even raises your net damage, accounting for missed attacks.
Just confirmed that Hustle /does/ provide a 50% attack boost. Otherwise no-one would use it on anything, ever.
 
Holy shit Raticate gets Revenge now. It's a shame that it can't really afford negative priority. Wild Bolt is interesting as now it has a good way to hit Rocks/Steels, and the recoil doesn't really bother it since it dies so quickly anyway.
 
Just confirmed that Hustle /does/ provide a 50% attack boost. Otherwise no-one would use it on anything, ever.
Indeed this is true, as shown.

Guts Facade @ Toxic Orb vs 252/252 Neutral Natured Milotic
44%-52%
Hustle Double Edge @ Life Orb vs the same Milotic
49%-58%

The best thing hustle does for you, is let you hold an item aside from a status orb. Of course, the drop in accuracy is a big risk to take for a somewhat similar damage output, so guts is still potentially the better option.

O and quick attack is a good idea I didn't quite think of, I'll throw that in there somewhere.
 
I think it's a damn shame that Raticate doesn't get Claw Sharpen. That alone makes me want to lean further toward the Guts Abuse sets, as Raticate really can't afford to miss in my opinion.
 
I think it's a damn shame that Raticate doesn't get Claw Sharpen. That alone makes me want to lean further toward the Guts Abuse sets, as Raticate really can't afford to miss in my opinion.
This.
It doesn't even make sense that it doesn't get claw sharpen. It's a rat, why wouldn't it have it! At first when I saw Hustle I thought it'd be pretty cool with claw sharpen, but seeing as it somehow manages to not get it, Raticate is once again probably going to be stuck in barely-even-NU.
 
GutsDance with Facade, Quick Attack/Sucker Punch and Coverage are useful, but seriously, there are better things. Like Delibird.
 
GutsDance with Facade, Quick Attack/Sucker Punch and Coverage are useful, but seriously, there are better things. Like Delibird.
I disagree. Raticate is quite useable, and was last gen as well.

SD Guts was Ursaring, but faster and with shittier coverage (and less bulk, but hey, it's a guts user). This generation, Facade+Wild Bolt/Crunch has exceptional neutral coverage, only missing out on Doryuuzu, Nattorei, and Steelix, I think, who all get hit quite hard with +3 Fire Fang, and the former two are gonna be OU, and Raticate...is not.
 
here is a cool set idea for NU this gen



Maybe I finally can inflict some damage
Raticate @ CHOICE BAND
252 Att / 252 Spe / 4 HP
Jolly
hustle

Return
U-turn
Sucker Punch/crunch
Wild Bolt


if you have a really tough foe to deal with in NU lets say prevo stone happiny and munchlax, Crimgan or any other bulky walls in NU you can get rid of them using Extreme Risk.


EDIT: quick attack is shit it hardly do any damage
 
LoL Life gamble? The only use that would have is if raticate was at full health, and even then you wont kill barely anything with his shitty hp... Run u-turn on any choiced set so he can scout his counters.
 
Sucker Punch on a Choiced set?
7 NU pokes are faster than it with sucker punch guarantees the kill(except for entei and floatzel) as they have weak defenses and low hp.

LoL Life gamble? The only use that would have is if raticate was at full health, and even then you wont kill barely anything with his shitty hp... Run u-turn on any choiced set so he can scout his counters.
I am realizing that through some testing Life gamble don't work well it's a fail explosion even with it's nerf so yeah your right U-turn is better
 

Jirachee

phoenix reborn
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Super Fang is an option too, since in UU Steelix will wall you. Its useless on choiced sets, but useful on set up ones.
 
Wallbreaker
Raticate @ Focus Sash/better suggestion
252 atk/252 Spd/(4 def/SpD)
Jolly
Guts
Super Fang
Death gambit
Quick Attack
Crunch

I understand that this isn’t a very good set, but it’s interesting to use against walls such as blissey and natty, who might wall your team otherwise. Crunch hits what death gambit doesn’t hit hard, super fang, then death gambit against all non-ghost types for a 2HKO unless their HP is odd, and quick attack for priority, in case the opponent thinks they've killed your priority users already. I found this set to be too interesting to be unspoken of. I would personally only recommend this if you really, really hate blissey, skarmory, natty, and bulky waters.
If they switch their wall out on a predicted super fang, anything switching into it that isn't a ghost will get hit hard, then put in or near OHKO range by death gambit.

Edit: so yeah its outclassed by the sturdy/shell bell/endeavor gimmick and serves the same purpose, except this hits ghosts hard, and it can be used in lvl 50/100 only tourneys, and you don't get the same shame as from using the gimmick that outclasses it, and might be only usable, if at all in the PO servers, where id guess the mechanics of the move are the same as the teambuilder description, though i haven't tried it myself or seen it used after 100+ battles
 
Wallbreaker
Raticate @ Focus Sash/better suggestion
252 atk/252 Spd/(4 def/SpD)
Jolly
Guts
Super Fang
Death gambit
Quick Attack
Crunch
Confirmed Life Gamble KOs the user and deals damage equal to the amount of HP the user had before using the move. However, the user will not faint if Life Gambit fails to affect the target, whether due to a miss, Protect, or type immunity. (iruchii, MeroMero)
Again... death gambit or life gamble or whatever the hell its called, is a fairly bleh attack and is DEFINITELY terrible on raticate. He has shitty hp, so he will do a maximum of 314 HP damage, and that's at max 252 HP (which he should never run). The only possible use it has on raticate, is a surefire way to destroy shuckle...
 
GutsDance with Facade, Quick Attack/Sucker Punch and Coverage are useful, but seriously, there are better things. Like Delibird.
Not really. In gen 4, I've swept some Uber teams with Raticate. With no Baton Pass. Gut-boosted, SD-boosted Facade HURTS. Alongside Facade and Swords Dance, I ran Crunch to hit ghosts and those that resist Facade, and Flame Wheel (I know, lol, but, strangely, it actually worked) for Steel-types.

I can't count the number of teams I swept with that.
 
up this thread. Can i?
playing with this set now:

Raticate @ Focus Sash
EVs: 252 atk/ 252 spe/ 6 hp
Nature: Jolly
Ability: Hustle
-Swords Dance
-Return
-Reversal
-Sucker Punch

Miss miss miss, but funny when it hits. Focus Sash guarantees the SD (well, not always...), Return/Reversal any bitches on your way, Sucker Punch because rats are sneaky.

This thing packs quite a punch with SD + Hustle. Did i said miss?
DO NOT USE IT ON OU, THANK YOU.
 
as far as I see raticate, going all the way back to gen 1, "speed + super fang" is what makes it unique. even if it is sacrificial, a mid to late game switch in on a rather annoying pokemon (like bronzong, blissey, or any other annoying wall, or maybe even swampert), and at least get 1 super fang in, and i'm sure the team will be happy for it's one hit mega contribution to the annoyance.
 
good point. the move tutor distribution of super fang in gen 4 has basically diminished raticate's slight edge over it's competition. :(
 

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