Glaceon

thegrovylekid

thegrovylekid

Makes fake cards
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Well, I've run into a bit of a wall.

Glaceon is one of my favourite Pokémon, tying for my favourite eeveelution. It's in PU. And a LOT of people say it's outclassed by anything. But in reality, Glaceon can be one of the strongest Pokémon in the NU tier if use correctly.

Let's look at the stats:
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The first thing that comes to attention is that monstrous 130 special attack. That's 2 stat points away from MEGA ABOMASNOW.

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But enough about him. Glaceon's next-biggest stat, Defense, is a bit weird on the normally frail ice-types. But 110 defense and 95 special defense are nothing to slouch at either. From there, things turn sour with Glaceon's pathetic 65/60/65 in HP, attack and speed. So Glaceon has an exceptional Blizzard, and can live hits from almost anything in the tier.

So where do things go bad?

Most people see Glaceon as the worst of the eeveelutions competitively because of it's focus on defense instead of offense, and ice being arguably the worst defensive type in the game. Additionally, Glaceon must be in the hail to benefit from either of it's abilities, one being a brightpowder in hail and the other being a leftovers in hail. And because Abomasnow and Mega Abomasnow are not in the NU tier, it has to be accompanied by Arourous, or set up hail itself. the final problem is Glaceon's best STAB move, Blizzard, can only be used 8 times at maximum.

However, once set up, Glaceon is a fearsome sweeper that is not to be overlooked. Remember what I said about Blizzard? Glaceon can use hail and it's defenses to live hits and freeze even the toughest of foes.

Glaceon serves as a Pokémon that is best used when bigger threats to it have been taken out, coming in late game to destroy 2-3 Pokémon. BrightPowder and Snow Cloak do stack in the hail, so you can have a 20% chance of avoiding every attack. Coupled with Wish, you can keep healing beyond for a long time. This also allows Glaceon to pass wishes through switching out into something else, like Mega Audino.


Here's a set that has served me great.

Glaceon @ Bright Powder
Ability: Snow Cloak
Blizzard
Wish
Protect
Hail
EV Spread: 248 HP, 252 Defense, 8 Special attack, Bold Nature

Use hail T1 to boost your evasion.
Use wish or Blizzard.

Despite minimal SPA investment, I've found myself OHKOing Rotom-Fan on the switch in, and 2HKOing anything you hit neutrally.

Remember, Glaceon is more than beautiful, it's beautiful and a strong battler!
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Please comment!
 
Glaceon's problem is that it has defensive stats on a type that takes super effective hits from four others, two of which are very common, with the other two not being rare either. Running a defensive set with four weaknesses and only one resistance is plain bad, and is the reason why defensive Ice-types (see: Articuno) and Ice-types in general (Kyurem-B has a 700 BST and yet isn't Uber) never managed to shine. Glaceon is strong as a wallbreaker and should be played as such, if you can get around its middling Speed. Otherwise, you're better off using Jynx. It is weaker, but it's faster and its coverage is remarkably bigger than Glaceon's, whose movepool is just one more thing that holds it back.
 
I'm not an expert in NU by any means, but I think an offensive set would be better for it. Ice Beam, Shadow Ball, Mirror Coat, Water Pulse as a possible moveset. I think that is about the best you can do for coverage. Mirror Coat takes advantage of Glaceon not being fast if you don't have a great move to use against the foe.
 
A 20% chance of evading a move really isn't something to be relying on and if you have Brightpowder then you can't use a good item like Leftovers. Another problem with your set is that it has only one attacking move with 8 PP and only has good accuracy after you set up Hail. Like CJ said, Glaceon just doesn't cut it as a defensive mon when Ice is a bad defensive typing, despite its passable defenses. Your set can't function as a defensive mon or an offensive mon for these reasons. Here's the best I can come up with for Glaceon:

Glaceon @ Choice Specs
Ability: Ice Body
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpA
Modest Nature
- Ice Beam
- Shadow Ball
- Hidden Power [Ground]
- Baton Pass

This acts as a wallbreaker to take advantage of Glaceon's good SpA and respectable bulk. Baton Pass is for momentum, but you could run Signal Beam or Water Pulse if you don't want to use it. I really have my doubts about Mirror Coat because it relies on you taking a nice chunk of damage from a special hit to be able to do good damage back.
 
I prefer Choice Specs too. The 130 Sp.Atk is it's only good stat ( great defensive stats on an ice type Pokemon are not so great stats in reality ) and should be the main focus on it.
But I don't know much about the NU tier so that is just my speculation about how it is best to use this Pokemon.
 
So? A win against a bad opponent doesn't mean anything. Your opponent had Explosion Muk and Slaking, not to mention that 10% likely Earth Power miss that is the only reason your Glaceon lived past turn 12 and then the one a few turns later that was only 20% likely. I'm not going to run calcs, but if that Fire Blast had hit and Quagsire hadn't been frozen, your Glaceon probably would've died, too. If you have to rely on that kind of hax to win, your strategy isn't a good one.

"You know, Glaceon in the hail has a stronger Blizzard than mega Obamasnow" isn't factual with your set, either.
 
What point have you even made? "This Glaceon set is good because it can OHKO a Flying type and I beat this guy with a bad team because of hax."? We've all refuted the things you say and now you're refusing to even consider them. "We're not going to get anywhere" is true if you don't listen to the advice people give when you make a thread in the competitive VG help section.
 
thegrovylekid, if you think the set is good despite all that, you should explain why, so there will be discussion about this guide instead just saying that you have made your point.
I think the battle was nice and the Protect+Wish+Hail combo is a good way to keep your Pokemon healthy and to be able to keep pressure on the opponent but again, what do you think about the fact that the set relies on so much luck? Can you show calcs of what this set can survive against common threats in the metagame that can support the viability of this set?
About the replay- Try to put replays that doesn't involve so much hax ( Such as the Fire Blast miss and the freeze status on Quagsire) so others can see how good it is in a standard battle.
If you'll give us that, it can help this guide a lot and if you'll find out that you can't - You can simply add the sets from the comments, making your guide better.
(Improving guides about Pokemon from discussions is actually very good and is a thing that needs to be the reason for making guides in forums in the first place IMO).
 
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scattered mind said:
thegrovylekid, if you think the set is good despite all that, you should explain why, so there will be discussion about this guide instead just saying that you have made your point.
I think the battle was nice and the Protect+Wish+Hail combo is a good way to keep your Pokemon healthy and to be able to keep pressure on the opponent but again, what do you think about the fact that the set relies on so much luck? Can you show calcs of what this set can survive against common threats in the metagame that can support the viability of this set?
About the replay- Try to put replays that doesn't involve so much hax ( Such as the Fire Blast miss and the freeze status on Quagsire) so others can see how good it is in a standard battle.
If you'll give us that, it can help this guide a lot and if you'll find out that you can't - You can simply add the sets from the comments, making your guide better.
(Improving guides about Pokemon from discussions is actually very good and is a thing that needs to be the reason for making guides in forums in the first place IMO).
Click to expand...
Thank you for being nice about it. I'll have calcs up once I have time to sit down and Calc.
 
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