[Smogon] Ribombee Moveset - Special Attacker

[Marcusube]

Credit to LunaAkino

Ribombee is a very underrated threat on the current OU ladder. This Pokemon is sporting a strong Bug/Fairy typing alongside a very fast 124 base speed paired with a 95 Special Attack. With these attributes, it makes for a very potent sweeper

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Type: Bug/Fairy

Base Stats: 60 HP, 55 Attack, 60 Defense, 95 SpAtk., 70 SpDef., 124 Speed

Weaknesses: Fire, Poison, Flying, Rock, Steel

Resistances: Fighting, Grass, Bug, Ground, Dark

Immunities: Dragon

Abilities: Honey Gather - No competitive use
Shield Dust - Damaging moves used on this Pokemon will have no secondary effect
Sweet Veil - Prevents itself and allies from falling asleep

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Substitute + Quiver Dance


Ribombee @ Leftovers
Ability: Shield Dust
EVs: 248 HP / 8 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moonblast
- Substitute
- Quiver Dance
- Roost

Ribombee has the ability to set up a good amount of the current metagame due to its typing. Moonblast is the attack of choice chosen for this set simply because it hits everything. Not one Pokemon is immune to it and it hits most types for at least neutral. Substitute is to protect Ribombee from any direct status moves and priority moves. Quiver Dance boosts Ribombee's stats to a respectable amount and Roost gives it longevity. This Ribombee is ran as a mono-attacker and is specifically to be used for late game cleanup as without the boosts it's not doing respectable damage to anything without prior damage. The best way bring Ribombee in is either in front of a Fighting type or Dragon type which doesn't commonly run coverage for Fairy types or by a slow U-turn/Volt Switch. Hard switching Ribombee in is risky due to it's abysmal bulk even with the max HP investments

Damage Calculations:

Offensive

8 SpA Ribombee Moonblast vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Pheromosa: 422-500 (149.1 - 176.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+2 8 SpA Ribombee Moonblast vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Tapu Koko: 250-295 (88.9 - 104.9%) -- 31.3% chance to OHKO
+2 8 SpA Ribombee Moonblast vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Kartana: 237-279 (91.5 - 107.7%) -- 50% chance to OHKO

Defensive

252 Atk Pheromosa High Jump Kick vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Ribombee: 83-98 (25.6 - 30.3%) -- 1.1% chance to 4HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 Atk Pheromosa Lunge vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Ribombee: 102-121 (31.5 - 37.4%) -- 0% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 SpA Life Orb Tapu Koko Thunderbolt vs. 248 HP / 0 SpD Ribombee: 208-246 (64.3 - 76.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

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Potential Teammates include, but aren't limited to;

• Fast Electric types + VoltTurn - Volt Switch really helps in bringing in Ribombee safely and the existence of VoltTurn allows Ribombee to have an easier time sweeping as VoltTurn wears the opponent down quickly
  
• Wallbreakers - Chansey, Toxapex and SpDef Marowak among other walls give Ribombee hell as they constantly force it to switch. Wallbreakers tear through defensively oriented Pokemon which allows Ribombee to sweep freely
  
• Hazard Support - Ribombee needs rocks off the field at all times as well as Spikes and Toxic Spikes. Chip damage from entry hazards make it less of a threat
  

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Threats include, but aren't limited to;

• Priority - Primarily Scizor but all forms of priority outside of what Ribombee resists give it a hard time sweeping especially because it's so frail
  
• Steel, Fire and Poison types - They all wall out Ribombee and hit it back for super effective
  

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Due to the metagame not being 100% stabilized and Pokebank transfers from generation 6 not being available, this thread will be incomplete in terms of teammates and threats

[croissant]

@Marcusube While I do agree that Ribombee can be an effective threat in OU and that the choice of moves is pretty good, I would like to point something. I really don't see a reason to run max HP. Ribombee is really frail, and I think the investment in HP is completely useless, as it won't be really bulky anyways (as you said yourself). Instead, I would invest in Special Attack as it would allow it to hit hard, and the extra damage is really appreciated since its Sp Atk is pretty low. Anyways, it worked better for me in the games that I played with both sets. I would like you to modify this set before I approve it, since it was pretty subpar in my experience with it.

[Johnnyspyguy]

So this thing's Gen 7 Vivllion?

[Marcusube]

@"Elly" I invested in HP over Special Attack mainly because after you set up Quiver Dance, the Special Defenses boosts plus the amount of HP would make it so that a Substitute is harder to break which goes back to my first point of Ribombee being frail. If the Substitute can take at least one hit without breaking then Ribombee has a higher rate of survival as opposed to if it were to be invested into Special Attack. I can see where and why you say the damage output is lacking but again, I said specifically that the set requires chip damage in order to pick up KOs and investing in Special Attack does give you about 10-21% more damage but at the cost of longevity