Arrrh…. Arcanine my favourite Pokémon and team ace. I used this Pokémon because it reached out to me with its various move sets and EV spreads; so here’s a review on one of those!
Well as it begins Arcanine is very bulky when treated properly and can take a few hits from physical hits but it can never take a hit from a special attack, such as a STAB Scald. When I considered its bulk I split the HP and Def at a 1:1 max ratio with a tad of attack to help knock out those sneaky Pokémon who think they can go ahead and taunt you or use a defence lowering move to raise the foe’s attack (trust me I had it done once, it pulled me through). But when considering a ratio of bulk to offence you should keep in mind that Arcanine can go either way with max offence or max bulk; however the bulk has to be physical and not special as it works for Arcanine.
With the moves I chose to balance out STAB with coverage and priority. I made sure to keep it alive with a leftovers & morning sun combo and by using will o wisp to create tantrum with really offensive Pokémon that hit hard and take hits well. As my STAB I used flame charge, over Flare Blitz, as it doesn’t risk my HP and it boosts my speed by 1 stage. And as for priority, I used Extreme Speed because until I have a few speed stat increases I can’t out speed much.
With threats with lots of attack variations and bulky stats Arcanine is a bit left out when it isn’t supported by its own coverage moves or coverage from other team members. This is why it is best to consider a Fire, Water, Grass, Electric & Levitate core (yes that’s a thing) and search up what Pokémon in those types support each other and cover themselves. But also you have to consider the weak points of item uses in your team to keep a balance within your items; try to throw people off with an uncertain type of berry or an in game item, such as a type boosting item.
On my Arcanine: leftovers for double recovery and extra life. However, you can run Life Orb for more offence or for a special variant of an arcanine, but this also reduces its life and puts you in some sticky situations; however there is the rocky helmet sets which gives you that little bit of annoyance in your team, this leaves you pretty safe and your opponent wanting to carry more recovery moves instead of boosting moves!
And that’s it, a review on Arcanine, my main ace and favourite Pokémon! I hope you learned a new trick or two from this and I hope to do many more.
