Dragon Dance

[BrocktheRock]

What makes a good Dragon Dancer and can Latios be one? (he learns it at level 50)

[Absol]

a good Dragon Dancer is one with high Attack (preferably higher than 350) and Speed of at least 264...

Latios cannot be one, because Latios has a low attack stat and the special stat boost of Soul Dew is too awesome...

[Slowbro's Master]

Some of the good and commonly used ones r like Tyranitar, Dragonite, and Salamence...possibly Charizard...

[Kuiper]

Overview
Dragon Dance is a very important part of the RS metagame. It is the ultimate physical sweeper move, raising both speed and attack in a single turn. Games are often won and lost based on this attack.

Dragon Dance is most commonly used on Salamence and Gyarados, because of their movepools, types, and the Intimidate trait. Tyranitar can also be effective, but is weak against other Dragon Dancers and can harm your own team. One thing to be aware of is that each of these Pokemon have a quadruple weakness - ice for Salamence, electric for Gyarados, and fighting for Tyranitar.

Stats
EVs for Dragon Dancers should place a large emphasis on attack power and speed. A good setting is usually 252 in Attack and just enough in speed to be faster than a timid Alakazam (372) after one Dragon Dance. A final speed stat of 249 equates to 373 speed after Dragon Dancing once, although you can dedicate a few more points if you want to outspeed other Dragon Dancers. You can put the rest in HP or defense. If you want to use a Fire Blasting Salamence, you will have to balance EVs with careful thought as to how much you need to defeat whatever you are targeting.

Offense
Using Dragon Dance effectively is not a difficult process, but does take time and intelligence. You must keep in mind your primary goal - wheter you need to inflict enough damage to allow the rest of your team to finish off your opponent, or if you need to defeat your opponent's entire team in one stroke (in the case that your Dragon Dancer is the only remaining team member that can deal significant damage). You may also be probing for something, and Dragon Dance can do that too. Bringing out a Dragon Dancer often forces an opponent to immediately switch to their resident counter.

Once you have a clear goal in mind, play accordingly. Use the rest of your team to take out any counters, or use two Dragon Dancers, if possible - one to weaken a counter, the other to take it out. Be careful not to get your Dragon Dancer burnt or paralyzed unneccessarily. Once you have successfully removed anything stopping your sweep, your following actions will be some of the most important of the battle. If you have an active Dragon Dancer with Dragon Dances present, you will have to carefully mix attacking with Dragon Dancing just enough to finish the rest of your opponent's team. You will likely need more Dragon Dances to defeat a particular Pokemon, but be careful not to Dragon Dance too much and be fainted before having a chance to do as much damage as you could. If you don't have Dragon Dances currently, you have other options. Assuming your Dragon Dancer is still in fighting shape, you now have an opportunity to sweep your opponent's remaining Pokemon. This will often only take one or two Dragon Dances. One is pretty easy to get, just switch your Dragon Dancer into something that can't hurt or disable it easily and Dragon Dance as your opponent switches (or prays for a critical hit). Two requires some prediction and skill if your opponent knows what they are doing. The easiest way is to get one as detailed earlier, and simply be able to survive another turn to get the second. Psuedo-passing Light Screen or Reflect can help with this.

Defense
Dragon Dance can also be used as a counter. This often depends upon the situation, but a good example is against opponents with stat-boosting moves. If you use Dragon Dance while your opponent uses a move such as Swords Dance or Calm Mind, you'll likely end up faster than your opponent. If you are now able to kill them in one hit, you have forced them to either let their current Pokemon die or take a hit on the switch. With accurate prediction, you may be able to grab a second Dragon Dance while they switch.

Defending against Dragon Dance mostly consists of using the tactics those using Dragon Dancers are warned about. It greatly helps to get inside your opponent's head. Determine what they are aiming for, and deny it. If possible, lure them into a situation that looks appealing based on their goal, and turn it around. An unexpected Will-O-Wisp is quite effective at this, as is a move with quadruple effectiveness.

Dragon Dancer versus Dragon Dancer situations can often be very high-stake; flawless playing here yields large benefits. If you've already Dragon Dance and they haven't, victory should be easy. Often you can get another Dragon Dance in, then kill your opponent. The opposite situation should be avoided if at all possible. When neither player has Dragon Danced, it is usually safest to Dragon Dance once, and then attack your opponent. This is still risky, if both of you have the same speed and do the same thing there's only a 50% chance that you'll come out on top. This type of situation benefits the losing player, so avoid it if you're doing better thus far. Note that all of these examples assume near-max health.


I once used Dragon Dance on Latios to counter what was at the time the most popular Latios counter, Regice. :p

[BrocktheRock]

I think Absol has a good point that the Special Attack boost of Soul Dew is too good to waste Dragon Dance on Latios

But to counter things like Regice Fallen Ronin also has a good point.

Is it possible to use both?

Latios@Soul Dew
watevr nature wutevr EVs (Not worried about them right now.)
Levitate
Dragon Dance
Earthquake
Psychic
Dragon Claw

Earthquake just to counter ice pokemon, dragon dance to make it stronger and make him faster.

??????????

[Absol]

EQ wouldnt counter Ice pokemon... HP Fighing would do more damage... you could try it...

also, for 200, the speed needs to be only 249 because there are only 3 pokemon that go over the 120 base stat: Swellow, Crobat, and Ninjask (Deoxys as well, but that's 00ber)... in 386, you also need to outspeed Jolteon and the rest...

[BrocktheRock]

How can i make sure his HP comes out fighting? I still havn't gotten a solid answer for that.

[shineyaltaria]

How can i make sure his HP comes out fighting? I still havn't gotten a solid answer for that.

Other than being a cheater, you just have to keep trying to get a pokemon of the species you want until it's IVs match HP:FTG. Even if you do, you won't know its Power until you know all 6 of its exact IVs too.

Look, each pokemon has 6 stats, right? And each pokemon has 6 IVs, one for each stat. Well each combination of those 6 IV numbers makes up one particular Hidden Power type/power. So far so good?

Now, every pokemon's Hidden Power type/power directly depends on it's IVs, which are RANDOM. I wanted a Gyarados with HP:FLY and just had to keep catching/breeding until I lucked out and got one with IVs that matched for HP:FLY. Then I wanted to know what power the FLY was (70 is the max). In order to find out you have to know each of your 6 IVs Exactly. So I got it to a high enough level to use the HP calculator at gamefaqs and found out it had power of 57. So my Gyarados had HP:FLY,57.

Getting an HP:70 of anything is the same odds as playing a lottery with 6 numbers and a range of from 0 - 31. You have to be extremely lucky.

Sorry for such a long explanation. Hope it helps.

Edit: Changed FTG to FLY

[Kuiper]

Getting an HP:70 of anything is the same odds as playing a lottery with 6 numbers and a range of from 0 - 31. You have to be extremely lucky.
Well, there are several different combomations for HP:70 of each type, so that increases your odds, but it's pretty darn hard to get HP:70 and the right type.

Regice is weak to three physical types: Rock, Fighting, and Steel. If all else fails, you could just use Steel Wing (I did). 70 power, 90% accuracy, and a low chance of raising defense.

Latios should still have Soul Dew for the special defense boost.

[shineyaltaria]

Well, there are several different combomations for HP:70 of each type, so that increases your odds, but it's pretty darn hard to get HP:70 and the right type.

Yes, since there are 17 attack types you really have 17 chances of getting an HP:70. I'd go with Steel Wing too.

BTW, Fallen Ronin, that was the best Dragon Dance-related post I've ever seen. Thanks for posting it.

Got Steel Wing?

EDit: Actually, there are more chances than 17 since each HP:70 has about 30 rows of IV combinations for each attack type. Doesn't really matter, the odds are tough.

[Absol]

as long as you get at least 51, it will do more than EQ...

HP Fighting is better than Steel Wing, because it is also Super-effective to Blissey...

[BrocktheRock]

ok Latios is out...

can anyone give me good movesets/held items for a Dragon Dancer? Either Dragonite, Salamence, or Tyranitar. Or if you could advise good movesets for them all that would be cool too! thanx!

[Link]

What does the Soul Dew do?

[XNidoking'sFuryX]

It raises the special attack of either Latios or Latias if it is attached to them. Soul Dew can only be found attached to the Lati@s found on the Southern island, which can be accessed by aquiring a Neo ticket through certain Nintendo events.

[Absol]

it raises the special attack AND special defense of Lati@s by 50% when attached

[Kuiper]

which can be accessed by aquiring a Neo ticket
It's Eon ticket. It's an E-reader card. Buy it off Ebay or find someone on the Pokemon trading forum with it. If you want mine, I'll rent it to you for eighty bucks an hour, if I don't get it back it'll be fifteen thousand dollars.