Slowking, The Royal Pokémon. It has incredible intellect and intuition. Whatever the situation, it remains calm and collected. When its head was bitten, toxins entered Slowpoke's head and unlocked an extraordinary power. Every time it yawns, Shellder injects more poison into it. The poison makes it more intelligent. It undertakes research every day to solve the mysteries of the world. However, it apparently forgets everything if the Shellder on its head comes off.
Overview
Its sibling Slowbro got some pretty heavy (arguably undue) billing as the generation shift occurred, but despite falling into its shadow, Slowking is nothing to scoff at. What Slowbro brings to the table is a better Defence, very nicely suited for the “Bulky Water” role. The defensive stats are switched around for Slowking but the major thing it brings to the table is the potential of Nasty Plot. Slowking is much quicker to rain offensive batterings than its sibling, but nonetheless, it still falls into its sibling's shadows as both carve a place for themselves in the Underused tier.
Ability
Oblivious: grants immunity to infatuation (Attract and Cute Charm) and Captivate. Since all of this is seldom seen, this is the weaker of two weak abilities.
Own Tempo: grants an immunity to confusion. Once again, this is seldom seen, but Confuse Ray is more likely than Attract. In the grand scheme of things, both abilities are close to worthless, sadly.
Move Sets
Nasty Plot
- Nasty Plot
- Slack Off
- Surf
- Ice Beam / Grass Knot / Psychic
Item Attached: Leftovers
Ability: Own Tempo
EVs and Nature:
EVs: 212 HP / 44 Def / 252 SAtk
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
As noted in the overview, throw in a Nasty Plot and Slowking can rain offensive fury upon its foes, albeit rather slowly. It's less of a sweeper and more of a tank, absorbing hits as it smashes foe after foe with its boosted Special Attack. With that in mind, Slack Off is a necessity to help maintain a HP stat that's undoubtedly going to need the help of a reliable healing move.
Surf pairs up with another offensive move to make a two-pronged offensive. Surf and Ice Beam is blocked off by other Water types, although Ice Beam provides a super-effective hit on Grass types (and Altaria, the one UU Dragon). Surf and Grass Knot are blocked off by Grass types, although Grass Knot provides a super-effective hit on Water types. Surf and Psychic provides two STABs, and is relatively un-resisted as a combination (there are a few Pokémon that do resist it, but no singular types that resist the pair).
Trick Room + Nasty Plot
- Trick Room
- Nasty Plot
- Slack Off
- Surf / Psychic
Item Attached: Leftovers
Ability: Own Tempo
EVs and Nature:
EVs: 212 HP / 44 Def / 252 SAtk
Quiet Nature (+SAtk, -Spd)
It's a lot like the above, only that two-pronged offensive is dropped in favour of Trick Room. Not only does the move provide some support for Slowking's team, it also provides Slowking with the near-guaranteed opportunity to strike first. Otherwise, it's a very similar story to the above, although before going down the Nasty Plot route, Slowking can act as a simple team supporter, since it'll need its team to clear out the Pokémon resistant to the STAB move it's chosen to run with.
Trick Room Sweeper
- Trick Room
- Nasty Plot
- Surf
- Ice Beam / Grass Knot / Psychic
Item Attached: Leftovers
Ability: Own Tempo
EVs and Nature:
EVs: 212 HP / 44 Def / 252 SAtk
Quiet Nature (+SAtk, -Spd)
It's a bit risky to rely on two boosts, first Nasty Plot, then Trick Room, in order to sweep, but it's a usable combination. It's a bit of a mix of the above, ditching the reliable recovery from Slack Off in favour of a two-pronged offensive. Without the added bulk of Slack Off, Slowking is less of a team supporter but from a selfish perspective, it's much more likely to pull off a successful sweep.
Special Wall
- Slack Off
- Toxic / Thunder Wave
- Surf
- Ice Beam / Grass Knot / Psychic
Item Attached: Leftovers
Ability: Own Tempo
EVs and Nature:
EVs: 212 HP / 44 SAtk / 252 SDef
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
A bit of a classic defensive move-set: a two-pronged offensive with a supporting move and a healing move. In this case, Toxic and Thunder Wave offer the supporting options. Thunder Wave isn't going to compensate for Slowking's poor speed (in most cases), but it'll help out the rest of its team and full paralysis is always welcomed. Toxic is good for wearing down other tough opponents, and since this move-set will run into troubles with other strong defenders (since you can't boost your offensive problems away), it gives it a solid means to beat them in a one-on-one confrontation. Of course, these aren't the only supporting options, and a truly supportive Trick Room move-set could be made by fitting in Trick Room in place of the status moves, and the same can be said for a couple of moves that'll get a mention in “Other Options.”
EVs and Nature:
Nasty Plot
Although you can toy around with more defensive spreads, Slowking does have the natural bulk to get by and mixed with Slack Off, it gives you plenty of leeway. With that in mind, max Special Attack with Modest can be its starting point, with the remainder bulking up its HP and its slightly weaker Defence stat. The given EV spread gives it its maximum Leftovers recovery, and the remaining Defence EVs bumps it over the 200 mark, which gives it some reasonable physical bulk.
Trick Room + Nasty Plot
There's a bit more of a case for an expanded defensive bulk for this move-set, since you need to boost up with two moves, not just the one. If you were to go for a more defensive EV spread, the one stated for the Special Wall is a fairly good example. Otherwise, it's the same EV spread as the Nasty Plot move-set, just with a Speed lowering nature to fully exploit Trick Room (and ideally, a low Speed IV would be wanted too).
Trick Room Sweeper
There's no room for toying about with your defences when you haven't got the luxury of Slack Off, so the offensive spread from the Nasty Plot move-set is definitely the favoured one here, but once again, Quiet over Modest.
Special Wall
Over here you'll want to pay a lot of attention to your defensive stats. The given spread gets you into the high 350 Special Defence number, which combined with a strong HP stat should soak up special hits quite comfortably. There is room for variation though, and some Special Defence could be sacrificed to strengthen its offensive power or help out its weaker Defence.
Other Options
Fire Blast, Flamethrower, Light Screen, Counter, Calm Mind, Curse, Belly Drum, Choice Specs.
I didn't really give a mention to the Psychic-Fire combination. Psychic paired with Flamethrower or Fire Blast is another viable combination (a handful of Pokémon resist it but no singular types), and one of the two can also make a viable choice for any Choice Specs move-set.
Light Screen could fit onto the Special Wall move-set quite easily, providing some team support as well as boosting Slowking's special defensive capabilities.
Thanks to Slack Off, Slowking is a pretty viable user of Counter. It can take a physical hit fairly comfortably and heal up afterwards, although once the surprise wears off its use is a bit more limited.
Calm Mind can slot over Nasty Plot on the first move-set. It's slower to get going as a special threat but you gain some better defensive capabilities, although it could be argued that Slowbro is a better user of a move-set like this thanks to its improved Defence stat.
Slowking can play Curse like a Snorlax with Slack Off, albeit with more weaknesses to worry about. Although its Attack is the weaker of its offences, with Curse boosting it, moves like Waterfall, Earthquake and Zen Headbutt become perfectly viable.
Belly Drum truly plays like a novelty. You'll probably need to kick off a Trick Room too to make it work, although you can Slack Off Belly Drum's self-inflicted damage as an alternative. It's a novelty but not completely ludicrous.
I didn't give a full mention to a full Choice Specs move-set, but it produces a usable move-set, and Slowbro gets a pretty varied selection of special moves (other previously unmentioned options to go with a Specs set include Shadow Ball, Signal Beam and Focus Blast).
Countering Slowking
It's a bit of a mix and mash about who counters Slowking and who doesn't, since it usually has a two-pronged offensive that could be one of several combinations.
Surf and Ice Beam can easily be walled by other Water types, with Lanturn and Ludicolo climbing right to the top of the list with their super-effective STABs, and Crawdaunt and Sharpedo falling a little behind due to weaker defensive stats. Lapras also makes the cut thanks to Thunderbolt.
Grass Knot can cause some of those a variety of problems (Ludicolo as an exception), but then the Surf-Grass Knot combination is stopped cold by most Grass types.
The Surf and Psychic combo can also be given a run-around by the aforementioned Crawdaunt and Sharpedo, as well as Shiftry and Cacturne, although the four of them suffer from weak defensive stats (and as a consequence, there's a real risk of suffering a KO at the hands of a Plot-boosted Surf despite the resistances).
It's always worth noting that Slowking has got the huge Speed disadvantage (except when using Trick Room), and to become a true offensive threat it needs to boost as well. This means you should have ample time to try and swing the situation to your own advantage, or at least neutralise its potential. After all, whilst there's plenty of Pokémon like Pinsir and Banette who can't really be taking hits, Slowking will be forced to spend some of its time boosting or healing, leaving the door open for Pokémon of that nature to switch in and try and take advantage of the situation.
Locations in Games
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Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald Trade from LG Colosseum/XD Trade from LG Fire Red/Leaf Green Trade from LG (FR) Evolve Slowpoke (LG) Diamond/Pearl/Platinum Trade from LGPPt (Diamond) Evolve Slowpoke (P/Pt)
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Animé Appearences
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Slowking has had a few Animé Appearences. First it appeared on Shamauti Island and helped Ash calm the fighting of the birds. After that, a trainer's one evolved. Much later, Conway used one in his many appearances.
The Power Of One |
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