Advice on a Goukazaru

[Darien Shields]

I don't know if there's much advice to be had yet on fourth gen' sets, but I thought it would be worth asking. I assume this is the right forum...? Apologise if it's not.

So, anyway, I have a set for my Goukazaru, "Sun Wukong", but I'm not sure on a few things. I'll explain the set first, and then get to the details I'm uncertain of;

Flare Drive
(Fire Type, 120 Power, 100 Accuracy, Physical, 15 PP)
Superpowerful physical fire attack. The only drawback is it has one hell of a kick, a recoil of over 1/8th of the damage, as far as I can tell. (I attached a Shell Bell which "heals 1/8th of the damage dealt", but it didn't heal all his recoil damage)

In Fight
(Fighting Type, 120 Power, 100 Accuracy, Physical, 5 PP)
Superpowerful physical fighting attack. This too has a drawback ^_^; It lowers the user's Defense and Special Defense a stage, leaving them progressively more vulnerable the more it's used. Usually I try to OHKO and then switch out.

Slack Off
(10 PP)
Basically like Recover, it restores half the user's maximum HP. I like healing, and this seems like a good way to balance his Flare Drive. If he's taking more than 50% of his max' HP in a single turn, then he shouldn't be fighting in the first place, I sez...

Swords Dance
(30 PP)
Raises the user's attack stat 2 levels
{Note: I haven't actually managed to get the TM for this one yet, but it is possible. Currently he's got Calm Mind}

So, as you can see, the set is a tad kamikaze. In practice he's already managed to kill himself about as much as the enemy has. However, I've yet to EV Train him, and I haven't settled on a hold item... My first matter of concern is how to distribute his stats. I'm working under the assumption I can pump him full of EV-reducing berries for the stats I don't want, and then EV train him in the others afresh? Well, I hope so, anyway...

Attack should be highest, I think, as he's a physical sweeper.
Special Attack should, obviously, be lowest, as he has no moves using it.
Speed was recommended as a high stat by someone, to let him strike first, good for OHKOing and suchlike. I think this is a good idea.
HP, I reckon', should come third, and get whatever's left. TMK, the recoil on Flare Drive is not affected by his defenses, so the only way to make it less severe is to increase his HP. Also, since Slack Off always restores 50% HP, it seemed like a good move to have a lot of HP to heal like this.
Defense and Special Defense would, then, come last. They're already going to take a pounding from In Fight, so it seems like raising them would be futile. I don't know, though, would this give him too much of a Glass Jaw?

As for a Hold Item, I'm not sure either. There are a variety of berries that might be nice. A healing Berry, just to give him some HP back. One of the stat-boosters, like Speed (Salac Berry) or Attack, to give him a bit of a boost (I can picture him having ungodly firepower with an attack-increasing-berry and Blaze). Then there's the Shell Bell I mentioned earlier, which restores HP based on attacking. Handy for his recoil, but it doesn't stop it completely. It could reap some nice healing from In Fight, though. The other two things I've been using are the Fighting Type Plate and the Fire Type Plate. They've been quite potent in increasing his damage, which is what he's built to dole out... I find I prefer to pump In Fight, as its "drawback" is not proportional to the damage it deals; the more powerful Flare Drive becomes, the more it hurts Wukong. The more powerful In Fight becomes... the more chance he has of OHKOing and getting to switch out. Or so I thought.

Anyway, advise would be much appreciated. Also, could anyone direct me to somewhere that has a list of what the natures are called in Japanese? I have no idea what nature any of my pokémon have ^_^;

[mr_pikachu]

You and I discussed the hold item issue via AIM awhile back. I'll repeat the recommendation I made then: White Herb would be very useful in combination with In Fight, as it would restore your lost stats without requiring a time-consuming switch. (Switching so frequently to avoid the drawback can be costly, as it leaves whatever Pokemon enters the battle wide open for a free move.)

Shell Bell makes little sense for a sweeper, as the point is to deal as much damage as possible before your fighter falls. You'll want high enough Speed to keep it from being hit first, anyway, so the only reason to recover (ideally) would be Flare Drive and any opponents that survive your first move. That's the basic idea of sweeping.

For that same reason, I'm a little cautious about Slack Off. It seems a little weird to use a healing move on a sweeper - especially when it's a Pokemon that you're already worried may have a glass jaw.

The one concern you may have beyond that is Swords Dance. Be sure that when Goukazaru comes into the battle, it'll last more than one attack against whatever's in the fight. It'll need to take one strike while it powers up with Swords Dance. Then feel free to crush whatever's in your way.

For EV training, a physical sweeper obviously needs to have high Attack and Speed; I recommend pushing those to the max. Then you can throw whatever's left into HP (or one of the defensive stats if you need to cover a weak point in IVs).

[Jeff]

Pokemon that can dish out hits but have trouble taking them really have no business with a recovery move, you're going to end up recovering more than attacking, and in the end that's just not good. I really don't see what's wrong with shell bell, it makes a nice alternative to using up your turn to recover, you could also use leftovers but you'll probably want to save that for a defensive pokemon.

[frylock]

I agree with getting rid of slack off, replace it with another attack. You could give him Shadow Claw for psychics, Stone Edge for flyers, Earthquake, or even Aerial Ace or something. For an item, I'd give him a Salac Berry. Also, In Fight and Flare Drive together seem really suicidal. I'd either replace In Fight with Brick Break or Flare Drive with Blaze Kick. Basically, you send him in, use Swords Dance, hope he gets hurt badly enugh to activate the Salac Berry, and sweep.

His attack and special attack are the same, but he's got a crappy special move pool. All he really has is Flamethrowe/Fire Blast/all the fire moves, Focus Bomb, and Solarbeam. You might be able to make a moveset of that, but I don't think it'd work very well.