Arcanine - Special or Physical?

Lunar

So I'm trying to get my "favorites" team ready for WiFi on Emerald right now. I've got Electabuzz/Dusclops/Milotic/Flygon/Espeon all ready for the Pal Park, now I need to breed and raise my final member; Arcanine.

I'm at some what of a loss of what to do with this guy in D/P, however. He finally got some Physical STAB to play with, but I'm not sure if that's really the best way to go with him. Flare Drive is great, but the recoil concerns me a bit. Worse, all his other Physical moves seem pretty worthless overall. Crunch won't outdamage Flare Drive on many Pokes, and even Thunder Fang seems like a risky way to cover Water types.

Part of me thinks its best to simply forget about the whole Physical thing and give him a special set. Now that he can Sunnybeam, he can probably outdamage Flare Drive with a Sunny Day'd Flamethrower. Hot Rock seems like a good way to make it less of a wasted turn. Of course, T-tar and Hippow can switch in and force you into a two turn, half damage attack.

So, anyway, that's my dillema. Right now I'm leaning towards Sunny Day/Solarbeam/Flamethrower/Extreme Speed (Reversalers and Blissey? <- Need to do the math on that...), but I'm not set on it. I thought I'd ask about the general wisdom on this guy before I start deciding which IVs I can skimp on and which ones I need to spend the next couple weeks perfecting. Thanks in advance!
 
I personally prefer Special Arcanine. Seeing it with Dragon Pulse makes me giggle happily. However, what I'd suggest is a mixed breed, combining elements such as Fire Blast and Dragon Pulse with Extreme Speed and Crunch, for example.
 
Flamethrower/Fire Blast and Dragon Pulse offer better coverage than his physical options. If you've got the patience to breed for it, HP Grass or Electric would be good.

Flamethrower, Dragon Pulse, Will-O-Wisp, ExtremeSpeed/HP Grass or Electric is a decent enough set.
 
Phuquoph said:
Flamethrower/Fire Blast and Dragon Pulse offer better coverage than his physical options. If you've got the patience to breed for it, HP Grass or Electric would be good.

Flamethrower, Dragon Pulse, Will-O-Wisp, ExtremeSpeed/HP Grass or Electric is a decent enough set.
Click to expand...

Does Arcanine really have the raw power to use Dragon Pulse without STAB? Milotic is in a similar situation (Surf/Dragon Pulse has better type coverage, but Surf/Ice Beam will actually let you win more often). That's also part of the reason I'm so hesitant against using Thunder Fang. It seems to me trying to make use of that will just end up with me slightly denting the water type before they Surf me into oblivion.
 
Dragon Pulse won't OHKO any of the Dragons, but you can 2HKO Salamence if you catch it on the switch (I'd recommend giving Arcanine 300 Speed). Will-O-Wisp will screw Garchomp (again, catch it on the switch). You could give him a Life Orb, although that clashes with my suggested set as it's meant to be a supporter more than anything else. Could work ok if your Espeon has Wish though.

You're right about Thunder Fang, aside from Gyarados it won't really threaten most Water types.
 
The physical CB set is the one that looks superior to me:

Arcanine @ Choice Band
- Flare Dive
- Crunch
- Extreme Speed / Thunder Fang / Overheat
- Extreme Speed / Thunder Fang / Overheat

That or a mixed sweeper with Life Orb. But yeah, you're kind of right that Flare Dive outdamages Crunch a lot which diminishes its worth a bit.
 
I would love to use Flare Drive to beat Blissey (a Life Orb set does it with little difficulty), but the downside is that it is going to rape your HP... :[ I would just go with a special set, maybe with ES on the side. Arcanine's only advantage over Goukazaru is moderately better lastability, and using Flare Drive is just going to make that meaningless.

Fire Blast/HP Grass/Dragon Pulse/Sunny Day or something @Life Orb seems effective.
 
His stats are just a bit too balanced. Being a Fire type pretty much excludes any hopes of tanking, even Torkoal and his Skarmory like defense has problems doing that. His attacking stats aren't spectacular either, particularly when he only has Howl to boost them. He badly needed stuff like Earthquake and Stone Edge.
 
Maybe I'll just make two of them. One Special based with Flash Fire (should be fun with the new WoW change) and a Physical one with Intimidate. Probably use Extreme Speed on both of them though, just because its such a great emergency move. Arcanine just amazes me every generation. I don't think there's another Pokemon with such a huge range of options that simply do not work together in any meaningful way :(
 
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