The viability of Draining attacks

Bologo

Bologo

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Ok, so this is going to be a thread about who can use draining attacks the best. Now, this does not mean things like Leech Seed or Ingrain, or even Aqua Ring, because those are not draining ATTACKS, they're support moves that just so happen to drain.

Now, draining attacks are cool because they allow the pokemon to do damage while possibly gaining all of their health back since the damage is 1/2 of however much damage you dealt. Plus it's good for those pokemon who don't have access to good recovery.

I'm going to list the best of the draining attacks for each type that has them, obviously not absorb/mega drain that are outclassed since they have a better attack of the same type:

Leech Life (BUG w/15-24 pp) (20 BP) (Physical) - Now, this is probably the worst of the draining attacks since it only has 20 BP, but it does have its uses. For example, Parasect can Swords Dance up and use it with success. It will take a chunk out of psychic/dark/grass types after 1 or 2 swords dance while parasect will be able to get some health back...although this was probably only viable in RBY. Ninjask could possibly use it the same way.

Drain Punch (Fight w/5-8 pp) (60 BP) (Physical) - This one is alright, and I would honestly use it quite a bit if not for the extremely low PP. It's actually quite deadly on Hitmonchan who gets 108 BP out of it thanks to STAB and Iron Fist. I'm pretty sure that Hitmonchan can OHKO big guys such as Tyranitar with it too. It's also the only way to recover for the sucker Regigigas. Also, with Gallade, it is deadly with STAB and Swords Dance. Plus with Gallade's below average HP, he'll be getting back higher percentages of health which helps with stuff like substitute.

Giga Drain (Grass w/10-16 pp) (60 BP) (special) - Yeah, so this is probably the most viable one. Giga Drain can be learned by a great deal of pokemon, and was used commonly in ADV since there were very few grass moves to use. What happened to it though? It got its PP doubled, and no one is using it now? It seemed to me like the biggest problem with it was the horrid PP in ADV, and that got fixed. It seems to me like it has great potential on subseeders such as Ludicolo and Abomasnow. Ludicolo because with Rain Dish/Leftovers/Leech Seed up, it gets back a shitload of HP each turn, so why not keep him in tip-top shape with Giga Drain? With Abomasnow, his special attack stat is exactly the same as his attack, and he is a deadly subseeder with Hail. Why not get more of his HP back for more Wood Hammering?

Dream Eater (Psychic w/15-24 pp) (100 BP) (special) - Ok, so this one is really good, except for the fact that it only works when the opponent is asleep. This means that sleep clause screws it over...really? Not in my opinion, because I see this with potential as a great switch-inducer. Basically you put something to sleep and threaten it with Dream Eater. Then they'll most likely switch it out (don't do it on a dark pokemon obviously). Now, whenever they feel like bringing in the sleeping pokemon again, you bring out the dream eater, and they'll most likely switch again, see what I'm talking about here? It works well with field damage. It's also the most powerful draining attack there, and it's also the most powerful non-uber psychic attack, which means that it will be draining a huge amount of HP back compared to the other ones.


Alright, so let's discuss if these draining attack have some viability on pokemon these days, since there's not much mention of these moves in the analyses. Obviously it'll be hard to find viability for Leech Life, but if you can, then hats off to you. I still think Parasect is its best option though.
 
Does any good trapper (Gengar?) get Sleep move/Dream Eater? IMO, that's really the best (and probably only) use for it.

Leech Life I would never use. 20 BP is just too low to even consider using as an attacking move.

Drain Punch and Giga Drain, as you said, are probably the best ones. I'm not sure offhand, but if there's a good pokemon that gets them with Tech then they might be pretty decent options.

EDIT: Nope, it doesn't look like any Technician pokemon get either of those two moves (Iron Fist Hitmonchan does get Drain Punch, though). It could be used as a method of recovery for some different pokemon, but both fighting and grass are easily resisted, so...it'd depend on the pokemon, I guess.
 
I think Giga Drain is completely viable on any grass type that's using a sub-seeding (or generally stallish) set already. I mean, what other options do you have, Energy Ball? (Or Power Whip/Leaf Blade/Razor Leaf/whatever) On, say, Rain Dish Ludicolo in the rain, your opponent will be hard-pressed to OHKO you even if you don't sub. Likewise, on Sleep Powder/Leech Seed Venusaur, Giga Drain is a completely viable option over Energy Ball for staying alive.

Drain Punch, I think, is more situational and only belongs on Breloom or Hitmonchan in more conventional sets. I'm not sure what learns it but like you mentioned Bologo it's perfect for taking down anything quad-weak to fighting, or even Blissey if you somehow catch it through prediction. (Won't OHKO but sure as hell will restore 100% HP)

Overall Giga Drain is quite really the best one due to most Grass types being of the stalling variety. It won't be KOing anything but that's definitely not the point, and as long as you're not completely misusing it (Blissey/Grass resists) it will certainly help the durability of your grass staller in tandem with Leech Seed.
 
Technician abusing the Drain moves along with Big Root and/or Leech Seed would be the best way to go I bet. Drain Punch was practically made for Hitmontop, with its good Defenses and shitty HP.

If only there was a non-Glass Grass/Fighting tank or something...
 
Using dream eater as a switch inducer would be totally pointless since sleep is already a switch inducer; nobody leaves their sleeping pokemon in unless you have no way to actually hurt them, and I really don't think it's viable to waste an entire moveslot on forcing one pokemon to switch one time.

The problem with drain moves is that none of them do enough damage to really justify the recovery you get. Yeah, a subseeder could use it, but subseeders usually need to spend turns subbing instead of giga draining and you are better off giving them moves that will be useful against a wider range of things.

Giga drain was useful in Advance on Gengar solely to take out Swampert imo. That was an awesome surprise. Obviously this gen there's not much point, though, since it gets energy ball, and as far as I can see that's made giga drain mostly useless. I can't really see much use for drain punch either... I mean, yeah, Hitmonchan could use it, but he would be a lot better off killing something than not killing them, regaining some HP, and then dying immediately anyway because so many things can OHKO him.
 
I've considered Drain Punch on Jirachi mostly for Tyranitar and Heatran, but also Houndoom and Weavile.
 
All those moves are really subpar.

Leech Life was never usable, except for like Parasect against Mono Grassers. Ninjask using Leech Life is a joke, it needs killing power more than it needs 3% extra health or so.

Drain Punch is kinda OK, but competing with one of the best moves on the game: Close Combat. Sure, the effect is infinitely worse, but the power rules so much. Fighters usually don't care for their HP as long as they've got power.

Giga Drain was never disliked for its PP as much as for its lack of power, but nonetheless Gengar and a few others would adopt it since there was no real alternative except HP Grass. Which cut your IVs a bit and lost the healing power in trade for 10 BP and more PP, which wasn't that worthwhile on something like Gengar. Now, however, we have Energy Ball, Leaf Storm and Grass Knot to enjoy ourselves with, and Giga Drain is obsolete.

I don't know what you're going for with Dream Eater. People don't bring in their sleeping Pokemon ever, and if they do I sure as hell won't be trying to use a move that is useless if they have the wits to switch out. The best use for this is Mean Looking on the switch with the swift Gengar, Hypnotizing, the n Dream Eating. But it still sucks.

The payoff of these moves is relatively small since opponents aren't going to send in a Pokemon weak to them (you will usually have them STABed...if not, they are too weak to work as a surprise). Therefore, you won't recover much HP at all while losing a lot of other pro's of the alternatives DP provides.
 
Mekkah covered most of the reasons why people don't use them much.

Although defensive Hitmonchan with Drain Punch + Bulk Up does prove to be a rather good threat. Running a defensive variation with Bulk Up and Leftovers can be rather difficult to slow down.

Does any good trapper (Gengar?) get Sleep move/Dream Eater? IMO, that's really the best (and probably only) use for it.
Click to expand...
Besides Gengar and Darkrai?

-Gardevoir gets Mean Look, Hypnosis and STAB DE.
-Jynx gets Mean Look, Lovely Kiss and STAB DE.

Only one of those remotely usuable is Gardy with its durability on the special side so you could run Hypnosis/Mean Look/Dream Eater/Focus Blast. Of course you can also BP some defensive boosts to it from Gorebyss or Scizor since its got everything covered anyway.
 
Actually I remember someone mentioned that they used a Bulk Up Gallade with Drain Punch. I tried it and it worked out pretty well for me.
 
The only one that could work out of these, effectively, is Drain Punch. Leech Seed is technically an attack, but it does passive damage instead of straightforward damage.
 
I was going to suggest that!

Gallade @ Leftovers/Fist Plate

Bulk Up
Drain Punch
Psycho Cut/Ice Punch
Hypnosis/T-wave

Better than curse-lax. And the moves I added are from the top of my head. There are lots of other options.
 
Regirock @ Chesto
Bulky Build
Rest
Curse
Drain Punch
Stone Edge

Is quite a bitch, it swept my team (surprise really got me)
It packed 1 curse so I swiched my blissey in to Stoss (sand was going and I only had Ice beam witch wasn't doing much)
he Cursed more and more and then he fucking Drain Punched me...
 
Actually I use Drain Punch on Regirock mainly for the fact of an alternative outside of Rest (Rest = bitches set up on you). Usually I have a moveset like:

- Curse
- Stone Edge
- Drain Punch
- Earthquake / Ice Punch

Usually I used Ice Punch for Garchomp, as Regirock makes a neat counter to Scarfchomp.

Leech Life is... what the hell? It's a move that should never be used outside of RBY.

Dream Eater COULD work in theory, against SleepTalkers it could prove some use, but it might be better just to trap them in the case of using Dream Eater.

Still, draining attacks are neat mentions, it's just usually they aren't practical. Drain Punch has 5 PP (Or 8 counting the PP Max). Giga Drain got a welcome boost to 10 PP, so it could be usuable in a couple ways. Dream Eater requires some setup, a little meh-ish to make use of. Leech Life... forget it. Let's just pretend it never existed. Then again, wouldn't Leech Seed be a "draining attack" in some ways?
 
timw06 said:
Smeargle gets Spore, Dream Eater and Mean Look. With Sub that could actually be a workable set.
Click to expand...


This probably won't be a workable set cause most likely, they're goin to wake up before you can kill them with Dream Eater, and yes even if they sleep for 8 turns. That's how bad Smeargle's SPAtk is.
 
Aeroblacktyl said:
This probably won't be a workable set cause most likely, they're goin to wake up before you can kill them with Dream Eater, and yes even if they sleep for 8 turns. That's how bad Smeargle's SPAtk is.
Click to expand...

I say...

Spore, Mean look baton pass -> gardevoir, calm mind dream eater / wish.

Actually, why not just azelf + nasty plot and do it right >_>
 
One cool way to get the most out of Drain Punch I've found is to use it on a very low HP / High ATK pokemon (like Medicham or Gallade) @Focus Sash. I used it in the context of a 2v2 team-

1. 0 HP IV Medicham comes in on the switch
2. Uses Psych Up on my other pokemon, who had Belly Drummed and Salac'd.
3. Medicham takes a hit (Usually only one, because the opponent focused more on the Belly Drummed pokemon) and survives thanks to Sash.
4. Beastly Drain Punch next turn restores Medicham to full health and KO's an enemy.
5. Now I have a monstrous, perpetually Focus Sashed attacker.

So while that is a very specific example, draining moves can be potentially used to great success. Unfortunately their low PP means that in 1v1 standard they won't be able to be utilized too well, especially given their tankish nature. Still, praying on a 4x weakness (Ground/Water types, TTar, etc.) to restore health can be cool, although unfortunately Sandstorm messes up most opportunities to utilize Focus Sash in that setting.
 
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