Zen Mode Darmanitan

[Howmander]

So the annoying thing about this pokemon is that literally everyone on the internet shrugs it off as a gimmick (and come on! The game is about monsters inside little balls that come out and battle for you! the WHOLE GAME is a gimmick! ;-p ) and the few that do, do it wrong. And by that I mean they have a moveset entirely populated by special attacks and a way to get it down to half HP. Now I don't normally say what other people do is wrong when it comes to pokemon battling, but this pokemon CLEARLY is meant to be both, not just one or the other. Of the people that actually try to make a moveset for it (and don't just give up immediately after trying one moveset one time), too many people focus on getting it it down to half HP and then using it's Special form to attack and ignore it's physical side altogether, OR focus on trying to keep it physical and ignore it's special side, so hypothetical situation:

You HAVE to use a Zen Mode Darmanitan in battle, and you MUST make use of both forms. (so use it as a physical pokemon in battle and if the enemy happens to get you down to half hp, then you switch over to your special pokemon as a defense mechanism, which is what I always presumed the whole point of this pokemon was, yet no one seems to understand that. They just focus on getting it to half HP and then say it sucks and give up immediately) What nature, EV spread, moveset and hold item would YOU personally use on a mixed Darmanitan that will use both forms in battle, not one or the other?

 

[Sirfetch’d]

If you use Zen Mode Darmanitan you are giving up the use of it's amazing ability, Sheer Force. Without this, Darmanitan is an average Pokemon tbh. Not to mention that most of the time Darmanitan is one shot by most moves and won't be in a situation to make use of Zen Mode due to how frail of a Pokemon it actually is. It's a cool gimmick for in-game battles but competitively is really really bad. IMO

 

[Nah]

If Darm didn't have the defenses of wet tissue paper I could see it working somehow, but because of that, Darmanitan's not exactly a Pokemon that just happens to get to 50% or less HP consistently. It's not gonna have a lot of chances to even enter Zen Mode. It's kind of a kill or be killed Pokemon really.

But how would you do it?

 

[PlatinumDude]

The other thing about Zen Mode Darmanitan is that its good defenses are wasted when it's at 50% HP. It's easy pickings from here on out. In both forms, there's a significant difference between its Attack and Special Attack and things will get messed up when Darmanitan has to use a "wrong" move in the "wrong" form. (like being forced to use Psychic when in Standard Mode)

 

[wolf]

It would be possible to use Substitute to get Darmanitan down to half of its HP, but what are you going to do once you're in Zen Mode? It's slow and its defenses aren't worth much at 50%, especially with its bad defensive typing and no reliable recovery. It's a worse Victini.

 

[wolf]

It would be possible to use Substitute to get Darmanitan down to half of its HP, but what are you going to do once you're in Zen Mode? It's slow and its defenses aren't worth much at 50%, especially with its bad defensive typing and no reliable recovery. It's a worse Victini.