Community POTW #50

[Zachmac]

Why give 252 speed to a Unburden Hitmonlee? All it needs to out speed Jolly Accelgor after a Fake out is like, 40 EVs with Adamant nature.

You can contribute to it's lacklustre HP with the remaining EVs.

Choice Scarf is a popular item.

I guess you could put more in HP, but at least keep some speed EVs.

[celestial phantom]

Overview:

Hitmonlee, the Kicking pokemon, this pokemon has been around from the start. Overall, it's like many other pokemon, it has great attack and special defense. It's other stats thought, well let's not go to their abyssmal numbers. Basically, it's a fighting glass cannon that hits hard, fast, and dies off when the opponent realizes that priority moves will do it in.

Abilities:

Limber- Prevents paralysis on Hitmonlee, but is a horrible ability for it. No one even uses thunder wave or glare that much, and moves like discharge, thunderbolt, etc. will kill it off if you try to switch in.

Reckless- Hitmonlee's second best ability as moves with recoil damage will get a power boost at the cost of more recoil damage. Ideal for high jump kick, double-edge, and jump kick. But, you'll probably only be using high jump kick to do mass damage anyway.

Unburden- Doubles Hitmonlee's speed once it uses it's hold item giving it three great stats...wait, GAMEFREAK had the idea to improve a gen 1 pokemon! This is just sweet, once this ability is released the term glass cannon is promoted to glass rocket.

FakeLee

-Fake Out
-Blaze Kick/Stone Edge/Earthquake
-Endure
-Reversal
Nature: Adament
Ability: Unburden
Ev's: 252 att, 212 HP, 40 spe
Item: Normal Gem

Basically, Fake Out is to get you the first hit and activate Unburden which will be your bread and butter. Afterwards, being the frail pokemon it is endure will get it to the necessary 1HP to max Reversal and do mass damage. The other move is so ghost types don't get the switch and stop your sweep. Blaze Kick hits the likes of skarmory, while Stone Edge and Earthquake have a variety of coverage.

BruceMonlee

-High Jump Kick
-Blaze Kick
-Sucker Punch/Mach Punch/Bullet Punch
-Double Edge
Nature: Jolly/Adament
Item: Life Orb/Liechi Berry
Ability: Reckless
Ev's: 252 Att, 252 Spe, 4 Spd

Here the Bruce Lee imitating mon is going to cause more car wrecks than the blues brothers and that was unintentional. High Jump Kick gets massive STAB and gains Reckless and Life Orb boosts to boot. Blaze Kick is your way of dealing with dual poison/grass types and the like as well as Skarmory. Double-Edge is boosted as well by Life Orb. Sucker Punch is for priority because who isn't going to launch an attack on the glass cannon, really? Mach Punch and Bullet Punch are there to act as priority if you don't like Sucker Punch. Liechi Berry should be used if you want the mon to be faster without the mass recoil it may inflict.

Double/Triple Battles:
Oh the pokemanity why would you use Hitmonlee in doubles or triples? It's so frail that earthquake will drop it faster than lee dropped norris. Plus, fake can only make one pokemon flinch for one...count it ONE time. If your going to use it, then have tailwind up, use the BruceMonlee set and go happy with you high jump kicks because it won't last long in that environemt. Sorry lee, stick to the singles matches kid.

Counters:
Where to start? Well, let's see ghost types can easily stop the mojo gained by unburden if you don't have proper coverage. Priority can also be a problem as it is frail defensively and mach punch and extremespeed would do some damage. Will-O-Wisp also cripples the offensive of Hitmonlee, so tying in with ghosts, Ninetails seems like it falls into crippling it or any burn effective move. Trick Room can also offset Hitmonlee because while it's not the fastest, there are things slower than it that are way more dangerous: Reuniclus, Elektross, etc.

Partners:
Let's see... ANYTHING to get rid of the listed above. A pokemon with flash fire will ruin any attempt to cripple Hitmonlee. So, effective partners would be Heatran, Arcanine, Chandelure, or Ninetailes. For the reckless sets either tailwind support would be appreciated as its speed does not help it's case. Thunderous, Tornadus, or Whimsicott can be used to set up tailwind with prankster.

[Kindrindra]

Choice Scarf is a popular item.

I guess you could put more in HP, but at least keep some speed EVs.

I would like to point out that Unburden increases your speed by 2x, while Choice Scarf only increases it by 1.5x.

[Zachmac]

^I know, but it's still best to invest in some speed. I've seen timid scarf Latios and Gengar multiple times before, it reaches 525 speed. To outrun it, you'd need at least 263 speed(with unburden, that's 526).

With and adamant nature, that would be 212 speed EVs.

Let's say that it's a scarf, jolly base 100 speed pokemon(Hydreigon is a little slower, but it's common and close enough) that you're facing. That would mean it has 492 speed. To outrun that with an adamant nature, you need 247 speed(496 after boost). That's less EVs, but you'll still need 148 speed EVs to outrun that.

Or, are you going to give it jolly just so you can move some from speed to bulk? If you do that, you be sacrificing a good amount of power.

[The_Heir_of_Madness]

This is probably more Hitmontop's area but since we've all seen the fake out unburden set I'm bringing up this one

Kicks as fast as Lightning
Hitmonlee@Life Orb
Nature: Adamant
EVs 252 atk/252 hp/4 sp def

Fake Out
Mach Punch
Bullet Punch
Sucker Punch

Basically he's a revenge killer and since he has all priority moves you don't really need speed evs

[Zachmac]

^I'd swap Bullet Punch for something like Close Combat, fighting already hits a lot of the things steel does.

[MuddyMuncher9000]

Choice Band
Hitmonlee
Jolly/Adamant Nature
252 Atk/252 Spd/4 HP
-Hi Jump Kick
-Sucker Punch
-Stone Edge
-Earthquake

STAB and coverage (ghost, psychic, flying, fire, bug, poison etc.)

Guess What? SPECS BLUE FLARE IN THE SUN TO DA FACE!

[Rayofquazar]

Hitmonlee...
The best thing this pokemon do is the combination of HJK or JK and reckless... They are recoil moves but only recoil if they don't hit and they have 90% and 95% accuracy respectively. They won't recoil much often and still get the reckless boost! Sweet!
On other hand, the unburden, priority move plus an appropriate gem combo is good too cz this pokemon have speed issues that this strategy helps to get rid of it. it will double your 87 Base speed wich is good. The factor that switching out will reset the speed is not really a problem cz you're not going to survive long anyways.
Since unburden is a DW ability only it might not be available to your hitmonlee so reckless is the better ability. 87 speed is not that bad but unfortunately it means that you'll be outrun by many pokemon and yet you're not slow enough to be effective under trick room. But with some speed invested IVs and a speed boosting nature and using priority moves can overcome this problem.

Hitmonlee@Life orb
Ability: Reckless
Nature: Adamant / Jolly
Evs: 252 ATT/ 252 SPD/ 4 Sp DEF
Moves:
-HJK / JK
-Earthquake / Blaze kick
-Bulk up / Endure
-Pursuit / Thief / Bullet punch / Reversal
For this set, It's probably to have a jolly hitmonlee just to make it hit faster cz it will not last too much in battle. HJK and JK is what you favor accuracy or power but in my oppinion 5% additional accuracy are not worth the 30 BP loss not counting STAB. Earthquake is there for being a good physical move and blaze kick for better coverage specialy against levitating ghosts. If you have the courage to set up use bulk up it will raise attack and defense making it bulkier but if you think that hitmonlee is too fragile to set up safely use endure, it will be a surprise if your opponent thinks that he have KOed you! You'll get an extra turn to do damage with reversal but it needs some prediction. Hitmonlee have some descent disruptive options: Pursuit for fleeing pokemon, Thief for incapacitating a sweeper or a tank (Virtually any pokemon that relies on it's item) and bullet punch is a sweet priority move.

Hitmonlee@life orb
Ability: Limber
Nature: adamant / Jolly
Evs: 252 ATT / 252 SPD/ 4 Sp DEF
Moves:
-Brick break / Close combat / Mach punch
-Bulk up / Endure
-Earthquake / Blaze kick
-Thief / Pursuit / Reversal
Same as the above set with the main difference being the fighting type move you want to use. Since you don't have reckless HJK and JK are not that appealing. Brick break is reliable and have good power and have the potential to remove the screens from your opponent side os the field, very handy. Close combat is strong and reliable but have the downside effect of lowering the pokemon's defense and special defense. This is easily reset by simply switching out, but, if you decide not to switch out is also not an issue since these pokemon are not made to be defensively inclined. Mach punch have priority... always handy but adamant here will be your nature to choose!

Hitmonlee@normal gem / steel gem
Ability: Unburden
Nature: Adamant / Careful
Evs: 252 ATT / 252 Sp DEF / 4 HP
Moves:
-Fake out / Bullet punch
-Close combat / Brick break
-Earthquake / Blaze kick
-Rock slide / Stone edge / Pursuit / Thief
Since speed will be doubled after using a priority move, investing Evs in speed or choosing a speed raising nature is useless. Go for adamant if you like more power or careful if you want it bulkier in the special side. (Adamant is better). So fake out, double your speed and then sweep. Close combat is amazing lowering your defenses isn't an issue for hitmonlee, but if you are using careful go with brick break much weaker but reliable and can remove screens. EQ is strong reliable and perfect but blaze kick save you from levitating ghosts. In this particular set I like to use EQ with rock slide or stone edge cz you'll be hitting a lot of things with super effective damage and ground/rock have perfect coverage. You still can, if you used blaze kick, to use thief or pursuit on your last slot to destroy a sweeper or any other pokemon!

Hitmonlee's main weakness is it's Low HP and defense meaning that it will die to any priority physical move or to a stronger faster sweeper!

[sbktdreed]

Personal Moveset
Unburden w/ Lum Berry OR Limber w/ Muscle Band/Choice Band
Hi Jump Kick/Close Combat/Brick Break/Low Sweep
Blaze Kick
Earthquake/Bulldoze/Poison Jab
Rock Tomb/Stone Edge/Rock Slide

Countering
Direct Contact-based Abilities, like Flame Body and Cute Charm are useful here.
Any Bug/Flying/Ghost/Poison/Psychic-type with flying or psychic-type moves and is high on defense, attack, and maybe speed like Dragonite, Heracross, Durant, Leavanny, Gliscor, and Charizard. If Trick Room is used, Metagross, Escavalier, Scizor, Golurk, Dusknoir, and Spritomb are also included.
Burn-based attacks and Abilites, like Scald and Will-o-wisp, are useful.

[Vandslaux]

^I'd swap Bullet Punch for something like Close Combat, fighting already hits a lot of the things steel does.

Actually, Bullet Punch hits the exact same things, but Close Combat gets more SE coverage.

[Pika ruler]

Sorry, I have no time, so I'll be doing the sets without explainations.

A hitmonlee set:

Ability: Unburden
Nature: Adamant
Item: Normal Gem
EV's: 252 Atk/252 Spd/4 HP

Moves:
Fake Out
Brick Break
Pursuit/Thief
Blaze Kick/Stone Edge

Another hitmonlee set:
Ability: Reckless
Nature: Jolly
Item: (suggestions please)
EV's: 252 Atk/252 Spd/4 HP

Moves:
High Jump Kick
Blaze Kick
Pursuit
Stone Edge

Another hitmonlee set:

Ability: Limber
Nature: Adamant
Item: (suggestions please)
EV's: 252 Atk/252 Spd/4 HP

Moves:
Bulk Up
Bullet Punch
Brick Break
Stone Edge/Earthquake

Another hitmonlee set:
Ability: Limber
Nature: Jolly
Item: (suggestions please)
EV's: 252 Spd/200 Atk/56 HP

Moves:
Rapid Spin
Pursuit
Mach Punch/Bullet Punch
Blaze Kick/Stone Edge