Special or Physical Attacking Dragonite?

Question

I know that Dragonite has better attack than special; I just happened to notice that Dragonite can learn a great variety of special moves such as Hurricane and Ice Beam. I would appreciate your opinions on the matter; physical or special? If so, what would you teach it? I myself have a physical attacking Dragonite I EV trained. Here's the info:

Dragonite@Focus Sash
Ability: Inner Focus
Nature: Adamant (+atk, -sp.atk)
Characteristic: Strongly Defiant
EVs: 252 atk, 252 spd, 4 def
Moveset:
Outrage
Thunderpunch
Aqua Tail
Fly

Comments

Mixed sets can be very good too.

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To add on to what Jar Jar said, Dragonite going mixed is effective too, as many people who face Dragonite have to keep on trying to figure out what variant it is, due to how unpredictable it is. Going with Dragon Claw the first turn then using Fire Blast to roast Steel types switching in expecting a Physical move is a great strategy.

Answer 1

It depends on what you need on your team, since Dragonite can go both ways. Do you need a physical attacker, or a special attacker? Here are sample movesets for both:

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Physical. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Special
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Nature: Adamant (^Atk vSpAtk) . . . . Modest (^SpAtk vAtk)
Ability: . . . . . . . . Multiscale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Multiscale
Item: . . . . . . . . . . .Lum Berry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Wide Lens
EVs: . 252 Atk, 252 Spd, 4 HP . . . . 252 SpAtk, 252 Spd, 4 HP
Move 1: . . . . . .Dragon Dance . . . . . . . . . . . Flamethrower
Move 2: . . . . . .Dragon Claw . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ice Beam
Move 3: . . . . . .Fire Punch. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Hurricane
Move 4: . . . . . .Outrage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dragon Pulse

Reasons for Moves:
Phys. - Dragon Dance - For stat boosts to set up good Outrages
Phys. - Dragon Claw - Decent damaging Dragon Move
Phys. - Fire Punch - Coverage against Ice Types
Phys. - Outrage - Wonderful Dragon Move, heals with Lum Berry
Spec. - Flamethrower - For coverage against Ice Types
Spec. - Ice Beam - Coverage against Dragon Types
Spec. - Hurricane - Good Flying Type move, boosted acc. by Zoom Lens
Spec. - Dragon Pulse - Decent Damaging Dragon Move

Comments

Maybe on special Dragonite swap dragon pulse for thunder.

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first why does physical dragonite have 2 dragon type attack moves..whatta waste. zoom lens is slow pokemon, a more reasonable lens would be wide lens
(zoom lens increase accuracy of slow pkmn,fast ones dont get boost, wide lens give 10%accuracy increase to all pkmns)


he needs: D-dance,outrage (if fairies switch in that's ok,outrage ends since their immune to it),Earthquake and fire punch/extreme speed (you may want to give him focus S;so it survives fairy attack and revenge kills em)

special dragonite(should be used in rain): Thunder,hurricane,icebeam and surf or D meteor ..give it life orb

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Why not use weakness policy and multiscale for a boost