What are the pros and cons of Choice Band and Swords Dance on Absol?

Question

I would really appreciate pros and cons for ingame, battle tree, battle tower and online battles.

Comments

Pokemon Crystal, Emerald, DP, HGSS, and SWSH all have battle towers.

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Sorry, forgot to specify. Just started Soulsilver a while ago, so gen 4.

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Wow, thank you all really. I've never got answered that fast :)

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You're welcome!

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No problem!

Answer 1

In-game: Neither. Brute force your way through everything. You rarely need to set up in-game, and Choice items in-game are a complete waste.

Battle Tree: Swords Dance + Focus Sash. Choice Band may make your attacks hit harder, but so does Swords Dance. Choice Band leaves you open to being OHKOed, while Focus Sash ensures at least one Swords Dance.

Online battles: See Battle Tree.

Battle Tower: Again, use Swords Dance and Focus Sash. Absol is quite frail, and Focus Sash helps it stick around one more turn. It's certainly a better choice than Choice Band.

As you can see, I would opt for Swords Dance in almost every scenario. Absol is simply too frail to pull off Choice Band succesfully.

Hope I helped!

Answer 2

Choice Band Absol is probably worse than the SD option. Hear me out

Choice Band locks you into a move, and Absol's best STAB options are Sucker Punch and Knock Off. Sucker Punch will keep failing if the enemy uses status moves, and since you're locked into a single move with Band, it wouldn't be a good idea. Knock Off is a move that does more damage the first time it is used, since it gets a 50% power boost if the enemy is holding an item. However, the power boost won't happen after, so you'll end up with a relatively weak STAB move. I would prefer Sash Swords Dance, and I think most would agree.

Hope this helped! :D