What is a good moveset for Dusknoir?

Question

If you have a good competitive moveset for Dusknoir, post an answer below and upvote the best ones. Movesets for its pre-evolutions, if any, can also be shared on this thread.

Be sure to include full set details in your post, e.g. items, abilities, natures and EVs. Some detail, including the intended game mode for your set, is also appreciated. Access the full list of guidelines here.

Dusknoir Pokédex and learnset for reference.

Answer 1

Dusknoir (M) @ Leftovers

Role: Sub-Puncher

Trait: Pressure

EVs: 160 HP / 252 Atk / 48 Def / 48 SDef

Brave Nature (+Atk, -Spd)

• Substitute
• Focus Punch
• Shadow Punch
• Earthquake

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Ev's for Bulk, making for a nice Tank,
Brave nature so you go last when setting up your sub, so you can actually keep it.
Focus Punch gives you a super hard hitting way to take out Dark Types,
Shadow Punch is STAB
Earthquake has great coverage.

Answer 2

Dusknoir @ Life Orb

Trait: Pressure

EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SDef

Brave Nature (+Atk, -Spd)

• Ice Punch
• Brick Break
• Shadow Punch
• Trick Room

Ice Punch takes care of dragons that think they can come in and boost with dragon dance and get away with it.
Brick Break covers dark type weakness, gives coverage against some other types as well.
Shadow Punch covers ghost type weakness, STAB.
Trick Room works very well with Dusknoir because of his abysmal speed, brave nature support this move as well.

Comments

Could you also give Dusknoir the Iron Ball instead of Life Orb? That way you're pretty much guaranteed to be slower than anything so once the Trick Room is up you'll outspeed anything as well.

Answer 3

Dusknoir @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
Careful Nature
EVs: 252 HP / 128 SpD / 128 Def

Mean Look - Traps the foe.

Curse - With Mean Look and these defenses, I think this is nice.

Protect - a free turn for the Curse and for Dusknoir's Leftovers.

Shadow Punch/Shadow Sneak - STAB or priority.

Answer 4

Dusclops @ Eviolite

Trait: Pressure

EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SDef

Sassy/Calm/Careful Nature (+Sp.Def, -Spd) / (+Sp.Def ,-Atk) / (+Sp.Def, -Sp.Atk) (i tend to carry trick room support sometimes so sassy works well with that, otherwise go calm or careful, doesn't really matter though)

• Will-O-Wisp
• Night Shade
• Rest
• Sleep Talk

Will-O-Wisp is cool and burns the foe halving their attack, that is why I invested nothing in defense because when your opponent is burned Dusclops' defense stat doubles, in a way.
I realised Night Shade is better than Hex as I have zero sp.atk investment.
Rest is for healing, Sleep Talk so dusclops can still do something while having a nap on the battle field.
Remember, use 2 sleep talks then night shade or will-o-wisp as when using rest you will always sleep 2 turns then wake up, also remember that the sleep is reset when switching out in gen 5, so you'll have to have that in mind if switching.
This set actually works well.

Answer 5

Gen V

Dusknoir (M) @ Leftovers

Trait: Pressure

EVs: 252 Atk / 128 Def / 128 SDef

Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)

• Gravity
• DynamicPunch
• Will-O-Wisp
• Shadow Sneak

Answer 6

Dusclops

Item: Evolite
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 Def, 252 S.def, 6 hp

---

Pain-split
Night-shade
Will-o-wisp
Payback/Confuse-ray

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Pain-split is a pseudo healing move and can do significant damage. Night-shade is awesome set damage that makes up for no offensive evs. Will-o-wisp lowers attack and stalls. Payback can be used for more coverage on Ghosts and other Pokemon while Confuse-ray can be very useful and ruin sweeper.

Comments

why would you want to run pressure when you can run frisk?

Answer 7

Dusknoir @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Nature: Careful

-Night Shade
-Will-O-Wisp
-Pain Split
-Protect

Even though he has base 100 Attack, he wont be sweeping too much. Besides, you don't want to waste those EVs on Attack, you want to invest them in HP and defenses. So Night Shade is there for a consistent 100 damage to the opponent. Will-O-Wisp for burning and lowering Attack, thats why I made it Careful nature, since he wont be taking too much damage from a burned physical sweeper. Then Pain Split is to heal. Protect has 2 uses, first to recover more from Leftovers, and the other is to abuse its Pressure ability. It'll be really nice when the opponent runs out of PP for really strong attacks like Fire Blast.

Answer 8

Rusty Cemetery

Duskull @ Eviolite

Trait: Levitate

EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SAtk

Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)

• Hidden Power [Fighting]
• Psychic
• Shadow Ball
• Ice Beam

Shadow Ball for STAB, Psychic gives some nice coverage.
Ice Beam Takes care of annoying dragons.
Gotta love Shadow Ball and HP Fighting.

Answer 9

Dusknoir @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 52 Def / 204 SDef
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Will-O-Wisp
- Fire Punch
- Pain Split
- Shadow Sneak / Shadow Punch

So far this set is working out really well for my Dusknoir. Will-O-Wisp helps tank even more. Fire Punch deals with Steel types. Pain Split is the only way Dusknoir can recover some health. Shadow Sneak gives STAB and priority which is nice seeing as Dusknoir is really slow or you can use Shadow Punch for a slightly more powerful STAB move.

Comments

Welcome To This Site! :)
You Have Done A Great Job On This
Set! :) *First Up-Vote Ever*

Answer 10

Gen 8 NFE

Dusclops @ Eviolite
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Shadow Ball
- Calm Mind
- Rest
- Sleep Talk

You should use this when the opponent's normal and dark types are taken out. Shadow Ball is STAB. Calm Mind boosts your special attack and special defense. Rest is for healing. Sleep Talk is so you can attack or raise your special attack and special defense while you're asleep.

Answer 11

I'm not sure for this Stalling set, but it worked on me when I used it.

Dusknoir @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 200HP / 128 Def / 184 SpD
Impish nature

• Substitute
• Curse
• Pain Split
• Shadow Sneak / Earthquake / Confuse Ray

Answer 12

Ability: Pressure
Nature: Brave (+Atk, -Spe) or Adamant (+Atk, -SpA)
EVs: 252 HP, 252 Atk, 4 Def/SpD
Item: Leftovers
- Shadow Punch- STAB that doesn't miss
- Earthquake- high power coverage
- Trick Room/Will-o-Wisp- for trick room set use Brave nature otherwise give him Adamant nature and put the 4 EVs on SpD since will-o-wisp will help your defense stat
- Ice Punch- more coverage

Answer 13

Dusknoir (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 56 SAtk / 200 SDef
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Calm Mind
- Will-O-Wisp
- Hex
- Focus Blast

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Calminder Dusknoir. WoW effectively doubles Defense, making it have a 270 base, while Calm Mind increases your SDef/SAtk, making you sort of a bulky sweeper. Hex and Focus Blast are coverage.

Answer 14

My Dusknoir ShadowBlast Combo (which hardly anyone uses)!

Nature: Bold

Held Item: Leftovers

EVs: 252 Def 252 SpA 4 HP

Moves

• Shadow Ball
• Charge Beam
• Focus Blast
• Calm Mind

Ok, so here's how it goes: You're already bulky in defense which would be at 405 with perfect 252 EVs and 31 IVs in Defense. That only leaves your Sp. Atk & Sp. Def to rely on the boosts of Calm Mind and Charge Beam for Sp. Atk. Shadow Ball is STAB and Focus Blast is immense coverage which compliments the ShadowBlast combo. Leftovers is there so you can stay in the field while boosting your stats as well as lowering your opponents.

Answer 15

Offensive

Dusknoir @ Leftovers
Adamant Nature
252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD

Shadow Sneak
Brick Break
Earthquake
Sucker Punch

It works, deal with it. If you want defensive, just use Dusclops.

Comments

Suggested Ability: Frisk

Answer 16

Dusknoir @ Leftovers

Trait: Pressure

EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Spd

Adamant Nature

• Substitute
• Focus Punch
• Shadow Punch
• Ice Punch/Payback

My version of Sub Punching set. Substitute protects from damage when using Focus Punch, which does huge damage. Shadow Punch covers other Ghost types that Focus Punch can't hit. Ice Punch covers Flying types, while Payback covers Psychic types.

Answer 17

Dusknoir@Leftovers
Ability: Frisk
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 252 HP/252 Atk/4 Def

Power-Up Punch- Raise attack.

Shadow Sneak- Priority STAB.

Shadow Punch- STAB

Brick Break- Coverage.

Answer 18

Dusknoir (F) @ Shell Bell
Ability: Pressure
Evs: 252 HP, 250 Atk, 4 Def, 4 Sp. Def
Nature: Adamant
- Power Up Punch
- Shadow Sneak
- Earthquake
- Ice Punch

Power Up Punch boosts Atk by +1 and provides coverage, Shadow Sneak is priority STAB, & Earthquake and Ice Punch are coverage. Shell Bell provides some healing.

Answer 19

LC Duskull set:

Duskull @ Eviolite
Nature: Careful
Ability: Frisk
EVs: 196 HP, 196 Sp.Def or Def, 76 Speed, 40 Attack

Confuse Ray
Mean Look
Destiny Bond
Shadow Sneak

Mean Look prevents switching, followed by confuse ray works amazingly. Destiny Bond if you fear his life. Shadow Sneak as he needs an attack in case of taunt, and gives priority. He works best if you use him as a lead, and usually goes through one Pokemon minimum before he goes. He normally takes a second with destiny bond.

Answer 20

Item: Assault Vest

Nature: Adamant (+Atk ,-S.Atk) or Brave (+Atk, -Spd)

EVs: 252 Atk, 252 Def, 4 Sdef

Payback (Max damage of 100 compared to Shadow Punch's 90, works well with low speed)

Brick Break (Destroys barriers, deals with Dark and Normal types, coverage)

Thunder Punch (Coverage, works great against Gyarados)

Shadow Sneak (STAB, priority)