Arcanine

[Weasel Overlord]

Yup, I know, another problem about Arcanine. The thing is, I've just raised my Modest Growlithe to lv.30 and realised that her Special movepool is, well, shite, to be honest. And I really like Fire Fang and Extremespeed. Thing is, it's taken me a long while to train up my current Growlithe to the level she is, and I dunno whether I can be arsed finding an Adamant one with Intimidate and then doing all the training all over again.

I guess my question would be; is it worth it? Or should I go for a Physical movepool on a Modest-natured Growlithe?

At the moment, she looks like this;

"Modest" @No specific item just yet

Bite
Fire Fang
Reversal
Flame Wheel

- Moveset is blah cos I don't bother altering them until they're at a decent level, and plus I'm waiting for Flamethrower/Flame Blitz before I evolve)

How would Crunch be bred into Growlithe? Would it work with a female Luxray+Ditto?

I like Fire Fang cos of it's flinching/burning capabilities, although when I think about annoyers, I'm very tempted to replace Arcanine with Ninetails.

Either that or have them both. Which I realise isn't wise for a competetive team, but my wifi is a huge gimp and refuses to work, so it's unlikely that I'll ever be competing online anyway.

Help much appreciated! Cookies for all!

[Mega Horny]

Fire Fang is pretty meh. But modest is really good, as Arcanine gets some great special moves which make up for the fact that his base attack is 5 points or so higher...which isn't much at all.

I'd go with the adherence glasses or something, and give him

Flamethrower (Naturally)
Dragon Pulse (for Handling those every popular dragons, plus, it gives you a move that has very little resistances)
HP Grass (great for covering the rest of what he misses)
and the last one is up to you. Maybe HP rock, or dark pulse if he learns it. Extreme Speed is always good, even with a modest nature.

[Weasel Overlord]

Well, Flamethrower and Dragon Pulse are easy enough to sort out, but Arcanine can't learn Dark Pulse and I have no idea how to make it so that I can choose which HP type/power I get.

For the final move, I probably will have Extremespeed, since it's helped me out a lot in the past. But it's that damned HP Grass that's buggering me over. How the hell do I know which it will be? My stats at the moment are;

"Modest" Lv.32
HP: 84
Attack: 46
Defence: 46
Special Attack: 56
Special Defence: 38
Speed: 55
-Alert to sounds
-Intimidate

And no, I have NO idea how to calculate IVs. My brain explodes at the sight of maths. ¬_¬ Also, I've not been keeping count of my EVs either...

[Mega Horny]

Hey, if you're not into that kinda stuff, don't worry about it. It can make the difference in a pinch, but, I doubt you'll be encountering anything of the sort.

To get the hidden power type you want, teach a pokemon HP, and test it against wild pokemon to figure out which types its super effective against. If it's not what you want, restart the game. Annoying yes, but effective. Also, if it doesnt seem to do much damage to a weaker pokemon that it is super effective against, tough break, you've got a Hidden Power move with a low amount of set damage. Restart.

[Mike Mysterio]

You could always go with a "Sunny Beam" Arcanine. I think he can learn Solar Beam in D/P now, but I could be wrong.

[Weasel Overlord]

So does the restarting change what type it'll be then? That's cool. ^_^

@Mysterio: I dunno, I've always preferred to have more attacking moves than stuff like Sunny Day. I know Solar Beam is useful, and that combo would be easier to sort out than HP Grass, but I'd rather stick with that I think.

Well, off to evolve and test out HP. Thanks Dylan.

[Phoenixsong]

Find a Kecleon to test against if you can.

Also, in DP, Growlithe learns Crunch naturally. Get her to level 42.

I'm actually hunting for Adamant Growlithes myself. I know you said your Wi-Fi doesn't like you, but in the event that you get it to work I could trade you one. I personally don't care which ability it has--Flash Fire does have its uses--so I have no problem sparing an Adamant one if that's what you're really looking for.

Moveset-wise, Arcanine does make a decent Sunnybeamer (Sunny Day-Flamethrower-Dragon Pulse/Substitute-Solarbeam; you can throw Substitute in there if you want Arcy to have a chance to set up Sunny Day without fear of taking a nasty hit), although you can also try the Choice Specs and Flamethrower-Hidden Power-Dragon Pulse-Overheat. The reason that both Overheat and Flamethrower are on that set is because you can use Flamethrower for general-purpose work, or use Overheat for one hefty hit and immediately switch out.

For physical Arcanines, this generally works: Flare Blitz-Crunch-Thunder Fang-Extremespeed, and have it hold something like Choice Band, Expert Belt or Muscle Band.

Hope that helps.

[Weasel Overlord]

I've just found out that Choice Specs are only available between the times of 4am and 9.59am. I'm screwed. (says the student who cannot get up earlier than 12 noon ><)

Honestly, I'm far too lazy to raise a new Growlithe, but really, thanks for the offer Phoenix.

Uhm, I've just evolved my Growlithe and saved... can I still get Crunch, or is that now impossible? I thought I could just use one of those heart scales or something. *shrug*

[Phoenixsong]

Sorry, impossible. The only level-up move Arcy learns is Extremespeed. You can use a Heart Scale to get Thunder Fang, though, if it's any consolation.

[Poryhedron]

Restarting the game will NOT change Arcanine's Hidden Power. Since it's based on IVs, Arcanine's Hidden Power type was carved in stone the moment you first met that Growlithe. The only way to change Arcanine's Hidden Power type is to get a new Arcanine...and if you were willing to do that this topic wouldn't exist.

[Emotional Faun Chiko-sai]

Ooh, there's a HP calculator on Serebii.net - it's on the same page as the IV calculator, if you don't mind using cheaty means like that instead of doing the whole kecleon shedangle.

I have a Rash Arcy, which I'm only using because I'd found out he had an IV of 31 for his attack, and I couldn't be arsed breeding for another 31 Attack IV Arcy with an attack raising stat -_- he has the EXACT moveset that Phoenixsong listed for physical Arcys. :x

Incidentally, while I was breeding for that 31 Attack IV thing, I got an Adamant Growlithe: only snag is that he's male, so I can't easily duplicate his nature onto babies with Everstone. In any case he's up for grabs should you want him. :33

[Weasel Overlord]

I tried the darned IV calculator but it didn't work. The damn thing just kept coming up with "error on page." >< I'll try it again though, when I get home I reckon.

I decided to go back into egg mania and breed up another pile of Growlithes. I'm not exactly sure why I didn't want my old Arcanine, probably cos I fancied Flare Blitz or Crunch or something like that. And since I actually want to use those attacks, I reckon a pyhsical one would be the best way to go. I'll try looking through my eggs, but if I can manage to get the WiFi set up again, I'd be grateful for that Adamant Growly, Wennford. And if not, it's hours of breeding for me again. *sigh*

[EngiMatikul]

wait why do you want crunch on a modest arcanine? :V

EDIT: BTW I SEE YOUR HIGHEST IV IS SPEED THAR

[Perfect Chaos]

Yeah, Arcanine can go either Physical-based or Special-based, but don't go with both. I would personally go with Physical-based, as his Attack his higher, but here are sets for both:

Physi-canine

Arcanine@???
Intimidate/Flash Fire | Adamant (-Sp. Atk, +Atk)
EVs: 252 Atk, 252 Spd, 6 HP (my first time trying so bear with me)

Flare Blitz
Thunder Fang
Crunch
Extremespeed

Flare Blitz will do crazy damage with his Atk strength. Thunder Fang is to cover his Water weakness and Crunch is there for versatility. Extremespeed also works off his high Atk and when your HP is low from Flare Blitz, then you wanna Extremespeed as much as you can until Canine is KO'ed.

Speci-canine

Arcanine@???
Intimidate/Flash Fire | Modest (-Atk, +Sp. Atk)
EVs: 252 Sp. Atk, 252 Spd, 6 HP (my first time trying so bear with me)

Solarbeam
Sunny Day
Flamethrower/Heat Wave
Dragon Pulse/-Filler-

Standard Sunny-Beamer. Solarbeam obviously counters his weakpoints in Water, Rock and Ground types. Choose whichever between Heat Wave and Flamethrower. Dragon Pulse because he doesn't have much else in terms of other Special attacks and its the only one I could find that would really fit. If not, you could try something else.

But yeah, that's my two cents on Arcanine

-Sean

[Phoenixsong]

Note that the IV calculator won't work unless you've been tracking EVs. I don't know if that's the problem you were having, but you did say you weren't counting the EVs, so... eh.

Rather than breeding, why don't you try chaining Growlithes? That's what I'm doing, and while it can still take a while it's more active than breeding. It's also a great help seeing as Growlithe no longer needs to breed to get its best moves. If you have FireRed, just put it in the slot and go to Route 201 or 202, then follow the directions on this page. Just catch all of the Growlithes you find instead of running or beating them, and you'll end up with a bunch of them a lot faster than breeding. (Might even get a shiny, if you're lucky, heh...)

The one problem with chaining instead of breeding is you don't have as much control over the IVs and nature. I don't know if you'll be able to do this, but I get around the nature problem by keeping an Adamant Pokémon with Synchronize in front. That increases the likelihood of any Pokémon you find being Adamant; then all you have to worry about is getting decent IVs in at least Speed and Attack, and you're done! Once you get the chain going, it's not as hard to find a good Pokémon as you might think; while it could still take some time, I used the same method to find a useable Jolly male Ralts pretty quickly.

Eh. If nothing else, it's less monotonous than breeding. If you don't have FireRed, though... uh... oh, well. *shrug*

[Weasel Overlord]

Aaaah, you see I was gonna do that to begin with, but I need the national dex, and I don't like doing the Elite Four on any game without a good fire type. SO I opted to go for an Arcanine to train for the Elites, heh.

And aye, I've not been tracking EVs. But it's alright, I'm set on breeding a new one up. ^_^ Thanks for all the movesets guys, those'll really help once I get down to it. *is currently finishing Potter since her non-reading it pact ended this morning )

[TKnHappyNess]

With those attacks, Modest doesn't work good because all of them are physical based.

[Weasel Overlord]

Yup, I know. That's why I've abandoned my Modest Arcanine and started again...