Hit-and-Run Slowbro Slowbro - slowbro77

Guide

This build focuses on dealing damage in quick hit-and-run skirmishes and coming out on top of trades with higher sustain and strategic use of Amnesia. Slowbro has extremely slow development tempo in the game and is prone to bullying by more standard Defenders. This build aims to give Slowbro stronger offensive tools to get him to transition better through the game to his Surf+ powerspike. Slowbro is best played in the Bottom Lane due to his strong potential in controlling the Dreadnaw fight and his general slowness makes him hard to rotate from Top Lane to Dreadnaw.

As Shell Bell has an internal cooldown of 10s, hit-and-run tactics are ideal to get the most value out of this item. Picking up Wise Glasses loses us a lot of bulk, but hit-and-run skirmishing will try to circumvent this. An extremely aggressive style is needed to receive the most payoff for this build.

Your starting priority is charging up and timing Water Gun to contest the middle Audino in bottom lane while your lane partner farms the safer creeps. Wise Glasses gives us a higher chance to push a level advantage with a steal, which is ideal to reach the Slowbro lvl 4. spike, as your lane partner should take most creep kills. Keeping a close watch to your minimap for the enemy jungler gank, you must be as aggressive possible when you can get away with it or Shell Bell is off cooldown. With no creeps up, as Slowpoke use a charged Water Gun to poke enemies and disengage as you will lose most commitment fights at this stage. Push only if the enemy has missed key abilities like CC or damage (or your 2v2 is just better) and weave attacks through charging Water Gun and walking forward.

Once you evolve into Slowbro, weave attacks before and after Surf and use the slow from autoattacks or the ability to either disengage or continue pushing. Use Amnesia before Surf if you are going to disengage right after or don't plan on committing to buff the Surf damage. Hold Amnesia if you are unsure of the jungler's movement or plan on continuing. Timing Amnesia use is extremely important as this build is more fragile and relies on it to survive. You have less bulk than a Focus Band Slowbro or any other Defender but this is acceptable for this build. The focus of this style is to harass enemies and goad them to over commit to confirming your death. Potion is important for staying alive and baiting an over commitment from the enemy team onto you, wasting enemy cooldowns and preventing them from being used on your partner. Goading an over commitment also gives your jungler a good opportunity to gank and this is ideal for Bottom Lane to threaten an outer circle take and establish Dreadnaw control. Controlling Dreadnaw is your priority and part of your win condition, as this build lacks an EXP Share and does not get a lot of exp in a supportive role. Rotations for Slowbro to Rotom are difficult and you require your jungler to make up for this.

Once circles are taken and the game progresses closer to the end, your priority is to establish control of middle and to chip enemies down when encountering them in the middle zones brush. Again, you want an over commit from the enemy but take care as you can be bursted. Ultimately, make sure to play around your team and to communicate using the pings and quick chat.

For Zapdos your job is to disrupt high priority targets which have the highest likelihood of stealing Zapdos. Try your best to establish mid control, and if you have mid control, use Surf+ in choke points to disrupt enemies trying to enter the middle and aim your Slowbeam to hold down pokemon most likely to wipe your team or steal Zapdos, like Talonflame, Zeraora etc. This build will have a very hard time entering the middle if the enemy already has control as this build has no Eject Button and is a less tanky variant. This hyper aggressive build hopefully gets control of the pit due to building a lead early on and snowballing.

The biggest threat to this build is the lack of ability to escape and a sub par gap closer due to an inability to run Eject Button. Nearly all waves of your Surf must land or you lose immense value on Sp.Atk bonuses from Wise Glasses and Shell Bell. Your biggest concerns should be watching the enemy jungler movement as you are vulnerable to ganks.