Is Baton Passing defense boosts worth it?

Nov. 17, 2019

Generally speaking, are defense passes useful?

Hypothetically speaking, let’s say I have a Smeargle with the moveset, “Baton Pass,” “Spore,” “Tail Glow,” and “Cotton Guard,” is it worth maxing out +6 on defense and passing it to a sweeper when an adverse Pokémon can destroy (let’s say, a critical or a super effective move) the aforementioned sweeper in question?

Once again, I’m just engaging in hypothesis. I just want a stalwart perspective on this.

Pleaselog inorregisterto add a comment.

In Generation 5, I’m pretty sure the only good baton passer is Celebi with swords dance or nasty plot. If you spend multiple turns raising your defenses and you’re unable to one-shot the opponent, then the opponent gets a lot of time to cripple your boosted Pokemon using status moves like swords dance, nasty plot, toxic, roar, or whirlwind.

Baton pass is banned in Generation 6 OU, so I can’t help you there. If you’re playing a format that allows baton pass, then you can tell me to convert this answer to a comment.