Best Competitive Build for Ting-Lu in Pokemon Scarlet & Violet
Competitive Pokémon Ting-Lu: Best Builds, Counters and Team Composition.
- Ting-Lu can be a strong defensive Pokémon and act as a literal wall between your opponent and victory, thanks to its high hit points and defensive stats.
- Stealth Rocks and Whirlwind allow Ting-Lu to control the battlefield and constantly disrupt the enemies plans.
- Ting-Lu has no natural healing abilities, so an item like Leftovers is imperative to keep it in the battle as long as possible.
Ting-Lu is one of the four Legendary Pokémon in Pokémon Scarlet & Violet that you can unlock in the post-game. They’re one of the three Pokémon that are considered the highest possible ranking in competitive matches. They’re an SS Tier Pokémon, a rank they share with only Dragonite and Flutter Mane. Here’s everything you need to know about Ting-Lu to use them to their fullest potential.
Ting-Lu Strategy
Ting-Lu is a strong, defensive Pokémon that can serve to really wear down and exhaust your opponents. They have a huge pool of hit points, ranking at 6th overall in Pokémon Scarlet & Violet. They also have the 20th best defense and even though they rank 169th in Special Defense, their ability Vessel of Ruin cuts down the Special Attack of all Pokémon on the field by 25%. All three of these facts combined makes Ting-Lu a great tank.
Ting-Lu’s main objective when they’re on the field is to survive. With a Poison Tera Type active, they only have two weaknesses, Ground and Psychic. They also have resistance to five types: Grass, Fighting, Poison, Bug, and Fairy.
What Ting-Lu lacks is self-sustain and healing, so you don’t want to keep them in at all times. They’re best utilized as a safety for switching-in your other Pokémon's. Use Ting-Lu in a regular offensive team.
Building a Team for Ting-Lu
With Ting-Lu’s bulk and ability to lower the Special Attack of all Pokémon on the field, you’re going to want to build a strong defensive team that relies on physical attack. Partner Pokémon who can sweep or use offensive utility to help back up Ting-Lu as they forcefully rotate the enemy Pokémon in and out of Stealth Rocks is going to be best.
Ting-Lu’s focus will be disrupting the enemy team with Whirlwind, so bring other Pokémon who can cover their weaknesses and have good offensive attacks. We recommend Palafin as an offensive sweeper and Gholdengo, which brings both offensive options and utility options.
Other good Pokémon to check out that could serve a Ting-Lu well are Arcaninee as a support and physical attacker or Amoongus as a support and redirect.
Ting-Lu Counters
The two big counters you need to watch out for with Ting-Lu are Flower Tricker types such as Meowscarada or Offensive Ice Sweepers like Cloyster, Chien-Pao or Iron Bundle.
The Grass Flower Trick builds are going to be very dangerous no matter what your Tera Typing is. The Ice Offensive Sweepers are strong against Ting-Lu’s original typing and still do normal damage even if you’re running a Poison Tera typing.
Ting-Lu Ruination Lead Best Build
The Ruination Lead build is a newer strategy for Ting-Lu that relies on disruption by swapping in the opponents Pokémon over and over again using Whirlwind and Stealth Rocks.
- Nature: Impish (Defense Up, Special Attack Down)
- EV Spread: Special Defense 84 | HP 244 | Defense 180
- Ability: Vessel of Ruin
- Tera Type: Poison
- Held Item: Leftovers
- Move Set:
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- Whirlwind
- Ruination
The basics of this build rely on Vessel of Ruin to reduce the Special Attack of all Pokémon on the field by 25%, so if you’re going up against Special Attackers they’re already a quarter weaker than they would be otherwise.
Leftovers helps to negate the fact that Ting-Lu has no natural healing abilities and will help recover a little bit of hit points every round.
Earthquake will be the strongest move Ting-Lu has and it’s got a STAB attack on it as well. Even if something isn’t weak to Earthquake, it’s a very hard hitting move with a base 110 attack stat. Stealth Rock and Whirlwind are going to be your main forms of disruption to discourage switches and to keep your opponents Sweepers in their backline.
Ruination should be used for any of the big defensive walls you come up again. It’ll keep them from staying on the field too long since it cuts HP by half and will allow your other Pokémon to be set-up for the KO.
