Pokemon Unite - Lucario Guide: Best Moveset and other tips and tricks

 

You've gotten destroyed by a Lucario in lane before, and now you want to know how to do the same to your enemies. Or you just really like Lucario and want to play him better. Welcome to the Lucario Guide, where you can learn tips and tricks to play him better and dominate your lanes and games.

Why Lucario?

Lucario is a very strong lane bully, that can ensure you and your lane partner get the best possible early game, while denying the enemy team their levels.

He keeps his relevance all the way to late-game, with his enhanced bulk from his passive Steadfast, high mobility and burst damage allowing him to dive into a fight, deal significant damage and take out key targets, and then get out safely.

Finally, Power-up Punch functions as a strong execute for key targets like Drednaw and Zapdos, which can lead to massive comebacks if you manage to get the snipe.

Pros

• Unfair bulk for an all-rounder because of the steadfast passive which grants him a shield.
  
• High mobility allows you to dip in and out of fights quickly, as well as score sneaky goals.
• High burst damage (Powerup-Punch) to delete important enemy targets such as their Greninja.
• Strong sustain and damage in 1vX situations (Extreme Speed) allows Lucario to stage unfair comebacks even when outnumbered. 

Cons

• Less impact in the lategame compared to powerhouses like Greninja.
• Missing your Extreme Speed or Powerup-Punch often spells the end of your usefulness in fights, sometimes even your life.
• Everyone hates playing against Lucario so they're gonna hate you too.

How to play Lucario?

Laning

This is where Lucario is at his best. Steadfast often allows you to go toe to toe, and even 1v2 the weaker laners. Don't be afraid to trade hits with the enemy team, because you are almost always going to come out on top of the exchange. Some enemy pokemon to watch out for include Alolan Ninetails, Wigglytuff, and to a lesser extend, Pikachu. Pikachu is widely considered to be one of the weakest Pokemon in the game at the time of writing, but it can't be denied that Pikachu is a beast while laning.

Priorities for a Lucario while laning include: Scoring sneaky goals with score shield, stealing last hits from the enemy side of the map with Meteor Mash + Quick Attack. The Meteor Mash deals damage to the wild pokemon while stunning your opponents, and Quick Attack last hits the wild pokemon while your opponents are stunned. This combo deals a large amount of burst damage and is extremely hard to for your opponents to contest.

A cool way to tilt your opponent is to steal their lane pokemon, trade hits with them while slowly making your way to their goal, then score while protected with score shield and restoring your lost health.

Skirmishing and Midgame

In the midgame, remember to keep your farm up to stay relevant. Your Powerup-Punches and Extreme Speeds still do significant amount of damage to squishy enemies. There isn't much to do here other than to turn your early game advantage into objective and map control. With your mobility and bulk as Lucario, you can actually take the more dangerous farming areas because you are alot harder to kill than your carry.

When taking objectives like Drednaw, be ready to disengage from Drednaw to zone enemies trying to contest you. As a Lucario, you do not do as much to Drednaw as your attackers do, while a single Powerup-Punch or Extreme Speed combo is often enough to change your enemy's mind about contesting. 

Of course, it's not always that you should use Powerup-Punch to chase people away. You can also save it to get the last hit or snipe a Drednaw from the enemy team. In fact, you should make it a habit to always last hit Drednaw/Zapdos with Powerup-Punch regardless of the presence of the enemy team (if you took it instead of Extreme Speed).

Lategame and Zapdos 

Your enemies have started hitting really hard and become really bulky. You are no longer the skirmisher/bully you once were. Defenders and Supports can easily shrug off your attacks now, while Attackers can quickly send you back to base. 

Your role is now that of an Assassin, diving the squishy backline and dealing massive damage, sometimes even killing them, and getting out before they can retaliate. 1v1, you are still king, but you can no longer take extended 1v2s that you once could. 

The same last Drednaw hitting rules apply for Zapdos. 

What is his Best Moveset?

Bonerush or Close Combat: Bonerush

 Always Bonerush, the extra mobility, and the cooldown reset at lv13 allows Lucario to make some insane plays. Close Combat does more damage, but doesn't provide the same utility as Bonerush, and also locks you in place while you use it, while the enemies can just walk out of it. It's a pretty garbage ability.

Powerup-Punch or Extreme Speed: It Depends

This is a harder question to answer. 

Powerup-Punch has a lot of extra utility, such as its last hitting ability, and status immunity at lv11 that allows Lucario to walk into the middle of a teamfight and punch a priority target without fear. 

Extreme Speed has higher outplay potential, because of the cooldown reset on hit and healing it provides. Overall, it allows you to deal more damage in teamfights if you can keep resetting its cooldown. 

Personally, I prefer Powerup-Punch. The status immunity from Powerup-Punch is also useful for baiting stuns and other cc-skills from enemies. The last hitting ability Powerup-Punch provides can completely swing a game from a loss into a win. Finally, its burst damage allows you to kill priority targets before they realise they need to run. You'll deal less damage in the teamfight overall, but at least you killed their Greninja solo because he wasn't expecting to lose half his health in one hit. 

Lucario Combos

Bonerush(1) and Bonerush(2) refers to the first and second part of the skill, respectively. If the instructions confuse you, head into practice mode and try it out.

Powerup-Punch before lv13

Powerup-Punch -> Boosted Auto -> Bonerush(1) -> Bonerush(2) -> Powerup-Punch -> Boosted Auto

This combo works because the full Bonerush(1) + (2) combo will hit enough times to reset Powerup-Punch's cooldown, allowing you to use it a second time immediately.

Powerup-Punch after lv13

Powerup-Punch  -> Boosted Auto -> (Optional) Wait 1-2 seconds -> Bonerush(1) -> Powerup-Punch -> Boosted Auto -> Bonerush(2) -> Powerup-Punch -> Boosted Auto

Yes, you can do three Powerup-Punches in a row after lv13. Waiting 1-2 seconds after your first boosted auto allows Bonerush(1) to fully reset Powerup-Punch's cooldown. Bonerush(2) then resets Powerup-Punch again, allowing you to use it for a 3rd time. 

Extreme Speed before lv13

Extreme Speed -> Bonerush(1) -> Extreme Speed (x2)

Hitting an enemy with Bonerush resets Extreme Speed's hit counter, allowing you do an extra Extreme Speed for free. You can use Bonerush(2) anytime during or after the combo. In all, you get x3 Extreme Speeds on a single target.

Extreme Speed after lv13

Extreme Speed -> Bonerush(1) -> Extreme Speed -(x2) -> Bonerush(2) -> Extreme Speed (x2)

Bonerush(1) resets Extreme Speed's hit counter. You can then use Extreme Speed twice, putting it on cooldown. Bonerush(2) resets the cooldown and hit counter, allowing you to use it another two more times. In all, you get x5 Extreme Speeds on a single target.

Best Lucario Item Build

This part is where a lot of disagreements happen. I personally prefer Buddy Barrier, Focus Band, and Score Shield.

This allows me to trade aggressively near the opponent's score zone, before dunking my points and healing up during the laning phase. 

Other players might prefer to drop one of the above, usually score shield, for Muscle Band or Scope Lens.

Some players may even opt for dropping Buddy Barrier or Focus Band so they can run Score Shield + Attack Weight.

Additional Tips and Tricks

• Jungle Lucario works as well, since jungling hands him all his power-spikes on a silver platter (lv5-lv7-lv9). However, because of how absolutely dominant a Lucario can be in lane, it is quite a waste to put him in the jungle. 

 

• Powerup-Punch is single target and will hit the first target it touches. This means that while trying to snipe Zapdos, it is almost impossible to snipe with Powerup-Punch from outside the pit. You will have to walk into pit while charging your Powerup-Punch, before landing it point blank to reliably snipe Zapdos. It may be scary to walk into the middle of the enemy team, and you'll almost certainly die if you miss your snipe, but you're cc-immune while charging it, and bulky enough because of your steadyfast shield and the 30% damage reduction you get while charging your Powerup-Punch.
  

 

• Powerup-Punch and Extreme Speed have quite the reach, allowing you to easily swipe your opponent's berries when fighting in their goal. Combined with score shield, scoring under their noses, your Focus Band and Steadfast passive, it makes you really, really, hard to kill.

 

• Did I mention that charging Powerup-Punch grants a 30% damage reduction? It can one day save your life.