17. Ting-Lu

Dark / Ground · Vessel of Ruin · VR A · 2026-04 Usage 8.06% · base 155 / 110 / 125 / 55 / 80 / 45 · the format’s premier physically-bulky hazard-stacker — Stealth Rock / Spikes + Whirlwind behind 155/125 bulk and a team-wide special-attack tax.

Format role

Ting-Lu is the anchor of slow, hazard-stack balance and bulky-offense cores. One slot buys you: an entry hazard (SR or Spikes, often both across a game via two switch-ins), a phazing button (Whirlwind) to undo opposing setup and rack hazard chip, a near-unkillable physical wall (155 HP / 125 Def), and — passively, just by being on the field — Vessel of Ruin, a 25% cut to every other active Pokémon’s Special Attack. That last point is what separates Ting-Lu from generic ground-type setters: it warps special breakers’ damage math the moment it switches in, turning would-be 2HKOs into 3HKOs (see calcs). For an aggressive-offense player it is mostly a wall you have to break, not abuse — but the Vessel aura and Whirlwind are why it shows up on the balance teams your offense will be grinding against.

Ting-Lu’s Dark/Ground typing carries real weaknesses (Grass, Water, Fairy, Fighting all 2×, plus Ice/Bug), but a slow Leftovers tank with phazing is exactly the kind of resilient glue the metagame rewards. Its modest 8.06% usage understates how much it shapes the games it appears in — it is a structural piece, not a ladder-spammed pick.

Sets

Leftovers utility (the standard — ~79% Leftovers, ~51% spread)

Item: Leftovers · Ability: Vessel of Ruin · Nature: Careful
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Earthquake (94.3%) / Stealth Rock (78.9%) / Ruination (70.7%) / Whirlwind (65.2%)

This is the overwhelming default: SR + EQ + Ruination + Whirlwind on a fully SpD-maxed Careful spread. Roughly 60% of all Ting-Lu run this exact four-move shell. Spikes (22.0%) swaps over Stealth Rock (or, on dedicated hazard-stack, over Ruination) when the team has a separate rock setter and wants layered Spikes behind Gholdengo.

Sassy variant (~8% Sassy spread)

Item: Leftovers · Ability: Vessel of Ruin · Nature: Sassy
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Earthquake / Stealth Rock / Ruination / Whirlwind

Identical role to the Careful set; Sassy (0 Spe drop) is chosen for slow-pivot / Trick-Room edge cases and loses nothing relevant since Ting-Lu already sits at the bottom of the speed tier. Treat it as the same threat.

Rest / SpD tank (Rest 8.5%)

Item: Leftovers · Ability: Vessel of Ruin · Nature: Careful
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Earthquake / Ruination / Whirlwind / Rest

Trades a hazard for self-recovery — a stall-leaning build that loops Whirlwind + Ruination + Rest as a near-immortal special blanket. Less common, but the one you most want to Taunt or status.

Choice Band (Brave) — niche punisher (Brave 0/252/0/0/252/0 = 2.9%)

Item: Choice Band · Ability: Vessel of Ruin · Nature: Brave
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 SpD (listed spread runs 0 HP; some run 252 HP / 252 Atk)
Earthquake / Stone Edge / Payback / (Ruination)

A genuine surprise breaker hiding in the usage tail: Choice Band Brave turns the 155/110 base line into a 525-Attack Ground nuke. Payback (23.95%), Rock Slide (15.75%) and Stone Edge (7.16%) appear here for the coverage to make Band worth it. Rare, but it 2HKOs things the standard set can’t scratch (OHKOs Heatran, 2HKOs Gholdengo — see calcs). Note Choice Band occupies the item slot; no Z on this set.

Items beyond Leftovers (79.4%): Red Card 7.1% (auto-phaze on contact, an alternative to clicking Whirlwind), Assault Vest 6.6% (no status moves — pure special blanket, drops hazards entirely), Rocky Helmet 5.2% (contact-punisher wall). None change the core identity; AV is the only one that can’t set hazards, so reads matter.

What it does

The standard Ting-Lu’s whole game is chip + reset. It switches into a physical attacker or a special breaker (the Vessel tax makes the latter safer), drops a hazard, and from then on alternates Ruination (a 90%-accurate current-HP halving move that ignores ordinary bulk; Fairy does not block it) and Whirlwind (force a switch, dragging the opponent through your hazards while undoing their Dragon Dance / Swords Dance / Calm Mind / Booster boost). Earthquake is the only conventional attacking move it needs because Ground hits the Steel- and Poison-types that try to exploit a passive Ruination/Whirlwind set.

Sequencing against it is the key skill. Ruination is current-HP percentage damage, so it’s strongest on a healthy switch-in and least useful once the target is already low — Ting-Lu wants to fire it early. Whirlwind ignores Substitute but is stopped by Good as Gold (Gholdengo) and Magic Bounce; it cannot phaze a Gholdengo (a non-damaging move fails into Good as Gold), which is one reason Gholdengo is its #1 teammate — Ting-Lu sets hazards, and Gholdengo makes conventional removal awkward enough for that chip to stick. Against your offense it leans on Vessel of Ruin to blunt your special breakers and on Whirlwind to deny your setup sweepers clean windows; the failure mode it can’t fix is a fast Fighting/Grass/Water/Fairy attacker that just 2HKOs it through the bulk, because it has no recovery on the standard set (Rest is the only fix and it’s slow and passive).

Load-bearing calcs

All Ting-Lu on the 252 HP / 252 SpD Careful spread (514 HP / 287 Def / 284 SpD). Vessel of Ruin (×0.75 to opposing SpA) applied where the attacker is special.

Ting-Lu (0 Atk) Earthquake vs 0/0 Gholdengo: Ground is super-effective into Steel/Ghost, so grounded Gholdengo cannot treat Ting-Lu as passive once Air Balloon is gone. Utility Ting-Lu still may not cleanly remove bulkier Recover variants without chip, but Earthquake is real pressure rather than neutral damage.
Ting-Lu (0 Atk) Earthquake vs 0/0 Heatran: 444–528 (137.5–163.5%) [OHKO] — Ground 4× erases the Flash Fire pivot outright even off zero Attack investment.
Iron Valiant Moonblast (Timid 252 SpA, under Vessel of Ruin) vs Ting-Lu: 186–218 (36.2–42.4%) — vs 246–290 (47.9–56.4%) without the aura. The Vessel tax turns a clean 2HKO into a 3HKO: this is the calc that defines Ting-Lu’s matchup vs special breakers.
Iron Valiant Close Combat (Jolly) vs Ting-Lu: 324–384 (63.0–74.7%) — the physical break is a clean 2HKO (Vessel does nothing to Attack), so a committed physical Valiant threatens the kill, but it’s then revenge-fodder.
Great Tusk Close Combat (Jolly 252 Atk) vs Ting-Lu: 324–384 (63.0–74.7%) — a clean super-effective 2HKO from the format’s premier Fighting pivot; Tusk is the cleanest physical answer.
Ting-Lu Choice Band (Brave) Earthquake vs 0/0 Gholdengo: Choice Band turns that super-effective Earthquake into a removal threat; Gholdengo needs Air Balloon, bulk, or prior positioning rather than assuming it can pivot into Ting-Lu. The same EQ OHKOs offensive Heatran (4×) and dents Toxapex far past what the utility set manages, but Corviknight is Ground-immune and must be handled by Ting-Lu’s other moves or teammates.

Checks & counters

Hard answers (per block Checks & Counters):

Ogerpon-Wellspring (76.5) — the #1 check. Grass/Water both hit it 2×; Ivy Cudgel (Wellspring Mask ×1.2) does 304–362 (59.1–70.4%) on the Careful spread, a 2HKO that outpaces Leftovers, and Ting-Lu can’t meaningfully damage it back (Whirlwind just resets the matchup). It’s the cleanest single switch-in. (It’s the Water-Absorb Wellspring-Mask set.)
Gliscor (70.6) — Poison Heal + Ground immunity (EQ does nothing), Spikes immunity, and Boots/healing make hazard chip hard to stick; it can Taunt the no-Taunt-protection utility set, Knock the Leftovers, or set up SD. Ting-Lu’s main answer is Whirlwind, and Gliscor can often absorb the phaze over a longer game.
Melmetal (57.3) — AV/SpD Melmetal can stomach a super-effective EQ through raw bulk and Double Iron Bash / Thunder Punch breaks through; it walls the Dark STAB and the special-attack tax doesn’t touch its physical game.

Soft checks / revenge:

Iron Valiant (62.2) and Great Tusk (51.9) — neither walls Ting-Lu (Ruination, bulk, and hazards see to that), but both threaten the 2HKO from the physical side and outrun it by a mile; they pressure it out rather than sit on it.
Any fast Fighting/Grass/Water/Fairy attacker with recovery support. Ting-Lu’s lack of reliable recovery (outside the slow Rest set) means repeated 40–55% hits grind it down; it survives one break, not three.
It is checked by what it can’t hit cleanly - Corviknight/Skarmory are Flying-types immune to EQ and take Dark neutrally, while Air Balloon / Levitate users sponge Ground until the immunity is removed; Ting-Lu can still phaze and chip them.

★ Offense angle

For the aggressive-offense builder, Ting-Lu is almost always on the other side of the table — it’s the slow balance glue your team is built to crack, not a piece you’d run on true offense (it’s passive, slow, and can hand setup sweepers windows it often has to answer by phazing). So the angle is twofold:

Beat it with the right breaker, not chip. Because it has no recovery, you don’t out-stall it — you 2HKO it and move on. Your cleanest tools are the format’s top breakers that hit its 2× weaknesses from the physical side (where Vessel of Ruin does nothing): Ogerpon-Wellspring Ivy Cudgel (59–70%), Great Tusk / Fighting Close Combat (clean 2HKO), Iron Valiant Close Combat, and any Grass/Water STAB. Note that special breakers are the wrong tool: Vessel of Ruin demotes your Tapu Lele / Specs damage a full tier (the Moonblast calc above is the warning). Bring physical pressure, or a special hit so overkill the 25% cut doesn’t save it.
Respect the Whirlwind when you set up. Ting-Lu is a hard stop to slow setup — clicking Dragon Dance / Swords Dance into it gets you phazed and chipped on hazards. The offense answer is speed and immediacy: set up the turn it’s forced out or already in KO range, or lead with a faster breaker that simply removes it. If you’re a hazard-stack offense yourself, Ting-Lu on the opponent is a reason to pack your own Gholdengo so their Whirlwind-chip war doesn’t out-grind your removal.

One legitimate offensive use: the niche Choice Band (Brave) set as a slow-pivot wallbreaker on bulky-offense — its EQ OHKOs Heatran and 2HKOs Gholdengo (calcs) plus most of the tier, and it doubles as a hazard lead that bites back. But that’s bulky-offense flavor; for aggressive offense it’s too slow to earn the slot over a faster breaker.

Top teammates & cores

From the 2026-04 block (top teammates): Landorus-Therian 21.2%, Gholdengo 17.6%, Alomomola 16.0%, Zapdos 14.7%, Great Tusk 14.2%.

Ting-Lu + Gholdengo (17.6%) — the hazard-stack engine. This is the core. Ting-Lu lays SR/Spikes; Gholdengo blocks Defog and targeted status moves through Good as Gold and makes Rapid Spin fail by Ghost typing, so hazards often stay up while Whirlwind drags the opponent through them. Together they tax every switch — the structural backbone of post-ban hazard balance. See common cores.
Ting-Lu + Landorus-Therian (21.2%) — the bulky-offense backbone. Landorus-Therian is the fast Intimidate pivot and hazard partner that punishes the physical attackers Ting-Lu’s slow phazing forces in. Ting-Lu supplies the layered hazards and special-attack tax; Landorus-Therian supplies the speed, U-turn momentum, and Intimidate that Ting-Lu lacks. It is Ting-Lu’s single most common teammate on ladder.
Glue partners: Alomomola (16.0%) Wish-passes the recovery Ting-Lu doesn’t have and pivots it in safely; Zapdos (14.7%) covers the Grass/Water/Fighting attackers that 2HKO Ting-Lu and brings Defog / Volt-Switch the core otherwise lacks.