Moves
Surf is Milotic’s most consistent STAB move, and its higher PP compared to Hydro Pump makes it better for longer games. Ice Beam hits Breloom, Dragonite, Flygon, Latias, and Celebi for super effective damage and can also threaten to freeze Pokemon like Skarmory and Clefable. Haze is essential to check CroCune, Calm Mind Clefable, Swords Dance Scizor, and many other setup sweepers. Its gargantuan 48 PP gives Milotic increased staying power, which can help force a setup sweeper out. Recover rounds out the set and sets Milotic apart from other bulky Water-types like Suicune and Swampert.
Toxic and Hidden Power Electric can be used as alternatives to either Ice Beam or Haze. Toxic can be more effective against offensive Suicune, opposing Milotic, and Latias. Hidden Power Electric is mainly used if it is deemed necessary for Milotic to be a very secure Gyarados check. However, these moves are generally not recommended, as losing the coverage to hit Breloom and Dragon-types or the ability to remove stat changes can backfire tremendously.
Set Details
Maximizing HP and Defense investment is essential for taking on physical attackers like Swampert, Gyarados, Flygon, Metagross, Jirachi, and Dragonite as well as possible. The 8 Special Defense EVs are surprisingly important, crucially reducing damage from mixed Dragonite's Draco Meteor, Starmie's Thunderbolt, Gengar's Shadow Ball, and even Empoleon's Grass Knot. Since Milotic is vulnerable to chip damage from sand and entry hazards, Leftovers grants it crucial passive recovery. Even though Marvel Scale could make one consider an item like Flame Orb to boost its Defense, this is never worthwhile. A Calm nature with some Special Defense investment can be used to better take on Gengar, Grass Knot Infernape, Latias, and mixed Dragon-types, but Milotic will be worse off against foes like Swampert and Metagross.
Usage Tips
Teams with Milotic often depend on it to check some strong physical attackers, so it can be especially important to keep it healthy with Recover. Try to avoid taking damage-inflicting status if possible even with Marvel Scale, as the Defense bonus generally doesn't compensate for chip damage from the likes of burn and poison largely due to making Milotic more prone to losing to flinches from physical Jirachi variants. If you're playing against a Toxic Spikes team and have no means to remove them, try to switch Milotic into only one layer rather than two. In addition, Milotic will often find itself staying in for longer periods of time against such teams, so taking two layers of Toxic Spikes can render it unable to fulfill its role. Ice Beam can be used against foes like Clefable and bulky Jirachi to fish for a freeze, as they can shrug off Surf. Be mindful of Haze's PP when using the move versus foes like CroCune and Swords Dance Scizor.
Team Options
Despite Milotic's incredible defensive utility, it does not fit on a wide range of teams. Due to its lack of synergy with popular spinners like Starmie, Forretress, and Tentacruel, it must be built with entry hazards in mind. Magnezone is a solid partner to provide hazard control against Skarmory, preventing it from setting up enough Spikes to give Milotic trouble. Defensive behemoths immune to Spikes like Gliscor, Clefable, your own Skarmory, defensive Latias, and even Rotom-A can create strong cores with Milotic. In particular, while Milotic is excellent at warding off physical onslaughts, specially defensive Clefable can invalidate a large number of special attackers, which makes these two Pokemon incredible together. In addition, Clefable's Knock Off can help compensate for Milotic's lack of offensive presence, assisting it in keeping Suicune in check by allowing the damage from Milotic's Surf to stick. Skarmory's ability to set entry hazards is especially helpful, as Milotic can utilize its impressive staying power to do quite a bit of residual damage to offensive teams.