Roserade, walk with me, talk with me.
Roserade is probably one of the more fun evolutions of a third gen pkmn. So tiny, but so powerful, it has a lot to offer. First, let's talk base stats. Of note, she's base 90 speed, which is generally the cutoff for sweeping, which is what I'm going to assume you like to do with her since she can't really stay in for the long haul. She sports 125 special attack, which puts her on the same destructive scale as Magmortar, Azelf, and Zapdos. She also carries a base special defense of 100. Three names pop up form this category to my mind immediately: Gyarados, Mew, and Tentacool (LOL, I <3 you so much, you friggin jellyfish). As you can see, she can take a couple blows
here and there, but she will not last long, especially with her subpar HP growth and the fact that she has one of the worst typing combinations in the game (the worst one being rock/steel). At MOST, she can take ONE super effective blow, and only if it's non-STAB, generally.
Now with that having been said, let's talk strategy. With all the above information, any actual person should be able to determine that Roserade should be OHKO sweeping, or laying down serious hit-and-run material, possibly for very fanciful revenge KOs, even. Now, it's hard to OHKO sweep with grass and poison for STAB and especially with
just 90 base speed (101 base would have done wonders for her). So, we need to work on this speed issue. Who outspeeds her? Well, basically every viable OU and BL counter to her, unfortunately. Counting both her grass and poison STAB, she has an offensive type advantage on approximately ten of the pkmn that outspeed her or tie with her. This should tell you that in order to at least do some damage, you'll want to run a max speed version (Timid, preferably). Why max speed when so many things outspeed you naturally? Many people don't realize this about base 90s--
if you do not run max speed, you can get outsped by a max speed Abra. In order to at least revenge KO or hit-and-run, you need to be able to hit first.
Now that we've got a nature in place and maxed out speed EVs, the rest of the EVs are up to you. She has a really nice special attack stat, so you don't necessarily have to max it out, but she's not lasting long, so you might want to consider it. Also, we need to choose an item. This much is up to you. I would consider a Focus Sash, but don't forget about hail, sand, and spikes/stealth rock. While we're on environmental hazards, don't forget she can clean up Toxic Spikes for you. Just watch how you switch her in. Leftovers or other health restoring items are less than optimal, I think. Life Orb is generally the best bet for suicide runners like Roserade, who need power out of every place they can squeeze it. I do not recommend choice items (neither specs nor scarf) simply because of the frailty of her moveset--it is very easy to come in on resisted grass and poison STAB, but she has other moves to cover her (we'll discuss this later). Let's not get it twisted, she can utilize both effectively, but you may want to consider what she'll be packing first.
Now, nature, EVs, item are out of the way (mostly). The most important part (maybe?)--moves. I will say
one thing before we start. Poison is
hands-down one of THE WORST OFFENSIVE TYPES IN THE GAME. There's no two ways about it, so I do not recommend running Sludge Bomb unless Sceptile (who horribly outspeeds you) and maybe Shaymin (...) give you problems. As far as offensive moves go, she can learn the almost mandatory Hidden Power (ground or fire for steels, fire, and ice types), Shadow Ball and Weather Ball (!!). She has plenty of STAB options from grass, including the amazing Leaf Storm, which can honestly cause serious problems for a team that can't resist or wall it. You can also fire off 90 base speed Solarbeams from 120 base special if you're on a team with Sunny Day. Now, as a grass/poison type, Roserade gets more than enough support options, including the ever popular Sleep Powder, Stun Spore, Leech Seed, Toxic, Grasswhistle and Aromatherapy. What does this mean? This means that (even though the conversation up to this point has been pointing at Roserade for sweeping capabilities) Roserade is capable of more than merely attempting sweeps or one-hit wonders; she can also serve as a utility pkmn or you can even mix the sets.
I submit the following set for consideration:
Roserade @ Life Orb
Timid
Natural Cure (holla!)
Max speed, max special attack
-Sleep Powder
or Stun Spore
-Leaf Storm
or Energy Ball
-Shadow Ball
-Weather Ball
or Hidden Power
There are sooo many options, so you'll really have to make her a team player to make her set effective. Or you could just go the way of the Salamence and slap choice specs on her to smack people around with Leaf Storm (which outdamages specs Draco Meteor, if you can believe that--take that for what it's worth). Anyway, Roserade is good fun. I hope you enjoy using her! ^_^
P.S. - I just remembered--be careful for sleep talkers and Heracross/Ursaring switching into your status moves. If I have a sleep talker on my team and a grass type not named Sceptile comes out, I'm switching them right into Sleep Powder for free. Be careful.
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