A good nature for Infernape?

Question

My Pokemon buddy Infernape has a Quiet nature, which is no good for competetive battling. I'm going to raise a new one with Thunderpunch, Overheat, Close Combat, and U-Turn. What nature should it be? I'm planning on using Overheat while the opponent sets up a screen or whatever, then using Close Combat...

Answer 1

Infernape is probably best with a Naive nature to prevent the Sp Atk stat from going down and to get as much speed as he possibly can since Infernape is relatively weak to begin with and he needs every last bit of speed he can get due to a lack of priority. Naive is chosen (I can't remember what the nature that does Spe and -Def is) so most forms of priority deal less damage. Infernape is really frail to begin with so it won't mind the lowering of its Special Defense so long as it can still take a priority move or two.

Additionally, Overheat is still a very nice move to have on Infernape even despite the mostly physical set since it can allow you to sear through more physically defensive Pokemon such as Skarmory and Tangrowth without much problem and you won't have to worry about the recoil of Flare Blitz. Do keep in mind, though, that the Special Attack drop can cause you to be more vulnerable to Ghost-types and Pokemon you lack good coverage against. If you're worried about that kind of stuff, you can instead opt for a Jolly nature with Flare Blitz. And if you really don't care as much about speed and actually want Infernape to hurt stuff, a Naughty or Adamant nature would work nicely, again dependent on whether or not you wish to drop Overheat.

Since you've explicitly stated your team is just for fun and you don't want to use Smogon-based sets, I won't rate your team since I don't feel I could do justice to it.