Ask a Simple Question; Get a Simple Answer & General Resources (OU Edition)

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Are the pinch berries legal now (e.g. Custap Berry, Petaya Berry) with the advent of BW2?
Petaya, Liechi, and Salac are IIRC (and Starf always was, but who uses that outside troll Starf Recycle Gothitelles). However, Cutsap and the Defense and Special Defense Boosting ones (and any others I might have forgotten that generally are rare) are not. Joeyboy definitely might be more right than me, but I would assume Liechi and Petaya are released since part of NU's current research week is a challenge to create a Simipour set using one or the other.
 
so I got shot down real quick for this in the Garchomp thread for this:
Why can't we allow Blaze Blaziken into OU, I mean their thinking about putting GARCHOMP back into OU tier, albeit with Rough Skin BUT STILL he is such a threat to many OUs with the scarf, and yes I know he can be countered with mamoswine or weavile with ice shard...my question this though:
Why not allow Blaze Blaziken to be in OU as well then?
 

alkinesthetase

<@dtc> every day with alk is a bad day
is a Smogon Discord Contributor Alumnus
you have stumbled upon one of the great complexities of smogon ban philosophy, which is banning individual combinations without banning entire abilities/mons. drizzle/ss was an exception, and it's important to understand what the suspect ladder's bans are: garchomp may be legal, but sand veil as a whole (on every single user: gliscor and cacturne as well) is banned. it's not that chomp with sand veil is banned, it's that ALL sand veil is banned. this unearths some serious problems as observed in the chomp/veil discussion thread - why should cacturne lose encore and bullet seed (only legal with sandveil) in lower tiers just because we want garchomp back? is gliscor with sand veil broken enough to be considered an example of "sand veil OP"? what about mons where sand veil is obviously not broken like sandslash?

there is a lot of fear that complex bans (ie banning specific ability or ability+mon combinations) are a slippery slope where once we start allowing things we won't be able to stop, and iirc aldaron intended for the drizzle+ss ban to be an EXCEPTION to the accepted standard (something that many people seem to forget when discussing complex bans). blaziken is a very obvious example of a mon that was not OP until it received its ability but was OP afterwards. however at what point does the complex banning process stop? is excadrill OP without sand rush? is kyogre OP if we allow it into OU at level 50 instead of level 100? moreover many users see it as an injustice to ban the entirety of speed boost just to allow blaziken back into OU/UU since clearly there are other speed boost users (ninjask, sharpedo) that do not even approach being broken.

in other words: it's a matter of ban philosophy, and not a question that can be answered easily or objectively

EDIT: oh and as a precaution, i hope i didn't come off as too biased to one position or another in this post. this is a complicated issue and it's not like i'm an expert or anything; i don't even have a consistent position on complex bans myself
 
you have stumbled upon one of the great complexities of smogon ban philosophy, which is banning individual combinations without banning entire abilities/mons. drizzle/ss was an exception, and it's important to understand what the suspect ladder's bans are: garchomp may be legal, but sand veil as a whole (on every single user: gliscor and cacturne as well) is banned. it's not that chomp with sand veil is banned, it's that ALL sand veil is banned. this unearths some serious problems as observed in the chomp/veil discussion thread - why should cacturne lose encore and bullet seed (only legal with sandveil) in lower tiers just because we want garchomp back? is gliscor with sand veil broken enough to be considered an example of "sand veil OP"? what about mons where sand veil is obviously not broken like sandslash?

there is a lot of fear that complex bans (ie banning specific ability or ability+mon combinations) are a slippery slope where once we start allowing things we won't be able to stop, and iirc aldaron intended for the drizzle+ss ban to be an EXCEPTION to the accepted standard (something that many people seem to forget when discussing complex bans). blaziken is a very obvious example of a mon that was not OP until it received its ability but was OP afterwards. however at what point does the complex banning process stop? is excadrill OP without sand rush? is kyogre OP if we allow it into OU at level 50 instead of level 100? moreover many users see it as an injustice to ban the entirety of speed boost just to allow blaziken back into OU/UU since clearly there are other speed boost users (ninjask, sharpedo) that do not even approach being broken.

in other words: it's a matter of ban philosophy, and not a question that can be answered easily or objectively
well, well, well...this IS more complex than I imagined...wow
Well thatnks a bunch for all that lovely information, it really helped me understand somethings about smogon and thee way we do thingas around here.
For now I'll just hope that soon thins will change and we won't have to completely ban a Pokemon because of one ability it has that makes him Uber tier when he/she could be used in other tiers with the other ability(s) it has.

Edit: and no your fine, I got it all...thanks a bunch dude!
 
Speaking of Garchomp, this might seem like a stupid question. If a Pokémon has Rocky Helmet equipped and they are behind a Substitute, would the opponent still take damage from Rocky Helmet if they hit the Sub with a contact move? And, in the case of Garchomp, would that also apply if Rough Skin was added to the mix (the opponent takes damage from both)?
 

ganj4lF

Nobody is safe from the power of science!
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Speaking of Garchomp, this might seem like a stupid question. If a Pokémon has Rocky Helmet equipped and they are behind a Substitute, would the opponent still take damage from Rocky Helmet if they hit the Sub with a contact move? And, in the case of Garchomp, would that also apply if Rough Skin was added to the mix (the opponent takes damage from both)?
You can find an answer for your question here: http://www.smogon.com/bw/moves/substitute

Quoting the relevant part:
Anger Point does not activate with Substitute up. Intimidate is blocked by Substitute. The user is damaged by Life Orb if it hits a Substitute. Does not prevent a Pokemon with Pickpocket from stealing an item from the Pokemon with Substitute; however, if the Pickpocket user itself has a Substitute, it cannot steal any items. If a Pokemon with Mummy has a Substitute, its ability does not activate when it hits the Substitute. Blocks Sky Drop entirely. Prevents the secondary effect of Smack Down from occurring. Infiltrator does not bypass Substitute. Does not prevent the user's Air Balloon from popping if the Substitute is hit. If a Pokemon with Illusion uses Substitute and the Substitute is broken, the Illusion does not fade. Prevents Clear Smog's effect from working. If a Pokemon with Substitute attacks a Pokemon with Iron Barbs, Rough Skin, or Rocky Helmet, the effect damage bypasses the Substitute and goes straight to the attacker. Reflect does not reduce Brick Break's damage if the target has a Substitute up.
Hope it helped.
 
I'm new to smogon (I made this account long ago and forgot about it). I have two questions.

1) How do you set a profile picture?

2)What does IIRC mean?

Thanks in advance to whoever answers these.
 
iirc=if I remember correctly
I don't even remember how to set your avatar. I think it's something like pulling a picture from your computer's files
 

Pocket

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You don't need to reduce Spe IVs for HP Ghost. Drop Def and SpD EVs to 30 and you're set.
 

Quanyails

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Ah, so that old HP chart that appears on Google's search result lacks some spreads. Thanks, Pocket and voodoo pimp.
 
I've been creating a team lately and found tornadus-t would fit perfectly on it. What would be the best set to use with it? I mean in general, as i can always modify it to fit my team :P ive seen people use naive with orb, then specs timid, and then hp ice/ground, and even taunt. What hidden power would be best on it also?
 
I've been creating a team lately and found tornadus-t would fit perfectly on it. What would be the best set to use with it? I mean in general, as i can always modify it to fit my team :P ive seen people use naive with orb, then specs timid, and then hp ice/ground, and even taunt. What hidden power would be best on it also?
It actually depends on your team. If it is a rain team then I would suggest you the life orb one with hp ice, because you can regain all the health back with regenerator. However, if it is not a rain team, then dont use tornadus-t but rather thundurus-t. Because in that case you most probably looked for an offensive rain counter, and thundurus-t does that perfectly.

I hope i helped
 

alkinesthetase

<@dtc> every day with alk is a bad day
is a Smogon Discord Contributor Alumnus
if you're comparing tornadus t sets in rain, there are basically two overarching standards: specs and LO. either way 3 moves are always a given: hurricane, uturn, and fighting coverage (either superpower or focus blast). the fourth slot is completely up for grabs.

specs is always gonna be
252 satk / 252 spe timid @ specs
hurricane
focus blast
u-turn
fourth slot

LO on the other hand will be either naive/hasty if running superpower (naive is generally preferred because hasty makes you more vulnerable to ice shard), or timid if running focus blast. the standard set i would look at is
4 atk / 252 satk / 252 spe naive @ LO
hurricane
superpower (more reliable answer to blissey, chansey and tyranitar is the main reason why this is preferred over focus blast)
uturn
fourth slot

as with all tornadus-T sets the fourth slot is the one that's up for the most discussion. common options:

  • hp ground - hits jirachi while rain is up and lets you kill unballooned heatran even faster than with your fighting coverage. LO hp ground is like a 4hko on standard spdef jirachi so i really don't see the point of this but i guess it'll help against jirachi that aren't invested in spdef. specs can probably ko jirachi at a reasonable speed with hp ground; however i'm not sure i'd want to stay in on jirachi at all lest it blast me with thunder or start cming. this choice is debatable, but personally i do not like it at all.
  • hp ice - provides coverage on most of the things that resist tornadus's standard fly/fight coverage. the main example of that is thundurus-T which is hit super effectively by HP ice. it also obviously provides a good option for hitting any 4x weak dragons. ice is in general an all around good attacking type so you know how this works
  • heat wave - a nice choice if your weather is not up and again this can hit jirachi; it'll usually 3hko... in neutral weather. in rain heat wave is pitiful. it's mainly useful for taking on 4x weaknesses like scizor and ferrothorn in those circumstances because it does a lot of damage to them even with rain on. forget about denting 2x weaknesses though; grass types will take more from hurricane anyway and most steels will be too bulky to be injured by this in the rain unless they're 4x weak.
  • taunt - tornadus-t is very fast and can offer a fast taunt to take down walls that would try to stall it. lets it dodge twaves, toxics, etc, lets it stop hazard stackers and phazers, pretty classic option, we all know what taunt does. obviously you can't run this on the specs set
  • sleep talk - because tornadus-T almost always has a free slot here you can often use it as a sleep absorber. it's important to note that most common sleep users in OU are grass types (spore - amoong, breloom; sleep powder - venusaur et al) and will be utterly demolished by hurricane which is part of why sleep talk is viable. this slot is useless if your opp doesn't have sleep users, but hey it's not like you were using the fourth slot anyway right?
  • rain dance - i didn't understand this option for a long time until lavos spawn explained it and i realized i was an idiot. it provides backup weather if toed goes down, yes, but there's so much more to it than that. if you understand how sunny day ninetales works you'll understand why this works as well and i am personally an advocate of it. basically when the opponent predicts a hurricane they will often try to switch in their weather starter to drop hurricane's acc. this is especially true for sun because with hurricane's 50% acc in sun, bulky ninetales will not be afraid to come in and start spamming protect seeing as hurricane's effective damage (min 52%) is halved by the acc drop. tyranitar can come in but it risks a fighting attack so the main focus of this option is against sun teams. you can punish that switch and destroy the opponent's momentum by rain dancing as tales comes in. this instantly forces it out because even the spdef sets are 2hkod by hurricane and they can't hope to tank it if it doesn't miss - eating more hazard damage in the process. ninetales won't want to come straight back in especially if rocks are down because it risks you rain dancing all over again, which means your opponent has to take the hurricane with something else on their team. most of the steels that fit nicely into sun (eg forretress, heatran) cannot take on tornadus-T (heatran takes a lot from superpower and forretress has no spdef). meanwhile the rest of a typical sun team will be a mixture of fire types (no such thing as a bulky fire type lol yes i know this is a generalization), grass types (weak to hurricane) and general utility mons. since there are relatively few things to tank tornadus-T, this lets you rip some serious holes. your opponent can't afford to sack ninetales as long as your politoed is still alive (and because you've shown rain dance, even if they do sack ninetales you can set up rain again and do a quick and dirty hurricane push), but they need to keep switching it in to break your hurricanes, which gives you some useful momentum advantages.
i have also seen sun sets of tornadus-T that run bulk up / acrobatics / heat wave / uturn @ fly gem but i don't think this is what you had in mind.
 
Legality checker?

No, Psycho Shift only works on a Pokemon who isn't immune to the status.
Thank you :D

Is there an easy way to check if a pkmn is legit?, a friend of mine traded me his solarpower Charizard but it turns out it's a female (which, to my understanding, can only have Solarpower if it's a male), he traded me some other pkmn and i'm afraid all of them are fake.
 

Jukain

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Thank you :D

Is there an easy way to check if a pkmn is legit?, a friend of mine traded me his solarpower Charizard but it turns out it's a female (which, to my understanding, can only have Solarpower if it's a male), he traded me some other pkmn and i'm afraid all of them are fake.
iirc Pokecheck does the trick. just upload your Pokemon and voila you can find stuff out.
 

ganj4lF

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Quick legality question: is it possible for Skarmory to carry both SR and Spikes? If so, is a set with SR | Spikes | Roost | Whirlwind viable or the fact you're complete Taunt bait is too much troublesome?

Thank you!
 

Nix_Hex

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SR and Spikes is fine.

As for the second part, I've used that set before but it's a jack of all trades, master of none. I'd go with Brave Bird over Roost since Whirlwind is very useful in a pinch. You have a durable phazer that is not Taunt bait.
 

Jukain

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SR and Spikes is fine.

As for the second part, I've used that set before but it's a jack of all trades, master of none. I'd go with Brave Bird over Roost since Whirlwind is very useful in a pinch. You have a durable phazer that is not Taunt bait.
Is it really worth forgoing Roost though? Perhaps it would be better if you stuck with one hazard (likely Spikes) and threw Stealth Rock on something else.
 

alkinesthetase

<@dtc> every day with alk is a bad day
is a Smogon Discord Contributor Alumnus
Is it really worth forgoing Roost though? Perhaps it would be better if you stuck with one hazard (likely Spikes) and threw Stealth Rock on something else.
completely agree. i would say sr and spikes should NOT both be run on skarm. roost and whirlwind are non-negotiable moveslots for skarm so you have the remaining two slots to choose between sr, spikes, brave bird and the occasional taunt. skarm tends to be an iffy taunt user because it's quite slow, so that's usually out. i wouldn't want to go without brave bird either because otherwise you're total taunt bait (and seeing as skarm is slow and bulky and a hazard user, it invites taunts like the plague) and because you won't be able to hurt the things you're walling if you don't have any attacking moves. that leaves no room to be running both sr and spikes.

ultimately part of what makes skarm good is that it's so good at setting spikes where as there are SO many sr users. you could run a set of sr / spikes / whirlwind / roost (the only set i'd even consider running that uses both sr and spikes) but as i said, this is not only massive taunt bait, but it's got no way to damage things if you're trying to wall up.
 
If I ever ditched Roost on Skarmory, I always ran Toxic or Drill Peck over Brave Bird- Sturdy is just really useful in a pinch.
 

Jukain

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Are their any sort of guidelines defined for choosing pokes on a team? Such as balancing types, covering weakness etc.?
for an easy example, I'll use the following method of building a team:

pick a sweeper to build the team around: Say you have a Pokemon you've always wanted to throw on a team, or just something you enjoy using, or a random standard setup sweeper. You put it on the team, and decide what you need to support it with. Most sweepers will need entry hazards, as they are invaluable in helping a sweep. Pick whichever hazard user you like, and go with it. What walls your sweeper? Carry something to beat what walls it. Do you want a weather, whether it be for weather control or being beneficial to your sweeper? You might want to carry priority or a Scarfer to deal with some Scarfed checks to your chosen sweeper. Lastly, as is often the mistake with this kind of team, have a secondary method of winning. It can be another sweeper, a powerful Choice Scarf user, or even a Life Orb attacker, just have another way to win in case something happens to your chosen sweeper.

resistances you should have: Dragon, Flying, Water, Ground, Fire, and Bug, at the very least

check for weaknesses: this is a point where you can take a look over at the usage stats. look over say the top 30-40. make sure that nothing can totally tear apart your team with you unable to check it. make sure you have a method to check whatever you find.

I hope this helps!
 
Well this is true if you want a balanced team. And to be honest, you can start with anything. Fight on PokemonShowdown! or Pokemon-Online and get more experience to see things you are weak to and slowly adjust.

You can also but an all-out attacking team (Hyper Offensive) or a (semi-)stall team which is based on defensive pokemon whittling the enemy team little by little. The last type is the hardest to build and play because sometimes 1 misprediction means you lost the match.
 
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