OU Simple Questions, Simple Answers (Read the OP First!)

[TGMD]

Where is the faq and list of badges and trophies nowadays

From what I can tell, they've been lost in the transition to XenForo, but they should be fixed soon. Also, for future reference, this type of question isn't related to OU specifically, so it should go here instead: http://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/ask-a-simple-question-get-a-simple-answer-sqsa.3473806/.

 

[Blind5pot]

Hi!
For awhile now, I've been in love with the Pokemon, Zoroark. He's so unique, and when he catches the opponent off guard, it's just awesome!

The other day, I saw a "Kyurem-B" use flamethrower on me, and was scared to switch into my water because I was fearful of the electric attack. So it really messed me up. Then after a few turns of my Pokemon taking a beating, I found out that it was in-fact a Zoroark!

So, my question to you all is, how do I go about using Zoroark effectively? Is there certain Pokemon that work best for him to illusion into?

 

[ShootingStarmie]

Hi!
For awhile now, I've been in love with the Pokemon, Zoroark. He's so unique, and when he catches the opponent off guard, it's just awesome!

The other day, I saw a "Kyurem-B" use flamethrower on me, and was scared to switch into my water because I was fearful of the electric attack. So it really messed me up. Then after a few turns of my Pokemon taking a beating, I found out that it was in-fact a Zoroark!

So, my question to you all is, how do I go about using Zoroark effectively? Is there certain Pokemon that work best for him to illusion into?

Well, the first thing to note is look at how much the Pokemon switches in takes from SR / Spikes. With your example, with SR on the field, Kyurem-B would have only taken 12% from SR, where as it usually takes 25%. That's obviously a pretty big give-away. The second thing I suggest is remember how much HP said Pokemon was at when it switched in, this can help you later on in the match when Zoroark switches in later. Other than that, it just comes down to prediction.

Also, don't be too scared about Zoroark. It's UU afterall, and isn't used much, but yeah it's always nice to keep an eye out for it, and know how to deal with it once it's there.

Edit: Sorry, I completely read your question wrong, I thought you was asking about how you counter it. I'll just leave this here just in case anyone was wondering how you do counter it.

 

[TGMD]

Hi!
For awhile now, I've been in love with the Pokemon, Zoroark. He's so unique, and when he catches the opponent off guard, it's just awesome!

The other day, I saw a "Kyurem-B" use flamethrower on me, and was scared to switch into my water because I was fearful of the electric attack. So it really messed me up. Then after a few turns of my Pokemon taking a beating, I found out that it was in-fact a Zoroark!

So, my question to you all is, how do I go about using Zoroark effectively? Is there certain Pokemon that work best for him to illusion into?

Well, generally Zoroark is used as some sort of physical attacker, so that the opponent brings in their physical wall / main check to that Pokemon, only to be surprise killed by Zoroark. This allows said physical attacker and it's teammates to wreak havoc on the opposing team with 1 less check / physical wall. It's most useful on a team with multiple Pokemon that appreciate the same type of Pokemon gone to take the most advantage of Zoroark.

In terms of specific Pokemon, as long as the Pokemon benefits from Zoroark takes the same damage from SR, and hopefully Sandstorm, you should be ok. Here's an example of an RMT that uses Zoroark effectively: http://www.smogon.com/forums/thread...rk-strikes-back-star-wars-themed-rmt.3485548/.

 

[Subject 18]

Hi!
For awhile now, I've been in love with the Pokemon, Zoroark. He's so unique, and when he catches the opponent off guard, it's just awesome!

The other day, I saw a "Kyurem-B" use flamethrower on me, and was scared to switch into my water because I was fearful of the electric attack. So it really messed me up. Then after a few turns of my Pokemon taking a beating, I found out that it was in-fact a Zoroark!

So, my question to you all is, how do I go about using Zoroark effectively? Is there certain Pokemon that work best for him to illusion into?

Like ShootinStarmie said watch for entry hazards damage and keeping track of how much HP each pokemon has. To add to this is hitting it with status (Burn, Toxic, etc). If you can get status it's a giveaway of knowing it's either the Zoroark. Lastly, you need to be familiar with pokemon movepools and see if it uses a move that is either really uncommon for it or not it's it's movepool.

Hope this helped.

 

[Oddish is the best]

This is an older gen question (I didn't know where to ask it) But how was Roserade in gen 4 OU? I've always been wanting to know and if I ever play gen 4 OU I thought I should know if it is good or not.

 

[PDC]

Roserade rarely saw any use outside of the lead spot in the Gen 4 OU metagame. For the most part it was 2 sets, Toxic Spikes Sash lead, or Choice Scarf Sleep powder lead. They were both really good at what they did, and overall it was a solid Pokemon. It was able to support a lot of really threatening sweepers at the time such as ChestoRest Kingdra and CM Jirachi.

 

[Oddish is the best]

Roserade rarely saw any use outside of the lead spot in the Gen 4 OU metagame. For the most part it was 2 sets, Toxic Spikes Sash lead, or Choice Scarf Sleep powder lead. They were both really good at what they did, and overall it was a solid Pokemon. It was able to support a lot of really threatening sweepers at the time such as ChestoRest Kingdra and CM Jirachi.

Ok thanks for the info! I guess it doesn't work as well now because of the powercreep of gen 5?

 

[Ryanor]

Toxic Spikes Sash does not work anymore since most of the teams have no weakness to TS and Tentacruel can set up better. Anyway still great if you want to set up Spikes and a good status absorber in the same slot, I think it has a small niche. Watch out for its paper-thin physical defense.

 

[ShootingStarmie]

What are trophy points?

 

[Princess Bubblegum]

What are trophy points?

just an overall useless function on on xeneforo, they are a rarely arbitrary point system for stuff you did

I remember someone mentioning we might give them out as point from winning tournaments, I haven't heard much else about them though.

 

[Princess Bubblegum]

Where is the faq and list of badges and trophies nowadays

I just posted this in the other simple questions thread, so I might as well notify you.

Web archive has saved the smogon badges list from June 2012:

http://web.archive.org/web/20120628104940/http://www.smogon.com/forums/faq.php?faq=smogon

Hope it helps.

 

[Puma Italia]

I'm curious about people's opinions on what nature Chansey/Blissey should run. Bold or Calm? I've ran both and just can't come to terms with which is better or which is more standard. With all of the special threats out there, I think Chansey/Blissey should pack as much Special Defense as possible nowadays, but I also think it should have as much defense as possible because it barely has any.

 

[SmashBrosBrawl]

Chansey should run max hp max def bold. Blissey should run max def max sp def calm. Chansey require no investment in sp def as its sp def is so ridiculous insane already but blissey evs are more customizable.

 

[Nova]

I'm curious about people's opinions on what nature Chansey/Blissey should run. Bold or Calm? I've ran both and just can't come to terms with which is better or which is more standard. With all of the special threats out there, I think Chansey/Blissey should pack as much Special Defense as possible nowadays, but I also think it should have as much defense as possible because it barely has any.

I would go with as much Special Defense as possible. If I'm using Chansey/Blissey it would be on a dedicated stall team with physical walls such as Skarmory, Hippowdon, etc so I wouldn't want to use Chansey/Blissey as a mixed wall, but rather just focus on taking special hits since I already have something to take physical ones. The power creep in BW is just so much that even with a lot of physical investment, Chansey and Blissey just aren't going to be taking physical hits well.

 

[SmashBrosBrawl]

Thats not true, for example a phys def chansey is only 3hkoed by adamant dnite outrage. It should also be kept in mind that even with no investment in sp def chansey still boasts the equivalent of a fully invested positive natured base 120 sp def. Investing in it is just overkill, chansey ability to tank hits from both sides of the spectrum is just too valuable to put to waste.

 

[Princess Bubblegum]

Oh God the responses to this question hurt, and you call yourself a Mentor Nova.

I'm curious about people's opinions on what nature Chansey/Blissey should run. Bold or Calm? I've ran both and just can't come to terms with which is better or which is more standard. With all of the special threats out there, I think Chansey/Blissey should pack as much Special Defense as possible nowadays, but I also think it should have as much defense as possible because it barely has any.

First off, Chansey and Blissey, at the very least need 252 investment in defense, or else they are completely and utterly pursuit fodder.

Look at this for example:

252+ Atk Choice Band Scizor Pursuit vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Blissey: 593-698 (83.05 - 97.75%)
252+ Atk Choice Band Scizor Pursuit vs. 4 HP / 252 Def Blissey: 284-335 (43.55 - 51.38%)

Without defensive investment, Blissey is almost 1HKOing by Pursuit, switching 252 investment almost doubles it's defense.

As for the heart of the question, it is really up to one's personal tastes and what your team is prepared for, if you need Blissey or Chansey to combat Latios and Alakazam, consider full defensive investment, if not run the standard set of 4 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpD Calm. Personally, I feel like one should have other Pokemon to deal with those threats, and invest more in special defense to combat things like Specs-Toad and Volcarona.

Also, by the way, 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD Calm and 4 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpD Bold have nearly the same bulk.

Chansey is a bit different, as even the most lax sets still have more physical bulk that fully invested Blissey. Personally, I run a more specially defensive Chansey as it already has all the physical bulk it realistically needs. The most specially bulky I get is about 112 HP / 252 Def / 144 SpD Calm.

 

[Puma Italia]

My question was more about whether to run Bold or Calm nature on them. I should have mentioned that but I figured it was obvious that all Chanseys/Blisseys have max defense regardless.

 

[Princess Bubblegum]

My question was more about whether to run Bold or Calm nature on them. I should have mentioned that but I figured it was obvious that all Chanseys/Blisseys have max defense regardless.

First off, may I ask what evs are you using? There are a few ways you can place the evs which they are just inefficient if you switch the nature.

As I said earlier, it matters a lot of what the rest of your team needs. Does this Blissey need to combat Latios for example? What are you needing it for?

 

[Puma Italia]

First off, may I ask what evs are you using? There are a few ways you can place the evs which they are just inefficient if you switch the nature.

As I said earlier, it matters a lot of what the rest of your team needs. Does this Blissey need to combat Latios for example? What are you needing it for.

It's between 4 HP/ 252 Def/ 252 SpDef Calm and 4 HP/ 252 Def/ 252 SpDef Bold on a Rain Stall team. I have a bunch of stall teams, and each of them that use Chansey/Blissey are using one of those two spreads, but I thought about if Chansey/Blissey really needs to be able to take physical hits or should focus on taking heavier special hits because of how top heavy the metagame is. I guess we could say I need it for Latios.

 

[Princess Bubblegum]

It's between 4 HP/ 252 Def/ 252 SpDef Calm and 4 HP/ 252 Def/ 252 SpDef Bold on a Rain Stall team. I have a bunch of stall teams, and each of them that use Chansey/Blissey are using one of those two spreads, but I thought about if Chansey/Blissey really needs to be able to take physical hits or should focus on taking heavier special hits because of how top heavy the metagame is. I guess we could say I need it for Latios.

Are you running a rain stall team without Ferrothorn? Just wondering, Ferrothorn is often used on rain stall and checks Latios.

Anyway, lets break this down.

For Chansey, the Calm spread I suggest is 112 HP / 252 Def / 144 SpD, which avoids a 2HKO from Latios specs Psyshock, with no rocks on the field. If you want to run a more defensive spread to take it with rocks, keep in mind that 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD Calm in inefficient compared to 4 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpD Bold which takes less damage on both fronts. For a bit more bulk 180 HP / 252 Def / 76 Calm avoids a 2HKOed by Life Orb Alakzam Psyshock after rocks.

So pretty much your Bold spread takes everything you would ever want it to take outside of specs-Psyshock from Latios after rocks.

If you want to take Specs-Psyshock always, you need to run pretty much a fully Physically defensive spread: 244 HP / 252 Def / 12 SpD Bold. If you want to get crazy you can run 172 HP / 252 Def / 80 SpD Bold which gets 2HKOed at the same rate at which a crit happens.

OK

For Blissey, keep in mind that 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Calm has almost the same bulk as 4 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpD Bold, so the fomer is better if you are Wishing.

No Blissey can take a specs-Psyshock well, at best fully defensive Blissey can stall it out, but only if it has leftovers recovery (no sand). However it does take life orb-psyshock OK if you don't factor in stealth rocks. Anything less defensive is pretty much obliterated by boosted Latios.

For the 2 sets you have for Blissey, the only difference I can tell is that the Calm one is always 2HKOed by Life Ord-Psyshock Alakazam, while Bold has about a 50/50 chance to take it, not factoring in anything else though. The difference in bulk here is about 5%. Unless you are particularly worried about Alakazam, run Calm.

Sorry this is a bit of a mess, there really isn't a cut and dry binary answer, overall though:

-For Chansey, it is suggested you run a bit more Physical bulk than just 4 HP / 252 Def / 252 Calm. Your Bold spread does work, but it is not optimal if you want anything more defensive.
-For Blissey, you are probably better off running Calm unless you are worried about Alakazam.

I hope this helped you, sorry its a bit later here, so forgive me if this is a bit off.

 

[Jukain]

@Scarfwynaut:

112 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpD

I assume you mean 144 SpD, right?

 

[Princess Bubblegum]

@Scarfwynaut:

I assume you mean 144 SpD, right?

Haha yeah, thanks man.

I knew I probably had something wrong in there.

 

[HUARGH]

Ok, so,

Volcarona
- Fiery Dance

or

Volcarona
- Fire Blast

Why pick either one? Obviously Fire Blast is much stronger but in return it has 85% accuracy. Fiery Dance also gives you 70% chance of raising SAtk by +1, but it needs two of these boosts to surpass Fire Blast. It does make Volcarona's other attacks more damaging, however. I often find it very hard to properly pick either one and end up picking Fire Blast.

 

[Halcyon.]

I would say Fiery Dance is usually the best option for the reasons you mentioned. The only set that should ever run Fire Blast is the most offensive of sets (4 SDef / 252 SAtk / 252 Spe Timid) because they appreciate the extra fire power (pun DEFINITELY intended). Fiery Dance is more reliable, though, so the bulkier sets will almost always choose this. Offensive Modest Volcarona should use Fiery Dance as well, since they don't mind the drop in power as much.