Ask a simple question - get a simple answer: PU edition

[MZ]

Just wondering, but what differentiates Special Poliwrath, Specs Floatzel, Simipour and Golduck in choosing what specially offensive water to choose for a team?

(If this sounds too confusing, I basically want to know the differences between these mons)

Poliwrath is good for walling sneasel and has good defensive typing and bulk. Floatzel is really fast and can lure Pelipper and Poliwrath expecting physical and 2hko (although people know about specs now, mostly just for speed and power). Golduck has a rain dance set that outspeeds scarf Raichu and is stronger than Poliwrath. Simipour has pretty much no counters for a life orb four attacks set as low kick beats Lickilicky, can run taunt really well, and is a deadly sweeper with sub/nasty plot/ salac berry with the ability to fire off +2 torrent boosted hydro pumps.

Edit:sniped, but special floatzel is normally specs, not a rain sweeper

 

[Melons-N-Soda]

Can someone tell me how Flareon is worse in PU than in NU.

In NU: Flareon is B-, Rapidash is D.

In PU: Rapidash is A, Flareon is C+.

Is there any specific reason why Flareon is considered better than Rapidash in NU, when the opposite is true in this tier? (And yes I do know viability in another tier doesn't mean much, but I'm still curious)

 

[Raiza]

Flareon is way too slower to actually be relevant in a tier full of actually good Water-types, see Carracosta, Poliwrath, Simipour, Pelipper, and many others, therefore can become setup fodder fairly easily if it gets locked into a Fire-type move or even Superpower, which is v common, while the Wish set is just outclassed and underwhelming. Differently, Rapidash provides enough Speed to work as a decent revenge killer, also carrying a good recovery move in Morning Sun, which allows it to run a bigger variety of sets, and moves such as Wild Charge to effectively hit popular Water-types, not mentioning a bunch of other good moves such as Drill Run and Will-O-Wisp, which make it even more unpredictable and hard to check.

 

[tmacbalanced]

What can Flareon beat in this meta?

 

[MZ]

What can Flareon beat in this meta?

Define beat? It's a good wall breaker that can smash almost all defensive mons, but loses to the large amount of faster offensive things that can revenge kill it, like Ursaring and Simipour. It's by no means unusable, Rapidash is just much harder to rk

 

[tmacbalanced]

Define beat? It's a good wall breaker that can smash almost all defensive mons, but loses to the large amount of faster offensive things that can revenge kill it, like Ursaring and Simipour. It's by no means unusable, Rapidash is just much harder to rk

Always wanted to use it but wasn't sure what it can OHKO or 2HKO or whatever

 

[boltsandbombers]

Not sure if this is the right place to ask, but does anyone know why there are no Pokemon listed under the PU tag on the dex?
http://www.smogon.com/dex/xy/tags/pu

 

[Magnemite]

I'm assuming this is because PU is not an official metagame, and all PU Pokemon are listed under NU. The page lists all Pokemon in a given tier, not all the Pokemon that have analyses for that tier.

 

[Contraire.]

Why is Flareon C+ in PU but B- in NU? I would have thought Flareon would be more viable in PU because it's a lower tier.

 

[MZ]

Why is Flareon C+ in PU but B- in NU? I would have thought Flareon would be more viable in PU because it's a lower tier.

look up, that was already answered on the same page

 

[Froggyboy]

A thing I'd like to say, it's also because the metagames are different. A lower tier doesn't automatically mean things mediocre in the above tier are good in the lower tier. For example, Klefki is an A- Pokemon in OU, however, in Ubers, it is A+. Want to know why, because Ubers has a different metagame than OU. Klefki in Ubers checks Arceus-Normal, Xerenas, Lati@s, Salamence, Darkrai, Arceus-Dark, Mewtwo(not X), Yveltal, Rayquaza, you get the point. It can't check all of these things in OU, plus there is more Pokemon viable in OU that mess it up, like Landorus, Zard, Heatran, Talonflame, etc.

Also, funfact, Mega Lopunny was actually voted No-Ban in RU, but in UU, they banned it because it was too broken for that tier, so RU couldn't use it anymore.

galbia edit: it was broken too and was going to be banned a day or two after regardless :/

 

[Contraire.]

If a Pokemon is E-ranked in the PU viability rankings, does that mean nothing will ever move it out of E-rank? And are we allowed to talk about E-ranked Pokemon?

 

[Grim]

If the Pokemon in E gains something that makes it more effective in the tier (such as a new move or ability) then there is a good chance that it will move up. There's also the chance that the Pokemon just hasn't been explored enough and that it's actually better than E. Yes, you are allowed to talk about E-ranked Pokemon. However, you are not allowed to keep posting about the same Pokemon talking about how good it is when it is actually one of the worst Pokemon in the tier (especially not in a thread which warns you about it in the title) and you have been warned multiple times.

 

[Contraire.]

If the Pokemon in E gains something that makes it more effective in the tier (such as a new move or ability) then there is a good chance that it will move up. There's also the chance that the Pokemon just hasn't been explored enough and that it's actually better than E. Yes, you are allowed to talk about E-ranked Pokemon. However, you are not allowed to keep posting about the same Pokemon talking about how good it is when it is actually one of the worst Pokemon in the tier (especially not in a thread which warns you about it in the title) and you have been warned multiple times.

Okay, thanks. I think my new approach (which is less likely to get me banned) will be to find an E-ranked Pokemon, post an effective set of that Pokemon, and if it gets taken down I won't argue or repost and I'll just find another E-ranked Pokemon to write about.

 

[Magnemite]

If a Pokemon is E-ranked in the PU viability rankings, does that mean nothing will ever move it out of E-rank? And are we allowed to talk about E-ranked Pokemon?

Not neccesarily, but generally the things in E rank aren't going anywhere anytime soon because they're there for a good reason. There have been Pokemon that have moved out of E rank in the past (Lunatone, Regigigas, Seaking, Cherrim, Chimecho, Tentacool, etc) but it doesn't really happen too often. There's generally no point to talking about E rank Pokemon as like I said, they're there for a reason. I'd probably say to stay away from talking about them as it generally doesn't accomplish anything and just derails whatever thread it's in. I also hate to burst your bubble but in general you're really not going to get anywhere by trying to make something viable just for the sake of making it viable, as this almost always steers into gimmick territory. Testing things to see if they're viable is good and encouraged, but you have to realize that a lot of Pokemon realistically just aren't going to work and there's nothing you or anyone else can do about it.

 

[Isa Simple]

Is there a quick and easy way of quick searching whether a pokemon is PU or FU, without having to specifically ask what tier is 'pokemon x' in?

I asked on the FU page but nothing was really clarified.

 

[Magnemite]

The OP of the FU thread lists everything viable, so you really shouldn't need anything other than that.

 

[Isa Simple]

But say there is something which I believe would be viable in FU that has been overlooked by chance and isn't listed, how would I check to make sure it isn't in PU and can actually be used there in FU?
Like what is the usage cut off and where do I get the usage statistics from?

 

[Kingler]

Isa Simple
it's just hte standard 3.41% that all tiers use. u can check the PU 1760 usage statistics (idk why gary didn't post them but meh) and everything below said cutoff is fair game aside from banned stuff.

 

[Isa Simple]

Isa Simple
it's just hte standard 3.41% that all tiers use. u can check the PU 1760 usage statistics (idk why gary didn't post them but meh) and everything below said cutoff is fair game aside from banned stuff.

Thank you. Can you please link me to those usage statistics?

 

[Hack_Guy]

Thank you. Can you please link me to those usage statistics?

you can find it here: http://www.smogon.com/stats/2015-04/pu-1760.txt

 

[TheHungrySage]

This is a really bad question, but where are the rules for PU? As in, the tier description, the bans, etc.

 

[Magnemite]

This should give you everything you need to know regarding rules, and the viability rankings give a list of all viable Pokemon in the tier.

 

[INSANE CARZY GUY]

I've been looking at seadra and it has decent enough stats when You factor in evo lite and sniper

Hp:55 att:65 def:95 spA:95 spD:45 sp:85

And it looks like vesus anything not water its coverage is decent enough with surf ice beam, HP, flash cannon, signal beam or dragon pulse.

After a focus energy it has a good critical rate unless You want to risk the bulk and run razor claw.

I wish it had special bulk instead, it'd have a niche in blowing apart boosters with clear smog/critical chances


But how can I get the percent on its damage for a critical surf? I didn't see the option to look at critical damage rolls

 

[Anty]

I've been looking at seadra and it has decent enough stats when You factor in evo lite and sniper

Hp:55 att:65 def:95 spA:95 spD:45 sp:85

And it looks like vesus anything not water its coverage is decent enough with surf ice beam, HP, flash cannon, signal beam or dragon pulse.

After a focus energy it has a good critical rate unless You want to risk the bulk and run razor claw.

I wish it had special bulk instead, it'd have a niche in blowing apart boosters with clear smog/critical chances


But how can I get the percent on its damage for a critical surf? I didn't see the option to look at critical damage rolls

On the damage calc (http://gyazo.com/e055b86d997a5275c1ee0890488f2151) crits are next to the moves

However seadra is still heavily outclassed to simipour as even with crits they have a similar strength however simipour has much more speed which is important in an offensive metagame like this