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

[xProdigious]

What is a "metagame"?

[Kiyo]

Originally Posted by Fat Admiral Bobbery

Ok so I ran some calcs and Heat Wave coming from a Life Orb Tornadus-T can (97% chance) OHKO Scizor and always 2HKO Ferrothorn in the rain. Is Heat Wave at all viable on Tornadus-T in the rain? I ask because many of my rain teams struggle with Ferrothorn and Scizor and the damage caused by Superpower (Iron Barbs+Life Orb recoil+stat drops) make me wary to use it on Ferrothorn, and after a Def drop, Banded Bullet Punch is a OHKO. I feel like Heat Wave is such a great coverage move, but can't be used because Tornadus-T is always in the rain.

In my opinion heat wave is a great move on Tornadus-T and I personaly carry it on all my Tornadus sets even the ones in rain. The reason is this, Ferro and Scizor can be annoying and honestly rain isnt always going to be up, it can also come in handy against sun teams, and in other situations where the possibility of a hurricane miss isnt an option.

Originally Posted by Fat xProdigious

What is a "metagame"?

Well the actual definition is: Metagaming is a broad term usually used to define any strategy, action or method used in a game which transcends a prescribed ruleset, uses external factors to affect the game, or goes beyond the supposed limits or environment set by the game

In general metagame refers to a specific standard environment in which a ruleset is key, for example the UU metagame. The ruleset would be in UU play, Pokemon above the UU tier are banned, meaning NU (and RU in BW) Pokemon are still allowed to participate. So the "metagame" creates a shape where the best of the UU pokemon become the standard and are the most common. The term metagame as it refers to pokemon essentially means the most common environment for the specific tier.

[FaceFaceFace]

Is Custap Berry usable yet?

[Electrolyte]

Originally Posted by Fat Admiral Bobbery

Ok so I ran some calcs and Heat Wave coming from a Life Orb Tornadus-T can (97% chance) OHKO Scizor and always 2HKO Ferrothorn in the rain. Is Heat Wave at all viable on Tornadus-T in the rain? I ask because many of my rain teams struggle with Ferrothorn and Scizor and the damage caused by Superpower (Iron Barbs+Life Orb recoil+stat drops) make me wary to use it on Ferrothorn, and after a Def drop, Banded Bullet Punch is a OHKO. I feel like Heat Wave is such a great coverage move, but can't be used because Tornadus-T is always in the rain.

I use it more as a counter to Sun. It's still an extremely viable move, and it hits Skarmory and Bronzong, something Hurricane/Focus Blast fail to do.
testing

[BurningMan]

Originally Posted by Fat Thorhammer

Do those in charge have a plan for at what point we can consider the current metagame "stable" and proceed from there?

The metagame is stable when it is considered stable (like the DPPt/BW 1 metagame was at the end) from there on smogon usually does nothing, because there is no reason to shake up a stable meta-game with unnecessary bans or bringing something down from Ubers. However even a stable metagame will evolve as new sets and strategies are discovered and if something that hasn't been a problem before destabelizes (is that even a word?) the metagame it might get banned.

The current metagame likely won't be "stable" for quite a while, because of all the hype with all the new pokemon/DW abilities that got released and there are also a lot people that demand retests of uber pokemon like garchomp/excadrill etc. the smogons suspect testing system will also be changed to involve the community more, but hopefully there will be an offical statement soon that will answer all of our questions regarding the future of smogon.

[Thorhammer]

Originally Posted by Fat BurningMan

The metagame is stable when it is considered stable

That's not an answer.

And I'm referring to the definition of "stable" that precedes testing rather than following it.

http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3469098

See the first bullet point.

[mabinogi66]

wee

[Prankster]

ok, I know this is a really stupid question, but I am thinking about being an artist here (I even drew the avatar myself :)) but I dont know how to post an image on the forums. Like, an image without an URL, one that is created from a drawing program like photoscape. Can someone tell me the steps? Thanks!

[Zacchaeus]

Originally Posted by Fat Prankster

ok, I know this is a really stupid question, but I am thinking about being an artist here (I even drew the avatar myself :)) but I dont know how to post an image on the forums. Like, an image without an URL, one that is created from a drawing program like photoscape. Can someone tell me the steps? Thanks!

1. Save your image to your computer.
2. Upload the image to an image sharing website such as http://imgur.com/ other alternatives include Photobucket or Imageshack
3. Right click the picture, copy the URL from the properties
4. Post the URL in [IMG] [/IMG] tags

[Uvood]

I noticed that the Warstory sections of the forum has been removed. Was wondering why it was, it was a part of the forum I personally enjoyed. Was there too little contribution or something in that vein?

[Jimera0]

Originally Posted by Fat Uvood

I noticed that the Warstory sections of the forum has been removed. Was wondering why it was, it was a part of the forum I personally enjoyed. Was there too little contribution or something in that vein?

There hasn't been a forum specifically dedicated to new warstories in a while, instead they were posted in the main DST forum before and now are posted in their respective metagame forum. So new OU warstrories go on this form, UU ones on the UU sub-forum, Balanced Hackmon warstories and others like that in the Other metagame sub-sub-forum, and so on. If you mean the old warstory archive forum of old but good warstories, it's simply been moved to thread cryonics. You can find it here.

[Arceus Nui]

Speaking of warstories, what are they? Also, how often is The Smog released?

[Zacchaeus]

Originally Posted by Fat Arceus Nui

Speaking of warstories, what are they?

A warstory is a thread telling readers about a good battle you had while adding commentary and pertinent information. You can see good examples here: http://www.smogon.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=57

Also, how often is The Smog released?

Every 2-3 months

[hotcoldyay]

Im on my way making the naive meloetta set that forces your opponent in and out with relic song. Should i give it 192, 196, 200, or a different amount of speed evs?

[Jimera0]

Originally Posted by Fat hotcoldyay

Im on my way making the naive meloetta set that forces your opponent in and out with relic song. Should i give it 192, 196, 200, or a different amount of speed evs?

This is common from pure speed tier analysis (I haven't played Meloetta) but I found with 208 EVs in speed and a naive nature, it outspeeds Adamant max speed Haxorus in Aria Forme which I think is probably quite important. In Aria form you oustpeed everything slower than Haxorus with any of the spreads you put forward, so if you don't think max speed haxorus is a problem it's not worth bothering. In Pirouette form, it makes little difference since the only thing in that range is +1 Dragonite with 212 speed evs which isn't seen terribly commonly. However, with 208 EVs from before you do outspeed even versions of those that creep a little.

So make your decision based on that. having no experience with meloetta I can't really determine much more myself.

[Arceus Nui]

How do I save logs from PS! ?

[mabinogi66]

Hey, i haven't been playing too long, but in OU is Jolteon a good choice for my rain team?(thunder,signal beam for grass, shadow ball cause idk, and hidden power that idk what it is lol). Also, what can outspeed him w/o choice scarf?

[Arceus Nui]

Originally Posted by Fat mabinogi66

Hey, i haven't been playing too long, but in OU is Jolteon a good choice for my rain team?(thunder,signal beam for grass, shadow ball cause idk, and hidden power that idk what it is lol). Also, what can outspeed him w/o choice scarf?

I don't have much experience with Jolteon, and it depends on your team, but if you need a speedy revenge killer, Jolteon's a good choice. Once again, I don't know what's on your team, so I'll just link you some Jolteon sets, and you can decide what's useful on your team, though I'd recommend the first set. If you do chose to use the first set though, do either Shadow Ball/Hidden Power Ice or Signal Beam/Hidden Power Grass, because HP Ice and Signal Beam has redundant coverage. As for the second question, here's a list of all the Pokémon that outspeed Jolteon.

[Ruskittlez]

Originally Posted by Fat Arceus Nui

How do I save logs from PS! ?

After you finish your battle, but before you leave the battle room, copy the URL and when you paste it you can see a replay of the battle.

[Jimera0]

Originally Posted by Fat mabinogi66

Hey, i haven't been playing too long, but in OU is Jolteon a good choice for my rain team?(thunder,signal beam for grass, shadow ball cause idk, and hidden power that idk what it is lol). Also, what can outspeed him w/o choice scarf?

Yes Jolteon is a fine choice for a rain team, especially if you need the speed over Thundurus-T. However you should use Volt-Switch instead of either Signal Beam or Shadow Ball; those two are what are redundant alongside each other, not HP Ice and Signal beam. Your biggest decision is to figure out whether to use Life Orb, Choice Specs or Expert belt. Expert belt can land you a lot of surprise kills but Life Orb provides consistent power. Choice Specs is more powerful but being locked into an electric type attack is never desirable, so keep that in mind.

[ThePillsburyDoughBoy]

What is Gliscor's highest and 2nd highest Poison Heal number? Do you get it with 248 EV's in HP?

[GatoDelFuego]

Going off what doughboy said, what are leftovers numbers? I've heard various reports on them, and whether or not it's worth it to invest a little less HP to get them. I've also heard that the numbers need to be the ones listed +1 or -1, and nothing cohesive is on the site. What are the actual numbers needed?

[MetaSkipper]

I've been toyin with the idea of a Shell Bell on Wobbuffet. My logic is as follows: Leftovers recover 6% a turn. Upon a Counter/Magic Coat, I will recover 1/4 of the damage I took (1/8 of twice damage took). In order to be AS efficient as Leftovers, I must take 24%. I regularly take more than that. Will it work?

[SpecsX]

@gatodelfuego:
Lefties numbers are numbers that are divisible by 16 or something. This site doesn't explain it too well, so I can't be 100% sure.

@metaskipper:
Lefties is usually better so you can recover HP even if the opponent doesn't attack, but you can test out shell bell by all means.

[MetaSkipper]

Originally Posted by Fat GatoDelFuego

Going off what doughboy said, what are leftovers numbers? I've heard various reports on them, and whether or not it's worth it to invest a little less HP to get them. I've also heard that the numbers need to be the ones listed +1 or -1, and nothing cohesive is on the site. What are the actual numbers needed?

Leftovers heal 1/16 of your max health each turn, rounded down. Therefore, for maximum effectiveness, your HP should be divisible by 16. Dunno what +/-1 is about, though.