Simple Questions & Simple Answers & General Resources (OU Edition) MK II

[Linneus]

Are there any practical uses for Power Split? (I'd mention Guard Split too, but... no.) Every time I've seen it in-game, it doesn't seem to change my damage output at all. I was wondering if there were any Pokémon who could use it to get an offensive boost while also crippling their opponent's offensive stats. It could also be pseudo-phasing since they'll have to switch or risk being taken advantage of in their weakened state. But, eh, it seems like I'm really reaching here.

[Cereza]

Originally Posted by Fat Linneus

Are there any practical uses for Power Split? (I'd mention Guard Split too, but... no.) Every time I've seen it in-game, it doesn't seem to change my damage output at all. I was wondering if there were any Pokémon who could use it to get an offensive boost while also crippling their opponent's offensive stats. It could also be pseudo-phasing since they'll have to switch or risk being taken advantage of in their weakened state. But, eh, it seems like I'm really reaching here.

Not really about getting an offensive boost, but Shuckle can use Power Split to cripple the opponent. And in doubles it can also use Guard Split to increase the partner's defenses.

[melvni]

Originally Posted by Fat Linneus

Are there any practical uses for Power Split? (I'd mention Guard Split too, but... no.) Every time I've seen it in-game, it doesn't seem to change my damage output at all. I was wondering if there were any Pokémon who could use it to get an offensive boost while also crippling their opponent's offensive stats. It could also be pseudo-phasing since they'll have to switch or risk being taken advantage of in their weakened state. But, eh, it seems like I'm really reaching here.

Not really. The thing about a move that averages your attack stats with your opponents is that, unless your attack stats are really, really bad or your opponent's are really, really good, the difference isn't going to be that much. For instance, even if you only have half the attacking stat of your opponent, Power Split will leave the two of you with 3/4 the opponent's initial stat, the equivalent of less than a -1 debuff.

The only thing close to a practical use it has is on Shuckle, and if your doing that, you're already using Shuckle, so (despite how cool it is) you're probably not going very far.

[NoUserName]

Originally Posted by Fat MeteorMiss

Regarding Keldeo and Keldeo-R,

I have seen some sources conflicting, so I am going to ask here. Most say that Keldeo must be in Resolute Forme if it knows Secret Sword, and in Ordinary Forme if it doesn't know the move.

However, would the following be possible?

1. Obtain a Keldeo (Ordinary Forme) by event in B2W2
2. Trade the Keldeo to BW
3. With Virizion, Terrakion, and Cobalion, teach the Keldeo Secret Sword at the Moor of Irricus. (Since the Resolute Forme did not exist in BW, it will remain in the Ordinary Forme.)
4. Trade the Keldeo back to B2W2

As far as I know, Keldeo only changes forme if taught Secret Sword at Pledge Grove, a BW2 Area. If taught the move at the Moor of Irricus in BW, it will not change forme.

Notably, if it is possible to teach Keldeo Secret Sword without changing it to Resolute Forme, then this will remove all competitive use of the Resolute forme, since the Ordinary Forme will be identical, but will not reveal its moveset.

A guy in another forum tried it in DS and both games BW1 and BW2 and concluded that it is possible. So Keldeo-I(Ordinary Form) is compatible con Secret Sword too.

Anyways 99% of Keldeo carry Secret Sword so being in Resolution Form isn't a huge disadvantage.

[Turtle Soup]

Looking at the usage statistics I see more Gengars are using Leftovers than Black Sludge. Is their any advantage to this or are people just going "whatever I'll put leftovers on it"?

[Onicon]

The only "advantage" is that if the opponent trick something to Gengar, they won't trick Black Sludge to another Pokemon of yours at the next opportunity.

Really, have we ever seen anyone tricking to Gengar?

[PDC]

Gengar isn't the offensive juggernaut it used to be, and it's newly introduced sets like Disable Gar and WoW Gengar like Leftovers recovery more that Life Orb recoil. It gives Gengar the ability to abuse Substitute without Pain Split.

[Arcticblast]

People have the idea in their head that Black Sludge will be Tricked away and given to a defensive Pokemon on your team that isn't Poison type. In reality it doesn't quite work out this way, so feel free to use Black Sludge on your Gengar. It should be running Substitute anyway, which blocks Trick.

PDC, I think you misread the question...

[Turtle Soup]

Thanks for the answer. That's pretty much what I thought also. Yeah Gengar really isn't that crippled by a choice item.

[Shiny Mew]

Don't know if it's been asked before but.. why is it when someone quote's someone's post they have "Fat" before their name?? First time I saw it I thought they were making fun of that person.

[ThePillsburyDoughBoy]

Originally Posted by Fat Shiny Mew

Don't know if it's been asked before but.. why is it when someone quote's someone's post they have "Fat" before their name?? First time I saw it I thought they were making fun of that person.

IIRC, it was a joke implemented by the smogon site staff. It has just stuck around since tradition.

[Je-Muzu]

What would be a good set for Flareon using Guts, If only it had Flare Blitz, it just to use for fun, Game Freak really Screwed Him! =(

[Onicon]

"Good" is probably an overstatement. Superpower is mandatory and its strongest move (besides Double Edge, but it kills you too fast). Well, since you are forced to Toxic yourself anyway you may want to use a Hit-'n-Run set because the residual damage taken can be kept low that way; that makes Retribution an alternate option to Return.
As for Fire moves, Fire Fang (sadly) is your best move available. On the other side there are Flame Charge and Overheat - a neutral 4 EVs Overheat is stronger than positive 252 EVs +1 Flame Charge and complement its hit-'n-run role. Yes, your second choice for your Guts-STAB is outperformed by a special move.
For the last slot you shoul pick a support move just because Flareon's movepool is that bad.

Flareon @ Toxic Orb
Trait: Guts
EVs: 200 HP / 252 Atk / 56 Spe
Adamant / Lonely nature
- Superpower
- Facade / Quick Attack
- Fire Fang / Overheat
- Will-O-Wisp / Wish / Roar / whatever

I am assuming you want to use it in OU. This speed allows you to take on Skarmory at least. Should it be for NU you may want to alter the spread. That's the best Guts spread I can come off with. When you are confident that it is not going to be hit, a cooky cutter spread (252/252) can be used. It's on the same speed tier as Scizor, by the way.

Edit: Changed Retribution to Facade; its is always as strong as maximum power Retribution and has more PP. Thanks for Arcticblast for pointing this mistake out.

[Arcticblast]

Actually, Flame Charge hits pretty damn hard on Flareon despite its low BP, and raises its Speed to boot. Unfortunately, there's nothing it can do against bulky Water-types.

Also, USE FACADE

[Count Serperior]

I've got a question regarding hacked pokemon and breeding hidden abilities:


I've finally managed to find a really nice hacker who is not a selfish prick (why do hackers ask for impossible to get pokemon when they can just hack one for themselves and pretend it's legit -.-').
This guy traded me a Modest flawless female Chlorophyll Venusaur so I can breed HP Fire on it and share it with my younger brother. The Venusaur came at lvl.100, in a premier ball, it's ID was a bunch of zeros, and it's location were just a series of dashes.

I left this Venusaur (@Everstone) at the breeding center along with my male HP Fire Serperior (@Power Anklet).


Here is the problem: All 10 eggs that hatched had Overgrow instead of Chlorophyll.

Does anyone know where the process went wrong?


[also if you're someone who's sweet enough to selflessly trade me some DW Pokemon...let me know, you'll do me a great favor! :) ]

EDIT:
@nyttyn
I really hope it was just bad luck. I know that the number I hatched wasn't large enough but the chances ARE 60%, that's slightly more than half so I should've at least seen one. I am going to try breeding some more after work (and some Paper Mario XP), but if anyone notices anything wrong please let me know

[nyttyn]

I'm guessing that, more then likely, you just had a run of bad luck, since it isn't 100% garunteed every time (according to bublpedia, it's a 60% chance that a offspring will inherit a hidden ability).

[EdgeHead]

What's the best Set-Up Sweeper to take advantage of Memento? Looking for something with a bit of unpredictability to it (not Cloyster, Volcarona, etc.) that can't be easily forced out.

[Remedy]

Originally Posted by Fat EdgeHead

What's the best Set-Up Sweeper to take advantage of Memento? Looking for something with a bit of unpredictability to it (not Cloyster, Volcarona, etc.) that can't be easily forced out.

I'd say get RP Genesect and Sub Salac Terrak.
If you think you get the +SpA boost go Genesect, nobody will be able to revenge you once you set-up RP. Plus his typing allows his to take easily hits from a Memento'd pokemon.
And if you can't get the SpA, go throw your Terrakion, substitute and either SD or keep using substitute until you get the +Spe.

This way you basically always set-up, thinking about only one sweeper is not the best idea in my opinion.


EDIT : I'm not sure I should post here, but what the fuck is that ? :< http://www.hostingpics.net/viewer.ph...262THEFUCK.png

[dragonuser]

Its usually based on what your opponents team is, and what they are weaker too. RP Landorus and RP Genesect are good Pokemon that can really wreck havoc with only one turn of setup. If you plan on setting up on a Memento'd Pokemon, your sweeper should be fairly stand alone and should be able to work off of one boost usually. RP Lando and Gene does that pretty well. Like Remedy said, sweepers like SubSalac Terrakion can work, but its really dependent on the opponents team.

[Age of Kings]

I don't play OU but for general purposes why do Technician Breloom sets run so much speed? Its main move is a priority attack and its general "power" moves are either Low Sweep, which reduces speed, or Force Palm which has a good chance to paralyze. Is it for Spore? Is 248 HP/252 Atk/4 Speed viable or "only for Poison Heal"?

[alkinesthetase]

the most compelling reason imo is to not die to jollyadamant mamo ice shards since i usually run sd+2. however the more speed you run, the more stuff you outspeed after a low sweep, which is quite important for 3 attacks sets since the whole point of low sweep is to outrun things after hitting them on the switch. an uninvested breloom is VERY slow compared to stuff like timid latios and a -1 won't be enough to catch up unless you're packing serious speed investment. let's also not forget that bullet seed lacks priority

and one more thing - loom is very unbulky.... no matter how much you invest. you're still pretty damn squishy. it's nice sometimes to invest to take certain hits, but you're not gonna do so very many times. take a look at the pokemon of the week thread in there somewhere, there are some interesting slow brelooms from when breloom was the mon of the week.

[Gimmick]

Originally Posted by Fat EdgeHead

What's the best Set-Up Sweeper to take advantage of Memento? Looking for something with a bit of unpredictability to it (not Cloyster, Volcarona, etc.) that can't be easily forced out.

If the goal of your team is to abuse Memento, then you certainly need more than 1 sweeper. The opposing Pokemon that gets the stat drops could very well threaten your "designated" sweeper anyway, so it's always good to have nice offensive/defensive type coverage. For example, if you end up Memento-ing a Breloom and your set-up sweeper is a Terrakion, that's bad news. If it's a, let's say, Tyranitar, you probably won't have as much of a problem as setting up. However, if your sweeper is Volcarona, then Tyranitar threatens it while Breloom doesn't. Hopefully I'm making sense here p.p It's good to have choices to be able to set up on different Pokemon. And I highly doubt you'd be able to get unpredictability with a sweeper, sadly... Once you use Memento, it's pretty clear you're going to try to set up a sweep. For this reason alone, unpredictability is removed as a factor. Hopefully this opens up your spectrum of sweepers, because Volcarona is definitely a dangerous one. Actually, now that I think about it, Volcarona/Terrakion make a pretty nice pair lol.

Originally Posted by Fat Age of Kings

I don't play OU but for general purposes why do Technician Breloom sets run so much speed? Its main move is a priority attack and its general "power" moves are either Low Sweep, which reduces speed, or Force Palm which has a good chance to paralyze. Is it for Spore? Is 248 HP/252 Atk/4 Speed viable or "only for Poison Heal"?

Actually, Lavos Spawn posted a pretty unique Technician Breloom set awhile back and it was on the bulky side. I'm not sure how much Speed it had, but I'm thinking it was enough to outspeed Skarmory. The rest went into Atk and SDef (I believe--correct me if I'm wrong) to maximize power and retain the ability to survive Keldeo's Life Orb Icy Wind. Low Sweep variants must run Jolly to have the ability to outspeed Tornadus-T after a Speed drop. Otherwise, it'll still be outsped and OHKOd. Adamant Low Sweep Technilooms have to run near 252 Spe EVs to outspeed the Lati twins after a drop as well. And like the above user said, Breloom is still pretty frail, even with max HP. It's nice to guarantee that you outspeed stuff like Scizor, Magnezone, Politoed, etc even if you become even MORE paper thin.

[Derpinator]

I want to post a sort of guide/core database type thing on this site that I started and worked on on another site and I was wondering where to post it. Can anybody point me in the right direction?

[alkinesthetase]

http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3469257 this thread should be a good start

edit: shit i'm always confused, thanks dragonuser, adamant mamo indeed

[dragonuser]

Originally Posted by Fat Age of Kings

I don't play OU but for general purposes why do Technician Breloom sets run so much speed? Its main move is a priority attack and its general "power" moves are either Low Sweep, which reduces speed, or Force Palm which has a good chance to paralyze. Is it for Spore? Is 248 HP/252 Atk/4 Speed viable or "only for Poison Heal"?

Originally Posted by Fat alkinesthetase

the most compelling reason imo is to not die to jolly mamo ice shards since i usually run sd+2.

Just want to point out that Jolly Breloom hits 262 speed, while Jolly Mamoswine hits 284 speed. Think you meant Adamant Mamoswine, as no matter what loom does Jolly Mamoswine can always Ice Shard it. Also, I have only found Jolly on loom to be beneficial if you run Low Sweep on the same set. Otherwise the power granted by an Adamant spread with slight investments in bulk is usually the best. A bulky Technician Breloom set can work, but this makes Breloom more susceptible to variants of Scizor and makes it much more reliant on its Priority (which doesn't have the best coverage). Also like alk said, loom doesn't have the best bulk and its often better to just invest in its speed/attack to help it sweep.