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

[alkinesthetase]

most major metagame threats are not affected or absorb them (venusaur, tentacruel, every steel type ever made, any mon that floats), and the selection of pokemon that set them are extremely restricted, not to mention most of them have better things to do with that moveslot. there are some kinds of team that will, by good fortune, be weak to tspikes (certain sorts of offense) but it's vastly outweighed by the number that really don't care

there are a few places where tspikes are generally considered "viable" or even good, eg subroost kyurem + tspike cruel on hail, but they're pretty rare and generally you should not be using them.

[moonbase]

I'm just doing this, because it doesn't look like anyone's going to look back on the previous page.

What are some good partners for specially defensive gastrodon?

[LilOuOn]

Originally Posted by Fat moonbase

I'm just doing this, because it doesn't look like anyone's going to look back on the previous page.

What are some good partners for specially defensive gastrodon?

Hmm...Gastrodon doesn't like to battle against Breloom neither Celebi. He can't even touch Ferrothorn. Now that Tornadus-T is gone maybe Dragonite can make a good job checking Loom and Celebi and 2HKO'ing Ferro with Fire Punch.

Gastrodon can receive ice type moves aimed at dragonite but, sadly, he can't afford powerful physical dragon type moves such as Outrage.

[MCBarrett]

Originally Posted by Fat moonbase

I'm just doing this, because it doesn't look like anyone's going to look back on the previous page.

What are some good partners for specially defensive gastrodon?

Heatran and gastrodon cover each others weaknesses quite well but this only increases gastrodon's weakness to breloom. Celebi along with heatran makes a pretty good fwg defensive core, and celebi is probably the best breloom counter around. However since heatran and celebi usually run specially defensive sets you may want to make gastrodon physically defensive or mixed.

I'd recommend a spread of 252 hp/ 192 def/ 64 spdef for maximum bulk and to partner well with specially defensive celebi and heatran

[Subject 18]

Thanks for the help on me last question.

What are the advantages of using Psyshock over Psychic on Alakazam?

[Novaray]

Originally Posted by Fat BlackRussian

Thanks for the help on me last question.

What are the advantages of using Psyshock over Psychic on Alakazam?

Psyshock is to hit Pokemon with higher Special Defense than Physical Defense, namely Blissey as well as Calm Mind users

[tintinwong]

This may be stupid but. Does landy-t have sheer force? I saw that it had in its analysis page, but when I visited the usage statistics, it has no mention of sheer force. Help?

Edit: I don't thin it has sheer force, but then why is it in the analysis page?

[Haunter**]

Sheer force is Landorus' and Lando-T's Dream World ability.

[Onicon]

Originally Posted by Fat tintinwong

Edit: I don't thin it has sheer force, but then why is it in the analysis page?

Landorus-T is outclassed by Landorus in Sheer Force because its Speed and SAtk is lower. The defenses are the same, so outside of Intimidate there is no use for Landorus-T. Pardon, there is no use for Sheer Force Landorus-T, that's better

[Arcticblast]

Landorus-T can only have Intimidate. All Landorus, regardless of ability, will gain Intimidate (and cat powers!) when their forme changes to Therian.

[Arceus Nui]

What's a good website to post pictures to use in an RMT (or anyother post, for that matter)? Because iirc, you can't upload pictures directly from your computer to a post, right?

[Subject 18]

is adamant max attack, max hp TTar with chopple berry viable?

[blitzlefan]

@Arceus Nui, personally, I just copy paste from Smogon's analysis pages.

[MCBarrett]

Originally Posted by Fat BlackRussian

is adamant max attack, max hp TTar with chopple berry viable?

I would think so, it could get some easy surprise ko's on things such as alakazam and gengar's focus blast. Also, being able to switch moves and use stealth rocks would give it an advantage over the more common choiced sets.

[Manitary]

Originally Posted by Fat Arceus Nui

What's a good website to post pictures to use in an RMT (or anyother post, for that matter)? Because iirc, you can't upload pictures directly from your computer to a post, right?

For animated sprites I usually use http://sprites.pokecheck.org, for static pictures you can use the ones on Smogon's analysis as suggested or the Bulbapedia's ones (mainly to get front/back/shiny and/or previous generation sprites)

[Arceus Nui]

Originally Posted by Fat Arceus Nui

What's a good website to post pictures to use in an RMT (or anyother post, for that matter)? Because iirc, you can't upload pictures directly from your computer to a post, right?

Sorry for being a little bit unclear about this. I wanna use a picture that I made myself (so not a sprite, or any picture I would be able find online) , so what's a good website to upload that picture, since I can't upload things directly from my computer

[The Great Mighty Doom]

Originally Posted by Fat Arceus Nui

Sorry for being a little bit unclear about this. I wanna use a picture that I made myself (so not a sprite, or any picture I would be able find online) , so what's a good website to upload that picture, since I can't upload things directly from my computer

tinypic, imgur, photobucket, etc are all good options.

[Arcticblast]

I'm currently running Crobat on my stall team, and I've been contemplating whether or not it needs all of the Speed EVs I give it (max Speed Jolly). I pulled up the Speed Tiers article, and it showed the following entries (up to the last I-have-to-outrun-this one):

Stat  EVs base stat (boost) Pokemon
-------------------------------------------
394 - max+ base 130 (+0) - Jolteon, Aerodactyl, my current Crobat
393 - max+ base 70  (+1) - Politoed
391 - max  base 81  (+1) - Gyarados
388 - max  base 80  (+1) - Dragonite
383 - max+ base 125 (+0) - Weavile
375 - 212  base 80  (+1) - Dragonite
374 - 176+ base 130 (+0) - my intended Crobat
372 - max+ base 120 (+0) - Alakazam, Dugtrio, Sceptile (must outspeed these)

Outrunning Scarf Politoed is nice, but with the rarity of this set, is it really necessary? Crobat can't exactly hold a candle to +1 Gyarados or Dragonite (or +0 for that matter), and Weavile will probably use Ice Shard anyway. My question - is lowering Crobat's Speed EVs to invest more in bulk worth losing the ability to outspeed Scarf Politoed?

[nyttyn]

Given how minimal the bulk increase will be, you might as well run it at that speed if you need it to kill scarftoed, as while Scarf Politoed is rare, it still exists, and not losing to it is more important then having a handful of more hitpoints. Otherwise, if the rest of your team can handle scarftoed, might as well.

[Shurtugal]

Hmm,

Whenever I've battled Crobat in OU, SR damage has really dapened its ability to wall smaller hits. I'm on a proxy and currently cannot access a calculator so I cannot fully answer your question at the moment; however, with SRs running everywhere and strong water STABs, I don't think that its going to be living too many hits anyway. Your better off investing as much speed as possible.

With that said, if for some reason I'm wrong (very possible), you should at least run enough speed to outspeed 388, as not many people are running max (edit: JOLLY) Gyara anyway so I don't think that speed # is really important.

However, Scarf Politoed is not uncommon on PO. I don't know why players don't use it on PS, why these usage statistics vary upon server confuses the fuck outta me, but I think its important and used enough to outspeed Scarf Politoed in my honest opinion, since Crobat is usually a lead and all you'd want to outspeed it.

I hope this helps answer your question ^-^ (tl;tr: crobat even with some hp investment won't be that bulky anyway in OU and with SR weakness its really hard to every be able to abuse it nonetheless even if it could brag a small feat like tanking +1 Espeed from DNite).

[citro]

I obviously don't know your team but I'd assume if a stall team's only answer to Scarf Politoed is a Crobat, it has some pretty inherent flaws. If you have anything remotely decent to switch into unboosted Politoed you can probably afford to invest some bulk.

[Charro]

I'll say yes, Crobat damage output only matters if it's running Life Orb and 252 atk (where it can OHKO Latios and offensive Gyarados/Nite after SR), so you don't really lose anything by lowering its speed without much atk investment, and the extra bulk makes it easier for you to taunt and roost stall things like Ferro's Gyro ball, or just not let Gyarados set up at all (or even take a +1 waterfall from the sub bounce gyara set after SR, asumming 232 hp /0 def = 68.3% - 80.5%). Like you said, Scarf Toed is really rare, and besides I don't really think it can do much against the rest of your team since it's stall, and even then, 232 hp/ 0 spD Crobat can also take an Ice Beam/Hydro Pump under rain after SR.

So to summarize, Crobat doesn't need full speed unless you're running also full atk.

[Arcticblast]

For reference, I have a bunch of ways around Politoed in general, which is why this question is actually relevant. Since the main response has been to reduce the Speed, I'll go with that.

Shurt, why bother outspeeding +1 Dragonite when Crobat can't really do anything to it after a boost anyway? (Brave Bird 2HKOs after Stealth Rock, but Crobat gets smashed by Outrage, so...)

[fire r a g e]

How do you test a team? Whenever I play with a team, I almost never know what to change to make it better if it loses alot of matches. What is the key to doing this? I really want to atleast attempt to make changes by myself so when I post a RMT, I can tell them what problems my team has against specific Pokemon and they can help me better.
Thanks!

[MCBarrett]

Originally Posted by Fat fire r a g e

How do you test a team? Whenever I play with a team, I almost never know what to change to make it better if it loses alot of matches. What is the key to doing this? I really want to atleast attempt to make changes by myself so when I post a RMT, I can tell them what problems my team has against specific Pokemon and they can help me better.
Thanks!

The best way to do this is to identify opposing pokemon that give you major problems. Either ones that wall significant portions of your team or ones that sweep significant portions of your team. Also identify if you are weak to a certain play style such as rain or volt turn and any hazards such as stealth rock.

If this is difficult for you may want to try saving your replays which is very easy on PS! then you can go back and view them to identify threats that pop up regularly. Then once you know the problem it will be easier to fix it, or to ask for help in an RMT to fix that specific weakness.