Rating Basics - Page 11

Sciztar · Dec 6th, 2012, 8:23:35 PM

Hey guys, I would like to hear some feedback on my rate on The Book of Eruptions

Superpowerdude · Dec 7th, 2012, 12:24:40 AM

@ Neliel Tu Oderschvank

I told you i would help you more with your rates so here i go! So firstly i would like to start by saying that your rates are definatly improving :) Moving on to your first rate you did do a good job of finding threats to the team, however although its only a minor nitpick you don't have to make a new paragraph for each threat to the ops team. You made a paragraph for ninetales, for fighting-types, for Thunderous Magnezone and Rotom-W, and for Rock Polish Landorus. To make the whole thing neater you could of just mentioned all of the threats in your first paragraph. The change of Latias>Meleotta was good to help with his weakness to sun, Keldeo, Breloom and banded Terrakion so props on that. Taunt seemed like a good suggestion on Tornadus-T but i think you could of expanded on that by telling the op that he/she doesn't really need Hidden Power [Ice] on Tornadus-T anyway seeing as Keldeo already has it and the team has two Steel-types to take on Dragons plus a lot of boosted Water-type moves to handle Gliscor/Landorus. You could of also suggested Gyro Ball>Thunder Wave on Ferrothorn because the team is honestly quite fast with Latias/Meleotta, Tornadus-T and Keldeo. Ferrothorn without Gyro Ball is complete set up fodder for SubDD Dragonite and SubCM Latias who with a bit of prior damage can muscle past Jirachi as well.

As for your second rate while your Latias suggestion did help the team with sun and Rotom-W and it also did fit good in Toxicroaks place being able to check similar stuff (Fighting-types, Grass-types, Water-types) as a few people mentioned that change openend his team up to Ferrothorn which is quite problemental seeing as without a Rapid Spinner on his team, a pokemon weak to Stealth Rock and two Life Orb pokemon, giving Ferrothorn free oppurtunities to set up hazards is a big problem. His team also becomes weaker to Sub+CM Jirachi with that change seeing as he can switch into a Draco Meteor easily and can also set up on Latias after a SpA drop. However suggesting Superpower on Mamoswine and Focus Blast on Politoed does help with Ferrothorn.

in short these rates are quite good and keep sending me/rating basics rates!

Tl;dr

...

Neliel · Dec 7th, 2012, 10:05:17 AM

i tried to be more clear this time and i also looked back to his weaknesses with latios in the team, mainly ferrothorn and Tyranitar

i also rated this stall team

http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3475705

i did another rate, i have to admit that this was hard so i dont know if i did a nice work.

another rate

Yonko7 · Dec 12th, 2012, 1:38:36 AM

Sciztar:

I don't have too much experience in OU, so I can't help with the content of the rate, but I'll try to assist in everything else.

You did an excellent job in pointing out how their sweeper (Swiftry) was weak to Fighting-type priority, however, the team did have Tentacruel and Reuniclus, which could take any Fighting-type attacks, and because Swiftry isn't a Swords Dance variant, switching out isn't too big of a deal. Your suggestion of Victreebel was alright, although you briefly touched upon why the user should use Victreebel over Shiftry. To really sell the rate, you need to convince the user that your suggestion is the one to go with. For example, go into greater depth what Victreebel has over Shiftry. You did include that Victreebel outspeeds Choice Scarf Terrakion though. The addition of damage calcs really help sell your rate, but in this case, it hurts more than it helps, because you just leave it there with no interpretation. You don't tell the OP why the calculations are important, which OHKO and 2KOs are important? The user might just glance over the it, and not really understand what your saying.

So just be more clear and show the user what your thought process it. Keep up the good work!! ^.^

Mosquiton · Dec 13th, 2012, 11:55:01 AM

Any advice for this?

and this

Jimbon · Dec 14th, 2012, 6:30:49 PM

@ Mosquiton: Looking over your rate, I really liked how you justified each change within the team. It really gives the OP a reason to make that change, as often raters are found making changes to a team because they like a certain set or whatever. You initially started by identifying the weakness to hazards, namely Stealth Rock because of Choiced Victini and no spinner, but you further failed to patch up that weakness. This team would've really appreciated a spinner, or at least a way to stop hazards from getting up. Something like Deoxys-D or a fast Gliscor could've worked, or pretty much any generic hyper offense lead. The best fit would be over Landorus-T, mainly because Deoxys-D / Gliscor can do the same thing -- provide hazards and take hits from Terrakion and friends. But yeah, if you do identify a weakness or a problem, you should try to fix it, especially given how weak his team is to hazards, as any supporting sweeper pretty much steamrolls through his team otherwise.

The main change you suggested was the Specially Defensive Rotom-W over his current Choice Scarf set. I'd agree with this change 100%, as Specially Defensive Rotom-W is by far the best and most effective set in this metagame and does a whole lot more for his team, namely giving him a buffer for Tornadus-T. You did recommend a set with a Chesto Berry, but in your suggested sets tab you gave a Leftovers set. If anything it might be best to slash Chesto Berry over Leftovers and slash Rest over Pain Split, or you could just explain to him that either would suffice -- either way, it gives the OP a choice, and they can play around with it to find what works best for them and they will be more likely to accept your change. I'd also agree with your Specs Magnezone change, as Sub Magnezone is very mediocre in this metagame.

There was something that I disagreed with in your rate, the part when you chose to replace Victini. The OP stated that he wanted to make a team around Victini, and by replacing it, it's no longer the same team. You're not trying to perfect the team, but moreso make it function better. To go about this, you have got to ask yourself "what makes Victini work better?", which will be removing hazards, eliminating Victini's counters, etc. It's really important to take into account how the team works currently, as otherwise you're just building a different team that likely won't be to the satisfaction of the user.

@ Sciztar: Kinda agreeing with Yonko's comments, you made little justification as to why he should use Victreebel on his team. While Victreebel might be a better Chlorophyll abuser than Shiftry, you should try to make it obvious why Victreebel is a better choice. Does it have better coverage? Does it outspeed any notable threats that Shiftry doesn't? Does it sweep easier than Shiftry? I also didn't understand the need for the excessive amount of calcs, if anything it just over-complicates things, especially given that these calcs are always reliant on Victreebel getting a Growth up, which you can't always guarantee. Not to mention a lot of these Pokemon that Victreebel could deal with were also dealt with by Shiftry.

Your actual reasoning for using Victreebel was that it could deal with Breloom and Conkeldurr better than Shiftry, when in actual fact it also has a pretty hard time dealing with them. Victreebel cannot OHKO Conkeldurr, while Ice Punch variants will always beat Victreebel. It can't switch into Breloom after a Swords Dance either, or in general risking being Spored on the switch. Overall, it was a decent effort, but your reasoning for using Victreebel was very weak and the OP really had no reason to use it as you didn't tell them why. A simpler change would be to try to work with what you have, rather than straight up changing something. Changing Shiftry to a Naive Nature and with an EV spread of 252 Atk / 80 SAtk / 176 Spe would negate the need for Victreebel as his team already has answers to Conkeldurr / Breloom. With Naive + 176 Speed EVs he outspeeds Scarf Terrakion / Keldeo under Sun, but you could also suggest Growth somewhere on his set too, as Shiftry can quite literally do the same job as Victreebel.

If you want to get better with your rates, then try to work with what you have and don't immediately change a Pokemon without explaining why, the same goes with making any change for that matter, whether it be something as simple as a moveset or EV spread change or something that changes the team more such as changing multiple Pokemon. Also, if you want to list calcs, only list the relevant ones. The fact a +1 Victreebel can OHKO a Dugtrio or Starmie isn't a good representation of Victreebel's effectiveness, neither does it show that Victreebel has any merit over Shiftry. Don't be discouraged, this is just my two cents. If you try to take some of these changes on board you'll have an easier time rating. Good luck!

Mosquiton · Dec 15th, 2012, 5:09:38 AM

Thank you for your advices Jimbon ^^

btw i rated another teams: This and This

Sciztar · Dec 16th, 2012, 2:22:41 AM

Hey guys, I would like to hear some feedback on my rate on
RMTrickRoom

ganj4lF · Dec 16th, 2012, 8:52:46 AM

Didn't posted here for a while, I'd like to know if my rates are still good or if their quality is going down somewhat. Thanks!

Mosquiton · Dec 17th, 2012, 2:10:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fat Mosquiton

Thank you for your advices Jimbon ^^

btw i rated another teams: This and This

and This

Trinitrotoluene · Dec 17th, 2012, 2:52:33 PM

@ ganj4lF: For your first rate, I think this is what you might be concerned with in terms of quality. You agreed with ala's suggestion, which is alright, I guess, but it is never enough to be classified as a full rate all on its own. Your suggestion of ScarfChomp is cool and well-intentioned, and your placement of it over Rotom-W is good, because it shows that you're willing to factor into your rate the demands of the OP, while maintaining as much quality as possible. The quality issue of that rate (it would have been better if you had been able to suggest Chompy over Breloom, but the rater didn't want to budge on Breloom) can be attributed to the restricting demands made by the OP.

For your second rate, you properly identified the OP's team's weakness to Water- and Grass-type attacks, courtesy of a lack of resistances, and your suggestion of Latios over Alakazam, which really isn't doing anything, covers that, as well as a small Fighting weakness that you neglected to point out, courtesy of a lack of resistances on his team. Your justification for the change was convincing. However, for the Latios set you listed, I wouldn't have placed so many slashes on it. This, in my opinion, tends to leave the team poster confused and at a loss for what to do with the set. You had good intentions (displaying all the options available), but I think that could have been executed better by discussing the alternate options in a few sentences in your first paragraph. Also, I think you should emphasize which options you think would work best on his team. EDIT: One or two slashes is good, but no more than that. Regarding your Mamoswine suggestion, your idea of using LO over CB was well-founded, and something that I myself would have suggested. One thing which I would have pointed out though is that a max Attack / max Speed EV spread on Mamoswine works better than his spread of max HP / max Attack. However, that's just a small nitpick.

Your rates have quite a bit of quality in them ganj4lF (but they could be improved ever so slightly). Keep it up!

Yonko7 · Dec 18th, 2012, 12:12:44 AM

I'm wondering about this rate. Others raters gave excellent advice, but I feel like some changed the team too much, ie, changed it from Stall to offense. Should we be trying to make the current OP as best as it can with its current gameplan? Or give it a new one by changing to offense, for example?

Superpowerdude · Dec 18th, 2012, 1:24:36 AM

Hi Yonko7 i don't play RU so i can't help you with your rate, but to answer your question when you rate you are trying to improve a team and make it more efficent at what its trying to do. So i wouldnt do something like try and change stall to offense even if it does look like it would make a team better. The only time i would change the whole style of a team is if the team was really terrible and has no goal or style e.g just 6 random pokemon thrown together.

I hope i helped!

Mosquiton · Dec 18th, 2012, 12:35:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fat Mosquiton

Thank you for your advices Jimbon ^^

btw i rated another teams: This and This

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fat Mosquiton

and This

and this

Alexander. · Dec 21st, 2012, 2:42:04 PM

I rated some teams lately and I'd have some advice to improve them!

Here's the rates:

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

That's all, thanks :)

Neliel · Dec 21st, 2012, 3:13:12 PM

@ alex

Maybe im not the best person to give you suggestions but ill try anyway. from what i can see you need to expand a little the reason for your changes, because otherwhise they seem like random changes because you like a determinate move on a pokemon. what i mean is that sometimes you just suggest standard sets, and you dont give an exact reason or explanation of why that thing should be changed and how it can help against a specific threath. For example you suggested ice shard on donphan instead of knock off, which is a better move overall, but you could have spent some words saying why knock off sucks or why dragons were problematic.
An another example is your spread change on rotom-w, you suggested to use a 56 sp atk rotom-w but there are no exact reasons to do so. If you are not enough clear and specific the reader will not be convinced to do a said change. What i normally do is search evident weaknesses on the team, write them in the first paragraph explaying why those pokemon are threateing for the team, and then suggest a solution for all the problems it has, which can be a pokemon changed or something like moves/evs whatever else. If the team you are rating is already good, you can suggest something just to make it better, not to fix some problem, and these are normally small changes.

Mosquiton · Dec 21st, 2012, 6:17:56 PM

[...]

and this and this

Alexander. · Dec 22nd, 2012, 6:21:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fat Neliel Tu Oderschvank

@ alex

Maybe im not the best person to give you suggestions but ill try anyway. from what i can see you need to expand a little the reason for your changes, because otherwhise they seem like random changes because you like a determinate move on a pokemon. what i mean is that sometimes you just suggest standard sets, and you dont give an exact reason or explanation of why that thing should be changed and how it can help against a specific threath. For example you suggested ice shard on donphan instead of knock off, which is a better move overall, but you could have spent some words saying why knock off sucks or why dragons were problematic.
An another example is your spread change on rotom-w, you suggested to use a 56 sp atk rotom-w but there are no exact reasons to do so. If you are not enough clear and specific the reader will not be convinced to do a said change. What i normally do is search evident weaknesses on the team, write them in the first paragraph explaying why those pokemon are threateing for the team, and then suggest a solution for all the problems it has, which can be a pokemon changed or something like moves/evs whatever else. If the team you are rating is already good, you can suggest something just to make it better, not to fix some problem, and these are normally small changes.

Thanks for your advice, I will put on them in my future rates :)

Asek · Dec 23rd, 2012, 9:29:06 PM

@Mosquiton

Your first rate was pretty good for the most part. On the Donphan > Mamoswine part you should have mentioned that Donphan's Ice Shard is fairly weak and can't always KO the stuff mamoswine's would, to make the user aware that he will lose his abilty to always beat the Theirans and Dragons unless he can get a fair amount of prior damage on some of them . He should then toss up whether he needs rapid spin or he needs a stronger theiran / Dragon revenger. The part I didn't understand is why you didn't second bronzong > metagross instead of suggesting jirachi. Bronzong gives the team a solid switch into mamoswine while providing a way to wall and kill theirans and dragons if he did take up the donphan. Using yache berry on thundurus to compensate this weakness wouldn't be nessecary regardless, as toed and keldeo can both revenge mamoswine easily, not to mention opposing adamant mamoswine are beaten by his own one. Giving Keldeo scarf and making latios a LO variant were both pretty good suggestions, but you should expand out the explanation as to why these changes are good, otherwise the reader may not be totally convinced.

For the second rate, changing the cloyster spread wasn't nessecary imo. The abilty to outspeed postive nature Scarf Latios is much better than giving up a bit of speed for Special Attack. Standard Skarmory will fall to +2 Hydro Pump with the slightest bit of prior damage, so the EV spread change wasn't too nessecary. Hydro Pump was pretty good though. As the raters below did, you should have fixed up those EV spreads, as they weren't as efficient as they could be, and when you're a wall you need to be as efficient as possible. Jirachi being a Sub + CM variant was a good suggestion though. As I said before you should expand out a bit further on you're changes to help the reader know why that thing should be changed and how the change you are making is superior to it.

Hope this helps with your future rating

Alexander. · Dec 24th, 2012, 9:43:58 AM

I rated some teams during these days...

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Thanks in advance.

Leftiez · Dec 24th, 2012, 10:06:23 AM

...

I had thanks to all rates. rate by me in 2 days.

Yonko7 · Dec 27th, 2012, 12:31:32 AM

I'm fairly new to rating LC teams, so any advice would be cool~
Thread | Rate

Jimbon · Dec 28th, 2012, 5:03:56 PM

@ A l e x a n d e r: Looking over your rates, these are pretty good, but there are some things that I personally would change. On some of your rates, your justification for some changes is pretty weak and you're not really giving them a reason to use it. I also noticed that in some of your rates you're lacking some application, where you suggest a change but don't explain why this change is good for the OP's team in particular. This rate especially shows that you're not really applying these changes to the team you're rating.

Quote:

I'd change Tyranitar's EV spread to EVs: 252 HP / 252 SDef / 4 Atk and I'd use Sassy nature in place of Brave nature. This EV spread allows to take the latwins' attacks better and to trap kill them with Pursuit.

The same could be said for literally any team, but why is removing Latios / Latias important? For the team you rated, it's important because it gives Garchomp a much easier time sweeping, it removes some of the pressure on Rotom to continually switch into either of them to take hits, etc. This does seem to be a pattern among some of your rates, but you should always try to think why your suggested changes make the team better. If you can link your changes back to the team then the OP realizes that you know how the team works and I'm sure he/she will be more likely to accept your changes.

I'm not going to comment on all of your rates because most of them are of good quality, and you don't really need to change anything in those rates. This rate however did have some problems with it, as you really exaggerated some of the threats to this guy's team. You state that Sheer Force Landorus can cause this guy some problems when Zapdos is probably one of the best answers to Landorus right now. With his current set, Landorus can only 3HKO, while at +1 Volcarona cannot OHKO either. As a result, your changes were kind of in vein because Zapdos still beats both of these, while adding Heatran makes his slightly weaker to offensive sets with Hidden Power [Ground]. By replacing Zapdos, the OP also becomes much weaker to Tornadus-T as Specs versions can still 2HKO Hippowdon despite being Specially Defensive. If you wanted a quick fix to these threats, then all you needed to do was suggest Thunder Wave / Whirlwind on Zapdos somewhere. It deters Volcarona from setting up, while Landorus is still never breaking through Zapdos. It seems to me that sometimes in your rates you seem to jump to quick fixes to some Pokemon by removing one team mate and adding in another -- you should always think about the pros and cons of a certain change and if the benefits outweigh the losses before making a change as you may open up a completely new weakness to something else.

Looking over your rates in general, you seem to have the mentality that every team is hugely threatened by something, meaning you're going to rate a team with the mentality that you're looking for a weakness. Honestly, some teams don't have really big weaknesses and only require small changes to make them work better. When I rate a team, I try to look at what the actual function of the team is, and go about trying to make that team function more efficiently. For example, if the team is aiming to sweep with Thundurus-T, then you'll want to remove Thundurus-T's counters, making it easier for it to sweep; Rapid Spin support could also be helpful in achieving this. By following this rule you're never deterring away from the team's purpose, and if anything you're making the team work better for the OP. That's all I have right now, just a few things to consider. In general, you're doing pretty good -- I wouldn't disagree with your changes, but sometimes there are better ways to solve a weakness than you might think. Good luck and keep rating!

Mr. Green · Jan 4th, 2013, 6:02:44 AM

I commented these four teams:

http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3476967

http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3476948

http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3476955

http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3476908

Superpowerdude · Jan 4th, 2013, 7:29:38 PM

Mr. Green
your rates were ok but i think there are a few things you need to work on. In your first rate you did suggest some good changes the Expert Belt suggestion was good and so was Fire Blast on Salamence. I honestly think he should of kept Wood Hammer on Abomasnow because yeah you di get recoil damage however with Protect+Leech Seed+Leftovers Abomasnow can still gain a lot of HP. Wood Hammer is also much more threatening to Tyranitar and Politoed switch ins helping Abomasnow win the weather war much more easily. Even with Fire Blast on Salamence Steel-types did look like an issue seeing as Salamence is only really brought out late game. Perhaps fitting Hidden Power [Fire] some where on Latios would be nice. Another problem i had with this rate is you didn't look for threats to the team while your changes will help the team become more efficent. It will still have problems with Choice Scarf Terrakion, Steel-types, Sun teams, etc. On your second rate your Pursuit suggestion on Stoutland was quite good but you could of expanded more to say "with Scizor and Ferrothorn in the team Dargon-types are already handled quite nicely." I don't really get your Hippowdons ev spread. If you wanted to suggest a spread for the best mixed bulk just go 252 Hp / 4 Def / 252 Sp Def because Hippowdons defense is already high enough. You also didn't mention why the op should implement the ev spread change. You Ferrothorn and Latios suggestions were good. I am just being fussy here but you could of also mentioned how Psyshock hurts Amoongus and Tentacruel more. Now in your third rate you didn't properly explain Tyranitars ev spread. You didn't tell him why so much speed isn't needed and you also didn't tell him what 100 spe evs let you outspeed which is Jellicent iirc. Also while your Rotom-W suggestion does help with Tornadus-T and Keldeo without Heatran his team is without the move Stealth Rock. You also didn't explain why Tornadus-T and Keldeo are threats. Ok in your last rate your Tyranitar suggestion was good but again you have to explain how rain is threatening and what makes Tornadus-T and other rain sweepers such a threat to the team. I didn't really agree with your Skarmory suggestion his team needs Skarmorys physical bulk to help against fighting-type attackers like Terrakion and Breloom that the team struggles with. Between Gastrodon and Tyranitar Tornadus-T is already covered well enough. The Gastrodon and Sandslash suggestions are good moving on i would of definetly suggested Chioce Specs on Magnezone, if not i would of used a Scarf Magneton because it can outspeed Tornadus-T.

Dec 6th, 2012, 8:23:35 PM	#251
Sciztar Join Date: Mar 2012 Posts: 266	Hey guys, I would like to hear some feedback on my rate on The Book of Eruptions __________________ Need help with your Trick Room Team? PM or VM me. Join our Trick Room Expert Group

Dec 7th, 2012, 12:24:40 AM	#252
Superpowerdude #Noivern Join Date: Mar 2012 Posts: 945 Australia Mentor	@ Neliel Tu Oderschvank I told you i would help you more with your rates so here i go! So firstly i would like to start by saying that your rates are definatly improving :) Moving on to your first rate you did do a good job of finding threats to the team, however although its only a minor nitpick you don't have to make a new paragraph for each threat to the ops team. You made a paragraph for ninetales, for fighting-types, for Thunderous Magnezone and Rotom-W, and for Rock Polish Landorus. To make the whole thing neater you could of just mentioned all of the threats in your first paragraph. The change of Latias>Meleotta was good to help with his weakness to sun, Keldeo, Breloom and banded Terrakion so props on that. Taunt seemed like a good suggestion on Tornadus-T but i think you could of expanded on that by telling the op that he/she doesn't really need Hidden Power [Ice] on Tornadus-T anyway seeing as Keldeo already has it and the team has two Steel-types to take on Dragons plus a lot of boosted Water-type moves to handle Gliscor/Landorus. You could of also suggested Gyro Ball>Thunder Wave on Ferrothorn because the team is honestly quite fast with Latias/Meleotta, Tornadus-T and Keldeo. Ferrothorn without Gyro Ball is complete set up fodder for SubDD Dragonite and SubCM Latias who with a bit of prior damage can muscle past Jirachi as well. As for your second rate while your Latias suggestion did help the team with sun and Rotom-W and it also did fit good in Toxicroaks place being able to check similar stuff (Fighting-types, Grass-types, Water-types) as a few people mentioned that change openend his team up to Ferrothorn which is quite problemental seeing as without a Rapid Spinner on his team, a pokemon weak to Stealth Rock and two Life Orb pokemon, giving Ferrothorn free oppurtunities to set up hazards is a big problem. His team also becomes weaker to Sub+CM Jirachi with that change seeing as he can switch into a Draco Meteor easily and can also set up on Latias after a SpA drop. However suggesting Superpower on Mamoswine and Focus Blast on Politoed does help with Ferrothorn. in short these rates are quite good and keep sending me/rating basics rates! Tl;dr ... Your rates were quite good just be sure to work on your neatness a little bit. I suggest only having one paragraph to name the threats to a persons team. Also when you suggest changes it is a good idea to step back and take a look at the team to make sure you havnt made the team more weak to other threats you may not of thought about initially. Also once helping a person with threats to his team look out for more minor nitpicks which can be things like ev spread changes, item changes, move changes and very rarely ability changes as well. __________________ #ratemyteam \| Smog Work\| Rater Of the Week \| RMT \| Dogbirds Join #dogbirds on irc!!! Last edited by Superpowerdude; Dec 7th, 2012 at 2:03:26 AM. Reason: .

Dec 7th, 2012, 10:05:17 AM	#253
Neliel Join Date: Oct 2012 Posts: 525 Mentor	i tried to be more clear this time and i also looked back to his weaknesses with latios in the team, mainly ferrothorn and Tyranitar i also rated this stall team http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3475705 i did another rate, i have to admit that this was hard so i dont know if i did a nice work. another rate Last edited by Neliel; Dec 8th, 2012 at 2:59:14 AM.

Dec 12th, 2012, 1:38:36 AM	#254
Yonko7 Little kids think life is so easy. That's why they go on and on about their dreams. That's why they never give up. Join Date: Feb 2012 Posts: 600 Mentor	Sciztar: I don't have too much experience in OU, so I can't help with the content of the rate, but I'll try to assist in everything else. You did an excellent job in pointing out how their sweeper (Swiftry) was weak to Fighting-type priority, however, the team did have Tentacruel and Reuniclus, which could take any Fighting-type attacks, and because Swiftry isn't a Swords Dance variant, switching out isn't too big of a deal. Your suggestion of Victreebel was alright, although you briefly touched upon why the user should use Victreebel over Shiftry. To really sell the rate, you need to convince the user that your suggestion is the one to go with. For example, go into greater depth what Victreebel has over Shiftry. You did include that Victreebel outspeeds Choice Scarf Terrakion though. The addition of damage calcs really help sell your rate, but in this case, it hurts more than it helps, because you just leave it there with no interpretation. You don't tell the OP why the calculations are important, which OHKO and 2KOs are important? The user might just glance over the it, and not really understand what your saying. So just be more clear and show the user what your thought process it. Keep up the good work!! ^.^ __________________ ✓\| Back in Action \|VM for a GP Stamp \| VM for a RU rate\|

Dec 13th, 2012, 11:55:01 AM	#255
Mosquiton Tette Join Date: Sep 2010 Posts: 128 Italy	Any advice for this? and this __________________

Dec 14th, 2012, 6:30:49 PM	#256
Jimbon already over Join Date: Jan 2012 Posts: 487	@ Mosquiton: Looking over your rate, I really liked how you justified each change within the team. It really gives the OP a reason to make that change, as often raters are found making changes to a team because they like a certain set or whatever. You initially started by identifying the weakness to hazards, namely Stealth Rock because of Choiced Victini and no spinner, but you further failed to patch up that weakness. This team would've really appreciated a spinner, or at least a way to stop hazards from getting up. Something like Deoxys-D or a fast Gliscor could've worked, or pretty much any generic hyper offense lead. The best fit would be over Landorus-T, mainly because Deoxys-D / Gliscor can do the same thing -- provide hazards and take hits from Terrakion and friends. But yeah, if you do identify a weakness or a problem, you should try to fix it, especially given how weak his team is to hazards, as any supporting sweeper pretty much steamrolls through his team otherwise. The main change you suggested was the Specially Defensive Rotom-W over his current Choice Scarf set. I'd agree with this change 100%, as Specially Defensive Rotom-W is by far the best and most effective set in this metagame and does a whole lot more for his team, namely giving him a buffer for Tornadus-T. You did recommend a set with a Chesto Berry, but in your suggested sets tab you gave a Leftovers set. If anything it might be best to slash Chesto Berry over Leftovers and slash Rest over Pain Split, or you could just explain to him that either would suffice -- either way, it gives the OP a choice, and they can play around with it to find what works best for them and they will be more likely to accept your change. I'd also agree with your Specs Magnezone change, as Sub Magnezone is very mediocre in this metagame. There was something that I disagreed with in your rate, the part when you chose to replace Victini. The OP stated that he wanted to make a team around Victini, and by replacing it, it's no longer the same team. You're not trying to perfect the team, but moreso make it function better. To go about this, you have got to ask yourself "what makes Victini work better?", which will be removing hazards, eliminating Victini's counters, etc. It's really important to take into account how the team works currently, as otherwise you're just building a different team that likely won't be to the satisfaction of the user. @ Sciztar: Kinda agreeing with Yonko's comments, you made little justification as to why he should use Victreebel on his team. While Victreebel might be a better Chlorophyll abuser than Shiftry, you should try to make it obvious why Victreebel is a better choice. Does it have better coverage? Does it outspeed any notable threats that Shiftry doesn't? Does it sweep easier than Shiftry? I also didn't understand the need for the excessive amount of calcs, if anything it just over-complicates things, especially given that these calcs are always reliant on Victreebel getting a Growth up, which you can't always guarantee. Not to mention a lot of these Pokemon that Victreebel could deal with were also dealt with by Shiftry. Your actual reasoning for using Victreebel was that it could deal with Breloom and Conkeldurr better than Shiftry, when in actual fact it also has a pretty hard time dealing with them. Victreebel cannot OHKO Conkeldurr, while Ice Punch variants will always beat Victreebel. It can't switch into Breloom after a Swords Dance either, or in general risking being Spored on the switch. Overall, it was a decent effort, but your reasoning for using Victreebel was very weak and the OP really had no reason to use it as you didn't tell them why. A simpler change would be to try to work with what you have, rather than straight up changing something. Changing Shiftry to a Naive Nature and with an EV spread of 252 Atk / 80 SAtk / 176 Spe would negate the need for Victreebel as his team already has answers to Conkeldurr / Breloom. With Naive + 176 Speed EVs he outspeeds Scarf Terrakion / Keldeo under Sun, but you could also suggest Growth somewhere on his set too, as Shiftry can quite literally do the same job as Victreebel. If you want to get better with your rates, then try to work with what you have and don't immediately change a Pokemon without explaining why, the same goes with making any change for that matter, whether it be something as simple as a moveset or EV spread change or something that changes the team more such as changing multiple Pokemon. Also, if you want to list calcs, only list the relevant ones. The fact a +1 Victreebel can OHKO a Dugtrio or Starmie isn't a good representation of Victreebel's effectiveness, neither does it show that Victreebel has any merit over Shiftry. Don't be discouraged, this is just my two cents. If you try to take some of these changes on board you'll have an easier time rating. Good luck!

Dec 15th, 2012, 5:09:38 AM	#257
Mosquiton Tette Join Date: Sep 2010 Posts: 128 Italy	Thank you for your advices Jimbon ^^ btw i rated another teams: This and This __________________

Dec 16th, 2012, 2:22:41 AM	#258
Sciztar Join Date: Mar 2012 Posts: 266	Hey guys, I would like to hear some feedback on my rate on RMTrickRoom __________________ Need help with your Trick Room Team? PM or VM me. Join our Trick Room Expert Group

Dec 16th, 2012, 8:52:46 AM	#259
ganj4lF Nobody is safe from the power of science! Join Date: Jun 2011 Posts: 710 Italy	Didn't posted here for a while, I'd like to know if my rates are still good or if their quality is going down somewhat. Thanks! __________________ Counter that Pokemon project: Mk III & Warstory \| Mk IV RMTs: The HOutsiders (also the other ones if anyone likes lurking my old posts) Take a look at this before starting an argument Not accepting rating requests anymore. Sorry!

Dec 17th, 2012, 2:52:33 PM	#261
Trinitrotoluene Thousand Sunny Join Date: Jul 2010 Posts: 751 np: Daft Punk - Contact Mentor	@ ganj4lF: For your first rate, I think this is what you might be concerned with in terms of quality. You agreed with ala's suggestion, which is alright, I guess, but it is never enough to be classified as a full rate all on its own. Your suggestion of ScarfChomp is cool and well-intentioned, and your placement of it over Rotom-W is good, because it shows that you're willing to factor into your rate the demands of the OP, while maintaining as much quality as possible. The quality issue of that rate (it would have been better if you had been able to suggest Chompy over Breloom, but the rater didn't want to budge on Breloom) can be attributed to the restricting demands made by the OP. For your second rate, you properly identified the OP's team's weakness to Water- and Grass-type attacks, courtesy of a lack of resistances, and your suggestion of Latios over Alakazam, which really isn't doing anything, covers that, as well as a small Fighting weakness that you neglected to point out, courtesy of a lack of resistances on his team. Your justification for the change was convincing. However, for the Latios set you listed, I wouldn't have placed so many slashes on it. This, in my opinion, tends to leave the team poster confused and at a loss for what to do with the set. You had good intentions (displaying all the options available), but I think that could have been executed better by discussing the alternate options in a few sentences in your first paragraph. Also, I think you should emphasize which options you think would work best on his team. EDIT: One or two slashes is good, but no more than that. Regarding your Mamoswine suggestion, your idea of using LO over CB was well-founded, and something that I myself would have suggested. One thing which I would have pointed out though is that a max Attack / max Speed EV spread on Mamoswine works better than his spread of max HP / max Attack. However, that's just a small nitpick. Your rates have quite a bit of quality in them ganj4lF (but they could be improved ever so slightly). Keep it up! __________________ Last edited by Trinitrotoluene; Dec 18th, 2012 at 12:04:34 AM.

Dec 18th, 2012, 12:12:44 AM	#262
Yonko7 Little kids think life is so easy. That's why they go on and on about their dreams. That's why they never give up. Join Date: Feb 2012 Posts: 600 Mentor	I'm wondering about this rate. Others raters gave excellent advice, but I feel like some changed the team too much, ie, changed it from Stall to offense. Should we be trying to make the current OP as best as it can with its current gameplan? Or give it a new one by changing to offense, for example? __________________ ✓\| Back in Action \|VM for a GP Stamp \| VM for a RU rate\|

Dec 18th, 2012, 1:24:36 AM	#263
Superpowerdude #Noivern Join Date: Mar 2012 Posts: 945 Australia Mentor	Hi Yonko7 i don't play RU so i can't help you with your rate, but to answer your question when you rate you are trying to improve a team and make it more efficent at what its trying to do. So i wouldnt do something like try and change stall to offense even if it does look like it would make a team better. The only time i would change the whole style of a team is if the team was really terrible and has no goal or style e.g just 6 random pokemon thrown together. I hope i helped! __________________ #ratemyteam \| Smog Work\| Rater Of the Week \| RMT \| Dogbirds Join #dogbirds on irc!!! Last edited by Superpowerdude; Dec 18th, 2012 at 1:25:01 AM. Reason: .

Dec 21st, 2012, 2:42:04 PM	#265
Alexander. Join Date: Jan 2012 Posts: 1,185	I rated some teams lately and I'd have some advice to improve them! Here's the rates: One Two Three Four Five Six That's all, thanks :)

Dec 21st, 2012, 3:13:12 PM	#266
Neliel Join Date: Oct 2012 Posts: 525 Mentor	@ alex Maybe im not the best person to give you suggestions but ill try anyway. from what i can see you need to expand a little the reason for your changes, because otherwhise they seem like random changes because you like a determinate move on a pokemon. what i mean is that sometimes you just suggest standard sets, and you dont give an exact reason or explanation of why that thing should be changed and how it can help against a specific threath. For example you suggested ice shard on donphan instead of knock off, which is a better move overall, but you could have spent some words saying why knock off sucks or why dragons were problematic. An another example is your spread change on rotom-w, you suggested to use a 56 sp atk rotom-w but there are no exact reasons to do so. If you are not enough clear and specific the reader will not be convinced to do a said change. What i normally do is search evident weaknesses on the team, write them in the first paragraph explaying why those pokemon are threateing for the team, and then suggest a solution for all the problems it has, which can be a pokemon changed or something like moves/evs whatever else. If the team you are rating is already good, you can suggest something just to make it better, not to fix some problem, and these are normally small changes.

Dec 21st, 2012, 6:17:56 PM	#267
Mosquiton Tette Join Date: Sep 2010 Posts: 128 Italy	[...] and this and this __________________

Dec 23rd, 2012, 9:29:06 PM	#269
Asek Swell Join Date: Apr 2012 Posts: 418 VM for an OU rate	@Mosquiton Your first rate was pretty good for the most part. On the Donphan > Mamoswine part you should have mentioned that Donphan's Ice Shard is fairly weak and can't always KO the stuff mamoswine's would, to make the user aware that he will lose his abilty to always beat the Theirans and Dragons unless he can get a fair amount of prior damage on some of them . He should then toss up whether he needs rapid spin or he needs a stronger theiran / Dragon revenger. The part I didn't understand is why you didn't second bronzong > metagross instead of suggesting jirachi. Bronzong gives the team a solid switch into mamoswine while providing a way to wall and kill theirans and dragons if he did take up the donphan. Using yache berry on thundurus to compensate this weakness wouldn't be nessecary regardless, as toed and keldeo can both revenge mamoswine easily, not to mention opposing adamant mamoswine are beaten by his own one. Giving Keldeo scarf and making latios a LO variant were both pretty good suggestions, but you should expand out the explanation as to why these changes are good, otherwise the reader may not be totally convinced. For the second rate, changing the cloyster spread wasn't nessecary imo. The abilty to outspeed postive nature Scarf Latios is much better than giving up a bit of speed for Special Attack. Standard Skarmory will fall to +2 Hydro Pump with the slightest bit of prior damage, so the EV spread change wasn't too nessecary. Hydro Pump was pretty good though. As the raters below did, you should have fixed up those EV spreads, as they weren't as efficient as they could be, and when you're a wall you need to be as efficient as possible. Jirachi being a Sub + CM variant was a good suggestion though. As I said before you should expand out a bit further on you're changes to help the reader know why that thing should be changed and how the change you are making is superior to it. Hope this helps with your future rating __________________ Ocean

Dec 24th, 2012, 9:43:58 AM	#270
Alexander. Join Date: Jan 2012 Posts: 1,185	I rated some teams during these days... One Two Three Four Five Six Thanks in advance.

Dec 24th, 2012, 10:06:23 AM	#271
Leftiez An official Yuki-Chan fan Join Date: Jan 2012 Posts: 683 Si tu veux savoir, pourquoi viendrais-tu pas chez moi ?! Puis ce n'est pas loin.	... http://www.smogon.com/forums/showpos...8&postcount=12 ... http://www.smogon.com/forums/showpost.php?p=4513089&postcount=6 ... http://www.smogon.com/forums/showpost.php?p=4513002&postcount=8 ... http://www.smogon.com/forums/showpost.php?p=4512843&postcount=9 ... http://www.smogon.com/forums/showpost.php?p=4512145&postcount=19 ... http://www.smogon.com/forums/showpost.php?p=4512027&postcount=13 I had thanks to all rates. rate by me in 2 days. __________________ Last edited by Leftiez; Dec 25th, 2012 at 10:19:47 AM.

Dec 27th, 2012, 12:31:32 AM	#272
Yonko7 Little kids think life is so easy. That's why they go on and on about their dreams. That's why they never give up. Join Date: Feb 2012 Posts: 600 Mentor	I'm fairly new to rating LC teams, so any advice would be cool~ Thread \| Rate __________________ ✓\| Back in Action \|VM for a GP Stamp \| VM for a RU rate\|

Jan 4th, 2013, 6:02:44 AM	#274
Mr. Green Join Date: May 2011 Posts: 142 Italy	I commented these four teams: http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3476967 http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3476948 http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3476955 http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3476908

Jan 4th, 2013, 7:29:38 PM	#275
Superpowerdude #Noivern Join Date: Mar 2012 Posts: 945 Australia Mentor	Mr. Green your rates were ok but i think there are a few things you need to work on. In your first rate you did suggest some good changes the Expert Belt suggestion was good and so was Fire Blast on Salamence. I honestly think he should of kept Wood Hammer on Abomasnow because yeah you di get recoil damage however with Protect+Leech Seed+Leftovers Abomasnow can still gain a lot of HP. Wood Hammer is also much more threatening to Tyranitar and Politoed switch ins helping Abomasnow win the weather war much more easily. Even with Fire Blast on Salamence Steel-types did look like an issue seeing as Salamence is only really brought out late game. Perhaps fitting Hidden Power [Fire] some where on Latios would be nice. Another problem i had with this rate is you didn't look for threats to the team while your changes will help the team become more efficent. It will still have problems with Choice Scarf Terrakion, Steel-types, Sun teams, etc. On your second rate your Pursuit suggestion on Stoutland was quite good but you could of expanded more to say "with Scizor and Ferrothorn in the team Dargon-types are already handled quite nicely." I don't really get your Hippowdons ev spread. If you wanted to suggest a spread for the best mixed bulk just go 252 Hp / 4 Def / 252 Sp Def because Hippowdons defense is already high enough. You also didn't mention why the op should implement the ev spread change. You Ferrothorn and Latios suggestions were good. I am just being fussy here but you could of also mentioned how Psyshock hurts Amoongus and Tentacruel more. Now in your third rate you didn't properly explain Tyranitars ev spread. You didn't tell him why so much speed isn't needed and you also didn't tell him what 100 spe evs let you outspeed which is Jellicent iirc. Also while your Rotom-W suggestion does help with Tornadus-T and Keldeo without Heatran his team is without the move Stealth Rock. You also didn't explain why Tornadus-T and Keldeo are threats. Ok in your last rate your Tyranitar suggestion was good but again you have to explain how rain is threatening and what makes Tornadus-T and other rain sweepers such a threat to the team. I didn't really agree with your Skarmory suggestion his team needs Skarmorys physical bulk to help against fighting-type attackers like Terrakion and Breloom that the team struggles with. Between Gastrodon and Tyranitar Tornadus-T is already covered well enough. The Gastrodon and Sandslash suggestions are good moving on i would of definetly suggested Chioce Specs on Magnezone, if not i would of used a Scarf Magneton because it can outspeed Tornadus-T. __________________ #ratemyteam \| Smog Work\| Rater Of the Week \| RMT \| Dogbirds Join #dogbirds on irc!!!