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

[Matthew]

If you're thinking of making a topic that can be answered with one post, please post it here instead. New threads should be for discussion!

When posting in this thread, follow the following guidelines:

1. Your answers should contain at least a brief explanation, even if it was the simplest of questions.
2. While answering Yes/No question, please quote the question you're referring to. It gets confusing otherwise.
3. At least do a simple google search before asking the question here.
4. This is already in the Smogon and Dragonspiral Tower forum rules, but I will reiterate again do not discuss ROMs or other illegal things.
5. Do not ask for Action Replay or other external device codes. Use Google for that.

Frequently Asked Questions
What does [move / item / ability] do?
Check the links in this topic before asking. http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=78983
Also read the first post here: http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=79340

How can I view an alphabetical listing of all the Pokemon threads?
Click here.

Can we breed Dream World Abilities?
From the research thread:

CONFIRMED Breeding a Dream World female parent with any male parent (but not vice versa) has a chance of giving the offspring its respective Dream World Ability. It is unknown whether Ditto counts as the female for this purpose, and we won't know until DW Ditto is released. (Maverick Hunter, 0mastar\The Shadow Knight)

Can you use Rotom's alternate forms over WiFi?
Yes.

Why can't I select a Pokémon to replace a fainted in a Pokémon in a Triple Battle?
First you have to select which Pokémon you want to have replaced. If multiple Pokémon fainted, the game doesn't know which Pokémon you want on which position. So what you have to do is first select one of your fainted pokemon, and then select which unfainted pokemon you want to replace it with. (Thanks Chieliee)

What damage calculator should I use for 5th Gen?
Many a user will rave about this one. You may need microsoft silverlight to run it though.

Gen 5 Resources
Index of Discussion Threads - always check before making a new discussion thread to prevent duplicates

Rotation Battle Discussion
1v1 Metagame Discussion

Creative Movesets Threads

Ubers
OU
UU (TBA)
RU
NU
DW
LC

5th Gen Speed Tiers

Dexes and Other Resources

Veekun - A dex including detailed info on every pokemon's learnset, abilities and stats. Has a powerfull search tool which makes it more suited for competitive purposes.

Serebii - Includes detailed in-game information for every generation, may be less suited for competitivity due to game mechanic inconsistencies

upokecenter - Contains in-depth information on the battle system and other aspects of the Pokemon games for all five generations

Excel Pokedex - An Excel spreadsheet suited for those who value the utility of an offline pokedex

Black/White Animated Pokemon Sprites - A resource created by aragonbird for easy access to all animated sprites.

Training

EV Training Hotspots
Effort Value Yield List
X-Act's Ideal Defensive EV Calculator
Gen 5 Defense Tiers
Metalkid's IV Calculator

Dream World

List of Released Dream World Abilities
How to Access the Dream World Through Global Link

Battle Mechanics

Black\White Research Thread

In-Game

Black & White Battle Subway Records
Item Locations
In-Game Discussion
In-Game Tier List
Battle Subway Pokémon Data

In-Game Challenges

Nuzlocke
Scramble


Translation Help

jumpluff's Japanese to English Pokémon Dictionary
Japanese Character Recognition site - for transferring Japanese in pictures to text so it can be translated through Google Translate\Babelfish

Damage Calculators

Slipperjeans' Damage Calculator - An Excel Calculator including all Gen 5 Pokemon, Moves, Items and Abilities
Smogon's Damage Calculator - NOTE: Has not yet been updated with 5th gen Pokémon, but you can still enter stats by hand
Note: You can use Korski's list to copy/paste stats into this calculator for easier use.
Masara's Damage calculator
Honko's damage calculator - NOTE: Needs Microsoft Silverlight to run

RNG Manipulation

4th Gen RNG Help\Information
5th Gen RNG Research

Battle simulators

Pokemon Online
Pokemon Showdown!
Forum for Smogon's Pokémon Online server

Important aesoft Links

Battle Replayer
Warstory Generator development

Previous Simple Question; Simple Answer Threads:

The first SQSA thread can be found here.
The second can be found here.
The third can be found here.
The fourth is here.
The very brief fifth one is here.
The much longer sixth is here.

Well here's the new & improved SQ;SA everyone! Sorry for dropping these on you so quick. Either way let's hope this answers a lot more questions right off the bat than the previous ones.

[alkinesthetase]

link to honko's calc needs to be changed to this one
http://honko.byethost8.com/manly_calc.html

[ThePillsburyDoughBoy]

Because the last thread got locked and it wasn't answered >.<

Originally Posted by Fat ThePillsburyDoughBoy

Anyone have any exeperience playing with Fatmence? If so, other than Forretress who are some good team mates for it?

[Arcticblast]

Bulky Waters in general make nice partners for it since they resist Ice. Donphan is nice for its Rock resist and spinning capabilities. It also pairs nicely with fast, frail sweepers that are looking for a second chance to sweep, although I suppose all Wish users do.

[dragonuser]

Its also a pretty decent check to Sun teams, so putting it on a sun weak team works well. On that note, it usually works well on Sand teams as they are typically weaker to Volcarona/Sun sweepers. In general I have found it works better on slower and bulkier teams as it can pass Wish's and has a interesting set of resistances that can be very valuable.

[Lavos Spawn]

If you want to be really sketchy, try FatMence + CB Weavile. They make a great pair.

[Matthew]

Originally Posted by Fat alkinesthetase

link to honko's calc needs to be changed to this one
http://honko.byethost8.com/manly_calc.html

fuck you~
changed.

[alkinesthetase]

actually hell ima list off a number of fixes since the OP is a tad out of date

Masara's Damage calculator
Honko's damage calculator - NOTE: Needs Microsoft Silverlight to run

it's masara's calc that requires silverlight; honko's is good old fashioned javascript

Many a user will rave about this one. You may need microsoft silverlight to run it though.

see above with regards to silverlight. also, while you corrected the above link to the byethost one, this one still points to the old freehost which is dead

How can I view an alphabetical listing of all the Pokemon threads?
Click here.

no longer relevant since the (pokemon) prefix is not in use

1v1 Metagame Discussion

i presume this link was to the old DST thread but it's dead now; the current megathread (http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3468492) is prob more appropriate (also wow the megathread is on the second page! silent as the grave)

upokecenter - Contains in-depth information on the battle system and other aspects of the Pokemon games for all five generations

the original upokecenter domain went down a while ago; the backup (also maintained by the original owner, poccil) is here http://upokecenter.dreamhosters.com

creative moveset threads are out of date since some of them have received revisions. moreover, now that we have a centralized forum for smogon metagames, i argue that we don't need to include threads outside the OU domain, in which case we can focus strictly on major OU threads, such as:
creative movesets: http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3470918 (also this http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3468690 but it's kinda drifted away from what the OP intended...)
viability ranking: http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3473637 (this should get a huge mention imo... one of the biggest goals of this project is to give newbies a snapshot of the tier so they can see that some things are not shit, and everything else is. thus it's a key resource for newer users)
discussion of cores: http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3469257

if in game stuff still belongs in our SQSA thread, a few links need to be updated to reflect the release of BW2
ingame discussion thread: http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3468375
in-game tier list: http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3473261
item locations: link is dead and appears to have no BW2 replacement

jumpluff's japanese to english dictionary is a dead link

ahh that appears to be all for now; i'm too lazy to keep checking links atm. bitching about broken links has also reminded me that the link in my sig was out of date; i should go fix that

[Dark Fallen Angel]

What threats will outspeed Rotom-W if I choose to run 252 Speed EVs and a Modest nature?

[Arcticblast]

Assuming a 31 Speed IV, Rotom-A hits 271 Speed. Some notable things in the Speed Tiers article that outspeed it are max+ base 75s (273, ex. Smeargle), max+ Heatran (278), neutral 252 base 90s (279, ex. Lucario) and max+ base 80s (280, ex. Togekiss).

[Scarfwynaut]

Originally Posted by Fat Dark Fallen Angel

What threats will outspeed Rotom-W if I choose to run 252 Speed EVs and a Modest nature?

That rotom gets 271 speed, so by the speed tiers, you miss out on this:

298 Rotom-A 86 +Spe 252 0
295 Nidoking, Suicune 85 +Spe 252 0
295 Hydreigon 98 Neutral 252 0
293 Haxorus 97 Neutral 252 0
289 Darmanitan, Electivire, Gliscor 95 Neutral 252 0
285 Haxorus 97 Neutral 220 0
284 Venusaur*, Mamoswine, Dragonite 80 +Spe 252 0
280 Kyurem, Electivire 95 Neutral 216 0
280 Togekiss 80 +Spe 236 0
280 Hydreigon 98 Neutral 192 0
279 Lucario 90 Neutral 252 0
278 Heatran 77 +Spe 252 0
273 Smeargle 75 +Spe 252 0

bolded if they are notable and really used

the speed tiers article should be in the OP if it isn't: http://www.smogon.com/bw/articles/ouspeed_tiers

[fire r a g e]

I asked this last thread, but no one answered:

Are there any competitive battling guides for Gen V?

[Arcticblast]

I'm sure there are some out there (besides this entire website!), but the best guide is experience. Throwing a team together and playing a couple matches can not only help you figure out what works but give you an idea of the metagame. Heck, you can browse through some of the better recent RMT threads and get an idea of the metagame, grab one of those teams and play a couple matches on Pokemon Showdown. There's no guide that can thoroughly teach you how to play competitively but your own experience.

[Dice]

Originally Posted by Fat fire r a g e

I asked this last thread, but no one answered:

Are there any competitive battling guides for Gen V?

Typically the Battling 101 program coupled with playing some on Pokemon Showdown! is a good way to get started. Here are some articles for some more specific team types if you want to try, although many are outdated due to the BW2 release. They're still a good start though!

Also here is a prediction guide I found helpful when first trying to help and get good. It was made by a retired Smogon moderator called Faladron.

Good luck!

[keleyeemoh]

Hypothetically, which four move types get the best super effective coverage? The best I could come up with is Ice, Fighting, Ground, and Dark/Ghost/Flying. Is there any Pokemon that can actually use this combination (or another, if it's better)?

[Arcticblast]

Electivire gets Electric/Ice/Fighting/Ground which hits 13/17 types super effectively (I think it's 13, maybe 12), but Electivire is not a very good Pokemon in competitive play.

[gengarsnemisis]

How do you add pictures to a post that are saved onto your computer and not from the internet?

[ClubbingSealCub]

www.imgur.com

Upload them there, and then link.

[StairFall]

What's the best way to spread burns on a bulky offence team? I've been looking into a sort of gimmicky cottonee set with eviolite 252def/252spdef bold nature with moves leech seed, substitute, protect and taunt and I recently found that his subs have a chance of surviving scizor's bullet punch among other things if he's burned. I need burns for the defence buff and passive damage and I need to know the most efficient way to do it.

[ClubbingSealCub]

Originally Posted by Fat StairFall

What's the best way to spread burns on a bulky offence team? I've been looking into a sort of gimmicky cottonee set with eviolite 252def/252spdef bold nature with moves leech seed, substitute, protect and taunt and I recently found that his subs have a chance of surviving scizor's bullet punch among other things if he's burned. I need burns for the defence buff and passive damage and I need to know the most efficient way to do it.

Sableye has priority will o wisp and taunt, but it is frail as hell. Gengar can use a, gimmicky sub/wow set but it's not recommended. Rotom-w works as a specially bulky min that can abuse wow+paolin split to spread burns while staying healthy

[StairFall]

That sounds great, it also takes care of fire types somewhat decently who are immune to burn and looks like it will synergize well with my own fire and dragon types whom I'm using to fry grass mons and scizor/genesect. I can take volt switch decently and sub isn't broken by 200hp/64atk/240def lando-T's u-turn. Scizor and Genesect have really been the main problems for the cottonball so far because they leave me without my sub and without leech seed.

[Masamune]

Why have people been running 0 Atk IVs on their Pokémon recently? I don't get it, especially when the ones in question are special attackers (i.e. Lati@s).

[StairFall]

It minimizes confusion and foul play damage at no cost because special attackers and walls don't need their physical offence. if you hit yourself in confusion 0 atk IVs hurts less than 31.

[Masamune]

That was quick! Thanks.

[Chimpakt]

Originally Posted by Fat StairFall

What's the best way to spread burns on a bulky offence team? I've been looking into a sort of gimmicky cottonee set with eviolite 252def/252spdef bold nature with moves leech seed, substitute, protect and taunt and I recently found that his subs have a chance of surviving scizor's bullet punch among other things if he's burned. I need burns for the defence buff and passive damage and I need to know the most efficient way to do it.

You can try using Cresselia/Sigilyph/Reuniclus with PsychoShift + Flameorb or Trick + Flameorb. If they have a heatran on their team, the strat is a lot harder to use.