I need some help confirming something rather unfortunate.
So I had a Wi-Fi battle that ended up pitting Jirachi against Scrafty.
Jirachi launches a Doom Desire after 1 Calm Mind.
Three turns later, Jirachi launches a second Doom Desire.
In those intervening three turns, Jirachi got off 1 additional CM, and Scrafty got up 3 Bulk Ups (which shouldn't matter).
I saved the battle, played back the game using an emulator, and managed to get a somewhat exact reading on how much each Doom Desire did.
The first did approximately 63%. The second did approximately 31%.
Using this
damage calculator, I have managed to verify three things:
- +1 DD against Max HP, Max (S)Def Scrafty does 55-65% (good)
- +2 DD against Max HP, Max (S)Def Scrafty with no defensive boosts does 74-88% (a LONG WAY off from 31%)
- +2 DD against Max HP, Max (S)Def Scrafty with the defense stat at +3 does... 29-35%
So I'm left with one of two possibilities: either Bulk Up raises SDef as well as Def, or Doom Desire hits on the physical side.
I can post an excerpt of the battle if that would help.
[Edit: Update. I just heard back from my opponent. He says he was running Careful, 252 HP, 248 SpD. If Doom Desire hits on the physical side, that means:
- +1 DD against non-boosted Scrafty does 84-99%
- +1 DD against +3 Scrafty does 34-40%
- +2 DD against +3 Scrafty does 45-53%
What this seems to indicate is that Bulk Up is raising SpD, but I find that HIGHLY unlikely, as I'm sure people would have noticed it long before now. So I'm left with... what? Glitch in the game?]
[Edit 2: I have an answer. It is EXTREMELY strange.
First off, I screwed up the calcs (mis-entered the SpA as 252 rather than 4). So here are some calcs, based on the set my opponent gave me:
- +1 DD against Scrafty does 44-52%
- +2 DD against Scrafty does 59-70%
- +0 DD against Scrafty does... 29-35%
This makes perfect sense if you realize the following: Doom Desire
not only uses the
current stats of the
current defending pokemon when it hits... it uses the current stats of the current
offensive pokemon as well. Because... here's the thing I failed to mention: Jirachi was KOed immediately before that second DD hit. So, I guess, to the game, a KOed pokemon is considered to be at +0. I've verified in some tests on my end (against a Slowking) that this theory is consistent--what matters is the stats ON BOTH SIDES at the time the attack hits, not the stats at the time the attack is launched, but I'm going to need to check whether Doom Desires can be *passed* (as in, use DD on Jirachi, switch to a poke with INSANE SpA... what will the game use to calculate the damage?).]
[Edit 3: Results of DD-passing are in, and they're rather disappointing. Doom Desire uses
Jirachi's current SpA to calculate damage. So if Jirachi is out and at +6, that's awesome. But if you called Jirachi back or if Jirachi was KOed, Jirachi is considered to be at +0. Sigh. I think it's time to replace DD with Flash Cannon...]