~ I N T R O D U C T I O N ~
art to come
art to come
If you've been reading the forum and have been wondering where people get those fancy damage calculations from, what the heck PS! means, or where they found out their ranking for competitions etc. and want to use all these yourself? Then you've come to the right place! The following list will include resources for all your Battle Spot needs!
~ L I N K S ~
- Pokemon Global Link. This is where you'll see the rankings of everyone playing Battle Spot in the world, as well as the most popular Pokemon and what moves, items, abilities and natures are most used on them! Clicking 'ΩRαS League' will take you to the page for Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, whereas 'X/Y League' will take you to X and Y's page. Each pair of games has their own metagame, meaning that if you play on Omega Ruby, you will never play someone using X. This is due to the new Mega Evolutions that were included in ORAS not being available in XY. ORAS is also 'Pentagon Only' meaning that everything used there must have been caught or bred in any X, Y, OR or AS game, while the XY meta allows Pokemon that have been transferred from previous generations. You can use the pages to view the statistics of all the individual formats (singles, doubles, triples, rotations, special)
- In-Depth Usage Statistics (courtesy of hetoord). This is a website which retrieves the data shown on the PGL, but without the limits that the PGL imposes. This allows us to see how often Pokemon are used outside the top 12, and see what other moves / items they're using outside their top 10. An incredibly useful resource.
- Battle Spot-Specific Damage Calculator. This calculator has been custom-made to support the Battle Spot metagames. We have a bunch of relevant sets pre-loaded into it so you can calc way faster than using the official Pokemon Showdown one. It's worth noting however that the "Common Showdown" sets usually are not the best sets for Battle Spot, so be careful.
- aaaapokemon blog (aka where to find the top teams each season). This is all in Japanese so you'll want Google Translate handy if you don't speak the language. To find the entries for each season, you have to scroll to the "Oct 31" entry to find where all the seasons are kept. Or you can ctrl+f for the season you want by using "シーズン15（レート）" and changing the number accordingly.
- Finding Your Battle Box From an Online Competition. Why bother typing up what you used in your team when you can just have a really cool image representing it instead? After you've locked your battle box for an online competition you can go to your profile on the Pokemon Global Link, click 'Online Competitions' > 'Competition Entry History' > 'Battle Box', then simply get a screenshot of the page, crop it (I use the Print Screen command and Microsoft Paint) and upload the image either in your post or onto an image hosting website (I use imgur). Then you'll have a cool Battle Box image (like this) to share!
- Pokemon Showdown! (PS!). This is the official simulator of Smogon, and all the Battle Spot formats are playable there! This is a great place to try out new stuff since you don't need to spend time breeding. The biggest advantage however is that ladders for upcoming Battle Spot competitions are added upon their announcement, meaning that you can practice and learn metagame trends before the competition has even started! Now you don't have to rely on theory alone when teambuilding, you can just try it out with no drawbacks!
- Battle Spot Chat Room (PS!). Of course, we also have our own room on Pokemon Showdown! where you can come and hang out and talk with us in real time. This is where the fun is! We often play tournaments and joke around, and sometimes even talk about Battle Spot itself. We promise we're friendly and love meeting new users.
- Ditto Giveaways: here and here. Breeding perfect Pokemon is an important part of playing Battle Spot, so to make your job easier it's definitely worth checking out one of the Ditto giveaways hosted by users Buckert and mostthe3rd. Make sure you follow the rules of their giveaways carefully and you'll soon have a perfect Ditto that will minimise the amount of time you spend breeding (and maximise the time you spend battling). If you need some help with breeding, check out this guide or the Quick Start Guide for ORAS.
- How to get Legendary Pokemon with the right nature and good IVs. Ditto's may make breeding easier, but what about the Legendaries that can't breed? Just as breeding for perfect Pokemon is important for their success, having the right IVs and nature for your Legendaries is the same! The Soft Resetting guide will explain the process of getting the right Legendary for you. Please note that even if you follow the guide perfectly, you aren't guaranteed a perfect Legendary, there is still a lot of luck involved, the guide merely speeds up the process. There are many viable Legendary Pokemon like Heatran, Thundurus, Landorus, Cresselia, Zapdos, Latios and Terrakion so it is worth learning if you want to use them.
- Singles Metagame Discussion. This is where you can talk about the singles metagame as a whole. What is giving you trouble there? What has been working for you? What trends are you noticing? All these things go here.
- Singles Viability Rankings. This is where we discuss how well each and every Pokemon performs in the singles metagame, and place them in tiers for all to see. If you're wondering how good a particular Pokemon is then check out the list to see what tier it's been placed in; the higher the better! You can also post to suggest tier placements.
- Teambuilding Help and Discussion. If you're trying to make a team for Battle Spot but need a little advice, look no further than this thread. We prefer that all Rate My Team (RMT) style posts go here rather than you make a whole new thread for each one.
- Weird Stuff You've Seen While Playing Battle Spot. This thread is a a bit more relaxed, where we talk about some weird Pokemon and/or sets that you've encountered. Please note that weird doesn't necessarily mean bad, we don't want you posting stuff like 'today I saw someone using their HM slave from their in-game team' but instead stuff like 'a guy really took me by surprise using a Weakness Policy Vanillux' is preferred. If you're one of those types that likes to run sets like that yourself, then feel free to post in the Weird Sets You've Used on Battle Spot thread.
- VGC16 Forum. VGC is a big part of Battle Spot, so big in fact that it has its own forum! Go there for discussion on the Special Seasons and International Challenges.
