This will probably be the single most important stage of CAP 2. I say that because stats in general make or break a Pokemon, but for a Pokemon as theoretically volatile as CAP 2, it could easily carry CAP 2 into brokendom or UU. For this reason, I am going to keep this open for a good amount of time, on the order of 2-3 days, maybe more, until every submission I'm thinking of slating has properly justified everything and convinced me that it is a good plan.
Limits:
PS: 175 (Excellent)
SS: 150 (Good)
PT: 165 (Very Good)
ST: 160 (Very Good)
BSR: 355 (Excellent)
The limits I've put in place, as seen above, are fairly high across the board. My justification for those limits can be found here. I do not expect the best submissions to ride all of the limits to the top! Take note that unlike CAP 1, I am choosing to limit the overall BSR of CAP 2. This will likely be the limiting factor in your stat spreads, as it should be. It is very easy stat-wise to make a CAP that rides all of the other limits with a BSR of 380, which is just too high. I want to force stat spread designers to make sacrifices and choose what they think are the most important parts for CAP 2. I have these limits high to encourage diversity, because I believe that CAP 2 has the potential to succeed in a number of ways. I do not believe that it should be a behemoth of OU set to unseat Dragonite, Tyranitar, or Ferrothorn. Keep that in mind.
As a stat designer myself, I have been crafting a theoretical stat spread that I am using as a comparison for the others. For comparison, my stat spread—which I will of course not be submitting—has a PT and ST on the order of 155 and not 165. It also has a PS on the order of 170 and an SS that does ride the 150 limit. I have also crafted other variants that have different derived BSR statistics that I feel would be equally as successful, so do what you need to do to get what you feel needs to be there in there. Also, don't be afraid of BSTs. I recognize better than most that a 600 BST can be misleading. There is such a thing as BST optimization, where one can achieve high BSRs with low BSTs; the opposite is also true, however, and very fair BSRs can be achieved with BSTs on the order of a pseudo-legend at 600 (Dusknoir syndrome). Keep this in mind, and expect me to provide feedback along the way to keep you on track with what is fair and what isn't.
For the record, and just to say it now: BSR ABUSE WILL NOT BE TOLERATED AND WILL NOT BE SLATED!
BSR abuse is doing things like 150 HP and 70 Def/SpD to create a theoretical optimum with the limits that you have. If you cannot justify your stats legitimately and have not proven that you aren't just making the best stats within the limits, you will not get slated. Don't forget that!
A spreadsheet for calculating the biases can be found here. The formulas themselves can be found here. Do not use the BSR calculator on-site, as it is designed for DPP BSR. You need Microsoft Excel 2007 in order to open the file itself. If you don't have Microsoft Excel, you should buy it. Just kidding! You don't actually need it (but you should really get it anyway), since you can upload the .xlsx file into Google docs and it will still allow you to do all of the calculations. You can also do the calculations manually using the formulas or ask your friends to calculate things for you if you want. Either way, you need to have the BSR values listed correctly in your submission or it will be ignored for slate.
Good luck!
CAP 2 thus far:
Typing: Grass / Ghost
tl;dr: Quack! (Stats!)
Limits:
PS: 175 (Excellent)
SS: 150 (Good)
PT: 165 (Very Good)
ST: 160 (Very Good)
BSR: 355 (Excellent)
The limits I've put in place, as seen above, are fairly high across the board. My justification for those limits can be found here. I do not expect the best submissions to ride all of the limits to the top! Take note that unlike CAP 1, I am choosing to limit the overall BSR of CAP 2. This will likely be the limiting factor in your stat spreads, as it should be. It is very easy stat-wise to make a CAP that rides all of the other limits with a BSR of 380, which is just too high. I want to force stat spread designers to make sacrifices and choose what they think are the most important parts for CAP 2. I have these limits high to encourage diversity, because I believe that CAP 2 has the potential to succeed in a number of ways. I do not believe that it should be a behemoth of OU set to unseat Dragonite, Tyranitar, or Ferrothorn. Keep that in mind.
As a stat designer myself, I have been crafting a theoretical stat spread that I am using as a comparison for the others. For comparison, my stat spread—which I will of course not be submitting—has a PT and ST on the order of 155 and not 165. It also has a PS on the order of 170 and an SS that does ride the 150 limit. I have also crafted other variants that have different derived BSR statistics that I feel would be equally as successful, so do what you need to do to get what you feel needs to be there in there. Also, don't be afraid of BSTs. I recognize better than most that a 600 BST can be misleading. There is such a thing as BST optimization, where one can achieve high BSRs with low BSTs; the opposite is also true, however, and very fair BSRs can be achieved with BSTs on the order of a pseudo-legend at 600 (Dusknoir syndrome). Keep this in mind, and expect me to provide feedback along the way to keep you on track with what is fair and what isn't.
For the record, and just to say it now: BSR ABUSE WILL NOT BE TOLERATED AND WILL NOT BE SLATED!
BSR abuse is doing things like 150 HP and 70 Def/SpD to create a theoretical optimum with the limits that you have. If you cannot justify your stats legitimately and have not proven that you aren't just making the best stats within the limits, you will not get slated. Don't forget that!
A spreadsheet for calculating the biases can be found here. The formulas themselves can be found here. Do not use the BSR calculator on-site, as it is designed for DPP BSR. You need Microsoft Excel 2007 in order to open the file itself. If you don't have Microsoft Excel, you should buy it. Just kidding! You don't actually need it (but you should really get it anyway), since you can upload the .xlsx file into Google docs and it will still allow you to do all of the calculations. You can also do the calculations manually using the formulas or ask your friends to calculate things for you if you want. Either way, you need to have the BSR values listed correctly in your submission or it will be ignored for slate.
Good luck!
CAP 2 thus far:
Focus: Bulky OffenseConcept: Sketch Artist
Description: A Pokemon that learns Sketch, once, and everything that goes along with that.
Justification:
In terms of uniqueness, I think that few existing Pokemon can match DPP Smeargle, an otherwise laughably worthless Pokemon trolling OU with access to every trick in the book (or at least 4 of them) but also affecting the metagame greatly by becoming a top threat in the lead metagame. This Pokemon will borrow some of that uniqueness by learning the move Sketch and thus having access to ONE surprise/strategic/gutshot bonus move to supplement its pre-existing movepool. Being otherwise competently built (read: usable stats), this Poke could be a top threat or specialist for reasons we can't even predict yet.
Questions To Be Answered:
Explanation: The key here is that we have a lot of freedom to construct a unique Pokemon while staying within the confines of the concept. Typing, stats, abilities, and even most of the movepool are completely fair game so long as the Poke learns Sketch only once along the way and that we keep that in mind during previous steps. Now, this doesn't mean the CAP process will be directionless; Rising Dusk is pretty well organized and good at keeping discussions focused, and the concept itself has firm grounding in Smeargle's precedent. What's really being studied with this concept is movepool diversity and effectiveness, so it should have the most effect on the movepool process, where movepool creators will have to carefully balance their Sketchmon's actual movepool with the possibility of adding any one other move to the list. In terms of the metagame, there is no doubt in my mind that throwing a wildcard like this into the mix will strongly affect the metagame.
- How will a Poke that has access to any one move out of all the moves in the game affect common battling tactics, namely prediction, scouting, and switching?
- Which Sketch moves will become most common on this Poke's best sets? Does Sketchmon's success rely on hiding that secret Sketch move until just the right moment or can it succeed with predictably powerful moves like Spore, Spikes, Hurricane, Shell Smash, etc.?
- Does this unique and powerful access to moves need to be counterbalanced elsewhere in the Pokemon's design? If so, then to what degree?
- What kind of impact can Sketchmon have on teambuilding in terms of being able to patch holes with common utility moves like Rapid Spin or Toxic Spikes?
Typing: Grass / Ghost
tl;dr: Quack! (Stats!)