Rating Basics

Trinitrotoluene

young ☆nd foolish
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@ Mr. Green: OK. I was looking through your first rate, and I don't exactly think that changing Toxicroak's nature to Jolly would be the best idea for him, but I do agree with everything else you said about Toxicroak. His weakness to Mamoswine could have been neutered by using more speed EVs (96 speed EVs to be exact) and a Timid nature on Tentacruel. Now, regarding Tentacruel, your suggestion of a SubToxic set over the current set being used was a great idea. However, some more explanations could be handy.

For your second rate, your suggestion of using Sludge Bomb over Sleep Powder was well-founded, but I think that you could have provided a better explanation for using it over Sleep Powder. The rest of your rate is pretty good, but again, some more explanations for your choices would be handy to have. Remember, your rate is the only way the team's creator can know what you think.

Good luck with your rating endeavors!
 
@ BlackRussian: This was a pretty interesting team to rate, and apparently pretty successful judging by the OP's description, so it's interesting to see how you went about rating this. Your first point talks about the Scarf Dragonite set he's running, which I'd probably agree with. I doubt the effectiveness of Scarf Dragonite when it is still relatively slow in comparison with other scarfers, and he doesn't have a Rapid Spinner or a way to prevent his opponent getting Stealth Rock up. I'd agree with this change as he'll definitely get a lot more use out of DD Dragonite, but you could recommend running Hidden Power [Fire] on Magnezone alongside this change. The OP describes one of the merits of Scarf Dragonite is being able to break through Forretress and friends much easier, so if he loses the ability to get past them easier, Hidden Power [Fire] makes up on Magnezone makes up for this.

As for your second suggestion, you wanted the OP to try out Landorus-T over Mamoswine for a Terrakion switch-in, which does have its merits but you're not really thinking about how the team functions. Looking at his team composition, you can already see his team is incredibly offensive, so adding something like Landorus-T already makes his team a lot slower than before, while it also kills his momentum. If the OP plays well, he will be able to play around Terrakion [checking with Mamoswine / Scizor, choiced sets setup bait for Magnezone / Kingdra], so I don't think adding Landorus-T just for Terrakion really helps him out. By removing Mamoswine, it also means he will not be getting Stealth Rock up immediately, which desperately hurts an offensive team such as this as he will have troubles breaking through Dragonite and other common threats. It was a good effort, but it really does fit his team's playstyle at all, while making him weaker to Keldeo / Thundurus-T even further.

In general, it was a pretty good rate, just be sure to understand how a team functions and make relevant changes that can be integrated into the team easily. Your other changes were also good and your layout is easy to navigate, so you're definitely on the right track. Good luck rating!


@ Leftiez: You picked a very good team to rate, and I think your changes do patch up some of the problems this team has to an extent. You recommend Sableye over Jellicent to help with Calm Mind Reuniclus, but I'd argue Reuniclus isn't that much of a threat to his team. On paper it might be, but Ninetales Roars it out, Jellicent stops it from setting up, and Cresselia can sit in against it all day long if it chooses to run Focus Blast over Shadow Ball. But in terms of actually fixing the problem, I do think you overcomplicated this a little with the Sableye and Venusaur changes. The only merit it really has over Jellicent is the Dark typing to avoid Psychic, but Sableye takes similar damage from Reuniclus and deals similar damage in return. If you just wanted a quick fix for Reuniclus, the easiest suggestion would be to switch over to a Specially Defensive Jellicent who not only beats Reuniclus much easier, but handles Rain much better which is going to be the biggest problem for this team. Not to mention Specially Defensive Jellicent also helps against Air Balloon Heatran and Volcarona, who become even bigger threats with windsong's own Heatran gone.

In this scenario, your changes opened up problems after you finished fixing other problems, which essentially leads you back to square one. When trying to rate a team like this that has been proven successful, just look back at the team and see what Pokemon are particularly threatening and find ways to beat these without changing any team members. That way you still retain the team's function and the OP can still easily use the team like they did before. Just something to consider, it was a very good effort. Good luck rating!
 

Arcticblast

Trans rights are human rights
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Hey everyone, I rated EmeraldEnchanter's "Offensive Team with a bit of sun" a bit ago, and since I'm out of practice I'd like to get some feedback on my rate. A few notes on the rate:
- His biggest problem was arguably the total lack of Speed, so I tried to tweak EVs to change that.
- I really didn't touch upon hazards much. To be quite honest, I assumed that he had a decent plan for them, considering the confidence he spoke of his Ninetales with. I also couldn't really find much of a place for a spinner or Magic Bounce user, so there's that.
- I really hope the Showdown PSA wasn't a total dick move :\

Go ahead, tear my rate apart.
 

Trinitrotoluene

young ☆nd foolish
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@ Leftiez: So, I'm reading through your rate, and it looks good, especially compared to some of your earlier rates. The team you were rating was especially successful, so I held pretty high expectations of you. You quickly identified a vulnerability to Scizor and CB Terrakion (not the user, mind you), so that's good. However, I don't agree with your solution (run Landorus-T over his current Sheer Force Landorus), which, while practical, ran counter-intuitive to his team's goal, which appeared to be securing a sweep for Landorus. His team had enough offensive pressure to send Terrakion packing, so Scizor was the only problem mon left. To deal with Scizor, I would've recommended LO Latias over his Latios, a recommendation you ended up making later on. Your last suggestion (run HP Electric over HP Ice) was good, because it was a simple, yet elegant solution to his SubDD Gyarados problem.

You met my expectations, but you didn't exceed them. I also think you should work on the length of your rate. I'll be brutally honest and say that making verbose rates is probably not a good thing for you since English isn't your first language. Despite my seemingly harsh words, good job on this rate. Good luck on your future rating endeavours!

@Arcticblast: I don't hold the same expectations for you that I did for Leftiez, thanks to the team you're rating as well as the seeming lack of experience you had in comparison to Leftiez, so I'll be ever-so-slightly more lenient in my judgement of your rate. First off, a lot of your recommendations (i.e. ScarfMoxieMence over Gyarados, Heatran over Gliscor, changes to Mamoswine) are well-founded, so I won't be focusing on those. I absolutely do not agree with the suggestion you brought forth for Ninetales (4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe Timid). Instead, I would've gone with a set like the offensive Sunny Day set on-site, since it keeps up the offensive momentum his team likes, while adding to its viability. For Venusaur, I have nearly no qualms with your recommandation for it, but I would have recommended using a Life Orb over his Miracle Seed, Giga Drain over SolarBeam, and Sludge Bomb over Sleep Powder. LO should be obvious, and Giga Drain would have enabled him to set up on and kill Chansey / Blissey with ease, reducing the need for Scizor. The hazard problem could have been dealt with easily by employing a specially defensive Forretress over his Scizor, which just seems to be death fodder under the sun for any halfway decent player armed with a Volcarona. Forretress gives him hazard control, allowing him to disperse Stealth Rock on the opponent's side while keeping SR clean off his side. Just a tip.

Dn't worry about the Showdown! PSA. I think that's good for him, since it'll allow him to test his team much faster. Also, I think you accomplished your first goal with aplomb. Overall, you did a pretty good job at rating his team. Good luck in your future rating endeavours!
 

MCBarrett

i love it when you call me big hoppa
Hey everyone, I just started rating recently and would appreciate any feedback that could help me improve. Here are a few rates I've done over the past few weeks. Thank you in advance for helping me out, hopefully I'll be doing this for awhile.

http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?p=4578344#post4578344

http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3479046

http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3479173

http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3479723

http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3479886
 

Governess

A Beautiful Blossom Waiting to Bloom
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