[AMA] Swamp-Rocket

[Swamp-Rocket]

This Ask Me Anything (AMA) thread is a resource provided to you by the Smogon Mentorship Program. In it, feel free to ask this mentor about anything you'd like. They're most prepared to answer Smogon-related questions, but don't be afraid to ask them about their personality and life outside of this site. Have some patience when you post a question in this thread; it will likely take the mentor a few days to reply. If you're looking for our up-to-date list of mentors, check out our Mentor Profiles onsite. Read through their relevant information below, and enjoy!

Username: Swamp-Rocket

Areas of Expertise: Contributions & Corrections, Rarelyused

Background: Although it says I joined in 2010, I didn't do anything until mid-2012 when I tried to make an account and forgot that I had this one already. I almost immediately began making analyses starting in Black and White 2 and posted a lot in the Small Objective Changes Thread, the latter of which is how I got my first badge. I had the first completed BW2 OU revamp and ever since then have written almost 30 analyses. It took me a while to settle into a tier, and originally I was mostly a NU player. After a successful laddering experience in RU, I have been very interested with the tier and now have it as my primary tier to play. Because of me getting better at RU I was able to help with analyses for that tier, which resulted in me becoming a QC member and moderator of the C&C forum, as well as contribute to the regular RU forums on occasion.

Hobbies: Aside from Pokemon, I really like to run and am a Varsity Cross Country and Track runner at my school. Other hobbies I have include watching TV shows like The Simpsons, playing other Video Games, soccer, and Engineering.

Favorite Pokemon: Luxray

Good Questions to Ask Me: You can ask me pretty much anything, particularly about Contributions and Corrections or Rarelyused. But really, as the title suggests, ask me anything and I can try to give you an answer. Even if its a dumb question. Just don't ask me to rate your team please.

 

[Shame That]

do you use defensive cores often in your RU teams? if so, which one is your favorite?
do you think anything in RU is broken right now?
what is it with you and the simpsons lol

 

[Swamp-Rocket]

Shame That

To be honest I usually don't run defensive cores due to me not running stall team. The way I make my teams is usually: start out with a Pokemon, address its problems with another Pokemon, fix the duo's weakness with another Pokemon, etc.. I do like pairing of Poliwrath + Steelix + Qwilfish because of the residual damage it can do. Poliwrath covers most of Steelix's weaknesses, Steelix has Stealth Rock and an Electric immunity, and Qwilfish has Intimidate, Spikes, and a Fighting resistance. As a result no physical attackers except Gallade and occasionally Medicham breaks through the duo - a Spinblocker like Spiritomb does fine against Gallade regardless. It's a really easy way to check Physical Attackers while still spreading damage and I use this pairing most of the time that I stall.

Nothing is even close to broken in RU at the moment in my opinion.

I started watching the Simpsons last year after my Teacher showed us the first episode and I found it funny. I found a lot of the older seasons hilarious yet surprisingly engaging with its excellent writing and eventually it became my favorite show. Although the newer episodes aren't as great as the old ones (they are still hilarious though), a reason I still love the show so much is that there are SO MANY GREAT CHARACTERS. I've always been a sucker for shows that have a large cast of well explored characters (which is a reason why the Total Drama series used to be my favorite TV series until the 4th one), and The Simpsons has, over time, made a very wide cast of characters, most of which are likable in their own way. The humor and plotlines, even now, still put a lot of thought into them and I still find myself enjoy them rather than thinking it is a string of random jokes put together in hopes of a laugh (like Family Guy, I hate that show)

 

[Celever]

Swamp-Rocket your thread looks lonely so I will give you some questions! :D

What first got you interested in contributions and corrections as I am pretty sure that's where you got your contributor badge from?
If it isn't where did you get your contributor badge from?
Which users on smogon do you feel you have the best relationships with and why?
Are there any users who you really miss now who were on smogon when you first joined?
I presume you moderate RU forums, if you do then what is it like moderating a pretty much dead sub-forum?
If you don't moderate the RU forums what do you moderate and how much do you like it?

Should be enough for now, go crazy ^_^

 

[Swamp-Rocket]

Yay more questions

What first got you interested in contributions and corrections as I am pretty sure that's where you got your contributor badge from?

I really enjoy writing about things I enjoy and fixing errors that I see, which is why I started writing analyses and why I posted about 100 or so changes in the SOC thread (which is how I got my badge pre contribs)

Which users on smogon do you feel you have the best relationships with and why?

A lot of people in the RU community I feel like I have a good relationship with, although its worth mentioning that DittoCrow is probably the one I've known the longest because he was dealing with a lot of my SOC changes before I got into RU and he helped me know how to do QC work successfully, both of which were very helpful to me. Everyone - I'll get back on IRC once my computer is fixed! ;_;

Are there any users who you really miss now who were on smogon when you first joined?

A lot of the users that quit I never really got to interact with before they quit. The closest I can think of is that I wish I knew Omicron cause he seemed like a really cool guy that played RU, but I never knew him. I used to miss Electrolyte but he's back now so it's OK!

I presume you moderate RU forums, if you do then what is it like moderating a pretty much dead sub-forum?

Close. I mod C&C (particularly RU C&C, but I am tech. a full C&C mod), which I guess is slightly less dead. I enjoy modding it, although due to some problems with uploading analyses at the moment there really isn't much to do except do normal QC work, which I still enjoy because I want to wrap up what we got left to do. Unfortunately since I can't still access IRC for a bit longer it is kinda hard to inform the members to get those final checks in, but I still enjoy it and when RU is a tier again thing will pick up again. The good thing about a dead forum though is that you pretty much immediatley know if anything happened at all.

 

[MondBlack]

Can you please rate my team? http://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/the-team-of-black.3496119/

 

[Swamp-Rocket]

Can you please rate my team? http://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/the-team-of-black.3496119/

Sorry man, I don't rate teams! I would recommend you look for someone that has a (colored in) fist badge in their badge set, as those people are official team raters. Those people will be a much greater help than I would be! There are also several people who say they will rate teams within their signatures.

From a quick glance Greninja could lure Ferrothorn and Forretress with Hidden Power Fire, which would allow you to place Scarf Magnezone with a proirity user for revenge killing, but again I cannot provide that in-depth of a rate compared to other members that have played XY more than I have been able to thus far.

 

[Brandon Royster]

I'm new to Online pokemon battling and I was wondering if you could help me get better maybe with my team? Right now it's off balanced and pokemon like Slowking or a bulky pokemon that use ice beam and Scald rip it up.

 

[Swamp-Rocket]

I'm new to Online pokemon battling and I was wondering if you could help me get better maybe with my team? Right now it's off balanced and pokemon like Slowking or a bulky pokemon that use ice beam and Scald rip it up.

If Slowking, Ice Beam users, and Scald are problems at the moment, Lanturn might help you out quite a bit. Other than Specs boosted Psyshocks from Slowking, Lanturn takes very little damage from Ice Beam and Scald and deals with defensive Slowking fairly well. In case it gets hit with an untimely Toxic it can use Heal Bell, or it can wear down these Pokemon with its Electric attacks or a Toxic of its own. Ironically enough another good option to take them on is Specs Slowking with Grass Knot (along with Surf, Fire Blast, and Psyshock). It has passive recovery thanks to Regenerator, takes Ice Beams and Scalds like a champion, and Grass Knot is a 2HKO against other Slowkings.

If you want to just straight up kill Bulky Waters, Sceptile, Rotom-C, or Lilligant are your best options. Even though Ice Beam hurts, Life Orb Sceptile and Choice Specs Rotom-C have Leaf Storms (Sceptile can do some damage with Giga Drain too but don't expect it to OHKO these Pokemon) that OHKO a majority of, if not all the, bulky water Pokemon in RU. Lilligant can use Sleep Powder and then begin to use Quiver Dance on bulky waters. Quiver Dance also helps it stomach an Ice Beam.

Finally, despite not resisting either, SubCM Uxie also works pretty well since Scald and Ice Beam won't even break its substitutes after a couple Calm Minds, it is very bulky, and then it can Thunderbolt the mess out of them.

I'm not sure how to deal with balancing issues without a team presented, but I hope you can find better luck against Bulky Waters with these options!

 

[Fairy Godboy]

What is your view of Curse on Trevenant?

I've been using it with relative success over my last half-term, yet I don't seem to see any Trevevant Cursers.

Admittedly I don't see many Trevenant as it is, however I think it deserves more credit than people give it.

With Harvest, Sitrus Berry, Leech Seed and Substitute, Trevenant is able to Curse with relative ease, taking a 25% chunk out of an opponent's Pokemon. In my eyes, this is great, no matter what! If you drop below the HP threshold, Sitrus Berry kicks in allowing you to Substitute or Curse, following which another Harvest may allow for extra Sitrus Berry recovery.

 

[Swamp-Rocket]

What is your view of Curse on Trevenant?

I've been using it with relative success over my last half-term, yet I don't seem to see any Trevevant Cursers.

Admittedly I don't see many Trevenant as it is, however I think it deserves more credit than people give it.

With Harvest, Sitrus Berry, Leech Seed and Substitute, Trevenant is able to Curse with relative ease, taking a 25% chunk out of an opponent's Pokemon. In my eyes, this is great, no matter what! If you drop below the HP threshold, Sitrus Berry kicks in allowing you to Substitute or Curse, following which another Harvest may allow for extra Sitrus Berry recovery.

I've never tried Curse on Trevenant before, but utilizing a Sitrus Berry and Leech Seed actually seems kind of cool considering Trevenant can heal a lot of HP back! Ultimately, however, a problem with Curse in general is that if there are this many things chipping away at the opponent, the chances of the opponent deciding to switch out is fairly high. Furthermore, the one thing I've seen use Curse with success - UU Dusclops last generation - was extremely difficult to OHKO, forcing a switch and additional residual damage to the opponent. In addition, due to Trevenant's low speed, it will be forced to take a hit before it restores health, and worst case scenario is you are left without a Trevenant.

I guess my overall thoughts on Curse Trevenant is that it is a creative way to wear down the opponent but there are probably safer options to do so. On the tree overall, I actually like Trevenant but I like using it as a long-living Will-O-Wisp spreader most of the time and I always use Natural Cure > Harvest to take advantage of Rest.

 

[Brandon Royster]

Sorry to keep botherin you lol. Who do you think is a good fire Pokemon that can take hits like EQ with no set up like my infernape if it doesn't OHKO something it normally gets knock out decently fast. Like I was considering like a typhlosion but I don't know if he takes hits as well either? Or is my question dumb? Idk lol

 

[Swamp-Rocket]

Sorry to keep botherin you lol. Who do you think is a good fire Pokemon that can take hits like EQ with no set up like my infernape if it doesn't OHKO something it normally gets knock out decently fast. Like I was considering like a typhlosion but I don't know if he takes hits as well either? Or is my question dumb? Idk lol

I'm going to be honest here, not much. You're best bet is probably something immune to Earthquake like Mega Charizard-Y, since most Fire-types are pretty frail. Also, if you are referring to an OU environment please save yourself the trouble and don't use Typhlosion - it has a lot of problems I don't feel like explaining.