Ask a Simple Question; Get a Simple Answer & General Resources (OU Edition)

[Tetrinity]

Grass types in general, especially ones that don't care about burns from Scald like Shaymin or Celebi. Ferrothorn walls Jellicent all day long and can strike back with Power Whip, though won't appreciate a burn. Rotom-W is another very common counter, resisting Scald and the occasional Ice Beam while obliterating Jellicent with STAB Thunder(bolt).

Tyranitar works quite nicely as a trapper with its very powerful Pursuit, but again, watch out for those burns...

 

[Lockeness]

Popular/Good counters to Jellicent???

Rotom-W boasts a STAB super effective Volt Switch, resists Scald, and doesn't care about getting burned. Specs Latios is viable, but it would prefer to come in on Scald as opposed to Shadow Ball. Powerful physical attackers will make quick work of Jellicent just as long as they don't get burned.

EDIT: I also echo Tetrinity's statement concerning Grass-types. Breloom also makes a good Jellicent counter once Poison heal is activated. It won't be able to be burned and it can fire back with either Spore or Seed Bomb.

 

[.-Lucky]

The system is fine the way it is, and has been this way for a while. Unless you can give a valid reason for why 2.0 instead of 3.5, there's no need to provide reasoning for an opposing standpoint
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Because it would reduce banlists, and stabilize lower tiers, letting more powerful threats like Virizion(who is about to drop to UU) be in a place suited for them.

 

[haunter]

And why would Virizion be too powerful (or just unfit) for UU? We have already many "legendaries" in UU and some of them, see Mew and Victini, happen to be decent counters\checks to Virizion.

 

[.-Lucky]

And why would Virizion be too powerful (or just unfit) for UU? We have already many "legendaries" in UU and some of them, see Mew and Victini, happen to be decent counters\checks to Virizion.

Not the point, maybe a bad example. The point is, if virizion(could be regigigas, bob marley or whatever) gets to be in banlist is actually the same thing that being in OU, and i dont get the idea of having a BL.

 

[Tetrinity]

BL is essentially the Ubers of UU, and I think you can understand why Pokémon like Kyogre are banned from OU. The existence of BL is pretty much a matter of interest as far as the OU tier is concerned; it holds those Pokémon that are not used enough to be considered OU while being considered too powerful for UU.

I don't see the issue with Virizion dropping to UU (even if I don't understand why so few people are using it... but that's a different matter entirely), nor would it be an issue if Virizion eventually found a place in BL. Lower tiers stabilise themselves by banning Pokémon considered overpowered, just as in OU. Certainly they're more prone to sudden change, if a higher tier Pokémon drops down (like the Virizion example). But what might a lower cutoff percentage do to change that? Why would we necessarily want to change that?

 

[.-Lucky]

Can anyone explain to me where did you get the 3.5% from? Im noobish.

 

[666lumberjack]

It's calculated using a pretty complicated formula. I couldn't tell you the details, but AFAIK it was devised early DPP when we started using usage to rank Pokemon and hasn't changed much since then. 3.5% is a rough number that should mean you see Pokemon at the bottom of the usage stats for a tier roughly every twenty games. The idea was that anything less common than that was unlikely to pose a threat to a well built team that had answers to more popular Pokemon, or simply so rare there was very little point in trying to prepare for it.

 

[XienZo]

Can anyone explain to me where did you get the 3.5% from? Im noobish.

1-(1-50%)^(1/20)= 3.4%

It's usage required such that on average, you have a 50% chance of seeing the pokemon one or more times in 20 battles.

 

[.-Lucky]

1-(1-50%)^(1/20)= 3.4%

It's usage required such that on average, you have a 50% chance of seeing the pokemon one or more times in 20 battles.

this satisfied me a lot. Thanks

 

[XienZo]

this satisfied me a lot. Thanks

That being said, despite the common myth that the 3.4% is derived from some complicated objective mathematical system, it's interesting to note that both the 50% and the 20 battles used to calculate the 3.4% are more or less arbitrary; there's no particular reason we didn't use 25% and 10 battles, persay.

 

[.-Lucky]

That being said, despite the common myth that the 3.4% is derived from some complicated objective mathematical system, it's interesting to note that both the 50% and the 20 battles used to calculate the 3.4% are more or less arbitrary; there's no particular reason we didn't use 25% and 10 battles, persay.

i think is reasonable if usage is the criteria, and if it is arbitrary, well... things are the way they are, though 25% and 10 battles do sound MORE reasonable, to me at least. I think we, as a community, should discuss these filosofical matters (or if we did, id like to see a post where the logic behind this is explained)

 

[The QWAZ]

is the damage bide does, affected by attack drops?

 

[BurningMan]

is the damage bide does, affected by attack drops?

no its just like counter/mirror coat only with multiple turns

 

[GKhan]

I'm planning a purely physically defensive skarmory but I'm not sure about speed evs. The standard in the strategy dex is 24. I'm not running Taunt on this one, so I don't think I need those evs persay. But I figured it's probably worth a little durability to ensure the ability to whirlwind other skarmory.

So, I was thinking of 32 speed evs. That way, I could outspeed other skarmory which are planning to speed creep the 24 standard, as well as other pokemon planning on speed creeping skarmory (could be useful for roosting). Does this sound workable? While I'm in this speed neighborhood, are there any other good benchmarks?

 

[Zowayix]

Can freezing can occur under intense sunlight? I've read in numerous sources that a Pokemon cannot be frozen under intense sunlight; but if a frozen Pokemon is out during Sunny Day, the freeze is not removed and defrosting does not occur faster.

However, I've also heard accounts of, say, a Groudon being frozen by Ice Beam while Drought was in effect. Can someone confirm which is true? Perhaps Sunny Day only prevents freezing in Gen II, and not future games?

 

[HoiPolloi]

Skarmory does mind losing a few defense point as is it defense stat is extremely high anyways. If you think the speed helps you, I see no problem why shouldn't run 32 EVs.

 

[Joeyboy]

Pokemon cannot be frozen in sunlight as far as I know.

 

[StallMandibuzz]

^That is correct. Freeze happens so rarely in general, but it doesn't happen at all in sunlight. But if the timer is set for, let's say, ten turns, sunlight doesn't reduce any turns frozen.

 

[Tomahawk]

I'm planning a purely physically defensive skarmory but I'm not sure about speed evs. The standard in the strategy dex is 24. I'm not running Taunt on this one, so I don't think I need those evs persay. But I figured it's probably worth a little durability to ensure the ability to whirlwind other skarmory.

So, I was thinking of 32 speed evs. That way, I could outspeed other skarmory which are planning to speed creep the 24 standard, as well as other pokemon planning on speed creeping skarmory (could be useful for roosting). Does this sound workable? While I'm in this speed neighborhood, are there any other good benchmarks?

Just for the note, people rarely use the EV spread onsite with 24 Speed EVs. The spread is a little outdated considering the only thing it's good for is fast Wobbuffet, which people expected to be common but is actually not OU. If you want to speed creep and you're not using Taunt, you're probably better off with 252 HP / 244 Def / 12 Spe.

 

[Nyktos]

The Tyraniboah set for BW lists 60 EVs in Attack and 176 in Special Attack. What is the specific significance of these numbers?

 

[SoulRed12]

I'm considering giving an air balloon to my lucario to give it an extra edge against gliscor (at least, the non-flying-gem-acrobatics kind) and other E/Q users. But, I don't know what the specific negative effects would be. Does anyone know offhand what kinds of KOs I'll be missing out on by dropping the life orb? I know it makes Extremespeed a 2HKO against SD gliscor even at +4 (and a 3HKO at +2 thanks to poison heal...), but do you think it's worth it so I can keep him in against ground attackers or to at least force them to use a potentially NVE move to pop the balloon while I get a 2HKO? (Glicsor's only other recommended moves in the SD set are NVE against Luke) Or do you think the immediate boost to extremespeed is more important than initial immunity to ground? I suppose I can always switch Luke back in later, but that means I'd need to get another turn in for SD.

I dunno, any thoughts?

 

[The QWAZ]

I'm considering giving an air balloon to my lucario to give it an extra edge against gliscor (at least, the non-flying-gem-acrobatics kind) and other E/Q users. But, I don't know what the specific negative effects would be. Does anyone know offhand what kinds of KOs I'll be missing out on by dropping the life orb? I know it makes Extremespeed a 2HKO against SD gliscor even at +4 (and a 3HKO at +2 thanks to poison heal...), but do you think it's worth it so I can keep him in against ground attackers or to at least force them to use a potentially NVE move to pop the balloon while I get a 2HKO? (Glicsor's only other recommended moves in the SD set are NVE against Luke) Or do you think the immediate boost to extremespeed is more important than initial immunity to ground? I suppose I can always switch Luke back in later, but that means I'd need to get another turn in for SD.

I dunno, any thoughts?

keep life orb, it is generally the far superior item air balloon provides to power boost and luke is still vulnerable to all the fire and fighting attacks being thrown around OU. If your team has issues with ground types maybe replace lucario with breloom, virizion or any fighter other than terrakion.

 

[melvni]

The Tyraniboah set for BW lists 60 EVs in Attack and 176 in Special Attack. What is the specific significance of these numbers?

I'm not exactly sure why the ev spread was changed from 252HP/52Atk/176SpAtk/28Spd to 252HP/60Atk/176SpAtk/20Spd in the transition from fourth to fifth gen, but here's the fourth gen explanation of the EV spread:

Boah's EVs are fairly specific. 252 HP allows for the creation of 101 HP Substitutes, making setting up on Blissey a cinch. 28 Speed EVs are required to out-speed 4 Speed Blissey (the most common type), even after the nature drop. You may shift 4 of those Speed EVs to Attack if you please, but the miniscule gain you would get is far outweighed by the possibility of dispatching opposing Blissey without taking damage the same turn. 176 Special Attack EVs and a boosting nature allows Tyranitar to 2HKO Specially Defensive Skarmory 100% of the time with Flamethrower or Thunderbolt, while also allowing it to 2HKO Hippowdon with Ice Beam. The rest of the EVs are dropped into Attack, to boost Focus Punch. It may be a good idea to shift a few EVs from Attack into Speed to ensure Tyranitar is faster than Blissey and Machamp who invest slightly in Speed.

 

[Ithilanor]

A question for the sake of "opposition research" - you have a Defensive Politoed leading against what you know is a standard Mixed Attacking Ttar. What move do you go for - Scald, Toxic, or switch to something else?