Seasonal Ladder [July: Fireworks Frenzy]

This certainly was a fun meta. Like most other people here, I am saddened by it not being made permanent on the main server.
 

Joim

Pixels matter
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The new Seasonal is an experiment of sorts. I have gone to a completely new direction with this, and I must say I haven't taken much time to design and improve this one, so it might need updating throughout the next days. Being May the 4th and all, it's featuring a mostly science fiction team, having a hero and antagonist teams based on widely known sci-fi features. The combat style is made with the old RPGs in mind, making you think about what you're doing, but being able to be played quite fast. So here is it for the reminder of May:

[Seasonal] You are (not) prepared
The format is triples. The combat has nothing to do with Pokémon save for the option of switching. There are two teams, one of them feature the heroes and the other team features the bad guys. The Planet Express crew has joined efforts with the Rebels of a far, far away galaxy, counting also with the help of fellow Eva pilots and Gurren Lagan. They must beat the evil galactic empire, who is counting with the help of several Futurama antagonists as well as the angels and antispirals wanting to wipe out humanity, with the consulting of infamous Gendo Ikari, who is, put plainly, batshit insane.

There are four roles in this format: DPS or damage dealer, tank or guy that takes hits, support or annoying prick, and healer. Each role has specific movesets, and all available moves are custom and designed for this format, the same way the damage formula has been changed for this format. Additionally, all roles have the same base stat spread, so Pokémon are purely cosmetic.

Asuka Langley [Eva 02] (Groudon)
Chewy (Ursaring)
Fry (Magmar)
Han Solo (Sawk)
Leela (Hitmonlee)
Luke Skywalker (Throh)
Nibbler (Monferno)
Shinji Ikari [Eva 01] (Dialga)
Zoidberg (Clawitzer)
An angel (Yveltal)
Darth Vader (Dusknoir)
Emperor Palpatine (Cofagrigus)
Fender (Toxicroak)
Storm Trooper (Raticate)


Bender (Registeel)
Gurren Lagan (Golurk)
Lagann (Golett)
Rei Ayanami [Eva 00] (Palkia)
Slurms McKenzie (Slugma)
Jabba the Hut (Snorlax)
Lilith (Xerneas)
Lrrr (Muk)
Mommy (Gothitelle)


C3PO (regirock)
Hermes (Scrafty)
Professor Farnsworth (Mr. Mime)
Kif (Elgyem)
Jar Jar Binks (Heliolisk)
R2D2 (Regigigas)
Bobba Fett (Genesect)
Zapp Brannigan (Delphox)


Amy (Jynx)
gardevoir
Scruffy (Alakazam)
Yoda (Celebi)
Anti-Spiral (Bisharp)
Gendo Ikari (Machoke)
Kaworu Nagisa (Treecko)


DPS Sets
hp:65, atk:130, def:60, spa:130, spd:60, spe:150
fireblast, flamethrower, aircutter, freezeshock
freezeshock, icebeam, aircutter, muddywater
thunderbolt, thunder, aircutter, freezeshock
toxic, leechseed, muddywater, aircutter
furyswipes, scratch, slash, smog

Tank Sets
hp:90, atk:30, def:120, spa:130, spd:120, spe:50
followe, meditate, helpinghand, seismictoss
followe, endure, withdraw, seismictoss
followe, meditate, endure, seismictoss
meditate, helpinghand, protect, seismictoss

Support Sets
hp:75, atk:50, def:80, spa:50, spd:80, spe:100
recover, acupressure, healbell, withdraw
spite, fakeout, protect, withdraw
recover, acupressure, spite, healbell
recover, acupressure, healbell, fakeout
acupressure, spite, healbell, protect

Healer Sets
hp:50, atk:10, def:100, spa:80, spd:100, spe:10
softboiled, icebeam, reflect, holdhands
softboiled, icebeam, luckychant, holdhands
softboiled, icebeam, reflect, aromaticmist

Damage formula
Moves have a percentage base power. This is so because the percentage of base power comes from the max HP from the user. This means every role has a different damage output, and the random variation is quite little. Of course, attack and defense also are a small factor on this calculation.

Move correlation
Here you can read the correlation between moves and their Seasonal name and what they actually do. You can also check this information with the new command /seasonaldata or /sdata, which is devised to give specific Seasonal format data. The move names are all references to Final Fantasy, Fire Emblem, Dofus, and World of Warcraft.

recover: Cura
Heals the active team by 20%.

softboiled: Curaga
Heals the active team by 33%.

reflect: Wild Growth
Heals the active team by 12.5% each turn for 5 turns.

acupressure: Power Shield
The target will be healed by 25% of the next damage received.

holdhands: Rejuvenation
The target will be healed by 18% each turn for 3 turns.

luckychant: Fairy Ward
Prevents status and reduce damage by 5% for all the team for 3 turns.

followe: Taunt
Will redirect all attacks to user for three turns.

meditate: Sacrifice
Will redirect all team damage to user for 4 turns.

helpinghand: Cooperation
Switches positions with target.

spite: Slow Down
Removes 8 PP for target's last used move. Gets disabled after use.

aromaticmist: Healing Touch
Heals target by 60% of its max HP.

healbell: Penance
Heals all team by 12.5% and places a shield that will heal them for 6.15% upon being hit.

fakeout: Stop
Target won't move. Has priority. User is disabled after use.

endure: Last Stand
User will survive the next hit. Damage taken is halved for the turn. User is disabled after use.

withdraw: Barkskin
Reduces damage taken by 25% by 2 turns.

seismictoss: Punishment
Base damage is 33% of user's current HP.

flamethrower: Flamestrike
30% damage. Base damage is 40% if the target is burned.

fireblast: Conflagration
20% damage. Burns target. Burn deals 6.15% damage every turn, but it does not halve attack.

thunderbolt: Moonfire
20% damage. Causes moonfire residual, which deals 6% damage every turn for 4 turns.

thunder: Starfire
30% damage. Base damage is 40% if the target is moonfired.

toxic: Corruption
DoT. Deals 10% damage every turn for 4 turns.

leechseed: Soul Leech
DoT. Drains 8% HP every turn for 4 turns.

icebeam: Ice Lance
30% damage. Base damage is 40% if the target is chilled.

freezeshock: Frostbite
20% damage. Chills target, reduces speed by 90%.

aircutter: Hurricane
25% damage, damage all adjacent foes.

muddywater: Storm
25% damage, damage all adjacent foes.

furyswipes: Fury
15% power. Disables user. Next use will have 100% base power (basically an OHKO).

scratch: Garrote
20% power. Causes bleeding, which deals 6.15% damage for 5 turns.

smog: Poison Gas
Poisons the target, which causes 12.5% residual damage.

slash: Mutilate
35% power. Additional 10% power if target is bleeding, additional 10% power if target is poisoned. Both effects stack.

protect: Evasion
Just renamed protect.


As you can see, moves are designed so you do combinations of them to both prevent damage or deal extra damage, as well as having the tank and healer work tightly to avoid being swept. Each team is going to have one tank, one healer, two dps and two supports.
 

Joim

Pixels matter
is a Site Content Manager Alumnusis a Battle Simulator Admin Alumnusis a Programmer Alumnusis a Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnusis a Smogon Media Contributor Alumnusis an Administrator Alumnus
It's now live. Also Super Staff Bros. shattered all records by having a total of 151490 battles: 106810 in March, 41219 in April and 3461 these four days of May.
 
OM of The Month: Seasonal You Are Not Prepared

DPS attackers have no positional requirement when using toxic and leech seed.

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/seasonalyouarenotprepared-230100005

If you go to turn 20 and watch until the very end.. you will see that at Turn 21, Chewy(Ursaring) uses toxic(Corruption) on my Darth Vader(Dusknoir) from the far left position even though I am far right from him and vice versa, I figured out how to attack him from my position as well. I am not sure if this is intended but it truely makes the game really broken.

Bug: If you click select toxic or leech seed and use it on an empty enemy space (Space where no pokemon is) it will attack the remaining pokemon left. This bug doesn't work with Air Cutter and other multi pokemon hit moves because those have a positional requirement already fixed.

Hopefully this issue is addressed, sucks to lose a friendly tour cuz of this bug.
 

Joim

Pixels matter
is a Site Content Manager Alumnusis a Battle Simulator Admin Alumnusis a Programmer Alumnusis a Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnusis a Smogon Media Contributor Alumnusis an Administrator Alumnus
Those are not bugs.
Those moves are designed to not to have a positional requirement.
The latter is not a bug either, is re-targetting, which is part of Pokémon triples.
 

The Real Red

Banned deucer.
Although I'm not a regular smogon poster, so please forgive me if my wording doesn't seem the best.. Yet I have to state one clear thing:

This is a fun and interesting seasonal indeed, but I've noticed that the outcome of my battles is purely based upon what happens in the first couple of turns.

Take this replay as a prime example:

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/seasonalyouarenotprepared-230160967

The healer (In my case, Machoke) usually goes last with cura (for both sides) which basically heals the entire team, the middle mon (Which is my Gothitelle) draws foe's attacks using meditate (which is commonly what most players of the Seasonal do, as I've experienced), and the right hand side mon (which was my Raticate) spams air cutter/muddy water to take a chunk out of what (or in this case happens) is usually the middle 'mon due to their own use of meditate.

Watching the replay back, this procedure I have used in many different varieties, such as using certain healers to start with reflect then spam cura due to usually moving last in the battle. The main DPS usually can take out the tank with usually 2 air cutters/storms, considering the tank will most likely draw attacks to itself, whilst the healer heals the team or sometimes heals the tank (which has happened once before, but after that first turn if the tank doesn't have helping hand it really cannot do much other than spam follow me/use endure when low %HP). However, once the tank is down, since my healer (Machoke), can hardly do anything to (In this video, it's a throh), as well as me trying out what usually is ice beam in the healer's set which does minimal damage, the DPS attacker from the opposing team usually offs my tank (in this case, Throh kills Gothitelle), as it used meditation to draw it's attack. Since my gothitelle did not run endure on its set, helping hand switches my raticate to the middle, which is probably the best place for the DPS to be, as air cutter/storm can reach all three mons. (Note: If the tank does have endure, what I've found to work is that you just use endure, and then the same principle of using cura on healer heals the tank so it can lead more attacks whilst the DPS attacks the opponent's tank.) I pull out a toxicroak, which is another DPS, so if the main air cutter I use with raticate doesn't kill off the the opponent's healer (which it usually does, but the support can use stop on it, which is a very good play), the DPS on my right shall do so. The only real defense against this is if the opponent:
A) Outspeeds me when my tank is gone with a middle DPS using air cutter/muddy water, and me without a healer in play would leave me completely vunerable.
B) Use protect to keep the support, but lost a healer and DPS, which isn't the best form of strategy.

Note 2: If I don't bring out another DPS but instead bring out another supporter set (eg: in my case for that battle would've been delphox, with set: spite, fakeout, protect, withdraw), I could've easily stopped the DPS from even attacking me, thus rendering the opponent useless unless the healer survives the air cutter/muddy water.

By this point, the match is usually decided. Even with things such as Stop to minimize the air cutting damage from the middle DPS, it's usually only going to take 2 air cutters to remove the remaining pokemon. No matter what setup is tried, be it Stop, Withdraw, endure, it will only delay the inevitable 5-0 that usually follows.

Hope you can take this into consideration Joim.

Other than that, an amazing Seasonal, one which I thoroughly enjoy playing.

(Also to prove this, my win/loss ratio is 17/1. The only loss was because of a fellow friend of mine outspeeding me in terms of air cutter DPS middle, which I don't have the replay for.)
 

Joim

Pixels matter
is a Site Content Manager Alumnusis a Battle Simulator Admin Alumnusis a Programmer Alumnusis a Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnusis a Smogon Media Contributor Alumnusis an Administrator Alumnus
Thank you, this is the kind of post I wanted to read on this Seasonal. People thinking the best strategies and using the custom moves to the full to work around them.
You're right, but this isn't an easy thing to balance. I might make the stats slightly more customs with EVs changing with sets.
 
This Meta is really enjoyable, some things do need to be balanced like TRR was saying, it's too easy too just spam the multi-target moves for an easy win, other than that, great job.:toast:
 

NabboCheTesta

Gniubbo come sempre
where is muh staffbros

This meta seems very interesting, and innovative, I hope it will be good as its predecessor. To give the last salutation to Super Staff Bros, I've composed this poem ( warning - I am not mothertongue )

For just two months, a heartbeat in your life
the staff of Showdown in the battle had to thrive
it was very strange - for sure - but I will you assure
that if you see an Unown you would shudder
that to an Arceus you would react with laughter
that you could pull off a Doublade sweep
if the enemy didn't use forcewin
that slaking was not even OP
when audino and floette did exist
and that for an only growlithe
your team could never see the light.
From the very very start
you did not need to be zdrup
to see that Super Staff Bros
was in the metas the total boss.
For two months the fun went on
and then joim stopped it all
and I swear I will make its server crash
just to see the mods and admins crush.
 
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The Real Red

Banned deucer.
Good on ya Joim, the seasonal is looking pretty amazing due to those nerfs of air cutter. It's changed my way of playing, that's for sure.

I've had a few test unrated battles with my friend who's also very good at the tier: Hawkie. (Used to be #1 originally).

We discussed the movesets and the new stat changes and found there seems to be one move that stands out to us as being a little too overpowered. Mutilate.

With a base of 35%, the stackup points bonus for a DPS attacker is unimaginably high. We recently played an unrated match to test out the uses of mutilate, with and without psn/bld damage. Even on a tank set C3P0 (Regirock, shown in replay below) with barkskin, although poisoned it took little less than half health (45%). We both believe that this base should be decreased. Even at the beginning of the match, with the tank golette (Lagann) using sacrifice, it took at least a little under half ( 48.9%), which in the next turn due to sacrifice gets killed by another mutilate.
Shown later in the replay, mutilate does over 3/4 health (75.5%) damage to a healer (jynx) when psn'd. Even with healer's having a 100 base def, a mutilate from the opponent (in this case, the magmar to my bisharp) without a helping hand in play does 63.9% damage. The nerf with hurricane and storm have definitely pushed a higher usage upon the DPS slash/scratch/poison gas set, with the majority of wins (orso me and Hawkie believe) upon a helping hand/mutilate or psn/mutilate combo taking out either the healers or main DPS attackers (however, in the replay shown my dusknoir takes out magmar without the need of the combo as I have two mutilators).

We came up with two solutions to this problem:
  • Option 1. Nerf mutilate. Now, considering that mutilate can be devastating to teams when raking in stack damage, it is actually one of the more powerful moves by itself. It can quite easily 2HKO most healers even with curaga. Supporters don't have much of a problem with DPS since they can use Stop if in range, and if not in range cannot be hit by mutilate.
  • Option 2. Boost defense base for both healer and supporter. Now I know you've recently just changed stats and all, but this would make supporter's base defense 110, which although some supporters run withdraw (aka barkskin, which cuts 25% of attacks), shown in this replay this means almost nothing when mutilate uses its stack of psn for that 10% bonus. (The Supporter was Regirock as stated, it takes around 1/2 % from psn'd mutilate). This boost to healers would make their base 130, which makes the healers less suspectible to mutilate (as in most cases, the healer is usually 2HKO'd by a mutilate that is not boosted.)
Although your stat changes and nerfs to air cutter have really changed this seasonal and the strategies behind it, I still believe that mutilate is a threat of being overpowered in the seasonal OMOTM. If either one of these options were considered, it would make mutilate less of a threat with it's double stack bonus.

EDIT: Sorry, forgot the replay lol. Here it is: http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/seasonalyouarenotprepared-230398247
 
11th on the ladder last time I checked.
Fun metagame all around. I feel Supports need to be buffed in some form or another, because I usually felt incredibly underwhelmed by the usefulness (or lack of) of any Support I got.
Granted I also mostly got matched with people who had 1000 elo, so.
As seen in the replay below, getting a tank, a healer, and a DPS can be... Well, pretty devastating if you can eliminate their healer quick enough.
All the classes really have one or two moves that I always want to get and then some moves I don't want at all.
Leech Seed + Toxic are amazing for the DPS. Same with any AoE attack. Freezeshock was... Very underwhelming. Haha. Thunder+Thunderbolt and Fire Blast+Flamethrower on the other hand felt like a nice way to burst down a target, such as a healer, again, as demonstrated in the replay below.
Soft Boiled, Reflect, and Hold Hands were some of the best moves to have on my Healer. Also, PSA everybody. Don't click Ice Beam with your healer almost ever. It does basically nothing. Tanks that have Seismic Toss and Follow Me/Meditate are hilariously good. Helping Hand is very nice to have if the DPS isn't in the centre from the start of the match. Evasion seems useless on Tanks, honestly.
Will say more later, but these are first thoughts.
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/seasonalyouarenotprepared-230449378
 

The Real Red

Banned deucer.
11th on the ladder last time I checked.
Fun metagame all around. I feel Supports need to be buffed in some form or another, because I usually felt incredibly underwhelmed by the usefulness (or lack of) of any Support I got.
Granted I also mostly got matched with people who had 1000 elo, so.
As seen in the replay below, getting a tank, a healer, and a DPS can be... Well, pretty devastating if you can eliminate their healer quick enough.
All the classes really have one or two moves that I always want to get and then some moves I don't want at all.
Leech Seed + Toxic are amazing for the DPS. Same with any AoE attack. Freezeshock was... Very underwhelming. Haha. Thunder+Thunderbolt and Fire Blast+Flamethrower on the other hand felt like a nice way to burst down a target, such as a healer, again, as demonstrated in the replay below.
Soft Boiled, Reflect, and Hold Hands were some of the best moves to have on my Healer. Also, PSA everybody. Don't click Ice Beam with your healer almost ever. It does basically nothing. Tanks that have Seismic Toss and Follow Me/Meditate are hilariously good. Helping Hand is very nice to have if the DPS isn't in the centre from the start of the match. Evasion seems useless on Tanks, honestly.
Will say more later, but these are first thoughts.
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/seasonalyouarenotprepared-230449378
Agreed with the buff of support, as said in my previous post. Very much needed in defense, so that it can survive the harsher DPS attacks whilst still supporting your own DPS'er/healer from being attacked with say the use of either stop or using acupressure to gain a little bit of health back.

However, I must disagree with the evasion part. Evasion on a tank is literally almost a godsend. Consider this another way: If a DPS'er is in middle position and is able to give off an air cutter/storm which basically spreads across a team, if you have the following set: "meditate, helpinghand, protect, seismictoss" meditate draws in all foes attacks, whilst evasion makes it so it does not take damage for itself. It's honestly a really nice tactic as well in terms of a DPS'er using a mutilate set too. Considering the fact that DPS'ers main priority is to get a tank down so it won't use meditate/follow me to draw fire to most attacks, then take down the healer if still alive. Since mutilate is direct, this could essentially save your tank for that turn, rendering the opponent's DPS useless, while you deal damage with your own DPS'er, as well as curing your tank with the healer.
 
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Agreed with the buff of support, as said in my previous post. Very much needed in defense, so that it can survive the harsher DPS attacks whilst still supporting your own DPS'er/healer from being attacked with say the use of either stop or using acupressure to gain a little bit of health back.

However, I must disagree with the evasion part. Evasion on a tank is literally almost a godsend. Consider this another way: If a DPS'er is in middle position and is able to give off an air cutter/storm which basically spreads across a team, if you have the following set: "meditate, helpinghand, protect, seismictoss" meditate draws in all foes attacks, whilst evasion makes it so it does not take damage for itself. It's honestly a really nice tactic as well in terms of a DPS'er using a mutilate set too. Considering the fact that DPS'ers main priority is to get a tank down so it won't use meditate/follow me to draw fire to most attacks, then take down the healer if still alive. Since mutilate is direct, this could essentially save your tank for that turn, rendering the opponent's DPS useless, while you deal damage with your own DPS'er, as well as curing your tank with the healer.
Ohh, that makes Evasion sound a lot better now. Didnt know it worked that way. pretty nice, honestly.
 

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