Resource Simple Questions, Simple Answers Thread

[Contrary Servine]

What set does specially defensive Gastrodon typically run? I was considering something like this:

Gastrodon-East @ Leftovers
Ability: Sticky Hold
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Scald
- Earthquake
- Recover
- Toxic

I'm not sure about a few things:
1. Is Sticky Hold better than Storm Drain in this meta for a specially defensive Gastrodon?
2. Is there merit to Earth Power over Earthquake, especially if you're Sticky Hold and open yourself up to the possibility of Scald burns?
3. Is there much of a reason to run Clear Smog over Toxic right now?
4. This is minor, but if you're running Leftovers, is it better to have 248 or 252 HP EVs? I've never fully understood that nuance.

1. Depends on the team, I’d say Storm Drain for stopping Flip Turn and improving your matchup against rain, but Sticky Hold can be handy if you need a Knock Off/Trick absorber.
2. Earthquake is better since it lets you beat Glowking and T-tar more easily.
3. Clear Smog is good for CM Clef and Stored Power Reuinclus, but Toxic is more versatile and lets you cripple walls, so it’s probably best to run Toxic unless you really find yourself needing something to remove stat changes.
4. 252 EVs gives you an even number of health and optimises Leftovers.

 

[PlusC]

1. Depends on the team, I’d say Storm Drain for stopping Flip Turn and improving your matchup against rain, but Sticky Hold can be handy if you need a Knock Off/Trick absorber.

Note that if you have Sticky Hold Knock Off always gets the damage boost. In that sense it couldn't be much worse of a Knock Off absorber!

 

[Goodbye & Thanks]

4. 252 EVs gives you an even number of health and optimises Leftovers.

Ok I could be easily wrong about this since I still don't completely understand the concept, but I don't think that's true. With 252 HP EVs, Gastrodon reaches an HP total of 426; with 248 EVs, it's at 425. According to this, since Leftovers heals 1/16th of the Pokemon's max HP, a Pokemon should heal the same amount unless its HP reaches the next interval of 16. So if I'm understanding everything correctly, Gastrodon should get the same amount of HP recovery whether its total HP is 425 or 426, since the next number divisible by 16 is 432. Now the reason why I think going with 248 EVs to reach 425 might be better is that 426 is divisible by 6. Wouldn't that mean that Gastrodon would take more damage if it switches into 2 layers of Spikes and has 426 HP instead of 425? I know that this is a very minor detail but I just like to try to optimize everything that I can, and I'm still not completely certain if I fully understand all of the subtilties with HP EVs.

Note that if you have Sticky Hold Knock Off always gets the damage boost. In that sense it couldn't be much worse of a Knock Off absorber!

Specially defensive Gastrodon is mainly going to be switching into Knock Off from things like Clefable and Toxapex, which will usually do negligible damage. Having Sticky Hold to maintain your Leftovers and switch into Knocks from those defensive Pokemon is much better than switching in and getting your Leftovers Knocked so that subsequent Knocks won't do as much damage. With that said though, I think that I agree with AM that Storm Drain is probably better on Gastrodon in most circumstances because it allows it to freely come in on Scalds from things like the incredibly common Slowbro/Slowking and can help out a lot against rain teams.

 

[Martin]

Ok I could be easily wrong about this since I still don't completely understand the concept, but I don't think that's true. With 252 HP EVs, Gastrodon reaches an HP total of 426; with 248 EVs, it's at 425. According to this, since Leftovers heals 1/16th of the Pokemon's max HP, a Pokemon should heal the same amount unless its HP reaches the next interval of 16. So if I'm understanding everything correctly, Gastrodon should get the same amount of HP recovery whether its total HP is 425 or 426, since the next number divisible by 16 is 432. Now the reason why I think going with 248 EVs to reach 425 might be better is that 426 is divisible by 6. Wouldn't that mean that Gastrodon would take more damage if it switches into 2 layers of Spikes and has 426 HP instead of 425? I know that this is a very minor detail but I just like to try to optimize everything that I can, and I'm still not completely certain if I fully understand all of the subtilties with HP EVs.

I answered this fairly succinctly back in December, so I’m just gonna link that post again.

https://www.smogon.com/forums/threa...usage-stats-in-post-2006.3672210/post-8691068

TL;DR: dropping EVs only reduces damage if the un-dropped number is a multiple of the denominator; for restoration, it’s better to aim for a multiple of the denominator. For things like Life Orb I often drop 2 IVs to get to one less than a multiple of 10, but for something like hazards it’s probably not worthwhile to drop more than 1 point. I personally don’t think it’s more optimal to EV for double Spikes with Gastrodon because that also reduces your Recover healing by 1, but it’s very subjective and makes little difference in the grand scheme of things.

 

[Goodbye & Thanks]

TL;DR: dropping EVs only reduces damage if the un-dropped number is a multiple of the denominator; for restoration, it’s better to aim for a multiple of the denominator. For things like Life Orb I often drop 2 IVs to get to one less than a multiple of 10, but for something like hazards it’s probably not worthwhile to drop more than 1 point. I personally don’t think it’s more optimal to EV for double Spikes with Gastrodon because that also reduces your Recover healing by 1, but it’s very subjective and makes little difference in the grand scheme of things.

Ok, thank you for your post! I forgot about Recover being affected as well. So just to make sure I understand all of this correctly, as a rule of thumb, you ideally want your total HP to be divisible by the denominator of whatever it's healing from (16 for Leftovers, 8 for Poison Heal, 2 for Recover/Soft-Boiled, etc.), but you don't want it to be divisible by the denominator of a source of passive damage (16 for Burn damage, 8 for neutral Rocks/Spikes/Leech Seed/Poison, 4 if using Substitute, etc.); do I have that right? Obviously there are some exceptions like wanting Belly Drum to activate Sitrus Berry or something and I get that this is mostly trivial, but I would like to finally feel like I completely understand this lol.

 

[Martin]

Ok, thank you for your post! I forgot about Recover being affected as well. So just to make sure I understand all of this correctly, as a rule of thumb, you ideally want your total HP to be divisible by the denominator of whatever it's healing from (16 for Leftovers, 8 for Poison Heal, 2 for Recover/Soft-Boiled, etc.), but you don't want it to be divisible by the denominator of a source of passive damage (16 for Burn damage, 8 for neutral Rocks/Spikes/Leech Seed/Poison, 4 if using Substitute, etc.); do I have that right? Obviously there are some exceptions like wanting Belly Drum to activate Sitrus Berry or something and I get that this is mostly trivial, but I would like to finally feel like I completely understand this lol.

That is correct, yes. And which numbers you choose to care about in the event of a clash is up to what you think will happen often enough to be worth specifically targeting.

 

[Meganium1579]

What is a Good Teamate for Cinderace?

 

[Finchinator]

What is a Good Teamate for Cinderace?

Tapu Koko, Landorus-Therian, Slowbro, and other pivots work well.

 

[LeNorm]

Is specially defensive pex still viable or is it just a hangover from gen 7?

 

[Finchinator]

Is specially defensive pex still viable or is it just a hangover from gen 7?

it's actually pretty solid right now, yes

 

[Meganium1579]

Tapu Koko, Landorus-Therian, Slowbro, and other pivots work well.

Oh Ok, Thank You For The Tips :D

 

[BitBitio]

Yo quick question- can someone explain Krookodile's niche in the metagame to me? I understand that it's not very good but apparently it can be ok because it's ranked at C on the VR. It definitely seems to be Lando-T: UU Edition, having a lot of similar tools but doing just about everything worse. What makes it good enough to be ranked? thanks

 

[AM]

Yo quick question- can someone explain Krookodile's niche in the metagame to me? I understand that it's not very good but apparently it can be ok because it's ranked at C on the VR. It definitely seems to be Lando-T: UU Edition, having a lot of similar tools but doing just about everything worse. What makes it good enough to be ranked? thanks

For this set (or at least I would hope since it's the only good set imo).

Krookodile @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Moxie
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Knock Off
- Stealth Rock

Most mons that can cover its Earthquake can't or don't want to be taking a Knock off and vice versa. Close Combat also an option last slot but I don't personally use it much.

 

[death dreigon]

I know I've been playing competitive pokemon for a long time and i understand EVs,but what does IV means in pokemon?

 

[AM]

I know I've been playing competitive pokemon for a long time and i understand EVs,but what does IV means in pokemon?

Individual Values they're assigned upon capture/hatching of a Pokemon. These can be adjusted in later games, older games you get what you get.

 

[death dreigon]

Individual Values they're assigned upon capture/hatching of a Pokemon. These can be adjusted in later games, older games you get what you get.

Oh! ok ty for ur answer!my concepts r clear now

 

[Apokalyptic]

What is a Good Teamate for Cinderace?

I'm loving cinderace with FS slowbro uturn lando personally.

 

[gye5]

What is a Good Teamate for Cinderace?

The question what mons are suported by ace, because ace is almost perfect

 

[Apokalyptic]

Is specially defensive pex still viable or is it just a hangover from gen 7?

I'm seeing it a ton in my ladder games (1200-1300s) and it's looking pretty good usually. Very annoying to deal with.

 

[MrHands]

Is there any particular reason why Weavile uses Pressure in the Smogon analysis instead of Pickpocket? Even on the Choice Band set I imagine punishing opposing Knock Offs is much more useful than the occasional extra PP especially on something as comically frail as Weavile.

 

[CadmusRhodium]

Yo quick question- can someone explain Krookodile's niche in the metagame to me? I understand that it's not very good but apparently it can be ok because it's ranked at C on the VR. It definitely seems to be Lando-T: UU Edition, having a lot of similar tools but doing just about everything worse. What makes it good enough to be ranked? thanks

It’s worth noting that Krookodile outspeeds Lando-T by exactly one point, so if you REALLY need the jump on opposing Landos, you could do worse than Krook. Shame it doesn’t get Ice Fang or it would be the perfect anti-Landorus mon. It also has Close Combat over Lando, but it lacks U-turn, so whatever.

 

[Apokalyptic]

So this may not be the place, but where are good resources to find some tournaments to enter outside tournament forums?

Those seem longer and annually so I have missed most of them but would love to participate in tournaments in general.

 

[gye5]

Is there any particular reason why Weavile uses Pressure in the Smogon analysis instead of Pickpocket? Even on the Choice Band set I imagine punishing opposing Knock Offs is much more useful than the occasional extra PP especially on something as comically frail as Weavile.

No, u are not using weavile to stall mons unless using sub protect

 

[Martin]

I know I've been playing competitive pokemon for a long time and i understand EVs,but what does IV means in pokemon?

Individual Values they're assigned upon capture/hatching of a Pokemon. These can be adjusted in later games, older games you get what you get.

I think AM's answer is good enough for purpose, but I just want to add to this, as you can never know too much about game mechanics.

1 IV is equivalent to 4 EVs. At level 100, this means 1 IV ≡ 1 stat point before factoring in nature, but in lower-level formats (e.g. VGC, BSS, LC), the number of IVs required for one stat point scales similarly to the EVs required for one stat point—e.g. at level 50, 2 IVs ≡ 8 EVs ≡ 1 stat point before factoring in nature.

If I wanted to be pedantic, I'd say that they technically can't be adjusted but rather can just be stacked onto, as a bottle-capped 'mon with 0 across the board still has 0 as far as the game is concerned, but since Hidden Power got Thanos'd, there isn't any practical difference anymore outside of breeding (bottle caps/nature mints can't be inherited, and afaik you can't artificially reduce an IV to 0 with bottle caps or overwrite a bottle cap once it has been applied—unlike EVs, which can be reduced to 0 after training with certain berries).

If you're interested in a little bit more detail about how stats are calculated, these are the formulae used from generation 3 onwards:

Formulae

In case you've not seen the ⌊⌋ brackets before, all it means is that you need to floor (round down) the nested calculation before moving onto the next step. For example:

• ⌊4⌋ = 4
• ⌊11/4⌋ = ⌊2.75⌋ = 2
• ⌊⌊20/8⌋×1.1⌋ = ⌊⌊2.5⌋×1.1⌋ = ⌊2×1.1⌋ = ⌊2.2⌋ = 2

That last floor function is why you get quirks with positive/negative natures:

• Jump points with positive natures:
  • ⌊99×1.1⌋ = ⌊108.9⌋ = 108
  • ⌊100×1.1⌋ = ⌊110.0⌋ = 110
• No-increase points with negative natures:
  • ⌊100×0.9⌋ = ⌊90.0⌋ = 90
  • ⌊101×0.9⌋ = ⌊90.9⌋ = 90

This is far from necessary to know if you're just looking to play the game, but it's useful for wrapping your head around certain quirks of why stats work the way they do if you ever want to start hyper-optimising things.

 

[death dreigon]

I think this answer is good enough for purpose, but I just want to add to this, as you can never know too much about game mechanics.

1 IV is equivalent to 4 EVs. At level 100, this means 1 IV ≡ 1 stat point before factoring in nature, but in lower-level formats (e.g. VGC, BSS, LC), the number of IVs required for one stat point scales similarly to the EVs required for one stat point—e.g. at level 50, 2 IVs ≡ 8 EVs ≡ 1 stat point before factoring in nature.

If I wanted to be pedantic, I'd say that they technically can't be adjusted but rather can just be stacked onto, as a 'mon with 0 across the board still has 0 as far as the game is concerned, but since Hidden Power got Thanos'd, there isn't any practical difference anymore outside of breeding (bottle caps/nature mints can't be inherited, and afaik you can't artificially reduce an IV to 0 with bottle caps or overwrite a bottle cap once it has been applied—unlike EVs, which can be reduced to 0 after training with certain berries).

If you're interested in a little bit more detail about how stats are calculated, these are the formulae used from generation 3 onwards:

Formulae

View attachment 316471

In case you've not seen the ⌊⌋ brackets before, all it means is that you need to floor (round down) the nested calculation before moving onto the next step. For example:

• ⌊4⌋ = 4
• ⌊11/4⌋ = ⌊2.75⌋ = 2
• ⌊⌊20/8⌋×1.1⌋ = ⌊⌊2.5⌋×1.1⌋ = ⌊2×1.1⌋ = ⌊2.2⌋ = 2

That last floor function is why you get quirks with positive/negative natures:

• Jump points with positive natures:
  • ⌊99×1.1⌋ = ⌊108.9⌋ = 108
  • ⌊100×1.1⌋ = ⌊110.0⌋ = 110
• No-increase points with negative natures:
  • ⌊100×0.9⌋ = ⌊90.0⌋ = 90
  • ⌊101×0.9⌋ = ⌊90.9⌋ = 90

This is far from necessary to know if you're just looking to play the game, but it's useful for wrapping your head around certain quirks of why stats work the way they do if you ever want to start hyper-optimising things.

Thanks that is even more helpful i thought 1 IV is as much as 1 EV.appreciated