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In competitive battling, every Pokemon has a rank based on usefulness. Ubers is the highest tier, which mainly consists of legendary Pokemon and other really strong Pokemon like blaziken with speed boost ability. This battle didn't have those ridiculously over powered Pokemon. Complete opposite actually.
But you probably know that, and not what you're asking about. This is Pokemon Showdown, a battle simulator. I was bringing weak Pokemon as a joke and I stumbled across someone doing the same.
Practice on Pokemon Showdown. It's a emulator online that you can battle others. Hover your mouse over the Pokemon yo learn stuff. Learn moves, abilities, etc.
Also the wiki is your friend.
I like playing pokemon showdown. It's just random pokemon battles with strangers. It's pretty fun if you want to experience the good old days for a bit. There's a bit of a competitive scene there too so there's tournaments for people. All free.
Actually difficult Pokemon game mechanics questions, sponsored by Zarel, creator of Pokemon Showdown:
Starmie with 10% HP left uses Rapid Spin against Ferrothorn, and faints from Iron Barbs. Does the Stealth Rock get removed?
A full HP Cinccino uses Tail Slap against a Rocky Helmet Ferrothorn, and hits five times. Is it possible for Cinccino to survive?
Is it possible for a physical attack to deal zero damage but still have an effect?
What is the only ability with an end-of-turn effect that doesn't take effect the first turn you switch it in?
What happens if you use Outrage and your opponent uses Protect?
In a Wi-Fi doubles battle, in what order are Pokemon switched into battle? If the Pokemon are Kyogre, Groudon, Hippowdon, and Abomasnow, all with weather-inducing abilities, in what order do they activate? Is it the same order?
Dragon Tail makes your opponent switch into a random Pokemon. But what if Dragon Tail knocks out the opponent? Is the switch still random?
Also, hi, Red Alert! You used to be a mod on Pokemon Showdown! How's it going?
Fun? Killing the proper mobs to boost the right stats while running around trying to breed move sets was the reason I stopped playing. It's MMO level of grinding, if I get the urge to poke duel I go to Pokemon Showdown.
Timid nature isn't right. You should be jolly or naive.
That said,
Double Dance Lando-t
> Landorus-Therian@Leftovers
> Ability: Intimidate
> Nature: Adamant
> Evs: 140 Hp / 252 Attack / 116 Speed
> * Earthquake
> * Stone Edge
> * Rock Polish
> * Swords Dance
As /u/comnrad mentioned the IV/EV system and natures really affect things. There are also numerous types of builds that are possible with some Pokemon having multiple viable strategies. In the single player you typically go with "Give this Pokemon 4 moves good at just killing stuff" with little regard to team cohesion. In the more competitive multiplayer each member of your team fills a critical role.
Do you set up your first Pokemon to try and get a quick kill in a glass cannon set up? Does it set up spikes/hazards to hurt the enemy team? Does it boost lots of stats and then Baton Pass to a team mate? Is your team focused on damage output, status effects, or stat changes? Your star team members, what are the common counters? How often are those counters used?
Go try Pokemon Showdown and you'll see it for yourself.
It's temporary. See the message here: http://pokemonshowdown.com/
> So the replay site is kind of down right now. I'm running it through a repair process, but the repair process apparently takes multiple days.
> In the meantime, I've added a "Download replay" button, which is really cool, and honestly, it's a nice ability to have whether or not we have a replay site.
> —EeveeGeneral
Probably some kind of database problem that requires rebuilding a huge table, or something like that.
That is a very common question. There are really two main approaches to teambuilding:
Select a core of Pokemon you want to use, and build around it. This is by far the most common approach for newer players.
Select a playstyle, and fill out your roster to support it. This takes some experience with the game to do effectively so you know who fills what roles in what ways.
For now, we'll go with "selecting a cornerstone" as you say.
The EASIEST way to do this is to start with a mega evolution you want to use. You are not required to use a mega, but it's very easy to build a solid team around one.
Next, take a look at its strengths and weaknesses. Who is strong against this mega? Who is weak to it? Pick a few team members that will cover those weaknesses. The magic number is 3. Most cores are three Pokemon that you can shuffle around to cover each other against their threats.
After you’ve built up a core like that, you need to flesh it all out with other solid picks. Here you can either pick some offensive threats or defensive pivots to make your team more robust.
You can’t really go wrong with picking the boring, standard OU goodstuffs. Talonflame, Landorus-T, Rotom-W, Latias, Heatran…these things are standard for a reason. There’s no shame in using them on your team, don’t be afraid of being “standard.”
Some valuable resources for you:
Damage calculator for use in battles.
Alright, so now we'll have to choose a format to base your pokemon off of. I'm pretty new, too, but I can help. TBH, I'd recommend Smogon OU, because it's singles, very common, and pretty easy to understand. The rules can be found here: http://www.smogon.com/dex/xy/formats/ou/
Basically, it's singles with restrictions on certain powerful pokemon, items, moves, and abilities that would be too strong. The best way to play Smogon battles is off of Pokemon Showdown. You can access that here: http://pokemonshowdown.com
In that battle simulator, you can input a team of pokemon and have rating battles with other people to test your team. Just choose "OU" under singles in the format list.
You can use this dex to understand what pokemon are good at, and how to use them effectively: http://www.smogon.com/dex/xy/pokemon/
Keep in mind that if a pokemon says "Uber," then you can't use it in OU.
Sorry if this is a bit confusing or a lot to take in. Let me know if you have any further questions, though. :) And welcome to competitive!
I've never heard of Huge Power halving attack before but my first instinct is to call bullshit and assume it's a typo. Bulbapedia and Serebii both don't mention it.
Edit:
I'll test it out on Showdown and see what happens.
Used Gallade cause seems like a plausible Skill Swapper with good Attack and Azumaril as the Huge Power place holder.
Calc from http://pokemonshowdown.com/damagecalc/ :
252+ Atk Huge Power Mega Gallade Ice Punch vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Mega Steelix: 44-52 (24.1 - 28.5%) -- 96.9% chance to 4HKO
So set up a battle with myself and Skill Swapped the Azu then used Ice Punch a few times:
> Steelix lost 25.8% of its health!
> Steelix lost 28.6% of its health!
> Steelix lost 26.4% of its health!
Now doing the same thing but using Swords Dance instead.
Calc:
+2 252+ Atk Mega Gallade Ice Punch vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Mega Steelix: 44-52 (24.1 - 28.5%) -- 96.9% chance to 4HKO
And different battle after using Swords Dance:
> Steelix lost 25.3% of its health!
> Steelix lost 24.7% of its health!
> Steelix lost 25.8% of its health!
TLDR: The halving thing is BS. Skill Swapping Huge Power takes the same amount of moves and does the same thing as Swords Dance but relies on having another Pokemon with Huge Power next to you to pull it off. Better off just using Swords Dance.
Try going to this website called Pokémon Showdown. It’s a website which lets people play competitively without doing all the IV and EV. http://pokemonshowdown.com
Btw I don’t work for the website.
Hey, so the EV spreads you are seeing are built to survive certain hits from other Pokes. Like my Sylveon is this set
Sylveon @Choice Specs
Nature Modest
228 HP 88 DEF 158 SPA 18 SPD 20 SPE
So I looked at my Sylveon and wanted to be able to survive some pretty strong hits so I started with Overheat from Charizard Y in the Sun. Using this Site, I was able to find that no investment I am able to possibly survive but my odds were not very good so I played with the HP first.
I found that 200 would do the job so I decided to move on from there.
Kangaskhan was the next threat as it was the most popular mega.
Return from an adamant Mega Kanga ruins my day so I needed to pump up my defenses. I found 44 helped but I needed to be bulkier so I beefed my HP up to 228, Still not enough. So I added more to my defenses. I found 88 was the best I could do without sacrificing my SPA so there is not much I can do for steel types or other super effective hits.
Next I worked on my offensive build. With the 158 I am able to one shot many Pokes with Hyper Beam if needed and 2 shot many other pokes with Hyper Voice. as well as have a wider coverage with Shadow Ball and Psyshock.
The 18 into special attack was just for extra bulk to eat up Sludge Bombs and Flash Cannons. and the 20 speed is to speed creep other Sylveons
So in closing the build you saw was to most likely survive something Hydreigon couldn't normally survive, or to survive something that has been giving your team trouble.
I would suggest going onto the damage calculator and just play around with your Pokemon and just learn. Remember to set your level to level 50 and put your opponents EV's all at 252 so you know what the max they can do to you is. I hope this helped
You should try http://pokemonshowdown.com/ You can take make your X team but change their Moves, IV's, and Ev's and battle with them. It's pretty fun.
Try Pokebattle.com if you don't wanna have to use Smogon rules
A counter doesn't mean that a pokemon needs to survive multiple hits from another pokemon, that is a horrible definition. It just means that it can deal with the pokemon from a switch in. Even though a Rotom-W can 2HKO a Sceptile, that doesn't matter since Sceptile is faster than Rotom-W and can O/2HKO Rotom-W with Leaf Storm. So it can safely switch into an HP Ice from Rotom-W, survive, and kill Rotom-W the very next turn. Also, considering that Sceptile will be used to counter Rotom-W, EV training Sceptile to do just that won't be unheard of.
Also, specs, assault vest, and scarf are far from common on Rotom-W. Most Rotom-W run leftovers, sitrus berry, and chesto berry (if running a rest set). If you go to Showdown's damage calculator, you will see that the usage set for Rotom-W has 252 EVs in HP, 252 EVs in Sp.Def, and leftovers. A set that will have a lot of trouble killing Sceptile with HP Ice.
I believe Sunny day is -50%, but calculated after super effective damage, canceling those two out, and STAB is still calculated, leaving it at 150% total.
Edit: go here and input Kyogre and Groudon in the sun. You'll see that Ice Beam does more damage than Surf.
Varied ev spreads are really only if you're trying to counter a certain pokemon. For example, on talonflame, you need 172 speed evs to outspeed a Jolly Mega Kangaskhan (+Nature 100 Base). Most of it is speed as damage is randomized by a little bit.
You can use this tool: here
If you input adamant Talonflame and Jolly Kangaskhan, then put 252 speed evs into Kangaskhan and 172 speed evs into Talonflame, you'll see that Talonflame has 168 speed and Mega-kang has 167. This would allow Talonflame to get an attack off, or u-turn out, before Kang attacks (unless he sucker punches)
Here's another example:
A lot of Rotoms use this EV Spred : 252 Hp/ 252 spA/ 4 Speed
Why Speed? So you can outrun rotoms who use this ev spread: 252 Hp / 252 spDef / 4 spA <== Specially defensive Rotom.
Now, you could "outmeta" your opponent and put 8 speed evs so you can outrun the 4 speed rotom. (I use attacker rotom with 252 Hp / 56 spA / 200 Speed)
Most of it is speed, because damage is randomed by a bit.
Honestly, I'd say just go play a lot. Pokemon Showdown is a free, downloadable program that's just a giant battle simulator without any of the training/breeding aspects of the actual game. It has a bunch of metagames, but I hugely recommend the Random Battle for the beginners. Play it a lot, and you'll really start to understand some of the popular movesets for different mons, as well as learning to think on your feet with the tools given to you.
Just letting you know you can do this yourself here. Go to Smogon's Moveset Ranking and just test some of the more common threats in the calculator. Not hard at all. I'll do one, mostly because I'm interested in seeing just how bulky AV Tyranitar would look like.
252 SpA Charizard Focus Blast vs. 88 HP / 168 SpD Assault Vest Tyranitar in Sand: 180-212 (49.5 - 58.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
Looks like it can tank a Focus Blast from Charizard pretty damn well. This should let it switch into a Fire Blast and then OHKO with Stone Edge next turn after tanking Focus Blast.
252 SpA Charizard Focus Blast vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Assault Vest Tyranitar in Sand: 152-180 (37.6 - 44.5%) -- 2% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock
If you run full investment, you can tank two Focus Blasts back to back (which is kind of insane).
These calcs are cool, but cool is all they are. This thing definitely isn't viable, because if you run full SpD investment then your offenses aren't strong enough, and it still gets murdered by things like Keldeo (Secret Sword targets Def, not SpD) and Greninja (it can't take Specs Hydro Pump several times). You don't get to run Stealth Rock either, because it's an AV set, and again, you won't be killing much of anything without invested offenses.
EDIT: That's actually regular Charizard. Much less impressive now that I've realized that. However, I linked you to the calculator so you should be able to run the correct calcs yourself and figure out if you want it on your team (you probably don't).
I don't know much about VGC, so here's a random example. Say, we have a Mega Gengar and an Aromatisse on each side (The partners don't matter). The Aromatisse is your Trick Room setter, so you need to give it survivavility. As far as I know, Timid is the most common Mega Gengar Nature on Doubles, so your Aromatisse needs to be EV'd to survive a Mega Gengar Sludge Wave (The best Poison Move it has, AFAIK), or it won't be able to do it's job properly. Even if it has 96 SpD EVs (6.3% Chance to OHKO), that 6.3% could fuck you over, so you need to play safe (You probably won't encounter a Modest Gengar anyway).
Also, if go on http://pokemonshowdown.com/damagecalc/, choose a random Poké and a random stat, set it to level 50, give it 252 EVs on that stat, and lower the IV to 30 you'll notice you still lose a point.
Favourite Characters:
Deathstroke: General bad-assery.
Aang: All spiritual, yet super fun. Is simply epic in the Avatar state.
Batman: Because he's Batman!
Toph: I am not Toph, I am MELON LORD! MUAHAHAHAHAHA!
Least Favourite Character:
Umbridge
> What show should every person on earth see?
Avatar: The Last Airbender
> Does anyone want to battle be on Pokeman X or Y?
I do, but I don't actually have the games. I play on Pokemon Showdown though.
I use it on my VGC Team, and it works pretty well. It's situational at best and relies on a bit of luck (not getting faked out), but I do carry quick guard on my pokemon, so it's fine at best.
Here's a replay:
http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/vgc2014-114315231
It's suprisingly not that easy to stop though. Fake out is the only true counter since 90% of the time you protect on the sweeper. Safeguard prevents any sleep/paralysis shenanigans, and it's only countered by priority - and even that depends on the sweeper.
Copy-pasted from another post.
Test teams and practice on http://pokemonshowdown.com. Please ignore some of the assholes who play here.
Read this http://www.smogon.com/dp/articles/intro_comp_pokemon. Lots of useful stuff on Smogon.
Use pokemon you like. Everything is viable in some tier (except metapod, and magikarp, and cosmog, etc.)
Try a variety of formats to find one you like. VGC and OU are the most popular ones just to start you off.
Go to r/stunfisk for better competitive advice.
Be polite to everyone for gifts from RNGesus.
But most importantly, have fun. Unless you want to play stall.
Using a 6IV ditto makes a world of difference in breeding… but perfect 5IV pokémons aren't everything that matters. Practice is super important to build your knowledge and your prediction skills.
You can get a 6IV ditto for free at: https://www.reddit.com/r/BreedingDittos/
I like to experiment with teams at Pokémon Showdown before actual in-game breeding. It's hard to predict how a team will fare.
If you just want to battle and not bother with actually having the pokemon
http://www.reddit.com/r/pokemon/comments/2tk5pn/injection_of_pokemon_into_xyoras_like_pokegen/
If you want to have perfect mons without all the hassle of actually breeding them ;)
I've been mostly without internet for the past two weeks, completely missing the nominations, so this all comes as an amazing surprise.
I'd like to thank Smogon University, Pokemon Showdown, and of course all of you. Come to Ubers! We have everything! Except Mega Rayquaza and Swagger, which we've apparently decided are too OP and too little fun respectively to allow in Best Tier.
This match is between the current top #2 and #4 players on the OU ladder: (though I don't know if those were their ranks at the time of this battle)
http://pokemonshowdown.com/ladder/ou
Recently, so many players have ranked high on the ladder solely through the use of this Baton Pass team.
It's just annoying to see the exact same copy & paste team (that requires no creativity and very little skill) used over and over again by so many people.
And seeing it shut down so beautifully by someone who has clearly dealt with many Baton Pass teams in the past and knows exactly how to counter them, is so satisfying.
One thing I haven't seen anyone mention yet: EV spreads. Generally what I do is either max out 2 of em (Health and defense, Speed and Attack, etc.) and then I start to look at the pokemon that usually KO the mon I'm working on. Then I use this: http://pokemonshowdown.com/damagecalc/ to run damage calculations on those common situations. After that, I mess around with the numbers so that I can find a more specialized spread.
You don't have to breed and train, but not doing so will put you at a huge disadvantage. If you just want to battle without all the setup, try http://pokemonshowdown.com/ --not only do you not need to do all of the work, but if you end up with a team you like you can recreate it on cartridge, but you would have to do all the work then.
If you keep an eye out for trades and giveaways you can often find breedjects--Pokemon that might be missing a few perfect IVs, but would be easy to simply train up to add to your team, or use them to quickly breed perfect Pokemon.
To get better as a player/Learn to play singles:
http://www.smogon.com/ Read articles from here
http://pokemonshowdown.com/ practice here
Watch:
PokeaimMD(probably the most popular Competitive poketuber, plays every tier.)
Thunderblunder777(most informative IMHO, mostly really OU)
Mr Jamvad(One of the best players in the world, listen to his thoughts when playing)
Chimpact(Very well rounded player, listen to his thought process too)
TonyFlygon(Also very informative)
for singles
Yup! Head over to Pokemon Showdown.
It's an online battle simulator. You can build, alter, and test teams out there. There's a ton of different battle types, and Unova Classic was added to Triple Format a couple weeks ago.
Very handy for testing a team before spending a ton of time breeding only to find out you need to replace a couple 'mons. Not all items and moves are included, but the most common ones are.
I recommend getting Pokemon Showdown if you ever get interested.
The Pokemon that are easy to get aren't necessarily the best for playing through the story or competitive pursposes. That's why Pokemon like Abra exist, it's obnoxious to catch but easy to reach full evolution for a Pokemon that's strong for in-game and has alot of competitive viability. Just an example.
Pokemon Showdown is a battle simulator using Smogon rules for competitive battling. It lets you simulate a team and play against other people with it without having to go through all of the trouble of creating that team in game. It's not as fun, in my opinion, but it lets you try out interesting strategies without sinking hours into making the team.
I might be biased, but I'd suggest using PSdex for everything:
http://pokemonshowdown.com/dex/moves/kingsshield
It's always kept up to date with simulator data, so errors are very quickly found and fixed, not to mention that the data comes directly from game code when available.
Second most accurate dex is Veekun, which also gets their data directly from game code (except for early Gen 6 before the 3DS was hacked, where they got their data from PS).
By the way, would anyone like to fight me in random battles on http://pokemonshowdown.com/ during commercial breaks and the like? I'll be sitting around in the Lobby using the name Desril. Feel free to send me a challenge, I'm taking on all comers.
Example: You want to play a bulky Starmie (with focus sash, but that's irrelevant), but you are afraid of Garchomp. A bulky Starmie can be 2HKOed by Dragon Claw ( 252 Atk Garchomp Dragon Claw vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Starmie: 151-178 (46.6 - 54.9%) -- 64.8% chance to 2HKO ) so you can not switch in on it if it outspeeds you with a Choice Scarf.
Now you have to play aroung with your EVs. Let's start with putting 100 Def EVs on Starmie:
252 Atk Garchomp Dragon Claw vs. 252 HP / 100 Def Starmie: 135-159 (41.6 - 49%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
Oh, it works! Great! This is just an example of how to calculate the EVs you want. If you want to make a perfect EV spread, you have to calculate the damage for most Pokemon of the meta-game and think about if it is necessary to survive a hit from that specific Pokemon. If you want to make it a little easier for you, go on Smogon.com - they have calculated everything and they even have analyses for the VGC meta game.
To start off, you should pick a format that you'd like to play, such Battle Spot Singles on cartridge or OU in Pokemon Showdown.
Smogon is an excellent resource for finding sets for Pokemon, what counter them, and what make good teammates.
http://www.smogon.com/dex/sm/pokemon/
Even if you want to play on cartridge, I'd still recommend checking out Pokemon Showdown, as you can easily try out different Pokemon is many different formats, including the ones you'd find on cartridge.
In terms of team building, you can start off by choosing your favorite Pokemon, and then find teammates that cover its weaknesses. As an example, if you really like Decidueye, you might want to run a water type Pokemon to defeat the fire types that threaten it. From there, you could have a fire type to help cover your water type Pokemon's weaknesses. This forms a "Water-Grass-Fire" type core; cores are kind of like basic building blocks for teams as they have innate synergy with each other, definitely worth reading about.
You can export Pokemon sets from Smogon and import it into Pokemon Showdown for some quick builds. Though once you find some Pokemon you like, you should read about breeding, Effort Values, and Individual Values if you'd like to use them on cartridge.
Something that's always worked for me at school is going to the damage calculator, and then clicking on the play button from there. At my school, this page is blocked http://pokemonshowdown.com/secure but the actual website is not.
http://pokemonshowdown.com/ is pretty fun, its an online battle simulator that lets you use any legal pokemon stats/moveset so you can experience the battling without the grinding involved to get there
For anyone looking for a Pokemon multiplayer game in the meantime, I might suggest Pokemon Showdown. It's a battle simulator with a large community.
There's also /r/pokemonnox for a more traditional MMO, but that may never be released.
Have you ever faced a really good Shuckle? It manages to get Power Split off and Shell Smash (with Contrary ability) once before needing to rest, it suddenly got really hard to kill. And Infestation is a good way to kill things despite a LOW attack stat. Toxic can't kill it because it is able to rest. I made a team of all shuckles, and its awesome. At least one eventually should get lucky to get built up. I will show you a saved game with this.
0 Atk Pikachu Iron Tail vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Snivy: 57-68 (105.5 - 125.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO
That's a level 20 Snivy and level 40 for Pikachu.
Set Snivy to level 20 (learns Leaf Tornado at 16 plus a buffer just cause). Gave Pikachu Iron Tail and kept going lower and lower in level until it could have a guarenteed OHKO with Iron Tail.
No Electric moves is no excuse. And that's without any Attack EVs. And of course Pikachu would have to be way higher than level 40 by that point anyway. The show just went full retard. But Ash running around with a level 100 Pikachu one shot-ing everything doesn't make for good TV.
NU (Never Used) and OU (Over Used) are two tiers on the Smogon ladder which is sort of an unofficial ruleset used by competitive battlers, with rules decided more or less by the community as a whole. If you'd like to try playing around the ladders and get a feel what it's like I would recommend a simulator rather than cartridge since cartridge it's hard to find people to battle and battles are very slow. Pokemon Showdown (http://pokemonshowdown.com/) and Pokemon Online are the two most popular battle simulators with pretty large communities to battle against although the communities are somewhat smaller at lower tiers.
Also yes it's definitely something others do. Bulbapedia doesn't give you any unfair information about the game; it just tells you what a Pokemons Base Stats are and their possible moveset. It's definitely a tool you want to use as a beginner since learning by trial and error what's faster than something else or what can kill other stuff is a very slow process.
Just ask your questions in a competitive Pokemon related subreddit. A variety of opinions is much better than one dominating opinion; one should never copy others without adding his or her personal flair in one's battling style
~~
IVs are Pokemon genetics. I'm no expert on this, but you can read up on the basics here. Note that the right Nature is possibly even more important than perfect IVs. If you can't be bothered with this shit, just hack the game or something. I won't tell. I won't judge. (though it is quite pricey...)
EVs are basically stat points you get for defeating certain Pokemon. They are applied when you level up. Think of it like a mastery; in Skyrim if you used Sneak a lot, you get Sneak Mastery. In Pokemon, if you defeat Pokemon with, say, HP trait, you get HP mastery.
If you want to get into competitive Pokemon quickly, I believe the best way is through experience. Jump into Pokemon Showdown and play some Random battles. Once you get the hang of the general feel of the game (basic type advantages, basic ability knowledge, X pokemon is spD tanky use physical move, X pokemon might have X item which counters X strategy, clefairy has flamethrower, etc etc) build an OU team and try your luck.
Not my battle, but had to share it anyways since it features some friends of mine.
http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/monotype-166948722 Turn 6 begins
Note: With Victory Star, Blue Flare is 93.5% accurate.
That's definitely not representative of Mega-Rayquaza's potential. I did some calculations using http://pokemonshowdown.com/damagecalc/
252 Atk Life Orb Rayquaza Dragon Claw vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Goodra: 393-463 (102.3 - 120.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO
(I manually put Ray's attack stat up to base 180)
Even a max physical bulk Goodra get's OHKOd by Mega Ray. The only reason it worked on battle spot is that there are lots of casual players who probably didn't even EV train, let alone reset for IVs and nature, but just figured they could throw out a title legendary and win.
Here's a damage calculator so you can see for yourself how much iv's matter. You will lose games you could have won if your pokemon were supposed to speed tie. Eventually though you will lose games you could have won because your opponents pokemon did just enough damage and you didn't have max iv's.
Would you really go into battle without every advantage possible? You can try playing on pokemon showdown if you're too impatient for breeding or want to test which pokemon you want to breed.
I would just use Smogon or Serebii to help get recommendations for what natures to use for pokes and how to spread EV's...I like to casually play competitive and never worry about IV's, and it never bites me in the butt. Don't worry about 'Tiers' or anything, just have fun and use whatever poke you want, every poke can be used in a different way. If you really want to look into building a solid team, I would start with Pokemon Showdown to plan and prepare a team before spending time breeding it in-game with egg moves and such. Last but not least, have fun!
>Still, it is pretty uncommon to find crap people. Crap teams however.
this is very accurate in my experience
most 'bad' encounters ive had with people on showdown are normally related to me stalling (usually unintentionally... got into a massive PP stall with my resttoed vs stockpile snorlax.... but i have fallen in love with subseed spiky shield chesnaught in UU) or shitty RNG (normally when i break through their RNG based tactics - thankfully swagger got banned)
and most people i fight apologise for getting hax on me.... they dont need to... it sucks; but its a part of the game... still a very courteous thing to do
It turns out that 3 turns is the most probable. It's either ~~2-4~~ 2 or 3 turns, depending on the RNG and Salamance's nature (pretty sure the Elite 4 have perfect or near-perfect IVs and 0 EVs).
http://pokemonshowdown.com/damagecalc/
Edit reason: M4's Special Attack is 160, which puts her range of damage at the higher end of my original calculation. 3HKO remains the most likely outcome.
Basically, for overall bulk, you aim to get both defenses to be close to half your hp before applying multipliers like natures, eviolite, and assault vest. This usually means maximum investment in HP, but not always (see: Blissey, Snorlax, Exploud). For bulk in one stat spending <504 EVs, instead you bring that relevant defensive stat to be as close to hp as possible, but usually it's best not to specialize in bulking one stat like this: the only time I do it is on assault vest Conkeldurr, because lower hp means more drain punch healing.
After you do that, it can be worth adjusting it slightly to hit an important number. The game tends to round down, so to get the most out of eviolite or assault vest, you want an even number on hp, or for natures you might want to aim for a multiple of 10. Leftovers, a multiple of 16, and so on. If substitute is being used, don't make it a multiple of 4, same if they're stealth lock weak, and if they're doubly stealth rock weak, don't have an even number of hp. In all these cases, only go for such numbers if it's only moving around a small number of points (in most cases it's not worth reducing hp by more than 2 points).
Finally, you'll probably want to be able to tank a specific attack for some things, so calculate for how much bulk you need to tank that distribute accordingly. I made a script in R, a free stats based programming language, to do this. If you want to try it: download R here, my script here. Load the script up in R, change the numbers on the inputs section accordingly, then hit ctrl+A and ctrl+R to run it. I hope the commenting makes it accessible.
There's Pokémon Showdown, an online battle simulator. Since it's simulated, you don't have to worry about breeding (or genning) your Pokémon. But as the other guy implied, people on Showdown tend to be a little more competitive than those who play on the actual Pokémon games.
Smogon is what I use. As a dude in /r/pokemontrades said, you can also use pokemonshowdown.
Hope that helps!
Gonna agree with /u/talagangW0W on this one. Get on a simulator. It might not be for everyone, it definitely wasn't for me at first but it pretty much changed my understanding of competitive battling.
Head to http://pokemonshowdown.com but DON'T built a team. Instead I suggest you hit RANDOM BATTLE.
In random battle the pokemon selected for your team are picked randomly, however don't worry about getting a magikarp with splash, the moves, abilities, IVs, EVs & natures are not randomized, and are instead copied from popular builds on smogon,
Basically you get to try out a bunch of legitimate and effective strategies & movesets that are common in competitive battles. It also helps you understand the battle of prediction as with a random team, anything can happen.
Keep practicing on random battle, once you're happy, move onto the teambuilder (which will actually recommend EV spreads and moves for you if you're unsure) and get to work with a team.
Battle, lose, tweak, battle again.
Ok so the first thing youre gonna want to do is to pick a format. the 2 most populer ons are vgc (The Official gamemode 2 teams of six pick out 4 in a 2v2) and Smogon (6v6 Singles with tiers to make pokemon viable). both have their upsides and downsides. Next you should play on pokemonshowdown to test out your team http://pokemonshowdown.com/ its a battle simulator that you can make any pokemon to test them out before you have to make the team ingame to see if its effective. On pokemon every pokemon has 2 things called evs and ivs. ivs or individual values are randomly generated on a pokemon and effect their stat growths they go up to 31 and pretty much everything needs 31 ivs theres a lot of breeding stuff with ivs that i dont know that much of so its something to research after seeing if your team is good on showdown. next is evs or effort values every time you kill a pokemon ingame you get a vertain amount of points to a stat every 4 and the stat is increased you get a max of 508 on every pokemon these allow you to build a pokemon in many was so just build them as you like or try to find sets for them online(smogon usually has sets for pokemon but sumo is so new they dont have them on their site yet) Those are the basics ask me any questions if you have any or R/stunfisk is a good comp sub reddit hmu on showdown if you wanna play my username is the same as my reddit one.
>not everyone is into competitive battling but a large portion are
Wrong. Almost no one is into competitive battling.
Just look at the Pokemon Showdown user stats. With the release of SuMo they get around 30k users active on average. Now this is a free service, so there's probably a significant chunk of people on there who don't even own SuMo.
Now let's look at SuMo sales. VGChartz puts it at about 4.2 million global at this point.
That means that the userbase of Pokemon Showdown is less than 0.75% of the total SuMo playerbase, not even 1/100th, and that's not even bothering to guess how many of them don't own SuMo.
So my point is almost no one is interested in competitive Pokemon. The vast majority of Pokemon fans are casual players who probably don't even know what EVs are.
If you're just looking to get in to the battling scene, i recommend checking out Smogon. It's all about competitive pokemon battling. It even provides movesets/IVs/natures/etc. build for individual pokemon with team recommendations.
Smogon: http://www.smogon.com/
They also have an online battle simulator, so you can set up and test out teams easily, called pokemon showdown.
Showdown: http://pokemonshowdown.com/
It's pretty much the go-to resource for competitive information.
It's worth noting that Smogon has their own tiers and battle rules for the various tiers/types of competition that are different from actual official tournaments.
All in all, there's a TON of information there that can really help you get on your feet .
heres some advice ive given to other people
To get better as a player/Learn to play singles:
http://www.smogon.com/ Read articles from here
http://pokemonshowdown.com/ practice here
Watch:
PokeaimMD(probably the most popular Competitive poketuber, plays every tier.)
Thunderblunder777(most informative IMHO, mostly really OU)
Mr Jamvad(One of the best players in the world, listen to his thoughts when playing)
Chimpact(Very well rounded player, listen to his thought process too)
TonyFlygon(Also very informative)
for singles
Def watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueyENCw8_N4
To get better as a player/Learn to play singles:
http://www.smogon.com/ Read articles from here
http://pokemonshowdown.com/ practice here
Watch:
PokeaimMD(probably the most popular Competitive poketuber, plays every tier.)
Thunderblunder777(most informative IMHO, mostly really OU)
Mr Jamvad(One of the best players in the world, listen to his thoughts when playing)
Chimpact(Very well rounded player, listen to his thought process too)
TonyFlygon(Also very informative)
for singles
Unfortunately for you, Baton pass is not allowed on more than 1 mon in many tiers. Additionally, its very hard to make a viable baton pass team with Absol/Gliscor and without Smeargle/Scolipede. however, if you dont care about rules and are willing try something new, try out this team:
Chris Paul (Smeargle) (M) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Moody
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Ingrain
- Quiver Dance
- Dark Void
- Baton Pass
John Stockton (Scolipede) (M) @ Black Sludge
Ability: Speed Boost
EVs: 240 HP / 80 Def / 188 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Iron Defense
- Protect
- Substitute
- Baton Pass
Jason Kidd (Vaporeon) (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 192 HP / 252 Def / 64 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Acid Armor
- Scald
- Substitute
- Baton Pass
Steve Nash (Espeon) (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Bounce
EVs: 200 HP / 56 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Stored Power
- Substitute
- Baton Pass
Magic Johnson (Sylveon) (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Pixilate
EVs: 216 HP / 208 SpD / 84 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Stored Power
- Hyper Voice
- Baton Pass
Oscar Robertson (Zapdos) @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 228 Def / 28 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Roar
- Thunderbolt
- Substitute
- Baton Pass
Seconded I want to know this as well.
Edit: Pokémon Go just reused Pokémon X/Y in game models.
http://www.models-resource.com/3ds/pokemonxy/
I am really tempted to make a pokemon Stadium Clone for the PC using these models and the battle logic from the pokemon showdown battle engine.
But alas I don't have a lot of free time. It would probably take over 5 years to complete.
There's no built-in way to play comp in the games themselves; you have to look for people online or at a convention for experienced battlers. Barring that, Pokemon Showdown is the most popular and easiest way to have competitive battles online. It offers a lot of freedom in teambuilding, among other things.
http://www.smogon.com/ Smogon has a bunch of good resources and forums for competitive battling and they have a battle simulator called Pokemon Showdown, which has rooms for different tiers and a room for wifi battles/breeding. http://pokemonshowdown.com/
Pokemon Showdown was coded by an amateur in about 6 months and is now the main simulator after years of junk simulators like Shoddy Battle.
Therefore, it's possible to put out a great product. Know what the Showdown guy did? He didn't bother posting up anything until most of the work was done.
Just general suggestions (don't play singles too often), Aerodactyl should be Jolly instead of Naive, and I believe (you can run damage calcs here) that Eviolite actually typically works better with HP investment first.
Tie break:
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/battlespotdoublesvgc2015-255266439 (Will wait a few days)
http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/battlespotdoublesvgc2015-255268143 (Will wait a few days)
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/battlespotdoublesvgc2015-255270752 (See above parenthesis)
max neutral is 125/120/170/120/170/70 and the nature increases or decreases the stat by 10% (so 6iv timid would be 125/108/170/120/170/77)
you can check any pokemon on any kind of iv calculator. easiest is probably the ps damage calc
I'm going to over-simplify the whole metagame. Have 1 physical sweeper, 1 backup physical attacker, 1 physical wall, 1 special sweeper, 1 backup special attacker and 1 special wall. Work around on the mentioned battle simulator pokemon showdown and see what works well for you in those roles /you may want to run more specially orientated team after some tests. another tip: use a mega, they can be a strong support for your team or be the backbone of it... and usually are fairly strong.
Another tip: read some articles, watch some youtube videos, to get a feeling for how "experienced" players think and play the competitive game and after a while you'll start to understand the synergy of some pokemon the pros and cons of certain pokemon builds etc... but that will take a good chunk off your free time
Pokemon Showdown. And competitive battling is, to me, where you play to win and ascend in rank (Rank only matters if you use Pokemon Showdown).
Sure, people say it sucks the fun out of the game, but Pokemon Showdown is overall much better and even has the 3D models from 6th gen, not to mention you can fully customize your party, so you don't need to breed 1,000 Abras to get a decent nature for your Alakazam.
In case you don't know how to competitive battle, there's a chatroom just for that in PSD. Also other ones. In case you're confused by the amount of tiers, just go with OU as you have the most variety in terms of Pokemon.
Just play and learn.
http://www.smogon.com/dex/xy/pokemon/ is your resource if you are curious about any Pokemon
dont worry about losing, stats aren't recorded till you register, and even then, registering a new name is as easy as typing it out, no email confirmation required or anything. You can really find your own style in this game
You should EV train your team to survive certain hits as well as to deal the maximum damage, using damage calculators is the best way to do this, remember if you are playing on cartridge set the levels to 50. Also, watching YouTube videos about EV training can help your understanding. Here is a great on by Alex Ogloza. Mind you it is a bit long but worth the watch
I'm a pretty competitive battler--I can give you some battle tips if you'd like. I've been pretty busy with classes lately but if I have some free time maybe I can even give you some coaching if you're interested in trying a battle simulator like Pokemon Showdown
I'm very familiar with a lot of popular dark types and would be more than happy to try to help you build a team to suit your style and your needs.
See, I was hoping that's what you were talking about. I gotcha:
http://pokemonshowdown.com/damagecalc/
It's a site people use. Type in any combo you want for any pokemon, and it'll do the work for you. Nobody actually knows how to do all that in their head.
252+ SpA Choice Specs Flash Fire Heatran Eruption (150 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Abomasnow in Sun: 4600-5416 (1197.9 - 1410.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO
So I guess I'll have to amend that statement to be "that you'll ever encounter." Situational Heatran takes the cake. http://pokemonshowdown.com/damagecalc/ My calculator.
Here, use this:
http://pokemonshowdown.com/damagecalc/
It's a damage calculator, and you will be able to use it in the future so you don't need to wait for other people to answer.
Also, the answers to your question are :
4 Atk Hydreigon Superpower vs. 4 HP / 252+ Def Blissey: 328-386 (50.3 - 59.2%) -- 78.5% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
4 Atk Hydreigon Superpower vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Blissey: 328-386 (45.9 - 54%) -- 3.9% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
4+ Atk Hydreigon Superpower vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Blissey: 360-424 (50.4 - 59.3%) -- 80.9% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
4+ Atk Hydreigon Superpower vs. 4 HP / 252+ Def Blissey: 360-424 (55.2 - 65%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
So yes it is possible depending on the opposing blissey's EV spread, I gave you max defense/Hp calcs and max def/Sp.Def calcs to show you how much damamge you would be doing.
Don't run a +Attack nature, it isn't going to help much as you only have one move and not much investment into that stat. Remember, you could always use life orb to help improve your damage output on the physical side of the spectrum, but you won't do as much on the special side. Expert belt could also work, but it probably wont be as good as a life orb, as the coverage on Hydreigon isn't the for super effective-ness. If you want a replacement for Fire blast you could always try out something like Earth power, Surf or maybe even Hyper Voice(not the best choice, but can hit behind substitutes). Really though, you should be pretty good with Fire Blast, as it provides super effective coverage.
this Is the best damage calculator
In general, items that boost single type moves by only 10% (like metal coat) are not that great. If you want to do 6v6 single battles, check out smogon.com. If you want to do 4v4 double battles, check out nuggetbridge.com. There are LOTS of other websites that feature competing battling discussions. The competitive pokemon subreddit is /r/stunfisk
http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/ou-99685951
same thing happened to me too lol. it feels so good to win haha. the guy was #3 at the time but I think he's 21 now:)
What set were you running on celebi? When I'm not running HO I tend to get hammered by BP teams.
> I believe that at Level 100 each 4 EVs result in a stat increase of 1, meaning at Level 50, 8 EVs are required to increase a stat by 1.
EVs add up with IVs. They do not calculate separately. Therefore, 4 EVs and 1 IV give you 1 stat point at lv. 50.
> Wouldn't a 250/250/8 spread be more efficient than 252/252/4?
This depends on the stats of your pokemon at lv. 50. I recommend playing around in the teambuilder section of http://pokemonshowdown.com/ to focus which EVs matter. It's the easiest way to determine if 4 extra EVs give you a stat point or not.
Good luck!
I used this website to look into the encounter between a level 60 zapdos and a level 54 Dewgong and it looks surprisingly bad for Zap to my surprise.
Thunder will one-shot Dewgong but thundershock will require 3. Dewgong's most potent attack is Aurora Beam which will take of Zap in 4 hits which is a bit close for comfort. Unless we are using democracy with good cooperation, Zapdos could easily go down before beating the Icy lady.
Dangit, why was Thunderbolt only a TM move in the first generation?
I personally disagree that IVs are the least important element in a pokemon's stats - I mean, they're not the most important thing, but those 31 points can make a noticeable difference when you're battling. The difference between a 20-something or 31 IV pokemon might not be too significant, but between 31 and 2-3, you might miss out on some important KOs or take more damage, and every little bit counts in competitive play.
If you're finding your bred pokemon lacking, you can check out the damage output on your planned pokemon beforehand with a calculator like this one. You can fiddle with the IVs to see just how they'll affect certain matchups. I find break my team very helpful for determining the amount of damage you'll both deal and receive from prominent threats, as well.
You can create charts in reddit with the use of the vertical bar. Basically each cell is separated by a "|". The only trick is that for reddit to know that you're making a chart, you need to have the formatting line in between the 1st and 2nd rows, which is done with colons and dashes in the each cell. These format the cell. ":" is default (usually left justified), ":-" left, "-:" is right and ":-:" is center.
Example, the following:
| Chart|Extreme Speed | Vacuum Wave | Strongest | |:|-:|:-|:-:| |Rotom-W |18 - 21.3%|28.9 - 34.2%|28.9 - 34.2% (VW)| |Aegislash*|0 |0 |40.1 - 47.5% (DP)
Creates:
| Chart | Extreme Speed | Vacuum Wave | Strongest |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rotom-W | 18 - 21.3% | 28.9 - 34.2% | 28.9 - 34.2% (VW) |
| Aegislash* | 0 | 0 | 40.1 - 47.5% (DP) |
To get all the numbers I just used http://pokemonshowdown.com/damagecalc/ and assumed the most common set.
It sounds to me that you really, really need some basic battle experience first before you throw down on the cart. The go-to battle simulator is Pokemon Showdown - you can try out your own team, but even before that, I would recommend just trying some Random Battles first. You can start to get a feel for how movesets work and how your opponents play.
When you're ready to build a solid team, check out Smogon for detailed strategies. The analyses on the site are for Gen V, but some can be used as Gen VI sets too. You're obviously not forced to use them, but they do explain how to use Pokemon and why (sorry, but your sets seem to be lacking the why).
Smogon also collects usage statistics every month so you know what Pokemon and what sets you should be most prepared for. As you gain experience, you'll realize that maybe you should have prepared more for a certain common Pokemon, and you'll need to change your team around.
Hope it helps. Strategies in the game don't work like the anime - competitive battling is a much more precise science.
What do you mean by "learn the game"? Do you mean the actual game (going through the gyms, etc.), or the competitive metagame, or what?
If the latter, you could start by trying out teams on Pokemon Showdown. It's an online simulator, so no breeding necessary.
Maximum speed is important if you want to be able to tie with other base 80 speed pokemon, such as Chandelure, Dragonite, Togekiss and Venusaur (there are others but those are most relevant off the top of my head). This gives you a 50% chance of outspeeding them and hitting with your super effective STAB.
Dragonite's the main one since Mamoswine is one of the few pokemon who can get an OHKO despite Multiscale, and the other three have pretty powerful coverage of their own which could KO if they happen to move first. Use maximum speed anyway, because there's lots of slower things that would just suck to lose to if they were in KO range.
If you really do want to run a more defensive spread (not that good without Thick Fat), find a specific monsters whose attacks you want to survive and use a damage calculator to find that happy medium between bulk, offensive power and speed.
As far as I know, the pokebank is currently down in Japan and X/Y hasn't been hacked yet. For competitive advice you could try /r/stunfisk. I believe the pokebank also blocked all pokemon with illegal values (IVs higher than 31 or impossible moves) so the teams you're up against shouldn't be impossible for you to assemble yourself, even if they are hacked.
If you're worried about hacked teams you could just play on pokemonshowdown. 100% competitive, 0% breeding required. Click click click and your team is ready, shiny or non, male or female. It's not nintendo-based, of course.
Read through my series of game guides about making a team.
Look up move sets on <strong>Smogon.</strong>
Practice on PokemonShowdown.
Good luck!
Heh, it's not that important, but I like to think about the little things like that. I'm going to do some more detailed calculations:
Skyla's Swanna is level 39 in BW2.
I'm going to use this calculator, and assume that Boldore and Swanna are about equal for EVs and IVs: http://pokemonshowdown.com/damagecalc/
With a Rock Gem, a Boldore would need to be level 57 for its average Power Gem to activate a Sash. Without a Rock Gem, it would need to be level 72.
Test teams and practice on http://pokemonshowdown.com. Please ignore some of the assholes who play here.
Read this http://www.smogon.com/dp/articles/intro_comp_pokemon. Lots of useful stuff on Smogon.
Use pokemon you like. Everything is viable in some tier (except metapod, and magikarp, and cosmog, etc.)
Try a variety of formats to find one you like. VGC and OU are the most popular ones just to start you off.
Go to r/stunfisk for better competitive advice.
Be polite to everyone for gifts from RNGesus.
But most importantly, have fun. Unless you want to play stall.
Forgot to add, smogon tiers builds (Uber, OU, UU...) might or might not help you because they play on a simulator http://pokemonshowdown.com/ and divide the pokemon depending on "what they offer", for example, if you look the mawile Uber analysis http://www.smogon.com/dex/xy/pokemon/mawile/uber/ and the Battle Spot Singles analisys, you will note that the EVs distribution are diferent, also there are a few changes between movesets
You may have heard that in competitive gameplay Special Attackers are better off with 0 Atk IVs (and 31 Atk IVs would be the worst), because this stat will only be used for Confusion Damage and Foul Play Damage (and a lower Attack Stat results in less Damage)
Yesterday I've posted that I'm SRing for a HP Ground Modest Xurkitree.
After catching 21 Xurkitrees I got this spread:
> Modest 31/31/31/16/26/31 HP Ground
I can "easily" Hypertrain the Sp.Atk and Sp.Def, but what's bothering me is that Attack Stat. I haven't saved yet and am still debating :)
I decided to look into the extra damage, the actual difference it would make and thought I'd share the results:
(I used Pokemon Showdown's Damage Calculator)
Xurkitree at Level 50 has 158 HP
| Damage | 0 Attack | 15 Attack | 31 Attack | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Confusion | 15-18 | 16-19 | 17-20 | ~2 HP |
| STAB Foul Play | 51-60 | 54-64 | 58-70 | ~9 HP |
| Non-STAB Foul Play | 34-40 | 36-43 | 39-47 | ~6 HP |
It seems that the high Attack Stat makes the biggest difference when facing STAB Foul Play users like Mandibuzz, Sableye, Umbreon and sometimes Yveltal I guess.
Also I probably won't end up with a 0 Atk IV stat, more like 10-20 Atk IVs if I try again. So every Foul Play would make ~4-5 HP more damage. This can be crucial sometimes, I'm mainly worried about Mandibuzz, but A LOT more of the time it won't matter at all :P
Tough decisions haha
The best way to learn all of this is to try your hand at a battle simulator like Showdown! http://pokemonshowdown.com You can practice battling, building teams, setting IV/EVs, choosing moves, etc.
I don't think there is a guide that will tell you specifically which EV spreads to get, but different competitive forums generally discuss and provide some great builds. Additionally, I think that watching lots of YouTube is helpful, so you're already on the right track!
Sorry for the delayed response this time. Stuff keeps blowing up at work lol
Unfortunately, there isn't any place you can battle below 50. It'd be nice, though! I remember on weekend they had this official Little Cup competition where the only Pokemon allowed had to be level 5. It was a blast lol
But if you're looking for some quick battles to scratch that itch before your Pokemon hit 50, go check out Pokemon Showdown. It's an unofficial battle simulator you can run right in your web browser. Many people use it, and there's a ton of different battle formats (some follow official rules, some follow their own set of rules). It's very handy for testing a team before commuting to the time to breeding one.
Do not waste your time breeding until you know what you are doing. No one plays competitive pokemon on the cartridge except for tournaments. Pros and noobs all use battle websites for playing.
We play on:
You cant even play 6v6 on cartridge. So figure out what format you want to play and then try it out on the simulator. Once you pick a format THEN you can come back and ask us more about teams.
Read this post(ignore arguing below in the comments):
https://www.reddit.com/r/stunfisk/comments/4ytv8r/with_the_influx_of_newer_players_visiting_this/
And this particular comment (ignore the article and other comments people are arguing and lots of wrong information):
Then go to smogon and look through the formats.
Nobody in the competitive community cares. We all play on http://pokemonshowdown.com where your pokemon have perfect IVs and movesets anyway, i guess thats cheating to you. Im not going to waste my time grinding eggs for 3 weeks just to adjust my team. Id rather spend time battling which I find fun.
To get better as a player/Learn to play singles:
http://www.smogon.com/ Read articles from here
http://pokemonshowdown.com/ practice here
Watch:
PokeaimMD(probably the most popular Competitive poketuber, plays every tier.)
Thunderblunder777(most informative IMHO, mostly really OU)
Mr Jamvad(One of the best players in the world, listen to his thoughts when playing)
Chimpact(Very well rounded player, listen to his thought process too)
TonyFlygon(Also very informative)
for singles
To get better as a player/Learn to play singles:
http://www.smogon.com/ Read articles from here
http://pokemonshowdown.com/ practice here
Watch:
PokeaimMD(probably the most popular Competitive poketuber, plays every tier.)
Thunderblunder777(most informative IMHO, mostly really OU)
Mr Jamvad(One of the best players in the world, listen to his thoughts when playing)
Chimpact(Very well rounded player, listen to his thought process too)
TonyFlygon(Also very informative)
for singles
For general research Bulbapedia would be the way to go, someone already gave you a link to that.
If you want to put types into practice without having to go buy a handheld game check out http://pokemonshowdown.com
assuming we are excluding the obvious ones like mobas such as Leauge of Legends or Smite, Blizzard games like Starcraft 2 and Diablo, MMOs like Eve Online and Guild Wars 2, and EA origin exclusives like Crysis 3 and Titanfall., and PS3/4 exclusives like Uncharted or The Last Of Us?
Then, well... not much really. Almost all indie or even middle ground devs release through Steam.
Here's a couple of mentions, worth checking out in case.
Rim World World of Tanks/World of Warships http://pokemonshowdown.com/
No, it's basically a Pokemon battle simulator. It's nice since I don't feel like opening my Pokemon game and having to breed my pokemon with perfect IVs and and getting perfect EVs. Furthermore, I get to try out new pokemon I would never use in an actual pokemon battle and improve my skills.
Of course, it's entertaining for me because I love Pokemon.
First question: what kind of battles do you like playing?
There are essentially two sides of competitive battling currently (at least, ones that have a significant number of people playing them)
VGC (Video Game Championships) rules are double battles in which each player selects 4 of their 6 pokemon. The list of allowable pokemon is set each year by the official pokemon company. This is what people play in tournaments, and a lot of people play in wifi battles.
Smogon (a longstanding competitive pokemon community) rules are primarily based around 6v6 singles. The list of available pokemon and other rules are voted on by the community, and things that are deemed too good are "banned" to a higher "tier". (I can explain that more if you want). This is what people play on pokemon showdown primarily, and also on wifi to some extent, although there is no ladder for 6v6 rating battles.
The roles you want to fill will vary quite a bit depending on which of these formats you prefer, as well as the pokemon that fill them. Both are a lot of fun, but I would recommend concentrating on just one to start as there's a lot to learn.