What kind of battler are you?What is your playstyle battling-wise?What was it earlier?
Personally,I have been playing competitively since when I bought my DS with Diamond last July.
Before this,I used to be a noob compared to competitive battling's standards.As in,I used almost exclusively moves with a high power and moves I liked with every Pokemon,no matter what their stats where;my Aggron with Fire Blast and Thunder among others proves it xD.As a result,the 3rd Gen was my worst generation-not that I did not like the games,but I was a bad battler.
Now that I battle competitively,I sometimes tend to be criticized for my very offensive playstyle;some teams of mine do not have even one wall/tank and rely solely on sweepers.In my opinion,a team of sweepers,if it has extremely good team work,can be really effective.
As far as Pokemon are concerned,I use Pokemon with well thought natures,EVs and moves,and the best IVs I can get them with.Also,I usually use a lot of Pokemon with setup moves-one or two turn usually,more is hard to accomplish most of the times.
OK people,discuss.
i'm just an amateur. truth is, i'm not really interested in pokemon battling, and not into it, and since i'm not, i can't really devote myself to it, i just do it for fun. i can't say i have battled many times so far, so be it either competetive or single battling, i don't have much experience, but i'm not a noob either. i'm currently interested in ev training so that i can make my team stronger, but who knows, i might lose that interest soon enough. that's all there is to it.
Well, in the past I used to be a n00b, in the same manner GeorgeSlayer described himself. I still remember having a sceptile with return/hyper beam/giga drain/leaf blade (moveset sucks - i know) I also used many legendaries(so did my friends) and battles depended mostly on luck (if a blizzard hits etc) rather than skill, since everyone's consisted of the same pokemon.
A couple of months after dp were introduced I happened to spot some youtube videos and pokemon guides(mostly on serebii) so I started to properly ev train/breed and occupy myself with competetive battling without even realizing.
Nowadays, I prefer to have balanced teams, but I tend to play offensively most of the time. I love sweepers and I find using a sweeping team far more enjoyable than a stalling one, even though an all-offensive team has serious disadvantages and requires great prediction.
Regarding my pokemon, I always aim for beneficial natures(that's why dittos exist imo) and try to get good IVs in key stats. I also place great attention on a pokemon's ability as it sometimes may be more important than its stats. I also try to use pokemon I like,but sometimes fighting with common OUs is unavoidable(I try to avoid some broken ones though)
and i am a competitive battler. i started to play cometitively when i joined LP forums. at that time, i was a noob and just like every noob, i thought that moves with huge power were the most powerful, but i was wrong.
for example, i had a snorlax with fire blast, hyper beam, thunder & surf xD. it was really pitiful, but i was learning lots of things about ev training, natures, IVs, egg moves and more when i found some useful sites like this one (LP) and some others like serebii & smogon.
these knowledge which i got from my experience in LP helped me to be the champion of the EA tournament. since then, i understood that i could be some of the best pkmn trainers ever.
now, i play more competitively than ever. i train my pokemon with some of the best training methods, i win lots of battles on shoddy & over wifi, but i have to learn more things to be a pokemon master.
about the teams which i use, i prefer teams with a physical & special wall (2) and of course, 4 sweepers (with my lead pokemon inside). i think that this type of team is really effective, because it's really balanced and with some good pokemon inside, i will be able to get some exellent victories. for example, i prefer for special wall the famous "flinching togekiss", because with its air slash + serene grace, i can flinch my foe easilly, but i have to use thunder wave first. this is my favourite wall and that flinching strategy is my most favourite one ever.
When I Firstly Bought my Pokemon Pearl version i was not even aware of Ev training!As time passed by i Started Being a really competitive battler using mostly sweepers,but it was not far away since i started using my more defensive sense of battling! For a year and more,i am using Stallish type of Pokemon teams or teams based mostly on Walls/tanks!As fas as i am concerned,using a defensive team can be quite boring at times as the majority of battles last for too long but they are the most reliable ones around.By using a defensive team switching and predicting is a common stuff and it helps you be an awesome Battler!According to the facts i am one of the most ceompetitive battlers around and i can not even think a team of mine without a Defensive pokemon!(DEFENCE wins Championships)
(27-07-2009 04:50 PM)Grovyle_Fan Wrote: [ -> ]an all-offensive team has serious disadvantages and requires great prediction.
Every rule(or almost every rule
) has got an exception.Look at
this team for an example.And I can find more
.
First of all, that's a nice team(I think I spotted it some days ago when searching for smogon battle tower thread). However, what I'm trying to say is that while using sweepers, a wrong move can cost you a battle. An unexpected t-wave for example is usually deadly, a failure to KO often means you're dead and stealth rock/spikes etc drain your small yet valuable amount of hp. I'm not saying that sweeper users should resort to prediction nor that stall teams can be used safely, I just think that they are really fragile and should be used with caution.
I actually love sweepers as I mentioned before, since they are the most direct means of inflicting dmg.Especially, some bulky sweepers can be of great use in any team.
Like most people, I started off as a noob. The "I have no idea what I am doing" sort of noob. Then one of my best friends introduced me to Serebii and LegendaryPokemon. I remained a noob for about a month, then began to read Serebii's potws. After a while, I began to get a handle on the Pokemon metagame. I then began to read LP's potws, and commented on them for about a year. I joined the forums promtply after that, learned about Shoddy, then really got into battling.
I'm far from the best player, but I'm not bad. When I build a team, I like to start with your stereotypical balanced team: a leads, 3 sweepers / offensive support Pokemon, and 2 walls. From there, I adjust the team to deal with Pokemon that give my team issues. The way I play is an offensive, yet almost stall-like. If bulky offense and balanced offense had a child, my teams would be that kid. I play conservatively, taking a chance if and only if it can set me up for a victory (for example, I had my Infernape against a Metagross, and my opponent had a Starmie. I used Grass Knot simply because if I didn't, I would have lost the battle. In the end, he switched to Starmie, thus clearing a way for my Ape to sweep.) Occasionally, I will bring out a high-powered offensive team, and just totally destroy.
On a different note, I cannot play stall. Just out-surviving a team is just impossible for me to grasp. My main objective right now is to show the world, and myself, that stall is not the end-all statement to every team, but that a well-played and well-built team can destroy stall like it was a toothpick.
I was a n00b or so you can call it for about 5 years. I didn't have any idea about competitive battling, nevertheless I wasn't very into it and I didn't care to reconsider my teams of 3 starters and 3 main legendaries 'cause everyone of my friends played like this and yet,I could beat every one of them f I tried with small changes. Little by little I wanted to change my teams by not having legendaries and putting different types. I really didn't want to play with always the same Pokemon so I tried lots of 'em.
On 2003 I got Internet so I started entering frequently in Serebii. I got amazed by EVs, IVs, natures,different roles for Pokemon (baton passers, spikers, sweepers, tanks etc). Wondering what I can do I started building a team with EVs but with no success at all at first... I think I was all alone in this sort of thing because everyone else would stop playing Pokemon generally or would play with Ubers, as we would call them afterwards.
In any case,when FireRed came out I was into this sort of battling but still was lost or didn't know what to do. Then, Emerald came out and yes, I started playing more seriously. I had a friend who I could call a rival and so we started, as a challenge, taking the symbols of Battle Frontier. The first Pokemon I made was a Pinsir with Flail. Then I got enthusiastic and made more...
Then came Diamond,Shoddy and now I'm here xD I don't enjoy playing Shoddy as much as in-game challenges or battles with my friends to be honest and the reason is all this specialised, counter and anti-counter and infinite moveset and number-crunching metagame. I don't like as much all the categorization and tiers though surely they're needed... I'm a fast-paced player but I believe balance is everything... It's the key of winning battles for me (for example,having 1 lead,3 sweepers and two walls covering each other's weaknesses or playing with another concept such as baton-passing or sandstorm).
I'm into the whole idea of the metagame but the way Smogon and Shoddy is involved into it has changed it imo... It has lost it's original meaning. It has its pros and cons though. It can help you be strategically better and think better but I don't believe it is as much fun as the previous years and that's bad. The previous years were different for many reasons but one of them was that we used our favourites I think,or we had originality in our teams...the surprise factor as everyone is familiar with. Karen of Elite Four said "A truly skilled trainer should try to win with their favourites" and I'm all into that as well.
well, I am an amature on battling but after I found LP in Internet I can say I have become much better! I didn't knew a thing about pokemon and this site helped me and time by time I have improved my skills not only in battle but at training pokemon too. I have to say that when I had bought Saphire I though that only the moves that inflict damage help to win a battle, now it's different. I have learned that having a pokemon with moves that inflict damage isn't something terrible and you will surely lose but you must have and pokemon that can iflict damage to the opponent with other ways or make his/her pokemon's stats lowered and that staff. Although only now I try to make a team with good walls/annoyers etc because even 2-3 months ago I had a team full of Sweepers and for the end I have to say this, I want to make a team with some of my favorite pokemon which are Bellossom, Froslass, Cloyster, Togekiss,Breloom, Laturn and some other pokemons that are on UU tier and only some of them in OU tier... because as Adk said "A truly skilled trainer should try to win with their favorites", because the more of us try to win with strong pokemon. One example of a skilled trainer, for me, is Blue, Because he may have Gengar in his team but he have it in because it is one of his favorites just like Shuckle is one of his favorite pokemon's and I must say congratulations. That's for me.
i was outstanding when i first battled. i have developed my own style and now i am a pro. i love to battle!
my strategy is [hit and go]
I love the hit and run strategy!
Ooooooooooookay pro. Anyways i love combining tanks, walls and sweepers. That means that i start with a wall, weaken my enemies and afterwards use sweepers and later in the battle tanks.