Poke Questions

[Chonen]

Heya,
I stared playing with Red Version and have always been involved with Pokemon in some fashion sense. but I have a friend who is strongly into it and I wanted to start playing again. being an avid CCG player I have some questions about the mechanics of the game and would appreciate any advice or insight:

1. I am not going to raise all of my Pokemon to level 100, but i am interested in competitive(still casual for the most part) with human trainers. How do you have Pokemon appropriately level to actually fight other people? It would seem like there would very often be a level disparity preventing fair matches. it seems to me Level 50 all is what I will have to go withy, but are there level brackets I should train different sets of Pokemon to?

2. Are there general Stat trends to be assumed from different types of Pokemon? I am not intimately familiar with all 482+ but is it reasonable to assume Electricity has high speed and spedial attack, rock is slow with a high defense, and middle ground is found by Pokemon with 2 types?

3. In general, should EV training be used to enhance stats that are already high or to reinforce low stats?

4. How important is the speed stat? Going first is a great advantage but all that comes from the number is whether it is higher or lower than the opponent. So you don't gain the added benefit of having an incredibidly high defense. The higher dense is the more resistant you are, the higher your speed (after surpassing the opponent) doesn't matter.

5. Is it better to use stat increasing moves or stat decreasing moves in a general sense?

6. Is it better normally to increase your attack stat to get a good hit or use both of those turns to attack?

7.Tips on choosing moves? STAB is important but I want to go for unexpected moves as well. Should more accurate moves be favored to the more pwerful but less accurate ones? Are there status affects that just aren't worth the time inflicting?

8. Tips for creating a well rounded team: Should each pokemon be a distinct type and serve a role(stat-wise?)?

Thanks,
-Chance ^_^

 

[Linkachu]

I'll see what I can help with =)

1. The beautiful part about Diamond and Pearl's WFC is that you can force level all Pokemon to either L. 50 or L. 100. That way, if your team isn't quite level 50, or some are more than level 50, you don't need to worry since the game will set all the levels equal for both you and your opponent. What matters more is your movesets, how you EV train your Pokemon and their IVs, explained in this thread here.

2. No, it isn't. To a degree some types do have their trends (like faster Electric-types, Rock-types with higher Defense stats, etc.), but chances are there are one or more Pokemon of those types that break the trend (ie. Aerodactyl is part Rock but rather fast, Electrivire and Luxray have higher Attack stats than Special Attack). Dual Type Pokemon aren't really restricted to any sort of stat trends either and you'll generally find their stats all over the place. The best thing you can do is look at a PokeDex (such as Charms' WebDex) and determine where the stats of a Pokemon lie. If anything, check out the stats of your own Pokemon so you know what moves to give them or how to raise them.

3. Both. A lot of it depends on what you plan to use the Pokemon for. Depending on the nature of your Pokemon and what EVs you give it, you can get some decent results in battle even if the stat is lower than desired. Sometimes, though, a stat is so low that it just isn't really worth bothering with (ie. the Speed stat of a Golem). What it all comes down to is what you foresee as your greatest obstacle in battle, what will optimize the usefulness of your Pokemon, and what stats are vital for it as opposed to those that it could get by without. Sometimes a stat is so high already that you can focus EVs elsewhere and still have good finishing results. In the end, it really just depends on your battling styles.

4. Again, depends on how you battle. For some Pokemon, Speed can determine whether you get to land a single hit on your foe before being KO'd. Some people will always tell you to focus on the Speed stat for an already fast Pokemon since you'll get the first attack, and maybe that's a good strategy. If the Pokemon isn't naturally fast, though, it might not be worth the trouble of bothering with. A Steelix isn't going to out speed much, nor is it meant to, eh? Defensively it will take hits nicely, though. The best thing I can suggest when picking your team is checking out their Speed and Attack stats vs Defenses. If something is fast and powerful but lacks defenses (like Weavile), go for Speed over defenses. Likewise, if the opposite is true, go for Defenses and choose moves that will alter your own stats or the stats of your opponents (ie. Toxic, Confuse Ray, Thunder Wave, and so on). If its in between, you can still focus on power and defenses but ignore speed since you know your Pokemon will be able to take a hit and keep fighting.

5. I don't have a large opinion on that one since it seems to have a lot to do with your personal tastes, the types of opponents you're fighting, and your Pokemon. It seems to me that people are more inclined to raise their own Attack Stat verses lowering the opponents Defenses competitively, though, since once you take down one Pokemon you'll still have the stat increase for the next. Still, if you're up against a particularly tough Pokemon that you figure you aren't going to beat in one turn anyways, might be useful to set things up for the Pokemon who comes out after. Again, I'm not sure XD I'll see what others have to say.

6. Again, depends on your Pokemon and the situation. Maybe you can take a turn to increase your stats, take a hit, take out the foe next turn and keep on battling. Maybe even after that attack boost you'll still go down tho, so wasting the turn is pointless. You really need to judge the battling situation for yourself. I like moves like Sword Dance and Nasty Plot, but only when I know I'll survive long enough to actually get use out of 'em. There's always the chance that a single, non-boosted hit will defeat your current opponent, so it might be worth taking the chance since they could potentially hit you with a status condition or a super effective attack in the meantime and screw things up for you. Its a gamble, yes XD but you just need to do what you think works best.

7. STAB is always a great thing when applicable, but I personally don't feel that ALL of your attacks need to be STAB'd. I like the unexpected moves that give your Pokemon protection against their weaknesses, STAB or no STAB. It gives you more range in battles against diverse teams, and it works well for me. Some people will say otherwise, but eh... Do what feels right to you and test things out =) As for accuracy verses power, it's another 'do what feels right to you' answer. I personally favor accuracy over power and have for a long time and, again, this battling style works for me. Someone else could tell you otherwise. I'd just rather -know- my attack will hit than take the chance that I'll miss and get KO'd for it. Not sure what to say on the status inflictions since I've seen all of them used competitively and, in those cases, they mostly all worked. Preference and situational really, like so much else is.

8. A well-rounded teams is one that can take on every type of Pokemon super effectively (whether it be with STABed attacks or not) and doesn't have glaring weaknesses. If you notice that your Pokemon choices have a lot of weaknesses to one or more types, choose Pokemon with strengths against these to back them up. As for distinctive roles... It generally is good to have some high defensive Pokemon handy to buffer, as well as high attackers or speedy Pokemon. Might also be worthwhile having one or two Pokemon that act solely as support with moves like Toxic, or Sword Dance and Baton Pass (or, if you're like me, give at least one of these sorts of moves to the majority of your team for tight situations). All I can really say is, cover your weaknesses and use a bit of everything. With the Type-Split, it's good to have both Attack stat and Special Attack-stat based Pokemon and not just focus on one over the other (same can be said for the Defense stats). Mix it up, try different Pokemon combinations, and be creative with move sets! Trial and error goes a long way =)

Hope some of this helped ^^;

 

[Chonen]

Thanks for the lengthy reply.
It is good to see that pretty much all of the questions I had were 'Just depends" on how I want to play. I like freedom and not hearing overwhelming sentiments towards one playstyle (which happens in card games sometimes). I want to shy away from using legendaries and lots of starters, but I have come to see how some Pokemon just aren't that competitive because of things like low stat growth.

It'll probably be awhile before I have semi-respectable teams, but I will try to find people like you to battle with then.