Welcome to Smogon! Take a moment to read the Introduction to Smogon for a run-down on everything Smogon, and make sure you take some time to read the global rules.
This has been a side project of mine since February. I've always thought that there was no single guide to battling in general, and I wanted to try to fix that. After hearing from many people that the (PU) ladder was terrible, I decided that this was necessary. It's a work in progress, and new tips from great players are always welcome. I am not the best battler, far from it. So I encourage experienced players to post advice that I might have missed (I know I missed something, it's on the tip of my tongue). As that was to be a resource, I want actual discussion to happen here. Post what you think is missing or incorrect, or expand on a point already made.
If any other metagame wants to make their own version of this, go for it. Also, in the future, PU leadership may try to bring this to other mediums, such as the Smog, or Articles and Letters. This is a community project now, not just my own, so there is no limits to wwhere this can go.
EDIT: I am working on hyper linking to the relevant threads mentioned too
Really nice work, WhiteDMist. This is an awesome guide for battlers who want to get higher on the ladder, but don't know where they're going wrong. Similarly, I'm sure that just reading this guide and spreading it around will improve our ladder's quality overall, so I'm thankful for this. Given I've laddered a lot in PU over the past year or so, and have been laddering on and off since Gen 4, I've struggled with a few of these issues myself and so I think I can give new players who are reading this a few more tips I've picked up through experience over the years.
When doing your best to outplay your opponent through smart switches, it's often hard to feel out what kind of style of prediction they will use, or more generally, what their playing style is like. Will they be relying on doubles to gain momentum? Will they be trying to hit your switch-in to their Pokemon with the appropriate coverage move? Will they stay in because they predicted you would switch? Will they simply stay in because they don't know what they're doing?
The best, most condensed answer as to how to ascertain your opponent's playing style I've found is to simply use the /Rank _____ (username here) command on Showdown before the battle actually begins. This is not an ironclad rule, but I find that if the player is lower ranked and has a losing Win:Loss ratio, then it is very probable they won't be able to predict the switches you're making, they won't make complex plays, and they will simply stay in and fight the Pokemon that's directly in front of them rather than thinking about the possible courses the battle can take later on.
However, the opposite is also true: if you find that your opponent is ranked highly on the ladder, a PU regular who knows the meta, and has a high W:L ratio, then you can make the assumption that they will be making their best play to optimize their chances of winning. Simply use /Rank at the beginning of the battle in order to get a better idea of what's going to happen next.
This is essentially scouting that occurs before a battle has begun. In this guide, you could also touch on scouting that occurs within a battle. There is not a single best way to scout what your opponent's next move will be, but a good resource as to how to learn what your opponent will be doing (outside of team preview) is this article: http://www.smogon.com/smog/issue8/leads. It's not related to PU at all, but it talks about the effectiveness of scouting during a battle (you've also already touched on this a bit in your Pivot section). Moves like Volt Switch, Dry-Passing, and U-Turn are great ways to find out what your opponent's switch-in will be. Additionally, in terms of scouting an individual Pokemon's moveset, Protect and Taunt are great tools for this as well. Once you find out what your opponent's next switch-in will be, you can use this valuable information later in the battle to produce a sweep that cannot be stopped by removing this defensive threat before setting up. If the opponent does not have an easily identifiable lead like Taunt Misdreavus, Piloswine, or Venipede during Team Preview and you have no idea what they're about to use, consider using one of these 5 Choice Scarfed Pokemon as a lead in order to gain Momentum. Using a Choice Scarf lead is a good idea if you're unsure of what your opponent will do next:
Raichu @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Lightning Rod
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Volt Switch
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Thunderbolt
- Focus Blast
525 Speed
Dodrio and Raichu in particular can bring out their checks and counters; for example, using Dodrio has the tendency to bring out Pokemon like Probopass, so instead of committing to an Attack in order to damage Probopass, you can simply Baton Pass out to something that removes Probopass so that your Psychics and Dragons (for example, Kadabra / Fraxure) can break through your opponent's team with Psychic or Outrage, respectively.
Finally, most players I come across in low ladder do not seem to understand what it means to EV for a specific purpose. They simply follow a spread that was regurgitated in chat, but don't really know what it's for specifically. I recommend reading further about what the purpose of your specific EV spread is, and how you can change that to better accommodate threats that your team has a difficult time with. For example, Stoutland is a huge threat in this current metagame, and Tangela, when it is EV'd offensively cannot act as a direct switch-in without being 2HKO'd by a CB Frustration after Stealth Rock damage. However, if you EV Tangela defensively instead, it is easily able to withstand all of Stoutland's attacks (barring a burned/para'd Facade) and Knock Off its Choice Band, allowing your team to rest easy knowing Stoutland has been crippled. Knowing how to identify threats to your overall team composition, and how to EV to stop these threats are all very important when battling, generally speaking.
Thanks 2xTheTap ! I've added your points (condensed a bit since the original is already a large wall of text), and also added some more resources (namely the Smog and Battling 101).
