Resource Simple Questions, Simple Answers Thread

Estarossa

moo?
is a Site Content Manageris an official Team Rateris a Social Media Contributoris a Member of Senior Staffis a Community Contributoris a Smogon Discord Contributoris a Tiering Contributoris a Top Contributoris a Smogon Media Contributoris a Dedicated Tournament Hostis a Battle Simulator Moderator
C&C Leader

OP adjusted from Twilight's SS UU version.
Welcome to the SQSA thread! As the title implies this thread should be used to post your simple questions and in turn receive relatively simple answers to them. If you wish to ask questions in regards to Smogon as a whole then please refer to this thread and any in-game questions should be taken to Orange Islands. Feel free to ask any question here no matter how basic they are, just as long as it is related to competitive Pokemon and abides by the below rule. When responding to someone's question please quote their post in order to avoid any confusion for both the questioner and those reading this thread in hopes of having the same question answered.


As a general rule of thumb:

  • This thread is the ideal place to ask questions such as "Why is Talonflame in Great Tier on the Viability List?" or "What Tera Type should my Hippowdon run on this team?".
  • Don't use this thread to ask questions about whether an ability or Pokemon should be banned or unbanned, such as "Should Gengar be banned from UU?", these questions should instead be posted in the relevant metagame thread (NP thread).
  • Similarly, Don't use this thread to discuss hypothetical scenarios such as X Pokemon dropping to UU.
Happy posting!
 
Last edited:
I don't know if this counts as an eligible question but which file in Showdown's GitHub page shows the strengths and weaknesses of each type, I am making custom types for my showdown mod so I want to know where I should go
 
new to pokemon competitive in general, especially UU. so my first question is: why is gastrodon is the king of the tier rn? :tyke:
 
new to pokemon competitive in general, especially UU. so my first question is: why is gastrodon is the king of the tier rn? :tyke:
Right now Gastrodon is really good because of a dominant playstyle in rain, and being one of the best switchins to gengar which is another premier pokemon. Storm drain allows it to have a good matchup into the rain abusers spamming water moves and tanking kilowattrell's hurricanes. It is also a great switchin to gengar, one of the best pokemon for so many teams. Unless it has energy ball or tricks you, gastrodon will win most matchups against gengar. With its added utility in getting spikes AND rocks makes it such a great mon for the role it can do for bulky and balance teams.
 
Why does no one run Boots on Scream Tail? I mean, Leftovers is nice for passive HP regen, but not taking hazard damage when trying to Wish Pass outweighs it a bit, does it not?
 

Mossy Sandwich

Gunning for the top
is a Community Contributoris a Tiering Contributor
UUPL Champion
Why does no one run Boots on Scream Tail? I mean, Leftovers is nice for passive HP regen, but not taking hazard damage when trying to Wish Pass outweighs it a bit, does it not?
Well boots is sometimes used, but the main reasons Leftovers is favored are because of Protect, Encore and Scream Tail's tendency to stay on the field for a while before switching. It just stalls out for a while with both moves I mentionned and can be hard to force out, thus gaining a lot of passive recovery from lefties, more than boots would generally prevent in the first place.
 
Well boots is sometimes used, but the main reasons Leftovers is favored are because of Protect, Encore and Scream Tail's tendency to stay on the field for a while before switching. It just stalls out for a while with both moves I mentionned and can be hard to force out, thus gaining a lot of passive recovery from lefties, more than boots would generally prevent in the first place.
I mean, it makes sense... I just think against teams that want to spam hazards that you'd at least consider boots over lefties so Rocks/Spikes don't nuke you, and TSpikes aren't a threat to your longevity.
 
What is a good set for Calm Mind Scream Tail (moves and EVs)?
Scream Tail @ Leftovers
Ability: Protosynthesis
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 6 HP/252 SpA/252 Spe
Timid Nature
-Psychic
-Dazzling Gleam
-Calm Mind
-Wish

This is one of the best CM versions of Scream Tail. Maximize its speed and power to try to be the most threatening it can be. Weakness Policy+Stored Power is also a good option but is less reliable.
 

Empress

33% coffee / 33% alcohol / 34% estrogen
is a Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnusis a Smogon Media Contributor Alumnus
Why is Floatzel viable all of a sudden? Is it solely due to Wave Crash?
 

Mossy Sandwich

Gunning for the top
is a Community Contributoris a Tiering Contributor
UUPL Champion
Why is Floatzel viable all of a sudden? Is it solely due to Wave Crash?
Pretty much. Floatzel also obviously pairs well with Rain thanks to Swift Swim, but getting access to a 120bp move that gets an extra 50% boost in rain and a potential further boost from tera can lead to pretty ridiculous calcs. Even Slowbro has trouble taking tera, choice band and rain boosted Wave Crash. It also gets strong Ice coverage which is useful for Altaria and Salamence. The only reason some people still use Barraskewda is because it has stronger Liquidations and the Wave Crash recoil is quite rough, but Floatzel has the highest instant damage output of any Swift Swim mon right now.
 
Pretty much. Floatzel also obviously pairs well with Rain thanks to Swift Swim, but getting access to a 120bp move that gets an extra 50% boost in rain and a potential further boost from tera can lead to pretty ridiculous calcs. Even Slowbro has trouble taking tera, choice band and rain boosted Wave Crash. It also gets strong Ice coverage which is useful for Altaria and Salamence. The only reason some people still use Barraskewda is because it has stronger Liquidations and the Wave Crash recoil is quite rough, but Floatzel has the highest instant damage output of any Swift Swim mon right now.
Also for CC and stronger Jet
 

Lily

wouldn't that be fine, dear
is a Tutoris a Site Content Manageris a Top Social Media Contributoris a Community Leaderis a Community Contributoris a Top Tiering Contributoris a Top Contributoris a Smogon Media Contributoris a member of the Battle Simulator Staffis a Dedicated Tournament Hostis a Senior Staff Member Alumnus
UU Leader
What are those stages?like atomic karate and bye bye espsthra
After tier shifts OR at the beginning of a new suspect test, we create a new metagame thread for the sake of organisation; the thread names (Atomic Karate, Re-Entry, etc) are just a song that we chose to use for fun. Usually it relates to the Pokemon that dropped/whatever's being suspected.
 
So I just saw that Forretress was 18th in usage in January over the likes of Lucario, Noivern, and a bunch of other great pokemon in the tier. Why is this? Is it just a weird quirk of a developing meta? It doesn't seem particularly great in my experience at all.
 

romanji

eepy
is a Tiering Contributoris a Social Media Contributor Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnus
So I just saw that Forretress was 18th in usage in January over the likes of Lucario, Noivern, and a bunch of other great pokemon in the tier. Why is this? Is it just a weird quirk of a developing meta? It doesn't seem particularly great in my experience at all.
To put it lightly, yeah it's still not very good. People often look at Pokemon that learn both Rapid Spin and Stealth Rock/Spikes and think that they can solve their problems all in one Pokemon. Unfortunately, that would make Forretress worse at being both an spinner and an entry hazard setter all in one, especially since it doesn't have reliable recovery, like Tsareena, Knock Off, like Donphan, or power, like Tatsugiri. Other hazard setters such as Tinkaton, Quagsire, and Gastrodon have much more utility throughout a match and isn't just a passive blob that lets every hazard setter come in for free.
 

Mossy Sandwich

Gunning for the top
is a Community Contributoris a Tiering Contributor
UUPL Champion
Is staraptor balanced or not broken this gen because of tinkaton being a good answer to it?
Raptor still breaks extremely well, don't get me wrong, Tinkaton gets 2HKO'd by Band Brave Bird in fact. However, the metagame has caught up to it somewhat. With offensive threats becoming faster, it becomes harder to justify running Band meaning it has to run Scarf a lot and as such, can't break as well. Tyranitar and Eviolite Bisharp can also be quite annoying, but even worse are defensive teras such as Steel. It also tends to die extremely quickly due to rocks being fairly easy to keep up at this point, Brave Bird and Double-Edge recoil and the amount of priority that can finish it off. It's still a good pokemon, but it runs into a lot of issues and can be handled without going too much out of your way.
 
Raptor still breaks extremely well, don't get me wrong, Tinkaton gets 2HKO'd by Band Brave Bird in fact. However, the metagame has caught up to it somewhat. With offensive threats becoming faster, it becomes harder to justify running Band meaning it has to run Scarf a lot and as such, can't break as well. Tyranitar and Eviolite Bisharp can also be quite annoying, but even worse are defensive teras such as Steel. It also tends to die extremely quickly due to rocks being fairly easy to keep up at this point, Brave Bird and Double-Edge recoil and the amount of priority that can finish it off. It's still a good pokemon, but it runs into a lot of issues and can be handled without going too much out of your way.

So it seems staraptor finally got hit by powercreep. Never thought I would see the day.
 

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 1, Guests: 0)

Top