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Eternal
02-02-2010, 05:49 PM
I have made this guide as an advice to battlers that are wanting to become better battlers and take the game more seriously. If you're just interested in playing the game for fun (that's great), then this guide is not for. I will be sharing my knowledge and understanding of how to become an expert in competitive battling. This advice is meant to be for people that are serious about being great battlers. You must be able to sacrifice an immense amount of time and effort. I assure you, if you want to get better at this game and surpass that limit you believe is holding you back than you MUST work hard. You can not obtain anything decent in life without hard work. Don't think, "oh it's just Pokemon, it's a little kid's game, how hard can winning be?" This is a game played by millions of individuals across the world. For those that play for the shere purpose of winning, they will not acquiesce to losing so easily. If you're just a lazy person in life, you're not going to be able to do anything gratifying. So I will warn you that this guide is for people that are serious about being great battlers. If you don't think you can handle it, then I suggest you stop reading and get your lazy *** out of here. XD

So if you're continuing to read, then this means that you are serious and are willing to commit a lot of effort into this game.

The first thing you should do before getting into competitive battling is to study the metagame first. I advise you to look up usage statistics (http://teamuber.net/forum/showthread.php?p=137496#post137496) of the most popular used Pokemon. The usage statistics will give you a greater understanding of what you should expect when you're battling competitively. For example, you would certainly see many Scizors, but not Cresselias as often. This creates a much bigger distinction as to the definition of a threat. Do we place Scizor as a bigger threat priority than Cresselia? The answer is yes. You should worry about Scizor being a threat to your team than Cresselia, simply because of the popularity in use. This does not mean that you should leave your team weak to Cresselia, it only means you should place it in a lesser category of threat.

Learning and understanding usage is one advantage. You should know every threat and their purposes in teams. To do this, you should study each and every Pokemon. You need to scroll down the list of Pokemon and ask yourself what advantages does this Pokemon provide for a team? What are it's weaknesses (not as in type weaknesses, as in Pokemon weaknesses. I will explain this significance later)? And what Pokemon are able to defeat it? You will need to learn all Pokemon's speed. You should read up on all Pokemon analysis and learn how to deal with every set. You should understand damage and learn to use a damage calculator if needed. For example, you have a Life Orb'd Starmie with Hydro Pump and you're sending it against a Scizor thinking it would KO. But, unfortunately, it did not and you lost your Starmie when you could've switched to something else to deal with Scizor and not lose Starmie. These situations happen a lot in battle and greatly change the outcome of many battles. You should always make every move in battle as the best possible move you can think of. After understanding the metagame and studying every Pokemon, you should read every helpful guide you can find.

Once you have all this knowledge about Pokemon, you are then able to take on battling with more ease. The first thing you would want to do is ofcourse create a great team. I will not teach you how to create a team in this guide. But, I will give team building advice. When creating a team be sure that your team is not weak to every major threat. Being weak to something as simple as Dragon Dance Salamence isn't going to get you anywhere in competitive battling. When creating a team and battling, you should always have a clear head. Never lose your temper or get dissatisfied. If you lose a battle, then you lost. Learning to lose is something you will need to accept in life, whether it was fair or not. Always have an optimistic attitude when battling. But, don't be too optimistic. Don't be a ****** as well. If you lost to hax, then take your defeat as if you lost fairly. Don't scold your opponent, for he is not the one causing you hax. It will only make you ignorant, and ignorance won't lead you to anything in life, but uneasiness.

Read a lot of RMTs made by expert battlers. Watch battles by expert battlers and study their every move. Study what Pokemon they're using. What strategies they're making to win. Winning is all you need to be thinking about when battling. The question that should always be on top of your head while battling is "what can I do to assure myself of winning?" You should ALWAYS ask yourself this question everytime you are thinking of making a move. Do NOT be arrogant in battling. Arrogance is one thing I despise greatly among great battlers. Do not play as if you want to defeat a person 6-0 just to humiliate him. No, this is not how a good battler should be acting (unless ofcourse the win is already assured). You should always make your best move to solidify your win, whether it be a 1-0 win. A win is a win, and a loss is a loss. Now going back to team building. I stated that you should be aware of weaknesses in your team, and not the type weaknesses. What I meant by this is that you should never asses your team weakness by type. This is a flawed method of team building. For example, if your team is immensely weak to Fire, then you shouldn't ask yourself, "ok I'm Fire weak, so I will need something like a Rock, Water, or Dragon type to resist it. No, this is not a valid way team building. Instead of fixing your team through type weaknesses, you need to ask yourself what are Pokemon that use Fire moves that can harm my team. Such as, Infernape, Heatran, and Salamence are common threats that use Fire type moves. So you will need to calculate your team to be able to handle these threats. As if you're using a Tyranitar to handle Fire, then your team would still obviously be weak to Infernape. This is one common misconception many battlers make when building their teams.

Now, after you have created your team you want to use it and best it. The best way to do this is constantly battling. The BEST way to improve in every aspect of competitive battling is to keep BATTLING. The more you battle the more experience you obtain. The greater your knowledge of competitive battling becomes. The sharper your reasoning skills in making moves become. So would advise hours of battling (not minutes) to improve yourself. Try getting on Smogon server and Teamuber ladder to keep battling. Open two windows. You guys need to be online Teamuber server, even if you're afk. This helps support out server from not turning dying. So always have a window open for Teamuber server even if you're not using it. No when you're battling on the ladder. You should never forget your purpose in battling. What was it again? That's right, "what is the best move I can make to solidify myself of winning?" Once you have a mind set to winning, you shouldn't go down easily. You should keep battling for hours if you have a free day off. Do not stop battling if you're just losing and your rating is falling. No, always continue to battle. It's not just about winning, it's about gaining experience and understanding of this art of battling. At times you might lose your temper and get mad because you're losing unfairly due to hax. DO NOT give up because of this. You need to understand that luck is part of the game and that every battler has the same amount of luck. If you think that you're the unluckiest person in the game, then you should quit competitive battling because it is obvious you are not. Do not whine about luck. Take your loss respectfully and continue to battle. If your opponent scolds you for haxing him, then ignore him. Don't try to justify that the hax didn't matter or not. Do not waste your time trying to make him understand. Learning to ignore is something you must be able to do. Do not diminish yourself at your opponent's level. When you're battling someone, always be confident whoever the person may be. Don't be like, "Omg, it's Eternal, **** I'm going to lose." Having an attitude like this would surely bring you to your downfall. You should be confident and ask yourself that you want to win. While if you're opponent is someone you think isn't a great challenge, then do not underestimate him and never be over-confident. This will only make you look like a fool when you lose. And if you played your best and lost, then respect your opponent as equal.

Now there are other elements to battling that I won't be able to explain. But, the most significant one of them all is what people call "PREDICTION." Now, as an experienced battler, I myself do not like to use the term "prediction." Here's the definition of "prediction:"

1. an act of predicting.
2. an instance of this; prophecy.

And the definition of "predicting:"
1. to foretell the future; make a prediction

As you can see, "prediction" is an act to foretell the future. Obviously, no one is godly and able to foretell the future. So we can say that "prediction" is somewhat luck-based due to this definition. And if we want to win a battle, we wouldn't want to depend on luck to win, do we? Ofcourse not. So might be wondering, "what the hell is Eternal talking about, I thought prediction was a valuable element in battling?" I just proved that prediction is perhaps the worst element in battling. Now you're wondering, "wait what, if predicting isn't the best way to win a battle, then what is?" I have already taught you how. The best way to win a battle is to have a winning attitude and always ask yourself "what is the best move I can make to solidify myself of winning?" Meaning, instead of relying on prediction (luck), you should rely on logic and reason. When you're in a battle and you have Swampert up and your opponent has CB Scizor up. You can deduct that your opponent will use U-turn because it's the most logical move. While you also deduct that if he uses U-turn, then he might switch into a Pokemon to evade Earthquake. You look through your opponent's team of Pokemon and deduct if it's safe to take the U-turn damage and Ice Beam the switch or Earthquake the switch. While if you have something that can take U-turn, like a Heatran, you need to deduct if switching to Heatran is "the best move to soldify your win." As in it's possible your opponent might switch to something like Flygon to take your Earthquake if you stay in or switch to Flygon when U-turning Heatran (meaning you will have to switch again to evade Earthquake risk). So my advice would be to never use prediction unless you're in a position where you will need to rely on luck to win. If not, then don't risk risky moves and play as if it's the best (logical) move possible.

Eternal
02-02-2010, 05:51 PM
Okay, I have typed this out in like 30 mins so I know that I have probably made many grammatical errors (and I haven't taken the time to revise it). So if you spot any just let me know.

Iggylow
02-14-2010, 12:10 PM
Good job on the guide Eternal.

Answer my PM.

Dimes
02-14-2010, 01:30 PM
Also check up on the advanced stats too.

And if you're new or haven't played in a while, try using an alt to figure out the current game.

Iggylow
02-14-2010, 02:09 PM
Always go for the safest route!

amirlal
07-08-2010, 10:03 PM
inspiring, I will always support the server comrade-_- kekekkee

bartozio37
07-09-2010, 08:46 PM
hmm, might be me, but i still think that in yuor example you're predicting he'll use u-turn, because he might think you think the most obvious thing to do is u-turn, so he chooces to stay in and use, for instance, a super power to deal a lot more damage while your ice beam does almost nothing.
I think prediction is about getting an idea of how much your opponents thinks about stuff, wheter he uses really gimmick sets and stuff and determine what he'll most lickely do. Of course you should always know that he might do something else.
Just my thoughts though.

Eternal
07-10-2010, 04:37 AM
Just to sum what I said in this thread:

If you play this game a lot and take your time to study it, then you should have no problem in getting better.

bobphillip
07-13-2010, 02:10 PM
D: but I don't play alot, and I don't want to become better. How do i win with predickshunz?

immortality
07-13-2010, 05:19 PM
This is an epic guide to teach newer ppl i gotta admit great job!!!

zod
07-13-2010, 11:15 PM
The first thing you would want to do is ofcourse create a great team

Control+F to find that line.

Tastelesshat
07-14-2010, 12:39 AM
Interesting. But I don't think battling for hours is the trait of all 'great' battlers.

Although of course I wouldn't know that for sure, but still.

bobphillip
07-14-2010, 02:03 AM
Battling for hours is the trait of people with no social life.

Or the sign that its summer and its too hot to do anything.