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11-11-2005, 06:40 AM

can some please tell me whats meant by STAB, sweeper etc the only one i know is tank. and also whats the best set up for:

*slaking
*skarmory
*salamance
*shedinja
*blaizken
*and suggestions for a 6th one, lol.

CHeers
You should read the Help thread that is stickied at the top of this page for Pokemon roles.

STAB is Same Type Attack Bonus, and it basically multiples your attack by 1.5 if it is the same type as the attacker.

For example, if Starmie (A Water/Psychic type) uses Psychic, the base power is 90, but thanks to STAB, 90*1.5=135, so a STAB psychic will be 35 Base Power higher, and that makes a huge difference.

For Pokemon sets, use the smogondex (http://smogon.com/dex.php?page=list&q=pokemon).

Suggestions for a 6th Pokemon would be Gardevoir, because your team has no special attackers.

Read the Help Thread before reading the rest of my post, because it might not make any sense at all.

Also, the general layout for a *good* team, and I uses this term loosely, because many people do this differently, and their teams are great, and many people do this this way and have a losing record.

Anyway, a good layout for a team would be this:

Special-based Defensive Pokemon
Physical-based Defensive Pokemon
Special Based Offensive Pokemon
Physical based Offensive Pokemon
SkarmBliss counter/Mixed sweeper
Utility/Something that doesn't fit the above reccomendations

Most good will have a Special wall (Snorlax/Blissey are the best, but there are others). What this is is a Pokemon that can take many special hits without dying, and has as few special weaks as possible, and as many special resistances as possible. Generallly, you will want these people to be able to attack, and if thier offensive stats suck (Hi Blissey), Seismic Toss is a good attack. This role could also be filled with a Pokmeon like Gardevoir, who is usually offensive, but if you load it with HP and SDef EVs, it can take a lot of special hits.

Physical Besed defensive Pokemon are pretty much represented by Skarmory, the god of physical defense. Skarmory is a huge threat to a team that can't kill it, and he is also the reason why CB Salamence uses Fire Blast. There are others, but really, the main Physical walls are Forretres, Skarmory, Steelix, Weezing, and Donphan. Pretty much the same guidelines go for this as the above, except you would take something like Tangela, who has a high defense for some reason, and max its HP and put a large amount into defense. Wow, maybe I should try a Tangela, I just saw its merits.

Anyway, if you can get an overall tank, like Miltank, you may not need both different varieties, but it's good to have them.

Offensive Pokemon are generally either

A)Fast
B)Have good HP and Defense to survive a hit

They are strong and have moves that cause a lot of damage, and can hit many types. STAB moves are very useful. Sometimes thay have stat-boosting moves, but this isn't required.

Special Sweepers, in general, are fairly fast, or at least have decent speed (Gardevoir I'm looking at you), but thay can be slow. (Ampheros, Porygon2, and Slowbro are all I think). They want a strong Special attack base (at least 100), and Special STABs really help, and since every decent Special Sweeper has a special STAB (Seviper doesn't count), you should have at least one. Load up the SpecialAttack EVs, put a bunch into speed (or HP/Defenses in case of certain Pokemon Ampheros/ Slowbro/ P2), and just blast away until you are met with a special wall. Calm Mind is the best Stat-Boosting Special move, and it boosts SDef, too, which helps your special sweeper against the opponent's special sweeper.

Physical Sweepers, however, have more slow Pokemon. They aren't all slow, but if you look over some of the strongest sweepers, you see Machamp, Scizor, Ursaring, and Armaldo before you get below 125 base!

There are three basic types of Physical sweepers.

1)Stat-Upper: Stat-ups for Physical Pokemon include Bulk Up, Swords Dance, and Dragon Dance, and they are all good. Salamence and Tyranitar are notorious for Dragon Dancing and then sweeping, and in general it is a great move. I've seen DD Kingdra's that Endure and then Flail, along with being able to surf on Physical walls. BUers are generally fighting types that have good Defense, and they are good once you've KOed any special threats on the opponent's team. Swords Dance is good for anyone that can learn it.

2)CBer: CB stands for Choice Band. Choice Band is an item used to boost your physical attack by 1.5, but it restricts the moves you can use to the one that you used last. It may sound bad at first, but CBers, when used with good prediction, can easily eliminate a non-physical wall of the opponent's. once you know the opponent's team, you can send out your CBer on a NVE move, then think about what your opponent did last, and the time before, and his options to switch to, and what you know about his playing style, and then try to predict what Pokemon he will switch to, and use an SE attack, or a STABed Reurn/DoubleEdge, if you have a Normal CBer. It's like a mind game, and CBers are probably the Most difficult Physical Pokmeon to use, but they can be deadly if used right.

3)Endu/Sub-revver/flailer: These are 4 different categories. Endurevver/Subrevver/Enduflailer/Subflailer. Sub- uses Substitute to lower its HP to 1 (which activates the attached Salac Berry, making you faster than anything you should really se that didin't set up) , and then hits with Reversal or Flail, which have 200 power when you have only 1 HP (That's 300 when STABed-stronger than Explosion!). Endu- uses a Stat up move to Boost speed or attack, then Endures on a move that would KO, activating whatever berry you have attacked (usually Salac), and letting you sweep the same as above. They are countered by Quick Attack, Mach Punch, and Exteemespeed, which always hit first, Sandstream (From Tyranitar), which does damage at the end of each turn, effectively doing 1 damage, enough for the KO, or Endurers that use Salac to become faster than you are (since many people shoot for 396 speed, to get the base 130ers, someone else would use 397 speed, which causes you to hit first). There are a lot of good Fighting types that can Endurev, but I like Scizor, since it is immune to Sandstream. Subrevvers must be fast to put up a sub, so Scyther and Raichu are proabably the best suited to this. Subflailers are pretty much represented by Dodrio, and good Enduflailers are Zangoose and Kingler (lol wtf)

Mixed sweepers are the most interesting Pokemon out there IMO. they are built to shut down a team that has several specialized walls. These Pokmeon could be ones like Tyraniboah, which is infamous for annihiliating stallers through Sandstream, which negates Leftovers recovery, and a mix of good moves that can handle a lot of stuff, including 101 HP subs for anything that Seismic Tosses, Focus Punch for Normals like Blissey, Snorelax, and Miltank, Thunderbolt/Flamethrower for Skarmory, and Crunch for STAB. They can also be Special sweepers with Focus Punch, to mess Blissey up when it somes in to wall you (go golduck/alakazam), or Physical sweepers that have Fire Blast put on to smash Skarmory. They also have interesting EV spreads, often over 4-5 stats (my Camerupt has EVs in everything except speed). Mixed sweepers are good for surprising your opponent and racking up a KO when your opponent is off guard.

Utility Pokemon are Pokemon that cover roles that you haven't covered yet. The most important of these roles are Spinners, Clerics, Wishpassers, and Ghosts.

Spinners are Pokemon that use Rapid Spin to blow away Spikes. Spkes does damage to you every time you switch, and they will get very annoying in the long run if you don't get rid of them. Not to mention they will wear down your team pretty fast. I like to ue Starmie as my Special Sweeper, because it learns Rapid Spin.

Ghosts, on the other hand, are only used when your team is using spikes. When you send out a ghost type Pokemon on a Rapid Spin, Rapid Spin, being normal, won't effect your ghost, and the Spikes will stay on the opponents side. Dusclops is the best, because Rapid Spinners really can't match up to his amazing defenses.

Clerics are Pokemon that use Heal Bell or Aromatherapy to heal all of your Pokemon of Status ailments (like burn/freeze/Poison/Paralysis). Status is bad. No other explanation is required. Blissey/Miltank/Celebi are probably the most common.

Wishpassers are Pokemon that use Wish, then switch to a Pokemon low on HP and wish will heal half of the HP at the end of your turn. This is somewhat difficult to pull off, but, on good prediction, you can do something like pass wish to a 4 HP Camerupt on the opponent's Thunderbolt. Vaperoen and Umbreon are the best at doing this, though I like Kanghaskhan too.

Wel, I'm done typing for now. This is pretty long, sorry for the random typos that I probably made, but it should be useful if you ever decide to battle out of game (That's Link Battles or NetBattle (tvsian.com/netbattle).