Resource RU Old Gens Hub MK II (Feat USM RU)

GoldCat

BOSSARU CUP WINNER
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I didn't get to play as much BW as I had hoped in this RUSD, but I had a lot of fun building and playing BW at a higher level of competition and enjoyed watching everyone elses' games after my team got eliminated.

First of all, I strongly believe there should be an S- rank with Durant, Sceptile, and Qwilfish. No other Pokemon has the same impact as Druddigon and it just feels wrong to have any other share its spot at the top, let alone 3 Pokemon! Remember historically, the S rank has been reserved for Pokemon such as Snorlax in GSC, Tyranitar in ADV, and Latios, Ferrothorn, and Tyranitar in BW and Druddigon fits right in, while the others are arguably a cut above the rest but nowhere near as impactful. Now I probably should explain why I added one Pokemon while excluding one previous S rank.

:bw/qwilfish:
I'm a big Qwilfish spammer (outside of RUSD, apparently), so I guess I'm biased but I have found Qwilfish to be of value in every single game. Whether it's laying Spikes, spreading paralysis or burn, preventing hazards with Taunt, removing something with Destiny Bond, or even just sacking it for the Attack drop and Rocky Helmet chip, it always does something useful game to game. Not to mention Qwilfish switches into half of the tier and while it isn't a great long-term answer on its own, it pairs up nicely with other better checks. Qwilfish is just a super consistent and high-value Pokemon.

:bw/moltres:
One key aspect of any S rank caliber 'mon is consistency and Moltres sorely misses that with its Stealth Rock weakness and Hurricane as its main wallbreaking tool. It's dumb but only every other game or so, and in some, it outright does nothing, which is almost never the case with the others. With such glaring flaws, it's much more of an A+ 'mon than S rank material.

Quick thoughts on the rises and drops:

:bw/crawdaunt:
I mainly want to talk about Crawdaunt, as I think it rising all the way from C+ to B+ is too ambitious, especially when Samurott and Feraligatr are all the way down in B-. Crawdaunt had a lackluster showing this RUSD, in two out of the three total games it showed up, it didn't achieve much. In eifo vs etern, on paper, it was super threatening with it outspeeding 4 / 6 'mons but after taking 50% from Cryogonal's Ice Beam, it wasn't left with much room to do much more. Similarly, in Clementine vs Spl4sh it didn't do much after taking a Volt Switch from Lanturn and would've done less without the flinch. And in the third game, it did end up sweeping but Feraligatr would have done the same. Crawdaunt's low Speed and poor bulk are such massive flaws in BW and it's really hard to make up for but to be fair if you do it's really strong. In all honesty, I don't think Crawdaunt should rise at all, but if it has to then B- at the highest. Still cool mon though.

:Smeargle: should drop further to C+, without Spore it's really hard to justify over Omastar as a hazard stacking lead on HO. Even Crustle has Sturdy + Custap over it to basically guarantee Stealth Rock + 1 layer of Spikes. Though, it does have a lot of cool stuff like Glare and Taunt, but generally not to make up for the loss of sleep.

:gothorita: should be UR, it has no niche whatsoever and isn't RU by usage, please delete.

Quick nominations:

:clefable: B+ to A-
Clefable's versatility alone warrants a rise, it can effectively run such varied sets like offensive lead with Focus Sash, Toxic Orb, Calm Mind, Tank sets, Sp. Def with Wish, and much more. It also fits on any playstyle; offense, balance, and stall. You can do a lot of really cool stuff with Clefable.
:ludicolo: B to B+
Manual rain teams have seen steady usage and good results in most if not all RU team tours throughout all of gen 7-8, so I think ranking Ludicolo, a staple on any rain team, should be in B+ to better reflect this.
:skuntank: D to B- / B
See Luna's post. I think it's fair to rank it around where Drapion is (B rank).
:sawk: UR to C+
Sawk is definitely viable and should at least be ranked alongside Primeape in C+.
:bw/cacturne:
This is less of a nom and more of an excuse to just talk about Cacturne (though seeing it rise would be cool). I've used Cacturne for a good bit now and I think it's really solid. It's an offensive Spiker with some real nice defensive utility and checks standard SuBCM Uxie and Rotom, and Dark Gem boosted, or just Life Orb, Sucker Punch revenge kills so much in the tier. This is what I really love so much about BW, is that really anything is viable. It's a shame I didn't get the chance to bring it this RUSD. Here are some replays: 1 / 2 / 3.

Finally, here are some teams that I like a lot. The former two are older teams I have used a lot to great success and the last one is a recent team I built for RUSD but didn't end up using. I'm really satisfied with where BW is headed and I'm looking forward to RUPL and RU Classic this year.

:cacturne::moltres::steelix::druddigon::kabutops::rotom:
(Click for pokepaste)
:sceptile::emboar::mesprit::slowking::garbodor::rotom:
(Click for pokepaste)
:lilligant::uxie::druddigon::alomomola::aerodactyl::magneton:
(Click for pokepaste)
 
Hello friends

Warning: long post incoming. This one has been in the drafts for quite some time.

As I assume many of you are well aware of, the SM VR is somewhat outdated. In my view we ought to do something about this. VRs are particularly useful for players who are looking to get into the tier. With SM Cup coming up in not too long, I think this is a great time to update the VR. This being that case, I wish to revive the discussion regarding the SM VR. To do so, I will present a suggestion of what a new and updated VR could look like. This is simply a preliminary VR, and I would love for others to chime in and criticise it. I believe that a lively discussion is necessary in order to create an accurate VR, and I hope that my post can serve to ignite such a discussion. That being said, I will try to keep this as brief as possible. Thus, without further ado, here is a visualisation of what a new VR could look like:

S RANK:
1643057870787.png

Roserade
1643057888423.png

Slowbro


A RANK:

A+:

1643057914695.png

Donphan
1643057927913.png

Metagross
1643057949690.png

Nidoqueen
1643057959866.png

Noivern
1643057970051.png

Virizion
1643057980373.png

Registeel


A:
1643057996099.png

Blastoise-mega
1643058007317.png

Golisopod
1643058015089.png

Flygon
1643058025167.png

Mandibuzz
1643058037925.png

Necrozma
1643058048738.png

Salazzle
1643058057540.png

Sceptile-Mega
1643058072887.png

Toxicroak


A-:
1643058083657.png

Araquanid
1643058091080.png

Bewear
1643058103356.png

Diancie
1643058113098.png

Dragalge
1643058129258.png

Florges
1643058138182.png

Mismagius
1643058150403.png

Passimian
1643058162200.png

Rhyperior


B RANK:

B+:

1643058185413.png

Aerodactyl
1643058194265.png

Gardevoir
1643058202145.png

Goodra
1643058211654.png

Drapion
1643058222609.png

Milotic
1643058439147.png

Pangoro
1643058461845.png

Sigilyph
1643058468233.png

Snorlax
1643058475007.png

Tyrantrum
1643058486623.png

Xatu
1643058493264.png

Zygarde-10%


B:
1643058530172.png

Abomasnow-Mega
1643058536332.png

Barbaracle
1643058542817.png

Bronzong
1643058548459.png

Cresselia
1643058560110.png

Espeon
1643058570048.png

Forretress
1643058587705.png

Houndoom
1643058620253.png

Ninetales

1643058626397.png

Raikou
1643058640299.png

Ribombee
1643058649686.png

Shaymin
1643058663759.png

Umbreon
1643058672884.png

Vaporeon


B-:
1643058685940.png

Arcanine
1643058696409.png

Gigalith
1643058706919.png

Lycanroc-Dusk
1643058714824.png

Machamp
1643058721493.png

Mantine
1643058734599.png

Marowak-Alola
1643058742000.png

Slowking
1643058748628.png

Slurpuff
1643058762269.png

Yanmega


C RANK:

C+:

1643058782107.png

Escavalier
1643058789834.png

Froslass
1643058796871.png

Cloyster
1643058803626.png

Honchkrow
1643058810477.png

Medicham
1643058821744.png

Torkoal
1643058836204.png

Venusaur


C:
1643058848245.png

Banette-Mega
1643058856115.png

Porygon2
1643058867011.png

Pyukumuku
1643058874075.png

Rotom-C
1643058884851.png

Seismitoad
1643058895672.png

Uxie


C-:
1643058907540.png

Ampharos-Mega
1643058915244.png

Galvantula
1643058922944.png

Glalie-Mega
1643058929780.png

Kingdra
1643058941455.png

Stoutland
1643058953642.png

Sneasel
1643058961265.png

Swellow
1643058972845.png

Torterra
1643058981734.png

Tsareena
1643058991366.png

Vanilluxe


D RANK:
1643059007669.png

Jolteon



General criteria for evaluating viability
With that out of the way, I want to share some reflections regarding my choices. This will be a bit different from your typical VR post, so bear with me. My idea here is to try to communicate the process by which I ranked the above mons. It is time to get nerdy.

Firstly, I started off by ranking mons based on my intuition. I generally view mons such as Roserade, Slowbro, Blastoise, Donphan, Metagross, Nidoqueeen, Noivern, Virizion, Registeel, and Mandibuzz in a good light, and, as such, it felt right to rank them highly. However, it seemed a bit shallow to simply rank mons based on a nonchalant notion of what feels right. It was also rather difficult to decide on which mons to put in S, A+, A, and A-, respectively, when all of the mons in these categories are what I would consider to be “good mons”. Simply put, I struggled to explain why I thought certain mons were better than others.

This inspired me to do some thinking. What is it that makes a mon “good” or “bad”? Why do I hold Slowbro and Roserade in such high regard, while I value Slowking and Shaymin to a much lesser extent? And how do I rank the “good” mons against each other? How do I decide which of the “good” mons should be in the S-rank, and which should be in the A-ranks? To answer these questions, I came up with the following six criteria for measuring viability:

Splashability
By splashability, I mean "the ease with which a particular mon can fit on any given team, at any given point in the building process.” High splashability indicates that a mon is easy to fit on any given team, at any given point in the building process. Low splashability indicates that a mon is rather difficult to fit on any given team, at any given point in the building process.

Consistency
I define consistency as "the tendency to perform well on a regular basis.” High consistency indicates that a mon tends to perform well irrespective of the match up. Low consistency indicates that a mon’s performance is in large part contingent on a particularly favourable match up.

Offensive utility
Offensive utility refers to “the ability to make progress, i.e., weakening the opposing team.” High offensive utility indicates that a mon tends to be good at making progress. Low offensive utility indicates that a mon tends to struggle to make progress.

Defensive utility
Defensive utility denotes "the extent to which a particular mon provides useful immunities, resistances, clerical support, and the ability to check important threats defensively”. High defensive utility indicates that a mon to a large extent provides useful immunities, resistances, cleric support, or checks important threats defensively. Low defensive utility indicates that a mon only does so to a small extent.

Hazard utility
For our purposes, hazard utility should be understood as “the extent to which a particular mon provides useful hazard-setting moves or hazard removal”. High hazard utility indicates that a mon provides a valuable hazard-setting move or hazard removal. Low hazard utility indicates that a mon is unable to provide useful hazard-setting moves or hazard removal.

Speed utility
Speed utility simply means “a particular mon’s ability to check threats offensively by means of its speed tier or priority moves.” High speed utility indicates that a mon has a particularly valuable speed tier or priority move. Low speed utility indicates that a mon does not possess a particularly good speed tier nor a useful priority move.

Praxis time baby
Alright, cool, so now I have established some general criteria by which I evaluate viability. But how do I make use of them in practice? In this section I will give a few illustrative examples.

Let us first turn our attention towards the S-rank. What is it that makes Roserade and Slowbro so good? Firstly, Rose and Slowbro are two of the most splashable mons in the tier. You can fit them on almost any given team, and at almost any given point in the building process. Secondly, Rose and Bro perform the most consistently out of all the mons in the tier. There is no such thing as a bad match up with Bro or Rose. They only have decent, good, great, and amazing match ups. No matter what you face, they will be valuable in some capacity. Thirdly, Roserade is able to make progress versus any kind of team. There is no single good defensive answer. Mandibuzz dies to sludge bomb + z after taking rocks, in addition to being prone to getting poisoned. Steels such as Metagross, Foretress, and Escavalier get OHKOd or 2HKOd by HP Fire, while Registeel and Bronzong struggle with Synthesis Rose. Slowbro does not threaten the same amount of initial damage, but Scald does let it make progress versus fatter teams by burning and thus neutralising lefties recovery, while toxic lets it wear down mons such as Slowbro, Mandibuzz, Necrozma, Mantine, and Milotic. In other words, Roserade has an extremely high degree of offensive utility, while Slowbro has a mediocre degree of offensive utility. Fourthly, while Roserade does not have the greatest amount of bulk, it does provide useful resistances to Water, Grass, Fairy and Fighting. Most notably, Roserade is able to switch into Blastoise-Mega. Its lackluster bulk nevertheless makes it difficult to switch into particularly strong mons, while Synthesis is a recovery move with low PP. Using Synthesis also has a significant opportunity cost, as you must then forego one of Spikes or Hidden Power. For this reason, Rose only has a mediocre degree of defensive utility. As for Slowbro, its great bulk, phenomenal defensive typing, amazing ability, and top notch recovery move lets it check a plethora of important threats time and time again. In other words, it has an extremely high degree of defensive utility. Fifthly, while Slowbro has no hazard utility whatsoever, Roserade is arguably the best spiker in the tier, perhaps only rivalled by Golisopod. As such, it possesses an extremely high degree of hazard utility. Finally, neither Slowbro nor Roserade have any form of priority. Additionally, Slowbro is very slow, while Roserade is relatively fast. As such, I consider Slowbro to have very low speed utility, while Roserade has a somewhat high speed utility.

Let us now move on to a fan favourite: Donphan. Firstly, Donphan is easy to fit on almost any given team, at almost any given time in the building process. As such, it possesses a high degree of splashability. Secondly, Donphan tends to perform well irrespective of the match up. It can thus be said to have a high degree of consistency. Thirdly, Donphan can typically make a lot of progress versus more offensively inclined teams, while it struggles a bit more versus fatter teams. Being able to remove items nevertheless gives it a way to weaken the opposing team, albeit to a much lesser extent than a Roserade. This being the case, I view Donphan as possessing a somewhat high degree of offensive utility. Fourthly, Donphan provides a relatively sturdy rock resist and electric immunity, a solid switchin to mons such as Flygon and Toxicroak, in addition to being able to check important mons such as Metagross, Nidoqueen, Salazzle, Noivern, and Sceptile-Mega. However, it is also prone to getting worn down relatively fast, as it does not possess any recovery moves and often wants to invest a significant amount of EVs into speed and attack, leaving it with a mediocre amount of bulk. Consequently, I do not consider Donphan to have a very high degree of defensive utility, but I do think it has a relatively high degree of defensive utility. Fifthly, I consider Donphan to be the single best hazard remover in the tier. In other words, Donphan has a high degree of hazard utility. Finally, Donphan has a relatively poor speed tier, but it does make up for it to some extent with its priority move. Like I already alluded to above, Ice Shard lets it check mons such as Noivern and Sceptile-Mega. It also lets it chip mons like Virizion, Roserade, Shaymin, and Goodra as it goes down, or ko them if sufficiently weakened. However, a non-stab Ice Shard is generally not that valuable versus neutral targets and will rarely save you from any set-up sweepers like Barbaracle or Slurpuff. As such, I believe it would be correct to say that it has a relatively low degree of speed utility.

Okay, so why is Rose and Bro S, while Donphan is A+? As you can see, Donphan scores highly on almost all of the things which I value. The primary reason for this is that Donphan lacks that final oomph - the extraordinary qualities that put it above the rest of the pack. When measured against Slowbro and Roserade, which do indeed possess such extremely high qualities, Donphan fell short in my estimation. These extreme qualities, in addition to being very splashable and consistent, is what makes Rose and Bro stand out above the rest in my view.

Wrapping it up
On a final note, I do not mean to suggest that these criteria are perfect. Nor do I mean to imply that anyone would make use of them in the exact same way I did. My primary intention was to give some insight into how I think about viability – about which qualities makes a certain mon good, and how I go about measuring these qualities. Oh, and also, I do not expect anyone else to do anything of this sort. I hope to spur some discussion regarding the viability of particular mons, but I do not expect anyone to craft their own theory of viability. This is just something that I thought could be interesting.

Anyway, thx for reading
 

Attachments

With RU Snake II finally over, it was time we finally had a big VR update for our old gens. We will start with the update to the SM VR! I want to say thank you to Finchinator odr MrAldo TDK Lyss and lighthouses for helping out in updating the VR. Here is the sheet with all the votes, and heres a summary of all the changes, with explanations where i feel theyre deserved.

RISES
752.png
B+ -> A-
781SM.png
C -> C+
232.png
A - A+
330SM.png
B+ - A-
incineroar.png
UR -> C

350SM.png
B+ - A-
429.png
B+ -> A-

800SM.png
A -> A+
743SM.png
B- -> B
479-mSM.png
C- -> C+
mega scep.png
A- -> A
199.png
B -> B+
738.png
C- -> C
178SM.png
B -> B+
718-10.png
B+ -> A-
  • Araquanid is the best Sticky Web setter, being able to beat both the best spinners in Blastoise and Donphan and being a powerful threatning Pokemon itself.
  • Dhelmise beats 1v1 Registeel thanks to its Ancor Shot + Rest set, while being a good Spinblock and checking Virizion.
  • Donphan is the best spinner and Ground in the tier, with a powerful Earthquake and Knock Off Donphan itself can be a threat for the opposing team. Ice Shard also gives it more than common revengkilling scenarios, especially versus powerful threat like Zygarde-10% and Virizion.
  • Flygon rises as a good Choice Scarf user, being able to revengkill a vast majority of offensive threats in Sticky Web HOs, with Levitate having a huge help in this. Levitate also gives it amazing defensive utility, combined with his good typing.
  • Incineroar rises as one of the best checks to Necrozma and Mismagius, with Intimidate also being one of the best abilities in the game. With Knock Off and U-turn it will almost never be deadweight. Its still slow, weak to some common typings like Fighting and Ground and is weak to hazards, which is why its not higher than C.
  • Milotic is one of the best checks to Mega-Blastoise and Necrozma, Scald is broken and Refresh helps beating most defensive Pokemon like Registeel 1v1.
  • Mismagius is a staple on web teams, being able to Spinblock thanks to its Ghost type and Z-moves making it way harder to check, with Electrium cleaning Mandibuzz, Bewear and Milotic while Ghostium gives it more immediate power and a good nuke vs anything at +2. Can also run Colbur and keep the Z-move for another member. Substitutes makes it awkward to play against, as you could potentially lose more than one Pokemon if you just try to sack something against it, and makes it able to beat the best SpDef wall in the tier, Registeel.
  • Necrozma is one of the best setup sweepers in the tier, with an amazing variety of coverage and setup moves. Both Calm Mind and Swords Dance have different checks, and can make great use of Z-moves. A defensive Stealth Rocks set has also been on the rise, being able to cripple and beat most hazard removers with Toxic and its bulk.
  • Ribombee is similar to Specs Gardevoir, with the pros of being way faster, Trick and U-turn. Its however weaker to hazards and way weaker than Gardevoir.
  • Rotom-M has a very hard to block Volt Switch thanks to STAB Leaf Storm and Trick. Still lacks power and the bulk isnt great, and while Levitate gives good defensive utility, the typing combined with poor bulk is not good against most of the meta.
  • Mega Sceptile is one of the fastest Pokemon in the tier, being able to outrun base 80 Speed Scarfers like Passimian and Gardevoir. STAB Leaf Storm and Dragon Pulse are incredibly hard to switch into especially if hazards are up, and given its immense Speed its hard to revengkill, especially since most Sceptiles run Protect, helping against First Impression Golisopod. It can also decide to run Substitute and abuse sacks.
  • Slowking is Slowbro but better against Necrozma. Future Sight + Dragon Tail are also an annoying combo.
  • Vikavolt has a good Volt Switch, good Metagross counter and Fighting Types check with Rocky Helmet, and its generally hard to switch against. Still super slow and the typing is not good defensively.
  • When Registeel is the best Stealth Rocker in the tier, then Xatu follows immediatly after. Fast Calm Mind sets also have their own merits.
  • Zygarde-10% is a staple on Hazards stacking: Thousand Arrows is a Ground move with no immunities, meaning that without a sturdy bulky grass / water its gonna be extremely hard to switch into, especially if Spikes are up. Its also really fast, and Extreme Speed helps against HO matchups and revengkilling.

DROPS
460-m.png
B+ -> B-
181-m.png
C+ -> C
059.png
B -> C+
689.png
B -> B-
437SM.png
B+ -> B
488.png
B -> C+
691SM.png
B+ -> B
452SM.png
B+ -> B
589SM.png
B -> C+
196SM.png
C+ -> C
671.png
A- -> B+
423e.png
423.png
B- -> C
526.png
B -> B-
362-m.png
C - C-
706.png
B+ -> B
297.png
B+ -> B-
430.png
B- -> C
745-d.png
B -> B-
068.png
B+ -> B
226.png
B -> C+
105-a.png
B- -> C
308.png
B- -> C
1547060584387.png
S -> A+
038.png
A -> B+
770.png
B -> B-
675SM.png
B- -> C+
233SM.png
B -> C
243SM.png
A- -> B+
758SM.png
S -> A
537sm.png
C+ -> C
492.png
A- -> B
215.png
C+ -> C
143SM.png
B -> B-
508.png
C+ -> C
277.png
B -> C
454SM.png
A -> A-
763SM.png
B- -> C+
134SM.png
B -> C
003.png
C+ -> C
469.png
B -> B-
  • Ok so, most of the update here is offensive Pokemon being just less threatning or defensive Pokemon being less effective against the current trends of the meta, so i will skip out on most and only talk about Pokemon i think need an explanation for my and your own sanity.
  • Metagross is still the best Steel type in the tier, but its not quite S rank. It being S rank has always been an hot topic in current gen SM RU, but i do believe now it isnt worth of the S title anymore. Psychic type gives it a number of weaknesses that it wouldnt want to have, and its pretty slow to be a good breaker. However, the Stealth Rock set with Toxic is easily its best set, being able in the long run to beat any Hazards Remover while still being a great check to Psychic and Fairy types. The offensive sets have just been on a huge drop since cg SM RU, so i believe Metagross isnt S rank material anymore.
  • Salazzle is so broken on paper, but can be quite underwhelming in game. While its STAB combo its hard to switch into, it being extremely weak to hazards with poor bulk makes it hard to setup with it, and the increase popularity of Earthquake Registeel hurt its viability.
  • Ninetales suffers similar problems as Salazzle, but its on top weaker and slower.
  • All the Megas like Abomasnow, Ampharos and Glalie simply face too much competition for the Mega Slot from Blastoise and Sceptile.

UNRANKS / D
144.png
C -> UR
132SM.png
C+ -> UR
500.png
C- -> UR
596.png
C -> D
601.png
C+ -> UR
771.png
C- -> UR
1547060452762.png
C+ -> UR
685SM.png
C -> UR
666.png
C -> UR
  • They suck, dont use them.


This took me a long while to write, so there will be most likely errors. If you notice anything, let me know here on Smogon or in the RU Discord Luna#6181. Let us know if you agree with the shifts, and thanks for reading :)

 

MrAldo

Hey
is a Social Media Contributoris a Community Contributoris a Tiering Contributoris a Contributor to Smogonis a Dedicated Tournament Hostis a Site Content Manager Alumnusis a Forum Moderator Alumnus
To announce that the ORAS VR has been updated! Ty very much to atomicllamas banks EviGaro Luna for the support in making this update possible.

Archeops: C- to C+
Barbaracle: C+ to B+
Cofagrigus: C- to C+
Delphox: B to B+
Druddigon: B- to B
Gallade: B to A-
Malamar: B to B+
Omastar: B- to B+
Scrafty: A- to A
Slowking: A to A+
Oh boy, here is the bulk of everything
:</p><p></p><p>Abomasnow: B- to C+
Absol: A- to B
Aerodactyl: A- to B
Alomomola: S to A+
Aromatisse: C+ to C
Articuno: C- to UR
Audino-Mega: A- to B-
Aurorus: C+ to C-
Banette Mega: C+ to C
Blastoise: A- to B+
Bronzong: B+ to B
Camerupt Mega: A to A-
Clawitzer: C+ to C
Diancie: A+ to A
Eelektross: C+ to C-
Exploud: B+ to B
Fletchinder: B to C+
Gourgeist XL: B- to C
Gurdurr: B+ to B
Hariyama: B- to C+
Hitmontop: C to C-
Houndoom: B+ to B
Jellicent: A to A-
Jolteon: A- to B-
Klinklang: C- to UR
Lanturn: C+ to UR
Lilligant: C- to UR
Manectric: C to UR
Meloetta: A to A-
Mesprit: B- to C
Musharna: B- to UR (rip baton pass)
Pelipper: C to UR
Piloswine: B- to C
Poliwrath: C+ to C-
Roselia: C- to UR
Rotom: B to B-
Rotom-Mow: B+ to B
Rotom-Fan: C- to UR
Sawk: A- to B
Sceptile: C+ to C
Scyther: B- to C
Smeargle: C- to UR
Spiritomb: B to C
Togetic: C+ to UR
Torterra: B to B-
Uxie: A- to B
Virizion: A+ to A
Weezing: B to C
Xatu: B+ to A-
Omastar: B- to A-
Druddigon: B- to B+
Mesprit: B- to C+
Weezing: B- to C+

For personal callouts:

- Xatu definitely has to rise. This mon has defined a certain archetype for numerous years on the ORAS RU metagame, and being really customizable to cover for certain pokemon that could take advantage of it at any point
- Omastar receives an extra bump cause... it is actually really damn good. EviGaro flagship Hyper Offense with Archeops and its big success shows up as a clear example cause this mon is a clear component as to why the team is very effective. Cant pursuit trap anything or even risk to go ahead and damage it due to weak armor. Great mon that is just stopped by a couple of things like some bulky waters and Registeel, but overall really scary win condition that kind of makes pretty heavy offense viable tbh
- Druddigon extra bump cause honestly the LO set is really damn good, it can really mess up anything that gets in its way with the right coverage. It being so malleable is a blessing and a curse but overall really scary breaker that can always do something
- Mesprit and Weezing are definitely a lot better than anything in C tbh, Weezing Taunt Will-O set is really good and Mesprit is still a pretty scary rock setter to face with your standard hazard remover.
- Some stuff was moved down further to add up to some ranks.

A lot what dropped for the sake of cleaning and making sure everything looks much more modern and the small rises are simply the mons that are just better in recent tourney standards.

Thanks a lot once more to everyone that contributed.
 
Finally, here is an update of the BW RU VR. If you take issue with the reasoning provided for the rise and drops, then you should know that this was provided by me, and, as such, mostly reflects my thought process. Other users in the VR team may have wanted certain mons lower or higher for reasons different than mine. In any case, I implore any users who take issue with either the ranks or the reasoning provided to respond in this thread. Alright, enough talk, here it is:

Druddigon: S –> S+: Druddigon is on another level. We wanted the VR to reflect this, hence Drud gets its own rank.

Slowking: A – A+: One of the most splashable and consistent mons in the metagame. It provides lots of useful offensive and defensive utility, in addition to being very versatile.

Tangrowth: A- -> A: Easily on the same level as the other A-ranks. Much like Amoongus it was previously underrated, hence why we did not drop it post sleep nerf but gave it a higher rank instead. This is also why Amoongus did not drop.

Clefable: B+ -> A-: Versatile mon that is immune to hazards in a BW tier. Defensive sets are good at spreading status, knocking items, and provide defensive utility, while Life Orb sets are decent at breaking.

Manectric: B+ -> A-: Speedy mon with decent coverage, Switcheroo, and some defensive utility thanks to its ability. The relatively offensive nature of the present metagame is rather favourable for it.

Piloswine: B+ -> A-: Decent rocker that provides valuable defensive utility, checks many mons in a 1v1 setting, and has valuable priority, particularly vs Sceptile.

Drapion: B -> B+: One of the better pursuit trappers. Decent speed tier and good defensive ability. Relatively versatile mon that may function as a scarfer, tspikes absorber, tspikes setter, or even phazer with Whirlwind.

Medicham: B -> B+: Alright breaker and scarfer. Better than other B mons. Still faces heavy competition from other scarfers and breakers, so B+ is where it’ll stay for now.

Skuntank: D -> B: Similar to Drapion but also has access to Fire Blast and Sucker Punch.

Mandibuzz: C+ -> B-: Provides decent defensive utility with its typing and bulk, which lets it switch into mons like Golurk and Sceptile. Access to moves like Taunt, Toxic, and Knock Off lets it make progress versus more passive teams, whereas Foul Play and Brave Bird gives it more immediate damage output vs offensive mons. Still faces issues with SR weakness and 4MSS.

Kadabra: C -> C+: Cut above the other C mons. While mostly outdone by Sigilyph, Kadabra’s speedtier and more powerful stab gives it a small niche.


Aggron: A- -> B: While certainly a viable option, Aggron is not close to the level of other rockers such as Drud, Lix, Golurk, Uxie, Piloswine, or Rhydon, whereas CB faces competion from mons like Durant, Kabutops, and Aerodactyl. RP Life Orb is also usable, but its low speed and the fact that it also faces so much competition makes it hard to fit on teams.

Sigilyph: A+ -> A: Great mon, but not on the same level as Qwilfilsh, Aerodactyl, Kabutops, Alomomola, or Rotom-C.

Mesprit: A- -> B+: Faces strong competition from other rockers and offensive psychic types, particularly Uxie.

Jynx: A- -> B+: The sleep ban negatively affects Jynx, but it’s still a decent mon.

Omastar: A- -> B+: Lead Oma faces strict competition from mons like Qwilfish, Crustle, Custap Lix, and Accelgor. Smash is rather slow and struggles to deal with fat waters, namely Slowking and Lanturn.

Torterra: A- -> B-: Can function as both a rocker, breaker, and set up sweeper, in addition to providing useful defensive utility with its natural bulk and typing, but it faces very strong competition from other mons. Either of the above is often done better by other mons.

Absol: B+ -> B: Slight degrade which reflects the fact Drap and Skuntank are valued higher than they used to be, thus increasing its competition.

Accelgor: B+ -> B: Similar issues as with Oma.

Braviary: B+ -> B: Faces competition from other scarfers and set up sweepers.

Emboar: B+ -> B: CB is generally outdone by Entei. Scarf gives speed control + Ant switchin in one mon but is not that strong. Defensive pig is even better at switchin into Ant in addition to being good at spreading status, but it is also prone to getting weakened by hazards.

Lilligant: B+ -> B: Sleep nerf.

Roselia: B+ -> C+: Sleep nerf. Also faces competition from other spikers that generally tend to do the job better, with the exception of certain builds.

Seismitoad: B+ -> B: Faces strict competition as both a ground, water, and rocker, making it hard to fit on teams.

Spiritomb: B+ -> B: Rotom-N is generally easier to fit as a spinblocker, while Drapion and Skuntank compete with it as a trapper. Still manages to carve out a niche for itself as a fatter ghost which can function as a wincon with cm, or as a status spreader and defensive answer to fighting breakers such as Medi and Gallade.

Bouff: B -> B-: Sleep nerf makes the sleep absorber worse. Faces competition from other normal breakers.

Cinccino: B -> C+: Has a small niche due to its speed tier but faces strong competition and provides no defensive utility.

Fraxure: B -> B-: Slight decrease reflecting the fact that dragonspam is slightly worse now than it used to be.

Galvantula: B-> C+: For the most part hard to justify using over the other electrics but has a small niche due to its speed tier.

Haunter: B -> B-: Has to die to spinblock and provides no defensive utility. Hits hard but struggles to come in. Often outdone by Rotom-N.

Kangaskhan: B -> C: Struggles to compete with Zangoose, Bouff, and Cinccino. Still has a niche due to its priority and speed tier.

Klinklang: B -> C+: Struggles versus the best mons in the tier.

Rotom-F: B -> C+: Mostly outdone by other electrics, including other Rotom forms.

Sawsbuck: B -> C+: Same issues as Kang and Cinccino. Manages to set itself apart from the other offensive normal types due to its ability, as well as its sub seed set and scarf set. These sets do, however, also face significant competition, leaving the buck in an awkward spot.

Zangoose: B -> B-: Similar to Bouff, Kang, and Cinccino. While being stronger than all of them, it provides less defensive utility than Bouff and is slower than Kang and Cinccino. Also faces competition from other fast breakers.

Gurdurr: B- -> C+: Generally outdone by Gallade, Medi, or Boar. Slight niche due to its bulk.

Hariyama: B- -> C+: Same as with Gurdurr.

Magmortar: B- -> C: Sleep nerf hurts the sleep absorber. Still has a tiny niche as a strong special fire type that is not 4x weak to SR, while access to EQ lets it break Lanturn and deal with SUB+CM Entei.

Miltank: B- -> C: Another sleep absorber that takes a hit. Generally outdone by Clef, but its ability gives it a little niche.

Poliwrath: B- -> C+: Hard to justify using over the other water types. Usable on rain teams.

Regirock: B- -> C+: Generally outdone as a rocker. Still has a niche due its bulk and typing, letting it check important mons like Molt and Drud, in addition to beating our spinners - Kabutops and Cryogonal - 1v1.

Samurott: B- -> C+: Hard to justify using over the other water types. Its versatility as a breaker does, however, make it hard to guess what kind of set it is running, which in turn often lets it put a dent into the opposing team. As such, it is still deserving of being ranked.

Scyther: B -> C+: Due to its great speed tier and U-turn Scyther is a usable mon, but its rocks weakness, lack of initial power, and inability to break steels such as Lix holds it back.

Misdreavus: B -> C+: Somewhat decent at spinblocking and spreading status, but faces rough competition from other ghosts.

Exeggutor: B- -> C+: Sleep nerf.

Feraligatr: B- -> C+: Faces strong competition from other waters. However, as SV correctly points out, it has a niche with DD.

Drifblim: B- -> C+: Mostly outdone by Sceptile as an Unburden sweeper but not always. Sometimes Drifblim fits a given team better than Scept does. Additionally, they can also be paired together to weaken common checks like Lix.

Smeargle: B- -> C: Sleep nerf.

Sewllow: B- -> C: Same issues as with the aforementioned normal breakers. Carves out a niche for itself by being the fastest one of the normal breakers, but it is also frailer and and kills itself with recoil, status, and hazard damage.

Typhlosion: B- -> C: Mostly outclassed by other fire types, namely Moltres, but Eruption and a slightly better speed tier gives it a small niche.

Eelektross: C+ -> C: Hard to justify using over the other electric types. Sub Coil still sets it apart from the rest. Offensive pivot sets with Leftovers or Specs are totally outclassed in my opinion, although I should hasten to note that other users in the VR team may value those sets more than I do.

Shiftry: C+ -> C: Very hard to fit on teams with all the competition it faces from other grass and dark types. The rise of Skuntank does not do it any favours.

Zweilous C+ -> C: Same reason as Fraxure.
 
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SilentVerse

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The proposed changes are interesting to say the least and reflect a very different BW RU metagame than the one I spent a lot of time playing. It certainly gives me valuable insight into why people think Durant and Moltres are broken. I'm just going to go over some the changes that I disagree with quite strongly:

Slowking to A+: I think Slowking is a good Pokemon, but severely overrated by the current RU playerbase. While it's a good blanket check to a lot of threats, it's a a Pokemon that loses to most of the best Pokemon in the tier (Druddigon, Durant, Sceptile, Rotom-C). It's competing for teamslots with other waters like Alomomola, Qwilfish, and Lanturn. Unlike Slowking, Alomomola is a very good answer to Druddigon / Durant and also casually 1v1s 60% of the tier while healing it's team to full, Qwilfish sets up Spikes (which are broken), and while Slowking is better than Lanturn for the most part, Lanturn is arguably a more reliable answer to Moltres and is a very reasonable pivot with Volt Switch. Even the things that you want to use Slowking to beat have ways around it (LO Moltres 2HKOes with Hurricane after rocks unless fully SDef, and Specs Moltres 2HKOes that too, Sigilyph can randomly beat it with CM Flame Orb + Air Slash, Gallade / Medicham has coverage for it, Vinctei PP stalls it, etc). It just doesn't line up very well with the things that are good in BW RU imo.

Tangrowth to A: I'd argue the sleep ban actually impacts this Pokemon a ton. The main reason to use it prior to the ban was for LO Sleep Powder + Leaf Storm imo, which could come in on most SR users and basically KO two things with Sleep + Leaf Storm. Now that Sleep is banned, it's in a bit of an awkward spot since while it does handle some threats reasonably well (Kabutops in particular) most teams have answers to strong Leaf Storms due to how good Sceptile is, and it's a pretty bad check to some things you'd want it to check due to its typing (Sceptile, Rotom-C)

Drapion to B+: This mon sucks. Like really really sucks. It does have a niche by virtue of Pursuit + its typing + Speed tier, but it really struggles to do anything meaningful other than absorb Toxic Spikes, Pursuit stuff, and sometimes set up Toxic Spikes. To be fair, that niche is relevant enough that B is fair for it, but I've found that if my team needs a Drapion to cover that niche, it could probably use some work. Should probably be in the same rank as Skuntank, since they're pretty interchangeable imo (tends to come down to Drapion's Speed vs Sucker Punch)

Aggron to B: Ok so like, I'm sure we can all agree Druddigon is the best mon in the tier by far. This thing is one of the few things that actually can switch into CB Outrage and KO Druddigon back. That alone makes me consider this infinitely more than anything in B. CB Head Smash is obnoxiously difficult to switch into and RP is dangerous if people are relying on Aerodactyl as Speed control. I could see this drop to B+, but any lower seems incorrect.

Omastar to B+: This is probably one of the better hazard leads with Sleep banned (RIP smeargle). Smash also just wins against a ton of teams and can tech for Slowking / Lanturn with Grass Gem.

Torterra to B-: This mon is extremely good. It's one of the few Volt Switch immunes that doesn't die to Rotom-C's Leaf Storm. No other Rocker in the tier has this niche. It also checks a ton of relevant threats very well (Aerodactyl, Kabutops, Rotom) and its offensive coverage is also very strong. It does struggle with particularly bad matchups against some top tier threats (Moltres, Durant, Sigilyph to a degree) but it's definitely better than anything in B.

Crawdaunt to B+: Agree with GoldCat's post in general on this mon, it's situationally good but nowhere near a staple. I consider B to be viable Pokemon that are very good situationally, so it would fit in better there.

Roselia to C+: Friendly reminder that this mon has never used Sleep Powder because it is illegal with Spikes. It's also a Spiker that can switch into Sceptile / Rotom-C / Tangrowth, which has made it key to various stall / balance builds.

Cinccino, Kangaskhan, Sawsbuck - what competition do these mons have? I think they all have very distinct niches and are very dangerous with the right support (Cinccino coverage + breaking subs is very strong, Kangaskhan priority with Scrappy + bulk, Sawsbuck typing + coverage). The only mon I can think of is Tauros, but that mon also has some issues (it cannot break though Alomomola, specifically). I think keeping all of these mons in B is fine.

Regirock, Poliwrath, Gurdurr, Hariyama have defensive niches that other Pokemon in the tier can't really cover in one slot, so I'd argue these mons should stay in B-. I'd actually argue Gurdurr is pretty underrated and could rise.

Scyther, Exeggutor, Feraligatr, Typhlosion, Drifblim, should all stay. Scyther needs a lot of support to function for sure, but strong U-turns are difficult to handle for many teams. Exeggutor is hurt a lot by the sleep ban, but I think it has value as a wallbreaker that can sweep offensive teams with TR / Sunny Day. Feraligatr has a lot of issues, but DD sets have a niche imo. Typhlosion is pretty bad, but it does have a reasonable niche with Scarf / Specs Eruption. Drifblim is decent due to Flying gem Acrobatics / unburden / wisp / dbond. These could all just be dumped somewhere in C, although I think Scyther is probably good enough for B due to its strength on VoltTurn builds.

Smeargle, Zweilous, and Misdreavus can probably be removed or dropped somewhere in C, though.

Agree with Druddigon getting an S+ rank of its own and Sceptile / Durant being in the next tier below (but still S). I think Qwilfish, while very splashable, isn't quite as good as those two and Qwilfish teams tend to struggle with certain threats so it should stay in A+. I also agree that Moltres could go in A+. While it's probably one of the bigger issues in BW RU, it's not consistent and demands significant team support.

I have some other thoughts but I will get to them later. These were just the most pressing concerns I had with the recent changes.
 
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I made a mistake regarding the unranking of several mons. These mons were wrongfully unranked. Some rankers did indeed vote to UR these mons, but others did not. At first, mons that received multiple UR votes were left to be UR, but this was decided against. Instead of doing it this way, the VR council thought it would be better to base the final rank on an average score, as is the case with all the other mons. This was done in a different page of the excel sheet, which I missed. That being said, if I had double checked each individual mon and its votes, then I would have questioned the final ranks of these mons anyway. In other words, no matter how you look at it, the fault is on me for rushing to post without properly checking that everything was in order. My apologies.

Here are updated ranks that hopefully better reflect their real viability. I will also edit the original post.

Scyther B -> C+
Misdreavus B -> C+
Exeggutor B- -> C+
Feraligatr B- -> C+
Drifblim B- -> C+
Typhlosion B- -> C
 

ScraftyIsTheBest

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Hi I haven't played BW RU in a long while, so it's interesting to see how much things have changed since I last played. Even with that said though, there's a few things I wanna say though.

My main point though is that I vehemently disagree with moving Roselia all the way down to C+ from B+, especially with the reasoning provided. I don't know if things have changed in recent BW RU meta but as far as to my knowledge, I don't think Roselia has ever run Sleep Powder and that has never been a reason it was used in RU to begin with. If anything, I think the Sleep nerf made it slightly easier to justify using because that means Amoonguss lost one of its main advantages over Roselia. Its main set has always been Spikes/Giga Drain/Sludge Bomb/Rest or Synthesis, and its value is that it's a bulky Spiker that can check a handful of special threats in the tier like say, Sceptile, Lanturn, Rotom-C, Lilligant (who I understand has fallen off because of the Sleep nerf, albeit is probably still relevant to a degree), Manectric, Rotom-N, etc. It does face competition from other Spikers but it's not strictly inferior to any of them, because it functions a lot differently from them. Omastar, Crustle, Accelgor and Scolipede don't really count as competition because they're meant for more offensive builds, so the only Spikers who really count as competition to Roselia are Qwilfish, Ferroseed, and...Garbodor. Qwilfish checks an entirely different set of threats (ahem Durant and Entei), which is different from the mons Roselia is supposed to be a check to, so in that regard they function a lot differently, plus Roselia has the advantage of recovery to increase its own longevity, which is also an advantage it has over the likes of Ferroseed and the garbage bag, also it's not as overly passive as Ferroseed. Not to mention Natural Cure is very much a useful trait for balance/stall builds: this means Roselia can easily sponge status (namely paralysis and burn from stuff like Uxie and Rotom-N) and then switch out, which can be a useful trait at times. With the traits it has it has some pretty distinct and valuable traits that warrant its use as a Spiker over the other Spikes brethren in the tier and is pretty great for stall teams in particular. Also because it's a Poison-type it has value in being a Toxic Spikes absorber. The main thing going against it would be how prominent Durant and Moltres are rn but other than that I think C+ is wayyy too low for Roselia. I could maybe see it drop to B but putting it lower than that is severely underestimating its usefulness on the team archetypes it functions best on (balance/stall, which Roselia is incredibly valuable for). Yeah, it has some competition as a Spiker, but it still has a number of pretty valuable traits that warrant it staying in the B Ranks imo, whether it be B or B+.

I think dropping Spiritomb down to B might be something I feel is questionable. Yeah it's not as individually good as a spinblocker as Rotom-N or individually as a trapper as Skuntank/Drapion but I feel the fact that it can do both in one slot is pretty valuable. A big thing it has over Rotom-N is that Spiritomb can actually threaten Cryogonal because Spiritomb has the ability to pick on Cryo's piss poor physical bulk with both Sucker Punch and Pursuit, which in itself also happens to make Cryogonal one of the things it can trap over Spiritomb and Drapion. I'm not opposed to it necessarily but I feel its ability to compress roles like that, plus CroTomb being a viable wincon on stall builds and spread burns with its other set, is pretty valuable. I also feel Seismitoad might be worth talking about because I feel that its role compression can be very valuable. Water Absorb is a really nice advantage to absorb Scalds from Slowking and it's also a Rocker who hard walls Kabutops and can kill it with Earth Power, while it blocks Volt Switch from Manectric and Rotom-N. Sure, it faces competition in each of the individual roles as a Water, Ground, and Rocker, but it compresses so much into one mon and I feel that can be really useful at times. A Rocker who can win against Tops, can use Water Absorb to switch into Scald, can block Volt Switch, and also has utility with its own Scald, as well as Knock Off/Toxic, is a lot of valuable traits in just one mon.

Just a brief thing about the Normals (Cinccino, Kanga, Sawsbuck, Zangoose, etc.), but I would echo SilentVerse's sentiment about questioning what "competition" they all face. Aside from the fact that they all function a lot differently, plus Cinccino has value with fast U-turn and threatening Omastar/Crustle leads, and Kangaskhan can also be a revenge killer with Fake Out+Sucker Punch, I find the competition from other Normals a bit weird as a line of reasoning when not one of the offensive Normal-types in the rankings right now is ranked above B (unless we're talking offensive Clefable), implying that there isn't really any sort of competition they have that is particularly relevant in the meta. I could maybe see the argument that offensive Normal-types aren't as effective in the metagame right now, but saying they face competition from others when most of them seem to be B or B- and thus are evidently situational threats at best in RU is kind of an odd argument to drop them into the C Ranks.

As a side note, while this hasn't been brought up and isn't the main topic of discussion I do wonder what's the point of keeping all those mons in D Rank right now in the listings. I don't see a single reason I would use any of those mons as their niches are so minuscule that I would never even consider most of them for a serious team in RU. Furthermore, ever since C Rank has been divided into subranks back then the C and C- Ranks have served the function of mons who aren't great and are rarely worth using but have small niches that make them usable on some teams. I wouldn't remove D Rank entirely as Dusknoir is still there and is RU by technicality, but I would dump every other mon who is there off the list and repurpose D Rank to be reserved exclusively for Dusknoir, who has to be there because it's technically RU but everyone knows that it sucks utterly.

Except Skuntank, who is being proposed to move up to the B Ranks, and I would agree that Skuntank has a good enough niche to go wayyy up. I honestly don't know why Skuntank is that far down low in the ranks lmao. It's arguably better than Drapion imo since it has priority with Sucker Punch and Fire Blast is a big, big advantage to hit Steelix hard. B sounds reasonable imo. I would look through the rest of the D Rank though and either boot them off the list entirely or if people believe a certain mon there has a distinct enough niche to warrant keeping them in the rankings, move them up somewhere. I don't think D Rank really has a reason to exist as it does right now except to highlight Dusknoir as a mon who is RU by technicality but is not worth using in any situation. If any other RU mon is deemed similarly unviable in a manner (not likely to happen considering Dusknoir is just that horrible) then D Rank would be the place to dump them.

Just a few thoughts from an old geezer like me ahaha.
 
As I assume many of you are well aware of, the SM VR is somewhat outdated. In my view we ought to do something about this. VRs are particularly useful for players who are looking to get into the tier. With SM Cup coming up in not too long, I think this is a great time to update the VR. This being that case, I wish to revive the discussion regarding the SM VR. To do so, I will present a suggestion of what a new and updated VR could look like. This is simply a preliminary VR, and I would love for others to chime in and criticise it. I believe that a lively discussion is necessary in order to create an accurate VR, and I hope that my post can serve to ignite such a discussion. That being said, I will try to keep this as brief as possible. Thus, without further ado, here is a visualisation of what a new VR could look like:
I wanna briefly step in from my current occasional lurking to get something off my chest. This post almost perfectly represents what I despise about VRs as they currently exist, why I find them especially unhelpful for learning old gens, and why that's unhealthy for old gens overall. They expect you to take a list presented with no context and extrapolate the metagame from there. Once you get beyond, say, A rank, they're pretty useless for understanding anything. If you want to get any idea of the reasoning behind placements, you have to comb through the thread, which often leads to disappointment as people regurgitate what's generically good about the mon, with no consideration as to why that suddenly makes it A- instead of B+. eifo's massive paragraphs after his list are guilty of this, but before I get into that, I want to point out that his six aspects of viability are a fantastic concept. Those considerations are something any player needs to know and should somehow be acknowledged within the VR itself in place of the uselessly vague rank descriptions currently there. Now then, the Roserade-Slowbro-Donphan content:
Let us first turn our attention towards the S-rank. What is it that makes Roserade and Slowbro so good? Firstly...
This paragraph falls into the same trap as Smogon's generations' worth of analyses (RU old gens included). We get so bogged down in the details, we lose sight of putting the whole package of a Pokemon into context. Roserade and Slowbro are evaluated on the six aspects, which is fine, but no useful conclusion is drawn. I am left with little idea as to why these Pokemon are a cut above any other, and only my personal experience with months of SM RU assures me it isn't nonsense. This doesn't help someone new jump into the meta, it reinforces the beliefs established players already have.
Let us now move on to a fan favourite: Donphan. Firstly, Donphan is easy to fit on almost any given team, at almost any given time in the building process. As such, it possesses a high degree of splashability. Secondly, Donphan tends to perform well irrespective of the match up. It can thus be said to have a high degree of consistency.
Donphan's part is much of the same. These 'firstly' and 'secondly' sentences are the clearest examples of truisms, which run rampant in this paragraph and the last. They don't come together to form an insight, so all they're doing is bloating the post to where most people won't bother reading, and the people who do have little to show for it. This sort of bloat characterizes VR thread posts across the site, making it even harder to learn anything from them.
Okay, so why is Rose and Bro S, while Donphan is A+? As you can see, Donphan scores highly on almost all of the things which I value. The primary reason for this is that Donphan lacks that final oomph - the extraordinary qualities that put it above the rest of the pack.
Final oomph? What final oomph? All I learned was that Roserade scores highly on offensive qualities, while Slowbro is superior on defense! You use "extremely" to describe an aspect of each, I acknowledge that, but it's so lost in the prose sauce that it doesn't stand out in the reader's mind. So, at the end of all this scoring, I am left no more educated on what the difference between S and A+ means to you. That's even supposed to be the easiest-to-explain gap in a VR! How am I supposed to learn from this!?

Overall, I like this way of thinking, but this post suffers from only going halfway on its rationale for the list, which is blank as ever. That's my main point; so much discussion and thought goes on behind the scenes of a VR, but the final product demonstrates none of it. You cannot learn from a page with some pictures on it, but you CAN if there are succinct words accompanying and contextualizing those pictures. Anything, from short blurbs of text stating the Pokemon's niche and competition (C rank in particular) or dominance in an aspect, to a pastebin with notes on each placement, would go miles in making VRs a truly respectable resource.

If you want old gens to properly attract new people, it has to start with information being more easily accessible. I know Pokemon is a social game for a lot of players; I'm aware that working together in tours is how a lot of newer people have picked up old gens. That's great, but it shouldn't be the only realistic option. Personally, I have autism; I'm sometimes grumpy, I'm self-conscious, tours stress me out, and I hate poking people I'm not very familiar with for games and help. I very much doubt I'm alone, either, I just happen to be in a position to articulate myself. People who are content being chill about the game are important too; the atmosphere of coldness and competition is part of why I've been distancing myself from RU. I may be just one voice, but I implore you all to consider putting your best into what new players see first, and relaxing the exclusivity players have on metagame knowledge.

also i bet none of you jerks even tried klinklang :trode:
 

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