Well, here's the second part of the guide. It looks at some of the more complex parts of Team Building, and some members may not find this aspect completely necessary. It also contains a few example movesets, and if I can find one to use, it will also contain a link to a well-constructed team. If I can't find one, then I'll just make it myself. Enjoy.
What Are EVs and IVs?
EVs and IVs are perhaps the most complex part of creating an excellent Pokémon team, and make the difference between good and great. If you do not like the more technical side of Pokémon, then you need not read this section. However, skipping this will greatly hinder your ability to successfully build and rate teams.
• How do EVs work?
EVs are values that are hidden within the game, and normal players are not meant to know about. They are gained by defeating or catching other Pokémon. The type of EV and number of EVs obtained vary depending on which Pokémon is defeated. Check Serebii.net's Pokédex to see which EVs are gained from which Pokémon.
A single Pokémon can gain a total of 510 EVs, with up to 255 in each stat. Each 4 EVs gained translate to 1 stat point gained by Level 100. Thus, you can gain up to 63 points in a single stat by Level 100 through the method of EV Training as 255/4 = 63.75, which is rounded down.
• How do IVs work?
IVs, like EVs, are hidden values within the game. Unlike EVs, however, they are not controllable. Each Pokémon is created with a total of 6 IVs, one for each stat. The IVs range from 1-31, with 31 being the best. At Level 100, a Pokémon with 31 IVs in a stat will have 30 more points than one with 1 IV in the stat. The combination of IVs that your Pokémon has also decides the strength and type of its Hidden Power move, which you can use if you know how to get the needed IVs.
Allocation of EVs.
The following does not always work with competitive. There is a competitive Ev Guide found in CRMT which you should refer to if you want to play competitively.
Many people struggle when it comes to allocating EVs, because they do not know where to start or why they should allocate EVs into certain stats. When allocating EVs, it is important that you consider what you want your Pokémon to be able to do, and how you can design it to do this job efficiently. Here are some common techniques applied to Pokémon of different roles.
• What is the relevance of 252?
Very often, people will use 252 EVs in a stat when creating an EV Spread. Occasionally, confusion is created because the EVs for a single stat Max at 255, so at first glance, it would be logical to use 255 EVs rather than 252. However, when applying maths, it becomes clear why using 255 is wasteful. Remember the following concepts of EVs;
~ 1 stat point is gained for every 4 EVs.
~ The number of stat points gained can be determined by dividing the number of invested EVs by 4. For example, 16 EVs = 4 stat points because 16/4 = 4.
~ If the number of invested EVs is not a multiple of 4, then the result is rounded down. For example, 15 EVs = 3 stat points because 15/3 = 3.75, which is 3 when rounded down.
Now, plug in the numbers 252 and 255 to determine how much they will gain each. 252/4 = 63, and so 63 stat points will be gained. 255/4 = 63.75, which is rounded down, and so 63 stat points will still be gained. Therefore, you are wasting 3 EVs by investing 255 rather than 252.
• How should I EV a fully offensive Pokémon?
NOTE: ALL EXAMPLES ASSUME THAT THE POKEMON HAS PERFECT IVs. TO ACHIEVE SIMILAR GOALS WITH YOUR POKEMON'S EV SPREAD, YOU WILL FIRST HAVE TO CALCULATE YOUR IVs AND CUSTOMISE YOUR EVs ACCORDINGLY
An offensive Pokémon is a Pokémon designed to take out many opponents very quickly with attacks that are normally STAB Boosted. On occasion, they will use Attack, Special Attack, or Speed boosting moves such as Dragon Dance, and I will address such Pokémon separately.
Firstly, we'll look at the non-boosting Sweepers. These generally run a straightforward set of four attacking moves along with a Life Orb, or similar item. These Pokémon most commonly run EV Spreads of 4 HP / 252 Atk or SpAtk / 252 Spe. The reasoning behind this is simple; most Sweepers will want to be as fast and as powerful as they possibly can, and so maxing your Atk or SpAtk and Spe is logical and acceptable.
Speed boosting Sweepers can be given a different approach by removing some unnecessary EVs from Spe and re-investing them into HP or defensive stats. But this is where the problems arise. How many EVs should be removed, and why should they be removed? When EVing a Speed Booster, it is critical to look at what you will be able to outspeed after your boosts. Remember how the Stat Boost Stages work.
~ After one boost, you will have increased your stat to 150% or 1.5x the original.
~ After two boosts, you will have increased your stat to 200% or 2x the original.
~ After three boosts, you will have increased your stat to 250% or 2.5x the original.
~ After four boosts, you will have increased your stat to 300% or 3x the original.
~ After five boosts, you will have increased your stat to 350% or 3.5x the original.
~ After six boosts, you will have increased your stat to 400% or 4x the original.
Now, we know how much to increase our Spe by when calculating how many EVs to invest. But why are we calculating this? Why should we use fewer than 252 Spe EVs? Well, most of the time, you will be wasting EVs if you run Maximum because you will not be meeting any specific targets. To explain this fully, I'll use an example. This is an Empoleon carrying the move Agility, which boosts your Spe by two stages, or to 200%.
4 HP / 252 SpAtk / 252 Spe, Timid.
This is a standard sweeper set, but not on a standard Sweeper. Let's take a look at the actual stats of this Empoleon after using Agility. This Empoleon maximises its Speed, which gives it an actual stat of 240. Now, we double this because we are calculating how fast the Empoleon will be after using Agility, giving it a Speed stat of 480. This might seem great, but now consider, do you need 480 Spe? It's extremely fast, but does it need to be that fast? Let's take a look at the fastest serious threat, Electrode. Assuming that it is running Max Speed, which it often does, it will have a Speed stat of 416. So, you are actually outspeeding it by whole 64 points when you need only outspeed it by 1 point. To fix this, you need to find what the smallest whole number which, when doubled, will be higher than 416. You can do this by adding 1 to 416, to reach your target speed, then dividing 417 by 2 and rounding up. This gives you 209. So, Ceiling(416+1)/2 = 209, where ceiling indicates that the result should be changed to the nearest whole number that is higher than your result. This means that your Empoleon will need only run 209 Spe instead of 240. This is achievable by running only 212 Spe EVs, and you don't even need a Timid Nature, meaning that your Empoleon can switch to Modest to hit harder. As a Sweeper, it will need to be hitting as well as it can, so 252 EVs can be put into SpAtk. Finally, the remaining 44 EVs are dumped into HP for durability. You final spread is 44 HP / 252 SpAtk / 212 Spe, Modest.
• How should I EV a fully defensive Pokémon?
For this part, I'm doing the complete opposite of before by assuming a totally defensive Pokémon rather than totally offensive. As this is not competitive, you do not need to EV to survive attacks from certain threats, but rather you should work on optimising your Defences. There are three different styles; Max HP + Equal Defence, Max HP + Concentrate on one Defence, or use Low HP + Concentrate heavily on both Defences. You should vary which style you use with which Pokémon you are EVing.
Firstly, the Max HP + Equal Defences style. Pokémon with fairly all-round Defensive Stats will want to employ this style, as they will benefit most from being able to take hits from everything evenly. Firstly, with these Pokémon, you should always Max your HP first because this is the most important defensive stat. 252 EVs can be dropped into it straight away. Now, you should tailor your remaining EVs so that they meet in the middle. Each Pokémon will need to be EVd differently here, so I'll use an example of one. Here's an Umbreon;
252 HP / x Def / x SpDef, x Nature.
Now, we already have Max HP invested because Umbreon has a mediocre HP in relation to its other Defences. The Def, SpDef, and Nature will come together once we do a little maths and find out how to even them out. Firstly, let's look at Umbreon's Base Stats for Def and SpDef. They are 110 and 130 respectively. The actual stats are 256 Def / 296 SpDef. We will want to start by evening these out, so I will give it a +Def Nature, Impish in this case. Now, my actual Def comes in at 281 points. To make this up to the current target, 296, I will need to invest 56 Def EVs. So, we now have an EV Spread of 252 HP / 56 Def / x SpDef, Impish. By subtracting 252 and 56 from 510, which is the total number of EVs that can be used, I have 202 EVs left to work with. I divide this by 2 to find out how many can be allocated into each stat, and get 101, which can be changed to 100 which is the nearest multiple of 4. Now, I put 100 EVs into both Def and SpDef, giving me actual stats of 324 Def / 321 SpDef. Because of deeper game mechanics, which I will not explain now, the Def has come out higher so I can tweak my EVs to make them as equal as possible. My final spread is 252 HP / 152 Def / 104 SpDef, Impish.
Now for the next style. It's far simpler than the previous one because it is easily to recognise where it is needed, and employ it. All you need to do is, when EVing a Pokémon that has a far higher Def or SpDef that SpDef or Def respectively, you should simply run a 4 / 252 / 252 spread in order to help remedy the lower Defensive stat. Steelix, for example, has an excellent Def but poorer SpDef, and so running 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpDef, Careful would be suitable. The only difficulties occur when a Pokémon is using a move that boosts its Def or SpDef, such as Swampert with Curse. As Curse boost Def, it would be appropriate to invest in SpDef here because that stat is being left alone, so again, 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpDef, Careful is an appropriate spread to use.
Finally, the third style of investing only slightly in HP and investing heavily in your Defences instead. This may seem to be a contradiction, as I mentioned earlier that HP is the most valuable Defensive stat, but if your Base HP is phonemically high already, then investing in it actually has very little effect on the damage taken. A perfect example to be used would be Blissey.
4 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpDef, Calm.
Blissey has a Base HP of 255, which is the highest in the game. Therefore, investing heavily into HP would be unwise because she has a huge amount of it anyway. A more appropriate and beneficial method to use would be to run a 4 / 252 / 252 spread, with the 252s being your Defences. This will allow you to take more hits from both sides of the attacking spectrum rather than having an enormous HP, but lacking the defences to successfully back it up.
• Is this all I need to know about EVs?
No, unfortunately not. As this is only a basics guide, I have only covered the basics of how to EV. I have not covered hybrid spreads, combining Offence and Defence. I have not covered Jump Points or Leftovers Recovery points. I have not covered even HP vs odd HP, and I have not covered TrickScarf Spreads. This is because none of these are particularly simple, and you will pick them up over time if you watch the best raters carefully and contact them for information. What I have given you to work with here is a solid base. Build on it.
Resources.
There are some resources that I have found to be particularly helpful in my time playing Pokémon. Here are some of them.
The Serebii.net Pokédex, The Serebii.net Attackdex, and The Serebii.net Itemdex. Where would we be without Serebii? My automatic reference for Pokémon facts when I need to look something up.
Serebii.net's Moveset Calculator. If you want a Pokémon that can learn certain moves, but can't find it, then try searching using this ingenious tool. Excellent if you get stuck with finding a member with a suitable moveset.
Serebii.net's IV Calculator. The best IV Calculator I've ever used. It gives informative and reliable readouts, and also calculates your Hidden Power's Type and Damage. A highly valuable tool.
Marriland's Team Builder. This is one of my favourite tools. You input your Pokémon, and it immediately shows you all of your strengths and weaknesses, so you can adjust the Pokémon in your team as needed.
Smogon's Pokémon Analyses. For those of you who don't know, Smogon is a website which has written analyses for each Pokémon. I go there on occasion for basic moveset guidance when I am looking for good move ideas, although I rarely use it anymore. All of the information at Smogon is highly competitively-based. You will need to adapt much of it for in-game purposes.
Smogon's Damage Calculator. Of all the damage calculators that I have tried, this one outclasses them all. It provides a fully featured, easy to use tool for calculating stats and damage. All of my EV Calculations and Damage percentages come from this calculator.
Salavoir55 & Rhys29's EV Guide. A competitive EV Guide from CRMT made by Salavoir55 and Rhys29, two highly experienced battlers. The guide is competitively based, but extremely comprehensive when compared to my one. Worth a look if you want to explore EVs further.
