Hello MCBarrett,
Here's a couple of questions:
- What tools do you use that help you effectively rate another user's team? (i.e. Marrilands Team Builder, Damage Calculator)
- Does experience from the Ladder help when giving rates?
- I currently broke into the 1600 club in the OU meta game, any tips to get over the "MY POINTS" anxiety lol, and how to overcome the skilled user's on this half of the ladder?
Any advice you can give will surely help, thank you for you time.
1. The only tools I use for rating are calcs really. I firmly believe Marriland's Team Builder is a terrible tool when it comes to rating and building teams since it only focuses on type synergy which is such a small aspect of Team Building. I've found a lot of newer players that use Marriland's Team Builder get obsessed with type synergy and end up not focusing on more important aspects of their team. One new tool I would recommend though is the
bReakMyTeam Calc which is basically a sweeper calc that shows which pokes can do the most damage to your team across the board. It's just an easy way to get relevant calcs on any given team but you have to take it with a grain of salt as well. Pokes with fantastic coverage and power like Azumarill and Diggersby are almost always at the top of the list but they may not actually be the biggest threat to the team if said team doesn't allow them to switch in very often etc. It can be used for building teams to see if you have common weaknesses as well so I'd definitely recommend that.
2. Ladder experience definitely helps with rates because playing the ladder helps to keep you up to date with the current metagame. You always want your rates to reflect the current meta and if you aren't playing, chances are you don't know the meta that well.
3. This is actually a great question and I'm glad you asked :]. Laddering can be very stressful if you are worried about your points so my advice is to not worry about them. Sounds like a dumb answer but really ladder ranking isn't all too important in the grand scheme of things. I used to be the same way and would stress about ranking but now I just use the ladder to test teams and try out new stuff. It makes things way less stressful and you are actually focusing on seeing how stuff works rather than on your ranking so it's easier to adjust your team, step back, and try again. Going along with that, to do well in the higher portion of the ladder try out things that you see when you battle players with high ranks. Trying out new stuff is the best way to increase your knowledge of the metagame and a great way to improve your team building.
Finally, since you're probably a competitive person if you get anxiety from the ladder, I'd recommend trying out tournaments to get your competitive fix. This is something I wish I did much earlier in my Pokemon career. Tournaments are the best way to show off your stuff since people care about them much more than the ladder. There's a tournament room on PS! that's has tournaments all the time which is great for beginners and the tournaments forum on Smogon always has stuff going on, as well as some of the most prestigious tournaments there are.
So yea, don't stress on the ladder too much and try out tourneys! Thanks for the great questions btw n_n
Sup MCBarrett, meant to do this last night but was too drunk x.x
1. How much time do you usually spend on rates?
2. Is it pronounced "Mick Barrett" or "Emcee Barrett"?
3. Who's that Tesung person, and why do they think they're good? =O
1. Once you have done it for a while rates shouldn't take very long. Sometimes it takes a bit to organize your rate so it comes across as easy to understand but it's usually like a 10 minute thing.
2. I was hoping someone would ask this n_n. It's "Emcee Barrett" and the "M" "C" and "B" are all capitalized and there are 2 "t's" (I know it seems obvious but most people write "McBarret" ;~;)
3. Idk but he's mean ;~;