Pokemon Tiers [2016-04-16]

[Irafayel]

 

Since Somes no longer does PVP much and has abandoned this post, i've decided to hijack it :D

 

Please note that even though i use the same tier names as smogon, this will simply be my opinion on what poke are used more often that not in PRO ranked PVP right now. I will try to update this as much as possible as more pokemon are added to the game, and more moves/abilities are fixed.

 

 

Contents:

• [goto=0] Over Used OU[/goto]

• [goto=1] Under Used UU[/goto]

• [goto=2] Rarely Used RU[/goto]

• [goto=3] Never Used NU[/goto]

• [goto=4] Threats[/goto]

• [goto=5] Discussion[/goto]

• [goto=6] About[/goto]

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Tiers are, in a way, a ranking system for Pokémon. The placement of Pokémon within the tiers defines both their usage and their overall potential. Pokémon that are strong and used often will find themselves in the high tier of OU, while weaker and less common Pokémon will find their way into UU, RU and NU.

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[anchor=0]-[/anchor]

Overused

Overused, commonly abbreviated as "OU", refers to Pokémon that are most frequently used in standard play.

OU status does not have to do with a Pokémon's power or ability. The Pokémon that make up OU, as with all tiers, are determined based on usage.

 

[anchor=101]List of Pokemon home to OU[/anchor]

[goto=7]Scizor[/goto]

[goto=8]Donphan[/goto]

[goto=9]Dragonite[/goto]

[goto=10]Azumaril[/goto]

[goto=11]Starmie[/goto]

[goto=12]Clefable[/goto]

[goto=13]Skarmory[/goto]

[goto=14]Blissey[/goto]

[goto=15]Machamp[/goto]

[goto=16]Arcanine[/goto]

[goto=17]Weavile[/goto]

[goto=18]Togekiss[/goto]

[goto=19]Roserade[/goto]

[goto=20]Slowbro[/goto]

[goto=21]Venusaur[/goto]

[goto=22]Snorlax[/goto]

[goto=23]Excadril[/goto]

[goto=24]Talonflame[/goto]

[goto=25]Hippowdon[/goto]

[goto=26]Ferrothorn[/goto]

[goto=27]Cloyster[/goto]

[goto=28]Sableye[/goto]

[goto=29]Mew[/goto]

[goto=30]Tyranitar[/goto]

 

Justification

[anchor=7]Scizor[/anchor]

Not really a tough decision putting scizor in the ou list. One of the premier physical sweepers right now, scizor can also run defensive sets, taking advantage of roost / defog / knock off besides its usual swords dance / bullet punch set. Scizor also has a sufficiently wide offensive move pool to deal with threats such as gyarados / skarmory, using attacks such as wing attack / knock off / quick attack / superpower. Most fire/steal types wall scizor well enough thoughm with arca deserving special mention thanks to intimidate and pure fire typing that resists both of sczors stab attacks.

 

Best Natures - Adamant / Impish

Best Ability - Technician

Best EV Spread - 252 / 252 - atk / hp OR 252 / 252 - atk / def

Best Counters - Arcanine / Skarmory / Ferrothorn

 

[anchor=8]Donphan[/anchor]

Donphan finds itself in PRO's ou tier due to a couple of reasons. One beings its significant defensive bulk combined with sturdy, while the other being its access to rapid spin. The best spinners in the game at the moment are donphan / starmie / tenta. Donphan and starmie have an edge over tenta as a spinner as they both have means of dealing with common spin blockers atm (gengar / sable / chandelure). Donphan's access to knock off + priority ice shard increases it usefulness even further. Besides acting as a spinner, donphan can also set hazzards of its own, while also having access to a fairly wide move pool consisting of thunder fang / ice shard / earthquake / knock off / counter. Besides the best set i will describe below, adamant donphan is pretty decent too, but i feel that impish is far better as there are better offensive options (if offense is what you want). Also it should be noted that to me donphan trumps hippowdon right now thanks to access to ice shard and rapid spin, even if that comes at the cost of reliable recovery.

 

Best Natures - Impish

Best Ability - Sturdy

Best EV Spread - 252 / 252 - def / hp

Best Counters - Togekiss / Venusaur / Roserade

 

[goto=101]Back to List[/goto]

 

[anchor=9]Dragonite[/anchor]

No brainer really, multiscale drago is always a force to be reckoned with. Granted, not many have access to truely epic multiscale dragonites right now, which is probably the only reason why you dont see every single team running drago. After defog was fixed along with beat up also being fixed (thus decreasing weaviles popularity), drago became instantly viable. Drago is almost always guaranteed to get at least one dragon dance off, taking less than 50% damage in the process. Having access to a vast move pool giving drag plenty of coverage, both physical and special, drago can counter all most all the other premier sweepers in the game ( azumaril / scizor / gyarados / togekiss ). Of course, drago also has many draw backs, most notably its weakness to stealth rock and 4x weakness to ice. Both weavile and mamoswine can survive a +1 espeed from drago and take it out with ice shard (drago usually takes some kind of damage in return for a dragon dance boost). A support hazzard remover is a must if you are running drago.

 

Best Natures - Adamant / Jolly

Best Ability - Multiscale

Best EV Spread - 252 / 252 - atk / spd OR 252 atk / hp (for bulkier dragos that dont rely on dragon dance)

Best Counters - Weavile / Mamoswine

 

[goto=101]Back to List[/goto]

 

[anchor=10]Azumaril[/anchor]

One of the best physical sweepers in PRO right now (if not THE best?). Very few poke can survive hits from an adamant azu after belly drum. Of late, more and more people have been training their azu in speed and attack, as opposed to atk / hp. The reason being that pvp in pro right now is pretty slow, with most of the ou poke having less than 200 speed uninvested. A max speed azu can reach 199 speed, out speeding bold venu / bold toge / bold milotic and most other tank poke. Anything faster usually goes down to a +6 aqua jet. This is easily remedied though, as a little investment in speed for venu so that it touches 200 speed makes it the best counter against azumaril. Besides venu, talonflame / dragonite / weezing / starmie (an epic starmie can tank a +6 aqua jet and take out azu with tbolt) / sturdy poke can take out a speed/atk azumaril after belly drum. I believe impish scizor can as well though im not sure if it has enough fire power to take out 50% of azu with non ada bullet punch, same goes for intimidate users such as gyarados / salamence.

 

Best Natures - Adamant

Best Ability - Huge Power

Best EV Spread - 252 / 252 - atk / spd OR 252 atk / hp

Best Counters - Venusaur / Weezing

 

[goto=101]Back to List[/goto]

 

[anchor=11]Starmie[/anchor]

I was initially tentative about adding starmie to the OU tier, but upon further analysis the starfish easily merits an OU ranking. Starmies primary role in a team should be as a spinner, an offensive one at that. This works particularly well right now as starmie threatens the common spin blockers right now, gengar and chandelure (sable too to some extent, but that usually ends in a stale mate). Starmie also threatens common hazzards setters donphan / skarmory / hippowdown (the exceptions here would be clefable / blissey ). Besides its role as a spinner starmie also acts as a good status sponge thanks to natural cure, tanking annoying status moves such as wisp and toxic (twave as well obviously, but twave seriously cripples starmie until it switches out again). This also makes it a good counter to arca, who is an increasingly difficult threat to deal with (starmie may also require a bold nature to truely deal with an offensive arca as crunch/tfang + espeed can take out starmie, though both of those moves are uncommon on arca). Starmie, like most sp attackers, is easily walled by blissey and even snorlax, the latter being able to set up curse against it as well. Even with stab psyshock it barely scratches blissey, but as long as it either removed hazzards to tanked some status, it would have done its job.

 

Best Natures - Timid / Bold

Best Ability - Natural Cure

Best EV Spread - 252 / 252 - speed / sp atk OR 252 / 252 - Def / speed

Best Counters - Blissey / Snorlax / Weavile

 

[goto=101]Back to List[/goto]

 

[anchor=12]Clefable[/anchor]

Even with both of its signature abilities not working, clefable still finds itself in the OU tier. A wide move pool consisting of both offensive and support moves combined with more than decent all round bulk make clefable fit into many teams while making it difficult to predict. The most common set used right now seems to be bold with toxic / moonlight spam (yes, boring stall). Clefable is also perfectly set to deal with most, if not all of the best sweepers right now. Scizor has to be wary of flamethrower, while gyara has to be wary of tbolt and drago of moonblast. This doesnt meant that fable counters them, it only means that they find it hard to counter fable. Then there is also the possibility of clefable running stealth rock which is particularly annoying as it can also take out donphan and starmie, the most common spinners in game right now. Another niche that clefable fits into right now is it is probably the most reliable sableye counter right now, with wisp having minimal affect on it and it being able to heal up itself if necessary.

 

Best Natures - Bold / Calm / Modest (Calm or a modest can be run for a calm mind set)

Best Ability - Unaware / Magic Guard

Best EV Spread - Honestly you can run any combination of Def / Sp Def / Sp atk / Hp depending on what you want fable to do in your team)

Best Counters - Venusaur / Roserade / Blissey / Snorlax

 

[goto=101]Back to List[/goto]

 

[anchor=13]Skarmory[/anchor]

My favorite defense tank in game right now. It's plethora of resistances and immunity to ground (earthquake!!) in particular are what sets it apart from donphan / hippowdon / herrothorn /weezing / slowbro for me. It's also faster than them and most poke it is sometimes required to tank (such as machamp), giving it a better chance at getting roost off. Besides its relatively good speed skarmory also has a a very wide support move pool. Counter in particular is very uncommon on skarm but has the potential to be game changing. The most common set used right now though is stealth rock / roost / brave bird / roar, which is very decent and allows skarmory to perform its role (defense tanking and setting up stealh rock reasonably well). Some go for all out support with moves such as spikes / toxic / taunt but i personally prefer having brave bird to deal with threats such as venusaur / roserade / medicham/ machamp / breloom. It should be noted that taunt renders skarmory almost completely useless if not for brave bird.

 

Best Natures - Impish

Best Ability - Sturdy

Best EV Spread - 252 / 252 - def / hp

Best Counters - Sableye / Arcanine / Chandelure / Starmie

 

[goto=101]Back to List[/goto]

 

[anchor=13]Blissey[/anchor]

Blissey is hands down the best special wall in the game. With a bold set, it acts as perfect sponge to all special attacks that can also take a few physical hits before going down. Blissey also has access to heal bell / aromatherapy and stealth rock lending it further utility. The most common blissey set atm consists of seismic toss / softboiled / aromatherapy / twave or toxic. This also means that any ghost type with taunt renders blissey completely and utterly useless, meaning gengar / sableye / chandelure easily deal with the common blissey even though blissey is supposed to stop them (in the case of gengar and chandel). Also, taunt mew with nasty plot and psyshock easily boosts on blissey and can become a real threat, while exca also finds blissey easy prey unless blissey has flame (which is easy enough to scout out as blissey rarely has more than 1, maybe 2 attacking moves). Besides that, blissey also goes down to most stab fighting type moves (that are physical).

 

Best Natures - Bold

Best Ability - Natural Cure

Best EV Spread - 252 / 252 - def / hp

Best Counters - Machamp / Sableye / Staraptor / Breloom / Lucario / Excadril

 

[goto=101]Back to List[/goto]

 

[anchor=15]Machamp[/anchor]

I had to debate over Machamp's OU status as well, but in the end it makes the cut imo, mostly thanks to no guard dynamic punch. Huge dmg + guaranteed confusion, why wouldnt this be an easy pick for OU? because its predictable, and weak to wisp. Knock off remedies this to some extent, ohko'ing most ghost types that would attempt to absorb a dynamic punch, except that man sableye. Sableye can survive a knock off more than 50% of its hp remaining, enabling it to wisp machamp and proceed to heal up and just slowly watch champ die as it doesnt have enough fire power without stab to dish out enough dmg to take out sable. Another big check to champ is own tempo slowbro. Again knock off does do significant dmg, especially followed up by thunder punch, but being able to tank dynamic punch and not get confused is extremely useful when facing a no-guard champ. All this said, champ is still difficult to deal with as it remains bulky even without assualt vest and can take out starmie / gengar / scizor / gyarados in one vs one situations. Also, people havent started using guts champ yet, which can take opponents completely by surprise to turn the game in your favor.

 

Best Natures - Adamant

Best Ability - No-guard / Guts

Best EV Spread - Enough speed to outspeed blissey and the rest spread on atk / hp

Best Counters - Sableye / Skarmory / Slowbro

 

[goto=101]Back to List[/goto]

 

[anchor=16]Arcanine[/anchor]

One of my favorites, Arcanine suffered greatly during rain team days, but has come storming back with rain being fixed and egg moves being added. Arca boasts itself as the best scizor counter in-game, while also being able to ohko venusaur / roserade / tyranitar / weavile. Arca has reliable recovery in morning sun, good utility in intimidate / wisp / toxic and a good offensive move pool in flare blitz / flamethrower / close combat / thunder fang / crunch and the extremely useful extreme speed. While all that offensive coverage may seem very attractive, arca actually seems to excel more as a tank, running an impish set. Toxic in particular is very effective on arca as anything that is immune to is generally weak to fire anyway. Combined with intimidate arca is able to wall potent threats such as scizor / weavile / other arcanine. Still, arca has weakness to stealth rock and doesnt have much in the way of special defense making it weak to starmie and togekiss in particular. I wont recommend flash fire as a good ability for arca right now as it doesnt work as it should.

 

Best Natures - Adamant / Impish / Jolly

Best Ability - Intimidate

Best EV Spread - 252 / 252 - def / hp OR 252 / 252 - atk / spd

Best Counters - Starmie / Togekiss / Arcanine :|

 

[goto=101]Back to List[/goto]

 

[anchor=17]Weavile[/anchor]

Weavile used to be one of the most over powered pokemon in PRO thanks to broken beat up. But even now, with beat up fixed, weavile still finds plenty of usefulness. Most notably it remains an excellent starmie / gengar and dragon counter. It also has access to taunt / ice shard and stab knock off, which can make switching into weavile troublesome. Weavile is easily countered though, with scizor / arca / azu all easily checking it.

 

Best Natures - Adamant / Jolly

Best Ability - Pressure

Best EV Spread - 252 / 252 - atk / spd

Best Counters - Arcanine / Azumaril / Scizor

 

[goto=101]Back to List[/goto]

 

[anchor=18]Togekiss[/anchor]

Toge has always been one of my all time favorites and for good reason ; its both bulky and powerful. Toge is limited to 3 main attacking moves making it easy to predict. Most of the time you will see air slash / twave / roost on toge with the last slot either nasty plot, aura sphere or flamethrower. This changes only slightly for modest / timid / bold toge, with all 3 being almost equally good. Though you would have to argue that right now bold toge has an edge over the other two with most of the current sweepers being physical. Once blissey is taken out, toge becomes extremely difficult to deal with as one of its best counters in Electivire is barely used. Weavile and magnezone do decently though both cant ohko a hp invested toge and usually die to either flame or aura sphere. This doesnt even begin to talk about how annoying toge can become when it starts paraflinching you to oblivion. But everyone pretty much knows that :|

 

Best Natures - Modest / Timid / Bold

Best Ability - Serene Grace

Best EV Spread - Lots of combinations, generally you invest in def / hp/ sp atk / speed depending on the nature / set you are using.

Best Counters - Blissey / Electivire

 

[goto=101]Back to List[/goto]

 

[anchor=19]Roserade[/anchor]

In my opinion rose is one of those severely underestimated pokemon. It has amazing utility having access to leech seed / aromatherapy / toxic / spikes / toxic spikes / synthesis. Besides that is also sits in a good speed tier, having good sp def bulk and decent def bulk when bold and invested. Right now rose performs pretty much the same role as venu, except it doubles as venusaur counter itself, absorbing sleep powder / toxic / toxic spikes / leech seed while being able to set up up hazzards of its own or pressure venu with extrasensory. This gives rose an edge over other poison/grass types as extrasensory makes up for the lack of sludge bomb to some extent. Combine all this with natural cure and you have an extremely annoying pokemon to deal with. One of the main issues with roserade though, is that chaning its moveset is not easy as it loses moves such as aromatherapy / leech seed for good if you remove them at the final evolution... Besides that rose is also not as physically bulky as venu, making it slightly more difficult to switch into poke like azumaril. Also of late, ferrothorn easily takes advantage of roserade, giving it a free turn to set up hazards of its own.

 

Best Natures - Bold

Best Ability - Natural Cure

Best EV Spread - 252 / 252 - Def / HP

Best Counters - Arcanine / Togekiss / Ferrothorn

 

[goto=101]Back to List[/goto]

 

[anchor=20]Slowbro[/anchor]

Another fairly under-estimated pokemon, mostly because its signature ability isnt working though. Still, even without regenarator slowbro proves to be a potent defense tank capable of stopping many dangerous threats such as talon / exca /arca in their path. In particular, slowbro is probably the best machamp counter right now, able to absorb dynamic punch fearlessly (thanks to own tempo preventing confusion). Knock does deal a decent chunk of damage but slowbro can easily heal it off thanks to slack off. Combine this with thunder wave + 2 good stab moves in psyshock and surf and slowbro becomes a very annoying pokemon to deal with. It can also run a calm mind set now that psyshock is fixed, threatening even blissey, though this set up dies to toxic eventually, forcing you to switch.

 

Best Natures - Bold / Modest / Calm

Best Ability - Own Tempo

Best EV Spread - 252 / 252 - Def / HP OR 252 / 252 - Sp Atk / Sp Def

Best Counters - Blissey / Snorlax / Ferrothorn

 

[goto=101]Back to List[/goto]

 

[anchor=21]Venusaur[/anchor]

An extremely solid pokemon, venusaur doubles as a mixed tank capable of doing some decent dmg as well. I usually run venusaur as sure fire means of countering azumaril. You would want to invest in its speed just enough so that is hits 200 speed though, ensuring that speed invested adamant azumaril cannot outspeed venu after belly drum and ohko it. Venu also serves as a very good leech seed / sleep powder / toxic / toxic spikes absorber, stopping pokemon such as breloom in their tracks. Venu can set his own leech seed and toxic status if necessary as well besides also being a good counter to most of the physical tanks such as hippo and donphan. Of recent though, ferrothron in particular can take huge advantage of venu, setting up hazzards while being immune to both toxic and leech seed. Besides ferro (and roserade) venu is also set up bait for dragonite / gyarados / scizor / curse lax (though leech seed followed up by another poke using taunt can really hurt curse lax).

 

Best Natures - Bold / Calm / Modest

Best Ability - Own Tempo

Best EV Spread - 252 / 252 - Def / HP OR any combination of Def / Sp Def / HP / Sp Atk

Best Counters - Ferrothorn / Scizor / Roserade / Arcanine / Gyarados / Dragonite

 

[goto=101]Back to List[/goto]

 

[anchor=22]Snorlax[/anchor]

Snorlax is one of those pokemon that can get out of control very fast. Its already significant special bulk once coupled with a bolstered defense bulk thanks to curse (along with thick fat) can quickly spell the end of the game for most opponents. Status cant stop it either as rest does away with any of that. Body slam and fire punch are sufficient right now to give snorlax enough coverage to land at least neutral hits on most of the commonly used pokemon today. All is not well though, as wisp and taunt can make curse lax very useless, making sableye imo the best counter to it. Sturdy skarm with counter can also take out a fully buffed lax, besides roar/whirlwind also resetting any curse spamming it had until then (same goes for haze users, but there are very few of them currently, the bets probably being milotic). Besides the more common curse lax, it also possible to run lax as a sp def tank using a careful nature, performing a similar role to blissey a little more aggressively. Access to moves like counter and reflect can also take your opponent by surprise and swing the game in your favor.

 

Best Natures - Impish / Adamant / Careful

Best Ability - Thick Fat

Best EV Spread - Any combination of Atk / Def / Hp for impish/ada variants while Sp Def / Hp works well for careful

Best Counters - Sableye / Machamp / Skarmory / Mandibuz / Milotic / Hippowdon

 

[goto=101]Back to List[/goto]

 

[anchor=23]Excadril[/anchor]

Rain falls, sand rises. Excadril is capable of dishing out HUGE amounts of dmg, specially after one swords dance. Once its main checks have been dealt with you can be assured that the game is probably done and dusted. The main reason rain is no longer over powered to the point of everyone using it is that its main sweeper, kingdra, is completely and utterly walled by blissey (at until we get waterfall). Beside that blissey can also do severe damage to gyarados with tbolt, while also making switching a little painful for azumaril, who can they be walled by venu. Blissey is also one of the main reasons why excadrill and sand is so good. Very few blisseys run flamethrower, if any at all, meaning exca can tank both its status moves toxic and twave, and proceed to buff up with swords dance, or utilize rapid spin to remove hazzards if necessary. With over 400 atk when running an adamant nature, exca can even do decent amount of dmg to its main counters donphan and hippowdon, quickly beating down donphan eventually. Excadril is very frail though, and must be wary of aqua jet from azumaril and brave bird from talon after a sword dance can do more than 80% dmg to it as well. Slowbro also easily deals with excadril.

 

Best Natures - Adamant / Jolly

Best Ability - Sand Rush

Best EV Spread - 252 / 252 - Atk / Speed (Atk / Hp i also viable sine it doubles speed in sand, but that can be risky and makes it useless outside of sand)

Best Counters - Hippowdon / Slowbro / Donphan

 

[goto=101]Back to List[/goto]

 

[anchor=24]Talonflame[/anchor]

Talonflame is the reason behind staraptor missing out on OU status for me. Before talon, staraptor was pretty common but was walled easily by skarmory, who cant tank talonflame as easily though, the best talonflame counters being rock type aka tyranitar. Very few ppl opt for tyranitar though as hippowdon is a lot more reliable and long lasting sandstorm setter, making talons life a lot easier. Another one of those pokemon that can quickly spiral out of control, talon can truely be devastating after a couple of swords dance, being able to out speed and ohko most of the meta. Talon should be wary of hippo and donphan though, as both could be running rock slide though rock slide is a very uncommon move on both of them. Besides going hyper offensive talon also has access to taunt and wisp (besides the obvious roost), making it even harder to deal with sometimes.

 

Best Natures - Adamant

Best Ability - Gale Wings

Best EV Spread - 252 / 252 - Atk / Speed (Hp / Atk is also viable as it already sits in a good speed tier and unlike exca, doesnt rely on sand)

Best Counters - Tyranitar / Hippowdon / Slowbro / Donphan

 

[goto=101]Back to List[/goto]

 

[anchor=25]Hippowdon[/anchor]

Hippo plays very much the same role as donphan. Where donphan has ice shard, sturdy and rapid spin, hippo has slack off and sand stream. Not much to say here as hippo does almost everything that donphan does besides also acting as a means to get sand storm so that your exca can proceed sweep. For me, rock slide hippo serves as the perfect counter to talon and threatens dragonite and gyarados, though it can whirlwind them away if necessary (same goes for scizor).

 

Best Natures - Impish

Best Ability - Sand Stream

Best EV Spread - 252 / 252 - Def / Hp OR 252 / 252 - Atk / Def

Best Counters - Ferrothron / Venusaur / Roserade / Sableye

 

[goto=101]Back to List[/goto]

 

[anchor=26]Ferrothorn[/anchor]

Even without iron barbs working and no rocky helmet, ferrothorn finds plenty of use. It has plenty of opportunities to set up hazzards against poke like venu / roserade / hippo / donphan though this also allows them to set up hazzards of their own. Defensive ferro is also a decent exacdril counter capable of tanking its dmg and deaing significant dmg with power whip (though this mvoe tends to miss a lot...) Ferro does tend to be set up bait though, with pokemon such as drago and scizor resisting its attacks and capable of learning moves like fire punch and superpower to get past it. Besides that its 4x weakness to fire means its dead to pretty much any fire type attack.

 

Best Natures - Relaxed / Sassy / Brave

Best Ability - Iron Barbs

Best EV Spread - Any combination of Atk / Hp / Def / Sp Def

Best Counters - Talonflame / Arcanine / Scizor

 

[goto=101]Back to List[/goto]

 

[anchor=27]Cloyster[/anchor]

Had to debate over giving cloyster OU status as well. Extremely low hp and sp def means that if pokemon like togekiss so much as farts, cloy dies :| Still, once its get a shell smash off it can so very difficult to deal with, attaining a speed greater than all sp attackers at the moment. You have to assume that cloy will take some sort of damage before getting shell smash off, this means priority attackers such as scizor and talon can now get past its now weakened defenses thanks to shell smash. Besides them i also find that thick fat snorlax does a decent job of taking out a cloy after shell smash as can slowbro and a full hp azumaril. Save for these though, i cant think of many other poke capable of taking out cloy after shell smash. Skarmory does decently but doesnt have the power to take out cloy, thus being forced to roar/whirlwind it away.

 

Best Natures - Adamant / Naughty

Best Ability - Skill Link

Best EV Spread - Atk / Speed though some go Atk / Def

Best Counters - Scizor / Slowbro / Snorlax (considering it after a shell smash, before shell most sp attackers :|)

 

[goto=101]Back to List[/goto]

 

[anchor=28]Sableye[/anchor]

Pranskter. Nuff said really. Sable can stall himself, can stop other stalls, can stop physical attackers that are not immune to wisp and its effects. On top of all of that it can even spin block. Most of the time you will see sable running recover / taunt / will o wisp / knock off. Besides that bread and butter set sable can also learn toxic and confuse ray, two very annoying status moves to deal with. As a result of sable many pokemon are used a lot less now, and pokemon it cant cripple as easily like talon / arcanine / clefable are being used a lot more. Venusaur is another pokemon that can hold its own versus sableye. Wisp can also be risky to rely one, as a sweeper like dragonite or scizor can end up buffed up if a couple of wisps miss and if the sweeper has a lum berry as well.

 

Best Natures - Impish / Careful

Best Ability - Prankster

Best EV Spread - Combination of HP / Def / Sp Def

Best Counters - Clefable / Arcanine / Talonflame

 

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[anchor=29]Mew[/anchor]

Mew, thankfully, is one of those pokemon that doesnt rely too much on ivs (though you still need a decent nature to work with). Mew can perform many roles, most notably in PRO its acts as a very good baton passer (probably the best right now), capable of passing either swords dance or nasty plot. Mew can also sweep itself, using nasty plot combined with surf and psyshock, or run a mixed set with swords dance boosting. Besides baton passing and playing offensively mew can also run taunt builds with wisp playing a similar role as sableye. Unfortunately there is no means currently through which to teach mew defog, some what crippling its support sets.

 

Best Natures - Any nature that doesnt cripple its defenses in my opinion

Best Ability - Synchronize

Best EV Spread - Combination of HP / Def / Sp Def for defensive sets and Atk / Sp Def / Speed for offensive ones (obviously)

Best Counters - I wouldnt say there is any sure fire counter but here goes, Weavile, Tyranitar (care for aura sphere) / Chandelure (care for surf) / Blissey (care for physical mew)

 

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[anchor=29]Tyranitar[/anchor]

Upon discussion Tyranitar is being added to OU. It clearly out weighs its cons and deserves an ou ranking. First off, it hits very, very hard thanks to powerful stab moves in Crunch and Stone Edge. Besides that, it also has immense coverage having access to all the punches (besides a plethora of other moves)and thats just physical attacks. Ttar can also learn many good special attack moves like ice beam / flamethrower / tbolt, taking gyara / scizor / ferro / drago / gliscor completely by surprise. This also means that a modest set is completely viable, taking out poke like skarmory / donphan / hippo that are supposed to check it. Ttar also has access to dragon dance, making it an extremely fearsome threat that can quickly take the game away from your opponent. Then theres defensive ttar, utilizing its heightened Sp Def in sand to threaten spinners such as starmie after ttar himself has set up stealth rock. But of course tyranitar has some very prominent counters in Hippo / Donphan / Skarmory al lcapable of dealing with common tyanitar sets consisting of stone edge and crunch. Ttar is also weak to 3 common priority moves aqua jet / bullet punch / mach punch, crippling the ddance set. Ttar was also used to counter arcanine and weavile during the early stages of pro, both of which now threaten ttar with close combat and brick break. As such, ttar now finds itself fulfilling to main roles, a sand stream user and one of the bets counters to talon and togekiss (though it must be wary of wisp and aura sphere).

 

Best Natures - Adamant is the most common though Brave / Jolly and even defensive natures all work on ttar (depending on what u want it to do)

Best Ability - Sand Stream

Best EV Spread - Again depends on the nature, but mostly Atk / Def / Hp evs are used

Best Counters - Hippowdon / Donphan

 

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Underused

Underused, commonly referred to as "UU", consists of Pokémon that are not used enough to be in OU.

Pokémon classified as UU are often outclassed by Pokémon in higher tiers, possibly as a result of generally lower base stats, available moves, or Abilities.

 

List of Pokemon home to UU

Politoed

Electivire

Gallade

Gardevoir

Heracross

Magmortar

Honchkrow

Salamence

Dusknoir

Luxray

Jolteon

Gliscor

Kingdra

Haxorus

Lapras

Gyarados

Mamoswine

Lucario

Ludicolo

Ninetales

Staraptor

Chandelure

Jelicent

Infernape

Magnezone

Wobbuffet

Crobat

Tentacruel

Vaporeon

Milotic

Gengar

Umbreon

Forretress

Breloom

Omastar

Weezing

 

Justification

Will be adding justifications for each of them one by one. I'm sure some of you must be wondering what pokemon like gliscor / milotic are doing here, i'll explain my logic as soon as i have the chance to :)

 

 

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Rarelyused/Littleused

This tier is referred to as either "RU" or "LU". While the name of the tier varies, its "level" is equivalent. The tier consists of Pokémon that are not used enough to be in UU.

 

List of Pokemon home to RU

Drapion

Typhlosion

Seisimitoed

Durant

Ampharos

Nidoking

Nidoqueen

Exeggutor

Golem

Miltank

Hitmonchan

Hitmontop

Hariyama

Ninjask

Yanmega

Hitmonlee

Poliwrath

Greninja

Slaking

Krookadile

Aerodactyl

Absol

Blastoise

Charizard

Kangaskhan

Feraligatr

Raichu

Froslass

Empoleon

Bisharp

Crawdaunt

Espeon

Goodra

Mandibuzz

Avalugg

Bronzong

Delphox

Whiscash

Gastrodon

Flygon

Granbull

Houndoom

Medicham

Steelix

Tangrowth

Kabutops

Meganium

Seaking

Ambipom

 

Justification

Will be added periodically

 

 

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Neverused

Neverused, commonly referred to as "NU", consists of Pokémon that are not used in pvp.

All other remaining Pokémons go here.

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Special Notes and Notable updates[anchor=4]-[/anchor]

One change already, forgot to add Weezing. A very decent physical wall having access to wisp and good coverage in tbolt / flamethrower / sludge bomb allowing it to threaten poke like gyarados / togekiss / clefable / excadril. It has recovery in the form of pain split which can be pretty useful against foes like blissey / snorlax / hippo. Added Weezng to UU tier.

 

Promoted Tyranitar from UU to OU after some discussion. Justification can be found under the tier list.

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Discussion[anchor=5]-[/anchor]

Pokémons for whom tier's arn't decided [Needs Discussion]

Gothitelle

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About[anchor=6]-[/anchor]

Changes to the Pokémons present in each tier's will be made according to their usage in game. This Thread is meant to educate players about the current PvP Pokémon's usage in ranked battles.

Thread will be updated with each new pokemon getting into PvP, thread requires player discussions about usage. I Request that PvP'ers check the tiers and advice me on what they think. The way it is now is how i personally see each pokemon, along with some discussions with other blaze members.

NOTE: PRO's tier is not same as Smogon, tiers here are made upon the availability of Pokemons In-game and usage subject to working moves and abilities. Also please note that these tiers accommodate pokemon that are commonly used in ranked ladder, which means hard to obtain pokemon like Bisharp /Goodra /Mandibuzz may find it self in a lower tier, but may actually be worthy of a higher tier.

 

All that said, there must be at least a million spelling mistakes ad typos, please forgive :s And im sure i left a lot of poke out, so please let me know if that is the case.

:thanks:

[Somes]

 

Since Somes no longer does PVP much and has abandoned this post, i've decided to hijack it :D

Thanks for hijacking :I goodluck.

 

But srsly, nice job you've added explanation and useful sets for each OU poke :y:

[Irafayel]

142878

 

Since Somes no longer does PVP much and has abandoned this post, i've decided to hijack it :D

Thanks for hijacking :I goodluck.

 

But srsly, nice job you've added explanation and useful sets for each OU poke :y:

 

Nub, you had left out a lot :v

[Klixzzz]

Finally. I was like " Can please someone atleast why / How x y is op?" lel, good job friend. :^)

[Sesshomaru]

Not really sure if id put TTar in UU, i see it way more often than clefable for example atm.

[Raidraptor]

142950 Not really sure if id put TTar in UU, i see it way more often than clefable for example atm.

 

The problem with TTar is that people don't understand that monsters role :D

[Irafayel]

ah yes ttar. I weighed the pros and cons like this.

 

The things going for ttar right now are one, sand stream, and two its the best counter to togekiss (most toge dont run aura sphere i find) and to some extent a good counter to talon (though it has to be wary of will-o-wisp and no one uses guts ttar :|).

 

The problems, its completely and utterly walled by donphan / hippowdon. Even if it runs a mixed set, unless invested in sp atk it doenst do significant enough dmg to either of them (i've seen a few ice beam ttar, which is very uncommon and they do about 30-40% to donphan and less to hippo). This gives them a free chance to set up stealth rock. Skarmalso does a decent job of tanking ttar and setting up its own hazzards. Besides that ttar is also weak to 3 of the most prominent priority attacks ; bullet punch / mach punch / aqua jet. Bullet punch and aqua jet in particular are very common right now, which means even the much less bulkier dragon dance set is not so viable either. Besides that, ttar also has difficulty checking certain pokemon you would expect it to check, with arca having access to close combat and weavile brick break. Besides all that i just prefer hippo as a sand stream user as well, its bulkier, has reliable recover and can counter talon as well as excadril.

 

I just feel that the cons outweigh the pros in ttars case right now :/

[Bong2015]

142950 Not really sure if id put TTar in UU, i see it way more often than clefable for example atm.

Hi5. I didn't pay attention at that. But the tyrant surely have a comfortable place in OU.

And yes, TTars appear way too often in ranked right now.. thanks to Talonflame

142954 The problem with TTar is that people don't understand that monsters role :D

Well, I must say besides of a Sand setter he.. can be everything :Crazy:

A usual Ada/Brave one is very hard to switch-in due to its wide movepool: good STAB w/ S.Edge and Crunch; able to deal good damage to Skarmory and Gliscor - its common switch-in w/ Fireblast and Ice Punch.

A special tank version can survive 3 surf from perfect timid Starmie w/ life orb (probably 4 from starmies on this server).

A special attacker can surprisingly 1hit its common checks, 2 hit Hippo w/ ice beam; and laugh at wisp.

A DDance Jolly can pull a good sweep ...sometimes; although it's weak to common priorities (mach/bullet punch, jet..)- none of those can 1hit TTar at full.

 

Just don't stay in vs pkms that may carry strong fighting moves: fighters, birds like Staraptor, Honchkrow and Arcanine...(jolly Weavile w/ brick break can NEVER be able to 1 hit tyranitar. Same as unboosted modest Togekiss's aura sphere..) things will be fine.

Personally, I'm a big fan of Tyranitar - not my favorite, but I admire its powers.

[Abyssconduit]

Goodjob , This thread is useful for beginner that wants to join to the competitive world :y: :Smile:

[Genell]

nice job, the tiers are very useful.