[Guide] How to make a good EV spread

[Einheria]

Hi PRO players!

 

It seems like one of the most frequently asked questions is about "how should i train my pokemon?" or "what stats are better to train?", so i decided to make a guide to help people who have trouble on EV spread. First, you should know the basic of Indiviual Values (IV) and Efforts Values (EV). There are many guides about these things on forum so te resume quickly, 4 EV = 1 point increase to the stat at level 100 and a total of 252 EV can be put onto one stat on PRO.

 

EV have a huge impact on the battles since they can allow you to outspeed some ennemies or to survive a hit, etc... So how to make the most optimal spread? Most of the time, there is no best spread since it depends on the role you want your pokemon to achieve. So the questions you need to ask yourself before training your pokemon is "who should i outspeed?" or "which attack should i survive?".

 

So let's get going.

 

The most easy EV spread is undeniably for sweepers and offensives pokemon. For those pokemon, you can easily slap 252 onto speed and attack/sp atk and you can't go wrong with that. For instance, if you are raising a jolly Staraptor, there are not many options but a spread of 252 onto atk and speed. The thing is narrowly the same for pure physical wall : physically defensive Skarmory should run 252 EV in HP and 252 EV in defense and specially defensive Skarmory will go with a 252 HP and 252 Sp def spread.

 

That was the easy part, now let's talk about more difficult spread.

 

As i say before, you should know which pokemon you want to counter or to kill in order to make your spread. And, most importantly, you need to have knowledge of the current metagame. To make it clear, you don't care about surviving a sludge bomb for Arbok or outspeeding a Plusle since nobody will use them on PvP (or one person out of a thousand). So making a special EV spread in order to counter an Arbok, a Raticate or a Rapidash is simply useless. No, you need to target overused pokemon and adapt your spread to them. So let's take an example :

 

Let's say you want to use a bulky Gyarados, not an offensive one. So its purpose is to be able to take some hits thanks to intimidate and decent defenses, to stallbreak with taunt and to be a win condition. Its moveset will be Dragon dance, Taunt, Aqua tail and a filler like Bounce. So for a defensive, one, you will need some EV in HP and defense. Which EV should spread you make? 252 HP and defense? It might be a good idea since it can boost its atk and its speed with dragon dance but there is one big issue.

 

"Which pokemon should i outspeed with one dragon dance?"

 

You can see that Gengar and Starmie are two of the most overused pokemon in the PRO metagame. They are fast, faster than a uninvested Gyarados even after a Dragon Dance. And to add insult to injury, they can easily OHKO it with Thunderbolt which is annoying for a pokemon who is supposed to be bulky. So, the answer is, "I need enough speed EV in order to outspeed Starmie by one point" and "I need to outspeed Starmie since it can OHKO me but i don't need to outspeed Dugtrio or Sceptile since they can't do anything to me".

 

Starmie, with a timid nature, 31 IV and 252 EV in speed, will hit 361 speed points. So, my Gyarados need to have 362 speed points after a dragon dance in order to beat it. Now, how much EV will i need?

 

Let's say my adamant Gyarados has 27 IV in speed. At level 100 and with no EV in speed, it will reach 194 speed. Now, i just have to make an equation: (speed i need)*1.5 = 362 so "speed i need" = 241.33 so 242.

 

My Gyarados will need to have 242 speed points to be faster than max speed Starmie after a Dragon dance. 242 - 194 = 48. 48 points increase in speed means 48*4 = 192 EVs. So there is my optimal EV spread in speed, Gyarados only need 192 EV (not 252 EV) in order to outspeed max speed Starmie at +1 so i can dump those remaining EV in defense or HP according to my needs. You might have a diffrerent spread for HP, defense or special defense depending of your strategy and which side of the spectrum (physical or special) you want to take hits but 192 speed EV is mandatory in this case.

If Starmie is not an issue for my team, maybe i'll just need to outspeed Gengar which stands at 350 at max speed. So with the calc, (speed i need)*1.5 = 351 so "speed i need" = 234. Now 234 - 194 = 40, which means i only need 160 EV in speed if my goal is to outspeed just Gengar. Once again, there is no "best EV spread", it only depends on your team and your needs.

 

Now i'll show you another tricky spread for a defensive pokemon. Let's consider that you want to raise a specially defensive Scizor in order to counter Gengar or Alakazam because your team is weak to special sweepers, setting up swords dance on their faces since they can't kill you thanks to roost before bullet punching them into oblivion. So it is compulsory that a Gengar's Shadow ball will not be able to 2HKO you (no need to worry about Alakazam since its own Shadow ball has no STAB and will be weaker than Gengar's one).

 

For this example, my Scizor has a Careful nature with 27 IV in HP and 25 IV in Sp def and will be holding Leftovers as the item of choice. I will always consider that the opposing Gengar is a timid one (since nearly everybody will use timid instead of modest) with max sp atk and holding a spell tag in order to bolster its Shadow ball.

 

Thanks to Smogon damage calculator : 252 SpA Spell Tag Gengar Shadow Ball vs. 248 HP / 184+ SpD Scizor: 144-169 (42.4 - 49.8%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

Which means that with a spread of 248 EV in HP and 184 EV onto sp def, timid Gengar with max speed and spell tag will never 2HKO my Scizor without even considering Leftovers recovery, which will allow me to use it as a setup fodder and to properly counter it.

 

Ther are many other examples, like an EV spread to let Skarmory survives an Aqua Tail from Gyarados after three dragon dances and whirlwind it away, etc... You just have to calculate them before going for an EV training.

 

So that's it. With these examples, I hope that it will help you understand how to make a good EV spread. Remember that ther is no optimal spread but it only depends on your team needs and the role you want your pokemon to fulfill. There are many calculator on the net to help you calculate. As far as i am concerned, i use Smogon damage calculator since it is very accurate and easy to use.

 

And sorry if i made some mistake in english, it is not my native language since i'm french. :Grin:

[Coop33]

240371

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Well written! Nice job!

Would love to read more stuff like this. ;)

 

Thx for that! :Heart: