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I just simply CAN'T win battles agaisn't other players

Although this doesn't end up always being the case, generally you can use Free Battle mode in Battle Spot if you're looking for more casual battles as it tends to attract more casual players; whereas Rating Battles are where you're more likely to encounter players with competitive teams.
So there IS a way to encounter more casual players online! Thanks! I'll try to check this out so I can use my normal teams.
 
@Slife You're misunderstanding my post. I never said that there is only one way to play. I just said that the competitive players alienate the casual ones by creating their specifically-designed teams they use so they can win non-stop. I never said "fun" and "competitive" are as separate as black and white, but to players like me, having fun is more important than creating monster teams that brutalize every player out there. But when players like me GET brutalized by said competitive players on a regular basis, it makes one feel very inadequate and feels like that all their hard work and their favorite Mons was for nothing. And when players like me DO gain the advantage, the competitive players often rage quit on you, further insulting the other players. I know everyone plays to win, but when they take that to an extreme, valuing it more than anything, then the fun starts to fade on both ends. Use Ash and Paul for instance: one battles with care and heart, the other battles for power only. That's how players like me feel against the same Smogon-style teams over and over again. Games are meant to be fun, after all, not solely designed for power above all else. But when those who play only for power make those who just want to have fun feel worthless. So my point is that when someone plays for power alone and constantly brutalizes other players, then their opponents are left feeling like everything they worked for is wasted time. I know I have felt that way when the same Smogon-crafted teams mow me down virtually each and every time, and it leaves a lasting impression one how one feels about other players.
 
I'm more of this hybrid, I breed for IVs and egg moves and all that jazz but I generally just use mons I like, said mons being anywhere from ou to pu. If you use good strategies, actually take the time to breed good mons, etc, you can have pretty okay results with your favorites even if they're low tier trash. I sweep people with my swalot all the time, and I can't tell you how many special attackers my assaultfisk has maimed. I can understand the annoyance with people spamming garchimps and mega gengars and whatever else, it annoys the shit out of me too, but you can't just expect to go online and start winning while putting in actually no effort at all. I don't care if you're a casual or not, if you're going to play online frequently you should at the very least EV train and do some research on movesets, those two things alone will help a ton. Your win to lose ratio won't be very good, but it is a start. EV training a mon takes all of like thirty minutes this gen.

So there IS a way to encounter more casual players online! Thanks! I'll try to check this out so I can use my normal teams.

hope you enjoy fighting hordes of primal groudon and mewtwo
otherwise....

youre-gonna-have-a-bad-time-thumb.jpg
 
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I'm not into competitive battle, though I do know the essential about EV training and IV breeding. The easiest of the two is EV training, since Horde Battles makes it so much easier to do. I'm pointing you towards this thread for this part (you're playing Y and this is a guide for XY. Perfect :D). The rest about Reset Bags and all that has been said before, so I won't repeat this part. You can check IV breeding later on, given how it takes much more time.

As for your in-game team, I'd say your Lucario is the one given by Korrina, correct ? If so, it has decent IVs to start with, so you can count on it for either punching holes for the rest of your team or outright defeating other Pokémons. Its Mega-Evolution makes it even more dangerous if you give it both a Steel-type and Fighting-type move due to the Adaptability ability, Good moves for each of these types are Flash Cannon (TM91) and either Close Combat or Aurasphere. I'm assuming you don't have the OR/AS versions, so I'm sticking to moves it can learn in XY only. Extremespeed, Dark Pulse (TM97) and Rock Slide (TM80) are filler moves. Don't expect to beat every Pokémon with Mega-Lucario alone, but given its high offensive potential, this is a good start.

Lastly, don't give up hope : everyone has started at the bottom, and they eventually climbed up to where they are now. If they can get high, so can you ! All it takes is some time to at least assimilate EV training and giving good moves. Also, while I would advise against using these, you should try Wonder Trading using very common wild Pokémons like Pidgey or Zigzagoon. I'd say 50% of the time you find a Pokémon with decent IVs (all you need is to talk to the IV Checker in Kiloude City's Pokémon Center to confirm this), or rare ones like starters from other Generations. Don't hesitate to ask for advices in that regard. ;)
 
Why does playing competitively and having fun have to be mutually exclusive? I won't generalize for all competitive battlers, but the fun for me in competitive battling comes from implementing various strategies and combinations to compete against other players who share the same goal of winning and who put in the same effort into wanting to win. I love seeing all the interesting strategies/ideas/techniques that other players come up with, and the way players can bring out the strengths of certain Pokemon in ways you'd never expect. Your perspective assumes that there is only one "correct" way to play the game. Personally, seeing all the intricate mechanics that GameFreak has developped being used in unique and unexpected ways adds a whole new level of depth and excitement to the games. Everyone has their own way of playing and enjoying all that the game has to offer - that's what makes Pokemon so great.


Although this doesn't end up always being the case, generally you can use Free Battle mode in Battle Spot if you're looking for more casual battles as it tends to attract more casual players; whereas Rating Battles are where you're more likely to encounter players with competitive teams.

@Pkm Trainer Lou If you'd like you can post a "Rate My Team" in the Battle Center to have your team critiqued in more detail, and to receive suggestions/feedback for improvement in general.
yo, didn't know about the rating thingy... ah, nice, i guess this is what happens when one doesn't lurk M04R
 
@Slife You're misunderstanding my post. I never said that there is only one way to play. I just said that the competitive players alienate the casual ones by creating their specifically-designed teams they use so they can win non-stop. I never said "fun" and "competitive" are as separate as black and white, but to players like me, having fun is more important than creating monster teams that brutalize every player out there. But when players like me GET brutalized by said competitive players on a regular basis, it makes one feel very inadequate and feels like that all their hard work and their favorite Mons was for nothing. And when players like me DO gain the advantage, the competitive players often rage quit on you, further insulting the other players. I know everyone plays to win, but when they take that to an extreme, valuing it more than anything, then the fun starts to fade on both ends. Use Ash and Paul for instance: one battles with care and heart, the other battles for power only. That's how players like me feel against the same Smogon-style teams over and over again. Games are meant to be fun, after all, not solely designed for power above all else. But when those who play only for power make those who just want to have fun feel worthless. So my point is that when someone plays for power alone and constantly brutalizes other players, then their opponents are left feeling like everything they worked for is wasted time. I know I have felt that way when the same Smogon-crafted teams mow me down virtually each and every time, and it leaves a lasting impression one how one feels about other players.

While I understand that it's not fun to lose a battle you have no chance in, like if you get matched up with someone with perfect IVd mons and Smogon sets while you're using an in-game team, I agree with Slife that there's definitely an implication here that people "who play only for power" and "those who just want to have fun" are two different categories. I don't know whether you meant to imply this, but that's the message I get from reading your posts - that if I create a "specifically-designed team" and I aim to "win non-stop", then I am causing the fun "to fade". I strongly disagree with this sentiment - to me and to a lot of other competitive players, there is nothing "fun" about losing. You seem to agree with this sentiment - that's why you say that when you lose you feel inadequate, that you've wasted your time, etc. So for people like us, if winning is fun, then we ought to optimize our teams to maximize our chances of winning.

Now, I'mma put a paragraph break here for emphasis: Playing to win is not necessarily boring. A lot of people seem to think that every team is just Talonflame/Greninja/Landorus-T/Mega Kangaskhan/Garchomp/Rotom-W, and that can be true to an extent - ESPECIALLY on the Battle Spot, which is where a lot of in-game players experience the Smogon-style (single battles, that is) competitive environment for the first time, since a lot of Smogon players play Battle Spot when they want to use their in-game teams and show off their mons. After all, Battle Spot (while distinctly different than Smogon OU for many reasons) is a LOT closer and more familiar to a Smogon meta than VGC (bring 6 pick 4 doubles, with box legendaries and such being allowed under certain circumstances). However, Battle Spot is not the best place for competitive Pokémon to shine - a severe lack of regulation results in a lot of overly centralizing stuff like Blaziken, Greninja, Aegislash, Mkangaskhan, MLucario, MGengar, MSalamence, etc that are all banned by Smogon and thus do not plague the actual Smogon metagame. These pokemon are banned for the exact reason that you cite - they result in "the same team" being used "virtually each and every time", resulting in the fun starting to fade. By removing these overcentralizing presences, the Smogon meta is actually EXTREMELY diverse - as you can see by perusing this thread, there are 131 Pokemon that are officially considered "viable" to use in OU - and they ALL see usage, even the ones lower on that list. One of the most infamous teams of all time consists of Shedinja, Dugtrio, Sableye, Togekiss, Seismitoad, and Talonflame - how often do you see Shedinja or Dugtrio or Seismitoad on Battle Spot? Not often, right? If you play on Smogon's ladder on Pokémon Showdown for a couple days, you will learn to hate those Pokémon with a burning passion (xD). You will also see a lot of Scolipede, Mega Heracross, and Manaphy on teams that abuse Scolipede's Speed Boost + Baton Pass. You'll see Quagsire, because its Unaware ability lets it wall Mega Charizard X, even after it uses Dragon Dance some obscene number of times. You'll see Nidoking, because Sheer Force Life Orb Sludge Wave and an immunity to Thunder Wave let it reliably counter Clefable. There are many combinations of those 131 pokemon that can all be considered "specifically designed teams" to "win non-stop", so the allegation that "the same Smogon-crafted teams" are used repeatedly with little to no variance is patently untrue. Those cookie cutter teams that you see are explicitly forbidden by Smogon, as their primary components (cough greninja cough kangaskhan cough salamence) are all banned.

Now then, this last huge rant was about the official Smogon metagame, and I know what some of y'all are thinking: "I don't want to play Smogon's metagame on Pokémon showdown, I want to play on my actual copy of Pokémon X on my Nintendo 3DS." Well, first off, I really do think everybody ought to read some Smogon articles, copy some teams from the Team Showcase, and hit the ladder, because odds are you will like it if you're serious about wanting to get into competitive battling. Second, though, in a more direct response to that complaint: It's totally fine if you want to stick with Battle Spot. You just have to do 2 things:

1. Accept that your opponents will spam the same team over and over because it's easy to win that way and nobody is stopping them from doing that.

2. Git gud. This does not mean conform and use the same stuff mentioned in part 1 (although that's 1 way, and an easy one at that). This means you need to put in the time and effort to learn about IVs, EVs, Natures, movesets, status moves, teambuilding, synergy, predictions, and all that. You can't expect to win if you show up with an in game team that has shitty natures, random EV distribution, low IVs, and all attacking moves. If you show up, however, with a well balanced (in terms of synergy) team of your favorite pokemon (even ones that aren't on that list of 131 "good" pokemon) with optimal Abilities, Natures, held items, IVs, EVs, and movepools, and during the game you make good predictions and play well, then you 100% can beat anyone, even if they're packing Greninja + Aegislash + MKangaskhan.


tl;dr: don't complain that losing isn't fun if you're not willing to put in the effort required to learn how to win
 
I was a noob when I began. I used to fight with my fav. pokemon like Charizard and others which I got in-game. I fought and I always lost. But then I saw patterns. People more or less use the same pokemon, powerful pokemon. Not their favorite pokemon. Understandable. So I decided to breed and train my mons, it took time and patience, but now I have many mons battle ready. My Zard had just the regular Blast burn, flamethrower, airslash and dragon pulse. Then later I bred it to have max def and hp with belly drum, roost, outrage and flareblitz with Zardite X. It became a monster. You have powerful mon. You just need to produce their children stronger and it is possible. If you want some powerful pokemon I can give ya. I have some perfect iv breedjects who are there sitting idling waiting to help people in situations like you are :)
 
2. Git gud. This does not mean conform and use the same stuff mentioned in part 1 (although that's 1 way, and an easy one at that). This means you need to put in the time and effort to learn about IVs, EVs, Natures, movesets, status moves, teambuilding, synergy, predictions, and all that. You can't expect to win if you show up with an in game team that has shitty natures, random EV distribution, low IVs, and all attacking moves. If you show up, however, with a well balanced (in terms of synergy) team of your favorite pokemon (even ones that aren't on that list of 131 "good" pokemon) with optimal Abilities, Natures, held items, IVs, EVs, and movepools, and during the game you make good predictions and play well, then you 100% can beat anyone, even if they're packing Greninja + Aegislash + MKangaskhan.
That's basically what I ended up doing. After completely revamping my Pokémon X team of Gengar, Aerodactyl, Mawile, Chandelure, Kingdra, and Breloom into a more carefully built team of Gengar, Togekiss, Eelektross, Scolipede, Goodra, and Breloom, I saw my win rate take a satisfying spike.

The best part is that Eelektross and Scolipede were Pokémon I'd completely overlooked back in Gen V. I didn't feel as though I'd taken the fun out of the game at all, discovering two new favorites as a result of this was a happy moment that actually improved my overall experience.

I can imagine how tough it might be to discover that your favourites aren't good for real battles against the world, but this situation isn't insurmountable. Things should improve if you take the plunge.
 
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The best part is that Eelektross and Scolipede were Pokémon I'd completely overlooked back in Gen V. I didn't feel as though I'd taken the fun out of the game at all, discovering two new favorites as a result of this was a happy moment that actually improved my overall experience.

Well I mean everybody overlooked Scolipede in Gen V because it didn't get Speed Boost until Gen VI :p

(and they overlooked eelektross because it's ass in both generations)
 
I went to Pokemon Showdown for Pokemon battling (I'm one of those who does not have a DS or something). Even I started as a Noob...

Then on Anything Goes format (the one where EVERY Pokemon is allowed), I constructed my first ever team-: Raichu (Leftovers; Volt Tackle, Thunder Wave, Focus Blast, Iron Tail)
Typhlosion (Charcoal; Eruption, Fire Blast, Focus Blast, Earthquake)
Charizard (Charizardite X; Flare Blitz, Dragon claw, Thunder Punch, Dragon Dance)
Ditto (Red Card; Transform)
Greninja (Red Card; Scald, Dark Pulse, Attract (yes, you heard it correct), Blizzard)
Darkrai (Dark Void, Dark Pulse, Hidden Power Fight, Dream Eater)

This is weak enough team for a format where you might expect to battle against 6 Arceus, and just READ smogon's article on Typhlosion, it will make you hate it. But I have a 60%+ win ratio there, due to some unexpected gimmicks, like ash. Which gives me fun, and also enables me to defeat a team of 6 legends.

My Typhlosion can sufficiently dent a Xerneas, and who expects attract on a female greninja? And it is capable of 2HKO ing Rayquaza if it manages to outspeed it... Charizard can defeat a Mega Garchomp with Mega+Dragon claw.

So, you can play like a "hybrid", just like me, and have a nice experience on showdown.
So, that's my story.
 
I'm decent at battles - I've only lost twice at conventions, one two a team made of IV-bred and EV-trained Pokemon (back in BW, before I used Super Training to get my Pokemon where I want to be), and an all-Eeveelution team that pulled some pretty unique strategies in Gen VI. The only online battle I've had that I can remember is one where I somehow beat a rain team despite having a team of very slow Pokemon WITHOUT Trick Room. I'm probably going to use Hyper Training to boost my team further, giving some of them the right IVs for the Hidden Powers I want.
 
Raichu (Leftovers; Volt Tackle, Thunder Wave, Focus Blast, Iron Tail)
Typhlosion (Charcoal; Eruption, Fire Blast, Focus Blast, Earthquake)
Charizard (Charizardite X; Flare Blitz, Dragon claw, Thunder Punch, Dragon Dance)
Ditto (Red Card; Transform)
Greninja (Red Card; Scald, Dark Pulse, Attract (yes, you heard it correct), Blizzard)
Darkrai (Dark Void, Dark Pulse, Hidden Power Fight, Dream Eater)

OK disregarding my personal feelings about this team (as a more "hardcore" competitive player I'm not a fan, but I respect that you're playing for yourself with your favorites and not necessarily to win consistently), I just wanna let you know - that team is A-OK for Ubers, so you don't have to play in Anything Goes. You only need to play AG if you're using

-Mega Rayquaza
-More than one of the same Pokemon
-Swagger
-Evasion moves like Double Team
-Moody
-One Hit KO moves

Otherwise you can play in an official tier such as Ubers or OU, meaning you won't have to deal with BS like teams of 6 Swagger Klefkis or 6 different Arceus types or other annoying BS like evasion spamming
 
I'm cheap, I actually use two ubers on my battling team (Blaziken and Greninja). The rest of my usual team is OU (Garchomp, Scizor/Mega Scizor), BL (Togekiss) and UU (Roserade). The only reason I use my Roserade is because I lucked out and she had max Speed IVs and HP Rock. I wasn't even trying to breed for IVs.
 
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