Some observations about Stats

[Amethyst]

There's a site I really like. It's called [url="http://dragonflycave.com/pokesite.aspx"]Cave of the Dragonflies.[/url] Don't be fooled, it's a Pokémon site. The owner is Icelandic, and I admire her a lot. The site isn't much for competition though- rather the opposite, it's more about the franchise's flavor, or more accurately, whatever she feels like. However, I was reading an article on that site that was very relevant to competitive battling, and it's something I think the average trainer doesn't consider. Here it is-

[url="http://dragonflycave.com/deoxyseffort.aspx"]The important part is the third section- "Why This Does Not Work In Practice"[/url]

Do you think the problems she listed are legitimate problems? Or does their realization ultimately provide further insight, but change nothing? Basically, does this matter?

[Vicious Parker]

I think she's right in that with more hit points, what she's saying would make a difference. But the overkill factor nullifies that.

But perhaps that's the point. train your sweepers in attack? That's what they're for. Pokemon has lots of options, so it's not as if you're limited in any real way.

On a side note, exploring that site a bit fills me with a wave of nostalgia for days of yore when I was first getting in to this internet mess, and discovering people's personal sites. It brought a smile to my face.


p.s. i hate you emoticon. and love you.

[Stars]

[s]Perhaps I just wasn't in a mathy mood as I read that, but...I found it only mildly interesting, and I don't see how any of those are really problems. I don't think overkill is an issue since you want your attackers to do as much damage as possible since they are not by any means guaranteed to OHKO and 2HKO everything on the other team, especially when "walls" are involved. In the "problem of speed" subsection, she seems to be complaining that they don't let you have enough EVs to max all of your stats, but if you could, there'd be no point to them.[/s]

Hmm, I seem to have been misunderstanding the purpose of this a bit as I wrote the above sentences. Still, I don't see how it affects anything.
I'd comment on it more, but my head hurts right now.

[AZKnight]

I think it is utter tripe.

Yes, there are times when you can overkill. A Jolteon that uses Thunderbolt against a Gyarados will always OHKO with or without Max SpAttack EVs. That is the kind of example she uses where overkill is pointless. But there are so many other places those SpAttack EVs would be of vital importance. Let's say that instead you are facing a Physically Defensive Skarmory. With no boosting item and Max SpAttack, Jolteon should still OHKO the Skarmory. No if we give Jolteon 0 EVs, then it will deal 90%-106% damage to the Skarmory, meaning it might or might NOT OHKO. The Skarmory can then attack if you're low on health to kill Jolteon, set up Spikes, or Whirlwind you out. Then if it's a Specially Defensive Skarmory, even with Max Special Attack Jolteon will not OHKO (it would with Choice Specs or Life Orb). Then if you didn't invest any EVs in Special Attack, you will only do 65%-78% to the Special Skarmory. This allows Skarmory to do plenty of things, since battles are not static. The same thing could happen between two Dragonites. You don't both to invest 252 Attack EVs in favor of adding more to Speed/HP/Defense. You come up against another Dragonite and attack with a Super Effective Dragon Claw! But....it doesn't kill, dealing around 85% damage let's say. The other Dragonite retaliates with its own Dragon Claw and gets a OHKO! What the crap? Oh hey, that other Dragonite invested more in Attack EVs, that's why. You invest in offense to help you deal with Pokemon that are not a guaranteed KO. Plus, people are going to switch around and try to predict moves so you can't always expect to stay in and give you that 2HKO either.

Saying that multiplying the HP of all Pokemon by 20 is a quaint idea, but it's just an idea. What if we made it so in baseball you needed 9 Strikes to strike a batter out, and 12 balls to walk them? Then the pitcher would get tired faster and pitching power/speed wouldn't matter as much! Wouldn't that be graaaaaaaand?

Proper Natures, IVs, and EV distribution is important. Going back to my Skarmory, you can invest in Special Defense and suddenly it can survive more hits. Or you can keep it purely physical. It's all another layer of strategy and personalization to make your Pokemon yours.

[Vampiremessiah]

Honestly I think she's just making a huge deal about the elephant in the room. Any serious player already knows how all those numbers work, and to be honest she didn't really give any hard solutions to these "problems". It seemed mostly like a what if scenario where she thinks pokemon should be given so much HP that the role of sweeping becomes implausible. The point of the game is balance where sweepers crush things hard and fast... and walls stop that. Sadly because of power creep the sweepers are doing better and better every gen and walls just crumble after awhile. She really didn't state anything that constructive beyond speculation, essentially "the only reason why sweepers are useful is because they can OHKo and outspeed." No duh. That's their job. Sure if every poke had ridiculous HP they couldn't do that but then the game would because a stall war so huge that Gen II would get jealous =\