Sheep

1. Doesn't this kill Mitama's absolutely to die for physical stat mods though? I dunno, she probably works alright but I always thought the aim with Mitama was to give her a physical mother because Effie!Mitama is like +6 Str, -2 Mag, +3 Spd, +1 Lck, +1 Def, and there's like no downside. I know that's not available in Birthright but Hinoka or Oboro or someone would be fine right? 2. Let me tell you about a little secret called Rinkah!Caeldori. -1 Str, +1 Mag, +1 Skl, +6 Def and gives her Pegasus Warrior, Samurai, and Oni Savage. That is the biggest freakin' physical wall you can find, plays to her father's strengths while still providing a -1 Str modifier, which Caeldori turns into a good thing through her personal skill. She's also a Blacksmith with Swordfaire. It's hard to convince me there's a better mother for Caeldori than Rinkah, though the support is terrible.

Yeah but Amazon isn't going to get that win. :Kappa:

I'll take this pretty slowly because I don't want to spend a lot of time on it now. I'll give some advice on Luxray and Armaldo for now. I dunno who it was that told you Luxray is one of the best 'mons in PU but they're wrong. There are some good physical wall breakers in PU, and some good volt switching electric types and unfortunately Luxray doesn't fall into either category. If what you're looking for is a wall breaker then good pokemon to consider are banded Stoutland, Ursaring, Rampardos, banded Relicanth, life orb Monferno, or SD sheer force life orb Mawile. If you're looking for an electric type momentum grabber then Electrode is the fastest one available, Zebstrika is slower but still outspeeds Floatzel (that's important) and has an electric/grass immunity, Raichu is slower again and unfortunately no longer outspeeds Floatzel but has more special attack and gets access to nasty plot, while Ampharos covers all of your slow volt switching needs, allowing you to get a wall breaker in safely. If you're dead set on using Luxray I'd probably tweak it's moves a bit. Crunch is better than fire fang because the main physical wall you'll be looking to hit with it is Gourgeist. You could also run guts banded with wild charge, superpower, crunch, and volt switch. Armaldo looks generally good but I'd run at least 8 EV's in speed to make sure you outspeed other Armaldos seeing as they are weak to rock. Being the faster Armaldo on the field is a definite advantage. Edit: I should probably add mixed life orb Cacturne to the list of good wall breakers now that it's dropped to PU.

I've done a run with no EV training, and another run with EV training and I can tell you on the first one that M-Altaria was almost impossible for me to beat as well. Perhaps my team was just naturally weak to M-Altaria, or perhaps the game is getting towards the point at which non EV trained teams just won't cut it anymore. Something I can tell you is the difference when you do EV train is massive, you'll absolutely blow through any random trainers you find because they aren't EV trained themselves.

If nothing else it would tell people which Arceus forms are actually good.

So I was playing this maze of fire level (which honestly I'm not real fond of, the ninja level in conquest did a maze better) and I send Kagero in to weaken a berserker using a dual shuriken. She's surrounded by axe and bow users but I figure she'll just dodge everything 'cause she's Kagero with a dual shuriken. Next thing you know she gets hit by a 29% chance from an outlaw, and then a 20% chance from a berserker and she's dead. I'm just left staring at the screen for a bit like "did that actually just happen?" before thinking "well, joke's on you 'cause Azama's level ups were rubbish anyway." Actually it was more than Azama, it was like everyone. Kagero didn't get strength (she actually only made it to 19 strength before promotion believe it or not, 4 procs in 10 levels with a 70% chance), Rinkah got only defense. I'm not sorry to see the back end of that attempt.

So I take it I'm the only one who thinks this new team leader looks like a hobo then?

No idea I stole it from Vinny. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Personally I have a real aversion to being a newbie in any game franchise. When I play a game I like to really understand it, and I don't feel like I can do that by jumping in half way through it. Case in point: The Witcher. I really want to play The Witcher 3, but I haven't played The Witcher 1 or 2, so instead of buying The Witcher 3 and playing it, I've bought the first two and will only buy and play the third one after having finished the first two. Pokemon I've played since gen 1 so that hasn't been an issue. Other favorite game franchises of mine that I've gotten into post release of the original game (stuff like Mass Effect, Dragon Age, and Bioshock) are also examples of game franchises that I've started at the start of and worked my way through. There are exceptions to the rule though, and they largely exist when I don't feel like I need to play all of the previous games to fully appreciate the characters and plot of the one I'm thinking of starting on. Total War is a game franchise that I played as a kid, and the most recent game I've played is Shogun 2. I don't feel the need to play Rome 2 or Attila before buying Warhammer Total War though because they won't add anything to the experience. Fire Emblem's another one, I initially decided to start playing Fire Emblem to understand the character of Ike better. Upon learning that Path of Radiance was the 10th game in the franchise I did some research to figure out whether the others would add anything to the experience, and on learning that they wouldn't because the stories are largely unconnected I started with Path of Radiance. So I'd come closest to being a newbie in the Fire Emblem franchise if any, but even then I've played numbers 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 13, 14a, 14b, am currently playing 14c, and I've tried and failed to get interested in numbers 1, 11, and 12. So I'm not exactly new to the franchise. Not really, but if you were to say it's the best game in the franchise then I'd strongly disagree with you. I'm an odd breed of FE fan that got into the franchise on the older games, and really gets the appeal of the newer games. I love the dating sim aspect of it, the children and inheritance mechanics, the increased volume of support conversations (my lord I love this one because it gives the newer characters much more character than the older ones), and the attack/guard stance mechanics. But I don't love the moronic mary sue main characters, simple and somewhat boring plots, and fanservicy designs. Stuff like this can be said for just about every era of Fire Emblem, GBA has Rekka no Ken, which has 3 really cool lords and the interplay between them is fantastic. Binding Blade (also on the GBA) follows a cast of characters that are the children of the characters from Rekka no Ken (how children characters should be done, rather than time travel or deeprealm nonsense). The GBA games also have a really visually appealing aesthetic. Personally I'm not a fan of Sacred Stones though (the third GBA game), it's mind numbingly easy and I find the characters/story boring. Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn have got the best plot and story elements of any FE games to date, and they also have the best character designs. For once you get units that actually look prepared for battle (for the most part). Ike is a well written character and is my favorite lord, Micaiah is also well written and my second favorite lord, and it's a general rule that any plot related characters will be well written and fleshed out. Radiant Dawn also has the best endgame thus far, and the entire Tellius saga has a much more mature feel to it. However, the Tellius games have the weakest characterisation outside of plot characters (and also perhaps outside of Sacred Stones) because of the lack of support conversations. I get this, it's the same thing for me going into Fates. Having to pick a waifu for each route without the possibility of Cordelia (I know Caeldori exists but she is different, even if those differences are subtle. Also I can't find children characters attractive) is like having to pick the best team of a 2nd division competition. Fortunately while there is no character I feel particularly attracted to this time around, there are a few characters that I still like a lot ala Azama/Effie/Charlotte/Kagero. I think you'd find the same thing going backwards. This I can also understand, I think a lot of the gameplay mechanic changes that Fates made were really good. You're a bit off on Awakening though, rather than not having access to guard stance they replace it and attack stance with a pair up system that combines them both. It's really broken and the reason for the more refined system in Fates. You're right in that enemies don't use it though, which means you can breeze through Awakening by pairing up everyone. The grinding stuff? Yeah that is a hundred percent true, though I never personally had an issue with it as I'm the sort of person who played pokemon games by only using the 6 pokemon I'd selected to use before starting. Until I played Reborn at least, I made it to Aya only using 4 pokemon (because I hadn't got the last two yet) and then got stuck. Only training 16 or so very specific units suits me just fine, though I can see why you would hate it. Fortunately I like both old and new FE styles so I'm not that put out when people only enjoy one or the other. The one that does get at me though is when people don't want to play PoR and RD because in my opinion they are the best FE games to date (at least out of the ones I've played) and there are a lot of fans that haven't played them. So yes, please please please do follow through on what you're saying and play those ones.

Pretty sure the Japanese trailer reveals that it's pure water.

Yeah I've been running Rinkah, she was a solid unit for me in Birthright so with the limited access to good units in the early game I'd have been a mad man not to use her again. She's currently just promoted to a level 1 oni chieftain. If I was really interested in designing optimal builds though I'd probably buddy Rinkah with Oboro. I like the combination of oni savage and spear fighter, gives you a wall with defence seal, resistance seal, and speed seal. Then mopping them up once they've taken the bait is too easy. I figure Charlotte's gonna play the offensive axe wielder role much better than Rinkah will anyway. Though tbh my wyvern rider Selena is doing a pretty damn good job of that already. Str +2 and strong riposte with axes is a good combo.

Yeah they're mad underleveled but don't worry, I'll fix that.

Recruiting Effie and Charlotte in the same level? I never thought I'd be glad to see this place again but that'll do it.

If I wanted to go I'd talk to Infernape88. He might cause me to break a sweat :]

Yeah but Amazon isn't going to win. :Kappa: If when Amazon loses then their maximum possible score is 6-4 with a total of 36 wins. Therefore even if Atlantis also loses, and only get 2 wins this week then they have a record of 6-4 with 37 wins. That puts them through to the finals to play Avalon.

Wait it doesn't? I swear it does, unless they've changed the way tier shift works in gen 6. They're asking why any nation that is alone on 7 wins at the end of the week doesn't win by default with no need for a finals round. Edit: From the tier shift front page on the smogon forums: http://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/tier-shift.3508369/ Are you sure you didn't make a mistake in testing?

I'd assume it's referring to some sort of finals round. Because the winner of Avalon vs Atlantis will have 7 wins they automatically go through. If Amazon win they also have 7 wins and therefore automatically go through. If Amazon loses then they and the loser of Avalon vs Atlantis will both have 6 wins and therefore the team with the most total wins across the entire thing will go through.

Mmm tastes like salt. http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/pu-413636549

Merchant's got better growths for her imo. 67.5/67.5/15/72.5/60/72.5/52.5/40 Aptitude will do that to anyone.

With aptitude and in the master ninja class Mozu!Midori's growths look like this: 52.5/52.5/15/82.5/75/57.5/47.5/55. That's a lot better than not much outside of luck, skill, and maybe speed.

I'm happy to play or not as you see fit DD. I've probably played more than anyone else in this nation (though I haven't checked), but I also have a good record.

You and I are pilgrims of the infinite. Nothing is impossible.

I hear you, I thought you'd be a shoo-in for sure. Is this the last week of the contest?