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Anybody Use Battle Tower for Competitive Practice?

It's really helped me with VGC style practice. Not when it comes to the AI's competency, but when it comes to figuring out what pokes I can 1HKO and what pokes I can't. Stuff like that. If I want to use a team I usually run it through the battle tower. If it can't break 120, it's no good.

Anybody else use it for actual practice?
 

randomspot555

Well-Known Member
I kind of think the Battle Tower, as you progress to it, is Game Freak's answer to competitive Pokemon. Of course, it's still different from both the standard fan-made metagame and the VGC game, but it does provide a number of similarities that help in both.

As you progress, the Pokemon are more likely to have very high IVs and EVs that actually help. And if I recall correctly, the only chance working in your favor is the AI's natures are always random.

The AI also has some imposed limits. It will rarely switch, even if it's stuck on a Choice item and is stat boosting, or is hitting someone with a move your Pokemon is immune or resists.

I don't play BT Doubles often. I got to 50+ and decided to quit, disappointment that there was no Brain to face.

I do enjoy teaming up with tag battle partners.

Overall, I think it's a good introduction to competitive play. It provides great examples of how difficult the game can be against a more intelligent opponent.
 
Good points.

I kind of look at it like a boxer might look at a punching bag; nowhere near as beneficial as practicing against a real life opponent, but it can still lead to "some" real experience.
 
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Tough Muk

Master Chief
I think that with the Battle Factory helped me out a lot. Especially because you get to see a lot of different pokes at lvl 100 and see how to use them in strange situations. Also it lets players understand what specific pokes are used for. I never thought that Shuckle could be so good at lvl 100 until I battled with one. I guess if you have an empty spot or two on your team the BF is perfect for figuring out who to choose and what move sets to use.
 
I could understand that if you play singles. Unfortunately though for those of us who play doubles there hasn't been a good simulator like Shoddy until just recently with PO. But even then PO has some terrible glitches (like the GK glitch) that make it almost unuseable. :/
 

Human Being

Well-Known Member
I never thought about this, but the Battle Tower Doubles doesn't allow Ubers and personally I would prefer Wifi to play VGC Style battles due to the lack of switching and everything else at the Battle Tower. Well it does work for 2009 rules though.
 
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Mye

Someone has to win..
The hg/ss battle frontier is possibly the best skill-enhancer of 4th gen. Battle hall allows you to test out how your pkmn will fare against every type of threat, battle tower is a challenge once you hit 100+, battle castle teaches you the importance of rationing (handy in game more than competitive), arcade puts you in awkward yet viable competitive scenarios, and factory shows you how truly good pkmn are and how ones you don't think are deadly still can be.
 

windsong

WEST SIDE
I've never used the battle tower (or any of the other places in the frontier) as practice for competitive battling. Since the AI rarely switches, and has no prediction whatsoever, it's not like a battle between two people who are making fast paced well predicted moves, like a battle against another thinking opponent, but more like a battle between two boxers slugging each other and trading a punch for a punch.

In addition, I personally think that all the other battle frontier places don't really help you much in terms of competitive battling either. The battle arcade is just adding a larger amount of the extra element of hax, and the battle castle is putting the person in situations where they are limited in terms of how much their Pokes can be healed/etc, situations that will never occur in competitive battles. The battle factory is basically you using Pokes that have gimmick sets and would rarely (if ever) be used in competitive battling.

The battle hall is probably the worst practice for competitive battling that there is in the battle frontier. You only really need a Poke with decent speed and a good variety of moves, and you've basically won.

So yeah, it's not really good practice, imo, especially with shoddy and PO out there (though a good 99% of all good battlers primarily use one of those two for competitive battling purposes in general, not just practice).
 
Lol, so what do all of you use when you can't do wifi, shoddy, or PO? On my flight to Worlds 09 I ground through battle tower for doubles, and I can specifically recall several situations where I learned on that flight, how much damage I could expect to do to certain crucial pokes that I faced in the later matches, such as Cresselia, Heatran, and Togekiss.

Again, I REPEAT FROM THE OP:
Not when it comes to the AI's competency, but when it comes to figuring out what pokes I can 1HKO and what pokes I can't.

Think

Punchingbags
 

BaldWombat

Mortal Wombat!
I could understand that if you play singles. Unfortunately though for those of us who play doubles there hasn't been a good simulator like Shoddy until just recently with PO. But even then PO has some terrible glitches (like the GK glitch) that make it almost unuseable. :/

The people that run PO have been pretty good about fixing glitches if you post about them on their forums. A friend of mine and me found a bunch that they later fixed after we posted about them on the forums.
 
No doubt boss, they are very VERY quick about fixing them. It's just that I've seen people firsthand lose VGC tournaments due to glitches on simulators that they've just gotten used to.

For example:
Nashvile VGC stop 2009, my bud Mike Suleski got 2nd instead of first because he used Trick with his metagross, switching out his Choice Scarf for his opponent's Choice Band (he knew his opponent, they drove together hahah). Problem was, on Shoddy at the time, it would let you pick a new move, and that's what he was used to. However... ingame... yeah... you're stuck. So he lost.

Just an example, and I know it doesn't fit every situation, and yes, absolutely yes, the dudes over at PO are TOP NOTCH about fixing glitches ASAP, but man, oh man... it just worries me. :/
 

:wub:disc

more like :mam:anbou
if you're only using it to see what you can OHKO and what you can't, i don't see why you can't just use a damage calculator. 300 calculations is going to be quicker than 100 battles and if you use worst case scenario 252 / 252 + defence nature you don't waste as much time.

plus the 'if it can't reach 120 it's no good' mindset is awful due to the sheer amount of nonsense that comes with the battle tower. quick claw OHKO moves can **** you over in an instant, yet nobody's going to use that irl. if you get luck****ed by, i dunno, a kingler at 80 battles won or something, are you going to deem the team to be a failure, or are you going to begin the long, arduous process of making it to 120 battles again?

093.gif
 
Ha! I think maybe I get it now! The "disconnect" might just be that most people here play OU singles or thereabouts, while I'm playing VGC Doubles. One big difference is that all those hax items and stupid teams DO appear at VGC Events, and (lol) sometimes they DO actually make it decently far. A great example would be TRJessie's team this year (and trust me, I mean no disrespect whatsoever by that). She used Quick Claw Kyogre, and (surprise surprise) she made 3rd. Would I suggest using Quick Claw ANYTHING in a VGC event? Never. But. It exists, and you gotta prepare for it.

In my experience the past two years (making it to the World Championships at VGC Both times) at least in the case of VGC Style play, if your team can't deal with 3 Quick Claw activations, and missing due to Bright Powder
It
Will
Not
Make
It

That may be part of the disconnect we're having here. Thoughts?
 

BaldWombat

Mortal Wombat!
No doubt boss, they are very VERY quick about fixing them. It's just that I've seen people firsthand lose VGC tournaments due to glitches on simulators that they've just gotten used to.

For example:
Nashvile VGC stop 2009, my bud Mike Suleski got 2nd instead of first because he used Trick with his metagross, switching out his Choice Scarf for his opponent's Choice Band (he knew his opponent, they drove together hahah). Problem was, on Shoddy at the time, it would let you pick a new move, and that's what he was used to. However... ingame... yeah... you're stuck. So he lost.

Just an example, and I know it doesn't fit every situation, and yes, absolutely yes, the dudes over at PO are TOP NOTCH about fixing glitches ASAP, but man, oh man... it just worries me. :/

I remember reading about that at Smogon.
 

Nitro123 (PG)

Needs a user title
Kinda, but it's just not the same. I just try to get BP to get TM's for the competitive Poke'mon. 48 BP for Calm Mind is WAY overpriced. They shouls sales every Saturday or something, like everything is 20% off or something. :p
 
Wi-Fi Battle Tower can be useful for training, since many of the teams used by people online use Pokemon with standard Smogon movesets. Still, the AI has horrible prediction, and it will hardly ever switch out, even if it has a ScarfGon trapped in Earthquake against your Salamence. Also, there is practically no reliable tier comparison in Battle Tower, as Pokemon like Latios and Garchomp are still allowed and Pokemon like Celebi and Jirachi aren't.
 
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