Age 41
Male
UK
Seen July 9th, 2021
Posted November 20th, 2019
750 posts
8.6 Years
I've always wondered which stats are preferable for defence, bulking out HP or giving a few EV points to buff up def and SP.def when you want a mon to survive that little bit longer. What are the minimum def/sp def stats people try and have on their pokemon who competitively battle (and aren't set for all out offence obviously).
Pokemon Breeder (2000+ Eggs and counting)
3DS Living National Pokedex: 807/807
Main Series : Gen 1: R/B/Y/Y-VC, Gen 4: SS, Gen 5: W/B2, Gen 6: X/Y/OR Gen 7: Su/Mo/USu
2DS XL Friend code: 3325 - 8383 - 2146 IGN: Nick

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Kobe's Reality
Seen March 6th, 2022
Posted January 17th, 2022
10,818 posts
15.8 Years
it depends on the pokemon, but this defensive ev applet is very useful and distinguishes between pokemon (ie defensive evs over hp evs for chansey but stressing hp on, say, shuckle).

while that gives you efficient evs, eving stuff will generally come down to surviving certain things, so using a damage calculator is good for that.
Why are the beautiful sick and divided like myself?
you normally invest in hp if you want more bulk and invest in something other than defences for a more attack or speed, see bulky dragon dance mega charizard x -> EVs: 144 HP / 252 Atk / 112 Spe or bulky dragon dance mega gyarados -> EVs: 88 HP / 192 Atk / 4 Def / 224 Spe
, and maybe see bulky spinner starmie ->EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpD / 252 Spe.

Ev's are something u can tailor into any mon according to the function you want it to do (outspeed something, take a few hits from something or maybe attack as hard as possible). https://pokemonshowdown.com/damagecalc/ is a great tool to find out the ev's you might want according to the function you assign it.

Some mons also invest in hp and a particular type of defensive stat (pdef or spdef) according to what u want, mixed walls are also p common.
some examples of physical walls would be hippowdon/skarmory/celebi and special walls can be specially defensive gliscor/jirachi/bulk up talonflame etc. common mixed walls include ferrothorn/bronzong/mega slowbro/clefable/mega sableye etc (they invest a bit in both spdef and pdef along with hp to take hits on both side better, They are normally something that likes to set up and has reliable recovery)
Age 41
Male
UK
Seen July 9th, 2021
Posted November 20th, 2019
750 posts
8.6 Years
Thanks for the information I'll do some reading and testing.
Pokemon Breeder (2000+ Eggs and counting)
3DS Living National Pokedex: 807/807
Main Series : Gen 1: R/B/Y/Y-VC, Gen 4: SS, Gen 5: W/B2, Gen 6: X/Y/OR Gen 7: Su/Mo/USu
2DS XL Friend code: 3325 - 8383 - 2146 IGN: Nick