Decision making in battles

Started by Ego13 June 29th, 2019 2:23 AM
  • 1701 views
  • 6 replies

Ego13

hollow_ego

Male
Larua Region
Seen March 24th, 2023
Posted April 14th, 2021
311 posts
5.8 Years
Hi everyone,

I was wondering how you all are making your decisions on what move to use next, wether to swap or stay, if you should use an item, how you consider abilities and so on. This question not just for competitive players, but for casual players as well.

I personally only ever consider the typings, my moves, the opponents moves, speed and maybe additional effects. So I check if my active Mon has a super effective move against my opponent and if my opponent has a super effective move against me. Depending on that I decide wether or not the opponent might knock me out before I can move and if so if I should make a switch. Like there is no point in switching out if my Mon has only 1 HP left and there are entry hazards.

Overall I find it rather hard to actually explain the thought process, but I'd like to get an idea of what others people consider and how, hoping to learn something new. Maybe you even got some tips or a special strategy I could try?

Sorry if this post is in the wrong category, but I figured it would be best here as it is about the games but not exclusively competitve.

Sheep

She/Her
Australia
Seen 6 Hours Ago
Posted 7 Hours Ago
39,253 posts
16.6 Years
I compare my level to my opponent's, and from there decide if I can risk attacking/OHKO before being hit or fainted, or if I'd need to switch. So pretty simple and similar to what you do, but Pokémon is an easy enough game (beyond the competitive scene, of course) for me to not need to think much further. Basically attack if I have something super effective or a strong enough move and stats/level high enough to not be knocked out, aha.

Sorvete

Novice

Male
Brazil
Seen 14 Hours Ago
Posted March 25th, 2023
3,110 posts
5.1 Years
Yeah, I just tend to attack anything if I have a move that's either effective or super effective, and I'm confident that it's gonna do decent damage. If the opponent has an obvious advantage (say a Darmanitan versus my Leavanny), I'll switch.

credit

Male
Bristol, England
Seen November 17th, 2021
Posted September 15th, 2021
398 posts
3.9 Years
Depends on who I'm facing, if I have type advantage then I just use my a move of that type. If its against strong trainers or elite 4 and I'm not sure what pokemon they have then I'd usually have a pokemon with sleep powder and if it's a slower pokemon then I'd give them quick claw to hold and put the opponent to sleep then swap out for a type advantage, then you got the pokemon that like to get their evasiveness up I like to use a pokemon with keen eye or a move that never misses. And then when it comes to catching a pokemon I try to give a pokemon false swipe if I can as it one of the best moves for getting the hp down but not fainting the wild pokemon

I also tend to give my pokemon an item that boosts their type

colours

she/her
gracidea fields
Seen December 30th, 2022
Posted December 29th, 2022
8,974 posts
18.1 Years
Battling competitively has pretty much conditioned me to think in terms of planning one or two steps ahead at pretty much all times. Like, if I do x move, how will my opponent respond? Do they have a plan for whatever they think I might have?

Battling against Battle Tree trainers is good practice for this because even though the AI isn't human, they still do try to do things like switching out to throw you off etc, so I try to prepare for that as well. Do I Dragon Dance/Calm Mind boost when my AI opponent is predicting an attack? These are the kinds of questions that go through my mind a lot, especially if I'm in a tight position.

ZeoStar

Seen 22 Minutes Ago
Posted 19 Hours Ago
11,403 posts
5.6 Years
Battling competitively has pretty much conditioned me to think in terms of planning one or two steps ahead at pretty much all times. Like, if I do x move, how will my opponent respond? Do they have a plan for whatever they think I might have?

Battling against Battle Tree trainers is good practice for this because even though the AI isn't human, they still do try to do things like switching out to throw you off etc, so I try to prepare for that as well. Do I Dragon Dance/Calm Mind boost when my AI opponent is predicting an attack? These are the kinds of questions that go through my mind a lot, especially if I'm in a tight position.
This is exactly what competitive battling has caused me to do, so now when playing in game against the AI I strongly overthink. It helps sometimes, because I know when it's safe to conserve or switch.

But for example yesterday I was fighting a random swimmer with Starmie in Alpha Sapphire, and I was paranoid about it having Ice Bean or Thunderbolt so I was switching around. Then realized it didn't have any of those moves.