EV help

[IceFlash78]

Okay... I have an EV dillemma... I've noticed that people tend to focus all of their EVs in two stats... say... giving an secptile 252 evs in both speed and special attack and 6 evs in hp...

My question.... why? I mean... I kinda tend to spread my Evs in important stats, such as defense and special defense.... so this imaginary sceptile would have evs in defense, hp, SA, and special defense, and speed.... NOw.. i know this is kinda crazy... but.. I just don't really see the value in alloting all of my evs in two stats and ingoring the rest! Could somebody please enlighten me on this and hlep me to be a better RSbotter?

[Number1ChanseyFan]

Well, people tend to focus all of their EVs into 2 or 3 stats mainly because of the fact that you can't have any more than 510 EVs total. There is a limit there, and if you divide up your EVs evenly among all of the stats, you are not going to get a significant gain in any of your stats. Therefore, it is a good idea to pick out the most important stats for each of your Pokémon, according to their moveset, stats, personalities, etc... and EV train those stats. Because there is a limit of how many EVs you can give your Pokémon, you have to be careful, and you don't want to waste them. Every 4 EVs in a certain stat will equal 1 more point in that particular stat. If there wasn't the 510 total EV limit, then you could go ahead and give your Pokémon EVs in every stat, but since the limit exists, the best thing is to give EVs to the most important stats for that Pokémon. This is the main reason why most of the sweeper Pokémon in this generation of games are either physical sweepers or special sweepers, you don't see many Pokémon that are special and physical sweepers anymore, because it usually isn't beneficial to be using up your EVs on attack and special attack, as there are other stats that need to be worked with.

[rinku]

It really depends on the pokémon and moveset. Personality has a part to play, as it gives a 10% bonus to points spent on *one* of the stats and a 10% penalty to points spent on another.

Most people posting on such matters are probably focussed on highly tuned L100 6 member teams, with every pokémon a specialist. You are correct that spreading the effort will make a more balanced pokémon, but this will only work for a pokémon that is somewhat balanced in the first place - many are inherently specialist (think Wobbuffet for an extreme example).

Remember - jack of all trades, master of none.

[Crufidal]

Yeah, I like how rinku and Number One put it. Since there are only so many points you can distribute, you had better put them in areas your Pokemon can specialize in. For example...

Say you've got a Sharpedo. Sharpedo's speed is great, it's attack is phenomenal, and it's special attack is also something to fear. It's defenses leave something to desire, though - good luck having it survive a strong physical attack. Soooo, a Sharpedo is designed for a "kamikaze" approach, shall we say. Hit fast and strong, and go down fighting. It's defenses are poor - it's not built to be a tank. You'll want to put effort into its strong points, such as Attack, Speed, and Special Attack. Putting effort into defenses would be a waste, since it's not built to defend.

Hope I was able to clarify things, along with rinku and Number One. I have more examples if you need more XP