EV help for a Ruby newbie

[gomez]

I just bought Ruby Friday and have two thirds of my team assembled and at L45'ish. I was wondering how to increase the EV's for certain stats. I've been reading from posts about EV's from a few pages, but do not fully understand it. I was thinking that if you give a poke five+ Proteins and battle pokes with a decent attack stat, that would raise its attack by a nice degree, right? Or the same with the other stats. Thats what I understood from the posts I read (I think).

My Gardevoir is getting like 3-4 points per level up on all stats, Zangoose is getting 3-4 on attack and speed and 1-2 on the rest, Walrein is getting 4 on HP and 1-3 on the rest, and Beautifly is getting around 3 for each stat. Is there anything wrong with any of these? I really haven't read up on any Ruby/Sapphire material. I just basically know everything from the two previous sets of games (RBYGSC) and squat on RS.

Thanks for any help.

[phaedrus]

well, it appears most of your pokes are getting rounded out ev training.

of course, it's not a bad thing. it might rob you of the kill you need to win, but then, it could save you just enough to win.

if it's ingame, it's good. if you want to go competitive, you might get shafted in certain matches unless you outwit them. =|

[gomez]

All in-game. I don't know anyone who plays the games. I wouldn't go to any kind of competition if there were any around.

[Poryhedron]

EVs aren't truly necessary ingame, since ingame you can win by building your levels higher than the opponent and just generally being smarter with moves (not to mention having 50 Full Restores, heh.) You probably should only bother with focused EV training if you really want to dominate. The only pokémon I have ever EV trained are Wobbuffet, which I maxed out Special Defense on so that it could sit there like an idiot taking Latios' Psychic attacks while I chucked Ultra Balls; and a Spheal that I raised specifically to take out Drake because his Salamence kept wasting my entire party. I raised Spheal on Route 113 (Spinda = Special Attack EVs) until it reached Walrein status, then went back to Ever Grande, and it slew all five of Drake's pokémon with one Aurora Beam each. Yeah. Total Domination, brought to you by EV Training.
Oh, one other thing...the Battle Tower. BT enemies are definitely better than run-of-the-mill ingame trainers, so if you want to whup them you should definitely consider EV training.

[gomez]

Ok, I understand now. It's the same as in the past games where you have to battle enemies that excel in that specific stat, such as fighting Geodudes for attack and defense boosts, Chanseys for higher HP and specials, Doduos for attack and speed, etc.

I thought it was somehow different in this game than the rest, seeing as how some things can factor into what stat boosts they get.

[Poryhedron]

Well, it is different in this game, in some ways...the biggest difference is the limitations, I think. You can only get so many EVs total...it's no longer possible to max out effort in all stats. The total effort max is only twice the single stat effort max, so you can only max two stats at once...

[Number1ChanseyFan]

Ok, I understand now. It's the same as in the past games where you have to battle enemies that excel in that specific stat, such as fighting Geodudes for attack and defense boosts, Chanseys for higher HP and specials, Doduos for attack and speed, etc.

I thought it was somehow different in this game than the rest, seeing as how some things can factor into what stat boosts they get.

The EV training in the Ruby/Sapphire/Colosseum/FireRed/LeafGreen games is a lot different from the stat experience that was used in the old R/B/Y/G/S/C games. Back in the older days, every Pokémon had personal max stats that were decided by their DVs, (Deter Values) and a Pokémon's stats would keep increasing until they reached their personal maximum for each stat, which happened when the Pokémon got a certain amount of stat experience points. Pokémon had to get around 65,535 stat experience points to reach their personal maximum for each stat. Each stat had its own individual stat experience, and the stat experience that you gained was equal to the base stats of the Pokémon that you defeated. So, like you mentioned, you would beat Chansey for HP, Geodude for Defense, etc...

In the new games, Pokémon have IVs and EVs (IVs=Individual Values, they are basically like the DVs in the old games, they determine a Pokémon's personal max stats. In the new games, the IVs can be anywhere from 0-31. Each stat has its own IV. If a Pokémon has an IV of 31 in a stat, it can reach its species max for that stat, with proper EV training. The lower the IV, the lower the Pokémon's personal max will be for that stat. If a Pokémon has an IV of 0 in a stat, then its personal max for that stat will be 31 points lower then the max for its species.)

Pokémon can only have a total of 510 EVs, (Effort Values) and no more then 255 EVs in any one individual stat. You get EVs by defeating Pokémon, (beating Marill will get you HP EVs, defeating Spinda will get you Special Attack DVs, Geodude will get you Defense EVs, etc) and by using vitamins. Protein, Iron, Carbos, Calcium, Zinc, and HP Up will give your Pokémon 10 EVs in the respective stat, but vitamins can not be used to give EVs to a stat after a Pokémon has 100 EVs in that particular stat. Also, if your Pokémon gets PokéRus, it will earn double EVs, and if you give a Pokémon the Macho Brace to hold, it will earn double EVs. Giving a Macho Brace to a Pokémon with PokéRus will give it 4x the usual DVs. For every 4 EVs that a Pokémon has in a stat, it will have one more more point in that stat. So, EV training is important. Because of the 510 total EV limit, you have to be careful, because you can't fully EV train every stat, and it doesn't help out much to spread out EVs over every stat. It is usually best to pick and choose 2-3 stats that are most important depending on the individual Pokémon, and put all of your EVs into those stats. EV training is definitely important in competitive battling, but you can get away with taking EV training less seriously if you are just going to be playing in-game.

[andyizcool]

No more then 252 EVs in any one individual stat.

You mean no more than 255 EVs in one Stat except people don't do that because 3 EVs are going to waste that way. Like you said every 4 EVs counts to an extra Stat point so you should just pair those remaining 3 EVs with the other remaining 3 EVs and increase a new Stat by at least one. This is refering to the format of most Sweepers having 252 Att/Sp Att, 252 Spd, 6 HP/Def/Sp Def EVs.

[Number1ChanseyFan]

You mean no more than 255 EVs in one Stat except people don't do that because 3 EVs are going to waste that way. Like you said every 4 EVs counts to an extra Stat point so you should just pair those remaining 3 EVs with the other remaining 3 EVs and increase a new Stat by at least one. This is refering to the format of most Sweepers having 252 Att/Sp Att, 252 Spd, 6 HP/Def/Sp Def EVs.

Yep, you are right, thanks for clearing that up!!

Like andy said, technically, Pokémon can have a maximum of 255 EVs in a stat, but using more then 252 EVs in any one stat would just be wasting EVs, because those 3 extra EVs will not equal another stat point, so you will be better off putting those extra EVs into a different stat.